Free Republic

NORMAN, Okla.– After being given sole custody of a six-year-old girl, a convicted sex offender was placed under arrest and the child was taken away. A few weeks ago, an Oklahoma County judge made a decision that shocked many Oklahomans after he awarded sole custody of a child to her father, Nicholas Elizondo, who was also a convicted sex offender. Authorities say the little girl, Sarah, is now in the custody of DHS after Elizondo was arrested this past weekend in California. Elizondo was pulled over for speeding on Sunday but Bakersfield police officers soon found a bullet in his...

In the early 1990's an influential Lutheran thinker, Dr. Martin Marty, affirmed the practice of "convicted civility." He observed, "People who have strong convictions these days aren't very civil, and people who are civil often don't have very strong convictions. What we need is 'convicted civility.'" The future of any republic depends upon the active participation of an informed electorate. It's built on a patriotism laced with free disagreement and vital dialogue about our differences. It's not built on just "getting along" or "bipartisanship." It thrives when "convicted" citizens care enough to attempt to influence politicians and their neighbors on...

The Military Court in Shomron (Samaria) convicted Yazed Hassan Mohammed Awad on Sunday of assisting the murderers of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar on March 11, 2011. According to the charge sheet against him, Awad gave shelter to some of the people involved in the multiple murders and attempted to obstruct justice by briefing the suspects regarding Shin Bet interrogation techniques. In addition, he held two M-16 weapons that were stolen in the course of the murderous attack. The defendant denied the charges but in view of the evidence, the court decided unanimously to convict him. Knesset...

Time is running out for Bill JeffersonPublished: Sunday, April 01, 2012, 6:37 AM By James Gill - The Times-Picayune Legal experts cited by the paper say federal prosecutors may now ask trial judge T.S. Ellis III to lock Dollar Bill up. Those experts are not exactly going out on a limb, considering that prosecutors opposed bail for William Jefferson in the first place. Now that an appeals court panel in Virginia has resoundingly and unanimously upheld Jefferson's conviction on all but one of 11 counts, prosecutors would be remiss if they didn't urge immediate consignment to the pen. The experts...

The Jerusalem District Court convicted Ayad Fatfata, Sunday afternoon, of murder, attempted murder, disorderly conduct, weapons trade and illegal entry to Israel in connection with the December 19, 2010 attack that resulted in the death of American tourist Kristine Luken and the wounding of Kaye Wilson, an immigrant from Britain. The two had been hiking in the Judean Hills around Khirbet Hanut, near Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem. Two other members of the gang – brothers Kafah and Ibrahim Ghanimat, were convicted and sentenced to two life sentences each about two months ago. They were also convicted of murdering Zichron...

BOSTON — A Massachusetts man was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to help al-Qaida and plotting to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Tarek Mehanna, 24, of Sudbury, faced four terror-related charges and three charges of lying to authorities. A federal jury found him guilty of all counts after deliberating for about 10 hours. Prosecutors said Mehanna and two friends conspired to travel to Yemen so they could receive training at a terrorism camp and eventually go on to Iraq to fight and kill U.S. soldiers there. When the men were unable to find such a training camp, Mehanna returned home and...

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Herman Cain said a new accuser would be coming forward to accuse him of having a 13-year affair with him. No links yet as the story is currently breaking and details are still being released. Apparentally a Georgia TV station has the exclusive.

Tenure must go. And so must Professor’s unions. If you don’t agree with me then perhaps you have yet to familiarize yourself with the case of Professor Edward Larkin. This tenured psychopath will keep his job despite exposing himself in public in front of a 17-year old girl and her mother. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) did the right thing when they tried to fire him. But then the Professor’s union got involved. And that led to arbitration. The arbitrator’s decision was based on a single line in the contract with the UNH Professor’s union, which says a professor...

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip hanged a father and son at dawn Tuesday for collaborating with Israel, a government spokesman said. The two were found guilty of helping Israel target a top Hamas leader and identify other militants who were later killed by Israeli forces, said Ihab Ghussein, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Gaza. (Snip) In a statement, the human rights group condemned the hangings, saying the Palestinian judicial process was so flawed that it would have not been possible to conclusively prove the two men were involved in spying.

Just like the imam guilty of aiding the jihadis plotting to blow up the New York City Subway system on the anniversary of September 11th, here we have another pious man of the quran convicted in the Kennedy Airport terror plot, "ONE OF THE MOST CHILLING PLOTS IMAGINABLE." "He had a vision that would make the WTC attack seem small." Every act of jihad, occurring daily throughout the world, has the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric. The problem is Islam. Imam from Trinidad convicted of planning attack on JFK airport New York (CNN) -- Trinidad native Kareem Ibrahim was convicted...

