Free Republic

An extraordinary poll published by the British Humanist Association (BHA) highlights the public ambivalence about assisted suicide and euthanasia. In conjunction with other recent surveys, it shows that more people are in favour of the law allowing the killing of relatively healthy patients like Tony Nicklinson than of those who are terminally ill. The "respectable" wing of the assisted dying movement, Dignity in Dying, wants a very limited right to medically assisted suicide: only people who are terminally ill and in full possession of their faculties would qualify. Even this limited position is hugely controversial. But the BHA believes that...

(Reuters) - In the Philippines, they vote with their trigger fingers. Elections mean big business for illegal gunsmiths, who are looking forward to 2013 mid-term polls. With election-related violence commonplace, the Philippines imposes a ban on the carrying of guns for six months, from campaigning to the proclamation of winners. With legal access denied, Filipinos simply turn to the many illegal gunsmiths who ply their trade in back alleys and on the edge of rice fields despite government crackdowns. -----------------------------cut--------------------- According to www.gunpolicy.org, a site hosted by the University of Sydney's School of Public Health in Australia, there are about...

In Houston early Friday, a 19-year-old convenience store clerk shot and killed a 52-year-old man who stole beer, according to police. The matter remains under investigation, but the clerk was not arrested. In Texas and elsewhere, each time someone is shot dead with a claim of self-defense, a grand jury must decide if an indictment is warranted. However, deliberations by grand juries are secret and the basis of their decisions is seldom public. The Chronicle also examined times of death, gender and race of both the shooters and the dead. Citizen shootings most often happen after dark, and involve a...

Does anyone remember the murder of a nun by a priest back in 1980?

How's the strictest gun control laws in America working out for ya there, Chi-town? New York Times: ____________________________ Mr. Emanuel listed safer streets among his top three priorities when he became mayor a year ago, but Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, is now testing that promise. Homicides are up by 38 percent from a year ago, and shootings have increased as well, even as killings have held steady or dropped in New York, Los Angeles and some other cities. As of June 17, 240 people had been killed here this year, mostly in shootings, 66 more deaths than occurred in...

Travis Baumgartner, 21, had no passport, tried to enter U.S. with Alberta driver's licence, according to U.S. border officialsThe man wanted in connection with a deadly armoured-car heist at the University of Alberta had over $330,000 in cash in his vehicle when he was arrested at a U.S. border crossing adjoining British Columbia, U.S. border officers say. Travis Baumgartner, 21, was stopped at the border crossing in Lynden, Wash., near the U.S.-Canada border southwest of Abbotsford, B.C., Edmonton police said Saturday. Border security was alerted when his licence plate was scanned by an automated system and set off an alarm...

KALAMAZOO, MI — Over a span of 10 years beginning in 2000, prosecutors in Kalamazoo County ruled that the slayings of eight people were done in self-defense or, in simpler terms, were justified. The first was James Douglas, a 20-year-old man who was shot and killed by Portage police detective Larry Napp near Augusta after he opened fire, wounding Napp. Napp later recovered. The last was Bernel Gordon, also 20, who died by gunfire after he tried to rob Frank Pierce during a drug deal at a Kalamazoo apartment complex. Justified to Kill series • Introducing the series • A...

Everyone around W. Arrow and S. 20th streets knew John H. Spooner, the older white man who had lived there for decades, much longer than his younger Hispanic and African-American neighbors, and who was always walking his dogs around the block. And they knew he was upset about a break-in at his house earlier this week, when burglars took some expensive shotguns and other items. He suspected his new next door neighbor. According to a criminal complaint filed Friday: As 13-year-old Darius Simmons was moving a garbage cart from the curb Thursday morning, Spooner, 75, confronted him and demanded the...

Local child molester slain in L.A. prison An inmate serving a life sentence stemming from the sexual assault of a child in Oceanside was killed Tuesday in his prison cell in Los Angeles County. Francisco Javier Aguilar, 36, was found dead in his cell at the California State Prison in Lancaster after 1 a.m., authorities said. He had a cable wrapped around his neck, The Los Angeles Times reported. The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was set for Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. Aguilar’s cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, has been arrested in...

Despite ‘Castle Doctrine,’ defendant is convicted in slaying A PHILADELPHIA JUDGE said Wednesday he was convinced that a disabled, retired Marine was being attacked in the moments before he fatally stabbed a man last October, but he concluded that the stabbing was still a criminal act rather than self-defense. Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner then convicted Jonathan Lowe, 57, of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. The judge found him not guilty of the more-serious charges of first- and third-degree murder. Lowe, who wears a pacemaker and has survived two strokes and two heart surgeries, could face...

