By Kimie Matsuo and Zak Newman We learned yesterday of even more shocking, horrific details in the case of one detainee who fell victim to the CIA’s torture program. Majid Khan, who has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for almost 9 years, is one of the 119 men whose case is mentioned in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s landmark report on CIA torture. But yesterday’s news, coming from declassified statements from Khan himself, includes revelations of grotesque and abhorrent treatment never publicly reported by the Senate committee. Here’s what you need to know: Who is Majid Khan? Majid Khan is a Pakistani national who suffered enforced disappearance at the hands of Pakistani and U.S. authorities in March 2003 during a raid on his family’s home. He was subjected to secret detention for more than three years, during which time his relatives were denied any news about his whereabouts or health. Khan was transferred to Guantanamo…
5 Things You Need to Know: The CIA’s Horrific Torture of Majid Khan
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Cybercrime: Jahresbericht zur Umsetzung der "Nationalen Strategie zum Schutz der Schweiz vor Cyber-Risiken (NCS)“
Bis 2017 soll die Umsetzung von 16 Massnahmen aus der "Nationalen Strategie zum Schutz der Schweiz vor Cyber-Risiken (NCS)“ abgeschlossen werden. Diese Massnahmen legen ihren Schwerpunkt einerseits auf "die frühzeitige Erkennung von Cyber-Risiken und Bedrohungen sowie auf eine Stärkung der Widerstandsfähigkeit der kritischen Infrastrukturen". Andererseits bezwecken sie "eine generelle Reduktion von Cyber-Bedrohungen, insbesondere Cyber-Spionage, Cyber-Sabotage und Cyber-Kriminalität".Der Jahresbericht 2014 des Steuerungsausschusses NCS gibt einen aktuellen Überblick über den Stand der genannten Umsetzung. Gemäss Medienmitteilung vom 5. Juni 2015 wurden u.a. folgende Massnahmen vorangetrieben bzw. abgeschlossen:Übersicht der relevanten Rechtsgrundlagen im Cyber-Bereich (Massnahme 16; abgeschlossen) Konzept für Führungsabläufe und –prozesse, welches bei Cyber-Vorfällen zum Einsatz…
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The Undocumented Lawyer
Make no mistake, Cesar Adrian Vargas is fully qualified to practice law in the State of New York. He graduated from CUNY Law School and passed the bar exam on his first try. That was in 2011. Yet, he didn’t get to raise his right hand and take the oath on Monroe Street in Brooklyn. After considering it for nearly three years, the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Brooklyn approved Vargas’ application to the New York State bar. Five judges agreed that Vargas’ immigration status “does not reflect adversely upon his general fitness to practice law.” Vargas’ “problem” wasn’t any question of his competence, his character or fitness to be a lawyer. His problem, as reflected in the opinion of the Appellate Division, Second Department, was that he was born in Puebla, Mexico. His mother brought him and his siblings to the United States when Mr. Vargas was 5½ years old, without lawful…
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NATIONAL DONUT DAY
It's Friday!It's National Donut Day. Need we say anymore? Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme are giving out free donuts, but you may have to purchase a drink. See you in the donut shoppe. Site Feed
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CFPB Targets Real Estate Developer in Recent Enforcement Action
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently entered into a consent order against International Land Consultants, Inc. (ILC), a real estate development company, and four of its employees involved in the marketing, development and sale of real property in Tennessee. The enforcement action was based upon violations of the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1701 et seq. (ILSA), as a result of misrepresentations made by ILC in reports distributed to prospective and actual property purchasers. ILSA, a federal law passed in the late 1960s, regulates the lease or sale of subdivided land through the use of interstate commerce. ILSA’s scope is expansive and includes advertising through paper and internet. ILSA authorizes civil monetary penalties up to $1 million during any one-year period, as well as additional remedies including the right of buyers to revoke contracts. Previously administered under the Department of Housing…
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Florida Appeals Court Reverses Criminal Sentence When Judge Expressly Considered Defendant’s Lack of Remorse
After a conviction of a crime, the trial court sentences the defendant. In Florida, felony convictions are determined through the use of a “scoresheet,” a document completed by the State Attorney. While the scoresheet is significant, a criminal sentence depends on many factors, and the trial judge may depart from the guidelines at their discretion. However, certain considerations, including a defendant’s failure to show remorse during trial, are constitutionally impermissible during sentencing because they violate due process. In a recent case before the 2d District Court of Appeal, the court held that a fundamental error and a denial of due process occurred during sentencing when the trial court expressly considered the defendant’s failure to show remorse. In this case, the defendant, Mr. Williams, appealed his judgments and sentences for sexual battery with a deadly weapon and robbery with a weapon, a lesser-included offense of robbery with a…
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Citizens Forcibly Detain Alleged Chicago Robber
