$2.6 Million for Wrongful Incarceration

At first glance it seems like a lot. But, after spending 14 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, Olmedo Hidalgo may not agree with that. The New York Times has the report.

New York City and State have agreed to pay $2.6 million to a man who served almost 14 years in prison before he was cleared in the 1990 Palladium nightclub shooting that left a bouncer dead, the man’s lawyer said on Monday.

The city will pay $2 million to the man, Olmedo Hidalgo, to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the Police Department and other defendants, said the lawyer, Irving Cohen.

He said that the state would pay an additional $625,000 to resolve a case filed in the Court of Claims.

The District Attorney, Mr. Morgenthau defended his office’s actions in the case, saying the original convictions were based on “substantial evidence, including multiple eyewitness identifications and a confession.”

Mr. Hidalgo’s lawsuit against the city, charged that despite “clear-cut proof” that he was not guilty, the district attorney’s office “continued to dig in its heels until it had no choice — in light of the overwhelming factual support of Mr. Hidalgo’s innocence — but to consent to vacate his conviction and dismissal of his indictment.”

What Morgenthau didn't say in his statement was that there was another confession by, as it turned out, the real killer. That, along with other questions, might indicate that the case should never have ended in a conviction in the first place.

A while back when we discussed the Joshua Kezer case, we talked about the problem of over-zealous prosecutors who bend the rules. For me it's a fascinating question: whether these guys do it in a sincere attempt to further justice or if they simply become so ruthlessly competitive that they lose sight of truth and justice.

What category do you put Morgenthau in? Is it excusable that overturning a wrongful conviction can take years? Do you see this as a total disregard of the prisoner's rights?

What about the amount of the settlement? Wouldn't it exacerbate the economic crisis if too many of these cases came to light? Is it right for wronged prisoners to receive such windfall payouts? What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

North Carolina Shooting - Eight Dead

WRAL.com reports the local news in and around Raleigh North Carolina. Today it's bad news.

A lone gunman burst into a North Carolina nursing home Sunday morning and started "shooting everything," barging into the rooms of terrified patients, sparing some from his rampage without explanation while killing seven residents and a nurse caring for them.

Authorities said Robert Stewart also wounded three others, including the Carthage police officer who confronted him in a hallway of Pinelake Health and Rehab and stopped the brutal attack.

The local report includes some videos which give a good feel for the place: a small town about an hour from Raleigh. The police chief said it's a small town based on faith and faith will get them through. He fielded one question from the journalists about the weapons used, but naturally declined to comment, the investigation being open.

A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL that Stewart was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and other weapons.

That's quite a frightening sight, more weapons than he has hands to hold them. But what about motive? The wife had some interesting comments on that.

Authorities searched Stewart's home, 2530 Glendon Carthage Road in Carthage, Sunday night. While they declined to comment on a possible motive, Stewart's ex-wife said he had violent tendencies. Sue Griffin said she was married to Stewart for 15 years.

“He would get mad because of things that didn't go his way. He never really hurt me, but he would get mad and blow up,” Griffin said.

The pro-gun folks keep talking about how ridiculous it would be to "infringe" the rights of so many in order to limit the damage done by so few. The question keeps getting back to percentages. They often say it's only 1% causing problems. I seriously doubt it's that small, but does the fact that gun enthusiasts make statements like that indicate that there is a threshold beyond which even they would agree to stricter gun control?

I can answer that. No, the answer is no. There is no percentage of violent or criminal gun abuse which would make the gun rights people agree to stricter controls, at least none of the gun guys I know would ever agree to such a thing. What say ye?

My own opinion is there are too many guns out there and too often some raging maniac has such easy availability to those guns that he does serious damage, like Mr. Stewart did yesterday in North Carolina. My contention is in some of these cases, had the availability been more difficult, no damage would have been done at all. Reducing the total number of guns, even though it would significantly inconvenience some people, would go a long way in correcting this situation.

What's your opinion? Have you noticed an increase in these stories lately? Is it the economy that's triggering these people, do you think?

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Italy Makes the International News

First, the Pope has to be mentioned. His insensitive and politically incorrect comments about condoms have been daily fare for the last ten days. The latest is the Facebook Condom Campaign. Pretty funny stuff, if it weren't so sad and serious.

