Free Republic

Capital Punishment: A year and a half after its lethal injection debacle, Florida's recent execution of a child killer and rapist went smoothly. But emotionalism continues to impede justice.Mark Dean Schwab was a monster. He looked like a perfectly normal, even handsome young man. But a month after being released from prison in 1991 for raping a 13-year-old boy in 1987, Schwab befriended, then kidnapped, raped and murdered 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez Jr. As Schwab was being executed Tuesday evening, Junny's relatives and their supporters outside the death chamber wore T-shirts emblazoned with a smiling photo of Schwab's young victim. When...

Few if any murders carry the horrifying cachet of the Manson murders in 1969. The deaths of seven people on two nights at the end of a tumultuous decade combined all of the political and cultural baggage of the era — drugs, counterculture, celebrity, cults, and pure evil in the form of the perpetrators, especially Charles Manson himself. Combining mass murder and serial murder, the Manson Family has played on the imaginations of Americans for almost 40 years, while its members routinely apply for parole and get rejected. Now one of them faces death, although much different in nature than...

The House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating whether certain public corruption probes were politically motivated, has subpoenaed the Justice Department for documents related to the prosecutions of Dr. Cyril H. Wecht and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., the committee chairman, sent a letter Friday to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

The fanatical Taliban mastermind behind recent attacks in which six British soldiers died in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile attack by an Army Apache helicopter. In what military chiefs described as a 'deliberate and surgical strike', the 35-year-old rebel leader - known as Sadiqullah - died alongside nine fellow Taliban fighters after the Apache fired two laser-guided Hellfire missiles at their red pick-up truck and destroyed it. The rebel leader had been tracked down after weeks of secret intelligence work. His death would have been instantaneous, as the warheads of the 5ft-long missiles, which travel at 950mph, are...

Schleicher County, home of the Yearning For Zion Ranch, doesn’t feel it should be responsible for the enormous costs of April’s raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound. Kerr County agrees. This week, Kerr County commissioners approved a resolution in support of Schleicher County that asks the state to pick up the tab on the Child Protective Services investigation against the polygamist sect. “We are asking the state to indemnify our county,” said Schleicher County judge Johnny Griffin. “Not one person from my county was involved, other than the sheriff who received the initial...

'Speak when you're spoken to!' The Queen sharply interrupted her. 'But if everybody obeyed that rule,' said Alice, who was always ready for a little argument, 'and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything, so that -- ' --Lewis CarrollBritish Justice. BrokenEver wonder where the American Justice system will wind up? How about the propensity of Judges to disregard legislation, make up law, tell elected officials how to run the nation? Apparently, they inhabit a make-believe world wherein they are kings....

A man jailed in Mexicali on suspicion of running down a Border Patrol agent in January, killing him, has been released without charges, it was reported yesterday. The Attorney General's Office in Baja California confirmed to The Associated Press that Jesús Navarro Montes had been released from a Mexicali jail. No explanation for his release was given. Navarro was arrested Jan. 22 by Mexican authorities. He was accused of driving a Hummer carrying drugs on Jan. 19 near Yuma, Ariz. Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar was placing spike strips on a road to stop the Hummer and a second vehicle...

An attempted bank robbery in Canton played out like a scene from a movie Monday when a man who claimed to have a bomb was stopped by a customer armed with a pistol. According to police, the customer pulled out a .9 mm handgun (for which he had a CCW permit), racked a bullet in the chamber, pointed it at the man and announced, "You are not robbing this bank!"

It seems that whoever becomes the 5th Justice whether it be O'Connor or Kennedy they sell out to the highest bidder and their vote for cash and prizes or are blackmailed by the left if they don't vote the ACLU way and help their career they would expose them about things they don't want in public. Since Kennedy became the 5th vote he has supported International Law supplanting the Constitution, Co2 is a pollutant, terrorist Habeas Corpus rights, and illegal alien rights, etc. You know the left will give him all kinds of awards from the left in the next...

