Kentucky to Little League World Series

For those of you who aren't watching the best sporting event of the year, Owensboro Southern is going back to the Little League World Series. Last year they went because of an amazing pitching performance. This year they did it by getting a lead and holding on against a game team from Limestone, Illinois to win 11-10.

I love the Little League World Series. It is the best that baseball offers.

The Judge v. the Sheriff

In Petersburg, Virginia:

The Judges were unhappy because the Circuit Court building was being left unguarded when court was not in session. They get together with the Sheriff and after the meeting issue an ORDER that the courthouse be guarded at all times when it is open. For a year it is.

Then the Sheriff, citing lack of funds, stops providing security for the courthouse after court has ended. The Judge closes the building and puts up a sign giving a number to call if anyone needs access (the clerk's office and law library are both in the courthouse). The Sheriff takes the sign down. That same day, the Judge issues an ORDER and sign to post on the door:

It appearing to the Court that the Sheriff of the City of Petersburg has ceased to provide security for the Courthouse when Court is not in session, it is ORDERED that in such times when security is not provided, the Courthouse shall be locked. Entrance shall be had only by calling 555-1234. The Clerk of this Court is directed to post a copy of this Order on the front door of each Courthouse.

That same day, the Sheriff takes the ORDER and sign down.

The next day the Judge goes to the Sheriff's office to get the papers back. After some fussing back and forth, the Sheriff gives her the sign but not the ORDER, because it is "inaccurate." The Judge has the Sheriff tried for contempt. The Sheriff was found guilty of 1 count of civil contempt and 3 counts of criminal contempt.

On Appeal: Among other things the Sheriff argues the original order was improper. The Court of Appeals finds:

Clearly, the trial court has subject matter jurisdiction to address courtroom and courthouse security issues. Whether the trial court could order security when the court is not in session is not jurisdictional. The error, if any, would be as to whether the trial court had the authority to exercise its subject matter jurisdiction. If the court lacks authority to exercise its subject matter jurisdiction, the order would be erroneous or voidable, not void, and appellant's remedy would be a direct appeal, not disobedience.

The Sheriff also argues that because of a lack of funding it was impossible to keep someone at the courthouse when court was not in session because he has to staff the jail. The Court of Appeals finds:

Far from impossibility, appellant made a conscious decision to fulfill one set of duties to the neglect of the court order. Further, absent a timely effort by appellant to challenge the validity of the order before he was held in contempt, the claim that appellant was unable to comply with the order due to impossibility based on a lack of funding is irrelevant. We find the trial court did not err in not admitting evidence of "impossibility."

[note] This holding strikes me as problematic. I don't know how long the window is to appeal a sua sponte ORDER of a court which is not related to either a criminal or civil case - it's never been an issue in any of my cases - but I doubt it is as long as a year. When the City Council did not adequately fund the Sheriff's Department it was most likely too late to appeal the ORDER, even if it were origininally voidable. If the City Council refuses to fund the Sheriff a couple years after it's too late to appeal an ORDER there's not a whole lot he can do about it. [/note]

In the end the appeal succeeds. The reason? Judges are not allowed to testify as to court matters in Virginia and the Judge testified:

Code sec 19.2-271 states in part: "No judge shall be competent to testify in any criminal or civil proceeding as to any matter which came before him in the course of his official duties."
. . . .

[However, a judge can testify if she is the victim of a crime.]
. . . .
Because Judge Baskervill was not a victim of a crime committed by Sheriff Epps, we conclude that the trial court erred in allowing Judge Baskervill to testify. Although the court erred in admitting Judge Baskervill's testimony, that error does not require reversal if we determine the error was harmless. The Commonwealth has offered no argument that the error was harmless, and we perceive no basis for such a holding. While appellant's testimony was in accord with Judge Baskervill's, we cannot say that it is harmless error for the court to have allowed Judge Baskervill's testimony in light of our inability to determine why appellant chose to testify.

So the whole case goes back down. You get the feeling that the Court of Appeals was trying to send it back so that perhaps this could be settled in a rational, civilized manner ("now, now children, play nice").

Outside of the absurdity of all of this, the legal point which stands out to me is that if a defendant testifies it appears that every bit of harmless error analysis goes out the window for anything done in the prosecutor's case in chief. That's a point to file away for future appeal writing.

Police cite martial arts students for practicing defense against (fake) weapons.

Story via: Karol Kulaga

Killers, Escapers, but not Amwayers

The jail escape went bad when they couldn't convince the cab driver they were going to an Amway convention.

"[T]o those who say the death penalty is not a deterrent, I have two stock answers: One, it is not called capital deterrent, it is called capital punishment; and two, it for sure deters the condemned inmate from committing another crime."

And talk about Alabamans not too sure about the death penalty.

Rex Dean Penland was convicted of kidnapping and murder on the testimony of two other men. At the time DNA research wasn't far enough along to identify the different DNA's in the sperm and identify the blood on Penland's knife. Now it is and neither was his DNA found in the sperm nor her blood was on his knife

Still, the prosecutor is going to try him again.

Death penalty for corruption in China

A court in China must decide whether an official is a reformer or a corrupt official pretending to be a reformer.

Attorney General on the Death Penalty

Questioned by reporters, Attorney General Gonzalez would not agree that the system is flawed, or as former Illinois Governor George Ryan once described it, “broken,” but Gonzalez said he and President Bush think it can be changed.

Imagine going into court and arguing that your ticket is not valid because the radar gun didn't have the right algorithm to keep the picture takend from being altered. It worked in Australia.