The former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has been convicted of unlawful contact with a minor for exchanging explicit messages in an online chat room with someone he believed to be a 15-year-old girl. Ritter, 49, exchanged messages with a detective posing as an underage girl and masturbated, even after the undercover officer stressed during the chat that he was a minor, Pennsylvania prosecutors said. A jury found Ritter guilty of a total of six counts including indecent exposure and criminal attempt to corrupt a minor.

Three people convicted of crimes as a result of a terrorism-related investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) were later naturalized as U.S. citizens by the Obama administration, according to federal auditors. The March 2011 audit (released on April 21, 2011) by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests and Costs, shows that three individuals were among “defendants where the investigation involved an identified link to international terrorism but they were charged with violating other statutes [not directly related to terrorism], including fraud, immigration, drugs,

We've heard a lot about Geert Wilders, the Dutch parliamentarian whose warnings about Muslim influence in his nation place him in the crosshairs of the powers-that-be. But while the tow-headed modern-day Templar has thus far dodged the hangman on Truth-speech charges, another intrepid defender of Western civilization has not been so lucky. And we haven't heard much about him. He is French journalist Eric Zemmour, and he was just convicted this week of "inciting racism." Writes The New American's R. Cort Kirkwood: Zemmour's "controversial" remarks included his observation that most drug dealers in France were black or Arab, and that...

Now here’s an interesting lesson into the act of civil disobedience. Bomb the Pentagon, lead a domestic terrorist group that was responsible for 30 bombings, destruction of property and deaths, and suggest that you cannot rule out committing additional bombings, you become a folk hero of the radical left, a close confidant of a sitting president, and hold a position as a professor in higher academia. Alternatively, give your country nearly 18 years of unblemished military service as a high ranking military officer until you request proof that the orders you are given are, in fact, made by someone with...

SEATTLE -- A convicted cop shooter is set to be back on the streets in just one week. But his victim says that's repeating the mistakes that led to the murders of four Lakewood police officers. The attack rocked the Tri-Cities, especially since Lain was a parole violator from Iowa. Lain was convicted and sentenced to life after the attack on Fitzpatrick. But now, after 28 years behind bars, the Sentencing Review Board has decided to release Lain. "We feel like 28 years, in this case is, we hope, enough time that he will be able to successfully reintegrate back...

An adjudicatory subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee has ruled in favor of convicting Representative Charlie Rangel on 11 of the 13 counts of House ethics rules violations.  The panel, which heard a summary of the facts and evidence accumulated against Rangel, ruled for summary judgment on the facts as undisputed and later applied the laws and rules of the House to said facts finding that all but two of the charges were of merit.  The full House Ethics Committee will now determine punishment which could include an informal reprimand, censure, or even expulsion. Having already turned down a deal...

A supervisor for the now defunct political advocacy group the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors in a case alleging that canvassers were illegally paid to register Nevada voters during the 2008 presidential campaign. Amy Busefink, 28, pleaded no-contest in a Nevada court to two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters. Her nolo contendere plea acknowledged the state had sufficient evidence for a conviction if the case went to trial. Busefink is expected to get a slap on the wrist, according...

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner was convicted today in a federal court in Boston on charges that he pocketed a $1,000 bribe in his district office in 2007 and later lied about it to federal agents who were interviewing him. A US District Court jury delivered its verdict this afternoon, just a few hours into its first full day of deliberations, finding Turner guilty of attempted extortion and providing false statements to FBI agents.

TOKYO – A Japanese court on Monday convicted two members of the environmental group Greenpeace of stealing whale meat they claim was intended for illegal consumption. The Aomori District Court gave suspended sentences to the activists after finding them guilty of stealing 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of whale meat from a delivery service company's warehouse in April 2008. The meat came from whales killed during Japan's government-backed research hunts.

The ultra-liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made one of its trademark assaults on the Constitution Tuesday, illegally overturning a Washington State law barring convicted felons from voting. I use the word "illegally" because judicial review (the invented power of federal courts to overturn democratically-enacted laws) is listed nowhere in the Constitution as an enumerated power. Furthermore, as the proposal of the 1875 Blaine Amendment demonstrates, the federal government was never intended to have the power to overturn state legislation...