ATMORE, Ala. (AP) ‐ The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the execution of an Alabama inmate whose attorneys argue that dementia has left the 67-year-old unable to remember killing a police officer three decades ago.
Justices issued a stay Thursday night, the same evening that Vernon Madison was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a southwest Alabama prison. The court delayed the execution to consider whether to further review the case.
Madison was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte, who had responded to a call about a missing child made by Madison’s then-girlfriend. Prosecutors have said that Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.
Madison’s attorneys argued that strokes and dementia have left Madison unable to remember killing Schulte or fully understand his looming execution. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that condemned inmates must have a "rational understanding" that they are about to be executed and why. 'Justice delayed is justice denied'
~ William Gladstone
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2018 6:59 Comments ||
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#3
The judicial system is responsible for dragging this out this long. Now it uses the consequence of its outright interference in real justice to justify further interference. Someone forgot the responsibility that came along with the power invested in the office.
unable to remember - the new defense for shadow government agents who decided to overthrow the Constitution and install their leaders.
Fine. If he's that bad, I say they should check him into a hospital and hook him up to an IV filled with whatever under the pretense that he's ill. He'll never suspect it, he'll never know what hit him. No apprehension, no nothing. Just gone like he should be.
#11
Yep. Should have been executed 30 years ago after all of his rightful due process. At this point I think dementia will serve as proper retribution. I say keep him alive and let him suffer the fresh hell that comes with a fading identity and a wasting body
[Baltimore Sun] grand jury has indicted a Baltimore police officer on charges of misconduct and fabricating evidence in connection with a body camera video that the public defender’s office said showed him planting drugs.
Officer Richard A. Pinheiro Jr., 29, was charged Tuesday. Prosecutors said there were “alleged questionable evidence-gathering acts captured on body-worn camera footage.”
State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby said the charges reflected her pledge “to apply one standard of justice for all.”
“It's critical we remain transparent throughout the process to the extent the law allows as we continue to rebuild community trust,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “Yesterday’s indictment is another example of our office applying justice fairly and equally.”
Body camera footage shows officer planting drugs, public defender says
Pinheiro’s attorney said the officer didn’t break the law.
“Officer Pinheiro simply tried to document the recovery of evidence with his body-worn camera that he had previously recovered,” attorney Michael Davey said. “This is just another overreach by the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office, and an attempt to prosecute a police officer when there’s no evidence to do so.”
The fabricating-evidence charge is a misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. Misconduct in office is a common-law offense, which means that the court is free to impose any penalty that does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The video was one of three that surfaced in the summer of 2017 that defense attorneys said depicted questionable activity.
In announcing Pinheiro’s indictment, prosecutors said they had cleared three officers involved in another video.
Mosby said at the time that she was troubled by the events captured in that video. She said she was considering reimposing a do-not-call list of problem officers.
Then-Commissioner Kevin Davis had forcefully defended the officers, clashing with Mosby. Prosecutors said in December that they had dropped 56 cases involving the officers.
Mayor Catherine E. Pugh fired Davis last week. She cited the city’s continuing violence.
In a report released Wednesday, prosecutors said they determined “the overwhelming weight of the evidence is more consistent with an error of judgment by the involved officers.”
“The acts on the video were just the recovery of drugs and there is nothing false or fraudulent in the [body camera] videos that would deceive or mislead a reasonable person,” prosecutors said.
Pinheiro’s video, which was released by the public defender’s office in July and quickly drew national attention, shows the officer placing a soup can into a trash-strewn lot.
That portion of the footage was recorded automatically, before the officer activated the camera. Police body cameras have a feature that saves the 30 seconds of video before activation, but without audio.
After placing the can down, the officer walks to the street and flips his camera on.
“I’m gonna go check here,” the officer says. He returns to the lot, picks up the soup can and removes a plastic bag filled with white capsules.
Police said Wednesday that Pinheiro had been suspended since the incident occurred, and would remain so. City records show he was hired by the department in 2011, and in 2016 earned a salary of $62,676, with a net income of $67,570. Officers in Baltimore routinely earn overtime pay.
Spokesman T.J. Smith noted that the department made changes to its body camera policy, requiring officers to “keep their cameras on from the beginning of an event until that event is over and they have left the scene, to ensure that if any additional police actions take place, they are captured on the cameras.”
