Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Woman Who Killed Her 4 Daughters Is Given 120 Years

By IAN URBINA
Published: December 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — A woman convicted of killing her four daughters and living for
months with their decomposing bodies was sentenced Friday to 120 years in prison.

The woman, Banita M. Jacks, 35, was found living with the corpses of her daughters,
ages 5 to 16, when deputy federal marshals served an eviction notice at her home in
southeast Washington on Jan. 9, 2008. Autopsies later indicated that the girls had been
dead for at least seven months.

The deaths plunged the local child welfare agency into turmoil amid accusations that
more should have been done to prevent them. The agency has been under federal court
oversight for two decades.

This case “will probably haunt me for the rest of my life,” Judge Frederick H. Weisberg
of the District of Columbia Superior Court said as he handed down the mandatory
minimum sentence of 30 years for the murder of each child. He rejected a request from
Ms. Jacks’s lawyer that the sentences run concurrently.

During her trial, Ms. Jacks’s lawyers had pressed her to plead not guilty by reason of
insanity and argued that she was not competent after she rejected that advice.

An April report by the city inspector general cited a lack of follow-through and
coordination among city agencies as the reason the girls were not saved.

“Multiple entities worked effectively, but largely obliviously to each other’s efforts, to
put in place many of the elements necessary for the family to sustain itself,” the report
said. “Yet, no single organization seemingly had the full perspective necessary to see
and follow the family’s progress, and intervene when these elements of self-sufficiency
began to destabilize.”

The Jacks family was supposed to receive monthly visits based on its housing
placement, but it never did, the report said. Education officials failed to follow through
when the girls dropped out of school.

In May, Judith W. Meltzer, who was appointed to track the child welfare agency by a
federal judge, Thomas F. Hogan, said the agency was still failing to offer adequate care
for abused and neglected children.

1
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Violent Crime Fell in 2008, F.B.I. Report Says

By DAVID STOUT
Published: September 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — A young black man being shot to death by another black man who
is an acquaintance continues to be the most “typical” homicide in the United States,
according to a Federal Bureau of Investigations report released on Monday that showed
an overall drop in violent crime for the second year in a row.

The F.B.I. figures show that nearly as many black people as white were homicide
victims in 2008, even though 80 percent of Americans are white, compared with 13
percent who are black, according to Census Bureau figures.

To put it another way, based on census figures for white and black men of all ages, a
black man was roughly six times as likely to be a homicide victim as a white man in
2008.

Of the nearly 17,000 homicide victims last year, 6,782 were black and 6,838 were
white, the F.B.I. said, with men several times more likely to be victims than women.
Several hundred other victims were classified as belonging to other races or as race
unknown.

Of the more than 16,000 people arrested for homicide in the United States in 2008,
5,943 were black and 5,334 white, with several thousand other suspects classified as
belonging to other races or as race unknown.

For both whites and blacks, men ages 17 to 30 were the most “typical” victims and
killers. Over all, men were several times more likely than women to be the victims and
the killers.

Justifiable killings by the police or civilians, suicides and deaths due to negligence are
not included in the homicide statistics.

While the estimated number of all violent crimes in the nation declined for the second
year, property crimes also fell over all in 2008, the sixth straight yearly drop in these
offenses.

2
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

The information, based on data sent to the F.B.I. from police agencies, is explained in
detail in the report, “Crime in the United States,” which is offered with caveats.

Aware of the temptation to rank cities or regions according to how safe they are, the
F.B.I. cautioned that “these rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous
variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state or region.” The report
continued, “Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often
create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.”

As Bill Carter, an F.B.I. spokesman, said Monday, the agency does not “cite any
specific reasons” for crime rising or falling.

“We leave that up to the academics and the criminologists and the sociologists,” Mr.
Carter said.

The F.B.I. data released Monday showed that 23.3 percent of murder victims were slain
by family members, and 54.7 percent were killed by acquaintances, while only 22
percent were murdered by strangers. Of last year’s homicides, 9,484 involved firearms,
6,755 of which were handguns, the F.B.I. said.

In each of the four violent crime offenses, the 2008 rates were down from 2007.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped 3.9 percent; aggravated assault
declined 2.5 percent; forcible rape declined 1.6 percent; and robbery was down 0.7
percent. The figures are based on offenses per 100,000 people.

Burglaries rose 2 percent in 2008, and larceny-thefts went up three-tenths of 1 percent.

But motor vehicle theft dropped 12.7 percent.

The 2008 violent crime rate was 454.5 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (a 2.7 percent
decrease from the 2007 rate), and the property crime rate was 3,212.5 per 100,000
persons (a 1.6 percent decrease from 2007).

