Tuesday, November 10, 2009

How 'bout some legal news?

Like how the St. Louis DA, Bob McCulloch, seems to be trying to cover for the SEIU thugs who beat up Kenneth Gladney?
The Gladney beating took place at a forum on ‘Aging’, sponsored by Rep. Russ Carnahan. Carnahan had been caught flat-footed by earlier protests. This time he was more prepared; the day before the forum, Sara Howard took over as his communications director. Ms. Howard is a veteran leftist activist, holding senior positions with SEIU.

SEIU and partisan hacks like Media Matters have tried to spin away the Gladney beating. They would have you believe a 130 lb diabetic, recovering luekemia patient, picked a fight with men almost twice his size. The police report puts an end to that lie
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So if the police report shows the facts of the Gladney case, why isn't McCulloch filing-hell, why hasn't that already been done- charges?


Looks like the Chicago prosecutors are more interested in scaring off people who check back on cases than in the idea of justice:
Protess and his students spent three academic years investigating the case of Anthony McKinney, a suburban Chicago man serving a life sentence for killing a security guard in 1978. After interviewing witnesses and inspecting documents, they're convinced that McKinney had nothing to do with the murder.

Several witnesses told the students that they implicated McKinney in the murder only after they were beaten by police. Northwestern's legal clinic filed a petition seeking a new trial.

Prosecutors conceded a hearing was warranted but also sought all the students' notes, unpublished memos and reimbursements for their expenses. Daly insists the subpoenas are justified because of information that Alvarez's office has uncovered, but would not elaborate
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Unless they have some really interesting reasoning, the only reason I can see for this is "You're making us look bad, and we want to stop you from doing it again."
Northwestern's lawyers have filed a motion to quash the subpoenas, and the judge may act on that Tuesday when a hearing is set to hear arguments about whether there should be a new trial in the case. In the prosecution's response, they argue that Protess and his students aren't journalists and therefore aren't protected by reporters' privilege.

John Lavine, dean of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, considers that argument chilling
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Which is, I'd say, exactly the idea.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have declined to release records of the police officers who were involved in McKinney's case, and have also rebuffed a Protess offer to release students' grades in exchange for prosecutors' performance reviews.

Benn, the former Protess student, said he thinks the prosecutors' motives are clear.

"The state's attorney's office is trying to save itself from the embarrassment of students finding another innocent man in prison," he said
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I'd think the records of the officers in the case are far more relevant than the student's grades; and so are the prosecutors records. But then, I'm just a layman. And haven't, quite possibly, stuck another innocent man in prison.

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