Three Chicago men chased down and forcibly detained a man after he allegedly committed robbery of a woman in the vestibule of a building. The three men tackled the alleged assailant and held him until police arrived. Although there is no indication that police plan to do so, under certain circumstances the three men’s actions could be considered crimes themselves. Chicago Vigilante Justice People who prevent crimes are generally regarded as heroes. But there is a price to vigilante justice – just like the criminal justice system, sometimes innocent people are wrongly accused of crimes. That is why the law discourages citizens going out and “righting wrongs” and arrests them for their crimes – think fathers who murder their daughter’s abuser, or a brother murdering the people who killed his sister. Bringing assailants to justice is best left in the hands of the criminal justice system, where all of the evidence is brought before a jury to…
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Parole commissioner trial scheduled Monday, million dollar biker bails, and other stories
Grits has yet to fully recover from the legislative session so blogging remains light. Here are several items which under normal circumstances likely would have made it into independent posts:Ex-parole commissioner's record tampering trial scheduled MondayParole Commissioner Pamela Freeman is scheduled to go on trial Monday morning at 9 a.m. in Walker County for tampering with government records, according to the Walker County records system. See background on the case from parole attorney Kevin Stouwie and prior Grits coverage. Thanks to a commenter for the heads up.Complaint filed against JP who set million-dollar biker bailsGrits hasn't had bandwidth to closely follow the case of 170 bikers arrested after a shootout in Waco, but I'm pleased to see a complaint was filed with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against the Justice of the Peace who ordered $1 million bonds for every defendant. Austin attorney Keith Hampton has filed a habeas corpus petition…
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Cross-examination Preparation
No matter the system of justice, an advocate is only as good as his preparation — especially when it comes to cross-examination. I follow a good cross-examination no matter where it occurs. I enjoyed dissecting the over-the-top Gerry Nel cross-examination of Oscar Pistorius in his notorious South African murder trial. Now comes another international trial, this time in India. Salman Kahn, one of Bollywood’s brightest stars, was charged with hit and run culpable homicide. The Indian film industry, besides being a national obsession, sells 2.6 billion tickets a year, nearly twice as many as Hollywood, and has a large following across the Indian diaspora in Asia, Africa and North America. Kahn, who specializes in action films, earned $40 million last year. Khan was charged with culpable homicide, a lesser charge than murder, in a 2002 hit-and-run case in which his Toyota Land Cruiser ran over five homeless people sleeping on the pavement in Mumbai’s upmarket…
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"Sex Offender Law and the Geography of Victimization"
The title of this post is the title of this notable paper with important (and suprising) empirical research now available via SSRN. The piece is authored by Amanda Agan and J.J. Prescott, and here is the abstract (with my emphasis): Sex offender laws that target recidivism (e.g., community notification and residency restriction regimes) are premised — at least in part — on the idea that sex offender proximity and victimization risk are positively correlated. We examine this relationship by combining past and current address information of registered sex offenders (RSOs) with crime data from Baltimore County, Maryland, to study how crime rates vary across neighborhoods with different concentrations of resident RSOs. Contrary to the assumptions of policymakers and the public, we find that, all else equal, reported sex offense victimization risk is generally (although not uniformly) lower in neighborhoods where more RSOs live. To further probe the…
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Common Bus Accident Injuries
Being in a bus accident can result in serious injuries, especially if the bus is not equipped with seatbelts. Some of the most common types of bus accident injuries, as well as what you can do if you’re in a bus accident, are listed below.Head InjuriesIf you’re in a bus accident and you’re not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision, then one of the most crucial parts of your body at risk of being injured is your head. A blow to the head can cause external injuries -- like scalp injuries and contusions -- as well as internal and traumatic brain injuries, like a concussion. Sometimes injuries may be minor and heal within a few weeks’ time; other times, a traumatic brain injury can be severe enough to impair cognitive function and ability.Neck and Spinal Cord InjuriesThe neck and spinal cord are two other areas of the body that are a high risk of sustaining an injury in a bus accident. Whiplash may occur when the neck snaps forward upon impact and…
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Religion and the Death Penalty
Last time I mentioned religion and the death penalty I touched off quite a discussion in the comments. Today's WSJ has letters on that subject in response to an earlier article.Personally, I stay completely out of doctrinal debates, but the comments are open.
