There is a tragic case out of New York that has the makings of a controversial murder prosecution. The defendant in the case is Angelika Graswald, who is accused of killing her fiance, Vincent Viafore, on a kayaking trip on the Hudson river. The police believe that Graswald, who has posted regularly pictures of the couple and comments since Viafore’s disappearance, killed Viafore in a faked boating accident. Viafore’s body has never been found. In addition to the absence of a body, there is no direct evidence of murder revealed publicly. Police are citing inconsistencies in Graswald’s account as well as critical diary entries.
Continue reading “New York Woman Arrested In Alleged Murder of Fiance During Kayak Trip”
Category: Society
I have the great honor of serving as one of the keynote speakers at the 83rd Annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. I will be speaking today at 9:30 am at the Washington Convention Center. What is particularly cool is that my speech follows the keynote given by Peyton Manning to the group on May 3rd. As a football fanatic (albeit a Bears fan), it does not get better than this lineup. Of course, if Manning is truly excited about meeting a real law professor, I would be willing to take a few seconds to indulge him. I know that many NFL MVPs silently dream of being endomorphic, middle-aged law professors. I just hope that Manning will be able handle the excitement. As for me, I am just excited as a Bears fan . . . this is the closest anyone associated with Chicago has gotten to Manning in a long long time.
Continue reading “Turley To Speak At AANS Meeting In Washington”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
You may not have heard of it before, but the government has the ability to shut off cell phone service at any time, under the guise of National Security. The Department of Homeland Security has an operating procedure known as Standard Operating Procedure 303( SOP 303) and it has been labeled as the cell phone “kill switch”.
I knew very little about the “kill switch” before today, but according to a recent Al Jezeera America article, the kill switch authority is being currently debated in Federal court. Continue reading “Is The Cell Phone Kill Switch in the Wrong Hands?”
Like many, I watched the 2015 draft unfold with great interest. It was fascinating to watch the soaring success of a Marcus Mariota (including a reported effort of my Chicago Bears to unload Jay Cutler on the Tennessee Titans in exchange for their second slot — and Mariota). It was equally fascinating to watch the plunge of Randy Gregory from a top draft pick to number 60 after showing himself incapable to not doing drugs even when his entire NFL career and future depended on it. However, while the Winstons, Mariotas, and other elite players tend to get the limelight, I was rooting for a guy picked by the Bears in the final round. I was rooting for Tayo Fabuluje. There is no reason that you would know his name but I hope someday you will.
Continue reading “Tayo Fabuluje and the Importance of Character In A Champion”
Like many, I am still waiting for the evidence used as the basis to charge the six officers in Baltimore for the death of Freddie Gray. This morning, however, I was disturbed to read that an effort to create a fundraising site for the defense of the officers was taken down on GoFundMe. It appears that the site has a very questionable standard for funding that does not afford accused parties a presumption of innocence in asking for support to fund their defense.
Continue reading “GoFundMe Site For Six Charged Baltimore Officers Taken Down After 41 Minutes”
There is a growing war between environmentalists and graffiti artists over “tagging” natural settings and parks. Hiking is my main pastime and I have long been mystified by people who go to gorgeous natural settings and degrade them with their graffiti. However, some “artists” are now heralding the move to add graffiti to natural trails and sites. One of them is Andre Saraiva is an internationally known graffiti artist who showed how he tagged a boulder at the Joshua Tree National Park. In my view, he should be arrested but he and other graffiti artists think that this is a matter of celebration and pride to ruin these sites for the rest of us. Saraiva appears to believe that some of us go on hikes to see his childish scriblings on tree and rock. Most people try to escape such urban mess by taking to the trails and Saraiva and others are committed to degrading nature in the very same way. The solution is simple in my view: arrest him.
We have previously discussed the trend of citizens being charged for rescue in federal and state parkland. I have always been a critic of the practice because rescues are part of the costs of maintaining these parks. Many volunteers participate in such rescues and largely oppose the charging of the victims, even when they made negligent decisions. The latest is Edward Bacon, 59 year old man from Michigan, who is appealing the imposition of a $9,300 bill for his rescue at the White Mountain National Forest.
