Wednesday
World Bridge Championships...
This you won't believe!
These Women might be banned from Bridge for their sign.
Welcome to Conservative Correctness
These Women might be banned from Bridge for their sign.
Welcome to Conservative Correctness
Monday
World’s worst prosecutor smacked down by his own constituents
So it looks like one good thing happened this little-noticed election day. Comeuppance has finally come for Astoria Oregon Prosecutor Joshua Marquis, the staunch death penalty defender who has argued over the years that innocent people basically never get convicted and that even DNA exonerations don’t mean someone is actually innocent. Though the final tally is still unofficial, it seems that the residents of Clatsop County have defeated a ballot measure Mr. Marquis supported which sought to make him one of this highest paying DA’s in the state.
That’s right, a single issue ballot initiative. The issue: His salary.
Josh Marquis
The hysterical history of the proposal, tells you everything you need to know about Joshua Marquis and provides a pretty window into the particular mindset of a rabid prosecutor. Marquis, a small town DA with an big city ego ingratiated himself to media outlets around the country by seeming willing to defend almost any prosecutorial excess. This was probably a lot of fun and it all went well for a while. In part due to his burgeoning national profile Marquis was re-elected to be the DA of Clatsop County. But having national aspiration can also lead one to ignore the home fires, and after repeatedly failing to turn in required performance evaluations and being dogged by suggestions that he is “abusive to staff” his own county commissioners voted to stop paying him the stipend they traditionally awarded him on top of his state salary.
Now most people when they have their pay cut feel stung and many with some spine might either resign or come in to their bosses and say “hey, clearly you’re unhappy, so let’s figure out how to make this better.” But no. A guy who was trying to become president of the National Association of District Attorney’s isn’t gonna just get the message. (Marquis recently lost that presidential election, presumably because even a group of prosecutors doesn’t want someone quite as rabid as he is leading them). So what did Marquis do? The end around.
Marquis supported an effort to gather thousands of signatures in order to make a law saying that he should get more money. Instead of making peace with his commissioners, or trying to understand why they might be unhappy with his antics, he arrogantly believed the voters would just authorize a pay raise. This, as much as anything else Marquis has written or said provides genuine insight into his view of what the law is and how it is to be used. The law, he seems to think, is an instrument of his own personal advancement, and it is to be used for precisely those purposes. It isn’t hard to see why that’s a dangerous attitude in a prosecutor.
Thank heavens, the citizens of Clatsop County thought different.
That’s right, a single issue ballot initiative. The issue: His salary.
Josh Marquis
The hysterical history of the proposal, tells you everything you need to know about Joshua Marquis and provides a pretty window into the particular mindset of a rabid prosecutor. Marquis, a small town DA with an big city ego ingratiated himself to media outlets around the country by seeming willing to defend almost any prosecutorial excess. This was probably a lot of fun and it all went well for a while. In part due to his burgeoning national profile Marquis was re-elected to be the DA of Clatsop County. But having national aspiration can also lead one to ignore the home fires, and after repeatedly failing to turn in required performance evaluations and being dogged by suggestions that he is “abusive to staff” his own county commissioners voted to stop paying him the stipend they traditionally awarded him on top of his state salary.
Now most people when they have their pay cut feel stung and many with some spine might either resign or come in to their bosses and say “hey, clearly you’re unhappy, so let’s figure out how to make this better.” But no. A guy who was trying to become president of the National Association of District Attorney’s isn’t gonna just get the message. (Marquis recently lost that presidential election, presumably because even a group of prosecutors doesn’t want someone quite as rabid as he is leading them). So what did Marquis do? The end around.
Marquis supported an effort to gather thousands of signatures in order to make a law saying that he should get more money. Instead of making peace with his commissioners, or trying to understand why they might be unhappy with his antics, he arrogantly believed the voters would just authorize a pay raise. This, as much as anything else Marquis has written or said provides genuine insight into his view of what the law is and how it is to be used. The law, he seems to think, is an instrument of his own personal advancement, and it is to be used for precisely those purposes. It isn’t hard to see why that’s a dangerous attitude in a prosecutor.
Thank heavens, the citizens of Clatsop County thought different.
