“Might as well say I’m dead” – Teen gets 162 years for non-violent crime

A 19 year old gets 162 years without the possibility of parole for non-violent crimes, yet a rapist  'has his lifestyle inconvenienced' by probation after raping a 14 year old!! And he did it more than once!! I just cannot understand what is happening in this world, or why more people can't see it and put a stop to it.

19 year old gets 162 years for robbery

by April V. Taylor

Despite recent efforts to reduce the number of prisoners serving ridiculously long sentences that essentially relegate inmates to dying in prison, it is still happening, and the case of Quartavious Davis is a perfect example of how sentencing can go terribly wrong.  The Huffington Post reports that Davis has been sentenced to 162 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

There are many factors about Davis’s case  that make his sentence harsh and unjust.   He was a first time offender,  and at the age of 18, if had he been just a few months younger, would have qualified under a recent ruling to not receive a life sentence.   Davis also has  multiple learning disabilities as well as bipolar disorder.

Another thing that makes the sentence unwarranted is that Davis did not harm anyone.   He was convicted of a series of armed robberies in Florida, and accomplices testified that he did discharge a weapon at a dog that chased them during one of the robberies, but even the dog was unharmed.  One of the contributing factors that makes Davis’s long sentence possible is what is known as ‘stacking’,  which allows each individual count of an indictment to be counted as a separate crime which allows a  first time offender like Davis to be considered a ‘ habitual offender’ who can be sentenced to multiple sentences under mandatory sentencing guidelines.

Regarding his sentence,  Davis states “Might as well just say I’m dead.”  Davis’s attorney, Jacqueline Shapiro, is arguing that his sentence is ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’  stating ” Just as the Supreme Court recently held that the Constitution bars taking away all discretion from judges in sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment for committing murder, so also is it cruel and extreme to allow unfettered prosecutorial discretion to force a sentencing judge to impose a life sentence on a teenage first offender convicted to lesser charges.”

Those who committed the crimes with Davis all cut plea deals and received sentences that ranged from 9 to 22 years.  They also testified against Davis, allowing prosecutors to throw the full weight of the law against him.  While U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wilfredo Ferrer believes that Davis’s sentences is a reflection of his office’s commitment to combat violent crime, Davis’s sentence would not have been possible in many other states as Florida has some of the harshest mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the country and leads the nation in the number of juveniles sentenced to life without parole.  Davis’s original court appointed attorney Michael Zelman, who resigned from the case when it went to appeal, states, “Any law that provides for a mandatory term of imprisonment for a 19-year-old first offender that exceeds a century has got to be unconstitutional.”  If Davis’s new attorney, Shapiro, has her way, Davis’s fate will ultimately be decided on by the Supreme Court and is currently being appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Zimmerman vs. DMX - A "Celebrity Boxing Match?

 Or another Zimmerman attempt to get rich and famous because he killed an unarmed black teenager?

My intention today was to write a warm, happy post about Valentine's Day coming up, and mention different things that I feel make for a great day/evening. That idea went out the window however, when I opened my mailbox. The following is an email I received.


Dear Wanda,

Yesterday — had his life not been violently cut short by George Zimmerman — Trayvon Martin would have celebrated his 19th birthday. Instead, the day was marked by a grotesque new low in the killer's continuing efforts to capitalize on his infamy: the announcement that Zimmerman will face rapper DMX in a pay-per-view, “celebrity” boxing match to be broadcast online.
Fight promoter and professional con man Damon Feldman is enabling Zimmerman to further

Trayvon would have been 19 on Feb. 6,  if not murdered by George Zimmerman. (captioned by blog owner)

victimize a dead young Black man for personal gain, cynically declaring that this exploitative commercial spectacle will substitute as “justice” for Trayvon. Real justice was denied by Florida’s gun-lobby-written “Shoot First” law and broken court system — and we do not honor Trayvon’s memory with more violence.
We certainly don’t honor his memory by feeding into the stereotype of Black men as violent and belligerent that empowered George Zimmerman to take Trayvon's life without consequence.
The fight's details are set to be announced at a press conference Wednesday, but DMX hasn't finalized his contract and corporate sponsors have yet to sign on. Please join us in urging DMX to do the right thing and pull out of this shameful stunt now.
Feldman, who lost his promoter’s license — and was banned from promoting fights in his native Pennsylvania after admitting to court investigators that 95 percent of his matches were rigged — stands to profit handsomely from a fake fight designed to make money off anti-Black sentiment as much as from those of us outraged by Zimmerman's murder acquittal.
And Zimmerman’s bizarre eagerness to fight a Black man, the more high-profile the better — in a fit of dissociation, Zimmerman announced on Monday he’d like to fight Kanye West because he "attack[s] defenseless people” — makes a mockery of his criminal defense claim that he feared for his life in a struggle with an unarmed 17-year-old boy. Indulging Zimmerman in his monstrous fantasy recreation of that night — at 5’11", DMX is ironically Trayvon’s exact height, of which Zimmerman’s defense team made significant issue at trial — serves no actual purpose beyond driving money and attention to a violent sociopath and his bottom-feeder promoter.
Rather than giving Zimmerman and his legions of racist supporters what they want, let’s honor Trayvon’s memory — and prevent future tragedies like his — by demanding a justice system that values and protects Black lives. Let’s rid this nation of anti-Black policies like Shoot First and Stop-and-Frisk, and demand better of a media industry that demonizes Black men and boys, perpetuating the dangerous perception by people like George Zimmerman that violence against us is acceptable and necessary.
Please take a moment to let DMX — and anyone else who might consider stepping in to fill his shoes — know that we're looking to him to do the right thing for all the other Trayvons in our lives that we can't bear to lose. 
Urge DMX to cancel the fight now.
Thanks and Peace,
--Rashad, Arisha, Matt, Kim, Aimée, Dallas and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
  February 7th, 2014

While I am utterly appalled at the way George Zimmerman has been thumbing his nose at people (at least that's the way I feel, that he's been laughing behind his hand at us ever since he was acquitted of  committing murder!) I am even more appalled that DMX would consider consenting to go along with this spectacle!!! (As of this writing he had not yet signed anything agreeing to the event.) If there was a chance in hell of somehow, through this farce, proving Zimmerman guilty and sending him to jail I'd be all for it, but the only thing that is going to come out of this is a lot of pain for  Trayvon's family and friends, and a lot more hatred flowing between Team Zimmerman and Team Trayvon. Oh, and let's not forget the money the sleazy promoter will make. Even though most people will probably realize that it's just a show (not an actual fight.) they will pay to see it anyway, so they can tweet from ringside about how exciting it was to be there. What an example this will set for the young people that some of us are trying so desperately to save....

