Warning: This story is really really gross. However, there is an intriguing (if icky) legal point but you have to wait for it. A Swedish woman has been charged with necrophilia in Gothenburg. Police discovered various skeleton parts and skulls in her apartment including a picture of her licking a skull. They accuse her of having sex with the skeletal remains. However, is that truly necrophilia?
Category: Criminal law
This video is the latest case of a person seriously injured by multiple taser hits from police. Angela Jones, 50, went into cardiac arrest after three hits from police at a routine traffic stop. Jones had objected to the police officers demanding to go through her purse and then tried to get back in her car when she was shot with the taser.
We have seen a number of cases (here and here) involving stars going to prison for life in inexplicable falls from celebrity status. Shelley Malil will now be added to that rogue’s gallery of fallen stars. The actor appeared in movies like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” but has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Malil, 45, stabbed his girlfriend, Kendra Beebe, 20 times after finding her having a glass of wine with a man at her home.
Continue reading ““40-Year-Old” Virgin Actor Sentenced To Life In Prison For Stabbing of Girlfriend”
We have another judge who has decided to create his own system of criminal punishment with novel sentencing. Oklahoma judge Mike Norman has magnified this increasingly common form of judicial abuse by adding compelled religious observance to sentence. Norman deferred a prison sentence for Tyler Alred, 17, in exchange for his agreement to attend church for 10 years. Norman observed “[t]he Lord works in many ways,” including it appears through him and his court. While many would view the imposition of religious observance in a criminal sentence as something akin to an American Taliban court, Norman insists that he has judicially ordered religious practices in the past.
We have been following (here and here and and and here and and here and here) the worsening situation in England concerning free speech. As noted in a recent column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech under discrimination, hate, and blasphemy laws. The article below details the crackdown on Internet speech in the country from charging a teenager who made offensive comments about a murder to a man who burned a paper poppy, the symbol of the war dead.
Continue reading “England Cracks Down On Unacceptable Internet Speech”
A Chinese company raised an interesting statutory interpretation question with a job advertisement seeking “condom testers” in Shanghai. The ad declared that the company was looking to hire “lively and good-looking women” aged 18 to 25 to work for a salary of up to 3,000 yuan (US$480) per day. A company official identified as Chen insisted that, while the women are required to have sex, they are doing it for research and the company only hired the women because it cannot afford machines.
Continue reading “Company Insists That It Is Not Guilty of Prostitution In Hiring “Condom Testers””
Geoffrey McGann, 49, is an artist and the creative director of a media production company called Generator Content. It appears that he was too creative for those folks at TSA. The California artist was arrested at Oakland International Airport because security officers did not like his unusual watch which they said looked too much like a timing device for a bomb. The watch had ornate switches, wires, and fuses so the bomb squad was called and the security checkpoint shutdown. Even after the bomb squad determined it was not a bomb within five minutes, however, McGann was arrested and charged by Alameda County Sheriff’s Department with possessing materials to make an explosive device.
Continue reading “The Watchmen: California Artist Arrested After TSA Spots Curious Watch”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
While the United States of America is many things to many people, it is not as is popularly conceived a Democracy and it never has been. This view is not coming from a perspective of politics, but one of stark reality. The thinking of the overwhelming majority of our Founding Fathers, as embodied in the Constitution they wrote, was certainly not to give power to the masses. I don’t believe this point is in dispute by the majority of Constitutional experts, despite their various positions on the political spectrum. Most politicians with self-awareness and intelligence have always known that we are not a Democracy as a country, despite the fact that most also proclaim it to be a Democracy. The problem with what I just wrote is that defining Democracy is a very slippery process and as I will show, the word means very different thing to many different people.
