We have previously written (here and here and here and here) about unnecessary fatalities produced by high-speed chases by police officers — an on-going controversy over the justification for such chases. The latest such controversy occurred in California where Deputy John Swearengin drove through an intersection without his lights on and hit and killed Daniel Hiler, 24, and Chrystal Clevenger, 30. They were pushing a small motorbike across the interaction when hit by Swearengin. He was responding to a call about a stolen vehicle. The police ended up arresting relatives of the deceased who were outraged by the accident.
The North Korean media has add a new bizarre claim to the already bizarre demonstrations following the death of the “Dear One,” Kim Jong-il — a petty dictator who starved his people and destabilized a region. Now the state-run media in “the second happiest place on Earth” is proclaiming that Nature is mourning the passing of the dictator.
Mexican officials this week took time out of the holiday celebrations to proclaim the coming of the Apocalypse. Officials have started a countdown to the End of Times for December 21, 2012 — based on the Mayan calendar. At our blog, we try to keep people informed of such important dates for personal planning. Since it falls on a Friday, it may make for an awkward evening at TGIF and, if you have some vacation time, you might want to use it before December 22, 2012. I am not sure what the Mayan apocalypse looks like but I am pretty sure that, as a legal matter, earned vacation and other benefits will be treated as void as a matter of force majeure.
This year’s competition for the top opinion blog by the American Bar Association has become an intense race between our blog and one of the largest conservative legal blogs, Volokh Conspiracy. Even though VC is one of the largest blogs in the country, we are only a couple of dozen votes away with voting closing on December 31st. We need every vote so please spread the word to civil libertarians and others that we need their support to pull off the ultimate David and Goliath victory.
Continue reading “The Turley Blog Needs Your Vote! The ABA Competition Is Down To The Wire For Top Opinion Blog”
Michael Morton, 57, spent nearly 25 years in prison for murdering his wife before he was able to force Texas authorities to finally test DNA evidence that proved his innocence. Now he is demanding that the prosecutor be held accountable for withholding evidence. The problem is that the then-Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson, now a district judge in Georgetown (left).
Continue reading “Judge and Former Prosecutor of the Year Accused Of Withholding Evidence That Sent Innocent Man To Jail For 25 Years”
An unnamed Ohio man was cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle and decided to fire one round in the air. The round traveled over one mile and reportedly killed Rachel Yoder, 18, an Amish girl driving her horse-drawn buggy home after a Christmas party.
Continue reading “Ohio Man Shoots Gun In Air . . . Kills Amish Girl Over A Mile Away”
Deangelo Mitchell (right) is looking at a rather novel charge after he allegedly convinced his brother Wayne (left) to eat the one ounce of cocaine he had hidden in his rear end. Police say that Deangelo did not want the police to find the drugs after they took him into custody. Wayne died.
Continue reading “Man Dies After Eating Cocaine From Brother’s Derrière”
British Prime Minister David Cameron has declared Britain to be a Christian country — something that might be a bit unsettling for almost 30 percent of people who list themselves as either having no religion or being non-Christian. The actual number of non-religious appears much higher. Indeed, as noted earlier, a majority of English citizens polled stated that they have no religion in a recent study.
Continue reading “Cameron Declares England A Christian Country”
I have previously written and blogged on the criminalization of the American society. Now a study in the journal Pediatrics this week finds that, by age 23, almost a third of Americans have been arrested for a crime.
Continue reading “The Penal State: New Study Shows One-Third of Americans Have Been Arrested For A Crime By Age 23”
NYU Professor José Angel Santana says that he was doing what any responsible academic would do when faced with a student who missed 12 out of 14 assignments: he gave him a “D”. The problem, he alleges, was that the student was Hollywood hunk James Franco (left) from “127 Hours.” He says that he was ridiculed by the star and fired by the school over the decision. Franco gained fame portraying James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.
Continue reading “Celebrity Curve? NYU Professor Sues After Being Fired Allegedly For Giving Star James Franco A Bad Grade”
Newt Gingrich this week unleashed a series of attacks on the judiciary, calling for abolishing judges, getting rid of lifetime tenure, and ignoring judicial rulings that he does not agree with. We discussed yesterday his suggestion that judges could be arrested by federal officers and forced to appear before Congress to answer for their unpopular decisions. However, last night on Hardball I took Gingrich to task for what I consider a misrepresentation of not just the law but history in his reference to Lincoln.
Continue reading “Gingrich: The Great Emancipator From History?”
It appears that scientists will not stop at anything to fabricate fossils older than 5,000 years old — the rough age established by the Bible according to some creationists. The scientists found the fossils in a quarry that date back to the Ordovician period. The range of the fossils is considerable from sponges and worms to nautiloids.
Continue reading “Another Darwinistic Plot? Scientists Find 450 Million Year Old Fossils in Quarry”
We have previously discussed attacks by orthodox Jews on women and others in Israel. The demand for segregation of the sexes however has triggered a national debate after accounts of women being asked to sit in the back of buses. There is also an outcry over Orthodox Jews ripping down any advertisements showing women in public areas.
I will be on C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning discussing privacy and other issues in a call-in program. Continue reading “Turley on C-Span”
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich appears to be running against the Constitution as much as against President Obama these days. Gingrich has been promising to round up judges who do not agree with him — statements that have even conservative figures like Michael Mukasey, former attorney general during the George W. Bush administration, denouncing him. Mukasey was the attorney general who blocked prosecutions into torture, but finds Gingrich truly scary. I am currently scheduled to be on Hardball tonight to discuss this latest attack on the judiciary.
Continue reading “Gingrich: I Will Arrest Federal Judges”