Please, go to ColorofChange.org and learn what you can do to help keep this travesty from taking place.

Why Are We Always So Quick To Believe the "Children"?

The title of the video read:

Woman Forced Daughter Out In The Cold So She Could Smoke Crack

You can watch it here.

My interest was piqued by this for several reasons, not the least of them being that as a recovered 'rock star' (slang for crack addict), woman, and mother I could not see how anyone could be that addicted to crack that they would force their child outdoors in the frigid temperatures we just had! And I'm not saying that they wouldn't do it because of these great  motherly instincts; although the majority keep them, a lot of women out there lost any type of motherly instincts they had the first time they hit the pipe! No, they wouldn't do it because they would know that they could get arrested, and who would want to have their high ended with that booming knock on the door, and the accusation of child abuse? (For those saying "maybe she just wanted the rock that bad" I say bullshit! If she wanted the rock that bad, not her daughter, her mother, or St. Peter from the Pearly Gates would have mattered, she would have smoked right in front of them if she had to! That's too much time away from smoking, having to make someone go outside! lol) So anyway, I digress...

I can say honestly not only did none of my children ever see me actually using (but yes, perhaps they saw me after I'd used) I would have never dreamed of making them go outside! I might have gone in the bathroom and 'taken a long hot bubble bath' (ha ha ha) but no way would they have left, and I would have left and found somewhere else before I would have had one of my children do it! This is what made it so hard for me to take that headline seriously; I thought it would be something like in The Enquirer, where the headlines are based in truth, but it's been twisted around so much you don't even recognize it anymore. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. This woman is accused of sending her 16 year old child to her aunt's house a mile away, in the temperatures we had from that polar snap last week.  The daughter claims that her mother FORCED her to leave so that she could smoke crack. 

Okay, now I have to get a little bit racist here for a moment; please don't jump up and down people, it's just for the sake of the story. If we were talking about little blonde and blue-eyed, 110 lb Pollyanna from Mayberry, I could possibly believe it, but then we didn't have crack in Mayberry, did we? No, we're talking about a 16 year old, (probably) about 140 lbs, taller than her mother,  and if she had enough gumption to go to the police and cry "Crack!" then she also had enough to tell her mother "It is 16" below out there, I ain't going nowhere less you get me a ride!" They don't give all the details, but it does say that the mother's claim is that she told the daughter she could go if she wanted to. Now I'm not defending the mother at all, if crack was involved, then mom is guilty of something, if only not having good damn sense. But in my opinion, the scenario probably went something like this: Mom, (with or without company, with or without crack) in the bedroom, door shut. Daughter in her room or in the living room, bored to death, wants to go out somewhere. She asks Mom, who naturally says "Girl, get the hell away from my door asking them stupid questions! You know they said shouldn't nobody be outdoors!" and goes back to whatever she was doing. Daughter getting upset, she tired of sitting in the house, wants to go to So-and-so's, but nobody has a ride and Mom won't take her cause she busy in the bedroom. After a couple more tries, which get more and more heated cause Mom getting fed up, she hollers at daughter "Look you not gonna keep bothering me with this dumb stuff! You go wherever you want, I don't care. Bet you won't make it far as your aunt's house before you be running back in here crying cause it's too cold!" Well, daughter upset now, cause she wanted Mom to take her, not to call her bluff! So, she decides she can do it, she'll call her mother's bluff! She bundles up, goes outside, and immediately regrets it, but she can't go back in cause then her mother will have been right to tell her to stay in the house. What does she do? Decides she can't tell anyone it was her idea to come outside cause they'd say she was stupid, so she'll tell them it was her mother's fault! Yeah, great idea, and they'll believe her because she's a child, and they always believe the children in these cases!

So bam. We've got a mother under $1000 bond, in jail, and a daughter who might lose some skin and maybe meat from her hands for staying out there that long.  I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS THE STORY, please don't think that, it's merely one hypothesis that COULD have happened. My point is, the child knows that we always believe the child and uses that to her advantage!  IF it happened that way she's not the first, and I'm sure won't be the last! How many cases have we heard about with children coming forward and saying they were beaten, or raped, or locked in a closet, when nothing actually happened, all because they were mad at one or both of their parents and wanted to get back at them? It used to be "I'll run away, that will fix them", now it's "I'll call the police, that will fix them" and it's that way because we always believe the child! Now, in the case of a younger child, sure I can see it; most of them are not grown enough to lie about things like that. A 16 year old though? Come on! And we are the ones who gave them the power to do it! There are kids who are being abused, but there are also kids who, for lack of attention, or to get even with someone will lie about being abused, and we need to work on finding a way to tell the difference between the two. In my opinion, we can't listen to the so-called 'child experts' that are out here now, they're the ones who told us that spanking our children is wrong and it makes them dysfunctional, and kids should be able to call the police and send us to jail for disciplining them. To those 'experts' I say Hooey! Try getting on a public transit system, bus or train, in any major city, and see how many of these children have manners, don't swear at you, and will offer their seat in senior seating to an elderly or disabled person. If you're lucky, you might see one, and that's usually the one that is alone because the other kids make fun of them. Now if that's not enough to make a child dysfunctional I don't know what is!

