A.P. 03/11/10
Each time, the decision was "COP:" Continue on Parole.
The jury system was established because it was felt that a panel of informed citizens, drawn at random from the community, and serving for too short a time to be corrupted, would be more likely to render a just verdict by judging both evidence and the law. Jury nullification is the process whereby a jury in a criminal case nullifies a law by acquitting a defendant regardless of the weight of evidence against him or her." Widely, it is any rendering of a verdict by a trial jury which acquits a criminal defendant despite that defendant's violation of the letter of the law—that is, of an official rule, and especially a legislative enactment. Strictly speaking, a jury verdict which rules contrary to the letter of the law pertains only to the particular case before it is guilty of Jury nullification. Today a Jury who responds to public opinion rather than law are getting more and more frequent. Sadly their decisions in fact have the effect of writing legislation.
History & Development in the USA: Jury nullification appeared in the pre-Civil War era when juries sometimes refused to convict for violations of the Fugitive Slave Act. During the 20th century, especially in the Civil Rights Movement, several all-white juries acquitted white defendants accused of murdering blacks. In the 21st century, many discussions of jury nullification center around drug laws that some consider unjust either in principle or because they are seen to discriminate against certain groups.
Problem: legal scholars claim jury nullification effects 3–4% of all jury trials who get caught up in following current public opinions or being P.C. result in the recent rise in hung juries. The only people profiting are lawyers as the effect on local neighborhoods is devastating. This evidences juries have begun to consider cases based on their own views about the validity or fairness of the laws themselves that are being judged.
Worst Case Example: The O. J. Simpson murder case has been described as the most publicized criminal trial in American history, in which O. J. Simpson, former NFL American football star and actor, was brought to trial for the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 after a lengthy trial—the longest jury trial in California history. Why was Simpson able to skirt justice? A: Simpson hired a high-profile defense team led by Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey. Los Angeles County believed it had a solid prosecution case, but Cochran was able to persuade the jurors that there was reasonable doubt about the DNA evidence (then a relatively new type of evidence in trials) - including that the blood-sample evidence had allegedly been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians - and about the circumstances surrounding other exhibits. Cochran and the defense team also alleged other misconduct by the Los Angeles Police Department. Simpson's celebrity and the lengthy televised trial riveted national attention on the so-called "Trial of the Century". By the end of the criminal trial, national surveys showed dramatic differences between most blacks and most whites in terms of their assessment of Simpson's guilt.
Police officers came under attack while they tried to help a dying man at the G20 protests in London's financial district Wednesday night.
The victim was found by a member of the public unconscious in the street near the Bank of England just before 7:30 p.m.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said officers arrived on the scene to help and had to move the casualty away for urgent treatment after bottles were thrown at them by protesters.
The man was eventually pronounced dead at the hospital. According to one protester at the scene he was in his 30s. Ninety people were arrested during a first day of protests marking the summit.
The Met Police spokesman said: “A member of the public went to a police officer on a cordon in Birchin Lane, junction with Cornhill to say that there was a man who had collapsed round the corner.
Date 10/01/09 12:40 PM EDT
Kevin Jennings, President Obama's Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug FreeSchools at the U.S. Department of Education, is in hot water this week for having failed to report that a 15-year-old sophomore student in his school had told him of having sex with an older man.
But failure to report what appeared to be a case of statuatory rape of a child may be the least of Jennings' worries. Lori Roman of Regular Folks United points to statements by Jennings a decade or more ago when he praised Harry Hay of the North American Association for Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), which promotes the legalization of sexual abuse of young boys by older men.
Roman provides damning details and links here. She also notes that Jennings wrote the forward "to a book called Queering Elementary Education. And another fellow you may have heard of wrote one of the endorsements on the book jacket—Bill Ayers." Ayers, of course, is the Weather Underground bomber from the 1960s who is just an "acquaintance" of Obama.
Every presidential administration ends up with scandals inspired by controversial appointees, but typically those tend to revolve around financial improprieties, conflicts of interest, or some other form of white-collar misconduct. For Obama, the scandals seem to be develping in a pattern of disclosures revolving around radical left ideology that raises questions about their fitness for any job in government. And that in turn raises the inevitable question: Is nobody minding the White House personnel store?
A: Wiki note: The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a New York City and San Francisco-based unincorporated organization in the United States that advocates the liberalization of laws against sexual relations between adult and minor males - resolving to "end the oppression of men and boys who have freely chosen mutually consenting relationships". Since 1995, public criticism and law enforcement infiltration have heavily impaired the organization. NAMBLA describes itself as a "support group for intergenerational relationships," and uses the slogan "sexual freedom for all." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA 10/5/2009 9:02 AM.
Q: What Are They Doing?
A: Founded national gay pride marches: "NAMBLA walks with me" a 1986 gay pride march in Los Angeles.
A; Their Last Public Meeting: passed a resolution saying: "(1) The North American Man/Boy Love Association calls for the abolition of age-of-consent and all other laws which prevent men and boys from freely enjoying their bodies. (2) We call for the release of all men and boys imprisoned by such laws." This policy was still in NAMBLA's "official position papers" in 1996.