The public defender’s office flagged the video for prosecutors. Prosecutors dropped the heroin-possession charge against the man arrested. He had been held for more than six months, unable to post $50,000 bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Compensation for six months' illegal incarceration should come from the cops' pension fund.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/26/2018 7:33 Comments ||
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#2
Richard A. Pinheiro Jr - clearly a White Latino
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2018 7:37 Comments ||
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] A teenager found guilty of a cowardly one-punch attack in Australia has agreed to fight a professional boxer to raise money for his victim.
Caleb Maraku, 19, who has faced a furious backlash over the shocking video showing him assaulting a fellow teenager, will taken on light heavyweight boxer Kerry Foley.
His 30-year-old opponent has vowed to "teach him a lesson" and promised to make his life a "living hell" in the charity fight.
"I won’t need to go hard but I will make his life a living hell and right at the end I’ll put one on his chin and ice him," he told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.
Mr Maraku showed no remorse after escaping a jail sentence for the attack which left victim Taliesin Tardrew-O'Meara unconscious on the pavement in Surfers Paradise on November 27 last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[PJ] American fathers say they don’t spend enough time with their kids, a new study by the Pew Research Center has found. Nearly 63 percent of fathers report they spend "too little" time with their children -- and they overwhelmingly cite work obligations and a lack of custody as the primary reasons why.
The study also found that one-in-four fathers don’t live with their children, with large differences appearing when sorted by race/ethnicity: 47 percent of black fathers reported not having primary custody of their children, and 26 percent of Hispanic fathers reported the same.
Education is strongly linked to the ability to be an active father, the Pew Research Center reports. Fathers who graduated from college have a special advantage in this: only about eight percent of dads who finished college live apart from their kids. Meanwhile, nearly 30 percent of fathers without a college degree don’t have custody.
#1
Regret is the lot of working parents, and most fathers are not stay-at-home dads. But that just means that fathers have to work on quality rather than quantity, being present and involved when home, not being just the “fun dad” or the exhausted one.
My sympathies for those fathers unwillingly divorced, and thereby separated from their children. But I admit to having no sympathy whatsoever for those who did not marry their baby mamas, who then reciprocated the lack of commitment. It is my understanding that in general such gentlemen fade from their children’s lives about the time the kids start school, making the regret a good deal less convincing.
[RT] Everybody pays attention to them, of course, since they're so objective and accurate. We can all recall when they moved the clock to 2:17 p.m., and before that to 1:10. It's not like they're flaming hysterics trying to convince us that all of humanity is living between 11:55 and midnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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#3
I remember the "Daylight Savings' 'Fall Forward' Crisis of '87" like it was yesterday
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2018 7:08 Comments ||
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#4
I remember when SAC had aircraft on airborne rotation. These 'kids' weren't even kids when we were kids, but enough of us have lived through far far more dangerous times.
#5
I remember 1978-ish, back when they had three premiers in a row because they kept dying of old age, and becoming convinced that a Nuclear Sunrise wasn't likely.
It was a color photo if the Soviet Politburo with every member was an old, white haired guy and even the flunkies in the aisles had gray hair! "A room full of paranoid bureaucrat survivors are just not going to have the stones to 'Push The Button!' " or so I thought at the time....
#9
In October 1962 my dad's entire company in Detroit shut down for a week to allow everyone there to move selves & family "up north" & away from "Ground Zero", as we once thought of Detroit. I warned my little brother not to look up at any bright flashes in the sky.
[DAWN] An accused nominated in the triple murder of a PPP office bearer and his sons was tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in the Mehar town of Dadu district on Thursday, while two others, a PPP MPA and his brother, were granted bail by the Sindh High Court (SHC).
Sikandar Chandio ‐ one of the seven people nominated in the first information report (FIR) for the murder of Raees Karamullah Chandio and his sons Mukhtar Ahmed Chandio and Qabil Chandio ‐ was apprehended while travelling on a cycle of violence in Mehar along with two other people. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the two other persons managed to escape.
Dadu police recovered a rifle from the possession of the accused and have handed his custody to Hyderabad police, who are investigating the case, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Dadu Qamar Raza Jiskani said.
