Thoughts and prayers to all those who are affected by the Boston finish line explosions 

Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to my friends/family on off2dr. It feels so good being a member of the community here.

I would like to give a special thanks to Pam and all the other moderators/admins on this site for providing us with a place to voice our opinions. Also special thanks to every other member for also being able to share the joy of having the right to voice our opinions on this site 

We all know that here in the US, election day is quickly approaching. We have two choices. Mitt Romney (R) or Barack Obama (D). Well recently this morning CNN had the results of the early voting and it was dead even at 49% each.

Regardless of who wants who to win, one thing we can all agree on is, we want this over asap because those ads are annoying.

Anyone have any closing thoughts before we head into the big day tomorrow?

(CNN) -- A Louisiana man who spent 15 years on death row for a murder he did not commit was released Friday from prison in an exoneration brought about by the Innocence Project.
"It's been a long journey," Damon A. Thibodeaux, 38, said during a news conference with his lawyers. "It's people like y'all who give people like us a chance."

Thibodeaux, who was convicted after falsely confessing to having raped and murdered his 14-year-old step-cousin, said he hopes law enforcement will learn from his case.

"Make sure you have the right person before you start a process of executing someone," he said. "Because it costs a lot of money to go back and look at all of these cases again. If it's done right the first time, you shouldn't have to do that."
Thibodeaux described as "surreal" his walk earlier in the day out of Louisiana State Penitentiary. "It's not something you can prepare yourself for, because you've been living in those conditions for so long."

Asked how he felt, Thibodeaux did not hesitate. "Free," he said. "I feel free. I feel free."
Former inmate exonerated in rape case joins pro football team
Initially, he said, he felt like giving up, but resisted the temptation. "The minute you give up completely is the minute you die," he said. "Period."

Thibodeaux said that he was looking forward to "peace and quiet ... just concentrating on putting my life back together and moving forward."

His court-ordered release came after DNA and other evidence exonerated him. Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. agreed with Thibodeaux's lawyers that he had confessed to something he did not do.
Connick "joined the Innocence Project and Thibodeaux's other counsel in agreeing to overturn Thibodeaux's conviction and death sentence after his confession to police was determined to be false," the district attorney said in a statement.
"This is a damn good day at the office," said Denise LeBoeuf, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, who has represented Thibodeaux since 1998.

The case points to the need to abolish the death penalty, she said. "It doesn't make us safer; it makes the pain of murder worse; and if we can't figure out how to have a death penalty that doesn't put innocent men on death row and innocent women on death row across the country, then we don't deserve to have it. It is a human rights violation. We need to end it now."
Thibodeaux was convicted of killing his relative, Crystal Champagne, whose body was found on July 20, 1996, a day after she left her apartment to go to a nearby supermarket.

More than 2,000 wrongfully convicted people exonerated in 23 years, researchers say
He was among a number of people who were interviewed by police. After some nine hours of interrogation, "he provided an apparent confession to raping and murdering the victim," the ACLU said in a news release. Primarily on that basis, Thibodeaux was convicted and sentenced to death in October 1997, it said.

A decade later, his legal team gave evidence to the district attorney of Thibodeaux's innocence and an investigation -- which wound up involving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of DNA testing, forensic evidence and interviews -- got under way.
"The probe confirmed that Thibodeaux's confession was false in every significant aspect," the ACLU said.
Since 2000, six people have been released from Louisiana's death row after being exonerated; in that time, three people have been executed, it said.

"What we were doing was searching for the truth," said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with New York's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. "We hope that justice is done and we find the person who really committed the crime."
He said Thibodeaux was the 300th person exonerated through DNA testing.

Asked what might have led Thibodeaux to confess, Scheck said, "That is something that we're studying and is part of the lessons to be learned here. That's not one of the things that I think is probably appropriate for us to discuss at the moment."
The case points to the need for police to videotape interrogations, according to Scheck. Had that been done in this case, "we wouldn't be sitting here today," Scheck said. "It's a simple thing to do and it's sweeping the country."

Link to story here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/28/justice/louisiana-inmate-exonerated/index.html?hpt=ju_c2

And while it is great that an innocent was not wrongfully executed, I still favor the death penalty despite this development.

Gunman kills 12 at 'Dark Knight Rises' screening in Colorado

A suspect is in custody after opening fire at a midnight screening of the Batman film 'The Dark Knight Rises' in Aurora, Colorado, east of Denver. Fifty people are wounded. Witnesses say the gunman released a noxious gas before opening fire, making escape more difficult.