A 44 year old Hong Kong man accidentally fell off a 10th floor balcony while trying to video tape his next door neighbor showering. peeping-ton-fall Peeping Tom Accidentally Falls Off 10th Floor picture The 29 story building was designed so that two units have their bathroom windows right next to each other. This made it easy for the man to climb over and peep on his neighbor. The victim, a 28 year-old sales lady, was taking a shower when she noticed a strange hand holding a cell phone outside the bathroom window. She screamed for help and saw the person...

The woman responsible for the largest wildfire in Colorado history was released from a federal prison in Texas this morning. Terry Lynn Barton, 44, was convicted in 2003 of starting the Hayman fire in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. The June 2002 fire torched 138,000 acres, destroyed 133 homes, 466 outbuildings and forced the evacuation of 8,000 people. Barton has three days to report to the federal Probation Department in Colorado Springs, according to U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid. She then has to find a job and start paying $14 million in federal restitution that already has been...

A Los Fresnos family is asking a state district court to stop a Cameron County justice of the peace from ordering spankings in his courtroom and to remove the judge from office. Mary Vasquez and her husband Daniel Zurita filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of their minor daughter against Cameron County Pct. 6 Justice of the Peace Gustavo "Gus" Garza. Brownsville lawyer Mark Sossi represents the family. The petition alleges that on April 9, Garza told the then-14-year-old girl and her stepfather that the teen would be found guilty of a criminal offense and fined $500 for not attending...

... Nunez, 14, and co-defendant Jose Diego Perez, 29 – both members of the violent 18th Street gang in Los Angeles – were arrested April 25, 2001, after they kidnapped Delfino Moreno, 34, from in front of his Santa Ana home. The kidnappers demanded $100,000 in ransom plus a kilogram of cocaine, Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told an Orange County jury in 2003. But Moreno's family alerted Santa Ana police instead of agreeing to pay. And when the defendants spotted undercover officers, they took off in an Oldsmobile sedan. Witnesses testified that Nunez blasted away at chasing officers with...

The most likely place a crazed suicidal gunman will go to when he wants to kill a large group of people is a shopping mall, a school or a workplace. Not so coincidentally, all of these places are designated "gun-free" zones -- only someone forgot to inform the lunatic gunman association about the rules. We're told by the anti-gun media and the frightened rabbits of the anti-gun movement that if we find ourselves in the middle of a shooting rampage we should hide and wait for the proper authorities to arrive. While hiding, we should cower, quiver and pray that...

MONTREAL - A former chef who goes by the nickname "Big Mike" has had his sentence for drug trafficking reduced because the provincial jail where he's incarcerated isn't dealing with his 430-pound weight. Michel Lapointe has already served 20 months behind bars awaiting sentencing in what his lawyer described in court as hellish conditions. "For the first eight months he didn't have a bed adjusted to his size," defence lawyer Clemente Monterosso said in an interview Thursday. "He never got a chair adjusted to his size. The chair and the tables were too tight and he could not sit down....

More than 31,000 scientists across the United States, including more than 9,000 Ph.D.s in fields including atmospheric science, climatology, Earth science, environment and dozens of other specialties, have signed a petition rejecting "global warming," the assumption that the human production of greenhouse gases is damaging Earth's climate. "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate," the petition states. "Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A military judge wants to hear from the Supreme Court before starting the first war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay prison. The judge hearing the case against Osama bin Laden's former driver ruled Friday that the trial should be postponed six weeks, to July 14. Navy Capt. Keith Allred said he wants to wait until the Supreme Court rules on whether Guantanamo detainees have a right to challenge their detention in U.S. civil courts. Allred says the Supreme Court decision is expected by June 30 and could affect the case. Hamdan is charged with...

Apparently it is more egregious to oversleep in Hemet, California than it is to commit armed robbery. After delivering a pizza Jeremy Queen was robbed at gunpoint then hit on the head with the weapon. The police were called, the report was made and the police drove Mr. Queen around in their squad car to see if they could find who had attacked him. They couldn't and have said they probably never will. Back at work Mr. Queen was chastised for taking so long to make the delivery and told that since the delivery was made, he was no longer...

