Pakistan may have another opportunity to execute another blasphemer for insulting Islam. This time it is an 11-year-old Christian Pakistani girl Rifta Masih accused of burning Islamic texts. In the meantime, Christians have been persecuted in the area as a local mullah claimed a witness saw the girl burn pages from an Islamic text.
Category: Criminal law
Oregon police have arrested the Rev. Angel Armando Perez at Saint Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn after he was allegedly seen chasing a 12-year-old boy down the street dressed only in his underwear.
Ecuador granted asylum to Julian Assange today, an act that will further escalate the conflict between Britain and Ecuador. As I discussed on BBC last night, there are some common legal misunderstandings about the status of an embassy, but as a practical matter Assange should be beyond the reach of the English. While the government has threatened to strip the embassy of diplomatic status and grad Assange, it is in my view an empty threat. However, Assange is not likely to see Ecuador any time soon since he can be arrested trying to leave the country.
Continue reading “Assange Granted Asylum As Britain Threatens A Raid On Ecuadoran Embassy”
We often discussed the lack of deterrent for prosecutorial misconduct in the United States. When cases are overturned due to destruction or withholding of evidence or other violations, few reporters track down the original prosecutors to hold them accountable. Prosecutors are rarely punished for such acts. The article below in the New York Times details a shocking example of alleged misconduct and the lack of action by the Queens District Attorney in dealing with what appears gross violations by prosecutors in the office.
Continue reading “Lawsuit Details Alleged Prosecutorial Misconduct In New York Murder Case”
We have been following anti-blasphemy laws around the world, including the increase in prosecutions in the West and the support of the Obama Administration for the prosecution of some anti-religious speech under the controversial Brandenburg standard. Now, journalist named Sofiene Chourabi has been arrested for simply criticizing a proposed new blasphemy law in Tunisia, which he rightfully condemned as a threat to free speech. We previously discussed the case. Chourabi was a leading voice in opposition to the prior ruler — part of the country’s “Arab Spring” movement. However, that government has been replaced, like so many other such countries, with an Islamic government that proceeded to crackdown on free speech and religious freedom.
Continue reading “Critic of Proposed Anti-Blasphemy Law In Tunisia Arrested”
There is an interesting story below about airlines that force men to switch seats when they are seated next to an unaccompanied child out of fear that they could be child molesters. A firefighter recounts how he was forced to move on a Virgin Australia flight because there was a child next to him. Qantas has actually defended the discriminatory policy.
Continue reading “Qantas Defends Policy To Bar Males From Sitting Next To Unaccompanied Minors”
Civil libertarians have been concerned for years with the move toward greater use of the military in domestic operations by both President George W. Bush and now by President Barack Obama. The military continues to shift resources for prepare for large-scale domestic operations. Most recently, the Marines moved to create a battalion to allow the military to “be capable of helping control civil disturbances, handling detainees, carrying out forensic work, and using biometrics to identify suspects.” Now the Small Wars Journal, a respected publication closely followed in the U.S. military, has published an article entitled “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A ‘Vision’ of the Future” by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It lays out not just the military but the legal basis for military operations to crush domestic insurrections in the United States.
It was a grizzly scene along the banks of the Susquehanna River as witnesses, police, and the coroner stared at the corpse floating in the water. After taping off the crime scene and with the coroner on hand, the police were entering the water to retrieve the corpse when it sat up. Lycoming County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. no doubt spoke for many in saying “Let me tell you, it was quite a shock for us.”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
If you ever wondered why the Justice Department is investigating the office of Maricopa, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, this latest story may be all you need to read. Recently, the Maricopa Sheriff’s office arrested and detained Briseira Torres and alleged that she was an illegal alien. Why is this one arrest such an important story? The short answer is that Sheriff Joe’s office and possibly the Prosecuting attorney ignored the most credible exculpatory evidence that was already in their possession. Briseira’s long form Birth Certificate, attested to by the State of Arizona as accurate, was left out of the record provided to the Grand Jury! Continue reading “Sheriff Joe’s Office Lies Again”
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
“There’s a party in my mind…And it never stops
There’s a party up there all the time…They’ll party till they drop
Other people can go home…Other people they can split
I’ll be here all the time…I can never quit.”
– “Memories Can’t Wait” by Talking Heads, written by David Byrne and Jerry Harrison
As previously discussed here at Res Ispa Loquitur, some fashion choices can be downright criminal. This time our contestant on Felony Runaway Fashions is Chad William Forber, 41, from Blue Grass, Illinois. Like our previous encounter with those who have a daring fashion sense, there is no probative legal analysis of this case and no pressing civil rights issue. Just good clean fun(ny facts). Also some not so funny (alleged) drug use. This time our designer’s drug of choice was methamphetamines. There is nothing funny about meth. Nothing at all.
Tony L. Putman, 18, may be unparalleled in his cruelty if the account by police is accurate. Kansas City police say that Putman confessed in the beating of a 93-year-old man and the rape of his 84-year-old wife.
Thomas Atkinson, 35, ignored all of those ads about the risks of smoking for years and he is now facing the potential of life in prison or death in Texas. Now it is not those FDA bureaucrats gone wild, but criminal prosecutors who say that DNA tests on a discarded cigarette butt tied Athinson to a murder.
Continue reading “Killer Smoke: Discarded Cigarette Results In Murder Charge For Texas Man”
There is a shocking lawsuit filed against the Citrus County Sheriff’s Department in Florida in which Leila Tarantino claims that she was pulled over for going through a stop sign and then stripped searched by the side of the road in front of her children.
On paper, David Holzbach, 52, would appear to have reached an ideal position in life. The married prosecutor with 24-years experience had a secure $129,000 a year job with the Danbury State’s Attorney’s office. However, this year he was fired after an investigation in bizarre conduct photographing women in office and outside his office, including surreptitious photos in courtrooms using a spy pen.
Since 2008, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno Ocampo has been seeking the arrest of Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir for his alleged involvement in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since 2003 in Darfur. He might want to pop in on the United Nations Human Rights Council — Al-Bashir is about to be one of its members.
Continue reading “Genocidal Sudanese Warlord To Join U.N. Human Rights Council”