Crime statistics can vary, depending on who is doing the counting. Information from the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, which like the F.B.I., is a Justice Department agency, is
based on surveys of households and individuals, instead of relying on police data. On
Sept. 2, the statistics bureau said its figures showed that violent crime was unchanged
in 2008 and that property crime was down slightly.

3
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

And the F.B.I. report released on Monday, while packed full of statistics, is based in
part on estimates, since some of the more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies that
participate in the F.B.I. survey could not or did not provide complete totals for the year.
Hence, while 14,180 homicides were documented in 2008, the F.B.I. estimated the
actual number at just over 16,700.

While Mr. Carter of the F.B.I. declined to discuss crime trends, he speculated that better
medical care in recent years has spared some assault victims from being listed
eventually as homicide victims.

4
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Bad Times Do Not Bring More Crime (if They Ever Did)
By AL BAKER
Published: November 29, 2009

Unemployment has reached 10.3 percent in New York City, higher than it is in the state
and nationally. The Bloomberg administration is weighing cuts from every city agency
to help close a $4.1 billion deficit next year. Homelessness among families is at a record
high, with more than 28,000 men, women and children now in the city’s shelter system.

In 2009, the signs of a bad economy are like blinking neon lights on Broadway.

Yet Police Department statistics show that the number of major crimes is continuing to
fall this year in nearly every category, upending the common wisdom that hard times
bring more crime.

“The idea that everyone has ingrained into them — that as the economy goes south,
crime has to get worse — is wrong,” said David M. Kennedy, a professor at the John
Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It was never right to begin with.”

Murder, considered the bellwether crime, is down by nearly 13 percent so far this year,
to 413 through Nov. 22, compared with 473 in the same period last year, the statistics
show. Rape, robbery, burglary, grand larceny and car theft are also on the decline.

There has been a decrease in overall crime in all but two of the city’s 76 police
precincts. Crime in the subways and in public housing complexes is down. The number
of shootings citywide has fallen, as has the number of people hurt or killed by gunfire
— despite the recent shootings of two teenagers in the Bronx and Queens who were not
the intended targets.

Even the number of petty larceny complaints — the theft of items valued at less than
$1,000, a crime mostly associated with shoplifting — has fallen, to 72,971 from 74,631
in the same period a year ago, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

New York has seen a steady drop in crime over the last 16 years, through Wall Street
booms and dot-com busts, amid the devastation of the Sept. 11 attack and the
revitalization that followed. Mr. Kelly said he was worried not that a floundering
economy would turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals, but that there would
not be enough city funds to replenish a depleted police force.

5
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

“People, generally speaking, are not committing crime to address a basic need for food
or shelter,” he said in a recent interview at 1 Police Plaza. “The economy goes up, the
economy goes down — there’s still an element of people who are committing crime not
motivated by the economic environment that we all find ourselves in.”

Peter Vallone Jr., chairman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said he
thought the commissioner was too modest. “It’s been very clear, since the beginning of
time, that when things are bad, crime goes up,” he said, crediting Mr. Kelly’s strategies
as the only thing keeping crime from spiking.

Experts have long studied how shifts in crime might be attributed to economic
indicators like consumer confidence, unemployment or a faltering housing market,
particularly when it comes to property crime, burglary and robbery. The findings have
been “rather equivocal,” said Steven F. Messner, a sociology professor at the State
University of New York at Albany who has studied homicides in New York City.

While there is generally thought to be a lag between changing economic conditions and
new crime patterns, he said, it is curious that there has been no pronounced jump in
street crimes associated with the most recent recession, which took root last year.

“But it could take a while to work its way through the system and into people’s
psychology,” he said. “I would say the jury is still out on the impact of this most recent
economic collapse.”

Jesenia Pizarro, an assistant professor of criminology at Michigan State University, said

crime was indirectly linked to the economy. Most crime is committed by the poor and
uneducated, she said, and a bad economy can aggravate poverty in ways that are not
obvious.

“The bad economy leads to social processes that are then more directly related to
crime,” she said, citing “less services for youth and young people who are less occupied
and don’t have the guardianship they need” or cuts in education “that can lead to
crime.”

Another indirect effect on crime is opportunistic: Scavengers steal copper, appliances

and “anything else they can get their hands on” from homes foreclosed on or
abandoned, said John F. Timoney, a former first deputy commissioner in New York
who recently resigned as the Miami police chief. That kind of mini-trend can occur in
cities like Miami where overall crime is on the decline, he said.

6
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

But anemic tax receipts have perhaps the most troubling effect on law enforcement
agencies, leading to cuts in overtime or delays in hiring, according to a survey of 233
police agencies conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group.

