Showing posts with label Samoa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samoa. Show all posts

March 08, 2009

AS: tweaking, fa'a Samoa

Take one of this blog's long-time preoccupations, add one of its odd enthusiasms, and what do you get? Methamphetamine news from American Samoa. From Radio New Zealand:

Public Defender warns of growing drug problem in American Samoa

The American Samoa Public Defender, Ruth Risch, has urged the territory to pay attention to the growing drug problem...


And this too from the AmSam p.d.:

She says expulsion of high school students who drink, smoke or cause fights is the worst type of discipline...

Couldn't agree more, particularly on days when my clients are going into detention for being expelled. Like I've said, paradise.

September 13, 2007

WA: "this is not a joke - this is my life"

Here is a particularly thoughtful presentation from the Seattle P-I of the shock waves from one juvenile manslaughter case, where the accused and the victim are members of the same family:

One Fatal Shot: A struggle to forgive one son, not forget the other

What Jordan remembers from the night he killed his stepbrother is Michael sitting on the floor in the basement bedroom they had shared since childhood, his back against the futon, reaching for the gun in Jordan's hand. Or maybe Mikey was just reaching forward to stand up -- Jordan isn't sure...

For Jordan Jantoc, the year after that night last September has been a series of jail cells, courtrooms and lawyers' offices, where adults deliberated over how to charge the lumbering, round-faced teenager for a death family members insist was accidental. Three judges have weighed in...

On Friday, when he is finally sentenced, Jordan will face up to 8 1/2 years in state prison in a case that underscores the stunning ease with which children can get guns. Yet the mechanics of King County's legal system look streamlined compared with daily life in Jordan's home...


One of the audio portions of the presentation mentions a standard sentencing range of 78 to 102 months, indicating that Jantoc is being prosecuted as an adult.

June 05, 2007

AS: "Anytime"

Court news from American Samoa, from Sean the Idahoan's Potatoes to Papayas blog:

I've discussed the prison system several times already. Well, here's another not-so-great story about our inmates:

Inmate walks out of court and out of sight under TCF watch

By La Poasa Samoa News Staff

Immediately after District Court Judge John L. Ward II continued his case yesterday afternoon to another date, inmate Atoa "Anytime" Sipili walked away from where he sat with his attorney, told the TCF officer in the courtroom that he was going out for a smoke and disappeared...

(O)nce outside, Sipili took off his orange jumpsuit uniform, which easily identified him as an inmate, and told the officer that the judge had released him and that he was free to go...

February 03, 2007

AS: pig thieves in paradise

I'm sorry to note that not all is well in American Samoa after all. My fellow Idahoan at Potatoes to Papayas has the story:

Pig Thieves

Just a few days ago, a heinous crime was committed in American Samoa. Three men were charged with killing and then stealing their neighbor's pig. For this despicable crime, they could face up to seven years for stealing, up to five years for property damage and up to six months for trespass. I mean, it's as serious as killing a human being down here, folks!

Poor Wilbur. I agree that this is serious business: one time in these parts, someone killed a neighbor's pig, and we almost went to war with Great Britain.

February 02, 2007

AS: "they drove around a while, then returned to their assigned cell"

With news of a daring escape from the Sing Sing of Pago Pago, here's Weaver at "My Year in American Samoa":

Prison Break

(A) TCF officer reported seeing a large hole in the wall of one of the cells. The hole was created by the two inmates (Sione Muliaga and Suisape Tavete)...

Muliaga said there, they met Muliaga's father, who drove them around for a while before dropping them off at Lions Park, from where they returned to their assigned cell in reverse order of their path of escape...


Weaver comments:

I am not sure why they would need to make a hole, because most of the time the front gate is unlocked.

Paradise.

October 19, 2006

AS: prisoners in paradise

A report on doing time fa'a Samoa, from fellow Idahoan Sean at Potatoes to Papayas:

Another interesting part of American Samoa is the jail... Our neighbors down the street are both public defenders. They inform us that the front gate of the jail is never locked. Nice. Apparently, the rule has been that if a prisoner is not back to the jail by curfew, the police go to their house and take them back. It's a simple system...

Another attorney friend... told us that before one of the hurricanes that hit the island, the prison guards, afraid they were unable to take care of the prisoners, sent them all home. On one condition. They all must come back after the hurricane. And they all did...

July 06, 2006

AS: indigent defense, fa'a Samoa

Casey and a few other former co-workers know that for years I've harbored a daydream about being a public defender in the south seas... American Samoa, for instance.

This looks pretty sweet:

A friendly game of bocce ball outside the Tafuna Correctional Facility. Part of a going away party for a Public Defender many of whose clients are currently incarcerated in said Correctional Facility and were watching the Public Defender barbeque sausages while these four played bocce...

But there are rumblings of trouble in paradise (scroll down a bit):

A resignation letter from an attorney in the Public Defender’s Office cites... that the Public Defender Tautai Aviata Faalevao is maintaining a private practice. Assistant Public Defender Lawrence Wilson says in his letter that the Office of the Public Defender exists to protect the peoples rights and this means elevating the public’s concern over the Public Defender's own personal interests. He told Tautai... "instead of vigorously advocating the people’s rights, you continue to use your time, and the court’s, representing private clients... (S)erving two masters, drawing a government salary as an advocate for the indigent all the while maintaining a private law practice on the side, works a great disservice to the people of American Samoa..."

Rats! Why do there always have to be snakes in Eden?