Free Republic

A mental health advocate has launched a furious defense for the 6'6" boy, 17, who attacked and knocked a teaching aide unconscious after she took his Nintendo Switch away from him. Sue Urban - whose 17-year-old son graduated from Matanzas High School before taking his own life - has responded to the incident where a 17-year-old special needs student, who weighs 270 pounds, attacked his teaching aide on Tuesday. Neither the student nor the teaching aide's names have been released publicly. 'This is not this child's fault. He is not a threat,' Urban said in an emotionally Facebook Live. 'This...

As the sun began its afternoon fade, Willie Lyons stepped inside his new Conestoga-style hut, pounded a nail into a beam and hung a coat inside the tiny shelter made by volunteers that will protect him from the elements this winter. Lyons, who is deaf, spent much of Saturday methodically moving his belongings from boxes and bags to become the first homeless person to move into a community of what will be 28 tiny huts that nonprofit Occupy Madison is building and placing at the former Wiggie’s Bar property at 1901 Aberg Ave. on the East Side. As Lyons continued...

On September 4, 2001, Robert Mueller took over the FBI. At his confirmation hearings, fraud had overshadowed discussions of terrorism. And as FBI Director, Mueller quickly diverged from the common understanding that the attacks that killed 3,000 people had been an act of war rather than a crime. In 2008, Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, who had been unleashed from Guantanamo Bay, carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq. Al-Ajmi had been represented by Thomas Wilner who was being paid by the Kuwaiti government. Wilner was a pal of Robert Mueller. And when the families were having dinner together, Mueller got up...

Dog rescuers, flush with donations, buy animals from the breeders they scorn An effort that animal rescuers began more than a decade ago to buy dogs for $5 or $10 apiece from commercial breeders has become a nationwide shadow market that today sees some rescuers, fueled by Internet fundraising, paying breeders $5,000 or more for a single dog. The result is a river of rescue donations flowing from avowed dog saviors to the breeders, two groups that have long disparaged each other. The rescuers call many breeders heartless operators of inhumane “puppy mills” and work to ban the sale of...

Our NewsBusters readers are a prescient bunch. On an item posted earlier this morning about Nicolle Wallace calling Hillary a "terrible" candidate, one reader commented "Nicolle is pretending to be conservative again. Not to worry, she'll be back to her normal liberal self soon." And sure enough, just seven minutes later, Wallace was letting her bleeding-heart side show. Discussing the news that Joyce Mitchell—the accomplice who helped two convicted murderers escape—had been sentenced to prison, Wallace said "I feel bad for her. Can't she just wear an ankle bracelet?" Nicolle even threw in an empathetic "awww" for the plight of...

October 12 marks the 12th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole. The grim milestone comes as President Obama faces mounting questions about his administration's dereliction of duty during the murderous attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. And it comes just a day after resurgent al-Qaida thugs pulled off the drive-by assassination of a top Yemeni security official who worked at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa. These are not "bumps in the road." These are gravesites on the blood-spattered path to surrender. Seventeen U.S. sailors died in the brutal suicide attack on the guided Navy missile destroyer as...

Maryland’s Senate voted on Wednesday to repeal the state’s death penalty, putting it on a path to becoming the 18th state to abolish executions. … Maryland’s last execution was in 2005. …

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who never saw a convicted murderer who deserved execution, has found another dirt bag to save. His latest cause is Troy Davis, who was found guilty in 1991 for the murder of police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989 in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia. A jury found Davis guilty of shooting the off-duty officer to death as he tried to save a homeless man from being pistol-whipped. There were 7 eyewitnesses to the murder and it still took 2 years to convict in this most sluggish of all...

The court is poised in coming weeks to seal Lawrence's fate, along with that of nine other convicted murderers seeking freedom. The justices are expected to answer some difficult questions: When should a killer be set free? What are the limits, if any, on the governor's power to decide? Are such factors as an inmate's prison record and age ever more significant than a horrendous crime committed decades ago? The state parole board had approved Lawrence's release four times since 1993, but three governors vetoed those decisions. Schwarzenegger blocked Lawrence's release twice before judges on the state Court of Appeal...

Proponents and opponents of imposing the death penalty for rape of a child underwent intense questioning Wednesday from a seemingly divided Supreme Court. The hour-long argument came in the case of inmate Patrick Kennedy, sentenced to death for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Kennedy's lawyer, Jeffrey L. Fisher, told the court the death penalty for child rape under Louisiana law violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia challenged Fisher's position that the Louisiana law is too broad and that not enough states have enacted the death penalty for child rape...

