My friend and colleague, Professor Don Clarke, does terrific work over at his Chinese Law Blog and has an extraordinary story this morning. A Chinese Law Professor is in hot water after making a series of statements about rape that truly shock the conscience. Tsinghua Law prof Yi Yanyou comments on the rape case of Li Tianyi, the son of a famous singer who is accused of raping a bar hostess. Yi pointed out that raping a bar hostess is not as bad as a real rape of a nice girl from a nice family. The response was predicable and justified. What is astonishing is that Yi doubled down on his theory of different categories of rape victims when people objected.
I have previously stated that I believe that Zimmerman prosecutor Angela Corey over charged the case as second degree murder and in my view contributed heavily to the defeat in the case. What many people described as the evidence for conviction is actually evidence of manslaughter. Had the case been framed as manslaughter or negligent homicide, it might have turned out differently. However, that was in my view an error in prosecutorial discretion. More serious questions have arisen over Corey’s ethics and that of her office. These allegations include her conduct following the acquittal of George Zimmerman.
Continue reading “Zimmerman Prosecutor Angela Corey Under Fire For Alleged Professional Breaches”
There is an interesting forensic challenge in a Romanian criminal case as well as an unspeakable destruction of art by a band of thieves. Police have found a furnace with ashes containing paint, nails, and canvas that a mother says is the remains of seven multimillion-dollar paintings — including a Matisse, a Picasso and a Monet. She says that the paintings were destroyed as police started asking questions about the gang of thieves from a museum, including her son.
Continue reading “Romanian Thieves May Have Burned Seven Masterpieces As Police Closed In”
We have been discussing the collapse of the American civil liberties movement and the attacks on the free press and privacy under the Obama Administration. As discussed in prior columns, we continue to refer to the United States as the “land of the free” despite a comprehensive reduction of civil liberties and due process in this country. The Snowden affair has put that record in sharp relief as the White House and Congress has joined together in barring the prosecution of perjury by high ranking officials and pursuing Snowden with close to unhinged rage. As previously discussed, our governing class has created a new American Animal farm. Long ago, American politicians adopted a type of dismissive paternalism toward the public as shepherds to so many sheep. Then one sheep goes and spooks the flock. The response has been bipartisan rage that has included demands to cut off aid to entire nations if they grant sanctuary to this whistleblower and even boycott the Olympics. The shepherds want Snowden made into mutton for stampeding the flock and no measure appears too extreme. Now Jimmy Carter has entered the fray and said what many citizens are saying in denouncing our duopoly. Carter told Spiegel “America has no functioning democracy.” Of course, you have to live in Germany to read such views.
Continue reading “Carter: The United States Has No Functioning Democracy”
We have interesting case this week out of Canada that raises the limits of free speech and the use of decency or morality laws. The Canadians have criminally charged the owner of a website for the posting of a horrific video showing the murder of an individual by Luka Magnotta (left) and then sexual relations with the corpse of Jun Lin (right). The concern is that the site owner is being charged with “corrupting morals” a largely undefined crime and has traditionally been used to impose and enforce the moral values of the majority on people who do not share them. It is the natural extension of laws prohibiting the publication or possession of obscene materials, a long controversy in this country as well.
Continue reading “Canadians Charge Website Operator With Obscenity Over Publication of Murder Video”
There is an unspeakable tragedy in India that again shows the lack of deterrence and regulation in that country over food safety, a problem also prevalent in other countries like China. Twenty-two children are dead after lunch in their school in Chhapra. The food was obviously poisoned and officials believe that the culprit was a pesticide. Two of the children of the headmistress, Meena Devi, were also sickened. She is now reportedly on the run with two other teachers.
Continue reading “Headmistress Flees After 22 Children Die From Poisoned Lunch At India School”
Corporal James Angelo Palermo, 40, of the San Marcos, Texas police department is under arrest today after his department reviewed an arrest of a predestrian who was allegedly roughed up by Palermo in a false arrest. The woman lost two teeth and suffered a concussion. Palermo is now charged with aggravated assault by a public servant.