Later in the evening, MPA Nawab Sardar Ahmed Chandio and his brother Nawab Burhan Khan Chandio appeared before SSP Hyderabad Syed Pir Mohammad Shah and handed over copy of their pre-arrest bails.
Inspector General (IG) Sindh A.D. Khowaja has transferred the investigation of triple murders case from Dadu SSP to Hyderabad SSP, who visited the spot of the incident along with his team, recorded statements of complainants, witnesses, local people and two officials of Mehar cop shoppe earlier this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Thursday summoned television anchor Shahid Masood to provide clarity on revelations he made during a late night show regarding the suspect in the rape and murder case of six-year-old Zainab Amin and other children in Kasur.
Masood, in his show, had alleged that Zainab's suspected rapist and murderer was a member of a pornography gang which also includes a Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... minister.
Masood and Punjab additional advocate general Asma Hamid were both present in court during Thursday's hearing.
Chief Justice of Pakistain Mian Saqib Nisar advised the anchorperson to write down the names of the provincial minister and another high-up he had mentioned during his show. Masood complied and handed over the names written on a piece of paper to the CJP.
A three-judge bench, headed by the CJP, watched footage of Masood's TV show in court and advised the Punjab Inspector General of Police Arif Nawaz Khan and a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the evidence provided by the anchorperson.
Hamid told the court that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... had formed a six-member team after the show was aired.
Masood alleged before the judges that the suspect in jug for the murder of Zainab and other children is not "mentally challenged or simpleminded", but rather a "member of an international ring". He has 37 foreign currency bank accounts, and the backing of the country's most important personality and a minister, the anchorperson told the court.
The Kasur incident has come under discussion all over the world, and the CJP, army chief, prime minister and other brass hats should ensure the matter is investigated, Masood said.
The anchorperson raised concerns over the security of the suspect, saying he feared the possibility that he would be killed in police custody. He asked that the suspect be kept in the custody of an intelligence agency.
"The matter of the suspect's security is very important," the CJP said, adding that the responsibility to ensure his security in police custody is the IGP's. "The suspect's security should be foolproof," the CJP asserted.
The court asked Masood to provide details regarding the evidence he had, to which the television personality said he had submitted the details of the suspect's 37 bank accounts to the court.
The court also asked him to provide the names of the important personalities involved in the case, assuring Masood they would be kept secret until the investigation is complete.
"If these accusations are incorrect, it will not be good," the CJP warned.
The case was adjourned until Monday.
Following the hearing today, DawnNews obtained a notification issued by the provincial Home Department which says two new members will be added to the existing JIT probing the case in light of revelations presented in court. The two new members will be a senior officer of the State Bank of Pakistain and a director of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA).
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Police on Thursday claimed to have tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... a suspect who reportedly sexually abused a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in Bahar Colony area of Rawalpindi.
Saddar cop shoppe SHO Malik Rifaqat told DawnNews that the suspect had been arrested and a case over charges of attempted rape was also filed on the complaint of the victim's family.
The victim's father informed DawnNews that his daughter told her mother that the suspect, a shopkeeper, had molested her. The parents took their minor girl to a doctor because she was bleeding, and subsequently approached the police after the doctor confirmed that she had been abused.
The police filed a case and arrested the suspect, following which the medical examinations of the suspect and the girl were conducted, said Rifaqat.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[RT] A Pak Senate committee has proposed to publicly hang those who sexually abuse or murder children. The measure is a response to the gruesome case of a Pak 7-year-old girl who was raped and killed earlier in January.
Part of the Pak Penal Code (PPC) on the punishment of child rapists and murderers currently states: "Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person under the age of 14 in order that such person may be murdered or subjected to grievous hurt... shall be punished with death (sic)." Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. is now seeking to add the phrase "by hanging publicly" after the word "death."
The amendment has been proposed just one day after Pak authorities locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! a key suspect behind the murder of 7-year-old Zainab Ansari. The girl was kidnapped and later found raped and murdered near the eastern city of Lahore earlier in January. The case prompted mass protests and shockwaves across the country, with demonstrators accusing the government of inaction.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2018 00:00 ||
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ESPN’s Jemele Hill will move from co-anchor of the 6 p.m. "SportsCenter" to join the staff of The Undefeated, the worldwide leader’s website that focuses on race, sports, and culture, it was announced Friday.