The study sought to shed light on the neurological underpinnings of moral decision-making, said Ming Hsu, a fellow at the U. of I.'s Beckman Institute and co-principal investigator. (Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer) ScienceDaily (May 10, 2008) — Which is better, giving more food to a few hungry people or letting some food go to waste so that everyone gets a share" A study appearing in Science finds that most people choose the latter, and that the brain responds in unique ways to inefficiency and inequity. The study, by researchers at the University of Illinois and the California Institute...

During the last years of his service to the Church and the world, the Servant of God John Paul II addressed an assembly of the leaders of the “Catholic Action” movement in Italy on the “gospel of work”. His words echo on this day when much of the world commemorates “International Workers day.” He proclaimed a theme that was one of the many profound contributions of his extraordinary pontificate. It is one that is rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, expounded upon at length in the Christian Tradition and is DESPERATELY needed in this age of secular pursuits, the true meaning...

Though it is true that Jesus did not tell the Disciples how to vote, He certainly did instruct them on how to live. Why is it that whenever the issue of voting is raised, red flags are raised with some people?

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations. Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled...

I remember when I would play GTA3 that there was an in-game talk radio station that ended up becoming one of my favorites. The station was called Chatterbox and Lazlow Jones played the role of the host (as himself). Like any other radio talk show (albeit scripted and pre-recorded), there were callers and commentary. One of the "calls" was from a local community activist who wanted to promote a political rally that touted "hope," "change," and "justice." Of course, when Lazlow presses the caller for specifics on what the rally is for, the caller won't answer. Does this sound familiar...

In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looser environmental regulations for Monsanto’s cotton crops, according to a court document. Monsanto was also caught concealing the bribe with fake invoices. A few years earlier, in the age of Enron, these kinds of charges would probably have resulted in a criminal indictment. Instead, Monsanto was allowed to pay $1 million and avoid criminal prosecution by entering...

Foes of lawsuit abuse have been writing gleefully about the fall of Dickie Scruggs, Bill Lerach and Melvyn Weiss. All three lawyers are likely to spend time in jail for plotting to bribe a judge (Scruggs) or paying kickbacks (Lerach and Weiss). Good riddance. Locking them up will stop them from further damaging America – at least for a few years. But it's a small victory for reformers. New members of the parasite circus will just step forward to take their place. And what these aggressive class-action and securities lawyers do legally is more damaging to America than the crimes...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeals of seven Mexican-born prisoners condemned to die in Texas, including two who had committed murders in Houston in the 1990s. The action followed a high court ruling last week in which the justices rebuffed President Bush for directing the state of Texas to abide by a world court ruling and rehear the case of another Mexican on death row.

The real question facing the Court was whether the District of Columbia’s total ban on handguns had gone too far and was therefore “unreasonable” within the meaning of past holdings.

SEASIDE, Calif. (AP) - A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus she was riding on was handed a Saturday detention instead because she was skipping school. Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head. Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured. She said had asked the bus driver for a ride because she felt sick at school. "She is...

WASHINGTON - Two years and 144 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with the rest of the court's unceasing inquiries. Hardly a case goes by, including two appeals that were argued Monday, without eight justices peppering lawyers with questions. Oral arguments offer justices the chance to resolve nagging doubts about a case, probe its weaknesses or make a point to their colleagues. Left, right and center, the justices ask and they ask and they ask. Sometimes they debate each other, leaving the...

Imagine if someone operated a business in a certain country according to the laws of its land and then decided to take their company public in another country with similar rules and regulations. In doing so, they made sure to follow all statutes and laws listed on the books, that precluded nothing about business practices that were the norm in their native land, although somewhat less common in their new one, uncommon but not illegal. Then imagine that a prosecutor with a history of seeking high profile indictments decided to charge the company owners for acting against the interest of...

A convicted Nazi war criminal arrived in Italy yesterday to start a life sentence imposed in his absence for the murder and torture of prisoners in the final year of the Second World War. Michael Seifert, 83, a Ukraine-born Canadian citizen dubbed the "Beast of Bolzano", has lived in Canada since 1951. He had been fighting extradition for eight years. The former SS corporal was a guard at a prison camp in Bolzano, northern Italy - used as a transit point for Jews, Italian resistance fighters and others - in 1944 and 1945. An Italian military tribunal convicted him in...