I know I've really rambled here, this is one of those subjects that just drives me nutz. We accept whatever these kids say and punish the parents who really, may have done nothing wrong except in the child's mind when they were denied something that they wanted. (Again I state, I am not talking about this case specifically, I DO NOT KNOW what happened here!) The only thing I'm saying about this case is that me personally, I would not immediately jump to take the girl's word for what happened, there would  be a lot of investigation into the entire case and the history of their relationship before I  decided on what to do. If the mother did do what the daughter said, then throw the book at her, but if they find she didn't, I'd say daughter needs some intense, inpatient mental treatment, rid her of whatever it is that would make her do something like that to her parent.

Kristi Cornwell's remains discovered by brother; investigtors identify 'strong suspect' in slaying

A little different from my usual, but something I felt moved to comment on... Comment being, how did her body remain undiscovered for over a year and although such a "relentless search" was done for her, when she was only "roughly nine miles away from where police believe she was abducted"???


Breaking News

Brother found Kristi Cornwell's remains

Metro Atlanta / State News 3:41 p.m. Monday, January 3, 2011

By Christian Boone and Marcus K. Garner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kristi Cornwell's brother discovered her remains Saturday while searching for the sibling who disappeared nearly 16 months ago.

"I'm thankful she can now have the proper burial that she deserves," Richard Cornwell said Monday at a press conference in which GBI officials confirmed that the partially buried, burned remains were those of the former probation officer, last seen Aug. 11, 2009 walking near her parents' Blairsville home.

Investigators also said they think they know who killed Cornwell: James Scott Carringer, who first emerged as a suspect last spring after fatally shooting himself following a three-hour standoff with Atlanta police.

GBI director Vernon Keenan said Carringer was now a "strong suspect" after cell phone records revealed that he was "within a two-mile radius" the night Cornwell disappeared.

Carringer was wanted in the April 6 kidnapping and rape of a 19-year-old relative in Ellijay. While assisting in that investigation GBI agents "uncovered information that led them to pursue the possibility of Carringer’s involvement ... in Kristi’s disappearance," GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

Carringer also emerged as a person of interest in the botched abduction of a Ranger, N.C., woman by someone seen driving away in a silver Nissan Xterra. Investigators believe that incident and Cornwell’s slaying could be related, Bankhead said.

Perhaps the most damning evidence implicating Carringer, arrested in 2000 in North Carolina for assault to inflict serious injury, was his removal of a brush guard that had been on front of his Xterra soon after Cornwell went missing.

Agents impounded two Xterras from Carringer's Young Harris home, not far from where Cornwell disappeared. The former appraiser and home builder was also suspected in the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl from a church parking lot in Montgomery, Ala., on April 4.

Cornwell was talking to her boyfriend on the phone the night she disappeared. She said that a car was following her and the boyfriend, Douglas Davis, of Carrollton, said he then heard her scuffling with her abductor. Cornwell, 38, pleaded, "Don't take me," Davis told investigators.

The former prison guard's shoes and eyeglasses were found nearby and her cell phone was located a few miles away. Evidence was otherwise scarce.

Cornwell's family maintained a relentless search, renting airplanes to scout for her and sending some 80,000 fliers with information about the case to communities in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

That search was down to a single family member by Saturday. Kristi Cornwell's remains were found roughly nine miles away from where police believe she was abducted.

Jury reaches verdict in Colo. transgender slaying

Apr 22, 2009

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — Jurors have reached a verdict in the trial of a Colorado man charged with beating a transgender woman to death with a fire extinguisher.

The verdict was expected to be read Wednesday afternoon in Greeley. Jurors deliberated for only about two hours.

Thirty-two-year-old Allen Andrade is charged with murder and a bias-motivated crime in the death of 18-year-old Angie Zapata.

Prosecutors say Andrade knew for 36 hours that Zapata was biologically male and killed her out of his dislike for homosexuals. Andrade's attorneys argue Zapata deceived him, and that he snapped when he discovered Zapata was biologically male.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — The case of a Colorado man charged with beating a transgender woman to death with a fire extinguisher has gone to the jury.

Prosecutors and the defense made their closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of Allen Andrade, who is charged with murder and a bias-motivated crime in the death of 18-year-old Angie Zapata.

Attorneys for the 32-year-old Greeley man say Zapata deceived him, and that Andrade snapped when he discovered that Zapata was biologically male. But prosecutors say Andrade had known for 36 hours that Zapata was biologically male before he killed her out of a dislike for homosexuals.

The trial is believed to be the first under Colorado's bias-motivated crime law involving a transgender person.

NC rep calls gay student slaying case a 'hoax'

By ESTES THOMPSON

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina congresswoman said Thursday she chose her words poorly when she called claims that a Wyoming college student was murdered because he was gay a "hoax." Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said during debate in the House that Matthew Shepard's 1998 death wasn't a hate crime and shouldn't be invoked by supporters of a bill to expand the definition of such crimes to include violence motivated by sexual orientation.

"We know that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay," Foxx said during debate. "The bill was named for him, the hate-crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

Shepard died several days after he was found tied to a remote fence in Wyoming, severely beaten and robbed of $20. Prosecutors said he was lured from a bar by two men, including one whose defense attorney said reacted violently after Shepard made a sexual advance.

The House approved the bill Wednesday despite Foxx's comments. On Thursday, after Foxx drew heated reaction from several gay rights groups and others upset by her comments, she said her words didn't convey what she meant to say.

"The term 'hoax' was a poor choice of words used in the discussion of the hate crimes bill," Foxx said in a statement. "Mr. Shepard's death was nothing less than a tragedy, and those responsible for his death certainly deserved the punishment they received."

Still, it wasn't enough to quell the firestorm.

"I haven't ever heard anyone say before that Matthew Shepard's death wasn't a hate crime," said Becky Dansky, federal legislative director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

She said her organization was surprised by the comments and noted the House version of the bill doesn't even reference Shepard's case. The Senate bill carries Shepard's name.

Foxx spokesman Aaron Groen said the congresswoman relied on articles that she later realized were faulty and especially regrets upsetting the Shepard family. He said she declined further comment.

"Calls to her office have been mostly from outside North Carolina," Groen said. "We've gotten our share of death threats and the like but that's to be expected on such an emotional issue."