Continue reading “Injured Hiker Charged Roughly $10,000 For Mountain Rescue”
Just when you thought this world could not get weirder. The story below describes a new fetish fad where New Yorkers is to cut veins to bleed over canvas or just bleed out among friends. Bloodletting parties involve what is called “arterial tapping,” whereby a dominant partner taps a submissive partner’s artery – the ultimate in bondage where the dominant partner controls actual blood flow. What I found most notable about the story from a legal perspective is the fact that it names the “Santos,” or organizer, of some of these parties as Dr. Edwin Perez, a licensed physician. That leads to an interesting question of whether Perez could be stripped of his license if the allegation is true.
Continue reading “Bloodletting Parties Raise Questions Over Legality of “Arterial Tapping””
I have previously written about my disagreement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision to rescind federal trademark protections for the Redskins as a racially disparaging name. That case is still being appealed but a new case may well answer some of the question raised in the prior column. An Asian American rock band called “the Slants” has appealed a decision to deny it trademark protection — allowing the question to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A panel previously upheld the denial in In re Simon Shiao Tam, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 6430.
I will have the honor of serving as the moderator on a panel at the American Bar Association’s conference in Washington, D.C. today. The panel is entitled “Stranger in a Strange Land: Cross Cultural Issues in the Courts.” This is part of an internationally successful program organized by Judge Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway of U.S. Court of International Trade. Judge Ridgway has brought together jurists and lawyers from around the world to discuss difficult cultural issues that are increasingly appearing in criminal and civil cases. These cases deal with arguments or defenses that turn on the cultural norms or practices of a given defendant or litigant. The cases have forced the question of when and how courts should recognize such defenses.
Continue reading “Stranger in a Strange Land: ABA To Hold Session On The Cultural Defense”
Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes (D) went on CNN yesterday and attacked President Obama and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) for referring to rioters in Baltimore as “thugs” saying, “just call them n*ggers”. It is a familiar controversy for readers of this blog. Last year, various commentators objected to my writing about the “thuggish” behavior of Seahawks’ cornerback Richard Sherman
as inherently racist — a position that I rejected. I have continued to use thug as both a noun and adjective. Now it appears that President Obama and Mayor Rawlings-Blake are being accused of the same use of racist code words by Councilman Stokes.
Tomorrow’s game between the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles will be a bit different on Wednesday not due to who will appear but who will not be present . . . any fans. Due to the rioting and robberies in Baltimore this week, the teams have decided to hold a game without fans in the stadium — a possible first for the MLB (if you discount most days with the Oakland As). The question is why with the National Guard deployed and days of police operations the city cannot even protect a small area in the tourist heavy harbor area. They appear to be working off the question from the 1971 feature film, Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came.
The video below sums up the worsening situation in Baltimore. Protesters have been sabotaging fire hoses to stop the Fire Department from saving buildings. The CVS in this case was first looted and then burned (as have other business and cars). When the Fire Department showed up, this man punctured the hose to frustrate efforts at putting out the fire. In the meantime, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake denounced the “thugs” in the streets of her city. She however added another mangled quote after her earlier assurance that the police would give protesters “space” to destroy. For the riots consuming the city during the afternoon and in the early evening. The mayor objected that the city is being “destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for.” People immediately asked if there was a sensible way to tear down the city.
I am beginning to think that the Almighty is intervening to get me to eat better. After the closing of our favorite hot dog joint in Chicago, Hot Doug’s, last week saw an announcement that my favorite burger place in Chicago, Ed Debevic’s, was closing its most famous location (where our family has gone religiously for years) to make way for a new high rise. Now, as my family is still reeling from the news, city officials have shutdown our favorite New York deli, Carnegie Deli. I have gone to Carnegie since I was a kid and my kids are now equal fans. However, the owners of this highly profitable deli are accused of possibly stealing gas and endangering customers.
Continue reading “Carnegie Deli Shutdown Amid Allegations Of Dangerous Illegal Gas Line”
A Russian court has sentencing two women and a teenager to 15 days jail time for twerking. That’s right, twerking. The women filmed a dance video with twerking in front of a World War II memorial. The timing could not be worse — or better — depending on your perspective. The Putin regime is using the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory to rally citizens. The court ruled that the twerking constituted “hooliganism.” You will recall that this is the same undefined crime used to jail two members of punk band Pussy Riot to prison for two years for an impromptu protest at Moscow’s main cathedral in 2012.
Continue reading “Putin Does Not Twerk: Women Jailed For Twerking In Russia”