CrimLaw

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Death Cases:

(1) Remember all those cases where you were defending an indigent and couldn't get an independent expert because the government expert was supposedly neutral? Yes, she was paid by the same government who pays the prosecutor and you've never seen her testify - not one single time - to anything that wasn't damaging to the Defense but she'll proclaim her neutrality loudly from the witness stand and the judge will back her. Well here's what happens if an expert finds something pro-Defendant. However, there is evidence that in States other than Virginia this might not be the way things are handled (at least if the expert's screw up leads to a police officer being falsely accused of murder).

(2) Just for a bit of perspective. If you beat an elderly couple to death Oklahoma will kill you. If you arrange for your buddy's ex to come over so he can kill her and then himself Iowa will send you to prison for life. If you pour scalding water on your maid for not understanding your language and she dies from the burns, Saudi Arabia will send you to prison for four years. Of course, I might be willing to spend a life in prison in the US rather than 4 years in a Saudi prison - my life expectancy might be longer.

(3) Eric Robert Rudolph's trial has been put off until 2004 but no specific date has been set.

(4) A torso found in the Thames leads to the smashing of a ring of people selling African children.

(5) In Edinburgh police found a partially decomposed body, in a suitcase, in the water.

Detectives said they were treating the death of the victim, who was described as a local man, as suspicious.

Hmmmm . . . I can't imagine why . . .

(6) Sniper news: They are trying hard to match the confession Malvo gave to his guard with reality. Here's an Arizona paper's report on the Tucson police have done.

(7) The judge in the Lentz case has ordered him released from jail.

(8) In the NC Peterson case another State forensic witness has been made to look bad. It appears as though someone used luminol around the blood splatters but either didn't tell the expert or he won't admit it. Not sure if that will really score any points with the jury but, once again, it makes the prosecution look bad.

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