A: In 1980 a group called the "Lesbian Caucus – Lesbian & Gay Pride March Committee" distributed a hand-out urging women to split from the annual New York City Gay Pride March because the organizing committee had supposedly been dominated by NAMBLA and its supporters.
A: A "sex ring" of underage boys brought intense media scrutiny in Boston in the closing weeks of 1977, and police raided the Toronto-area gay newspaper The Body Politic for publishing an article by Gerald Hannon titled "Men Loving Boys Loving Men" did the subject of adult-minor sex garner enough attention to prompt the formation of a group like NAMBLA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA 10/5/2009 9:02 AM.
A: The arrests sparked intense media coverage, and local newspapers published the photographs and personal information of the accused men. NAMBLA members have been charged with and convicted of sexual offenses against children.
A: Larry Frisoli an opposing attorney charged NAMBLA is a "training ground" for adults who wish to seduce children, in which men exchange strategies on how to find and groom child sex partners.’’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA 10/5/2009 9:02 AM.
A: Curley v. NAMBLA was a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2000, by Barbara and Robert Curley against the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). Their 10-year-old son, Jeffrey Curley, was the victim of a 1997 murder by two men, Salvatore Sicari and Charles Jaynes. The men took Jeffrey to the Boston Public Library and accessed NAMBLA's website. At least one of the men, Jaynes, later attempted to sexually assault Curley. When the boy fought back, Jaynes gagged him with a gasoline-soaked rag and eventually killed him. Jaynes then sexually assaulted his corpse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curley_v._NAMBLA 10/5/2009 9:14 AM.
Q: Who is Defending NAMBLA?
A: In April 2005, the wrongful death cases was still being considered by a Massachusetts federal court, with the American Civil Liberties Union assisting the defendants on the grounds that the suit violated their First Amendment rights to free speech.
A: The American Civil Liberties Union stepped in to defend NAMBLA as a free speech matter and won a dismissal based on the fact that NAMBLA is organized as an unincorporated association, not a corporation. [John Reinstein, the director of the ACLU Massachusetts.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA 10/5/2009 9:02 AM.
Q: What are Unintended Consequences for the United States Federal Government to Hire anyone Who Defends in any way the amazing existence of a group like NAMBLA?
A: High School Student Elizabeth Smart: I Was Raped Daily SALT LAKE CITY – Taking the stand for the first time since she was snatched from her girlhood bedroom seven years ago, Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday that her captor raped her three or four times a day, kept her tied up with a cable around her leg, and threatened to kill her if she tried to escape. http://www.thefoxnation.com/elizabeth-smart/2009/10/01/elizabeth-smart-i-was-raped-daily 10/5/2009 9:20 AM.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549765,00.html
Date: Monday, September 14, 2009
Medical Examiner: Body Found Is Missing Yale Graduate Student
A body found stuffed in the wall of a Yale university building has been indentified as missing graduate student Annie Le, New Haven police said Monday.
Authorities, who have ruled Le's death a homicide, said they do not believe the 24-year-old bride-to-be was a random target.
Le was last seen on surveillance video Tuesday entering the five-story laboratory building in Yale's medical complex, where she worked as a graduate pharmacology student.
Police told the Associated Press Monday that the killing of the person whose body was found in the wall was "not a random act" — and said they don't believe that anyone else on the campus is in danger.
Authorities on Saturday also found bloody clothes above floor tiles in the basement of the building, which police sources say likely belonged to the killer.
Yale President Richard Levin offered support to Le's family and her fiance, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The couple was to marry Sunday in Syosset, N.Y., on Long Island's north shore.
"The family and fiance and friends now must suffer the additional ordeal of waiting for the body to be positively identified," Levin said.
The university has also planned an evening prayer vigil for Le at 8 p.m. Monday on Yale's main campus. An e-mail sent to the Yale community invites participants to "bring a candle and join us in solidarity," the Yale Daily News reported.
In an e-mail statement sent to FOXNews.com, Yale's vice president Linda Lorimar said the university was taking extra security precautions — including added security personnel and a new bicycle patrol — to ensure students' safety.
Police on Monday would not say if they have any suspects. They previously have said Widawsky is not a suspect and is assisting with the investigation. New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said police recovered "a large amount" of physical evidence, but he would not discuss what that included.
Last winter, Le, of Placerville, Calif., wrote a magazine article about how to stay safe around Yale's campus. The article, titled "Crime and Safety in New Haven," was published in February in a magazine produced by the university's medical school. It compares higher instances of robbery in New Haven with cities that house other Ivy League schools and includes an interview with Yale Police Chief James Perrotti, who offers advice such as "pay attention to where you are" and "avoid portraying yourself as a potential victim."
"In short, New Haven is a city and all cities have their perils," Le concludes. "But with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic."
Le was reported missing last Tuesday. Surveillance video shows her arriving at around 10 a.m., but police could find no video of Le leaving, despite some 75 surveillance cameras operating around the complex. Her ID, money, credit cards and purse were found in her third-floor office.