Friday
Thursday
Tuesday
Conservative Authors Sue Publisher
Ok, This is totally hilarious! My favorite bit is when the big conservative authors whine “Why is Regnery acting like a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company?” Um, because they are. THis is what you get little workers. Shafted like the millions of hard working Americans whose labor you spit on, while extolling the virtue of corporations.
Gosh, I haven't had schadenfreude like this in a while.
Gosh, I haven't had schadenfreude like this in a while.
Monday
Strike two...
Today, I walked a picket line for the first time since the ill-fated Legal Aid strike of 1993. Why am I on strike? Well, as a newly minted member of the Writer's Guild of America, it turns out we're striking because the guild has demanded a very small share of of the income generated from the distribution of content (jokes, drama, etc) over the internet. Just what a small chunk the guild wants is quite astonishing.
How much do you think the writer should get on the sale of a twenty dollar DVD? Pick a number and scroll down below the picture of my friend Randy and I on the line...
My Friend Randy Cohen and I on the line at NBC today
Ok, what did you guess? (leave your guesses in the comments section). The answer is that the writer gets about 4 cents. That's not 4 cents on the dollar, that's 4 cents total. And on internet stuff the producers offer is zero. Low, I think by anyone's standards.
Anyhow, I've got lots of thoughts about the picketing itself, but they'll have to wait for now...
How much do you think the writer should get on the sale of a twenty dollar DVD? Pick a number and scroll down below the picture of my friend Randy and I on the line...
My Friend Randy Cohen and I on the line at NBC today
Ok, what did you guess? (leave your guesses in the comments section). The answer is that the writer gets about 4 cents. That's not 4 cents on the dollar, that's 4 cents total. And on internet stuff the producers offer is zero. Low, I think by anyone's standards.
Anyhow, I've got lots of thoughts about the picketing itself, but they'll have to wait for now...
Thursday
Wacky judge jails PD for refusing to try a case he was just assigned
An Ohio judge has ordered the arrest of a county public defender.
Judge John Plough ordered sheriff's deputies Wednesday to take Assistant Public Defender Brian Jones into custody because he was not prepared to go to trial. He was held five hours before he was released on bond.
Judge Plough
The judge was pissed off even though the PD had only had the case for a day or two.
This is the second time Plough has ordered the arrest of a public defender, said Dennis Lager, the county's chief public defender. He said Plough also threatened to take similar action twice in 2006.
Judge John Plough ordered sheriff's deputies Wednesday to take Assistant Public Defender Brian Jones into custody because he was not prepared to go to trial. He was held five hours before he was released on bond.
Judge Plough
The judge was pissed off even though the PD had only had the case for a day or two.
This is the second time Plough has ordered the arrest of a public defender, said Dennis Lager, the county's chief public defender. He said Plough also threatened to take similar action twice in 2006.
THis is how is goes...
Terrorism laws applied not to international terrorists, but to run of the mill murders I said it then and I'll say it again. It's a stupid useless state statute. Pass a nice sounding law, and all you do is give prosecutors more power.
Saturday
Help Make Crack-2 Retroactive
While the Retroactivity for Crack Sentence Cuts is being Debated, here is something you can do!
Send a comment to the US sentencing Commission by November 1st.
You can write to:
United States Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle, NE, Suite 2-500, South Lobby
Washington, DC 20002-8002,
Attention: Public Affairs-Retroactivity.
Or just call Michael Courlander, Public Affairs Officer, (202) 502-4590.
Tell them to make the crack sentence modifications retroactive.
Send a comment to the US sentencing Commission by November 1st.
You can write to:
United States Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle, NE, Suite 2-500, South Lobby
Washington, DC 20002-8002,
Attention: Public Affairs-Retroactivity.
Or just call Michael Courlander, Public Affairs Officer, (202) 502-4590.
Tell them to make the crack sentence modifications retroactive.
Wednesday
Tuesday
Book review: "Indefensible"
Nice to know people are still reading and enjoying the book. This from just a few days ago.
Friday
Sheriff Joe Arpaio--Big Wimp
The vindictive petty sheriff himself...
So this guy actually had newspaper executives arrested. Really. Despite claiming to be "America's toughest jailer...
"I managed to uncover stories about deaths in Arpaio’s jails, assaults on inmates (including one paraplegic inmate whose neck was broken by sadistic guards), and the dirty tricks that “America’s Toughest Sheriff” aimed at his political opponents—despite the fact that Arpaio blocked every one of our (perfectly legal) public-records requests and fired employees whom he even suspected of speaking to New Times.