“The plans to discontinue special units are especially disconcerting,” Chief Timoney,
the group’s president, wrote in the report.

In New York, the Police Department’s head count has dropped to 35,200 officers from a
peak of about 40,800 officers in 2001, Commissioner Kelly said. And it could go lower,
as the city’s fiscal problems have forestalled hiring and as the department is trying to
find more cuts in a budget eaten up mostly by personnel costs.

“My primary concern is resources,” said the commissioner, who blamed the economic
crisis for keeping staffing at what he called undesirable levels. “And there’s an impact
— a very real impact — on policing.”

Though during his tenure crime has not risen in bad times, Commissioner Kelly said
that increased crime and disorder would erode a city’s prosperity.

Public safety is “the foundation of everything else, you name it,” he said. “If you don’t
have a safe environment, nothing is going to flourish, except the drug trade.”

Justices Appear Skeptical of Anticorruption Law

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: December 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — A federal law that is a favorite tool of prosecutors in corruption

cases met with almost universal hostility from the justices in Supreme Court arguments
on Tuesday.

The law, enacted in 1988, makes it a crime “to deprive another of the intangible right of
honest services.” The law is often used to prosecute corporate executives and politicians
said to have defrauded their employers or constituents.

7
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Justices across the court’s ideological spectrum took turns on Tuesday attacking the law
as hopelessly broad and vague.

Justice Steven G. Breyer estimated that there are 150 million workers in the United
States and that perhaps 140 million of them could be prosecuted under the government’s
interpretation of the law.

Complimenting the boss’s hat “so the boss will leave the room so that the worker can
continue to read The Racing Form,” Justice Breyer said, could amount to a federal
crime.

The justices heard arguments in two separate cases concerning the law on Tuesday. One
involved Conrad M. Black, the newspaper executive convicted of defrauding his media
company, Hollinger International. In his Supreme Court briefs, Mr. Black argued that
the law should not apply to him because he had not contemplated that Hollinger would
suffer “some identifiable economic injury.”

But at Tuesday’s argument, Mr. Black’s lawyer, Miguel A. Estrada, spent much of this
time urging the court to strike down the law entirely as unconstitutionally vague. That
idea seemed attractive to several justices, though Justice Breyer suggested that the court
might want to ask for additional briefing on the point.

The justices allowed Mr. Estrada to speak for long stretches, which is unusual, and the
tone of the argument was more brainstorming session than oral advocacy, with several
justices and Mr. Estrada trying to identify the smartest way to fix the law.

In the first of the two hour-long arguments, Mr. Estrada was asked only about 25
questions; his adversary, Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben, was asked more
than 60.

The second appeal was from a former Alaska legislator, Bruce Weyhrauch, who did not
disclose that he had been soliciting work from a company with business before the
Legislature. Mr. Weyhrauch argued that the federal honest services law should not
apply in public corruption cases where no violation of a state disclosure law was
alleged.

8
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Some justices seemed uncertain about the wisdom of that particular limiting principle.
But that discomfort did not seem to make them any more sympathetic to the law as a
whole.

The court will hear a third honest-services case in the spring, that one involving Jeffrey
K. Skilling, the former chief executive officer of Enron Corporation.

Mr. Dreeben defended the honest-services law in both arguments on Tuesday, and he
was given a rough time by the justices.

The law effectively overruled a 1987 Supreme Court decision, McNally v. United
States, which limited the federal mail fraud statute to deprivations of tangible property.
Justice John Paul Stevens dissented in McNally and was the only justice at Tuesday’s
argument who appeared sympathetic to the government.

Mr. Dreeben’s argument leaned heavily on judicial decisions before 1987, which he
said established “the core understanding of the duty of loyalty” that the 1988 law had
restored. That core, he said, includes forbidding kickbacks, bribes and “undisclosed
conflicts of interest by an agent or fiduciary who takes action to further that interest.”

Mr. Dreeben’s formulation did not seem to satisfy most of the justices, on several
grounds.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that “the lower courts were massively confused”
before 1987 and so could not have agreed on core concepts.

Justice Breyer said the law “covered 6,000 things,” of which the government has now
“picked, perhaps randomly, three.”

Justice Antonin Scalia added that, in any event, the government’s preferred
interpretation cannot be rooted in the actual text of the statute.

“You speak as though it is up to us to write the statute,” Justice Scalia told Mr. Dreeben.
“That’s not our job.”

In quick succession, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Scalia and Breyer
recited what they called a fundamental principle: that the public must be able to
understand what a criminal law means.

“If it can’t,” Chief Justice Roberts said, “then the law is invalid.”