A lone 24-year-old masked gunman entered a Colorado movie theater playing the new Batman movie and opened fire early Friday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 50, according to police and local media. The suspect, a white male, was found in the parking lot and did not resist arrest, CNN said.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene, telling television reporters that they were overcome by noxious gas unleashed by the suspect just before he started shooting, and that they had to decide between staying on the ground, helping wounded victims or running away before the gunman was able to reload his weapon. Survivors said they were forced to run past bodies in the aisles and theater.

The gunman was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and two handguns, police said. Cellphone videos show panicked moviegoers running — some screaming — and others with blood visible.

The death toll was revised downward from an earlier figure of 14 dead given by police in Aurora, a suburb east of Denver.


Crowds of worried family members and friends were gathering at Denver-area hospitals, hoping to hear about their loved ones. According to images broadcast by local television,  some held their heads down, and rocked back and forth as they sat on the sidewalk, as the sun rose.

The shooting came minutes after the 12:05 a.m. premiere showing of the widely anticipated premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises."


Eyewitnesses said the gunman entered the movie theater through the emergency exit door near the front of the screen in theater No. 9 at the Century 16 in Aurora. A witness, who declined to be identified, told The Times that the gunman then  "threw a canister across the theater," unleashing gas, "then started shooting."

The witness said he saw a man two seats over who was shot in the head. "I can't get his image out of my head," the witness wrote in a message. The victim was wearing a shirt bearing the face of the Joker from the Batman series; after he was shot, he slumped back in his chair, his face covered in blood.

Witnesses told Denver's NBC affiliate, KUSA-TV 9News, that the tall, muscular gunman , wearing a riot helmet, gas mask and dressed all in black, said nothing as he entered the theater. Initially, spectators thought he was part of the show.

But witnesses  described seeing him toss two canisters to the ground, and once they exploded, spectators began ducking or running out of the theater, an escape made difficult by the blinding gas.

"He looked so calm when he did it," a witness told 9News.

At one point, there was a pause in the shooting, when the gunman appeared to reload his weapon, and some spectators took that opportunity to flee, witnesses told the NBC affiliate. Witnesses described scenes of gunshot victims scrambling to escape the theater.

The Denver TV station played police dispatch audio of first-responders asking operators to ask for gas masks.

Some of the bullets pierced walls and traveled into the adjacent theater, No. 8, and injured people, 9News reported. A 3-month-old baby was taken to the hospital, but was not wounded by gunfire, 9News reported, quoting a hospital spokesperson. The TV station reported that the infant was checked and then released from the hospital.

"This is a horrific event," Aurora police chief Daniel J. Oates told reporters during a news conference. There was no evidence of a second gunman, Oates said.

The shooting came just after hundreds of theater-goers had lined up for hours, eager to see "The Dark Knight Rises," the third installment of director Christopher Nolan's Batman series.

Oates said 10 people were found dead in the theater.

The suspect was found outside the theater holding a rifle and a handgun, the TV station reported, quoting police.


9News reported that the suspect indicated to police that his apartment building might have explosives, and authorities were evacuating that structure  and searching for possible explosives.

Warner Bros., the studio that produced the movie, said in  a statement: “Warner Bros. is deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time.”

President Obama released the following statement: "My administration will do everything that we can to support the people of Aurora in this extraordinarily difficult time. We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded. As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family. All of us must have the people of Aurora in our thoughts and prayers as they confront the loss of family, friends, and neighbors, and we must stand together with them in the challenging hours and days to come."

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, issued a statement shortly after Obama's saying he and his wife, Ann, were "deeply saddened by the news of the senseless violence."

Link to the story: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-dark-knight-shooting-20120720,0,2147749.story

He's old enough to get the death penalty so hopefully he gets it. He probably won't ever see the inside of the execution chamber though.

7 Shirley prison guards injured in melee

By Robert Mills, rmills@lowellsun.com
Updated:   06/25/2012 07:36:59 PM EDT
   

Seven correction officers at the maximum security Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley were hospitalized Monday afternoon as they worked to get prisoners into lockdown after a prisoner attacked an officer with a weapon.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said the incident began at 1:30 p.m., when an inmate attacked an unidentified correction officer with a weapon in the prison's general population unit.

Two other correction officers who ran to restrain the armed prisoner were also hurt, Wiffin said.