The University of Wyoming student's slaying became a rallying point for the gay rights movement.

The two men who killed him are serving life in prison. Prosecutors' cases included evidence with elements of robbery, drugs and hatred against gays. The court found the men guilty of murder, but did not determine their motivation.

Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said Foxx's comments might help encourage discussions favorable to equality.

"She should know better," Giuliano said Thursday. "Her research is a little shoddy. The good thing is it has exposed yet another very anti-equality, anti-gay elected official at a time when public opinion is moving more and more toward equality."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Federal court rejects Troy Davis’ appeal

Killer gets 30-day stay of execution to pursue appeals
By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, April 16, 2009

I'm sure anyone reading my blog remembers this story, I've been following Troy Davis for quite a while. It truly amazes me how they can still be rejecting his appeals...

The federal appeals court in Atlanta on Thursday rejected death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis’ bid for a new trial on claims he did not kill a Savannah police officer in 1989.

In a 2-1 opinion, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Davis could not establish by clear and convincing evidence a jury would not have found him guilty.

Davis’ innocence claims have attracted international attention. They rely largely on the recantations of key prosecution witnesses who testified at trial and on statements by others who say another man told them he was the actual killer.

In October, the 11th Circuit granted Davis a stay three days before he was to be put to death by lethal injection. It marked the third time Davis’ life was spared before his scheduled execution.

On Thursday, the two-judge majority noted that state courts and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had exhaustively reviewed Davis’ claims and rejected them.

Judges Joel Dubina and Stanley Marcus said they agreed with those conclusions. “Davis has not presented us with a showing of innocence so compelling that we would be obligated to act today,” they wrote.

The judges said they view the recantations with skepticism and, after reviewing Davis’ claims, “remain unpersuaded.”

Judge Rosemary Barkett dissented. “To execute Davis, in the face of a significant amount of proferred evidence that may establish his actual innocence, is unconscionable and unconstitutional,” she wrote.

The 11th Circuit kept in place its stay of execution for another 30 days so Davis can pursue his final appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court in October declined to consider a previous appeal.

Davis, 40, stands convicted of killing off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The 27-year-old former Army Ranger was shot three times before he could draw his weapon.

Russ Willard, spokesman for state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said the 11th Circuit made the “correct decision.”

Tom Dunn, one of Davis’ lawyers, said he was disappointed, but would fight on. “Troy is innocent and this struggle is far from over.”

Time to Clean Up The Catholic House in Brazil

I read this on Topix today, and I'm still shaking my head at the stupidity of some factions of so-called "Christianity"...

Brazil is the world’s most populous Catholic country and The Roman Catholic Church welds a lot of power in here…

But in Brazil it is starting to look to many that the Roman Catholic Church in this country really needs to start getting the log out of it own eye before it gets the mote out of everyone else’s… And they need to do some cleaning of their house … before Brazilians come burn that house down for them…

This month the Archbishop of Recife, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, excommunicated a mother who gave her permission to doctors to perform an abortion on her daughter after the nine-year-old girl got pregnant as the result of being raped by her stepfather.

Doctors believed that the nine-year-old was too small to have twins and that going ahead with the birth would have put her life in danger.

The local Catholic hierarchy tried to stop the procedure anyway (which is allowed in Brazil only in cases of rape or to save the life of the mother), but when it failed to do so, the local archbishop decided to excommunicate the girl’s mother and the doctors.

However, the archbishop didn’t excommunicate the stepfather who is in jail now.

Archbishop Sobrinho defended his action and when asked why he did not excommunicate the 23-year-old stepfather, Sobrinho said: “He committed an extremely serious crime. But that crime, according to canon law, is not punished with automatic excommunication.

And the Catholic Church tells me as a lesbian I am immoral?
Helloooo… did these palhaços miss the part that said a nine year old child was RAPED and would DIE?

Read full story from lezgetreal.com

For more on this story, read Abortion Saves Raped 9-Year-Old Girl's Life: Vatican Excommunicates, Furor Among Brazil's Catholics

Police: 'Jena Six' teen shoots self, is treated

AP – In this Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 picture, Mychal Bell, one of the Jena Six, appears at a news conference …

I wonder what happened to this young man between the time of the whole Jena Six event and now; he was involved in one of the most highly publicized cases of the year, and he went from that to a foster home. Where are his parents? Why was he in a foster home, and what happened to him there that would have him out shoplifting? Shooting himself in the chest with a .22 caliber pistol sounds more like a cry for help to me than a serious suicide attempt, since everyone and his momma knows now that the most sure way of shooting yourself is to put the pistol in your mouth, especially with one so small.

MONROE, La. – A teen convicted in the "Jena Six" beating case shot himself in the chest and was taken to the hospital Monday, days after his arrest on a shoplifting charge, police said.

Mychal Bell's wound isn't life threatening, said Monroe Police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten. The 18-year-old used a .22-caliber firearm in the shooting around 7:40 p.m., she said.

Wooten believes Bell was upset over media coverage of the arrest last week.

"I think he was upset over the incident ... and didn't want to be in the news again," she said.

Bell was one of a group of black teenagers who once faced attempted murder charges in the 2006 beating of a white classmate at Jena High School. The charges for all of the defendants were reduced.

The severity of the original charges brought widespread criticism and eventually led to more than 20,000 people converging in September 2007 on the tiny central Louisiana town of Jena for the largest civil rights march in decades.

Bell was in the news again after he was arrested on Dec. 24 and booked on charges of shoplifting, resisting arrest and simple assault, police said.

Police said Bell tried to steal several shirts and a pair of jeans from a department store and fled when a security guard and off-duty police officer tried to detain him. After they found him hiding under a car, Bell "swung his arms wildly" and one of his elbows struck the security guard with a glancing blow, according to a police report. He was freed on $1,300 bond.

Wooten said Bell was taken to a hospital in Monroe, where a nursing supervisor wouldn't release his condition. Wooten didn't have further details on the shooting.

One of Bell's attorneys in the assault case didn't immediately return a call Monday seeking comment on the shoplifting case.