9
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Cleveland Man Pleads Insanity in Killings of 11 Women

By LIZ ROBBINS

Anthony Sowell, the registered sex offender accused of killing 11 women and burying
their remains in and around his house in Cleveland, pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity on Thursday morning.

The courtroom was crowded with reporters and television crews, but Mr. Sowell, 50,
who was indicted on Tuesday on 85 counts, appeared on a video hookup from his jail
cell. The charges included 11 counts of murder, as well as attempted murder,
kidnapping, rape, assault and corpse abuse.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Bill Mason, said in an interview on Thursday that he
would seek the death penalty.

In order to prove his insanity defense, under Ohio law, Mr. Sowell must show that at the
time of the act he could not differentiate between right and wrong as a result of “severe
mental disease or defect.”

Mr. Mason said that he was “very confident” that the evidence his office had would
refute both of these conditions for the defense.

“He knew what he was doing by the way he covered it up,” Mr. Mason said. “He took
the bodies and hid them. He obviously knew that if he left them lying on the front porch
he would get caught.”

Mr. Mason said he was not surprised at all with Mr. Sowell’s plea.

“There are 11 dead bodies and three documented assaults, I don’t know what else he
could have done,” he said. “In these types of very heinous crimes, the only place you
can turn is to say you’re insane.”

Such a defense, however, has not worked in recent cases of other serial killers, from Lee
B. Malvo, one of the D.C. snipers, to Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and dismembered 15
men and boys and admitted to killing two others.

“It’s fair to say that the defense of insanity is the defense of last resort for any criminal
defense attorney,” said Joshua Dressler, a professor at Ohio State’s Mortiz College of
Law. “Juries don’t like the defense. Despite the fact that there are so many myths about
the defense, that it’s easy and people get off on it, it’s actually an extraordinarily hard
defense.”

Mr. Dressler added in a telephone interview on Thursday: “Jurors bring their own moral
judgment to the situation. Ultimately the insanity defense tries to distinguish between
the evil person or the sick person, or, as I tell my students, ‘the mad versus the bad.’ ”

10
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

The National Public Radio station at Cleveland State University, WCPN, produced a
stimulating discussion about the insanity defense plea — at least as it relates to serial
killers — earlier this month. The program quoted Dr. Sara West, a forensic psychiatrist
at the Cuyahoga County Jail, who said that serial killers often suffer from personality
disorders, diseases commonly known as sociopathy or psychopathy. But just because
these suspects cannot express empathy, she said, does not mean they did not understand
what they were doing.

“The serial killer has to be able to plan out a crime so that he or she won’t be caught
when committing the crime and do this over and over again and sometimes do this for
years,” Dr, West said on the program. “Mental illness tends to cause disorganization and
dysfunction in a way that doesn’t really allow this to happen.”

Perhaps the most notable criminal in the last few decades to be found not guilty by
reason of insanity was John W. Hinckley Jr., in the 1981 shooting of President Ronald
Reagan. Congress responded by adopting a much more narrow insanity defense, and
four states even abolished it.

Although some jurisdictions require a defendant to “appreciate” the crime committed,

the Ohio law is narrower in putting the burden of proof of insanity on the defendant,
Mr. Dressler said.

The defendant must show there is a “preponderance of the evidence” (one step below
the burden of “clear and convincing” proof), but Mr. Mason said that based on the
evidence he has, Mr. Sowell will have trouble doing that.

Or, as his assistant prosecutor Richard Bombik said after Mr. Sowell’s arraignment,
“there was a distinct pattern in what he did,” said, according to The Plain Dealer, “a
pattern. If you will, a method to his madness.”

It is rare that a defendant is acquitted by reason of insanity. Most recently, in a widely

publicized 2006 retrial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty of drowning her five
children in a bathtub because mental illness made her unable to distinguish right from
wrong.

In the case of a serial killer, however, visceral emotions — namely fear — can factor
into a jury’s decision. And the decision to declare a defendant not guilty by reason of
insanity must be unanimous.

Mr. Dressler said that some jurors are wary of the “not guilty” term. Some might
believe that by finding a serial killer — “the most dangerous human beings on the face
of the earth” — not guilty, the killer might somehow walk back on the street.

In some states, a person found not guilty will automatically be committed to a

psychiatric institution. In Ohio, however, that is not the case, explains a colleague of
Mr. Dressler, Ohio State emeritus professor Lawrence Herman.

11
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

“The judge is required to hold a hearing,” Mr. Herman said in an interview. “If a judge
has probable cause to believe that if the defendant is still mentally ill and dangerous,
then a judged commits a defendant to a mental institution for evaluation.”

