Speaker Nancy Pelosi has issued a new statement (and explanation) after released documents appeared to contradict her earlier denials that she had ever been briefed on the use of torture. As discussed in a prior blog, Pelosi previously insisted that she was never told that these “enhanced techniques” (aka torture) were being used and assumed that the briefing concerned just a hypothetical use of the methods. Now, she is changing her story to acknowledge that she, at a minimum, knew that the methods would be used — even though she is denying that she was actually told that they had been used. I discussed the story on this segment of Rachel Maddow’s show.
Continue reading “Pelosi Changes Account On Briefing On Torture”
Category: Criminal law
Maine Lawyer Michael Harman, 48, has been charged with criminal mischief after he pulled a Homer Simpson and decided to drive off in his truck after the police put a Denver boot on one of the wheels.
Continue reading “Lawyer Gets the Boot: Maine Attorney Charged With Criminal Mischief After Driving Off With Denver Boot on Truck”
Below is today’s column in the U.S. News and World Report on the case for prosecuting torture and responding to the dwindling number of defenders of the Bush torture program:
Continue reading “Three Legal Truths: The Case for The Prosecution of War Crimes By the Bush Administration”
Pete Williams is reporting that Republicans are threatening to expose Attorney General Eric Holder’s role in renditions during the Clinton Administration if he pursues an investigation into torture. Imagine that: raw political retaliation could finally give civil libertarians a full investigation of this country’s long-concealed abuses.
Continue reading “Proceed At Your Own Peril: Holder May Face Congressional Investigation Into His Own Role on Renditions If He Investigates Torture”
Intelligence officials leaked documents to the Washington Post and ABC News last night that sharply contradict the statements of Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has denied ever being told that torture was being used on detaineees. She previously insisted that the use of waterboarding (aka torture) was only discussed in the future tense — a dubious moral distinction. I discussed the story on this segment of Rachel Maddow’s show.
Continue reading “Report: Pelosi Knew of Use of Torture Despite Earlier Denials”
Our annual Moot Court for elementary kids has made the ABA Journal! We hosted 150 6th grades from Kent Gardens Elementary School in McLean, Virginia this year. They sat through a trial of the three little pigs and a class on forensics led by a detective. The trial was a double murder and attempted murder case based on the Three Little Pigs. B.B. Wolf was acquitted.
Continue reading “George Washington Moot Court Makes The ABA Journal”
While Judge Jay Bybee has declined to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain his role in the Bush torture program, he is reportedly reaching out to Nevada delegation members to find an alternative forum “to tell his side of the story.” I discussed the story on this segment of Rachel Maddow’s show.
Continue reading “Bybee Reportedly Seeking Forum to Explain His Role in the Torture Memos”
Todd Marcum, 41, in Oregon has been arrested for putting an electric dog collar on each of his four children and then shocking them because he “thought it was funny.”
Continue reading “A Real Scream: Oregon Father Arrested For Having Fun By Shocking Children With Dog Collar”
There is a story out this week that raises the interesting question: what does it take to be fired as a police officer in El Paso. Police Sgt. Raul Ramirez was captured on television arresting KVIA-New 7 reporter Darren Hunt and photographer Ric DuPont in April. The abusive arrests and use of excessive force by Ramirez appears to be insufficient to remove him from the force. Instead, he will demoted and allowed to continue to enforce the law.
Continue reading “El Paso Police Department Demotes Sergeant Filmed Arresting Television Crew”
Sheik Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, the brother of the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Prince Mohammed, has been accused of additional acts of torture — as many as 25 such victims. The video of one such torture session is available here. In the meantime, on our own torture controversy, the Obama Administration again refused today to commit to a special prosecutor or independent investigation of torture by the Bush Administration. We lack the type of tapes in Abu Dhabi because CIA officials admit that they destroyed the evidence so it could not be used against them. I will be discussing the torture controversy tonight on the Ed Shultz show on MSNBC.
Continue reading “Serial Torturer: UAE Prince Accused of Additional Acts of Torture”
The ABA Journal is reporting on a case of a lawyer, Nina C. Baccala, 36, who was robbed while moonlighting as an escort. The recent graduate of New England School of Law and Massachusetts lawyer has been waiting for the results of her Rhode Island bar examination. She fought off the attacker who has a criminal record.
Continue reading “Massachusetts Lawyer Robbed During Work As Escort”
Nine members of a New Zealand family will stand trial for the death of Janet Moses during a gruesome exorcism rite of the Maori culture called makutu. The rite is supposed to lift a curse and involves pouring water down the throat of the subject and trying to suck the devil out of her eyeballs.
Continue reading “Makutu Murder: Family Charged With Manslaughter In Death of Woman During Exorcism”
The Washington Post reports that Bush officials are working the halls and telephones of the Justice Department with the formal end of the internal investigation into former Justice officials involved in the Bush torture program, including Ninth Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee, Berkeley professor John C. Yoo and Steven G. Bradbury. They are reportedly working over former colleagues to soften the language and recommendations of the department. I will be discussing disucssed this and other related stories on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
The Iranian legal system has cranked about another abuse under its medieval application of Sharia law. The government stoned a man to death for adultery, the latest in a series of such executions, here and here.
Continue reading “Iran Stones Another Adulterer to Death”
The arrest of Donna Dull, 59, in Pennsylvania for developing pictures of her 2-year-old getting out of the bath has been the subject of national criticism and a lawsuit against the prosecutors. However, officials added to the controversy by appearing to defend the decision to charge the grandmother despite the fact that the charges were later dropped by Stan “The Man” Rebert after a public outcry.
Continue reading “Dull Tools: Prosecutors Says They Were Right to Charge Grandmother With Pornography For Taking Pictures of Kids in Tub”