An emergency response was initiated, and two minutes later, at 1:32 p.m., the general population unit was secured, and the prison was placed in lockdown, a condition in which it will remain pending an investigation, Wiffin said.

She said seven correctional officers in all were taken to the hospital following the incident, but Wiffin said she was unable to provide information on the severity of their injuries, where they were taken, or who they were.

She said the incident is under investigation by both the Department of Corrections and the Massachusetts State Police.

"The response by correction officers was quick and very effective in controlling the situation," Wiffin said. "They did an excellent job in quelling the situation."

For more on this story, see Tuesday's Sun or visit http://www.lowellsun.com



Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/rss/ci_20936243?source=rss#ixzz1yr9ylYt4

Long story short, a little over a year ago my neighbor's son was shot and set on fire in a ditch by 2 underage kids and 1 older male. The older male went to trial recently and was convicted of murder in the first degree and given the only available penalty, life in prison without parole as a result of the death penalty being abolished in 1984. Now the trial of the underage kids (age 13-14) are coming up and the supposedly can only be charged as a juvenile, meaning of course they're going to get out on their eighteenth birthday.

Do we know of any loopholes in the law that could potentially make it so they can be charged as an adult? Even if they can only be charged with murder in the second degree, 15 years to life in prison is better than them getting just 5 years in a juvenile detention center.

This isn't like it was an argument over a girl, this would have probably been charged as a capital crime if the death penalty was an option. The underlined felony is armed robbery.

I have been looking and coming up empty so I must be wording my searches wrong or whatever. The state that this is in is Massachusetts.

Tonight is the night when the 7 year old will finally get some justice 

HAMMOND, La. -- Hammond Police arrested a man who detectives say contacted women through a hacked Facebook account, then eventually extorted them for sex.
Adam Kolb, 25, is in the Hammond Jail, arrested Monday for extortion.
"There are a lot of victims out there, female victims," said Lt. Vince Giannobile of the Hammond Police Department, "and we want them to come forward."
Detectives said Adam Kolb hacked into a woman's Facebook account and then used that account to friend other women.
"He has done this numerous times," Giannobile said. "What we figured out now is, there's going to be numerous victims using this Facebook account."

He would then call the women, investigators said, claiming to be a friend of that friend.
Kolb would develop relationships with the women, detectives said, and in some cases, he would go on dates with them.
"Somehow or another, he would take photographs," Lt. Giannobile said. "He would film them."
In other cases, investigators said, Kolb would ask the women to send him explicit pictures of themselves.
Once he had the explicit pictures or videos, Hammond Police said, he would threaten to send them to family or employers if the women didn't agree to have sex with him.
The extortion charge stems from that demand. By Louisiana Law, extortion does not have to involve money.

In this case, police said, it was for sex, and investigators are not sure how many victims are out there.
"There could be up to 20 to 30," Giannobile said. "We're not really sure."
"Especially college students, people who are younger," Amber Narro said, "they don't think about the things that they put online."
Narro teaches Social Media classes in the Communications Department at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.
Younger people are not as guarded on social media sites as they should be, Narro said.
"I am not surprised that he was able to find people," Narra said. "I'm not surprised that he was able to use, 'I'm a friend of your friend to get in touch with individuals.'"

Hammond police arrested Kolb Monday at his home in the College Town Apartment on N. Morrison in Hammond.
On his computer, investigators said, they found hundreds of pictures and videos of potential victims.
If you can help investigators, you are urged to call Detective Edwin Bergeron of the Hammond Police at (985) 277 - 5741.


Source: http://www.wwltv.com/news/northshore/Police-Man-extorted-a-couple-dozen-women-for-sex-130662023.html

Lol he's a yugioh player actually. I've dealt with him over some gaming forums and he was a prick to me over youtube. Karma caught up with this scumbag.

Murders that are committed by a person already serving a life sentence in any state, even ones that do not have the death penalty (ie: Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, etc)

I mean it, there should be no penalty phase. The minute the person is convicted of murder in the first or second degree, a death sentence should be handed down regardless of the judge's views on the death penalty. If the state that the murder is committed in doesn't already have the death penalty then the sentencing judge will pick a state and their method for the person to be executed in An example of that would be if someone serving a life sentence in say Iowa kills someone in the prison or even escapes and kills another person then assuming he is convicted, the judge chooses him to be held on death row in say South Dakota?

