Criminal defense attorneys have long objected to “experts” produced at trials by the Justice Department who often seem to closely follow trial theories rather than scientific or forensic data. I have handled cases where experts used by the Justice Department gave almost laughable testimony filled with errors in national security cases but courts continue to admit their testimony. This week, one such expert, FBI Special Agent Steven Kimball, fell apart on the stand when confronted with clearly conclusions over basic and easily ascertainable facts.
Tsarnaev’s defence attorney Miriam Conrad for example noted that the FBI identified a picture sent on the twitter account of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a picture of Mecca. This led to this exchange:
Conrad: “You said the picture [that forms the background of the second account] was a picture of Mecca.”
Kimbell: “Yes, to the best of my knowledge.”
Conrad: “Did you bother to look at a picture of Mecca?”
Kimbell: “No.”
Conrad: “Would it surprise you to learn that it is a picture of Grozny?”
Unfortunately, he might not be surprised at all given the loose standards imposed on such expert testimony.
Kimball was also forced to admit that highly incriminating tweets isolated by the Justice Department were actually quotes from pop songs, including a tweet referring to “I shall die young.” Kimball said that he was unaware that these were quotes from songs. Kimball admitted that he did not even click on some links in tweets cited by the government as incriminating. One of the links would have taken the reader to a song with the line “I shall die young.”
Kimball was also confronted by the fact that the FBI had isolated lines that were actually jokes form Comedy Central and various comedians. One could of course forgive an FBI agent for having a limited knowledge of humor sites. However, Kimball also misidentified a quote as having been made by the al Qaida-affiliated cleric Anwar al-Awlaki when it was really a quote from the Qu’ran.
Among the other examples was the highly incriminating use of the term “mad cooked” in tweets that was raised by Kimball. Kimball admitted on cross examination that he was entirely ignorant of the fact that this slang means “high” after he tried to guess that it might mean “Crazy.”
In the end, it was the testimony that seemed cooked. It was a great cross examination by Conrad, but it is unfortunately not unique.
The exaggeration of such evidence reflects the real issue at trial — death. The defense has already admitted that Tsarnaev carried out the attack. The issue is only the penalty and whether a single juror can be convinced that Tsarnaev was under the influence of his older, more radical brother. The misrepresentation of this evidence was intended to portray Tsarnaev as a dedicated terrorist and extremist like his brother. Instead, it seriously undermined the credibility of the prosecution before the jury in what was an extremely strong case for the death penalty.
Source: Guardian
“I asked you how you feel about the fact that 22+ US military veterans who have invaded and occupied Muslim countries commit suicide every day.”
From WaPo:
This compared with the civilian suicide rate of 14 per 100,000.
So how I feel about it is that your statistic is not quite correct.
@”Pogo”
I just read your response (at 8:20 AM) to my last post, and it’s a veritable study in evasion.
As only one example of an issue you evaded, I asked you how you feel about the fact that 22+ US military veterans who have invaded and occupied Muslim countries commit suicide every day.
Do you think that if you had been in charge of their indoctrination regarding the true nature of Islam, the figure would be lower?
I know it must take a lot of psychic energy to mount animus of the intensity you exhibit every day, as well as repressing inconvenient facts, so if you’re just running out of gas, please let me know if that’s the reason for your fragmented and evasive thought-burbles.
Otherwise, please respond to the points I raised in my last post, in addition to this one:
Do you have an exit strategy from the slaughterhouse of this War on Terror of which you’re so enamored, or would you just like to see it go on as long as possible?
Also, one of the methods used in the LBJ era was stuffing the ballot box with new names. Purging voter rolls of fraudulent names takes care of this. Requiring an ID to vote also helps weed out fraudulent names, because they would also need a fake ID to complete the vote.
Wade – voter ID is one arrow in the quiver of anti voter fraud measures.
Banks require ID because of fraud. Drivers licenses have voter ID because of fraud.
As you point out, ID is not the only way to commit voter fraud, but why ignore it, especially when states have programs for free ID for the poor?
Karen
There was voter fraud in Texas during those elections. However, you need a better understanding of what happened. That fraud had absolutely no connection with voter ID. It had everything to do with the people guarding the ballot boxes – you know, election officials – all the voters were long gone.
Good time to take a walk. Exercise is key to a well balanced life.
LOL!
I find it interesting that LBJ lost the Senate race in TX due to voter fraud by his competition, and won it the next year using voter fraud himself. Just something to ponder by those who oppose voter ID and anti-voter fraud measures.
