Category: Criminal law

Lock and Learn: English School Fakes Shooting Death of Science Teacher As Lesson

We have another case of English teachers accused of terrorizing students with a fake violent crime. We previously saw this curious pedagogical technique in Sheffield, here. Now, teachers at Blackminster Middle School in Evesham, Worcester are under attack for faking the killing of a teacher in front of screaming children aged 10 to 13.

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Jury Awards Houston Woman $9 Million Against Wal-Mart in Dispute Over $200

A Houston jury has ruled against Wal-Mart in a case where the store falsely accused a woman of trying to exchange counterfeit money orders. Nitra Gipson, 24, was awarded $9 million in the case where she was jailed for two days on the allegations. Prosecutors later learned that the money orders at the heart of the allegations were perfectly valid.
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Ninth Circuit Rules Police Officers Were Justified in Tasering Pregnant Woman Three Times Over Traffic Ticket

The United States Court of Appeals has ruled that three Seattle police officers were justified when they tasered a pregnant mother three times when she refused to sign a traffic ticket. Malaika Brooks was driving her son to Seattle’s African American Academy in 2004 when she was stopped for doing 32 mph in a school zone. When she refused to get out of her car to be arrested, one officer tasered her repeatedly despite (she claims) knowing that she was pregnant.
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Things You Do Not Want Your Dog Bringing Home

I can take the occasional dead bird, but the police cruiser is a bit much for a dog to leave at my door step. This video from Chattanooga, Tennessee shows Winston, a pit bull mix, ripping the bumper off a police car. In all, Winston left four cars (including two police cruisers) with flat tires and a missing bumper.

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NYT: Pope Spared American Priest Who Molested Hundreds of Deaf Boys

The sex abuse scandal has increasingly entangled Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican in allegations of the cover-up of molesting priests. Now, one case has directly implicated the Pope after it was learned that in the 1990s then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger effectively spared an American molesting hundreds of deaf boys. The then Cardinal received letters from Wisconsin priests asking him to move against the Reverend Lawrence Murphy, who worked at the St John’s School for the Deaf in St Francis, Wisconsin. He appears to have blocked efforts to defrock Murphy.
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Satanic Tweets: Sharia Court Bans Discussion of Amputation Punishment on Twitter and Facebook

An Islamic court in Nigeria has banned any debates on the use of amputations as punishment on Twitter, Facebook, or blogs to protect Islamic traditions from being mocked or disrespected.
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England Expels Mossad Rep in London Over Dubai Hit

England took the remarkably light response of expelling Mossad’s representative in London over the use of false British passports in the Dubai hit on Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January. What will be interesting is the degree to which Interpol seeks to interview the man, who is likely protected by diplomatic privilege.

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