The reason for this is because a person serving a life sentence in a state without the death penalty will have no reason not to kill and to my knowledge, you can't revive a dead person so they can serve a second life sentence when they die during their first one. If there is no death penalty then there is no punishment for someone who is already serving a life sentence. If the murder is committed in prison where it is almost easy to tell who did it then the death sentence should be carried out 5 days after the sentence is carried out.

Unless there is an alternative way to punish someone already serving a life sentence?

who believes the terms in trial not guilty and guilty should be changed to "not proven" and "proven"?

Like the terminology can be changed to

"We the jury find the charge of murder in the first degree against defendant ________________ to be (not proven or proven)"

Judge: On the charge of first degree murder, how does your client plead?

Lawyer: My client pleads that the crime is "not proven".

My reasoning is it would show people that being found not guilty or acquitted does not mean innocent.

Yes, I am bringing this up partially as a result of the Casey Anthony case lol

Why or why not?

Was surfing the web looking for info on the latest appeals of Wyoming's only death row inmate and here is what I got from March.

Death row inmate Eaton challenges conviction

Lawyers representing Wyoming's lone death row inmate in his federal appeal continue to hammer on the Wyoming Public Defender's Office, saying it failed to provide the man an adequate defense at trial.

Inmate Dale Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the state death sentence he received in the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, of Billings, Mont.

Eaton's lawyers this month filed papers with a federal judge in Cheyenne. The lawyers dispute the Wyoming attorney general's office's position that Eaton received a fair trial and doesn't deserve lengthy federal appeals hearings before the state executes him.

Eaton's lawyers say the Public Defender's Office refused to hire a specialist to investigate Eaton's past to help inform the jury why he should have been spared the death penalty.

http://www.kgwn.tv/Global/story.asp?S=14316594

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine -- Police were searching for answers Sunday after a boy's body was found on a dirt road in Maine.

The boy was found in the woods about 40 feet off the remote road, just outside South Berwick, Maine.

“A pedestrian walking on the road happened to look over and saw the body,” Maine State Police Sgt. Chris Harriman said.

Police started their investigation into the boy's death Saturday afternoon, but as of Sunday night they were still missing a big clue; detectives don't know who the boy is.

State police released a computer-generated photo of the child -- believed to be four or five-years-old, a little less under feet tall, and wearing a blue shirt and gray camouflage jacket.

Investigators knocked on the doors of the few homes nearby the somewhat desolate road, but no one recognized the boy.

“There’s a couple of houses at the crossroads there, but not really heavily traveled,” Harriman said.

“There’s no one out here, I mean, which is what we like about it -- we’re by ourselves out here,” Ben Lewis said. “There’s a few people here and there but if you were out here for an hour you might see three cars drive by.”

Police are now looking for a navy blue Toyota Tacoma pickup truck that was seen on the dirt road.

There has been no word on whether the pickup has anything to do with the boy, but with so few clues, investigators are chasing every possible lead.

Police also checked missing persons databases in nearby states including Massachusetts and New Hampshire but have found no leads, and now they’re hoping the public can provide the most important clue: The identity of this boy.

“It’s the next step in the investigation,” Sgt. Harriman said. “We can’t move past that until he’s identified.”

Police are encouraging anyone who has any information on who this boy may be to contact Maine State Police at 207-657-3030.

Stay with 7NEWS and WHDH.com for updates to this developing story. If you have information related to the story, please e-mail newstips@whdh.com.

(Copyright (c) 2011 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Link: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12004319013579/maine-police-try-to-id-body-of-boy-found-near-road/

New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Yale University lab technician pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted sexual assault in the killing of graduate student Annie Le in 2009.
Raymond Clark III will be sentenced to 44 years in prison as part of the plea agreement.

In court Thursday, prosecutors described injuries to the victim and evidence of attempted sexual assault.
Le, 24, was strangled to death. She had a broken jaw and collarbone, the prosecution said. Clark's DNA was "all over" the crime scene, including in her underwear, the state charged.
Le's body was discovered inside a wall of a Yale lab building four days later after an extensive search by the FBI and police.
Clark, 26, admitted the facts as the prosecution presented them but pleaded guilty under a legal precedent that allows him to do so while still officially protesting his innocence.

He entered Judge Roland Fasano's packed courtroom handcuffed, winking at his father as he walked in. His handcuffs were removed for the proceedings.