Mr. Herman said that the doctors must report back to the judge and if they find the
defendant still mentally ill and dangerous (like the defendant’s condition when the acts
were committed), the defendant is then “semi-permanently committed and subject to
periodic reviews.”

Of course, this process is far in the future. First, Mr. Sowell will be subject to intense
psychiatric review to help determine whether the insanity defense is even justified in his
case.

12
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Anti-abortion activist can't use

'necessity defense' in slaying
December 22, 2009 2:35 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- An anti-abortion activist charged with gunning down a Wichita, Kansas,

doctor cannot use the "necessity defense" at trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.Scott Roeder,
51, is set to stand trial January 11 on one count of first-degree murder in the death of
Dr. George Tiller, who was shot to death at his church May 31. Tiller ran a women's
clinic in which he performed abortions.

Tiller, 67, was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. He had
already survived one attempt on his life before he was slain.

Under a necessity defense, a defendant argues an action was justified because breaking
the law was more advantageous to society than following it. Several anti-abortion
activists facing criminal charges have attempted to use the defense but none has been
successful.

In an Associated Press interview last month, Roeder admitted killing Tiller and said he
plans to argue at this trial that the shooting was justified.

"Because of the fact preborn children's lives were in imminent danger, this was the
action I chose," he said. "... I want to make sure that the focus is, of course, obviously
on the preborn children and the necessity to defend them."

Roeder's comments prompted prosecutors to file a motion asking Sedgwick County

Judge Warren Wilbert to bar Roeder's attorneys from using the defense.

Wilbert noted that the Kansas Supreme Court, in a previous case regarding blocking
entrance to an abortion clinic, ruled the necessity defense cannot be used when the harm
the defendant claims to be avoiding through his or her actions is a constitutional and
legal activity, and the defendant broke the law.

13
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

That precedent, Wilbert said, required him to rule that the necessity defense is not a
viable defense in Kansas or in the Roeder case.

Defense attorney Mark Rudy pointed out to Wilbert that the defense team has not yet
acknowledged what their tactic might be. Roeder, however, filed a 100-page motion on
his own behalf, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston said Tuesday, on the
necessity defense, acknowledging it previously has been unsuccessful.

Prosecutors also asked Wilbert to bar Roeder's attorneys from claiming his alleged
actions were justified because he used force in the defense of another -- the unborn.
Wilbert said that would require further argument -- particularly an offering from defense
attorneys regarding the evidence they plan to present in support of that premise at trial.

"I will leave the door open on the issues surrounding use of force in defense of another,"
the judge said, adding he does not mean it's "wide open."

Under the law, such a defense can only be used if a defendant was preventing unlawful
conduct. Foulston argued that Tiller posed no threat that would justify his shooting. "Dr.
Tiller was not an aggressor," she said.

Roeder is also charged with two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two
church members. Dressed in a coat and tie, he conferred with his attorneys and
listened intently to the arguments on Tuesday.In a June interview with CNN's Ted
Rowlands, Roeder would not admit that he killed Tiller, but said that if he is convicted,
"the entire motive was the defense of the unborn."Roeder's attorneys also argued
Tuesday that the trial should be moved outside Wichita because extensive pretrial
publicity in the case could have tainted the jury pool. Foulston, meanwhile, noted
that Roeder, who has talked often to the media, brought some of that publicity on
himself.Wilbert said 300 jury summonses have gone out in the case, and he was
optimistic that some impartial jurors could be found. However, he said he would revisit
the issue later if the court experienced difficulty in picking jurors.

Rudy also asked that the judge prohibit prosecutors from excluding potential jurors
because they have anti-abortion beliefs. The judge said he was confident that some
individuals who are anti-abortion would still be able to make an impartial decision, but
suggested the issue be examined on a juror-by-juror basis if the court recognizes a
pattern of exclusion during jury selection.

14
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

"I can't make a pretrial ruling and just make a broad-brush approach," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/22/kansas.doctor.killed/index.html

Woman convicted of killing man who taunted her over N.Y.

Yankees decal
By Jason Kessler, CNN
December 22, 2009 7:28 p.m. EST

New York (CNN) -- A New Hampshire jury on Monday found a Nashua woman guilty
of second-degree murder for running over a man who had heckled her for being a
New York Yankees fan.
Ivonne Hernandez, 45, was accused in the May 2008 killing of 29-year-old Matthew
Beaudoin.

Prosecutors said the confrontation began as a dispute between Hernandez and a female
friend of Beaudoin's outside a bar. It escalated when Beaudoin noticed a large
Yankees decal in the rear window of Hernandez's Dodge Intrepid and started to taunt
her about the major league baseball team.