Saudi Arabia to execute woman for 'witchcraft'  Thursday, February 14, 2008 A leading international human rights organisation is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to halt the planned execution of a woman accused of "witchcraft". The woman is due to be put to death on foot of a coerced confession and the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them. One man claimed she had made him impotent. In another case, a divorced woman reportedly returned to her ex-husband during the month predicted by the witch said to have cast the spell. The court failed to probe alternative explanations...

NORFOLK, Va. - Family members of the 17 sailors killed in the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen want to use a new federal law to reopen their lawsuit seeking more than $100 million in damages from Sudan. A federal judge found last July that Sudan provided training and logistics that allowed al-Qaida terrorists to bomb the Norfolk-based Navy destroyer on Oct. 12, 2000.

Steven Calabresi, Professor of Law at Northwestern University (http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/fulltime/Calabresi/Calabresi.html) and co-founder of the premiere conservative legal organization, The Federalist Society, who previously backed Rudy has now endorsed John McCain. In an e-mail to me he explained: I have endorsed Senator McCain and think he would be an excellent president because he is tough on foreign policy, committed to spending restraint which is the key to small government, and because he has consistently voted for good judicial nominees in tough fights like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. I am not troubled by his role as a member of the gang of...

He crossed borders and killed the man he blamed for the deaths of his wife and children. Many hail him as a national hero. By Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer February 2, 2008 VLADIKAVKAZ, RUSSIA -- People in this town know the man with the stooped, halting walk and the burning eyes. They point out his house, and they talk about "what he did" and about how they admire "what he did" and wonder if they too would have the strength to do "what he did." This is what Vitaly Kaloyev did: After his wife and...

Supreme Court Justice Indicted In Home Arson Justice Charged With Tampering With Evidence HOUSTON -- Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife have been charged in an arson fire that destroyed their home in the Houston suburb of Spring last summer, their attorney said. The justice was indicted Thursday in the three-alarm fire that also damaged a neighbor's house and caused nearly $1 million worth of damage last June, his attorney, Terry Yates, said. Medina, 49, was charged with tampering with evidence and his wife, Francisca Medina, was charged with arson in the June 28 blaze. The Medinas...

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, in explaining his state's abolition of the death penalty, announced that he knew "from my heart and from my soul" that no murderer should be put to death. As it happens, I know from my heart and from my soul that not putting any murderer to death is a cosmic injustice; it cheapens the worth of human life and greatly diminishes the revulsion society feels toward murder. So, what does this mean? Does it mean two intelligent and decent people have very different hearts and souls? (This question assumes that pro-capital punishment readers will acknowledge...

CINCINNATI -- A grand jury indicted three people in connection with the armed robbery last month of Boy Scouts at a Christmas tree sale. Prosecutors said Friday that Kenneth Hodge, 19, David Keeling, 19, and Nashon Wallace, 20, would face charges in the Dec. 3 robbery outside Tom’s Drive-Thru in North College Hill. The Boy Scouts, ages 13 and 11 years old, said they were selling Christmas trees in the parking lot along West Galbraith Road shortly before closing when three men approached, with one carrying a sawed-off shotgun. The boys said they thought the men were joking until one...

Atwater, Calif. (AP) -- Prison officials say a convicted child molester and kidnapper died last month after choking on a hot dog. Forty-five-year-old Frederick Fretz was serving a 20-year sentence at the federal penitentiary in Atwater.

USA Federal court has awarded $466 MILLION to the family of Air Force Captain Bayani, a naturalized American of Iranian descent, who was tortured and executed when he went to look after his sick mother in Iran in 1995.

During some of the bloodiest years of the drug wars of the 1980s, crack was seen as far more dangerous than powdered cocaine, and that perception was written into the sentencing laws. But now that notion is under attack like never before. Criminologists, doctors and other experts say the differences between the two forms of the drug were largely exaggerated and do not justify the way the law comes down 100 times harder on crack. A push to shrink the disparity in punishments got a boost last month when reduced federal sentencing guidelines went into effect for crack offenses. Then,...

