Free Republic

In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Paul Anderson said the majority's decision "does not make sense, and borders on the absurd." He said it isn't consistent with what the Legislature intended when it wrote the state's drug laws. And he blasted Rice County authorities for charging Peck with such a serious crime. If bong water is considered a drug mixture, and it weighs enough to raise the crime to a first-degree drug offense, the presumed sentence for a first-time offender is seven years and two months in prison, and a felony drug offense goes on his or her record, Paul...

... 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...

Prison to Limit Inmates Toilet Paper HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) _ The state prison at Hutchinson is trying to trim its budget by limiting inmates to four rolls of toilet paper each month. Officials say the prison has long had a limit but it hadn't been enforced. This week the warden set a monthly limit of four rolls, a number set by the Kansas Department of Corrections. Inmates also get three bars of hand soap, one tube of toothpaste and one comb each month. An inmate said in a letter to the Hutchinson News that toilet paper has many uses in...

Which of the following scenarios constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution: (1) aborting a baby with a fully developed nervous system and probably inflicting great pain; (2) murdering a nightclub manager in cold blood; (3) taking 34 minutes -- twice the normal time -- to execute the murderer of the nightclub manager? Anti-death penalty forces want us to believe No. 3. They claim the Dec. 13 execution in Florida of Angel Nieves Diaz took too long and required a second injection, thus violating the Eight Amendment. Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, has suspended...

WEIRD BUT TRUE By MARSHA KRANES, Wire Services December 7, 2006 -- An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - but a cell for a cell? A woman in Sterling Heights, Mich., was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years probation for letting a party guest use a cellphone on her front porch at 4 a.m. Carmen Granata, 23, was cited for violating the city noise ordinance. Her guest, who reportedly stepped outside the house to avoid waking others sleeping inside, apparently wasn't thinking of the neighbors.

Can Ambien Wake Up PVS Patients? The Guardian gives credence to a case report concerning three patients purportedly diagnosed in PVS for more than three years who were "aroused transiently every morning after zolpidem," a sleeping pill. That would be Ambien. The report, by Clauss and Nel, of Royal Surrey County Hospital and of Family Practice of Pollack Park South Africa, was published in this month's issue of Neurorehabilitation. There are 26 million annual prescriptions for Ambien, most of which are probably not to patients in a persistent vegetative state. Recall that Ambien is oft reported to cause odd behavior...

Michael Morales is a death row inmate in California scheduled to die on February 21st. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ruled that an anesthesiologist must ensure that Mr. Morales is unconscious before the paralyzing agent and heart-stopping drug can be administered. Fogel said he would block the execution otherwise to "guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by the Constitution." How very considerate. Do you know why Mr. Morales is on death row? Let me tell you

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A federal judge is considering whether to block a murderer and rapist's Feb. 21 execution to provide enough time to determine whether lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. "People's confidence and integrity in the process might be assisted in having some kind of evidentiary proceeding," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said Thursday from the bench after an 80-minute hearing. He said he would rule by Tuesday. Lawyers for Michael Morales asked Fogel to block the looming execution amid claims lethal injection violates the Eighth Amendment. Morales, 46, was condemned for raping and murdering a...

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) It's a choice that could give pause to some Green Bay Packers fans. A judge ordered an Appleton woman convicted of theft to decide whether to spend 90 days in jail or donate her family's Packers tickets next season to charity. Sharon E. Rosenthal, 59, of Appleton, took more than $3,000 from labor union accounts before she left the organization, according to a criminal complaint. She was sentenced Friday in Winnebago County Circuit Court on one felony count of theft. Judge Scott Woldt offered her the decision to either serve the jail time or donate her family's...

Here are some of the people on death row who were under age 18 when their crimes were committed: --- ALABAMA: Mark Anthony Duke was sentenced to death in the 1997 killings of his father, his father's fiancé and her 6- and 7-year-old daughters, crimes committed when he was 16 years old. According to trial testimony, Duke shot the adults and cut one of the girls' throats because he was angry his father refused to let him use his pickup truck. He held down the other girl while another man cut her throat. --- ARIZONA: Kenneth Laird was convicted of...

NEW YORK (AP) - A plan to build another Guggenheim Museum in the city has been scrapped because of economic constraints, the foundation in charge of the museum announced Monday. In an e-mail, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced that it, the city and the state's Economic Development Corp. had pulled out of the $950 million project because the economy made it "not realistic at this time." Unveiled in April 2000, the 40- to 45-story structure on three piers would have overlooked the East River in lower Manhattan. The design, by Frank Gehry, would have included 575,000 square feet of...

House OKs life sentences for hackers By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com July 15, 2002, 6:00 PM PT WASHINGTON--The House of Representatives on Monday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would allow for life prison sentences for malicious computer hackers. By a 385-3 vote, the House approved a computer crime bill that also expands police ability to conduct Internet or telephone eavesdropping without first obtaining a court order. The Bush administration had asked Congress to approve the Cyber Security Enhancement Act (CSEA) as a way of responding to electronic intrusions, denial of service attacks and the threat of "cyber-terrorism." The...

<p>WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it would decide whether sentences ranging up to life in prison under California's ``three-strikes'' law amounted to unconstitutionally harsh punishment for a shoplifter who stole videotapes worth $153 and a man who took three golf clubs.</p>