In the Jena case, Bell eventually pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery.

Bell, the only one of the six who has been tried, has been living in a foster home in Monroe and attending school.

Third suspect arrested in Tuba Man's beating death

"Tuba Man" Ed McMichael

While everyone is ooh'ing and aah'ing over President-elect Obama's little girls getting a puppy, and tut-tutting about Sarah Palin spending too much money on clothes, it seems like a lot of people have forgotten that we still live in a world that's going to hell in a hand basket, and it's our youth that are carrying it there...

SEATTLE -- A third suspect has been arrested in the beating death of a local icon.

Seattle police say they arrested at 15-year-old boy on Wednesday for investigation of the murder of 53-year-old Ed McMichael, aka "The Tuba Man". The boy was booked into the Youth Services Center for Investigation of Homicide.

McMichael was walking home near a bus stop on Seattle's Mercer Street on Oct. 25 when five teens attacked him. Police said the five kicked and beat him and tried to rob him.

A police officer drove up to the scene and saw McMichael in the fetal position trying to protect himself. The officer was able to capture two of the alleged attackers, but three others got away.

McMichael was treated at Harborview Medical Center and sent home. He was recovering at the Vermont Inn where he lived when he died Monday.

The Tuba Man's throaty notes were unmistakable presence in the city.

Since the early 1990s, McMichael had been a fixture outside Seattle sporting events and Seattle Opera performances, wearing funny hats and playing songs on his tuba he called "his baby."

His brother, Kelsey McMichael, never expected the beloved to musician to become a city icon.

"But for some reason the city picked on Ed as their symbol," he said.

After the Tuba Man was beaten, Kelsey, who lives in Florida, came to Seattle to help him recover. Kelsey said Ed was simply not the same after the attack.

"He was definitely traumatized. The first thing he said to me when I knocked on his door was, 'I can't leave this room,'" he said.

Kelsey can't understand how five teens could be so cruel to such a kind man.

"I asked the medical examiner what was the cause of death. And he simply said it was trauma as a result of the attack," he said.

As police look for the two remaining suspects in the attack, Seattle is looking for something to heal its heart.

"He was just the kind of person you'd warm up to real easily -- just a big heart," said friend Ronny Chesvick. "We're just crushed."

Police Torturer Arrested On Federal Charges

Nicole Colson reports on the long-awaited arrest of the man who oversaw torture in Chicago police stations.

October 22, 2008

Former Chicago Police Commander Jon BurgeFormer Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge

THERE MAY finally be some long-overdue justice for the victims of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, after he was arrested October 21 at his Florida home on federal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice related to his role in the systematic abuse of prisoners.

The name "Burge" is synonymous with torture in the city of Chicago. As an officer in the Chicago Police Department, Burge oversaw the beatings and torture of dozens of suspects, all of them Black men, at Area 2 and 3 police headquarters during the 1970s and '80s. Most were railroaded into prison, and even onto death row, as a result of confessions extracted from them through abuse, suffocations and electroshock.

A $7 million special prosecutor's inquiry released in 2006 found credible evidence of torture in more than 70 cases, though activists say the real number is much higher--certainly in the hundreds.

"While not all the officers named by all the claimants were guilty of prisoner abuse, it is our judgment that the commander of the Violent Crimes section of Detective Areas 2 and 3, Jon Burge, was guilty of such abuse," read the report's conclusion. "It necessarily follows that a number of those serving under his command recognized that, if their commander could abuse persons with impunity, so could they."

Dozens of Burge's victims remain in prison today. Despite repeated calls by activists, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has not pressed for new trials.

In 2002, Madigan took over prosecution of many of the torture cases when a Cook County judge declared that State's Attorney Dick Devine had a conflict of interest because he had represented Burge in a civil suit related to torture allegations. When she ran for office that year, Madigan claimed she "would never stand in the way of justice." But in more than five years on the job, she hasn't initiated even one evidentiary hearing.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BURGE WAS fired in 1993 after the Chicago Police Review Board ruled that he tortured Andrew Wilson into giving a confession. Despite this, Burge had remained free, collecting a city pension of more than $3,500 a month and receiving taxpayer-funded legal representation while living a comfortable retirement in Florida (where he keeps a boat named the "Vigilante").

Prosecutors in Chicago had claimed that Burge and his men were untouchable, because the statute of limitations governing their crimes had run out.

But federal investigators believe there is evidence to make a case against Burge on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. According to prosecutors, Burge lied when he claimed he never witnessed and did not have any knowledge of physical abuse and torture on the part of Chicago police officers during a deposition in lawsuit filed against him on behalf of former death row prisoner Madison Hobley.

Hobley was convicted of setting a January 1987 fire that killed his wife, infant son and five others. In a pattern of abuse that would become familiar as more cases came to light, Hobley was suffocated by Burge with a plastic typewriter cover. Police then falsified his confession. Hobley was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990. He spent more than 12 years on death row before he was exonerated and pardoned, along with three other men, by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan.

"If Al Capone went down for taxes, it's better than him going down for nothing," federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in a press conference announcing the arrest. As he concluded, "For his lies about this torture and abuse, we intend to hold him accountable."

Darrell Cannon, a Burge torture victim, told the Chicago Tribune, "I'm thankful to be an American today because...the man that has been skating for so long, riding in his boat, catching fish and everything else--well, now he's in jail, killing roaches. And that's exactly where he belongs."

After his arrest, Burge appeared before a federal magistrate, who set bond at $250,000 and released him. Burge is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Chicago October 27.

Federal prosecutors are hinting that other charges may be forthcoming, with Fitzgerald warning that other police involved in torture should not pin their hopes on police refusing to talk about their colleagues. "If their lifeline is to hang onto a perceived wall of silence, they may be hanging on air," Fitzgerald told reporters.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOR NOW, the charges are against Burge, but many others are implicated in this scandal and should be brought to justice. That includes Burge's fellow officers who participated in the torture and other law enforcement officials who knew what was taking place--among them, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was Cook County State's Attorney when Andrew Wilson was tortured in 1982.