When Hernandez started to drive away, Beaudoin briefly followed the car on foot.
Hernandez then turned her car around and returned to the alley where Beaudoin and his
friends remained and struck him. He later died from his injuries, which included
multiple skull fractures.

The defense argued Hernandez's actions were accidental -- a byproduct of her

disorientation and panic after the confrontation. But prosecutors said in New Hampshire
Superior Court, "a few curse words and some insults to a baseball team do not justify
murder."Beaudoin's sister, Faith, said her family was delighted with Monday's verdict.
It's "absolutely wonderful to have a Christmas gift like this," she told CNN.The
prosecution also expressed satisfaction with the jury's decision."We're very pleased with
the verdict," senior assistant attorney general Susan Morrell said. "We believe it's a fair
and just verdict based on the evidence."Calls to Hernandez's attorneys weren't returned
Monday.Hernandez could face a sentence of up to life in prison.

15
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/22/yankees.fan.murder.verdict/index.html

Brazil high court lifts stay, allowing

boy to return to U.S.
December 23, 2009 5:18 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- The chief justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in favor of

an American father in an international custody battle.

The ruling by Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes will reunite a 9-year-old boy with his

father, David Goldman, who has been locked in a custody battle with the family of the

boy's deceased mother. Last week, a lower court unanimously upheld a decision

ordering that Sean Goldman be returned to his father in New Jersey.David Goldman

arrived in Rio de Janeiro to reunite with his son, but one Supreme Court justice issued

a stay, ordering Sean to remain with his Brazilian relatives until the high court could

consider the case.Mendes' decision lifted the stay, paving the way for Goldman to be

reunited with his son. Sean's grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, was expected to

immediately file appeals to Tuesday's ruling. In a letter to Brazilian President Luiz

Inacio Lula da Silva, Bianchi said that the legal process was overlooking the boy's

own desires. "I feel threatened by losing my grandson Sean because of international

pressures that don't consider the interest of a 9-year-old child who passionately desires

to remain among those that gave him comfort in the mother's death," the letter states in

part. "They allege that the Hague Convention determined to hand him over

immediately. I am not a lawyer. But what I know is that the Convention establishes as

priority the interest of the child, and the child wasn't heard."

16
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

The custody battle began in 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi, took their

then-4-year-old son from their home in New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro for what was to

have been a two-week vacation. She never returned, instead remarrying there and

retaining custody of Sean. She died last year in childbirth.

Goldman has argued that as the sole surviving parent, he should be granted custody.

The Bianchi family argues it would traumatize Sean to remove him from what has

been his home for five years.

The custody battle garnered much media attention and spilled over into the

political arena as well.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, had placed a hold on a trade bill that

would have benefited Brazil to the tune of $2.75 billion, but he lifted it on the court's

ruling, spokesman Caley Gray said.

The bill in question, which sailed through the Senate after the senator dropped the

hold, would provide export tariff relief to 130 countries, of which Brazil would be the

fifth largest recipient, Gray said.

Lautenberg's hold was designed to exert additional pressure on Brazilian authorities to

abide by the court order to return Sean to his father, he said.

While the chief justice was still studying the case, Brazilian Attorney General Luis

Inacio Adams said the executive branch sides with Goldman.

"Once we stop cooperating and start breaking our treaties and international

obligations, Brazil risks the chance of not having its own requests in the matters

regarding international judicial help granted, based on the principle of international

reciprocity," Adams said Monday.

17
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

"Not releasing the minor into the custody of his father could bring sanctions against

Brazil," he added. "It could damage Brazil's image before the international

community."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/12/22/brazil.custody.battle/index.html

18
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Florida fugitive recaptured after 30 years

December 21, 2009 7:51 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- A man who escaped from a Florida work release center in 1979 while serving
a sentence for armed robbery has been captured in Missouri, authorities said Monday.
Oscar Eugene Richardson, 61, was arrested Saturday in Ridgedale, Missouri, as a result
of information received through a police hot line, the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement and the state Department of Corrections said. He is the first fugitive
captured as part of the Florida "12 Days of Fugitives" campaign. "Richardson is the
oldest case among the dozen escapees and it is fitting that justice caught up with him
first," said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

Richardson escaped from the Kissimmee Work Release center in March 1979 after
serving less than two years of his 10-year sentence, police said.

He had robbed a Tampa, Florida, drugstore in January 1977, holding two employees at
gunpoint as he demanded money from the store's safe. Two months later he robbed a
convenience store in Tampa, holding the clerk at gunpoint and demanding she fill a bag
with money, authorities said. He fled but was apprehended minutes later.