Have you heard about Cory Voorhis and the political scam that is ruining this good American's life? Do you want to hear the real story? Join Michael Howe today on the "Michael Howe Show," from 11am-Noon (MST) when his guest, Mike Riebau (retired ICE agent) shares the inside scoop. You can listen live at www.michaelhoweshow.com For more information on the Cory Voorhis story, check out this great WND article by Jerome Corsi: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59185

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was in a happy mood, talking about stereotypes — racial or religious — and how he enjoys defying them in the pursuit of impartiality. "You know what?" he asked editors and reporters at a luncheon yesterday at The Washington Times. "I love walking on the third rail because I am a free man. It's more important to me to be free than to be popular." In a wide-ranging interview, Justice Thomas discussed the popularity of his recently published memoir, his judicial philosophy, his dirt-poor upbringing in rural Georgia and his views about affirmative action. Displaying...

CAMP STRIKER — Throngs of Iraqi key political leaders gathered at the home of Abid Hassan Saloom in Sadr Yusufiyah Dec. 6 to discuss the future of Iraq. The theme of the meeting was “Put the Law Back in Iraq” and it was attended by a multitude of prominent community leaders, Iraqi Security Forces and Iraqi Army officials. Of note were Dr. Ahmed Chalabi, former leader of the Iraqi National Congress, Sheik Somar, Yusufiyah nahia council president, 4th Iraqi Army Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Ali Jassim Mohammed Hassen Al-Frejee, Sheik Halal Al Hemdawni, as well as representatives from the Mahmudiyah...

TGIF and TGIS?

One of the things that many of the less than conservatively stellar Republican candidates pin their hopes on is having the conservative base of the party believe they will appoint strict constructionist judges to the courts to cover for their own liberal leanings on core conservative issues. Why can’t we also have the candidate himself be a strict constructionist? (VIDEO) Why can’t we also have the candidate himself be a strict constructionist? If you ask me, Fred Thompson is a two-fer. Not only would he appoint judges who believe the ink on the Constitution is dry, he himself believes in...

A 911 recording of a man who shot and killed two burglary suspects has stirred debate on whether he should be condemned or praised. PASADENA, TEXAS -- When he saw two men pry into his neighbor's house with a crowbar one afternoon earlier this month, Joe Horn did what many people would do: He called 911. But when police had not shown up by the time the suspects were about to leave, the 61-year-old retiree did something most people probably would not: He stepped outside with his 12-gauge shotgun and killed them. "I'm not going to let them get away...

Provo, Utah - The head of the Iranian opposition group in exile that supplied early intelligence on Iran's clandestine nuclear program says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has engineered a clever disinformation campaign to convince foreign experts that Iran is eight to 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb. But in fact, she says, the regime is less than two years away from producing such a weapon, as part of its plan to "create an Iranian empire" in the Middle East. In a wide-ranging weekend telephone conversation from her base of exile in Paris, Maryam Rajavi told me that Mr. Ahmadinejad...

Billy Ray Hamilton, who killed three people with a sawed-off shotgun inside Fran's Market in Fresno more than a quarter-century ago, has died in prison. We have to ask the same question asked by the parents of one of his victims: Why did Hamilton spend 27 years on death row? His prison stay lasted more than one and a half times as long as his youngest victim's entire life. His victims were Douglas White, 18, Josephine Rocha, 17, and Bryon Schletewitz, 27. We support the death penalty. At the same time, we believe those sentenced to death must have every...

Samaritans Disrupt Alleged Rape in Progress Five Young Adults Tackle, Detain Rape Suspect Until Police Arrive By DAVID SCHOETZ Oct. 29, 2007 Five good Samaritans disrupted the alleged rape of a 22-year-old Oregon woman, chasing down and tackling the suspect until authorities arrived, police said. Police in Salem, Ore., responded to a 911 call early Saturday morning from a young woman who reported that she and four friends had just confronted a man who appeared to be raping an unidentified woman along a busy road about three miles from the city's downtown. When police arrived, they found a bloodied 37-year-old...