Free Republic

Arkansas may retry a man for murder even though jurors in his first trial were unanimous that he was not guilty, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Alex Blueford, who is accused of killing his girlfriend’s 1-year-old son, is not protected by the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause, the court ruled in a 6 to 3 decision. Because the judge dismissed the jury when it was unable to reach agreement on lesser charges, Blueford was not officially cleared of any of the charges, the majority said, and thus may be retried. “The jury in this case did not convict Blueford of any...

Hung parliament: parties have 15 days to cut deal or face election The major political parties have 15 days to try to thrash out a deal to form the next government before the country faces the prospect of a second general election. By By Andrew Porter, Political Editor Published: 11:30PM BST 09 May 2010 Under a new set of guidelines put in place by the civil service Gordon Brown could remain as Prime Minister until 25 May – the day of the Queen's Speech. By then either the prime minister, David Cameron or Nick Clegg has to show that he...

It's not a murder defense you'll hear very often. A Virginia man accused of shooting two people on the Blue Ridge Parkway April 5 told police his mind may have been impaired by male enhancement drugs. According to a search warrant affidavit, 56-year-old Ralph Leon Jackson of Stuarts Draft, Va. told an Augusta County investigator he'd been taking male enhancement substances that might be making his mind "fuzzy" or "foggy." A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent filed the affidavit Thursday, April 29, in federal court in Harrisonburg. Jackson is jailed on state charges of murder and attempted...

ALBANY, GA (WALB) – A doll found hanging off of a building in Plains is causing controversy. Controversial enough to get the United States Secret Service involved. Witnesses say it was an image of President Barack Obama with a rope around his neck and the display was found hanging in one of the city's most recognizable sites dedicated to former President Jimmy Carter...

Palin effigy hung in Halloween displayOct 28, 2008 9:13 AM An effigy of US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin hanging by a noose as part of a Halloween display drew complaints on Monday, but local officials said the homeowner was covered by free speech rights. A mannequin dressed to resemble the Alaska governor, with her trademark beehive hairdo and glasses, was hung by the neck from the eaves of the home in famously liberal West Hollywood. On the roof, a mannequin of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, protruded from the chimney surrounded in flames, holding his head as he was...

BASTROP (TV8) - Since the events in Jena, there have been a number of reported incidents involving nooses across America--in schools, offices, even on a college campus. Tonight, a newspaper is in dutch over just such a graphic in one of its own ads. TV8's Dustin Barnes has the story. Bastrop Councilwoman Betty Olive got calls from her constituents after this ad appeared in friday's issue of The Daily Enterprise Newspaper. Betty Olive says "Certainly at this particular time, that caught the eyes of a lot of readers and they expressed their concerns. The copy for the newspaper's advertising office...

HANOI (Reuters) - A Vietnamese man who once appeared on national television to demonstrate his ability to resist electric shocks has been electrocuted while repairing a generator, an official said on Tuesday. Nguyen Van Hung, aged in his early 40s, was killed in Tay Ninh province near the Cambodian border while repairing the generator without first cutting the power supply, a local official said. "When alive, he used to demonstrate at our office how he would insert two fingers into the electrical plughole without problems," the official said. Hung, nicknamed "Hung Electric," had appeared on television's "Strange Stories of Vietnam."

Serial killer David Maust who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering three teens and burying their bodies in a basement died Friday, a day after he was found hanging from a twisted bed sheet in his jail cell... Jail guards had found Maust, 51, hanging in his cell early Thursday, about 10 minutes after they told him that he was going to be transferred to a state prison later that day... Higgins said Maust used a bed sheet braided into a rope to hang himself. In a note found by the guards, Maust admitted to five killings.

Sat, December 3, 2005 BARRIE -- A sex assault trial that hung on claims of a large penis was turned into a "cheap joke" by media coverage, a superior court judge said yesterday as she found the accused guilty. Justice Margaret Eberhard said she was disturbed after receiving calls "from afar" and was ribbed numerous times over the trial in which a man claimed he could not be guilty of rape because his penis is too big. "Whether I find him guilty or innocent -- he is publicly humiliated," she told court just before finding the man guilty. "Nowhere was...

TORONTO - William Hung butchered "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch of Sunday's matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, much to the delight of 22,225 at SkyDome. The American Idol reject best known for his hyperactive, tone-deaf rendition of Ricky Martin (news)'s "She Bangs," shrugged off a brief smattering of boos and belted out the baseball classic off-key while fans egged him on. Some even joined in. Hung's presence brought a gaggle of media usually indifferent to baseball to the game, including staff from Rolling Stone magazine. A team official said more...

From Drudge... Developing...

Nation: Murder suspect hangs herself in Florida jail The Associated PressBROOKSVILLE, Fla. (March 31, 2002 6:27 p.m. EST) - A woman accused of poisoning her husband with a horse tranquilizer and burying his body in a California vineyard hanged herself in a jail cell Sunday, authorities said. Laren Sims, 36, had been held without bail in the Hernando County jail since her arrest March 18 in Destin. She was found hanging from a braided bed sheet early Sunday in an apparent suicide, sheriff's Capt. Alan Arick said. Several days before her death, Sims wrote a three-page confession detailing how she...