At the time, then-police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek sent a letter to Daley, with a letter from the director of Cermak Prison Health Services, detailing Wilson's injuries and Wilson's claims that he was electro-shocked. Brzeczek requested "direction as to how the Department should proceed in the investigation of these allegations."

According to special prosecutors who oversaw the investigation, the letter "was probably discussed" with both Daley and his then-First Assistant (and the current State's Attorney) Richard Devine--but Daley "has no current memory of how the letter was processed."

Now, with Burge's arrest, Daley is once again claiming he had no knowledge or responsibility for the systematic abuse that took place in Chicago police stations. "I was very proud of my role as prosecutor," he told the Tribune when Burge was arrested. "I was not the mayor, I was not the police chief. I did not promote this man in the 80s, so let's put everything into perspective."

While the arrest of Jon Burge is welcome, federal prosecutors are not condemning the system, but attempting to preserve it--by pointing to Burge and his men as "bad apples.

"According to these charges, Jon Burge shamed his uniform and his badge," Fitzgerald said. "The last time he wore that uniform and that badge was more than 15 years ago. It is important that the public respect that, when we bring these charges, they should not judge the people who walk the streets in a uniform and badge today to try and serve and protect."

But Chicago police have been involved in a number of recent incidents that should give pause to anyone who thinks abuse is a thing of the past. In a two-week span in June, for example, Chicago police were involved in eight shootings--five of them fatal--including Devon Young, a 26-year-old Black man who was shot by police in the back of the head.

A Justice Department report released in July detailed ongoing human rights abuses against prisoners at Chicago's Cook County jail. The report detailed inadequate health care leading to prisoner deaths and a culture of abuse among prison guards.

Such incidents aren't "exceptions to the rule," but part of a culture in which police consider themselves to be above the law. The arrest of Jon Burge is a welcome development--but only the tip of the iceberg in terms of getting real justice for all of the victims of the Chicago police.

Finality Over Fairness - Death Warrant Issued for Troy Davis

From Amnesty International....




UPDATE - Death Warrant Issued!
Execution date has been set for October 27.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, September 12. They did so despite overwhelming doubts of Davis' guilt - and after stating last year that they would "not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused." On September 23, The U.S. Supreme Court stayed Troy Davis' execution "pending the disposition of [his] petition for a writ of certiorari." On October 14, the Court decided not to accept his petition.

* Listen to Troy tell his story
* Visit Troy Davis' website
* Send a solidarity message to Troy on his E-Book through AI-France

STAND FIRM FOR JUSTICE!

Global Day of Action for Troy Davis
October 23, 2008
Rally in Atlanta! Download the flyer.
Organize a solidarity event in your hometown! Go here for more information.
Download a photo of Troy Davis to hold at your rally.
Download a fact sheet to provide passersby with more information.

The Georgia Board has the power to step in at any point, so we encourage you to continue to collect letters and petitions asking them to issue clemency.

» TAKE ACTION! Write a letter to the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles

* To see what activists are doing in Georgia, please visit GFADP.
* Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. It's quick and easy using the ACLU's website.
* Text "TROY" to 90999 to help spread the word with your cell phone.

School Bus Driver Charged In Anti-Gay Assault

How much farther does it have to go before society realizes it's gone too far? An adult being fired from his job and criminally charged for taunting a 10 year old boy with the word "gay"...I feel like crying, not only when I think of what that poor child must have gone through, but when I think that I live in a world where something like this could happen to a child. No, happen to children, because the boy that got chased isn't the only one who has been scarred by this. The children that were encouraged by the driver (yes, he was a SCHOOL BUS DRIVER!) to chase the boy; can you imagine what this has done to their minds? At 10 years old, most kids have not yet learned that adults make mistakes; that not all adults should be listened to. They are still at the age of "Well, a grown up said it so it must be right." How confusing it must be for them now, knowing that a grown up told them to do this, but now that grown up is going to jail (hopefully) for it.

Society needs to stop equating the word "gay" with something terrible. The dictionary meaning for the word "gay" is:
gay /geɪ/ adjective, -er, -est, noun, adverb –adjective
1. having or showing a merry, lively mood: gay spirits; gay music.
2. bright or showy: gay colors; gay ornaments.
3. given to or abounding in social or other pleasures: a gay social season.
from gay. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 17, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gay

There is no definition in there for "something horrible to be destroyed", at least not the last time I looked. (although there is now one I didn't know about:
5. homosexual.
6. of, indicating, or supporting homosexual interests or issues: a gay organization.
–noun
7. a homosexual person, esp. a male.
Number 7 leads me to question why is it "especially a male", but that opens a whole nother can of worms that I'm not going to go into right now, that's for another post)

The word gay has always represented something happy; how did we end up in a world where an adult male is so threatened by it that he would attack a 10 year old child over it, and use other children to do his dirty work?

Supreme Court allows Troy Davis execution

This is outrageous.
What would it have cost them to listen?
To hear the appeal?
That's all he asked for.

By BILL RANKIN, RHONDA COOK

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Troy Anthony Davis’ execution, declining to enter a contentious debate as to whether the condemned inmate was the real killer of a Savannah police officer in 1989.

The court, without explanation, refused to hear his appeal even though seven of nine key prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony since the 1991 trial. Just three weeks ago, the high court had halted Davis’ execution with less than two hours to spare.

Davis should find out soon when he will be put to death. It is the third time he’s faced the prospect of execution in little more than a year.

The next step is for a Chatham County judge to set a time frame during which Davis’ execution can be scheduled by the Department of Corrections.

Davis’ innocence claims attracted international attention, with Pope Benedict XVI and former President Jimmy Carter among those challenging the fairness of his execution.

Davis was condemned to die for the Aug. 19, 1989, killing of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The 27-year-old father of two, working off duty, was shot dead after he responded to the cries of a homeless man being pistol whipped in a Burger King parking lot.

The officer’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, expressed relief at the high court’s decision.

“Especially for my grandson and my granddaughter,” she said, referring to the slain officer’s two children, now adults. “We can now settle down.”

