There is a controversial criminal case out of Danville, Illinois this month where Reggie Haywood, 30, has been charged with first-degree murder stemming from a house invasion. The charge is not strange but the underlying facts are. The person “murdered” was the alleged accomplice of Haywood and he was shot not be Haywood but the homeowner.
Continue reading “Suspect Charged In The “Murder” Of His Accomplice By A Homeowner”
As many on this blog know, I have a certain (perhaps curious) affinity for old mugshots. The latest is from the New South Wales police department of a wonderfully sinister-looking fellow named Sidney Kelly from June 1, 1924. The police caption reads, “Illicit drug trader. Drives his own motor car, and dresses well. Associates with criminals and prostitutes.”
Continue reading “Meet Sidney Kelly: The Style of the Criminal Element”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
It’s taken over fifty years, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the punishment/reward scales have tipped and I am losing my appetite for dining in restaurants. Mostly this is due to what the industry has needed to stay competitive, so I am not here to bash business owners for trying to make a living, it is simply that it is no longer in the interest of my health, budget, and growing intolerance of settling for less.
I wish the industry could do better, but I do not see this ending well.
Continue reading “RestauRant: Why Dining Out Is No Longer Worth It To Me.”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the Stone controversy. The column suggested that the Trump tweet before the change in the sentencing memorandum in the Stone case may not have been related, but simply another example of Trump triggering a controversy with an irresponsible and ill-timed tweet. After the column, Trump made the situation even worse by publicly complimenting Attorney General Bill Barr. As I mentioned at the time, the “atta boy” was more damaging than the original criticism. Barr responded correctly by criticizing the President’s continued public comments on pending cases and attacks on federal judges. While the President is clearly undeterred, both the change in the sentencing recommendation and the criticism of the President were well warranted.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Bull Meets China Shop: Why The President Tweets Fail Another Causality Test By The Media”
The Drudge Report set off a firestorm on Saturday with a story headlined: “EXCLUSIVE: BLOOMBERG CONSIDERS HILLARY RUNNING MATE.” The story reported that “[s]ources close to Bloomberg campaign tell DRUDGE REPORT that candidate is considering Hillary as running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force….” After a frenzy, the Bloomberg campaign weakly downplayed the story while notably not denying it. The story follows reports of various Clinton allies discussing a way for her to take the nomination in a brokered convention in a panic-driven move to block Bernie Sanders, again, from securing the nomination.
Continue reading “Bloomberg’s Big Gulp Running Mate? Campaign Downplays But Does Not Deny Consideration Of Clinton As Vice President”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A comparatively small burial plot of the World War I Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France contains the remains of American military personnel who, following convictions in US Military Courts Martial, remain as nearly anonymous as the numbered markers above them. For nearly seventy-five years after their convictions, their grave markers only reveal one or two digit identification numbers and not the names of those so buried. Though they were convicted of capital crimes, do they deserve the dignity of a proper burial that all of us expect for ourselves?
Continue reading “Has The Time Come To Name The “Dishonored Dead”?”
Michael Avenatti was convicted this afternoon by a jury of all three charges in the extortion trial related to demands for up to $25 million from Nike. I post this news with a great sense of personal sadness. Michael was one of my students and research assistants. He was an outstanding student and one of the most talented trial attorneys in the country. He now faces two other federal trials and significant jail time.
Continue reading “Avenatti Found Guilty In New York Fraud Trial”
On this Valentine’s Day, the Democratic establishment is sending out its equivalent of “forget me nots” saying “Love is never having to say you’re Socialist.” Alarm over the surge of Bernie Sanders has turned widespread alarm in Democratic and media circles (sometimes hard to differentiate on some channels) into full-blown panic. With now a double digit lead over Biden in national polls, there is a constant drumbeat in the media against Sanders — the same type of bias that actually pushed many voters toward Trump in 2016.
Continue reading “Red Scare: Love Is Never Having To Say You’re Socialist”
Below is my column in the Washington Post on the continuing controversy over the actions taken against impeachment witnesses by President Donald Trump. I recently explained that these actions are not, as claiming on CNN, clear criminal acts of witness retaliation. While I was critical of the moves, this column addresses why they are neither unlawful nor unprecedented.