According to a pilot I know who flew him, Lady Bird asked the crew to water down LBJ’s drinks after he hit a certain limit. He got so incensed he made it quite clear no one was to try that again.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/lbj-transcript/
Meanwhile, in Ferguson, some Al Sharptongue guy or gal, shot two cops during a First Amendment protest at the Police Station. The shots came from Tiffin Avenue a block away. So where is the National Guard when we need them? Huh, Holder? Huh, Nixon? No person with the last name of Nixon should be in control of the National Guard. You must vote for Nixon in ’72 because you cant change Dicks in the middle of a screw. But this ain’t ’72 and this Nixon does not have the first name Dick. So people of Missouri do not vote for Nixon again for any other office. I heard that he wants to be a Senator.
And another thing. Some commenter up there referred to someone else’s point of view as “dogma”. Every dog has a point of view. But a “dogma” is a female dog with offspring. You infer that some political stance of a party or right wing portion of a party or left wing portion of a party is dogma. No way Jose. First of all, if you are at a party and are drunk, you can be on the right hand side of the room and be just as those on the left side or the right wing of the home or left wing of the White House. The “lefty” thing gets old as does the “right wing” “thing” which is by nature old and limp.
Dogma here says that she does not agree with the point of view referenced above as “dogma”. Now when we speak or bark about Dogpaw, then we are on an entirely different footing. In any event there was a human who had some observations in some non dogmatic book called Animal Farm in which he stated unequivocably : Four legs good! Two legs baaaaaaad !.
Or was that Animal House? It was one of those two books or movies.
Some commenter up there said that Churchill was racist against Indians. His mother was of American Indian heritage. Maybe the commenter was speaking of Indians from India.
On LBJ. George W. Bush has recently stated that he was and is in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He has said that LBJ was the only person capable of pushing those two Acts through Congress. George W. admires LBJ as do others who sat in that Presidential chair and tried to deal with Congress.
On the admission of expert testimony in a criminal case in federal court. There must be a high standard for allowing expert testimony in a criminal case. Expert testimony is opinion. Other witnesses are limited to stating what they saw, heard, or said themselves back on the crime scene. A prosecutor who puts an expert on the stand must demonstrate to the judge that the witness has expertise which the common person does not have. This would be a chemist who can tell us that the powder in the vial is sulfur. This is not some schmuck who says that Bugs Bunny in the cartoon photo is Jack Benny. So the court, the judge, has erred here in this death penalty trial for allowing this schmuck to give opinion testimony. STOP THE TRIAL NOW and start over with a new jury. The Court of Appeals should pull this judge off the bench for ineptitude and assign the case to another judge who can read and write. It does not take an expert to tell us that a depiction of Pogo from the cartoon on these pages is someone other than Pogo. Right Pogo?
BitchinDog – I just think the defense was more prepared for the ‘expert witness’ than the prosecution.
Ha!
“I’m fully aware of the authoritarian and/or fearful bloodlust of many people who *want* to be…”
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Conclusory straw manning.
“you’ve got a greater chance of being struck by lightning than you do of being harmed by an Arab terrorist”
False equivalence.
“Criminalization hasn’t reduced their activities in the EU a whit.”
“You’ll need to support these assertions with some evidence…””
“it tends to be one-off events”
Not ‘one-ff’ where Islam is concerned.
“(despite six years of anxiety, there has not been another terrorist attack in the U.S. *at all*, let alone one on the scale of 9/11)”
Well, except for these since 2010:
“A lot of Muslims have been radicalized otherwise than by colonialism”
I disagree. They were radicalized by Islam and Western Marxist “multicultural” teaching about colonialism.
Chinggis figure out why genocidal trolls not taste good. Too much bile. Need to get bile ducks in a row. Then feed caviar to duck so get roe in a duck. Can’t destroy Mecca. Need Mecca Wish Foundation.
Reblogged this on Scoop Feed.
‘Genocidal Trolls’ would be a good name for a rock band, or a decadent pastry.
Pogo – just to not see Genocidal Trolls competing with Death by Chocolate or Red Velvet. However, I see a niche market in Goth stores and head shops for Genocidal Trolls as lawn ornaments. 😉
Chinggis not like genocidal trolls. Other kind of trolls taste much better. Better than yak meet. Yak meet better than swap meat.
Pogo, LOL! I’m bookmarking this one!
Hilarious.
I understand that both Churchill and LBJ were racists.
I reject any one-dimensional history lesson from Nick who is only driven by a pathological hatred of Democrats, public schools and unions – to name only a few. Curiously enough, all three of those played an essential role in the making of this country. His hatred of all three disqualifies him as a teacher and earns my derision – as do genocidal trolls.