MacPhail, 75, does not expect “closure” if Davis is executed.

“There is no such thing,” she said. “We will always be thinking about Mark. At least we won’t have to go to court. We will have some peace.”

She does not plan to attend the execution, although two of her four remaining children want to witness it.

“It doesn’t give me any satisfaction to watch that,” she said. “I still have anger in me and I’m afraid I would say something.”

Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, was furious .

“I’m truly disgusted by these people,” Correia said. “I don’t even know what to say. I wonder why I’m still a U.S. citizen sometimes.”

Correia told her brother of the high court’s decision.

“He said, ‘It doesn’t make any sense. What do I have to do?’ to convince a court that he is innocent,” Correia said.

“I haven’t given up hope,” Correia said. “We’re going to fight until we can’t fight any more.”

Davis’ mother, Virginia Davis, 63, said police charged the wrong man.

“The real killer is walking around Savannah, bragging about what he’s done,” she said. “If they kill Troy, they have God to answer to. They don’t have the Davis family to answer to.”

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International, which has supported Davis’ appeals, condemned the high decision.

“It is disgraceful that the highest court in the land could sink so low when doubts surrounding Davis’ guilt are so high,” Cox said. “Faulty eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions and the hallmark of Davis’ case.”

Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta said the case was riddled with errors.

“The trial of this case has all the integrity of a professional wrestling match,” he said. “It was deeply flawed, yet there’s no way to correct it.”

Since Davis’ trial, seven key witnesses recanted their testimony. Others also have come forward implicating another man who was with Davis at the scene.

Eyewitness testimony formed the backbone of the prosecution’s case. The murder weapon was never found and there was no DNA evidence or a confession.

But Chatham County prosecutors have long expressed confidence that Davis is a cop killer.

On Tuesday, District Attorney Spencer Lawton accused Davis’ supporters of manipulating the legal process, using the news media and waging a public relations campaign to undermine confidence in the court system, all at the expense of MacPhail’s family.

“While an 80 percent recantation rate…may seem to some as overwhelmingly persuasive, to others of us it invites a suggestion of manipulation, making it very difficult to believe,” Lawton said in a lengthy statement.

He noted that each of the recanting witnesses was vigorously cross-examined at trial as to whether they were pressured by police to point the finger at Davis. “All denied it,” Lawton said.

The justice system, Lawton added, has been “painstakingly indulgent” of Davis’ claims, not dismissive as his advocates contend.

In the meantime, MacPhail’s family has endured “a seemingly endless succession of new technical and substantive legal threats to their faith and hope,” he said. “It should be obvious that the PR campaign intensifies the agony of the victim’s family.”

Davis’ lawyers had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of the innocent and requires at least a court hearing to assess the recantation testimony.

The Rev. Al Sharpton announced the court’s decision at a get-out-the-vote rally Tuesday at Morris Brown College. The crowd let out a collective groan.

Sharpton contended Davis’ case is another example of the of the unfair treatment that African-Americans experience. “You don’t have to go back in the day,” he said. “We’re still in the day.”

Davis had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Sept. 23. But, with less than two hours to spare, the high court halted the execution to give the justices time to consider whether to hear his appeal.

In July 2007, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles had halted Davis’ execution less than 24 hours before it was to be carried out. Last month, after meeting again, the parole board denied Davis’ request for clemency.

Staff writer Mary Lou Pickle contributed to this article.

TIMELINE

* Aug. 30, 1991: Troy Davis is sentenced to death by a Chatham County jury for the 1989 murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
* July 16, 2007: After a 10-hour hearing, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles stays Davis' execution, set for the next day.
* March 17, 2008: By a 4-3 vote, the Georgia Supreme Court upholds Davis' death sentence, rejecting his request for a hearing that recantation testimony be presented in court.
* Sept. 3, 2008: Davis' execution is set for Sept. 23 at 7 p.m.
* Sept. 12, 2008: The state parole board, after hearing more testimony, declines to grant clemency to Davis.
* Sept. 22, 2008: The Georgia Supreme Court rejects Davis' bid for a stay of execution.
* Sept. 23, 2008: The U.S. Supreme Court issues a stay of execution for Davis less than two hours before he was to die by lethal injection. Davis is asking the court to order a judge to grant him a hearing.
* Oct. 14, 2008: The U.S. Supreme Court says in an order that it will not consider Davis's appeal.

Who Came Up With This Bright Idea??

Who came up with the idea for D.C. Police to check drivers in Trinidad? To have checkpoints on our city streets like we're in Iraq looking for terrorists? To question people about where they're going, and to judge whether or not they have a valid reason to be in the neighborhood? What is a valid reason? And how are the police going to determine who's telling the truth and who's not?

I think some of these government big-wigs have lost it; maybe it's the heat wave that did it, fried whatever passes for brains in their tiny heads...."Military-style checkpoint"?? "Baghdad-style"?? " Seal off D.C. neighborhoods"??

Admittedly, there is crime in Trinidad; more crime than in some neighborhoods, and less than in others. I see other neighborhoods getting foot and bicycle patrols, getting a police presence in the area to discourage those who would commit the crimes from getting a foot hold int he neighborhood. What does Trinidad get? Someone stopping you in your car when you're on the way home, asking for your id and wanting to know your private business, not because you've done anything, but to make sure you have the 'right' to be there.

I can't get over the idea of someone else deciding whether or not I have the right to be in a certain neighborhood, or driving down a certain street. That means that if I say I'm going to visit someone but the officer doesn't think I'm telling the truth, they can stop me from going through; perhaps even make me get out and be searched! I think that's ridiculous.

What kind of picture does this give to the children growing up in Trinidad? It's bad enough that they have to live in a highly stigmatized part of town, but now they get to watch their neighborhood be turned into something straight out of World War II, something akin to the Jewish Quarters. What's next, walls around it to keep the outsiders out and the ghetto people in?

