There is an interesting question raised in St. Louis in a capital murder case: is a defendant denied a fair jury and trial if two jurors has sex while sequestered as well as two sheriff’s deputies. Roberto Dunn, now 34, who was convicted in 2000 of killing his girlfriend’s mother and found out later that the trial was a real turn-on for the jurors and deputies.
Dunn allegedly stabbed Geneva Campbell, 42, with several kitchen knives after she and Dunn got into an argument in October 1998.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Julian Bush has this issue before him. He received the letter from another juror who stated that “[s]exual liberties by deputy sheriffs were rampant also,” the letter read. The juror, Jennifer Thompson, stated that the “acts of sex and insubordination were scandalous and unspeakable …” and that she heard sexual noises coming from the next hotel room.
Lisa Stroup, an assistant public defender is pushing the issue for a new trial — calling for a hearing with jurors and deputies as witnesses. There is also a claim of ineffective representation in the case.
In her letter, Thompson accused two jurors of having sex with each other during two evenings at a hotel where the panel stayed. She said jurors believed the two sheriff’s deputies assigned to the case were having sex with each other while on duty at the hotel.
This raises a serious issue for new trial. Any sexual involvement with police officers in the court proceeding would be create a danger of bias and influence. Moreover, sexual relations between jurors would create an unknown bound between them — potentially affecting their independence. If they discussed the case outside of the court, it might violate standing court orders. What is clear is that a sexual relationship between jurors or with court staff would have been a legitimate matter for voir dire and would likely have led to their exclusion from the jury.
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We require a credit card at the time of registration, which we keep on file and use to collect deductibles, co-pays and our trip charge, when applicable. ,
OMG, that is hilarious. Muslims are not evil. I don’t care if he’s a muslim and neither should anyone else. Quite frankly, if cheney and bush are examples of what christians bring to high office we ought to ban christians from ever running again. Fortunately, christinas aren’t evil either. Thank you for one of the belly laughs of the A.M.!
Hey all! Welcome to the OBAMA CHURCH WATCH
56 days and counting!
Will today be the day that the “I am not a muslim” breaks his self imposed estrangement from a Christian house of worship?
Waynebro,
Simon is just one of the Trolls that have been attacking this site lately. Facts and reality are not important in their world. You are absolutely correct that President-elect Obama has been charged with solving the myriad of problems caused and/or made worse by the Bush Administration even before he has been sworn in.
Get over it. You lost the election and now you can’t even give Obama a chance to get into office before you start tearing him down.
So when you guys were calling us “unAmerican” for daring to criticize President Bush AFTER he screwed everything up, did you also plan to include yourselves who are criticizing a President BEFORE he’s even President?
I mean, aren’t we still at war? Aren’t the terrerists still out to get us? Didn’t you say that only traitors criticize the President during a time of war?
You’re criticizing and President elect Obama before he’s even the President. What does that make you?
Yea and Sarah Palin could see Russia from the shore. Get over it. You lost the election and now you can’t even give Obama a chance to get into office before you start tearing him down.
So when you guys were calling us “unAmerican” for daring to criticize President Bush AFTER he screwed everything up, did you also plan to include yourselves who are criticizing a President BEFORE he’s even President?
I mean, aren’t we still at war? Aren’t the terrerists still out to get us? Didn’t you say that only traitors criticize the President during a time of war?
You’re criticizing and President elect Obama before he’s even the President. What does that make you?
It turns out that Caroline Kennedy failed to vote in numerous elections since she registered to vote in New York City in 1988.
For example, she managed to skip the primary races for mayor in 1989, 1993, 1997, and 2005. She also missed both the primary and general elections in 1994. In all, Kennedy apparently did not vote in over half of the 38 elections since 1988.
Kennedy claims that 9/11 prompted her to become more involved in civic life. Yet she didn’t make it to the polls in 2002 and 2005 either.
Abe Greenwald suggests that it was the Obama phenomenon, not 9/11, that finally prompted Kennedy to wonder (a) what she could do for her country and (b) what her celebrity would enable her to do.
Kennedy may well be among the millions “inspired” by Obama this year to show up and vote. Unfortunately, she is no more qualified for public office than most of those millions.
Obama job plan flunks basic math
By Caroline Baum
New York: President-elect Barack Obama is still weeks away from inauguration, and already the size of government is growing.
His initial goal of creating 2.5mn new jobs has been upped to 3mn, rising in lockstep with a proposed economic stimulus package.
We know money buys influence. Now we find out it can buy jobs as well. If only it were that simple. Obama has been working with his advisers so that the proposed $750bn-and-counting package of tax breaks and spending on infrastructure, education, health care and unemployment insurance is ready to go on Day One. (No on-the-job training necessary!)
