While on their honeymoon, the wife begins to exhibits signs of a stroke. She and her husband are both trained medical professionals. The husband understands how important it is to get her immediate medical attention so he speeds his way to the hospital, running two red lights in the process. A police officer follows them to the hospital in hot pursuit, lights flashing and sirens wailing. The husband doesn’t want to waste critical minutes by pulling over so he figures he’ll just explain when he gets to the ER. Once at the ER, the husband pulls the wife from the car and the police officer attempts to block his passage into the ER. Now the poor husband is facing felony charges.

Read: Newlywed Arrested After Rushing Wife to Hospital

That said, I happened to tune in to Jim Vicevich’s “Sound Off Connecticut” show on WTIC this morning. I was driving and only had about 10 minutes to listen, but the topic happened to be the motor vehicle accident involving an illegal immigrant and MA Representative, Mike Moran. The drunk guy (who was also driving without a license) plowed into Moran and his response was to laugh it off. You see, MA Governor Deval Patrick revoked an order by former governor Mitt Romney which gave state police power to investigate immigration violations.

Read Too much: suspected illegal immigrant hits MA Rep Mike Moran and laughs

One of Vicevich’s callers mentioned a website that keeps track of the victims of illegal aliens. I offer it for your review below as well as a few other sites I found tonight while researching the topic:

ResistNet.com

Immigrations Human Cost

VOIAC (Victims of Illegal Alien Crime)

OHIO JOBS & JUSTICE PAC

I’m pleased to report that a Fairfax County jury found Mr. Williams not guilty. Unfortunately, the verdict did not come cheap. Poor Mr. Williams incurred legal fees estimated to total some $10,000 to $15,000.

A few words of caution: don’t drink coffee in the nude in your own home. It could cost you.

Today, it was back to work. Do you have any idea how much mail can pile up in a week? Or how many voice mails can accumulate even when your outgoing message informs people that you won’t be returning calls for 10 days? Then there’s all those e-mails. Whew! Mondays are normally crazy days at the office. I’m considering asking the Judiciary Committee to pass a bill to officially declare all Mondays a legal holiday. I wonder what they’ll think of my idea.

Speaking of the Judiciary Committee, those fine folks were hard at work discussing and voting on a number of bills. Apparently, their agenda listed some 75 bills but they only acted on about half of them. They did pass the “sexting” bill which seeks to lessen the penalty for sexting between two consenting minors.

If approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by the governor, criminal prosecutors will have an alternative to pursuing child-pornography charges against people under the age of 18 who engage in sexting. (”Sexting” is defined as sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs of yourself or a friend electronically, generally via cell phone).

According to WSAU, at least 15 states have introduced — or are at least considering — similar legislation.

After reading a Hartford Courant article about Dr. William Petit’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee on the death penalty, I got to wondering about the history of capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes as early as the Eighteenth Century B.C. At that time, crucifixions, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement were favored methods of implementing the death penalty.

In 1608, Captain George Kendall was executed in the Jamestown colony of Virginia for being a spy for Spain. That was the first recorded execution in the new colonies. Four years later, in 1612, the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws were enacted by Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale. Under those laws, a person could be sentenced to the death penalty for such minor offenses as stealing grapes.

On December 26, 1862, during the Dakota War of 1862, the simultaneous hanging of 38 Dakota people convicted of murder and rape was the largest single execution in United States history.

The death penalty was suspended in the United States from 1972 through 1976 primarily as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia. The court found the imposition of the death penalty in a consolidated group of cases to be unconstitutional, on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution.

The moratorium on capital punishment ended when on January 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah. His famous last words were, “Let’s do it.” Later that year, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution. On December 7, 1982, Charles Brooks became the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas.

The fate of capital punishment in Connecticut is now before the Judiciary Committee. There are strong and passionate arguments on both sides of this controversial issue. It’s anybody’s guess how this will turn out.

According to an article posted on WFSB’s website, Rep. Bye believes that all victims of childhood sexual abuse should be allowed to file a civil lawsuit no matter how old they are. There will be public hearings on the issue in the near future as the issue is slated to go before the Judiciary Committee.

“In child sexual abuse, because children repress memories, that’s exactly why we need to open up the statute of limitations because we don’t know when there might be a triggering event,” Bye said. “We’re trying to protect people who were abused as children.”

I agree wholeheartedly and applaud the efforts of Rep. Beth Bye.

Read: Some Look To Eliminate Child Sex Abuse Law

[Doris] Thompson, whose criminal record stretches back to 1955, pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking about $1,400 from the Children’s Medical Group in suburban Torrance.

[Thompson] called Deputy District Attorney Paulette Paccione “sweetie” and told the judge “God bless you” as he sentenced her to three years behind bars.

“She just likes to steal,” Paccione said Thursday. “It’s just been her occupation, I guess, for years and years and years.”

Read: 80-Year-Old Burglar To Judge: ‘God Bless You’

[Source: WFSB.com]

Read: Connecticut Bill Would Reduce Penalty For ‘Sexting’ Between Consenting Minors

Read: Cheshire Case Illustrates Jury Picking Problems

So far, only one juror has been selected.

An article in today’s Hartford Courant discusses the type of jurors that the defense and prosecution will be seeking. It comes as no surprise that their criteria differs sharply.

Read: Picking The Hayes Jury: Prosecution, Defense Have Different Criteria

[Source: courant.com]