Category: Criminal law

Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

Merkel Backs Crackdown on Free Speech On Social Media Sites

Angela MerkelGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel long ago established herself as a menace to free speech, particularly in her decision to first apologize to authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a satirical poem and then approve the prosecution of the comedian is a shocking and chilling disgrace. Now, she is throwing her support behind a crackdown on “hate speech” on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube — radically expanding the already broad scope of government regulation of speech.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Bowling Green State University Student Charged After Falsely Claiming To Have Been Assaulted By Three White Trump Supporters

unknownBowling Green State University has been the scene of protests and outrage after student Eleesha Long claimed to have been attacked by three white men wearing Trump T-shirts the day after the election. It now appears to have been a hoax, though it is not the first false assault case tied to the Trump election.
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Bizarre, Criminal law

Woman Falsely Claims That She Was Raped And Police Refused To File Crime Report

unknown-1A woman went to Facebook and made a claim that led to an intensive police investigation in Washington: She claimed to have been raped but that the Kirkland Police Department refused to even file a report. People were outraged and the police launched in investigation only to locate the woman who admitted that she made the whole thing up. Her defense? She was “distraught over the recent election.” Police have not filed any charges and have withheld the identity of the woman. Some may find it curious that, while she had no hesitation in defaming police officers and their department with a false allegation, her own identity will be protected.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Media, Politics

Pardon Me? Obama Wrongly States That He Cannot Pardon Edward Snowdon

PresObama220px-edward_snowden-2There was an interesting recent interview of President Barack Obama by the German media giant Der Spiegel. In the interview, President Obama insisted that he could not pardon Edward Snowden as a matter of constitutional law. He is manifestly wrong. While the President may not want to pardon someone who deeply embarrassed him and his Administration, he is entirely capable of pardoning Snowden who is widely viewed as a whistleblower.

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Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media

Publish and Perish: Court-Appointed Lawyer For Arias Suspended For Tell-All Book

nurmi-e1479481969856Kirk Nurmi, the attorney for Arizona murderer Jodi Arias, has avoided disbarment by voluntarily accepting a suspension for four years after writing a tell-all book about his infamous client. Nurmi allegedly sought to cash in on his representation by revealing confidential information in his self-published book, “Trapped with Ms. Arias.” It wasn’t Arias but ethics that trapped Nurmi.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Religion, Society

Turkey Advances Bill That Would Allow Rapists To Avoid Charges If They Marry Their Victims

We have seen the erosion of civil liberties with the rise of the Islamic parties in Turkey under the autocratic rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Like many Muslim countries, Turkey has a long and troubling history of child brides and arranged marriages. Recently, the Turkish Constitutional Court annulled a provision that punishes all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse.” Now, a bill which would allow men accused of raping underage girls to be cleared if they marry the girl has been preliminarily backed by Turkish MPs. Notably, the bill would pardon men only if they had sex without “force or threat” and if they married the victim. However, that would legitimate child marriage.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Society

“Your Extraordinary Story”: British Woman Reports Gang Rape . . . Dubai Police Arrest Victim For Extra Marital Sex

Dubai has been promoting its country as a vacation spot to the world — a rather implausible destination for most. Attracting Western tourists to a country that follows Muslim rules is a hard sell. That was driven home by the latest outrage from an Islamic legal system after Zara-Jayne Moisey, 25, reported her gang rape and gave the names of her attackers (two British men). Dubai police responded by allowing the alleged rapists to leave the country and then arrested Moisey for criminal extra-marital sex. Welcome to Dubai, the desert paradise.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International

Two Indian Police Officers Suspended For Faking Picture Climbing Mount Everest

280px-Everest_kalapatthar_cropWe have been discussing the trend of firings and discipline for public employees who say or do controversial things in their private lives. We have previously seen teachers, students and other public employees fired for their private speech or conduct, including school employees fired for posing in magazines, appearing on television shows in bikinis, or having a career in the adult entertainment industry. Now there is an interesting twist on this trend out of India where two police officers — Dinesh Rathod and Tarkeshwari Rathod — have been suspended after police determined that they had lied. No, not about a crime scene or investigation. They lied that they had scaled Mount Everest.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Media

Anti-Bullying Advocate Charged With Assaulting Elderly Trump Supporter

Shacara McLaurin, 23, from Brooklyn, New York, is described as the “anti-bullying ambassador” but that designation is in doubt after, according to police, she was arrested on Thursday night for pushing an elderly Trump supporter to the ground in a fight outside Trump Tower in Manhattan. The 74-year-old man, James Durkan, required medical attention after hitting his head on the concrete.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Lafayette College Student Arrested For Faking Attack By Trump Supporter

magaThere is a story out of my old stomping grounds of Lafayette, Louisiana (where I lived during my judicial clerkship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for Judge W. Eugene Davis). A female student at the University of Louisiana reported that she was attacked by a man in a white Donald Trump cap and another men. She said that the men hit her with a metal object, ripped off her hijab and took both her wallet and the traditional Muslim head-covering. The incident caused a national outrage but it now turns out that she made up the entire incident after police became suspicious of her accounts.

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Congress, Criminal law

FBI Director Comey Announces That There Is No Basis For Criminal Charges In Newly Discovered Emails

Jcomey-100Hillary_Clinton_Testimony_to_House_Select_Committee_on_BenghaziJust two days before the election, FBI Director James Comey has announced that the new emails found on Huma Abedin’s computer does not change his earlier conclusion in July that there is no basis to criminally charge Hillary Clinton over her use of a private server, including emails containing classified information.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics

Something Borrowed, Something Classified? Leaked Emails Raise Allegations Over Role Of Chelsea Clinton

WikileaksWe previously discussed the emails of Doug Band, founder of global strategies company Teneo and Bill Clinton’s personal assistant since the 1990s. Band was previously shown discussing what he called “For-Profit Activity of President Clinton (i.e., Bill Clinton, Inc.).” in securing personal wealth and gifts from donors. Now, Band is back in newly released Wikileaks emails from 2012 that suggest that Chelsea Clinton used Clinton Foundation resources “for her wedding and life for a decade.” Various sites have exploded with the news.   Another report stated that Hillary Clinton sent Chelsea classified emails. To make matter worse, a new report states that Clinton also forwarded classified emails to her maid to print out.  What I find fascinating in all of this controversy is the role of this person, Band, who appears at times cautionary and at times self-serving in his warnings to Podesta.  This allegation however is quite specific and, as discussed below, hard to believe without additional support to show foundation assets used for the Clinton wedding. I have to give the presumption to Chelsea Clinton absent some real proof of intermingling of funds and resources.

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