If you thought that Brittany Harris was the worst mother of the year, you have not met Ashley Taylor Wright. Wright, 32, first shoplifted, then told the police to shoot through her baby to get to her, and then threw the baby as an officer to try to escape. What is fascinating about this story is that her escape will likely result in far more serious charges than her shoplifting.
Attacks on Christians and other religious minorities in some Muslim countries by extremists have become terribly common. These same radicals who would kill over a YouTube movie as an affront to Islam often see nothing wrong in destroying churches and killing people of other faiths. That is why this story of the destruction of a Coptic Christian church in Egypt seemed like just another outrage until I notice one detail. The priest escaped with the help of his Muslim neighbors.
Continue reading “Muslim Extremists Destroy Church In Egypt As Other Muslims Move To Protect Priest”
Just when you thought priest abuse stories could not get more horrific, this case pops up. Catholic priest James Martin Donaghy – currently serving a ten-year jail sentence for 17 sex offences in Northern Ireland — was sentenced last week for coercing a seven-year-old boy to have sex with him in return for Donaghy guaranteeing that his grandfather would get to heaven. However, he told the boy that if he told anyone, his grandfather would stay in purgatory.
Brittany Harris, 25, is the latest parent to be arrested for going to a concert or casino and leaving kids in the car. In this case, Harris went to a Lil Wayne rap concert and left her two children — ages 3 and 5 — in a parking lot with hundreds of strangers milling about, including a large number of drunken people.
Continue reading “Florida Mom Arrested After Leaving Kids In Car During Lil Wayne Concert”
We have previously discussed the rage of powerful politicians embarrassed by the disclosures of Edward Snowden. The President and the Congress suddenly found themselves having to explain years of false statements and an unprecedented attack on privacy in America because of Snowden. Our governing class had long ago adopted a type of dismissive paternalism toward the public as shepherds to so many sheep. Then one sheep goes and spooks the flock. The response has been bipartisan rage that has included demands to cut off aid to entire nations if they grant sanctuary to this whistleblower. As usual, however, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will not be outdone. After hearing that Snowden has asked Russia for sanctuary, Graham has suggested boycotting the Olympics. That’s right, he is taking one of Jimmy Carter’s most controversial ideas and suggesting a repeat — thereby ruining the ambitions and tossing out years of preparations for hundreds of athletes. Why? To punish a country for protecting someone most people in the world view as either a hero or a whistleblower.
One of the most damaging moments for the prosecution in the trial of George Zimmerman trial was the inexplicable decision to lead with Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Trayvon Martin’s. Jeantel proceeded to admit to previously lying and then gave conflicted and at points unintelligible testimony. Her statement that Martin called Zimmerman a “cracker” further helped the defense in balancing the derogatory statements of Zimmerman. After the verdict, Jeantel has made statements that seem unhinged and again raise the question on why the prosecutors would place her so prominently in their case in chief. The latest controversy is a new allegation from Jeantel that she warned Trayvon that Zimmerman might be a gay rapist. She is not the only person associated with the trial who seems to be courting the press in the case with disastrous results.
Continue reading “Jeantel: “I Told Trayvon, [Zimmerman] Might Have Been A Rapist.””
Jon Andrew Meyer Jr. could be the poster boy for gun control. Meyer is responsible for shooting a little girl with an assault rifle. His defense? He was using the assault rifle as a crutch when it released a burst of fire into the ceiling and killed 5-year-old Alysa Bobbitt of Shady Cove and wounded apartment resident Karen Hancock.
In a disappointing concession by Twitter, the company has agreed to hand over the details of people who post racist and anti-Semitic abuse anonymously on its site. We previously discussed the effort of Jewish students to strip anonymity from posters and punish people for using language that they consider anti-Semitic. It is in my view another major attack on free speech — part of a worldwide reduction of free speech rights.
Continue reading “Twitter Caves To Demand Of French Jewish Students To Reveal Identifies Of Posters”