When I moved to New Times Los Angeles in 1999, John Dougherty returned to the Arpaio story and really turned up the heat. Though the constant parade of television journalists arriving breathless with admiration for Arpaio’s “courage” never slowed, Dougherty pressed ahead with the real story: that there has hardly been a more untrustworthy politician in Arizona, and perhaps in the rest of the country as well.
Taking advantage of post-9/11 privacy statutes, for example, Arpaio had convinced the county to remove from public view records of the million-dollar commercial real-estate transactions he was making. How, Dougherty wondered, was a modestly paid county sheriff making those kinds of deals? Arpaio blocked every attempt to answer that question, and then did something even more outrageous: He convinced the county attorney to charge New Times and Dougherty with a felony for including his home address in the Internet version of a story about his real-estate dealings."
What kind of cop...
Arrests someone for standing around in times square? Officer Momen Attia. Yep. He's a cop who arrested someone for standing in times square talking to some friends. Genius.
Monday
You know things are crazy when...
You find that the person on a panel making the most sense is former Manhattan ADA Linda Fairstein. But so it seems from this posting about a panel on "grey rape" which is, from what I can tell a cute new moniker used to describe something lighter than date rape but slightly shy of disappointing sex.
Fairstein the sensible?
Robert D. Laurino, chief assistant prosecutor for Essex County in New Jersey spoke absurdly of “undetected rapists — the small minority of men who have committed hundreds of rapes on campuses.” Such predators, he claimed often have “sophisticated strategies” for sexual exploitation that involve deceiving women into imbibing strong alcoholic beverages. Whoa! Where lurk these super-predators? In some Austin Powers movie?
The usual alarmists then trotted out the standard nonsense about how no one reports rapes and how they're the hardest cases to prove. Until it was, of all people the former head of the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit who was left to talk some sense into the gaseous hysterical group. It was Fairstein who explained that "there is a higher rate of false reporting (about 9 to 10 percent) for acquaintance rape than for most other crimes." It was Fairstein who explained that contrary to the claims "The prosecution rate for rapes by strangers is “astoundingly high,” and it was Fairstein who concluded that "“Certainly, in the criminal justice system there’s no such thing as gray rape. Gray rape is not a new term and not a new experience. For journalists, it may be, but for those of us who had worked in advocacy or law enforcement, this description of something being in a gray area has been around all the time. It’s always been my job in law enforcement to separate out the facts.”
It's too bad that there wasn't a defense attorney or level headed person there to debunk the junk, but (and I never thought I'd say this since I almost always disagree with her) thank heavens Linda Fairstein was there to talk something resembling sense.
Fairstein the sensible?
Robert D. Laurino, chief assistant prosecutor for Essex County in New Jersey spoke absurdly of “undetected rapists — the small minority of men who have committed hundreds of rapes on campuses.” Such predators, he claimed often have “sophisticated strategies” for sexual exploitation that involve deceiving women into imbibing strong alcoholic beverages. Whoa! Where lurk these super-predators? In some Austin Powers movie?
The usual alarmists then trotted out the standard nonsense about how no one reports rapes and how they're the hardest cases to prove. Until it was, of all people the former head of the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit who was left to talk some sense into the gaseous hysterical group. It was Fairstein who explained that "there is a higher rate of false reporting (about 9 to 10 percent) for acquaintance rape than for most other crimes." It was Fairstein who explained that contrary to the claims "The prosecution rate for rapes by strangers is “astoundingly high,” and it was Fairstein who concluded that "“Certainly, in the criminal justice system there’s no such thing as gray rape. Gray rape is not a new term and not a new experience. For journalists, it may be, but for those of us who had worked in advocacy or law enforcement, this description of something being in a gray area has been around all the time. It’s always been my job in law enforcement to separate out the facts.”
It's too bad that there wasn't a defense attorney or level headed person there to debunk the junk, but (and I never thought I'd say this since I almost always disagree with her) thank heavens Linda Fairstein was there to talk something resembling sense.
Friday
How many times do I have to say it?
"The expected obstruction of justice charges from the feds are related to Kerik's statements to Bronx prosecutors, the sources said."
I said it after Martha. But did the well-represented Bernard Kerik listen? No...
