In Lahore, Pakistan, police arrested Amanat Masih while he was in church on Christmas day. Masih, 50, was arrested for blasphemy — the second such arrest based on what he insists are trumped up charges by one man. He was previously sent to jail for more than three years for blaspheming Islam.
Continue reading “Pakistani Police Arrest Christian For Blasphemy in Church on Christmas”
Category: Criminal law
We have previously seen fights between monks at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The video below, however, shows monks going Medieval at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity — taking brooms and sticks to each other in the ongoing dispute of who has rights to the holy ground. The response of the Palestinian police chief is rather interesting.
Continue reading “When Monks Attack: Orthodox Priests Go Medieval At Church of the Nativity”
The New Haven Independent has published some disturbing pictures of Tomas Torres who says that police raided his apartment looking for drugs and immediately punched him in the face, stomped on his head, and then laughed at him as they tore apart his apartment. They found no drugs and charged him with no crimes. He was left with bruises and an apartment that was completely trashed.
Continue reading “Connecticut Man Accuses Police Of Raiding His Apartment, Punching and Stomping Him, and Then Trashing His Apartment . . . Without Finding Any Drugs”
Just as Henry V rallied the thin, tired troops on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, it is time to make that final call for votes in this year’s competition for the top opinion blog by the American Bar Association. There are now just two days left and, while we have pulled ahead in the last week, the contest remains very close with one of the top five largest legal blogs. If you like our blog, it is time to pony up and vote.
Continue reading “Just Two Days Left In The ABA Competition: We Need Your Vote!”
In Jacksonville, police are being accused of arresting and beating the wrong man in response to a report of a fight on Christmas Eve. They then arrested family members who say that were just trying to stop police from beating their relative. Daisy Besancourt, 57, was charged with failure to disperse on command, after she reportedly filmed the police and refused to turn off her phone.
Continue reading “North Carolina Police Reportedly Arrest Woman Who Refuses To Turn Over Cellphone After Filming Alleged Abuse”
Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. Continue reading “Merry Christmas To All”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
It’s Christmastime again and since my childhood, long ago, the Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” has been shown time and again in this season, providing a message of redemption, hope and joy that we associate with this time of year. You all know the plot about selfless George Bailey (James Stewart) a man who has sacrificed his dreams for others and because of his selflessness winds up running the Bailey Building and Loan Association, of Bedford Falls, NY. Because of George this institution has provided home loans for the poor of this rural community and serves as its bank. With the Company on the verge of bankruptcy, through duplicity, George is on the verge of suicide distraught over the losses to those he loves and worried by needs of the average people of his town. You all know this plot and if you don’t its summary is here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life#Plot . I must warn you, perhaps it’s the time of year but I choked up reading the plot, yet again, as I do every time I see this beloved movie.
This introduction has not been made because I’m about to write about banks, or the depredations of the banking industry. Others here and our host have already written extensively on the predatory nature of the banking industry and the harm it has caused to our country. My point of this opening is that we have all grown up with certain mythologies about businesses that provide financial services to the public. This film has had a place in defining that American mythology, in this instance about a bank of sorts, whose leader believes in aiding the community first and profits second. Myths shape our thinking and from my youth I still remember the ad slogan “You have a friend at Chase Manhattan”.
We’ve discovered that banks are anything but our friends. Their bottom line has surpassed service to the point that each customer is looked at as a “cash cow”, to be plundered incessantly with usurious interest and fees for what should be free services. But what about “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate”, “Nationwide Is On Your Side”, or “Like A Good Neighbor State Farm is There”? Surely the Insurance industry supplies the safety net we want for our homes and cars. Do they? Last week I was sent an article by the Independent Claims Adjuster handling my interminable case for mold damage to my home. He’s helping greatly so this isn’t about me, but the article he sent certainly puts into context all the delays in the process and how property insurance companies are maximizing their profits at the expense of their customers. Continue reading “The Real Insurance Frauds”
Yesterday, we discussed the latest example of a man arrested after posting an incriminating picture on Facebook. He is now joined on this list of alleged Facebook felons by Willie Davis Hines Jr., 23, of San Bernardino County. He was arrested after publishing an account of his beating his pregnant girlfriend, who later died.
We have previously seen the trend of people who post on sites like Facebook and then find the postings used as evidence against them. The latest is Andre Curry, 21, who was charged Tuesday with aggravated domestic battery after he posted a photo of his 1-year-old daughter bound in duct tape on Facebook.
Continue reading “Facebook Felon: Chicago Man Charges After Posting Picture of Bound Child”
We have previously written (here and here and here and here) about unnecessary fatalities produced by high-speed chases by police officers — an on-going controversy over the justification for such chases. The latest such controversy occurred in California where Deputy John Swearengin drove through an intersection without his lights on and hit and killed Daniel Hiler, 24, and Chrystal Clevenger, 30. They were pushing a small motorbike across the interaction when hit by Swearengin. He was responding to a call about a stolen vehicle. The police ended up arresting relatives of the deceased who were outraged by the accident.
This year’s competition for the top opinion blog by the American Bar Association has become an intense race between our blog and one of the largest conservative legal blogs, Volokh Conspiracy. Even though VC is one of the largest blogs in the country, we are only a couple of dozen votes away with voting closing on December 31st. We need every vote so please spread the word to civil libertarians and others that we need their support to pull off the ultimate David and Goliath victory.
Continue reading “The Turley Blog Needs Your Vote! The ABA Competition Is Down To The Wire For Top Opinion Blog”
Michael Morton, 57, spent nearly 25 years in prison for murdering his wife before he was able to force Texas authorities to finally test DNA evidence that proved his innocence. Now he is demanding that the prosecutor be held accountable for withholding evidence. The problem is that the then-Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson, now a district judge in Georgetown (left).
Continue reading “Judge and Former Prosecutor of the Year Accused Of Withholding Evidence That Sent Innocent Man To Jail For 25 Years”
An unnamed Ohio man was cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle and decided to fire one round in the air. The round traveled over one mile and reportedly killed Rachel Yoder, 18, an Amish girl driving her horse-drawn buggy home after a Christmas party.
Continue reading “Ohio Man Shoots Gun In Air . . . Kills Amish Girl Over A Mile Away”
Deangelo Mitchell (right) is looking at a rather novel charge after he allegedly convinced his brother Wayne (left) to eat the one ounce of cocaine he had hidden in his rear end. Police say that Deangelo did not want the police to find the drugs after they took him into custody. Wayne died.
Continue reading “Man Dies After Eating Cocaine From Brother’s Derrière”
“A dingo took my baby” stands as one of the most famous lines from any criminal case in history — made so by the movie “A Cry in the Dark” starring Meryl Streep. Now, a coroner in Australia has reopened the case after a couple of proven dingo attacks on children.
Continue reading “A Dingo May Have Eaten Her Baby After All: Coroner Reopens Case of Famous Baby Murder Case”