Thu, December 20, 2007 Fear of torture unfounded 'Humanitarian' concern could derail Afghan missionBy PETER WORTHINGTONWhat gives with these so-called "humanitarian" groups that seek to prevent our military from doing their job in Afghanistan? Never mind that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are fighting a war against the Taliban (the Vandoos, at the moment, to be replaced this winter by the Princess Pats -- again), and at the same time are rebuilding schools, giving aid and medical treatment, and trying to restore order and security. For our home-grown "humanitarians," this apparently isn't enough. Right now, a federal court is being asked...

The US prison population has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to the taxpayer, researchers say. There are more than 1.5 million people in US state and federal jails, a report by a Washington-based criminal justice research group, the JFA Institute says. Inmate numbers are projected to rise by 192,000 in five years, costing $27.5bn (£13.44bn) to build and run jails. The JFA recommends reducing the number and length of sentences. The Unlocking America report, which was published on Monday, also advocated changing terms of parole and finding alternatives to prison as part...

Hundreds of defendants sitting in prisons nationwide have been convicted with the help of an FBI forensic tool that was discarded more than two years ago. But the FBI lab has yet to take steps to alert the affected defendants or courts, even as the window for appealing convictions is closing, a joint investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes" has found. The science, known as comparative bullet-lead analysis, was first used after President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. The technique used chemistry to link crime-scene bullets to ones possessed by suspects on the theory that each batch...

Is anyone old enough to remember the expression "Go back to Africa"? Can anyone remember when the lynchings of blacks and Asians and the hunting down of American Indians and Mexicans were commonplace? Does anyone remember when Jews -- during the time of the Holocaust -- were turned away at this nation's borders? How about the Chinese Exclusion Act? Can anyone remember when the Irish, Germans and Italians were not welcome here? This country has had a long and sordid history of xenophobia and scapegoat politics, which brings us to the current immigration debate. Prior to this debate, I had...

Nada. The young mom came to apply for food and child-care assistance. She spoke no English. Line by line, bilingual caseworker Anna Lambertson reviewed the Spanish version of the woman’s 10-page application. Anyone disabled in the household? The woman shook her head. What about resources? Cash? A checking account? Savings? Livestock? The young mom shook her head and smiled apologetically. “Nada,” she said. Nothing. What she did have was a $1,000-a-month job as a cook and a 2-year-old son, whom she brought with her to the Kansas Social and Rehabiliation Services office in Kansas City, Kan. After the mother left,...

After a botched execution that took 34 minutes to end a convicted murderer’s life, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has suspended all death sentences until a commission can review lethal-injection procedures “to ensure they don’t inflict cruel and unusual punishment on their helpless victims.” In a gesture of goodwill, Florida’s leading association of murderers also announced a temporary hold on premeditated and/or serial killings as well as brutal rapes, according to a spokesman, “until we can determine if some of our victims experience discomfort or pain.” The Sunshine State Coalition of Capital Criminals released the statement through its ACLU attorney, pledging...

MIAMI, Dec. 15 -- Executions by lethal injection were suspended in Florida and ordered revamped in California on Friday, as the chemical method once billed as a more humane way of killing the condemned came under mounting scrutiny over the pain it may cause. Gov. Jeb Bush (R) ordered the suspension in Florida after a botched execution in which it took 34 minutes and a second injection to kill convicted murderer Angel Nieves Diaz. A state medical examiner said that needles used to carry the poison had passed through the prisoner's veins and delivered the three-chemical mix into the tissues...

Navy rejects San Francisco for warship commissioning ceremony - Saturday, December 2, 2006 (12-02) 12:37 PST San Francisco (AP) -- The U.S. Navy has rejected plans to commission its newest and most powerful warship in San Francisco because of concerns that the city doesn't support the military. Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter vetoed plans this week for a commissioning ceremony for the Makin Island in San Francisco, said retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. J. Michael Myatt, chairman of the citizens' commissioning committee. Instead, San Diego will host the ceremony in which the crew formally takes charge of the...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - A judge who sparked outrage when he sentenced a repeat sex offender to two months in jail said Friday he will retire. Vermont District Court Judge Edward Cashman didn't mention the case that had made him a target of heated criticism from lawmakers, editorial writers and national cable news commentators. In January, he imposed the short sentence on Mark Hulett, 34, who had been convicted for repeated sexual assaults on a young girl. Cashman said the short sentence was the best way to get Hulett the sex offender treatment he needed. But he drew fire from Gov....

When Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos pulled the trigger last February, all he knew was that his partner was lying on the ground behind him – bloodied from a struggle with a fleeing suspect – shots had been fired and now, it appeared, the drug smuggler he was pursuing had turned toward him with what looked to be a gun in his hand. In the split-second he had to respond, Ramos determined the course of his and his partner's lives – federal prison for the next 20 years for assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharging...