DECATUR COUNTY, Tenn. — The family of two men charged in the Holly Bobo case want ribbons supporting her taken down, but lawyers say there’s nothing they can do about them.
Friends of the murdered nursing student call themselves the “Justice for Holly” group. They covered all of Decatur County with pink and green ribbons, including inside the courthouse.
It took more than three years, but last month, hunters found Holly’s remains in the woods.
Two men, Jason Autry and Zach Adams, are charged with kidnapping her from her home and killing her.
Zach’s, younger, mentally challenged brother Dylan is charged with her rape.
“He has a learning disorder where he does not comprehend,” Zach and Dylan’s cousin Moss Miller said. “The family tells me he can’t even tell time.”
All of the pink and green around the county has Miller seeing red.
“If they want to put a post in somebody’s yard, that’s one thing, but you don’t do this stuff on government property that all of us pay taxes to support,” he said.
Miller also wants Judge Creed McGinley to take down reserved seating signs put up in the courtroom for the Bobo family.
But high-profile defense attorney Juni Ganguli told WREG the ribbons and the seating arrangements are legal, and each judge can make their own rules for the courtroom.
“As long as the displays aren’t disruptive, then the victim’s family has an absolute right to be seen,” he said. “They’ve got an absolute right to be heard.”
Ganguli admits Miller has a point that his family’s name may be ruined, regardless of whether Zach and Dylan are found guilty.
“The process isn’t very defendant friendly,” he said.
Something else working against them, Ganguli said is Holly Bobo, herself.
“Something that is unsaid is that you have a very attractive victim,” he said. “When you have an attractive victim, that’s not good for the defendant…People generally sympathize more with attractive people.”
It is a sympathy that will not go away, even if the balloons and ribbons do.
