Random shots around the web:
What is it with Illinois and bizarre double jeopardy cases? In the 1990’s we had the Harry Aleman murder trial do-over which wiped out his earlier acquittal (a classic Chicago tale), and now the state is requesting to re-try Esteban Martinez after refusing to present its case in the first trial. (Gideon covers it too.)
Greenwald and Snowden reveal that the British GCHQ has been using its intelligence agencies to go after political enemies and dissident groups rather than just the terrorists they’ve been using to justify their budgets.
Gideon has a fascinating explanation of a new twist in consent search law, courtesy of the Supreme Court in Fernandez v. California.
A jury awarded 2 million dollars for the killing of Pastor Jonathan Ayers by (of course) a drug task force.
According to Scott Greenfield’s review of his book, Professor Robert Blecker thinks that we need to spend more effort to rehabilitate prisoners we are planning to release, but for those who will never get out, we need to expend more effort to make their lives miserable. From what I can tell from his video (below), because nobody in the correction system is specifically tasked with punishing inmates, prison must not be a form of punishment. So I guess if Scott and I kidnapped Dr. Blecker and locked him in a cage in my basement, but treated him very well, with a nice colored television and weekly calls home to his family, he’d be totally cool with that.
In other news, Scott Greenfield is also fighting with people with gigantic egos.
And now to lighten things up a bit, the Bryan Williams Rap:
(Hat tip: Stillettos and Sneakers)