More than 100 local, state and federal police had been searching the building for days, using blueprints to uncover any place where evidence or Le's body could be hidden.
On Sunday morning, a state police van drove down a ramp into the building's basement area. Authorities also sifted through garbage at a Hartford incinerator Sunday, looking through trash that was taken from the building in the days since Le went missing.
Le's disappearance weighed heavily on Yale students, who prayed for her safe return Sunday at The University Church on Yale's campus.
"It has brought up a lot of fears for people," the Rev. Ian Buckner Oliver said just before he gave the Sunday morning sermon. "It has brought up a lot of worry and concern for her and for all our safety."
Bjorn Cooley, a 20-year-old Yale student from Oregon, said he heard the news that a body had been found while studying in his room Sunday night.
"Before they found the body, I still had hope she had just disappeared," Cooley said. "I was looking for some sort of quasi-happy ending to this whole thing."
Source: http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/12/missing-yale-student/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549222,00.html
Date: September 12, 2009 02:12 PM EDT
Yale University Offers $10,000 Reward for Help Finding Missing Grad Student
GRETA WIRE ~ FOX NEWS Yale Police Department at (203) 432-4400
Have you been following the missing Yale student story? She was to get married this weekend....she is on video entering a Yale building but she is not seen on video leaving. Any ideas?
Yale University announced a $10,000 reward for help finding a graduate student days before her wedding, after investigators find no clues after searching her laboratory and apartment.
Annie Marie Le, 24, a doctoral student in pharmacology at Yale's School of Medicine, vanished Tuesday. She was last seen that morning on surveillance camera outside a lab in the medical school complex, less than mile from the main campus in New Haven, Conn.
The California native was to be married on Sunday to fiance Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student in physics at Columbia University. The two met as undergraduates at the University of Rochester.
Her purse, cell phone, credit cards and money were found in her office. She has not contacted her fiance, family or friends since Tuesday.
“We are responding to this at this point as if it could be any kind of bad situation,” University Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer told the Yale Daily News. “You don’t just not go home for a couple of days.”
Widawsky has been cooperating with the investigation, she told the paper, and "there's not a worry about" any potential involvement he might have had in Le's disappearance.
Le was in her lab at the Sterling Hall of Medicine Tuesday morning, and then walked a few blocks to another lab facility at 10 Amistad Street. A security camera captured her going into the building at 10 a.m., the same time she swiped her Yale ID card at the entrance.
There was no image of her leaving, but Yale security officials were scanning all footage from surveillance cameras at each of the facility's entrances and exits.
Le was reported missing after she did not return to her office or show up for a pathology class where she was a teaching assistant, The New Haven Register reported.
Asked about the possibility of foul play, Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said Thursday that "there's no evidence of it at this time."
A fire alarm set off by a faulty smoke detector about 12:40 p.m. at the Amistad Street building isn't thought to be connected to Le's disappearance, university Deputy Secretary Martha Highsmith told the Yale Daily News.
On Thursday, Connecticut state police with bloodhounds searched the area where Le was last seen, and authorities went through nearby trash bins.
Yale Police Chief James Perrotti said the FBI was assisting in the investigation, and Le's fiance, professors, colleagues, friends and family also were helping in the search.
Ironically, Le wrote a magazine article earlier this year about how to stay safe on the Ivy League campus.
Annie Le's article, called "Crime and Safety in New Haven," was published in February in a magazine produced by Yale's medical school.
It compares higher instances of robbery in New Haven to cities that house other Ivy League schools and includes an interview with Perrotti, who advised students to "pay attention to where you are" and "avoid portraying yourself as a potential victim."
"In short, New Haven is a city and all cities have their perils," Le concludes. "But with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic."
Le was excited about her upcoming wedding on Long Island, N.Y., said friends and colleagues including Debbie Apuzzo, who works in the pharmacology department. Apuzzo described Le as energetic and conscientious.
“Lucky I’m in love with my best friend,” Le wrote in a posting on Facebook, one of several about the marriage, according to the Register. Others included details about the ceremony, the reception and the honeymoon in Greece.
She received her undergraduate degree in bioscience in 2007 from the University of Rochester in New York state, said school spokeswoman Sharon Dickman.
While at the University of Rochester, she did a summer project at the National Institutes of Health on bone tissue engineering with a goal of regenerating tissue for people suffering from degenerative bone diseases. She said her career goal was to work as an NIH investigator or as a professor.
Her mentor, Rocky Tuan, described her as bright and hardworking, saying the NIH undergraduate scholars program was very selective.
"She's a very happy person," Tuan said. "Everybody got along with her. She's always smiling, laughing."
Le is 4-foot-11, 90 pounds and of Asian descent with brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information on Le’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Yale Police Department at (203) 432-4400.
Stoked note crime fighting: there is irony in the fact that this young woman just completed an assignment in her local student press giving advice about keeping out of crime stats. Did her article waken a local predator???
Truth Justice & the American Way? Does it Still Exist
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.ba0ce396-ca6b-484f-875e-0e93b7e56602&hl=en