There is a trend in the United States to treat fetuses as persons for the purpose of criminal charges. That trend was taken to an extraordinary degree in Dubai where a pregnant woman was involved in a traffic accident and had a miscarriage. Finding that she was following to closely and applying Sharia law, the court convicted her of manslaughter and also ordered her to pay “blood money” for the loss of the baby.
Continue reading “Dubai Court Convicts Woman of Manslaughter and Orders Payment of Blood Money for Death of Her Own Fetus in Traffic Accident”
Category: Criminal law
In Carrabelle, Florida, Sgt. Walter Schmidt at the Franklin Correction Institution had a novel idea for entertaining kids on a “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” tour. He shocked kids with 50,000 volts from his taser.
Continue reading “Taze Our Daughters and Sons At Work Day: Police Officer Fired After Shocking Children with 50,000 Volt Taser”
An Australian jury is considering manslaughter charges against parents of a baby girl who refused basic treatment of an eczema condition of their nine-month-old baby. The parents — Thomas Sam and Manju Sam — were believers in homeopathic treatment and stayed with their principles unmoved as the baby Gloria Sam died.
British citizens Samantha Orobator faces possible execution for drug trafficking in Laos after being arrested with roughly half of kilogram. To add to the outcry, Orobator is reportedly pregnant with a child that she conceived while in prison.
Continue reading “Pregnant British Woman Faces Execution in Laos for Drug Conviction”
The ABA Journal has obtained the findings of Judge Greg Brewer, who is recommending that the case of Charles Dean Hood be reviewed in light of an intimate relationship between former Collin County District Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Thomas S. O’Connell Jr. Notably, O’Connell previously denied such a relationship.
In one of the most perverse moments yet in the torture debate, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took time to explain the need for torture to a fourth grader who was a bit curious why his country tortured people. The question of Misha was considerably more reassuring than Rice’s answers.
Continue reading “Torture Tots: Condoleezza Rice Teaches Torture’s Necessity To Fourth Graders”
Lawyers in Chicago are mystified by the actions of Cook County Associate Judge Mark Lopez, who jailed lawyer Nancy Murphy for an unknown offense. Murphy says that she had simply drafted an order and, after giving it to Lopez, was thrown into jail where she was verbally abused by Cook County jail guards and left overnight in a filthy cell.
Continue reading “Chicago Judge Jails Attorney For Document Irregularity Without Explanation”
Ayman Udas was an award-winning signer and song writer in Pakistan, who was looking forward to a soaring career. Those hopes ended when she was allegedly shot to death by her brothers, who were outraged by her appearance on television a week earlier in the religiously conservative city of Peshawar.
Continue reading “Award-Winning Vocalist and Song Writer Reportedly Killed By Her Brothers in Pakistan for Appearing on Television”
There is a shocking case out of India, where Shanno Khan, 11, was punished by her teacher who forced her to stand in hot sun for two hours as she begged for water. She collapsed in a coma and later died at the hospital.
Today, William B. Moffitt will be buried in Washington, D.C.. Bill was a friend and one of the greatest trial attorneys of his generation. He was only 60. He will be deeply missed.
Continue reading “Farewell To Bill Moffitt”
The Justice Department is moving to dismiss the case against Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman for espionage. The two men are former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Recently, Rep. Jane Harman was swept into a scandal when it was revealed that she was intercepted by the NSA alleging bargaining to help get the case dismissed in exchange for AIPAC’s help in securing the Chair position on the House Intelligence Committee.
Continue reading “Justice Department to Drop Espionage Case Against AIPAC Lobbyists”
Meet the America’s Torture Doctors: Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell. The names of the two psychologists have been released with a report that they played a critical role in establishing the torture program by attesting to its safety. I will be addressing the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto in August on the involvement of doctors in these war crimes.
The Pew Forum has released an interesting poll that the more religious Americans, the more likely they are to support the use of torture against terrorism suspects.
There appears to be an emerging field of wedding torts and crimes this month. Recently, we saw a lawsuit against a woman who ruined a wedding by announcing that she was sleeping with the groom (hint: she was not the bride). Now, in Naples, Florida, Molly S. Collins (left), 19, is accused of stealing make up gifts for the bridesmaids after a wedding reception while in Tampa Lisa Coker is accused of crashing a wedding with a razor and crowbar — and attacking the wedding party.
Continue reading “Wedding Bells and Bars: Women Arrested in Separate Wedding Crimes”
There is an interesting exchange that has surfaced between a Stanford student and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford. The student confronted Rice about whether waterboarding is torture. She responded with a Nixonesque argument that, if the president ordered it, it cannot be a war crime. It sounds a lot like Nixon’s 1977 statement: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” I discussed the Rice comment on this segment of Hardball.