Ferdinand Pecora Buzz

Found some blogs, here and here, asking for a new Ferdinand Pecora and a new Pecora Commission.  The ‘ole New York Times mentioned it back in January and it is a pretty good read besides being a good history lesson.

Click the links.  Enjoy and hope.

Whoops! Hope my Judges don’t hear about this.

I hate it when this happens.  Just can’t believe this was in Michigan and not South Alabama.  From Law.com:

Judge Forgot to Put ‘Not Guilty’ on Verdict Form

Tresa Baldas
04-24-2009
A Michigan appellate court has overturned an involuntary manslaughter conviction because a judge forgot to include the words “not guilty” on the verdict form used by the jury.

“The verdict form was defective, requiring reversal, because it did not give the jury the opportunity to return a general verdict of not guilty,” the three-judge panel wrote in its opinion on Tuesday. “[B]ecause of the way the verdict form was set up, the jury was not given the opportunity to find defendant either generally not guilty or not guilty of the lesser-included offenses in violation of his constitutional right to a trial by jury.”

The case involved Michael Jess Wade, a security guard who was convicted in 2007 of fatally shooting a suspected thief at a Detroit Police Department impound yard. He received a three-to-15-year sentence, but will receive a new trial as a result of the mistake made by Wayne County Circuit Judge Annette Berry.

Berry’s staff said that the judge could not comment on cases before her.

According to the Michigan Court of Appeals, Berry properly instructed jurors to issue a guilty or not-guilty verdict on the first-degree murder charge, but erred when she failed to include not guilty as a choice for the lesser offenses of second degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.

Wade’s appellate attorney, Kevin Gentry of the Gentry Law Office in Whitmore Lake, Mich., believes it was an honest mistake.

“I have no reason to believe otherwise,” Gentry said. “I can’t imagine that any judge would intentionally think that a form that’s been banned by the Michigan Supreme Court would pass muster.”

According to Gentry, Berry attempted to create her own, non-standard verdict form instead of relying on the traditional one used in the criminal courts and sanctioned by the state Supreme Court. He noted that during his client’s trial, the jury foreman did express some confusion over the verdict form.

“The jury foreman actually got up and had some confusion. He was stuttering about … and before he could get a question out, the judge said, ‘Just tell me which box you checked,’ ” Gentry said. “And then the judge accepted that as a verdict.”

Gentry said that during jury deliberations, the prosecution and defense also expressed concern about the verdict form, and asked the judge to issue a new one. But she said no, he said.

“This was caught by both sides,” Gentry said.

Officials at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office were unavailable for comment.

According to Gentry, Wade can’t be tried a second time for first or second degree murder because his original jury’s verdict eliminated all but the involuntary manslaughter and firearms charges. Meanwhile, he will seek bond for Wade’s release while awaiting a new trial.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s office declined comment.

WSFA Children’s Host Marge Payne Passes

From the Montgomery Advertiser, Mrs. Payne at her 80th Birthday in 2006

Marge Payne was a part of my childhood.  My family moved to Montgomery when I was in the second grade and my sister in the first.  We lived in Southlawn in south Montgomery and this was in the era of only three TV channels (four, if you count public TV), no cable and most sadly for a child, no cartoons except on Saturday mornings.  School let out at 2:50 and Young World, Mrs. Payne’s show on WSFA came on Channel 12 at 3:30.

Reading Mrs. Payne’s obiturary in the Montgomery Advertiser this morning was like hearing about the death of a fondly remembered Aunt that had moved away years ago.  An Aunt that was always upbeat, cheerful and eternally ready to try something new or go somewhere different.  Mrs. Payne taught us to use our imagination and told us to respect everyone (an interesting notion in the early 70s as Montgomery was going through integration).  Mrs. Payne also stressed there was nothing we couldn’t do and we could grow up to become whoever we wanted to be.

Every day, Taralynn and I would rush home from Southlawn Elementary so we wouldn’t miss the Young World theme song and the first cartoon.  Marge Payne was waiting for us in our living room and we spent 30 minutes in the afternoon with her every day for years.  It was obvious to us, even then, she loved children and loved the opportunity to teach and explain.

I hope Mrs. Payne’s family will take some comfort in the fact she was a wonderful companion to thousands of children in Montgomery that loved spending time with her.  Unfortunately, in the 24-hour cable cartoon world of today, there is no Marge Payne.  A terrible loss.

These are the only videos of Mrs. Payne on the web; these are from WSFA’s site, I wish there were more.

Here is an excellent article from the Advertiser:

Marge Payne helped raise thousands of River Region children who are now grown up. The creator, producer and host of WSFA’s award-winning “Young World,” which ran for 30 years, passed away early Saturday morning at the age of 82 in Summerlin, Ga.