At the time of his arrest Saturday, Richardson was living under the alias Eugene Ward
and using a false Social Security number, officials said. Police believe he had been
living in the same area of Missouri for many years. He was arrested by a U.S. Marshals
Service task force.The 12 Days of Fugitives campaign, launched December 7, is aimed
at Florida's oldest and most violent prison escapees, the departments' statement said.
Newspapers are featuring the fugitives in print and online photo galleries and the
Florida Outdoor Advertising Association and its member companies are providing
donated space on billboards."The campaign is designed to reach the public during the
holiday season, when investigators believe the wanted men are most likely to contact
friends, family and loved ones," the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.

More than $22,000 in reward money is available -- up to $2,500 per fugitive -- for
information leading to their capture. The money is provided by the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement, the Department of Corrections and the Florida Police Chiefs'
Association.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/21/florida.fugitive.captured/index.html

19
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Man pleads guilty to killing Virginia

Tech student
December 21, 2009 7:03 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- A man pleaded guilty Monday to killing a Virginia Tech graduate student at a
restaurant in January, attacking her with a knife and decapitating her, according to
officials. Haiyang Zhu, 26, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the
death of Xin Yang, a graduate student studying accounting at Virginia Tech, officials
said. Xin, 22, from Beijing, China, had begun her studies at Virginia Tech only two
weeks before she was killed at the Au Bon Pain restaurant in the university's Graduate
Life Center on January 21, school officials said.

School spokesman Larry Hincker told CNN in January the two were believed to have
known each other, based on emergency contact records maintained by the university, but
witnesses saw no sign of an argument before Xin was attacked.

Haiyang, a native of Ningbo, China, was taken into custody at the scene.

He had written a love letter to Xin, but she told him she was engaged to another man,
Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney Bradley Finch told CNN.

Haiyang purchased the knife used to kill Xin the morning of her death and attempted to
call her 12 times, with the first call coming just after he bought the knife, Finch said.

"He completely severed her head," Finch said. Xin also had severe knife wounds to
her hands and arms, he said.

In a writing titled "Will," Haiyang said he had expressed love for Xin and that she broke
his heart when she said she was engaged to someone else, Finch said. Haiyang said the
rejection was too cruel and that Xin's fiance could not compare to him in education and
background, and she should have seen he would be the best husband for her.

Haiyang was a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in agricultural and applied

economics. Hincker said he began studying at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2008.

Haiyang is scheduled to be sentenced in April, according to court records.

Xin's slaying was the first on the Virginia Tech campus since April 16, 2007, when
Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and professors before turning a gun on himself.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/21/virginia.tech.death/index.html

20
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

2 deputies shot in same county where

4 officers were killed
December 22, 2009 2:56 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- Two sheriff's deputies responding to a domestic dispute between a pair of

brothers Monday night were shot and badly injured in the same Washington county
where four officers were killed last month, authorities said.
The Pierce County deputies were wounded while responding to a domestic violence
incident at home near the town of Eatonville, south of Seattle, said Hunter George, a
county spokesman. They killed the gunman, identified as David E. Crable, in an
exchange of fire, authorities said.

Sgt. Nick Hausner, 43, a 20-year veteran of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, was
transported to Madigan Army Medical Center where he was in serious condition, the
department said. He is married and has children who are 14 and 12 years old.

Deputy Kent Mundell, 44, a nine-year veteran, was airlifted to the trauma center at
Harborview Medical Center where he was in critical condition with life-threatening
injuries, the sheriff's department said. He also is married and has two children, a 16-
year-old and a 10-year-old.

Pierce County prosecutor Mark Lindquist said Crable had a history of protection orders
sought by family members.

Earlier this year, Crable pleaded guilty to malicious mischief and brandishing a knife
in an incident involving his brother, Lindquist said, and protection orders were imposed
afterward, telling him to stay away from his brother and a female minor.

Both counts were misdemeanors. Lindquist said Crable had no felony convictions.

The protective orders were not in effect during the Monday night shooting, Lindquist
said.

The prosecutor said other protection orders that emerged were not the result of charges
filed.

"They are a result of people saying this guy is a danger to me," Lindquist said. "I think
you can reasonably infer from his history, he had an alcohol problem."

21
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Crable went to his brother's house Monday night and there was a domestic dispute, said
Sheriff's detective Ed Troyer.

One of the men invited the officers inside the house, while the other man went upstairs.
He returned with a weapon and shot at the deputies, striking them several times, Troyer
said.

Local coverage from CNN affiliate KIRO

The deputies returned fire, killing the alleged shooter, he said.

"There were a lot of rounds fired," Troyer said.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire issued a statement saying, "My thoughts and prayers
are with the two wounded Pierce County deputies, their families, friends, and the entire
law enforcement community."

