It was the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland that declared “Sentence first! Verdict afterwards.” However, President Barack Obama appears to have taken a lesson our two from her majesty. Today, President Obama assured Americans that they should not be offended by trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal court because he will be convicted and executed. I will be discussing this story tonight on MSNBC Countdown.
Continue reading “Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards: Obama Assures Public KSM Will Be Convicted and Executed”
Minneapolis and St. Paul are looking for a group of thugs whom videotaped themselves beating up pedestrians and threatening people. They should be relatively easy to locate: they included their real names and street names in formal credits on a YouTube video entitled “Watch This T.V.”
This afternoon, the Plaintiffs in the World Bank/IMF protest case filed a notice with the Court of the receipt of an affidavit in the case from a police detective, who contradicts the sworn testimony of former D.C. (and current Philadelphia) Police Chief Charles Ramsey. As lead counsel in one of the two cases (with my colleague Daniel Schwartz of Bryan Cave), I am limited in what I can say on the case. However, to reduce calls to my office, I am posting the filing below.
Continue reading “Detective Offers Conflicting Testimony in World Bank Case”
We have been following the expansion of defamation cases linked to Internet sites, here, and here. We now have an interesting Twitter case involving rock star Courtney Love, who lost her bid recently to dismiss a libel action filed by designer Dawn Simorangkir. Simorangkir claims in the lawsuit that Love “has embarked in what is nothing short of an obsessive and delusional crusade to terrorize and destroy” her.
Continue reading “Tweet Torts: Rocker Courtney Love Sued by Designer For Defamation on Twitter”
This is a bit harsh. Police has nicknamed David Holyoak, 33, as “Shrek” and publicly stated that he is “too ugly” for crime and a menace to criminal gangs.
Continue reading “The Arresting Look: English Police Denounce “Shrek” Felon as “Too Ugly” for Crime”
In the aftermath of the criminal conviction in France (here), the Church of Scientology is facing a call for a criminal investigation in Australia from Senator Nick Xenophon, who presented the case against the church before the legislature.
Continue reading “Xenophon v. Xenu: Leading Australian Senator Calls for Criminal Investigation of Church of Scientology”
Conservative commentators continue their war on the Constitution this week with increasingly shrill rhetoric of how our laws and civil liberties are endangering us. Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, however, achieved a remarkable low by declaring “I don’t care about the Constitution” on air in a discussion of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try five detainees in New York.
Continue reading “O’Reilly: “I Don’t Care About The Constitution””
In North Buffalo, Pennsylvania, Randy Good has created a novel and disgusting nuisance. He has agreed to remove a pile of hundreds of dead deer from his property which has neighbors gagging from the odor.
Anthony Carrazco, 19, has learned the perils of door-to-door sales. Carrazco, however, was not selling Hoovers or Avon. He was selling marijuana door-to-door until he knocked on the door of a Brownsville cop. He was not amused to learn that rather than “Avon calling” it was the Cali Cartel.
Here is today’s column in USA Today on the continuing trend toward shaming or creative punishments.
Continue reading “Shaming Undermines Justice”
It appears that the recent popularity over new hybrid dog breeds (like Labradoodles) has spawned a more dangerous market for hybrid dog/wolf pups. Animal activists are warning about the potential for attacks. Moreover, the new breeds could still be illegal in some states and may expose owners to strict liability.
Continue reading “Wolf, Dog, or Wog? Breeders Raises Troubling Legal Questions Over Hybrid Wolf/Dogs”
Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qaddafi (aka Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi) may have bombed at the United Nations with his rambling speech, but he is still trying to win the hearts and minds of the young. This week, Qaddafi spoke to an audience of young Italian women about the need for them to convert and come and see him in Libya for a vacation.
Gerry Phillips is to hand farts what Louis Armstrong is to trumpets.
Continue reading “Sheer Genius: Sweet Child O Mine Performed Mano-a-Mano”
We recently saw a court rule that a quadriplegic has a right to hunt with a special chair where he literally blows away deer by blowing into a tube attached to the trigger. Now, Senators have adopted a provision to guarantee the right of “mentally incapacitated” veterans to buy firearms. After the shooting at Fort Hood, the provision passed with the support of Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic Virginia Senator Jim Webb is attracting criticism.
The family of Matthias Mayhorn has filed a complaint against two Chicago police officers alleging that they dangled Mayhorn out of a second floor window, fired their weapons near him, and then dropped him. They also allege that the officers refused to call immediate medical attention. He died later at a hospital from his injuries. The case shows how one event can present radically different accounts.