Police in New Haven are investigating the city's sixth homicide this year, and its third in a week. Police said 23-year-old Shane Deran Barrett was shot several times at the corner of Gibbs Street and Dixwell Avenue Tuesday afternoon. Police said someone posted pictures of Barrett online and fled the scene before police arrived. Police are still searching for a suspect.

Police have yet to charge a black motorist who shot dead a mentally disabled and unarmed "white Hispanic," Daniel Adkins, in a Taco Bell parking lot near Phoenix earlier this month. The two reportedly exchanged words before the shooting that occurred, according to some accounts, after the motorist almost ran over Adkins who then banged his fist on the car's windshield. The April 3 shooting by the 22-year-old black man -- whom police in suburban Laveen have yet to identify -- has gotten little if any coverage by the national media. Nor has President Obama weighed in on the case....

Imagine Soldier Field beyond capacity, brimming with 63,879 young African-American men, ages 18 to 24 — more than U.S. losses in the entire Vietnam conflict. Imagine the University of Michigan’s football stadium — the largest in the U.S. — filled to its limit of 109,901 with black men, age 25 and older. Now add 28,223 more — together totaling more than U.S. deaths in World War I. Picture two UIC Pavilions packed with 12,658 Trayvon Martins — black boys, ages 14 to 17 — nearly twice the number of U.S. lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now picture all of...

Raeford, N.C. — As they buried a Hoke County couple killed in their front yard last weekend, family members said Thursday that they are still struggling to make sense of the tragedy. Tommy Charles Brown Sr., 35, and his fiancée, Thalia Rebbecca Mook, 35, were gunned down outside their home on Philippi Church Road in the Rockfish community on Saturday evening, authorities said. John Oliver Hill Jr., 48, who lives across the street, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in their deaths and is being held without bond in the Hoke County jail. Hoke County Sheriff Hubert...

A suspected drunken driver accused of crashing into a home killing one child and injuring another is being held without bail after a judge heard Monday that he may not be in this country legally. Luis Hector Lopez-Rodriguez, 27, is accused of losing control of the blue Ford Crown Victoria he was driving and plowing in to the front porch of a southwest Houston apartment, where two children were playing during a Saturday night party. During a brief court appearance Monday, Magistrate Judge Blanca Villagomez said federal officials have put a hold on Lopez-Rodriguez, which typically means his immigration status...

An Italian prosecutor wants to put Amanda Knox back in prison, saying today that he is "very convinced" that she killed her roommate Meredith Kercher. Prosecutor Giovanni Galati filed a 112-page appeal today seeking to throw out a court ruling that found Knox innocent of her roommate's murder and set her free after four years in an Italian prison.

KARAK, Dec 9: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a young man as he came out of a court in Takht Nusrati after the proceedings of the alleged gang rape of his sister in Karak on Friday. Alamzeb Khattak, 24, had steadfastly supported his sister`s fight for justice in the face of threats and unrelenting pressure from the accused who include three policemen. His cold-blooded murder in the precinct of a court prompted the provincial home department order “a thorough and transparent probe into any security lapse” ... Police had arrested the four accused in the rape case, including inspector Peer Mohsin...

(STATEWIDE) The homicide rate for African Americans in Wisconsin is almost five times the national rate. A new report using FBI statistics ranks Wisconsin in the top ten for the percentage of black murder victims. The figures are from 2009. Of the 146 murders in the state that year 79 of the victims were black and most of them 66 were young black men. Most 60 percent knew their killer. Josh Sugarman heads the Washington, D.C. based Violence Policy Center that produced the report crunched the numbers and produced the ranking. He says gun control laws are the key to...

An infant girl found wrapped in a towel on the front steps of a Northeast residence late Sunday night later died, and police are investigating the case as a homicide. A resident of the 3000 block of Channing Street, NE, was walking home when he saw the unidentified infant on the steps of another home in the same block, police said Tuesday morning. After finding the baby cold and unconscious, he brought the baby into his home and called 911. Police and Fire and Emergency Medical Services arrived at the scene shortly after 11:30 p.m. and found a neighbor performing...

BELLEVUE, WA – This week’s revelation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that homicide is no longer among the leading causes of death in the United States – at a time when gun ownership is at an all-time high – shows that the gun ban lobby has been wrong, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. “The CDC’s report for 2010 that removes homicide from the top 15 leading causes of death in this country coincides with a period of record high gun ownership,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “At the same...