Next we have Foxy Knoxy. She too has been big news lately. Here in Italy the Perugia murder case has often been the number one story on the TV news since the grisly events took place in 2007. Amanda Knox is back in court these days and therefore back in the news.

But, the one that made me really notice, is on CNN today. They're calling him the "Italian Fritzl."

Police in Italy say they have arrested a grandfather and his son for allegedly sexually abusing the elder man's daughter for more than a 25 years, in a case likened to Austria's Josef Fritzl.

The 41-year-old son, identified by police only by the pseudonym Giovanni, was arrested February 16; his 64-year-old father was arrested March 16, Turin Police Inspector Iolanda Seri told CNN Saturday.

Both men were imprisoned, and were charged with sexual abuse of their daughter and sister, who is now 34 and has been identified by the pseudonym Laura. Both men have denied wrongdoing.

Giovanni is also charged with sexually abusing the eldest of his own four daughters, who are aged 21, 20, 11 and 6, Seri said.

What do you make of the Pope's comments? Couldn't it be said that the Catholic Church has always been perfectly consistent in its teachings on birth control and the indissolubility of marriage? Could his recent comments be nothing more than a continuation of that? Isn't there something to be said for being consistent in one's position? Doesn't that in itself engender respect? What's your opinion?

What do you think about Amanda Knox? Is it conceivable that such an innocent looking young girl could have been involved in those deadly sex-games that supposedly went on in Perugia? Do you think this is just another case of a study abroad student who got hooked up with the wrong crowd? Or do you think the Italian commentators might be right that it was she who corrupted the innocent but older Italian boy?

And finally, what do you make of the fact that there's another case like Josef Fritzl? Does that mean there are many of these happening all over the place and finally they're coming to light? I personally cannot understand incest. A lot of the other things we discuss, the criminal and moral deviations, I can understand, but incest leaves me at a loss. Are there any incest apologists out there who might anonymously enlighten us?

But, these Fritzl-type characters are more than incest guys, aren't they? There's sadism and big-time control going on there too, don't you think?

Please leave a comment.

Dennis Henigan on the DC vs. Heller Case

I find these discussions endlessly fascinating. Please feel free to add to that by commenting.

My favorite part is the "wolves, bears and grizzlies theory of the 2nd Amendment." That comes in the 3rd video.

Obama's Pot Comments

On Daisy's post yesterday I read about the latest town hall meeting in which Obama disappointed everyone who wants marijuana reform.

Here's the video from The Young Turks site.




Cenk Uygur, at The Young Turks, as well as the others to whom Daisy linked, all agree that the comments were disappointing. I agree with that, but take a slightly different impression from what I saw. It seems to me the live audience laughed first, this triggered Obama to laugh and make a silly joke, and then to dismiss the whole thing. To his credit, he gave a fairly clear "no," which is better than a wishy-washy non-answer. It was the laughter and the shrugging it off lightly that seems to have upset people.

I put this one in the same category as that unfortunate comment he made on Jay Leno. These are the risks of speaking without a teleprompter.

We've also got the point raised by Uygur about the rephrasing of the question. Even that, I'm OK with. Obviously the President is not ready to make a big move on marijuana reform yet. I think the baby steps that have been made are good ones and over the next couple years we'll see bigger changes.

What's your opinion? Would marijuana reform be good for the country? One thing I keep wondering is, isn't most of the problems and violence and cost associated with heroin and cocaine and not marijuana? Although I'm all for reform of the pot laws, I'm afraid it would only resolve a small percentage of the problems. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Maryland Increases Death Penalty Requirements

Jeralyn over at Talk Left has the good news from Maryland. Governor Martin O'Malley has indicated he'll sign the bill which just passed in the Maryland House.

The measure will limit capital cases to those with biological or DNA evidence, a videotaped confession or a videotape linking the defendant to a homicide.

This will make Maryland's requirements for sentencing someone to death the strictest of any of the 35 States that still carry capital punishment on their books. What do you think about that?

Do you get the impression, with the recent changes in New Mexico, and this news from Maryland, that the country's moving away from the death penalty?

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Plastic

Forget about guns, we need to ban plastic. (Thanks Steven Hart)