In addition to writing for The Undefeated, Hill also will also appear on "E:60," "Outside the Lines," "Around the Horn," and other ESPN programs. Her final day on the 6 p.m. "SportsCenter" ‐ known as SC6 ‐ will be Feb. 2. Hill has co-anchored SC6 with Michael Smith since ESPN rebranded the program’s time slot a year ago.
Hill began talks recently with higher-ups to make the switch, according to an ESPN release, and ultimately wanted to go back to writing.
#1
SC6 with her Thulsa Doom and Michael Smith was basically "Tonight in Black Sports". So inherently racial and unwatchable, ESPN was banished for at least that hour from my local watering hole/sports bar. Anyone requesting it was also banned discouraged
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2018 19:44 Comments ||
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[Wash Times] The Trump administration is moving ahead with setting up the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and a chairman and vice chairman have been selected and are being vetted for security clearances.
A White House official said the chairman will be Stephen Feinberg, a New York financier and Trump supporter, he is the CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, whose holdings have included the defense contractor DynCorp.
The vice chairman of the intelligence board is said to be Samantha Ravich, former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Several names of national security experts are being floated as board members, but the official said so far none are solid and several of those floated are liberals and unlikely to be picked.
The board, known as PFIAB, provides the president with advice on the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection and analysis of intelligence estimates, counterintelligence and other intelligence-related functions. The board has been inactive since the Mr. Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.
[Twitter] A5/SES/AlYah: Arianespace confirms the SES-14 and Al Yah 3 satellites are safety in orbit after a communications dropout during launch that raised concern about a possible failure.
There has not been telemetry since first stage separation according to the graph. How @Arianespace confirmed the following events is a major question. Did they get bits of data? If it wasn't actually confirmed, that will make them look pretty bad, so hopefuly not.
[DallasNews] A federal agent reportedly shot a kidnapping victim dead during a predawn raid at a northeast Houston home Thursday.
FBI spokeswoman Christina Garza said during a news conference that the man was shot during an "operation" at the house on Elbert Street around 3:45 a.m. He was pronounced dead a short time later at a nearby hospital.
Garza said the FBI could not release any details about the man or the circumstances of the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation, but the Houston Chronicle and KHOU-TV, citing unnamed sources, have both reported that he was kidnapped in Montgomery County on Wednesday.
Several other people, including two children, were at the home at the time of the shooting, Garza said, but no one else was injured. It was unclear whether anyone had been taken into custody.
The agent who killed the man has been placed on routine administrative leave, Garza said.
Houston police said they did not have any part in the FBI's operation, but they are also investigating the shooting.
Neighbor Monique McKnight told the Chronicle that gunfire woke her up. "It sounded like an explosion," she said.
McKnight said agents asked her about the children who lived at the home.
"I have no idea what would be going on in that house," she told KHOU. "A lot of times they didn't have utilities. The lights weren't on, so I don't know how they were living."
[FoxNews] A Texas man who police say was kidnapped in a home invasion was shot and killed early Thursday as FBI agents raided the home where he was being held, according to multiple reports.
The Houston Chronicle reported that the unidentified victim was kidnapped from a home in Conroe Wednesday by two men with guns who forced their way inside. According to the paper, the victim's brother and 12-year-old son were bound with duct tape.
"[The kidnappers] were demanding money they were owed that nobody knew anything about," Conroe Police Sgt. Jeff Smith told the paper.
Smith added that the kidnappers claimed to have connections with a Mexican drug cartel, but noted there was no evidence that was the case.
"There are oftentimes claims of a cartel connection just to place a fear factor," Smith told the Chronicle.
After the victim's brother received a phone call demanding a ransom, police and the FBI were able to track the suspects to a Clear Lake hotel. Three people were detained and questioned, enabling police to locate the victim in the home.
Police told the Chronicle that a woman in the home was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping. Two men detained at the hotel were charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery. It was not immediately clear if more charges would be filed.
"This was not a random cartel thing," Smith said. "It appears somebody connected to the family was involved."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.