A man convicted of murder is buried in Arlington and the Congress may change the rules.

Dang! I didn't make Time's list of top blogs.

But, then again, seeing the blogs they picked I'm not sure I want to be on the list. I only saw one blog on there which I think is decent.

He killed her because she wanted to cuddle?

Look, I'm not the most touchy-feely guy in the world, but even I've never gotten to the point I wanted to kill a girl for cuddling. Maybe for the ice cold feet in the bed or fighting me when I try to hog the blanket, but never for cuddling.

You Know There's a Problem When . . .

"The most high-profile case to date follows an investigation by an undercover reporter from The Sun who was sold the bank account details of 1,000 UK customers by a call centre worker in India.

The journalist was able to buy bank account, credit card, passport and driving licence details of UK bank customers for just £4.25 each.

The call centre worker in New Delhi also told the reporter he could supply confidential data from 200,000 accounts per month. The newspaper handed a dossier with all the details to the City of London police."

DSA Legal in England?

It appears that a denial of service attack has yet to be made illegal in England.

Will Spam from Nigeria Stop?

"The e-Nigeria, annual International IT Conference . . . calls on the National Assembly to urgently pass the Cybercrime Act as it is difficult at the moment to prosecute Cyber criminals in the country without an appropriate legislation."

I don't know about ya'll, but I ain't holding my breath.

Cybercrime Trends

IBM tells us cybercrime is on the rise, driven by "spear-phishing." ComputerWorld tells us that costs incurred from computer attacks are down. SC Magazine tells us that they're both right - crime is up but the costs are down.

Here's the discussion of sentencing at the ACS convention.

Managing Earnings

I now have a new euphemism I can use if my clients are charged with fraud: they are merely "managing earnings."

I mean, if it's good for the white collar folks it ought to be good enough for my clients and it sure sounds a lot better than lied, stole, cheated, &cetera.

Loyal to Commodore

My first computer was a C64 and I guess it still shows:


Which OS are You?

Virginia Governor Appoints Panel to Review the Forensics Lab

Virginia's lab, which has been in trouble ever since its DNA findings were disproven in the Washington (non)rape debacle, now has a panel of 13 independent scientists overseeing it. They "will review laboratory operations, adopt qualification standards for the lab director and other staffers, and establish an audit process to be used when errors occur."

From the National Geographic:

"The underlying principles of the identification forensic sciences have never been rigorously scientifically proven," said Jay Siegel, director of the undergraduate forensic science program at Indiana-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

"This includes handwriting, fingerprints, and firearms, and tool marks," he said.

According to a new study, traditional forensic analysis often relies on untested assumptions and semi-informed guesswork. It can also sometimes produce the wrong results.

. . . . .
Little research has been conducted on the accuracy of traditional forensic sciences, such as the analysis of handwriting, firearm marks, fingerprints, hairs, and fibers.

"My guess is that the broader scientific community just assumed that the claims and assumptions of the traditional forensic sciences were rigorously tested at an earlier time," Koehler said.

Chicago in another cutting edge attempt to deal with its gang problem: You want parole? Then you can't come back.

African-Americans arrested for a hate crime.

Mexican people and the death penalty.

Crime fighting cheer-leaders.

In South Africa prostitutes are stealing from Johns. Shocked! Shocked, I am!

Would meth be a problem if drugs were legal?

MADD "helping" at drug checkpoints? Or acting as political officers?

Studying for the Bar

Fitz-Hume got me thinking about what I did to pass the Bar.

Much like FH, I used the MicroMash Bar. The primary reason for this was financial. MicroMash was much cheaper and would give the materials to me on credit and money was tight when I graduated. However, don't be fooled into thinking that this meant it wasn't as good a study program.

From about the time I moved to Richmond from Lexington, Virginia (shortly after graduation) I fell into a fairly consistent pattern. On weekdays I would get up and walk from Church Hill, 29th Street, up Broad to 8th street; the walk was a pain because of a fairly large hill but the fact it went past a nursing school meant there were sights to ease my pain. I'd go into the city courthouse and set myself up at a carrel in the law library and read whatever materials MicroMash had told me I should that week and take the written tests they sent. I'd break for a hour for lunch. At first I went over to the City Hall for lunch until a guy who worked over there propositioned me; we were talking football and then . . . After that I ate lunch over at the federal building. If I got burned out during the day I would go watch a trial or go over to the Library of Virginia for a while. When the law library closed up I would walk back down to my apartment, eat, and spend a hour or so doing MicroMash's computer Multi-State prep. During this time I had plenty of time to go to movies, go watch the Richmond Braves, or just mess around on the web (I have vague, frustrating memories of trying to argue with an objectivist on some Yahoo list using Locke and Hume and Aristotle and Plato and every other philosopher I could remember from college only to have him descend into screaming at me when the argument got truly interesting).

About a month and a half out I decided it was time to get serious. I unplugged the TV, disconnected the cable, pulled the modem line out of my computer, and stopped buying any books. All I did was work toward the Bar. I'd spend the day at the law library and then the night doing MicroMash's electronic Multi-State prep. Weekends were usually almost entirely Multi-State prep. I don't know how many questions MicroMash gives you but I do know I did a ton of them and didn't finish them all (thus not qualifying for a refund - an important incentive to pass the Bar). Two days before the Bar I drove up to Staunton to meet a buddy and the next day we went down to Roanoke for the test; we spent the entire time quizzing each other about areas of the law and looking up things each thought the other was wrong about. Then we drove down to the Arena and took the test.

What kind of idiot/jerk kidnaps a nun?