Permit me to begin by defining Democracy in terms of the myth that has been created around it in American parlance: “Democracy represents both the Will and the Rule of the People over their government. As such it is the best form of government for all”. Whether we believe it or not all Americans have grown up under this national myth and its’ use is ubiquitous to both domestic and foreign policy. The many wars this country has fought were prosecuted in the interests of this myth of Democracy, whether in destroying the Axis in World War II to save the world, or to nurture its creation and existence in numerous foreign lands. A student of history understands that the reasons for the wars America has fought are far more complex and ultimately self-serving than protecting Democracy. Nevertheless, to initially go to war, a populace must be energized by the belief that it will be fought for a higher purpose, in order to send it young adults to fight and potentially die. This energy in America usually has come from a combination of the myth of protecting democracy and a general threat to all the people. The simple rubric in my lifetime and in the history before it, is that we are fighting for Democracy. I will explore this myth, so central to our lives of citizens and discuss its implications. Continue reading “Democracy in America: What Does it Mean?”
David Cooper, 26, is an example of how dangerous a little legal knowledge can be. The Texas man was arrested after squatting in a $405,000 Arlington home after the family left for Houston so that the mother could receive cancer treatment. Cooper said that he read about adverse possession in the law library at Southern Methodist University. He drew up an affidavit stating that he was asserting ownership by adverse possession and that was enough during an initial visit by the police. When the family arrived, however, the police finally put an end to the claim and criminally charged him with felony theft and burglary. His wife, Jasmine Williams Cooper, was charged with burglary. A jury convicted Cooper but acquitted his wife (after Cooper insisted that she did not stay at the house with him).
Continue reading “Adversity or Burglary? Texas Man Convicted In Bizarre Squatting Case”
Jonathan G. Ngarambe might want to be more careful with where he is looking in the future. In a trial of a gang-rape case, a prosecutor thought that he saw Ngarambe catch the eye of one of the defendants. After an investigation, Ngarambe admitted that he lied to the court in denying that he had any relationship with any of the parties in the case. Ngarambe, 23, in fact knew two of the defendants and also had prior contact with the alleged victim, who was a high school classmate. Ngarambe has now pleaded guilty to perjury and Judge John Lu has sentenced him to an impressive two years in jail.
Grant Hayes, 33, should have a great deal more on his mind as he faces a trial for the murder and dismembering of his ex-girlfriend in North Carolina. However, Hayes has fired his second court-appointed lawyer and demanded a “black attorney from Durham.” Hayes, 33, and his wife, Amanda Perry Hayes, 40, face first-degree murder charges.
A case out of Ohio raises in my view some highly disturbing questions on the expanding reach of pornography laws. The Sixth Circuit has upheld a $300,000 award against an Ohio lawyer for his use of a trial exhibit in a child pornography case. Dean Boland wanted to show how an innocent picture can be converted into a pornographic picture without actually causing a child to engage in the displayed conduct. In order to avoid federal prosecution, Boland had to apologize publicly and admit to possession for child pornography. He was then hit with the damage award from the featured children despite his statement in court that these children did not participate in the depicted acts.
There is an interesting case out of Minnesota where alleged gang member Antonio “Savage” Jenkins has been charged with terroristic threats against a police officer. The vehicle used for the alleged threats is rather novel: his arm. Jenkins’ posted a picture of his arm with a tattoo on Facebook that showed a pig with a gun in its mouth, wearing a uniform with a badge number and an officer’s name.
Holly Solomon, 28, really really does not like President Barack Obama. The six-month pregnant Arizona woman was arrested for allegedly running over her husband with her SUV after learning that he did not take the time to vote for Romney last week. She believed a second term would be a disaster for her family and she appears to be right: she is now facing charges of domestic violence and aggravated assault.
Continue reading “Voter Suppression: Arizona Woman Runs Over Husband For Not Voting Against Obama”
Last night, while discussing the Petraeus scandal on CNN, the network played a 911 call from one of the four major figures in the scandal: Jill Kelley. The call is perfectly bizarre in which Kelley, a Florida socialite, claims “honorary diplomatic” status to get the police to stop people from walking across her lawn. The dispatcher listens patiently and appears to resist the temptation to tell her that he will be sending over some honorary police to protect their honorary diplomatic residence.