There are currently about 10mn unemployed workers in the US. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines as unemployed those persons who didn’t work in the week of the monthly employment survey, were available for work and made an effort to find work in the previous month.) If we write a check for $75,000 to each of the unemployed, we won’t have anyone ‘unemployed,.
The recipients may not be working in the traditional sense of going to the office each day, but the government can provide for their needs without anyone having to lift a finger.
If putting people to work is the goal, we could get rid of all the heavy earth-moving equipment and go back to digging ditches with shovels.
Why stop there? If it takes one man two days to dig a trench three feet deep and 30ft long with a shovel, how long would it take 100 men using spoons?
You get the point. We can always create jobs by replacing capital with labour, by going backward. The entire history of civilisation has been characterised by an effort to move in the opposite direction and become more productive, which is another way of saying produce more with less.
But Barack Obama & his Democratic Congress are not conventional thinkers, maybe not thinkers at all.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=263276&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28
All I can do is recommend a good Political Science course or something. Currently President “elect” Obama has as much authority to act as I do on behalf of the country, nor should he want to. President Bush, your boy, is still in power and its his job to “do something”.
CAIR Condemns Israeli ‘Massacre’ in Gaza
CAIR demands Obama speak ‘in favor of peace and justice for all parties’
WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that left more than 200 people dead and called the death toll a “massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons.” More than 700 people, including women and children, were injured in the attacks.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement:
“Despite the public ‘green light’ given to the Israeli military by the Bush administration, American Muslims join our fellow citizens who respect international law and the sanctity of human life in repudiating this massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons.
“We therefore call on President-elect Obama to demonstrate his commitment to change our nation’s current one-sided Mideast policy by speaking out now in favor of peace and justice for all parties to this decades-long conflict.
news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-27-2008/0004947113&EDATE=
This is hilarious! LOL! LOL! LOL! LOL! Watch Barack Obama jump when CAIR says how high!
waynebro, our PRESIDENT ELECT Obama certainly can just snap his fingers and bring the world to peace without even being sworn in yet. Shoot, if he can’t bring just little Israel & Hamas together when he is the PResident-Elect, how on earth is he going to handle the big bad boys in the world?
But whatever, Bathtub Boy Olbermann and his boy wonder sidekick rachel Maddow will give him all the time and excuses in the world.
Rachel. It’s spelled Rachel.
Well gee, I wasn’t aware President “elect” Obama had been sworn in already.
When exactly did Mr Bush vacate the White House and turn over the Presidency to Mr Obama?
WHILE BARACK OBAMA REMAINS SILENT IN HIS 5,000 SQUARE FOOT LUXURY HOUSE ON THE HAWAIIAN Beach whom SOMEBODY IS PAYING OVER $4,000 PER NIGHT FOR………
Israel Launches Unprecedented Series of Strikes on Gaza
Saturday, December 27, 2008
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes retaliating for continuing rocket fire from Gaza pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of air strikes Saturday, killing at least 145 in the single bloodiest day in Gaza in recent memory.
Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and in response fired more Grad missiles at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said “the operation will last as long as necessary,” but it was not clear if it would be coupled with a ground offensive.
With 500 mortars and rockets raining down on Israel since the truce expired a week ago, and 5,000 since the beginning of the year pressure had been mounting in Israel for the military to crush the fanaticical killers.
BUT WE CAN SURELY COUNT ON FAT BOY KEITH OLBERMANN AND HIS BOY WONDER SIDEKICK RACHAEL MADDOW ALONG WITH HER MENTOR JIMMY CARTER AND CERTAINLY MR. TURLEY TO DEMONIZE ISRAEL!
BLOODIEST DAY FOR PALESTINIANS IN 20 YEARS…
REACTION…
Arab world slams Israel…
100 targets hit….
Panic…
Escalate?
HAMAS THREATENS TO UNLEASH ‘HELL’
Are we all breathlessly waiting for Jimmy Carter, Keith Olbermann, & Rachael Maddow to denounce Israel for defending itself again?
“All err, um … rise.”
In all seriousness, at best this is highly unprofessional of the deputies. If you’re on-duty then that isn’t the time for a fling. And between the jurors there does seem to be a ‘special connection’ that compromises the fairness of their independent decisions.
Mespo,
This case is an amazing one. This is something right out of a Grisham novel. I agree that the sexual involvement of jurors and deputies during the sequestering process should justify a mistrial.
In my judgment this is not a close call. If judge or lawyer misconduct affecting the perception of fairness will justify a mistrial, then of course the same should apply to deputies and jurors.