"This is not the Ray we know," Clark's father said tearfully outside the court after the hearing.
"I want you to know Ray has expressed remorse from the beginning," he added, saying how difficult it was "to imagine your child did the unthinkable."
"My family and I send deepest sympathy to the Le family," said Clark's father, also called Raymond.

Clark pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine, which allows a defendant to assert that he is innocent but plead guilty when he "intelligently concludes that his interests require a guilty plea and the record strongly evidences guilt."
Clark had pleaded not guilty in January 2010.
Le was pursuing a doctorate in pharmacology at Yale when she went missing September 8, 2009.
She had planned to marry Columbia graduate student Jonathan Widawsky on the day her body was found.

Clark was not a Yale student but had worked as a lab technician at the university since 2004, after graduating from high school. He lived with his girlfriend, who also is a Yale lab technician, according to police.

A Yale faculty member described Clark's job as maintaining colonies for animals used in research.

Site: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/17/connecticut.yale.murder.plea/?hpt=Sbin

Carlos Brown, accused of murder in the July 2009 death of Maurice Hollis, fled from St. Francis Hospital when he dropped off his fatally wounded friend after a botched robbery, prosecutors told jurors on Tuesday.
Brown’s defense attorney told jurors on the second day of trial that his client was in a car when the shooting occurred and doesn’t know what happened.

Brown, 26, faces charges in connection with the July 19, 2009, shooting death of Hollis, 24. Jury selection began Monday and jurors heard opening statements Tuesday morning.
 
Senior Assistant District Attorney LaRae Moore said that Brown, 34-year-old Kubiat Ekperikpe and Hollis were looking for somewhere to go on July 19, 2009. That ultimately led them in search of marijuana and to the Main Street apartment of Clarence Mahone, 24.
Brown, Ekperikpe and Hollis pulled into a parking spot at Mahone’s apartment complex, and Brown waited in the car as the other men entered a breezeway, Moore said. Brown heard gunshots about four minutes later, and he approached the breezeway.

“He sees Maurice Hollis on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head,” Moore said.
Ekperikpe wanted to leave, but Brown coaxed him to put Hollis in the back seat of their car. As Ekperikpe drove to St. Francis, Brown made phone calls, Moore said.
One of those was to someone who would later be waiting for Brown at the hospital to drive him away, the prosecutor said.
Other calls were to Hollis’ brother. Brown told him that Hollis had been shot and that he’d be at The Medical Center. He then called back and told him that it was St. Francis instead.
The third time Brown called, he told the brother that they’d planned to rob Mahone and that Brown was to be the getaway driver.

“Carlos Brown called him crying, telling him that it was a robbery gone bad,” Moore said.
Ekperikpe tossed a gun out of the car on Manchester Expressway before reaching the hospital. Moore said that neither Ekperikpe’s weapon nor a gun later found with Mahone was used to kill Hollis and that prosecutors don’t have the weapon used in the homicide.

An officer at St. Francis arrested Ekperikpe after he arrived, but Brown ran down the street to a waiting car, Moore said.
Mahone and Brown were arrested shortly afterward.
Brown, Ekperikpe and Mahone will be prosecuted separately.

The defense
Attorney Michael Garner, who’s representing Brown, questioned whether prosecutors could prove his client committed a homicide while participating in an aggravated assault, armed robbery, attempted armed robbery or while he distributed marijuana.

Brown faces multiple charges of felony murder. Someone can be charged with felony murder when he or she is accused of committing a felony and someone dies during the crime.
“The state’s going to have to prove the aggravated assault,” Garner said. “The question is, what do we expect the evidence to be on the aggravated assault? Well, I don’t know if anyone was assaulted in this case other than the deceased.”
Garner read down the list of charges his client faces, asking what evidence will show that someone pointed a gun at Mahone during a robbery.

“They’re just making all kinds of charges like a shotgun,” he said. “Carlos is in the car. He doesn’t know what happened.”
The original murder charges against Brown, Mahone and Ekperikpe were tossed in May because of a 1981 state Supreme Court case, State v. Crane.
That case stated that a defendant can’t be found guilty of felony murder when the intended victim kills one of the defendant’s accomplices.

In June, the Supreme Court reinterpreted the law, Crane stated that the death must be caused directly by someone committing a crime. The ruling called Crane poorly reasoned.
The three men were indicted again on murder charges in July.


Read more: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2010/12/08/1374496/testimony-begins-in-murder-trial.html#ixzz17XYEw91k