Category: Criminal law

Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Society

Members Denounce Decision To Give Al Qaeda Spokesman Real Trial

BinLadenSoninLaw_20130308_045031Congress is again showing its traditional contempt for the rule of law this week with members crying foul that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, an Al Qaeda spokesman and son-in-law of Usama bin Laden, would be actually given a fair trial. Senators like Lindsey Graham (who just yesterday condemned a fellow Senator for standing against Obama kill list policy) has denounced the decision not to give Abu Ghaith a military tribunal trial where basic constitutional protections are denied to detainees.

Continue reading “Members Denounce Decision To Give Al Qaeda Spokesman Real Trial” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics

Speed Trap: Leading Economist and MP Face Jail In Expanding Scandal Over A Speeding Ticket

220px-Chris_Huhne_MP_cropThere is a verdict in the trial of economist Vicky Pryce, 60, the wife of former cabinet minister Chris Huhne (left). Pryce raised a “marital coercion” defense in saying that her husband coerced her to lie and take his speeding points 10 years ago. It is a bizarre case, not only because you have a successful woman claiming that she was coerced into this act, but also the level of prosecution over that taking of speeding points.

Continue reading “Speed Trap: Leading Economist and MP Face Jail In Expanding Scandal Over A Speeding Ticket” →

Criminal law, Society

New Mexico Man Held 22 Months Without Trial Is Awarded $15.5 Million

120125-dui-hmed-10a.photoblog600Dona Ana County in New Mexico has agreed to pay Stephen Slevin, 59, $15.5 million after it kept Slevin in solitary confinement for 22 months without a trial for a DUI arrest. The horrific case was made worse by years of litigation by the county, which refused to pay a court verdict that was originally $22 million. One of the most disturbing facts of this case however is that not a single county employee was fired over his grotesque treatment, which included the denial of necessary medical attention.

Continue reading “New Mexico Man Held 22 Months Without Trial Is Awarded $15.5 Million” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Holder Tells Senator That Obama Does Have Authority To Kill Citizens With Drones On U.S. Soil Without Criminal Charge or Conviction

300px-MQ-9_Reaper_-_090609-F-0000M-777President_Barack_ObamaAttorney General Eric Holder this week held out the possibility that the President could kill an American citizens with a drone attack on U.S. soil without any criminal charge or trial. After Holder announced President Obama’s kill list policy, many apologists for the Administration insisted that the policy was limited to targets outside of the United States and was subject to a form of due process of the President’s own making. At the time, I wrote that these arguments were nothing but spin by the Administration and its supporters since the underlying claim of authority would have no such limitations. Holder now appears to have confirmed that even they do not believe in such limitations. This follows the release of a memo showing that Holder’s description of the policy at Northwestern University Law School was narrower than the actual policy described within the Administration.

Continue reading “Holder Tells Senator That Obama Does Have Authority To Kill Citizens With Drones On U.S. Soil Without Criminal Charge or Conviction” →

Criminal law, Society

Key Witness In Zimmerman Accused Of Lying Under Oath

175px-Trayvon_Martin_on_the_backseat_of_a_carZimmermanx-inset-communityThe murder trial of George Zimmerman just got a bit more complicated after an attorney revealed in open court that the girlfriend of teenager Trayvon Martin, known as Witness 8, is believed to have lied about her whereabouts following his death. The girlfriend has supplied a key account that portrayed Zimmerman as the aggressor from a brief telephone call with Martin. However, Mark O’Mara revealed in court that she is believed to have lied in stating under oath that she did not go to Martin’s funeral because she was hospitalized. While that does not change the account of the telephone call, it would be a lie under oath that could be prosecuted and would chip away at her credibility, particularly with another witness saying that Martin was seen on top of Zimmerman shortly before the shooting.

Continue reading “Key Witness In Zimmerman Accused Of Lying Under Oath” →

Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

County Shuts Down Schools After Someone Hears Theme Song Of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

250px-FreshprincelogoSchools in Beaver County, Pennsylvania were shutdown on the basis for a voicemail greeting in which a student sings the theme air of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” That’s right, there appears little inquiry that is made between a call of a receptionists who misheard the lyrics of a song and a total police shutdown of a county.

Continue reading “County Shuts Down Schools After Someone Hears Theme Song Of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Society

Four Funerals and a Wedding: Chinese Police Crackdown On “Ghost Weddings”

Divorce-Cakes-7It appears that something borrowed and something blue is often the same item in some marriages in China. Chinese police are dealing with a rather novel crime: people digging up corpses to be buried with dead bachelors. They are called “ghost marriages” and four men have been arrested in this bizarre criminal enterprise.

Continue reading “Four Funerals and a Wedding: Chinese Police Crackdown On “Ghost Weddings”” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics

Florida Police Raid Home of Sick Woman Hours After She Is Featured In Medical Marijuana Story

marijuana_leafFor Cathy Jordan it began as a banner day. A hearing was just held unveiling the “Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act,” legislation to legalize medical marijuana for people like Cathy Jordan who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s Disease and is wheelchair-bound. Hours after a news account of the hearing was published, officers raided her home with drawn guns and seized their marijuana plants used for her illness. The police from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office insist it was a coincidence.