Here is the column:
Continue reading ““I Have Been Traduced”: Trump’s Moves Against Impeachment Witnesses Are Neither Unlawful Nor Unprecedented”
We recently discussed how stories of violence on conservatives and Trump supporters often receive limited attention. The common narrative is that President Donald Trump is the source of violent speech and violent acts in society. The inverse does not fit that narrative. The latest such example is found in New Hampshire where Patrick Bradley, 34, is accused of assaulting a 15-year-old Trump supporter and two adults at a polling site. This follows another college attack on conservatives at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Continue reading “New Hampshire Man Assaults 15-Year-Old Boy At Republican Polling Site”
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has defended Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s decision to report President Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president. Kelly referred to the call as an “illegal order” that had to be reported. Most of us support Vindman raising his concerns with the chain of command and hopefully Trump will not attack Kelly for stating his support for Vindman. This is a principled and reasonable view of one of our most respected military officers.
Continue reading “Former Trump Chief Of Staff Defends Vindman Over Need To Report Trump’s “Illegal Order””
There is an interesting new controversy developing around the trial of Roger Stone. This one does not focus on the sentencing of Stone but his trial. New information has emerged that the foreperson of the trial has a long history of highly critical postings against President Donald Trump and his administration. Former Memphis City Schools Board President Tomeka Hart recently went public with her support of the prosecutors who resigned from the case. However, there are now questions of why Hart was allowed on the jury, let alone made the foreperson given her highly critical view of Trump and his associates before being called for jury service. Not only has Hart called Trump supporters like Stone racists but she celebrated a protest that projected profanities on the Trump hotel with the words “Gotta Love It.”
Continue reading ““Gotta love it!”: Major Controversy Erupts Over Undisclosed Alleged Bias Of Foreperson In Stone Trial [Updated]”
I recently wrote a Washington Post column explaining that, while I viewed the moves by President Donald Trump against impeachment witnesses was wrong, it was not criminal as claimed by legal analysts like CNN’s Elie Honig. Yesterday, Honig responded by arguing in a column that he and “other former prosecutors” are quite confident that the action clearly constituted the crime of witness retaliation. While Honig does not actually explain how the President’s conduct specifically violated the stated elements in the federal code, even a cursory consideration of the elements of the crime belie his assertion. Trump’s actions with regard to Vineland and Sondland would not constitute criminal witness retaliation.
Continue reading “No, Trump Did Not Commit Criminal Witness Retaliation”
We have previously discussed the efforts of the Democratic establishment and some in the media to (again) derail the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, including the raw bias against Sanders shown by CNN reporter Abby Phillip in a prior presidential debate. Now, with Sanders’ victory in New Hampshire and rising polls, figures from both politics and media are putting on a full-court press to stop Sanders. Everyone from James Carville to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews are sounding alarms over Sanders. His victory last night was called the “doomsday scenario” by a Democratic Super PAC. The most shocking was MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd who used a quote form a columnist to compare Sanders supporters to Nazi brown-shirted thugs. It is a technique used before by Todd who reads letters or quotes from others to preserve the patina of neutrality like his recent attack on Trump supporters.
Continue reading ““Doomsday Scenario”: Washington Moves To Crush The Sanders Revolution”
I have long criticized Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for making comments on political issues to liberal and academic groups. While not unique on the Court in what I have called the era of “celebrity justices”, Ginsburg is something of recidivist in abandoning the long-standing avoidance of political discussions by justices as well as issues that are likely to come before the Court. Despite repeated controversies in speaking publicly on political issues, Ginsburg is clearly undeterred. This week, Ginsburg tripped both wires in discussing a matter in litigation and heading toward the Court while encouraging what would be a political campaign for a new constitutional amendment. As we have discussed, there is currently litigation over whether the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified by the recent vote in Virginia. Ginsburg did not wait for the appeal and announced that the ERA is dead. She then called for a new ERA movement. Both statements were inappropriate, but the statement on the status of the amendment was wildly at odds with standards of judicial restraint and ethics.
Continue reading “Ginsburg Declares ERA Dead And Calls For New Campaign”