Her daughter, Karolyn Payne Elliott of Charleston, S.C., one of her five children, said her mother had been on a “grand adventure,” travel­ing to visit each of her chil­dren who are scattered across the South, with homes in Georgia, Ken­tucky, Texas and South Car­olina.

They were planning on coming to Montgomery next week for a combination early Mother’s Day, late Eas­ter party, Karolyn said.

Marge Payne was a mem­ber of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and she loved Eas­ter — and beautiful clothing. She helped found the Gover­nor’s Easter Egg Hunt for Disabled Children, and us­ing her talents as a fine seamstress, hosted annual Easter fashion shows for children.

“The joke at our house was that we never saw her without makeup, dressed up, and wearing pearls,” El­liott said.

Payne and her husband came to Montgomery 60 years ago from New York, where she had been a model.

She was an educator as well — she and her husband Richard started the Green Gate School in Montgomery, helped bring the first Mon­tessori school to the area, and started three private preschools for children up to age of 6, Elliott said.

Two of her grandchildren suffer lifelong disabilities, Elliott said, and Marge Pay­ne worked hard to teach the concept that disabled chil­dren had as much genius as students who were more tra­ditionally gifted.

One of her disabled grand­children now is successful in business and the other is an attorney, Karolyn said.

She is probably most wide­ly remembered for “Young World,” which started in 1971 with a media focus on children that saw her danc­ing with Sesame Street’s Big Bird, chatting with Presi­dent Jimmy Carter, and en­tertaining and inspiring and educating thousands of youngsters for more than two decades.

“She didn’t do cartoons,” Karolyn said. “It was all edu­cational. The purpose was to teach children. She would have a panel of children on there — it was like a cross between Art Linkletter and the reality shows you see to­day.”

The funeral will be next Saturday at St. John’s at 2 p.m., following a 1 p.m. friends’ reception in the gar­dens at the church. Visita­tion will be Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Leak-Memo­ry Chapel.

The family will be there and all her friends are in­vited, Karolyn said. There may be some tears, but it won’t be a sad occasion, she promised.

“We want everyone to know this will be a celebra­tion of a life well-lived,” she said.

Her mother loved flowers, but Karolyn said those who would like may make a dona­tion to Father Walter’s Me­morial Child Care Center or the U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. In­stitute (Medical Investiga­tion of Neurodevelopmental Disorders), which has an on­line donor form at www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/MINDInstitute.

Arizona v. Gant, Supremes Uphold 4th Amendment

Down here in Dixie, we sometimes wonder if the judges know about the 4th Amendment (you know, the one about the police have to have a warrant to search your stuff).  Usually, round here, if the cops stop you, they can do whatever they want in the way of search because no judge (at least in Covington County) is ever going to throw out wrongfully seized evidence.

Hopefully we can get our judges to look at Arizona v. Gant which holds that the so-called “automobile exception” is a thing of the past.  From the Supremes:

. . . searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment—subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.” Katz v. United States, 389 U. S. 347, 357 (1967) (footnote omitted). Among the exceptions to the warrant requirement is a search incident to a lawful arrest. See Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 392 (1914). The exception derives from interests in officer safety and evidence preservation that are typically implicated in arrest situations. See United States v. Robinson, 414 U. S. 218, 230–234 (1973); Chimel, 395 U. S., at 763.

* * *

Despite the textual and evidentiary support for the Arizona Supreme Court’s reading of Belton, our opinion has been widely understood to allow a vehicle search incident to the arrest of a recent occupant even if there isno possibility the arrestee could gain access to the vehicle at the time of the search. This reading may be attributable to Justice Brennan’s dissent in Belton, in which he characterized the Court’s holding as resting on the “fiction. . . that the interior of a car is always within the immediate control of an arrestee who has recently been in the car.” 453 U. S., at 466.

* * *

Under this broad reading of Belton, a vehicle search would be authorized incident to every arrest of a recent occupant notwithstanding that in most cases the vehicle’s passenger compartment will not be within the arrestee’s reach at the time of the search.

* * *

Because police could not reasonably have believed either that Gant could have accessed his car at the time of the search or that evidence of the offense for which he was arrested might have been found therein, the search in this case was unreasonable.

Lawyers have fun too

An example of fun, achievment and excellent writing from the New York Personal Injury Blog, Eric Turkewitz’s account of running the Boston Marathon. (Remember to click on the pictures of Wonder Woman and the Hooter Girl)

Be afraid, be very afraid

A frightening interactive map from Slate.com showing job loss in the U.S.

Scary.

