Wednesday, December 9, 2009
News Morning Newsdome: Civil rights a go-go
Posted by Bobby Feingold @senorbobby on Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 6:31 PM
>> Uganda's government is proposing legislation that would impose the death penalty for homosexuals in the country, imprison family and friends up to seven years if they don't report homosexuals and even send landlords to jail for renting to homosexuals. I wonder if they get Project Runway in Uganda. (MSNBC)
>> A Florida judge ordered the state to pay for a cosmetologist to cover a 23-year-old neo-Nazi gang member's swastika and other tattoos that could prejudice jurors while being tried for the murder of a 17-year-old. I'm no legal expert, but isn't the conscious decision of tattooing a swastika to your body just the type of thing that should influence a jury? (Reuters)
>> Palestinians refuse to return to peace talks until Israel completely halts building in the West Bank, with more homes under construction per inhabitant in the occupied settlement than inside Israel. Again, I don't know much about real estate, but I can say that's last place I'd want my John Wieland dream home. (BBC News)
>> The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its use of drones, the unmanned aircraft currently used in war zones, to U.S. borders in efforts to track smuggling. Great, just what we need, more government drones. (the New York Times)
>> And finally, the U.S. Treasury extended the government's $700 billion bailout program to October 2010 with a pledged maximum of $550 billion in TARP spending. I think we've all lost count on how much the government's spent by this point really. (Reuters)
Comments (1)
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Bobby, You're no legal expert, but I am. And I can tell you that anything which has no bearing on whether the defendant actually murdered the kid.....but which IS likely to inflame passions in the jury, is not relevant. It's not something that should influence the jury because it doesn't show whether the defendant is guilty of murder. (If this were a hate crimes prosecution, then it might be relevant to sentencing, because then the issue becomes whether the defendent was motivated by race and such.) I've never heard of a state ordered cosmetologist before, but I see the logic behind it.
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