In my opinion, this is being done for one reason and one reason only: money. There are quite a few houses that are up for sale in the area, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone had the bright idea that the houses would sell better if people saw evidence of the crime rate in the neighborhood being fought, and what better way to show people than to have them SEE the police stopping people and turning them away? It's like a huge gated community, but one that they don't have to pay for the security for, because it's paid for by the city.

I live in Trinidad, and I just don't see what it is that makes it any worse than some of the other 'drug areas' or 'trouble spots' or 'high-crime districts' in this city. I park my car in front my house every night and have yet to have it tampered with. (and I do NOT drive a hoopty) I've come in late at night; even left with my luggage at 4 in the morning to go on vacation, and no one tried to break into my apartment or my car. Sure, I see guys hanging around on the street, but I see that in downtown DC. There are homeless people in my neighborhood, but I don't see them sleeping in bus shelters like they are down by the Main Post Office and other places. Everything wrong with Trinidad is also wrong with the rest of D.C., so why have they shone the spotlight only on this small section of the city? The police department really needs to turn that spotlight around on the rest of Washington, and show how bad the crime rate really is all over the city, not just in the places where they want to look like they're doing something.

The Case of Sean Bell vs. The Case of Wesley Snipes; What Kind of Criminal Justice System Is This??

This is the man with a criminal record that was so dangerous, he had to be shot at 50 times, killing him and injuring his two best friends, who were celebrating his upcoming wedding. I now see that money means more than human life in America...

Wesley Snipes, up on charges of not paying income tax, is found guilty, and sentenced to 3 years in jail. 3 police officers, up on charges of manslaughter, (which last I heard meant someone was dead, ) and were not only NOT sentenced to any jail time, they were found NOT GUILTY! How can someone who does not deny that he shot someone else and took his life be found not guilty of manslaughter? There was never any doubt that the officers shot the man, why was there a trial at all? A man is dead, a man who was due to get married the next day, who was having a bachelor party, not someone who was out on the corner casing a bank. I am so flabbergasted by this whole thing; when I heard the verdict, I felt like the judge said "Well, the officers said they shot the boys; the witnesses all said they shot the boys; the medical and ballistic evidence of the bullets still in this boy's body says that the officers shot these 3 unarmed young boys, but I'm going to find the officers not guilty." Scuse my language, but WTF?? How do you come up with that? How the hell does our criminal justice system continue to call itself that? A man who doesn't pay his income tax goes to jail for 3 years, but 3 men who take another man's life are found not guilty and walk; whether or not they were justified for shooting at them, or thinking they were in danger, the fact remains that a man is DEAD. His children have no father, their mother has no husband. There is no justification for taking a life, especially when yours is not being threatened, and I'm sorry, there is no way in hell these experienced officers didn't realize that they were the only ones doing the shooting.

There have been too many cases of officers being 'investigated' and cleared. The police department can not investigate itself, because in all but the most blatant cases, they are going to find for their own. This has got to stop.

A man is dead; his life should mean more than taxes, but the events of this week have shown me that in America, it's the money that counts.

New Penalty Hearing: Is it the Death Sentence for Mumia?

http://www.comcast.net/news/articles/national/2008/03/27/Mumia.Abu.Jamal/

I’m so not sure how I feel about this; at one time they were arguing over whether he even did it, now it appears that they’ve agreed he did it, but the argument is over whether or not he should die for it.

As a firm non-believer in the death sentence, I agree that he should not get it, but my reasons definitely are not because of some supposed "flaw in the jury instructions". (Which IMO, is another way of saying "loophole".)

Former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal (why do they always call him that, like ‘Former Black Panther’ is part of his name? But that’s another story, for another day!) has been granted a new penalty hearing because a federal appeals court has said that he cannot be executed; their reason is that the instructions given the jury during the penalty phase of his trial were not clear. Okay, this man was sentenced to the death penalty 25 years ago; he has spent a quarter of a century of his life in prison, fighting the sentence. You mean to tell me it took all this time for someone to realize that? Did the jurors never tell anyone "Well, we were told that we had to unanimously agree on mitigating circumstances, and we couldn’t." Did no one ever ASK if they thought of mitigating circumstances? Come on people! As much as I am against the death penalty, I am also against people finding loopholes and attempting to use them in a last ditch effort to circumvent whatever decision has been made, or penalty they’ve been given. It’s become almost the norm for people appealing convictions and/or sentences to look for loopholes in the law, rather than look for new evidence, or look for something that was actually wrong with the trial, the way they were treated, SOMETHING. Going through a warrant and looking for a wrong date, or checking juror’s backgrounds to see if one of them ever said anything to anyone against the defendant, these are the kinds of things lawyers base their client’s appeals on, rather than looking for evidence that wasn’t brought out at trial, or NEW evidence, or finding out if any of the jurors or the judge had been bribed, or the judge didn’t allow something crucial to the defense that he had no legal right to bar. What’s happened to our justice system, when instead of seeking true justice you’re busy seeking a way around the system?

How do we teach our children to be upright and honest, and tell them that our justice system is so great and how well it works, when you have people like Michael Vicks shortening the time he serves by going into a drug rehabilitation program that he doesn’t need, and taking a slot that someone with a REAL drug problem and a family at home he needs to get back to could use? (http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/michael-vick-serve-his-time-leavenworth,-kan.) Or when you have drunk drivers getting away with driving drunk and admitting that they were driving drunk, just because the police officer didn’t see them behind the wheel of the car? (http://www.newsherald.com/headlines/article.display.php?id=1014) How can you tell your children they shouldn’t use drugs, and marijuana is illegal, when you’ve got people lying and taking advantage of a law which is supposed to benefit legitimately ill people? (http://cannabisnews.com/news/22/thread22569.shtml)

I am not against Mumia getting a new penalty hearing; if there was something that should have been done (or not done) or heard (or not heard) at the first one, then fine, give him another one. But to go through all this again because you think maybe the jury didn’t understand, and now after all these years you can’t think of any other reason? I just can’t see it. I think we’ve invested enough time and money into this and other cases, and unless they’ve got something better, his sentence should stand.

And that’s Live From Bikini Bottom...