Two Geniuses: Barak Obama and Nick Saban

When James Carville worked for Bill Clinton’s Presidency campaign in 1992 he used to say “you gotta feed the beast.”  What he meant was you must create stories for the media or the media will go out and find their own stories.  In other words, feed the beast so as to control it.

President Obama and Nick Saban are geniuses in this regard.

First, the president dog has the White House press corps giddy as little girls while there are huge questions about the President’s economic plans.  Compare these (AP Photos/Pete Souza, White House/Gerald Herbert):

with this chart:

Obama is brilliant.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Nick Saban has a crisis almost as deadly.  Who can forget the old joke, “Who is the best quarterback in the NCAA?”  Answer, “Whoever is sitting on the bench at Alabama.”  Here is a nice shot of Greg McElroy and Star Jackson:

Coach Saban must avoid a quarterback controversy at all costs or all he will hear this fall will be the chants of “Star, Star, Star!”

Instead of letting the press pump up the looming controversy, all everyone has been writing about is Alabama’s offensive line.  These stories have coma as a result of the Alabama coaching staff mixing up the offensive line and in doing so, creating thier own mini-controversy.

An example from the Mobile Press Register:

The first full week of spring practice hasn’t revealed many certainties about the Crimson Tide’s line in 2009. Offensive line coach Joe Pendry has mixed and matched players every day, moving multiple players to multiple spots while rotating them in and out of the first group without a pattern. Players have said they have no idea where they will work each day.

And another from the Montgomery Advertiser:

TUSCALOOSA — Earlier this week, Brian Motley looked like an afterthought, an almost forgotten contributor on the offensive line.

By Saturday, he was working with the first-team unit.

If there’s one thing the shuffling lineup has taught Alabama players, it’s that there is no depth chart. Head coach Nick Saban frequently chastises the media on the subject, insisting any piece of player that has players listed in a certain order by position is for “organizational purposes only.”

“I don’t know anything about the depth chart,” said backup left tackle Alfred McCullough. “It switches up every day.”

* * *

Saban acknowledged the shuffling depth chart can create intrigue among fans and the media, but said it isn’t important to determine starters before the A-Day game on April 18.

Obama and Saban.  Feedin’ their respective beasts.

Fifth Amendment Primer: Don’t Talk to Cops!

Probably the best videos I have ever seen to explain why not to talk to the police, even if innocent.  (And yes, sometimes innocent people are convicted in the criminal courts of Alabama, despite the best efforts of their criminal defense attorneys.) (They are about an hour together, but the videos are well worth your time.)

Part One:

Part Two: (Even the cop agrees, and explains why.)

Team Artur

I continue to believe Artur Davis cannot win the Governor’s race in Alabama in 2010.  However, he has assembled a pretty impressive campaign staff.

Jessica Vanden Berg – she helped elect Jim Webb in Virginia; Impressive.  Read about her here.  Sharp, very sharp.

Ben Chao- again, very impressive.  Check out his work here.

One thing drove me crazy about Ben Chao.  Click on the “Revisionist” ad he did for Josh Segall (A great Americian who should be in Congress).  The music and the images in the ad touched something deep in my subconscious but I couldn’t identify what it was.

Now I know and am filled with even more respect for Ben Chao.  (To understand, you have to watch the “Revisionist” ad before you click this:)

Artur Davis, “No Religion Has a Corner on Truth”

I hate to slam Artur.   But he can’t be elected Governor in Alabama.

Here is a taste of what the Repubs will hammer Artur with in the fall.  He says, immediately at the start of the clip, “No religion has a corner on truth.”

The problem is there are a ton of folks in Alabama that sit in the pews and are told every Sunday the Bible is the only truth.  Religion is the justification for all their political beliefs.  (Abortion, School prayer, etc.)

And here is Artur telling them Christianity has no corner on truth.  And yes, before you slam me, I watched the rest of the clip and I understand where Artur is coming from and I understand what he is saying, but I don’t know how he explains that in a 30 second ad.

But I can see the Repubs ad now.  A tense, stressed announcer’s voice says, “Artur Davis is against Religion.”  Cue quote from above clip.  Insert concluding snide remark about what Artur believes or doesn’t believe and why he shouldn’t be Governor.

Too easy.   Too perfect for the quick soundbite of what passes for political discourse.

Compare that to Judge Ashley McKathan and his wearing of the Ten Commandments on his Judicial robe.  “McKathan told the Associated Press that he believes the Ten Commandments represent the truth “and you can’t divorce the law from the truth.”

“The Ten Commandments can help a judge know the difference between right and wrong,” McKathan said.

Alabama is more likely to buy Judge McKathan’s version instead of Artur’s.