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For Sale: Unibomber's Property
Topics in Legal News |
2009/01/12 09:47
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The 9th Circuit upheld a plan to sell or disposal of the Unabomber's personal items - including notes, books, guns and bomb-making materials and instructions - that were seized during his 1996 arrest.
Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous "Unabomber," claimed the plan restricts his freedom of expression and impermissibly allows his victims to vie for any profits from the auction of his goods. He also contested a provision that calls for the destruction of his bomb-making materials instead of returning them to his designee.
He tried to reclaim his property in 2003, but the district court said the government had a "superior ownership interest" in the Unabomber's property. It also determined that his belongings were essentially worthless, as they had to be valued before he gained criminal notoriety in order to keep him from profiting from his crimes.
Kaczynski is serving four consecutive life sentences plus 30 years for a series of mail bombings that killed three people and injured nine others.
In 2005, the 9th Circuit held that the government has an ownership claim in Kaczynski's stuff, but only "if that property is needed to satisfy the terms of the restitution order."
The items aren't worthless, the court noted on appeal, if their sale helps fulfill the $15 million restitution order.
The court said the plan does not violate the First Amendment, because Kaczynski would receive a full set of legible copies before anything was sold.
Kaczynski argued that the originals were more valuable, but offered "no explanation as to how his right to free speech or freedom of expression is impinged by their sale," Judge Hawkins wrote. |
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John Q. Kelly on Natalee Holloway Case - Fox News
Headline Legal News |
2009/01/05 14:18
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Natalie Holloway Attorney John Q. Kelly
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And, finally, the Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos, responds. John Q. Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, has been trying to get Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos on the phone. Mos did leave him a rather nasty voicemail the other day. But now Hans Mos has responded to a letter from Kelly.
So what did Mos say in this response? John Q. Kelly joins us. John, what did he say?
JOHN Q. KELLY, HOLLOWAY FAMILY ATTORNEY: It's basically two-fold. One is that Joran [van der Sloot] has given different versions of the same event, so they can't be bothered with it.
And, two, they have no interest in any evidence or information that might assist him at this point.
VAN SUSTEREN: That is cute. The key is if you want to commit a crime, go to Aruba and tell three stories, because they will not investigate you and they won't look to corroborate. That's lesson number one. That's good advice.
You ask to have him arrested. What happens about that?
KELLY: He said we have no basis for it. This is the first time we have had any information that has been corroborated. He says he father was engaged in a cover-up, and it turns out that the chief of police and Paulus [van der Sloot], it has been confirmed that they hindered the prosecution. We have taped conversations that confirmed the boys talking about hoping that Natalee, or fearing that she may be alive. There are cell phone pings as to locations of Joran down by the fisherman's hut. There are all kinds of things independently that confirm what Joran is saying now, and they just won't listen.
VAN SUSTEREN: I know that he doesn't like us here at "On the Record." And I will make this promise tonight-we will stop being the monkey on his back if he does any investigation at all.
But I can tell you one thing. We have learned new information that a member of the Dutch parliament, Hero Brinkman, he is about to raise holy hell on Hans Mos. He is going down to Aruba in early January.
And if Hans Mos does not like us, wait until he gets a hold of this member of parliament, because he says that Aruba is "corrupt as hell" I think were his words, not mine.
KELLY: Greta, can I take you to the woodshed on one thing? I think people have to understand that even thought it was five months before your aired your interview with Joran that Hans Mos was made aware of it and the substance of it in great detail almost immediately, and he had no interest in following.
Read the entire interview at Fox News - Click Here |
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Grocery Wholesaler in Federal Antitrust Action
Topics in Legal News |
2009/01/05 08:48
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The nation's two largest grocery wholesalers, Supervalu and C&S Wholesale, conspired to allocate territories, restrain competition and inflate prices, according to a federal antitrust class action. Gary's Foods claims the defendants competed until 2003, when Vermont-based C&S decided to go after Supervalu territory in the Midwest.
"Rather than extend their competition to the Midwest or continue to compete in New England, the Defendants conspired to allocate territories: Supervalu agreed to
exit New England in return for C&S's commitment not to enter Wisconsin, Iowa, and other states in the Midwest," the complaint states. "This scheme has caused substantial harm to retailers: prices for wholesale sales and services have been inflated, fewer manufacturer discounts have been passed on to retailers, and the supply of wholesale sales and services has been artificially reduced."
The two defendants have combined annual revenue of $28 billion,according to the complaint. Gary's also claims the defendantsfraudulently concealed their conspiracy. Gary's demands treble damagesand punitive damages for the class. It is represented by Daniel Kotchenwith Kotchen & Low of Washington, D.C. |
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Judge Upholds Detention of Two Gitmo Detainees
Court Watch |
2009/01/02 09:27
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A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. government is properly imprisoning two people as enemy combatants in Guantanamo - the first legal victory for the Bush administration in the issue for a long time, and the first of an expected 200 or more similar cases.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., was the jurist who ruled about a month ago that the Bush administration had illegally imprisoned five Algerians at Guantanamo for nearly 7 years. He ordered the administration to release them.
The recent case involved a Yemeni, Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, and a Tunisian, Hisham Sliti.
Judge Leon found that Sliti was an al Qaeda recruit who attended a military training camp in Afghanistan.
Judge Leon ruled that though there was no proof that al Alwi had made war upon U.S. forces, his ties to the Taliban were sufficient to justify his imprisonment as an enemy combatant. |
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Corruption crisis creates confusion in Illinois
Headline Legal News |
2008/12/29 09:12
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| Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has made a point of regularly going to work at his office in Chicago. He has signed legislation and issued pardons. He has sent out press releases about predatory lending and fighting poverty. But his arrest on federal corruption charges has clearly complicated his work as the state's chief executive and already cost the state some $20 million. The state is facing a potential $2.5 billion budget deficit and the governor doesn't have the same horsepower — or clout — to address the problem that he had just a month ago. No one in the state capital trusts Blagojevich enough to give him authority to trim the budget on his own, as he requested in November. Any other idea he advances would probably be rejected out of hand. Yet no other official can take the lead. "Everything just comes to a halt. You have complete paralysis," said House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego. Blagojevich, a second-term Democrat, was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing. The governor has defiantly insisted he's done nothing wrong and that he will not resign. His aides say he is going about business as usual. |
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