I am Tom Freeland,
a lawyer in Oxford, Mississippi. The picture in the header is my law office.
I'm on Twitter as NMissC
Missing Posts: If you have a link to a post that's not here or are looking for posts from Summer of 2010, check this page.
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Tuesday Morning Various
- The New York Times had a sort-of-an-update on West Memphis community attitudes slowly beginning to shift on the “West Memphis Three” case, the one where three boys were found murdered and a trio of teenagers were prosecuted on the thinest of evidence (a totally contradictory confession by one of them, later retracted, along with some sensationalism about satanism, and no physical evidence whatever). The main news in the piece is that there are now two parents of victims who are convinced that the conviction was wrong.
- The trial of Harry Ray Coleman for the parking-lot-rage murder of Robert Schwerin has been set for a March 8th trial in in Shelby County. I blogged about this earlier here.
- There’s an interesting story in Fortune about Bobby Lowder, once named the nation’s biggest football booster at Auburn, and more recently the man behind the biggest bank failure of the year, sixth biggest in American history. H/t Ben.
- There’s an interesting post about “Bogus Pseudo Crimes” on Windypundit (h/t Dr. X). The focus of the piece is charges brought against an Indiana woman who bought two (only two!) boxes of cold medicine within a few days; she was arrested under a ridiculously over-narrow statute about meth precursors. One type of psuedo crime he calls “trimming the elements”– reducing the prosecutions burden to make charging easier, overreaching to encompass clearly noncriminal conduct. One element missing from the taxonomy is the sort of charge that allows the police to make an arrest when they don’t really have anything, such as my particular hobbyhorse, disorderly conduct charges.
- While on that subject, I learned from habeas Saturday that the Motorhome Diaries folk were convicted on all charges (which, as I said before, seemed to consist of “entering the county without an adequate explanation.” Earlier post about the trial here) by the justice court in Jones County and have appealed to Circuit Court.
- There was a New York Times article a few days about about the federal investigations into conduct in the New Orleans police department in the aftermath of Katrina. The story states: “At least three federal investigations into the police are under way; two concern civilian deaths in the anarchic days after the hurricane. Their outcomes could answer some of the most disconcerting questions of the storm’s aftermath — in particular, whether these were singular tragedies in the extraordinary chaos of the time or whether they laid bare deep problems in the force.” The president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission is quoted: “Any one of those federal probes could be viewed as the most significant investigation in any F.B.I. office in the country.”
- In 1994, the New Republic made Betsy McCaughey by publishing her takedown of the Clinton health care proposal. I posted about her return to the stage here. Trying to atone, TNR has now published a thorough takedown of McGaughey and her fibbing.
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and have appealed to Circuit Court
What will Billy Joe make of all this, I wonder?
That Times ‘update” was not of New York Times quality, especially for a story plugged on page one. It’s interesting how dramatically different the story is designed on the Web-site from the print edition. That b&w mug of Echols is beginning to take on Hollywood properties… I imagine all three (innocent, I believe) men look heartbreakingly different now.
It was implied that Lowder almost caused the loss of accreditation at Auburn by being such a supportive booster….
http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2004/MA/NB/Auburn.htm
http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=1557500
http://www.auburn.edu/administration/specialreports/sacsfaqs.html
I always wondered if Mr Scruggs had similar power at Ole Miss…
Just sayin.
By the way I am miffed. I referenced the ABA link..
NL
Re: Motorhome Diaries. So what if the DA merely nol prosses this case, or just retires it to the files? Wouldn’t that conclusively let the air outta the criminal-case balloon? And after that … what?–a 1983 civil action?
Move along. There’s nothing to see here. Keep moving.
Nothing to do with any of the above, but I just found a Firefox plug-in called RECAP, which is PACER spelled backwards. (Anyone remember Sivad?)
Anyway, when you use this, it automatically sends a copy of whatever you view on PACER to the RECAP database. Then, every time you do a search, before you pull up a document it checks to see if a RECAP user has already viewed that document. If so, it will pull it up for free.
It is considered a possible ethical breech for those who are granted free use of the PACER system to use the plug-in, but for us paying customers it’s fair game. If this is old news to all of you, forget you read it. I am always a bit behind the curve.
Interesting article about Lowder. And ,Nature Lover, I’m told that Dickie Scruggs did lose patience with Cutcliffe and took matters into his own hands.
On the other hand, this description of Lowder reminds me of former Chancellor Robert Khayat: “Lowder plans long range. He plots. It’s not a flare of temper. It’s a calculated plan of control.” One could substitute the name of Khayat for Lowder and have an accurate description of the mid to later years of Khayat’s reign at Ole Miss. Although I must admit that I do know of a flare of temper from Khayat, mainly his actions consisted of “a calculated plan of control.”
Ben, criminal law is not my strong suit — how do you nolle pross *after* a conviction?
Anderson: I’m assuming the Motorhome boys are pursuing a trial de novo now that the JP kabuki is over. Accordingly, the Push To Start button is on the DA’s dashboard.
Does any judge in America sit on a higher bench, looking down on his (or her) courtroom, than the one Billy Joe sits upon in Laurel?
It must have been comforting have the man in the Yella Wood commercials on the Colonial Bank board AND the Auburn Board of Trustees. Ole Miss ain’t the only place that keeps it “all in the family” until folks start dropping like flies.
“(Anyone remember Sivad?)”
Yesterday or Sunday, in The Commercial Appeal, there was a letter to the editor taking them to task for miss-spelling “Sivad.”
Chico, I’m glad no one is taking me to task for misspelling breach, or you I suppose for misspelling misspelling!
I have a draft post I wrote months ago with the opening footage of Sivad’s show (the opening was filmed in Overton Park). Is this my cue to go ahead and post it?
Regarding tea made from dried hibiscus petals, anyone got a recipe? I have a source that’s going to bring me a large bag this December.
RAIN
“Chico, I’m glad no one is taking me to task for misspelling breach, or you I suppose for misspelling misspelling!”
I’m afflicted with that stubbornness of spelling words like I think they should be but are not… not good, I know.
“I have a draft post I wrote months ago with the opening footage of Sivad’s show (the opening was filmed in Overton Park). Is this my cue to go ahead and post it?”
Please!
Jones County has a county court. Wouldn’t the MHD appeal go there? Section 11-51-81 says:
Ben and Somslawyer:
County Court is where it is headed. Appeal notices should be on file by tomorrow. No indication as yet whether the prosecutor at the next level will kick these cases — as he/she should in light of the lack of evidence of criminal conduct and the illegal arrests and searches. If not, the first shot over the bow will be motions to dismiss for failure to allege an offense followed by renewal of motion to suppress evidence and request for evidentiary hearing. A Sec. 1983 action is in the offing along with a pendent claim under the Miss. Tort Claims Act. Also the motion for production of the patrol car video recording will be renewed since we have received no word of its existence. Deputy at the Justice Court hearing testified that the camera was up and running.
The Jones Co. Sheriff is on record condoning the actions of his deputies so that puts the county in a defendant’s chair for the federal civil rights claim.
Here’s a very aggressive dissent by Judge Higginbotham in a Mississippi case at the Fifth Circuit:
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/04/04-60962-CV4.wpd.pdf
Interesting dissent, Southman. I’m going to post about it this weekend.
No mention of Pres Obama not visiting the MS Gulf Coast. I guess it’s not as interesting as the Pickering divorce.