Free Republic

The California Supreme Court upheld the convictions and death sentence Monday for serial killer Richard Ramirez whose so-called Night Stalker killing spree terrorized the Los Angeles area in the mid 1980s. Ramirez, 46, was sentenced to death in 1989 for 13 Los Angeles-area murders in 1984 and 1985. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to "swear to Satan" by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors. The justices unanimously denied claims that Ramirez was incompetent to stand trial, that the case should have been moved outside Los Angeles, and that all...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2006 WWW.USDOJ.GOV CRM (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888 Department of Justice Examples of Terrorism Convictions Since Sept. 11, 2001 Below are examples of some of the convictions obtained by the Department of Justice in terrorism cases since Sept. 11, 2001: Hassan Moussa Makki (Eastern District of Michigan) – In September 2003, Hassan Makki pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and providing material support to Hizbollah in conjunction with the Mohammed Hammoud case in Charlotte, NC. Makki was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Richard Reid (District of Massachusetts) – British national Richard Reid was sentenced...

A federal judge on Monday rejected a request to dismiss some of the counts against a Lodi man convicted of supporting terrorists, leaving in place the possible maximum prison sentence of 39 years. Hamid Hayat, 23, was convicted in April of one count of providing material support to terrorists by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan and three counts of lying about it to FBI agents. His attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, argued that federal prosecutors were piling on potential prison time by charging three versions of the same lying offense. Each count brings up to eight years in federal prison,...

Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister, "says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy," according to the BBC, in a story about the Mohammed caricatures. The Beeb claims that Abdullah is "promoting a moderate form of Islam," but his anti-democratic actions prove otherwise. Au contraire, Mr. Abdullah, it is your seething, Muslim masses that are the cause of this "chasm." Again, the BBC: As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at Western cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. ... "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy...

I did a web search to find a site that lists convicted politicians and came up almost empty. I'd like to find one that lists names, positions, party affiliation, crimes, dates, & comments. The best I could do was the Political Graveyard's List of Politicians Who Got Into Trouble or Disgrace. I stuffed that text into Excel® and after some manipulation came up with the following not too surprising information: The 380 entries date from the Revolution and 227 of those list party affiliation. The breakdown is 77 Republicans to 150 Democrats. Unfair you say since Republicans only date from...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Attorneys for a man who has written books on how to grow marijuana and avoid getting caught asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to overturn his drug convictions. Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja," was convicted two years ago of growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants. He says he was authorized to do so by the city of Oakland under a 1996 California medical marijuana law. After U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow a jury to hear that defense, Rosenthal was convicted of being a major drug supplier. Breyer sentenced him to...

HOUSTON — A jury convicted four one-time Merrill Lynch executives and a former midlevel Enron Corp. finance executive of conspiracy and fraud Wednesday in the first criminal trial of Enron and Wall Street executives for their role in the energy company's 2001 collapse.

In 1790 Thomas Jefferson penned in a letter to James Madison his famous idea that "the Earth belongs to the living." With intricate mathematical calculations he determined the span of generations and reasoned that since present generations should not be bound by the decisions and compacts of past generations, all laws should expire every 19 years. Madison responded with a gentle -- but devastating -- counter, pointing out to his friend the practical problems with this idea and concluding that its implementation, by causing so much uncertainty in the continuity of arrangements, would be enormously harmful. For most of our...

Thank You, U.S District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Thank you for reminding the American people what the liberal spinmeisters and other Bill and Hillary Clinton acolytes had hoped they could erase from history: There were convictions in the Whitewater scandal. Many convictions. The appeals court ruled Tuesday that the federal government does not have to pay for the bulk of the former president and first lady's legal fees. They amounted to more than $3.5 million from an independent counsel's investigation into the failed Arkansas land deal. The Clintons were not charged. But the court rejected the...

Governor seeks review of Tulia drug convictions BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Gov. Rick Perry stepped into the controversy swirling around a 1999 drug bust in Tulia by asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday to review the convictions of 38 people. In a letter to board chairman Gerald Garrett, Perry wrote, "I urge you to begin an expeditious investigation into each of these cases and recommend whether a pardon, commutation of sentence or other clemency action is appropriate and just." Thirteen people remain in prison, serving sentences as long as 90 years. Although the board can recommend...

On Nov. 19, law enforcement officials summoned reporters to a news conference to announce the arrests of scores of workers at New York airports as part of a national security crackdown. They gave chilling examples of restaurant workers, mechanics and other employees gaining access to secure areas of airports by lying about their criminal past. These individuals represent a significant vulnerability to the security of our air transportation system," Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, said at the time. In 15 cases in Brooklyn federal court, defendants have pleaded guilty, and more than 30 others are working...

True principled stands are so rare in Congress as to be news worthy. http://Indiana's John Hostettler/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_1363000,00.html

Go to the source URL and click on "Indictments, Pleas, and Convictions" to review the extent that Whitewater corruption was exposed and successfully prosecuted ... and to see the list of related pardons granted by Clinton on his final day in office.

A TEENAGER yesterday became the seventh woman to sit in court and watch the men who had gang raped her convicted of their crimes. Most of the seven have never met. They are victims of 14 young males who now have been convicted or pleaded guilty to five different gang rapes and sexual assaults in western Sydney over two months two years ago. Many of the women, including yesterday's victim, who can only be called D, had to go to court each day and confront the attackers who degraded them and stole their sense of security. Somehow, through tears and...