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Chen & Nomura on Racial and Ethnic Sentencing Disparities
Elsa Y. Chen and Kevin Nomura (Santa Clara University and University of Michigan Law School) has posted And Justice for All? Racial and Ethnic Sentencing Disparities in California's Federal Drug Sentencing (California Journal of Politics and Policy, Volume 7, Number...
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Circuit Court Nominees Toast?
The Huffington Post reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that no more of President Obama's circuit court nominees will be confirmed.I don't know if that's true; I have my doubts about the reliability of the Huffington Post. If it is true, however, it's good news for those favoring resolute law enforcement and judicial fidelity to law.The President has made a few good selections to the bench, but the probabilities favor waiting for his successor.
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Absinthe: What Is It and How Does It Work in Your Body?
Still Life with Absinthe by Van Gogh 1887 What Is Absinthe? Van Gogh loved it and painted it. Hemingway and Poe wrote about it. Absinthe is an emerald green beverage that contains alcohol and herbal extracts; hence its moniker “the green fairy.” Absinthe derives its name from Artemisia Absinthium, one of the herbs used in the drink. Absinthium, or wormwood, contains a substance known as thujone, which among other things has purported hallucinogenic properties. Absinthe has a high percentage of alcohol, and it has an anise, or licorice, taste. It was developed in Europe in the nineteenth century. During that time, Absinthe became so popular — with the popular assumption that is was also addictive, although there are no standards to prove this — that many countries, including the United States, banned it in the early twentieth century. This ban came about because it was speculated that absinthium caused seizures and hallucinations with resulting…
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Unusual DUI Arrests: Early Summer Edition
As the weather gets warmer, the circumstances surrounding arrests for DUI in Los Angeles and other cities seem to get a little stranger. Here’s a look at two such arrests during the past few weeks. Cops are accustomed to finding open beer and alcohol bottles when they pull over a driver because they suspect he/she is driving under the influence. But it’s not often that they can trace a driver’s erratic performance to almost-empty cans of whipped cream in a vehicle. Police officers in Franklin, Tennessee, arrested 28-year-old Anna Thomas after she crashed her car into mailbox. That was after she had driven the same car into a ditch. The cops said Thomas was apparently high on aerosol gases from 13 whipped cream cans. Thomas isn’t a stranger to officers—she has had 10 arrests, several for DUI and others for driving on a suspended license and violating probation. Meanwhile, in Hurricane, Utah, a man tried to kick out the windows of a patrol car as an…
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Marshfield Police See More OUIs Now Than in Past Three Years
While some national statistics show drunk driving incidents and arrests in somewhat of a decline, this does not appear to be the case everywhere, especially in Marshfield, Massachusetts. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, drunk driving, when used in the criminal context, is actually called operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs (OUI) instead of the terms DUI and DWI, which are commonly used in the media and in other jurisdictions.
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Ortt’s bill to improve information available about sexual predators passes in Senate
6-6-15 New York: Legislation approved by the state Senate this week, would better publicize information about where a moderate-risk sex offender is working, said Sen. Rob Ortt, the bill’s sponsor. The bill (S3622) would allow law enforcement to disseminate information about a Level 2 convicted sex offender’s place of employment address to vulnerable organizational entities. “As lawmakers, we
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Program dies that let juvenile offenders clear their records
6-6-15 California: An unintended casualty of California’s criminal justice realignment of 2011, which shifted low-level criminals from state to county custody to relieve prison overcrowding, was a program that allowed juvenile offenders who did well on parole to erase their records that could follow them for the rest of their lives. The apparently unintended repeal of the rehabilitation program
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Chartwells, school food contractor, pays over $19 million to settle whistleblower’s case in D.C.
On June 5, the Attorney General of the District of Columbia announced that Chartwells, a division of Compass Group USA, Inc., and school food contractor, had agreed to settle civil allegations, initially brought by a whistleblower under the District of Columbia’s False Claims Act, that the company had defrauded the District’s Public Schools in its contracts to provide meals to children. According to the Attorney General’s press release: Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced today that the District has reached a $19.4 million settlement resolving the District’s claims concerning multi-year contracts the DC Public Schools (DCPS) entered into with Chartwells, a division of Compass Group USA, Inc., and Thompson Hospitality Services LLC. * * * The District’s complaint in intervention, filed under seal on April 20, 2015, focused on contracts entered into by DCPS and Chartwells/Thompson Hospitality in 2008 and 2012. In 2008,…
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