This incident comes in the aftermath of two other recent cop shootings in the Seattle
area. Since October 31, eight police officers or deputies have been shot. Five have died
in the attacks.

On Halloween night, Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton was fatally shot while
sitting in his patrol car. Brenton, 39, was reviewing paperwork from a traffic stop when
someone fired into his patrol car. An officer Brenton was training was wounded in the
shooting. A suspect in that case was arrested and pleaded not guilty.

On November 29, four officers from Lakewood, Washington, were killed in an

ambush-style shooting at a coffee shop.

Police shot and killed the suspect in that attack after a two-day manhunt.

Troyer said it was "surreal" to be responding to another shooting that involved officers.
His department has led the investigation into the shooting of the four Lakewood
officers.

"I am deeply troubled by the recent series of attacks on our law enforcement officers,"
Gregoire said in the statement. "I ask that all Washington citizens join me in sending a
clear message that these assaults on law enforcement officers will not be tolerated.

"The people of Washington and across America know that those who wear a badge
show us the true meaning of service. They sacrifice their safety for ours. We owe them
and their families our gratitude, respect and support."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/22/washington.deputies.shot/index.html

22
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

Martin backers' law bid 'to fail'

A plan to allow homeowners to use "any means" to defend their homes is unlikely to
receive parliamentary support, John Prescott has predicted.
"We can't have a situation of vigilante law," he told BBC Radio 4's Today show.

The bid topped the programme's poll on the private member's bill people would
most like to see become law.

Meanwhile, Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, whose fatal shooting of a burglar in 1999
sparked a national debate, said he would do the same thing again.

'Unworkable' bill

More than 26,000 votes were registered by listeners taking part in the poll and MP
Stephen Pound originally pledged to champion the winning bill.
He would have had to persuade the 20 MPs who have been chosen to put forward
private member's bills to take up the poll winner's suggestion.

But after he heard the result, the Labour politician appeared to withdraw his support,
arguing: "This bill is unworkable," as it "endorses the slaughter of 16-year-old kids".

His reaction prompted the deputy prime minister to tell Today: "That blew up in your
face, didn't it?"

Mr Prescott said it was important for householders to express their views on potential
legislation but this proposal amounted to "vigilante law".

Crime resistance

"I don't think for a moment this will take off in Parliament - I mean, to give somebody
the right just to shoot somebody...

"You can't ignore people's concerns about security in the home... but if you are then
going to give the right to somebody to pick up a gun because they have seen somebody
in the house and then shoot them, then I'm afraid that's the kind of vigilante law that I
don't think Parliament would agree to."

Liberal Democrat MP Andrew Stunell, who topped the private member's bills' ballot,
indicated he is unlikely to be swayed by any appeals for support for the listeners'
preference.

23
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

He has already decided the measure he wants to introduce - and it is unlikely to " tackle
the heart of the point" voters had put forward, he said.

Instead he has plans for a bill that will improve crime resistance in the home.

"At the moment we have regulations which talk about fire escapes, but no regulations
which talk about making houses burglar proof and I hope my bill will do something to
put that right," he told Today.

But Mr Stunell added: "I had hundreds of people get in touch with me about what bill I
should take and interestingly, not one of them made what I would call the Tony Martin
point."

'Shake-up' needed

Mr Martin, who was released from jail last summer after serving two-thirds of a five-
year sentence for manslaughter, welcomed the poll result.

He said a change in the law was needed to protect homeowners.

"This is wrong, heinously wrong, that you should actually live in fear in your home
that if somebody breaks in that, basically, you are going to have the law jump down on
you. It is just not right," he said.

Asked whether he would do the same thing again, he said: "In the same circumstances,
yes, if I am terrorised."

Burglar Fred Barras, 16, died after Mr Martin shot him in the back with an illegally-held
pump-action shotgun in August 1999.

Wild west

His accomplice Brendan Fearon, 33, suffered leg wounds.

Mr Martin's MP, Conservative Henry Bellingham said the listeners' proposal went too
far by suggesting homeowners should use "any means" to protect their property.
But leading criminal barrister John Cooper warned that the idea was dangerously
flawed.He said: "The law as it stands at the moment, despite its critics, is functioning.
If you are in your house and you are attacked by someone or threatened by someone,
you can use proportionate force.

"We do not live in the wild west. This legislation that is proposed effectively may well
turn us into that."

The second most popular bill in the poll calls for an opt out clause in organ donation, so
that the organs of those who have died are used automatically unless the deceased
person specifically stated a refusal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3362661.stm

24
Crime and Law Lengua inglesa A

25