So let me try this again: Never talk to cops or prosecutors. Ever. Under any circumstances. Just say "I don't talk to cops or prosecutors. Only my lawyer does." Got that?
Never. Not Ever. Not for any reason. Period.
I said it after Martha. But did the well-represented Bernard Kerik listen? No...
So let me try this again: Never talk to cops or prosecutors. Ever. Under any circumstances. Just say "I don't talk to cops or prosecutors. Only my lawyer does." Got that?
Never. Not Ever. Not for any reason. Period.
Wednesday
Ex - Prosecutor on Trial Over Withholding Documents
"A former federal prosecutor's ambition led him to withhold evidence that could have helped the defense during the nation's first major terrorism trial after the Sept. 11 attacks...surprise? Hardly.
What is both sad and hilarious is that this guy is now a defense attorney.
Here's his website: A conversion a bit late in the coming if you ask me.
What is both sad and hilarious is that this guy is now a defense attorney.
Here's his website: A conversion a bit late in the coming if you ask me.
Sunday
Saturday
U.S. Prosecutor Held in a Child Sex Sting Kills Himself
Someday someone will realize: There are no 10 year old kids out there looking for sex--only twisted undercover cops and nut job vigilantes posing as little kids and mastering the use of emoticons. You'd think an Assistant United States Attorney would know as much.
Wednesday
We're all going to prison...
The police have raided an art exhibit, confiscating a famous photo owned by Elton John
'Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing'' is among 149 images comprising Nan Goldin's ''Thanksgiving'' installation.
Not the image in question
Northumbria police said the photo was taken from the BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, northeastern England. They confirmed Tuesday that an image had been taken from an exhibit ''to assess whether or not an offense had been committed.''
Both Goldin and the gallery have declined to comment.
''The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world,'' the 60-year-old rocker said.
''It can be found in the monograph of Ms. Goldin's works entitled `The Devil's Playground' (Phaidon, 2003), has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.''
And yet, at least here, according to current thinking, to look at it, or even to think about it might be criminal.
Gotcha ya.
'Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing'' is among 149 images comprising Nan Goldin's ''Thanksgiving'' installation.
Not the image in question
Northumbria police said the photo was taken from the BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, northeastern England. They confirmed Tuesday that an image had been taken from an exhibit ''to assess whether or not an offense had been committed.''
Both Goldin and the gallery have declined to comment.
''The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world,'' the 60-year-old rocker said.
''It can be found in the monograph of Ms. Goldin's works entitled `The Devil's Playground' (Phaidon, 2003), has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.''
And yet, at least here, according to current thinking, to look at it, or even to think about it might be criminal.
Gotcha ya.
Tuesday
Thursday
Wednesday
Convicted of an Uncharged Murder!
Kudos to Simple Justice for bringing us the inside tale of a how the system really works.
Let's see as SJ recounts it, the real story behind People v. Flores goes as follows:
In the normal course, the top count of depraved indifference murder was dismissed after the court inspected the grand jury minutes for sufficiency. So far, great. But from that point on, the case went downhill fast.
Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice--for shame!
The Assistant District Attorney wasn't very proud of this dismissal, so no one was told of it and the decision was buried in the file. The defense attorney never bothered to mention anything to his client, and was subsequently replaced by a new attorney, who never bothered to read the file for the decision on motions.
The Court Clerk who marked the count dismissed did so in the wrong place, the wrong side of the file jacket. When the case was sent to a new judge for trial, the new clerk looked in the correct place on the file jacket and saw nothing there. The trial judge never read the file and didn't know of the order dismissing the charge. And the prosecutor never bothered to mention anything to anyone as the case went to trial.
And so the case was tried, and the defendant convicted of murder. And no one knew. Well, not exactly no one, as the Nassau County ADA knew that he had gotten a conviction for a dismissed count, but he was npt about to screw up a good conviction by dredging up bad memories.
It took a court data input clerk, about a month after the conviction, to realize that something went wrong. Very wrong. So what does he do? As an employee of the court system, he naturally notifies the District Attorney (who else would he tell?). But this time, someone realizes that they have made a huge mistake and word spreads about the murder conviction on a dismissed count of an indictment.
And so, the Trial Judge promptly vacates the conviction and chastises all involved, himself included, for this shocking failure? No, no. The Trial Judge decides that it doesn't matter. A conviction is a conviction, even without a charge, and sentences the defendant to the maximum. For good measure, he maxes out the defendant on the lesser counts as well.