Continue reading “Florida Police Raid Home of Sick Woman Hours After She Is Featured In Medical Marijuana Story” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Religion

Wałęsa’s Wall: Lech Wałęsa Calls For Gay Lawmakers To Sit Behind Wall

220px-Lech_Walesa_-_2009Lech Wałęsa won the Noble Prize for fighting for Polish independence against the Soviet bloc, a move that ultimately helped bring down the wall dividing East from West. However, he seems to have rediscovered the comfort of a wall in his latest comments calling for homosexual members of parliament to be placed behind a wall to remind them that they are a minority and should adapt themselves to smaller things.”

Continue reading “Wałęsa’s Wall: Lech Wałęsa Calls For Gay Lawmakers To Sit Behind Wall” →

Criminal law, Society, Torts

Texas Man Sues Ex-Girlfriend and Clinic for Theft of Sperm Used To Produce Child

test tube babyThere is an interesting torts lawsuit out of Houston where Layne Hardin, 44, is suing Obstetrical and Gynecological Associates, PA for allegedly giving two vials of his sperm to an ex-girfriend who proceeded to have his child. She is also suing the former boyfriend. The boy is now 2 years old. Hardin says that Tobie Devall has never let him see the boy while her lawyer says that he has never asked to see the boy.

Continue reading “Texas Man Sues Ex-Girlfriend and Clinic for Theft of Sperm Used To Produce Child” →

Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

The NATO 3 and Free Speech

Flag_of_NATO_svg

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

You may recall the demonstrations against the NATO Summit that was taking place in Chicago in May of 2012.  On May 16th, 2012, the Chicago Police Department made a military style raid on an apartment where several demonstrators were staying during the Summit.

“On May 16, 2012, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) conducted a violent midnight preemptive raid of an apartment housing 11 activists. Two of them, it would later be exposed, were actually undercover informants working on behalf of the CPD.  Staying in an apartment in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, the activists were in town to protest the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit, held May 20-21.  The military-style raid led to the eventual charging of three of those activists in the Windy City to protest the NATO Summit with conspiracy to commit acts of domestic terrorism and other related charges – under Illinois’ terrorism statute – in the form of a legal bail proffer. It was the first time the law – passed in haste by the Illinois legislature after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks – had ever been used.”  Truthout   Continue reading “The NATO 3 and Free Speech” →

Criminal law, International, Religion, Society

Australian Court Convicts Four Men For Sharia Flogging Of Fellow Muslim

260px-PelourinhoIn Australia, there is an interesting case involving Sharia. Increasingly, Muslims in Western nations are turning to Sharia justice as opposed to conventional courts to address family and personal problems. In the case of Muslim convert Christian Martinez, he sought punishment and forgiveness from his Muslim religious mentor, Wassam Faayad, for drinking and taking drugs. Faayad and his associates proceeded to give him some old-fashioned Sharia justice with an electrical cord. Then Martinez changed his mind but the beating continued. Now four Muslim men are convicted of assault in a Sharia version of “no, means no.”

Continue reading “Australian Court Convicts Four Men For Sharia Flogging Of Fellow Muslim” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Georgia Public Defender Charged With Keeping Found Diamond Ring

12017533Georgia Public Defender, Alexia Dawn Davis, 31, has found herself facing a relatively rare charge for failing to take steps to return a diamond ring that she found in a parking lot. Davis is charged with theft of lost or mislaid property after she kept the ring for two weeks before taking it to the police in Augusta.

Continue reading “Georgia Public Defender Charged With Keeping Found Diamond Ring” →

Bizarre, Criminal law

Indiana Couple Charged With Felony For Sneaking Into Zombie Movie

harbinmugsPolice and prosecutors in Portage, Indiana appear to have a rather draconian version of a criminal code where every minor offense begins with a felony and goes up from there. We previously saw how a Walmart cleaning lady was charged with a felony for eating Oreo cookies at a story. Now, the Portage police and prosecutors are seeking a felony conviction against this couple for sneaking into a zombie movie and not paying the $6.75 ticket price.

Continue reading “Indiana Couple Charged With Felony For Sneaking Into Zombie Movie” →

Criminal law, Environment, International, Politics, Society

Chinese Farmer Who Asked Officials To Swim In Polluted River Is Beaten By Baton-Wielding Thugs

170px-AngleseyCopperStream220px-Factory_in_ChinaWe previously discussed how a local businessman shamed the Chinese government by offering to pay the top environmental official 200,000 yuan (around £20,000) to swim in the disgusting river near Rui’an City. The same dare was made by two Chinese environmentalists, including Chen Yuqian, a 60-year-old resident of Pailian village in Zhejiang province. It was a modest suggestion given the rampant environmental hazards and choking pollution in the country, including the dozens of cancer villages (which only this week were acknowledged by the government). However, he received his answer this week. Forty men came to his house and beat him for embarrassing the government — a standard response for Chinese environmentalists and villagers who succeeded in drawing attention to the dire plight of Chinese citizens.

Continue reading “Chinese Farmer Who Asked Officials To Swim In Polluted River Is Beaten By Baton-Wielding Thugs” →