Let's see as SJ recounts it, the real story behind People v. Flores goes as follows:
In the normal course, the top count of depraved indifference murder was dismissed after the court inspected the grand jury minutes for sufficiency. So far, great. But from that point on, the case went downhill fast.
Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice--for shame!
The Assistant District Attorney wasn't very proud of this dismissal, so no one was told of it and the decision was buried in the file. The defense attorney never bothered to mention anything to his client, and was subsequently replaced by a new attorney, who never bothered to read the file for the decision on motions.
The Court Clerk who marked the count dismissed did so in the wrong place, the wrong side of the file jacket. When the case was sent to a new judge for trial, the new clerk looked in the correct place on the file jacket and saw nothing there. The trial judge never read the file and didn't know of the order dismissing the charge. And the prosecutor never bothered to mention anything to anyone as the case went to trial.
And so the case was tried, and the defendant convicted of murder. And no one knew. Well, not exactly no one, as the Nassau County ADA knew that he had gotten a conviction for a dismissed count, but he was npt about to screw up a good conviction by dredging up bad memories.
It took a court data input clerk, about a month after the conviction, to realize that something went wrong. Very wrong. So what does he do? As an employee of the court system, he naturally notifies the District Attorney (who else would he tell?). But this time, someone realizes that they have made a huge mistake and word spreads about the murder conviction on a dismissed count of an indictment.
And so, the Trial Judge promptly vacates the conviction and chastises all involved, himself included, for this shocking failure? No, no. The Trial Judge decides that it doesn't matter. A conviction is a conviction, even without a charge, and sentences the defendant to the maximum. For good measure, he maxes out the defendant on the lesser counts as well.
Saturday
Thirty Million for the Duke Boys?
Thirty MIllion Dollars!
Normally I'm all for sticking it to the state when they screw up, but the Duke case is now officially out of control.
Nifong went to jail today. Fine. I can live with that, even though I believe he's a scapegoat and that his disbarment and jailing does more harm to the system by intimating that this sort of thing actually happens when prosecutors cheat when in fact most do it with impunity and never get caught or sanctioned. But now the times reports that "the three students he accused were in talks with the city for a settlement of $30 million "
Are you kidding me?
That's grotesque. The DA has now done more jail time than the kids. There are dozens of poor and yes, black exonerees who actually spent decades in prison or on death row for crimes they didn't commit and they get pittances. Why do these kids deserve 30 million dollars? (And this On top of the huge settlement Duke's almost certainly already paid?) What's happening here is just more big rich white daddy extortion. It's shameful.
Wednesday
DNA? We don't care about that round here...
This should shock you. Despite the DNA Test, a Prosecutor Is Retrying Case
After the DNA results came back in 2002, The defendant, Mr. Brewer was moved from death row to the county jail, where he stayed for five years. Why? Because Mr. Allgood the prosecutor was still seeking the death penalty, Mr. Brewer was not eligible for bail.
After the initial negative, Mr. Allgood tested the DNA found on the girl against that of two men who visited Mr. Brewer at the house the night of Christine’s disappearance. The men were not a match. He also ran a second test that excluded Mr. Brewer’s male relatives. But he did not run the profile against the state’s DNA database, saying in an interview that no such database exists.
That was a surprise to John M. Allen, the assistant director of the state crime laboratory, who said, “We’ve been up and running on our DNA database for years.”
Gotta love it.
After the DNA results came back in 2002, The defendant, Mr. Brewer was moved from death row to the county jail, where he stayed for five years. Why? Because Mr. Allgood the prosecutor was still seeking the death penalty, Mr. Brewer was not eligible for bail.
After the initial negative, Mr. Allgood tested the DNA found on the girl against that of two men who visited Mr. Brewer at the house the night of Christine’s disappearance. The men were not a match. He also ran a second test that excluded Mr. Brewer’s male relatives. But he did not run the profile against the state’s DNA database, saying in an interview that no such database exists.
That was a surprise to John M. Allen, the assistant director of the state crime laboratory, who said, “We’ve been up and running on our DNA database for years.”
Gotta love it.
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my controversial book about a day in my life as Public Defender in the South Bronx is finally available for Kindle and Ipad.
