Courts

The Campaign To Free Chelsea Manning Continues

June 7, 2015 Charles Davis, www.fpif.org Resist! Chelsea Manning, Courts, Criminal Justice

By Charles Davis for Foreign Policy In Focus. In 2013, a military court sentenced Manning to 35 years behind bars for leaking that evidence, including thousands upon thousands of diplomatic cables, to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. The guilty verdict came after Manning was subjected to 11 months of what the UN special rapporteur on torture called “cruel and inhuman” solitary confinement. If she serves her full sentence, Manning, now 27, will be 60 years old when released, though she will reportedly become eligible for parole in 2020. But supporters want her out now — and believe that the way she was treated before she went to trial could be the key. “We have to appeal this on Chelsea’s behalf,” said criminal defense attorney Nancy Hollander, one of a team of lawyers looking to do just that. “We have to appeal this for all of our sake…And we really have to stop this because it is illegal for the government of the United States to classify info that embarrasses the government.” But justice is expensive. In 2014 alone, the Chelsea Manning Defense Fund spent $149,000 out of a total of $247,000 in donations on Manning’s legal team. As of March 31, 2015, that team was owed close to $100,000.

Landmark Settlement In DC Will Improve Policing Of Protests

May 19, 2015 Staff, www.justiceonline.org Resist! Courts, Freedom of Speech and Assembly

After more than 12 years of class-action litigation, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) has reached an unprecedented settlement with the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior that will significantly change the handling of mass protests. Presiding Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has issued preliminary approval for the settlement. This settlement is a major victory for First Amendment rights. As part of the Settlement Agreement, the U.S. Park Police, which is responsible for the areas directly in front of the White House among other key security sites, has agreed to significant and substantive reforms in its policies and procedures in handling First Amendment activities. The new policies include: generally prohibiting the use of police lines to encircle protesters and demonstrations; requiring particularized probable cause for any protester to be arrested; providing fair notice and at least three warnings to disperse assembled groups prior to any lawful arrests rather than engaging in group sweeps; identifying avenues of exit for protesters to comply with dispersal orders and ensuring that such warnings are clocked at least two minutes apart, and are audible throughout the crowd.

Activist Fined $1,000 For Violating Order To Stay Off Gas Sites

April 26, 2015 Marie Cusick, www.stateimpact.npr.org Resist! Courts, Fracking

A Susquehanna County judge has fined anti-fracking activist Vera Scroggins $1,000 for getting too close to a natural gas site earlier this year. The money will cover part of the legal fees incurred by the region’s biggest gas driller– Cabot Oil and Gas. The company has repeatedly sought to have her held in contempt of court for violating an injunction to stay off its property. At a court hearing Thursday in Montrose, Scroggins maintained her innocence and hopes to appeal the fine. “[Cabot] had a false witness, who was willing to perjure himself under oath, and the judge found him more credible. I am not willing to pay a fine for something I didn’t do.” If she doesn’t pay within 45 days, she could go to jail. Judge Kenneth Seamans didn’t seem to mind that possibility. “If there’s a fine and she doesn’t pay it, she’s going to jail.” he said. “And I’m going on vacation.”

Judge Dismisses All Charges Against The ‘Stewart 5’

April 10, 2015 Staff, www.SOAWatch.org Resist! Courts, Criminal Justice, Immigration

Stewart County Superior Court Judge James Sizemore dismissed all charges against human rights activists Anton Flores, Jason MsGaughey, Kevin Caron, Maureen Fitzsimmons and Rebecca Kanner. The five had been arrested on Saturday, November 22, 2014, during the November Vigil weekend in Georgia, as they crossed the line onto Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) property to call for the closure of Stewart Detention Center. Owned and operated by the Corrections Corportation of America (CCA), Stewart is one of the largest private, for-profit immigrant detention facility in the US, warehousing approximately 1,800 men. Through their peaceful action, the Stewart 5 were prepared to speak about the inhumane conditions that exist there, while at the same time raising public awareness about the racist immigration policies that allow places like Stewart to exist. To speak truth to power and to use the courtroom to put Stewart Detention Center on trial, our friends traveled long distances, from Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan; Washington, DC; Atlanta and LaGrange, Georgia.

The Flood Wall Street Not Guilty Verdict Changes Policing

March 29, 2015 Shawn Carrie, www.mintpressnews.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Civil Resistance, Climate Change, Courts, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Nonviolent Action, Police abuse

For the first time, a New York judge gave judicial notice to the realities of climate change as he exonerated ten protesters on freedom of speech grounds. Judge Robert Mandelbaum found the Flood Wall Street Ten not guilty, commending the climate activists’ protest as “honorable.” This landmark decision could not only have resounding implications for the growing environmental justice movement — it could also potentially thaw the iron-fisted policing that has come to be routine in the United States, especially in New York. “The importance of judicial notice is that the judge accepted climate change and the need to do something about it as a fact without the necessity of any evidentiary support or proof at trial,” Martin Stolar, an attorney for the defense, told MintPress News. “To the best of my knowledge, this is unprecedented and has significance for future litigation involving climate change.” The legal recognition of man-made climate change as an indisputable fact sent shockwaves through the environmentalist movement both on the streets and in the courts, allowing the Flood Wall Street case to be cited by protesters, academics and lawyers alike.

Mississippi Judge Bars Public Defenders From Representing Clients

March 22, 2015 Jonathan Rapping, www.talkpoverty.org Resist! Courts, Criminal Justice and Prisons

Judge Jeffrey Weill seems to believe public defenders should be more deferential to him and less passionate in the representation of their clients. Apparently disapproving of the zealous advocacy of one public defender, Judge Weill removed her from all of her cases and, according to Public Defender Michelle Harris, to identify any specific behavior that violated the lawyer’s professional obligations to her clients, or the court. In doing so he has disrespected the right to counsel for the poor. When the Hinds County public defender office refused to abandon those they are charged with serving, and collectively resisted Judge’s Weill’s attempts to further interfere with their representation of clients, he held an attorney and the head of the office in contempt.

Victory For Justice As Unjust Judge Removed In Ferguson

March 10, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Courts, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Ferguson, Police abuse, Racism

The judge who allegedly turned Ferguson's municipal court into a city cash cow resigned Monday, and the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a new jurist to take over the city caseload. The Supreme Court of Missouri said in a statement that it was assigning Judge Roy L. Richter to take over Ferguson Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer's court "to help restore public trust and confidence." Reform advocates who said Ferguson is one of many small municipalities in St. Louis County that routinely violate the rights of residents said the judicial moves are a good start. “I hope that it marks the beginning of a long process,” said Brendan Roediger, a civil rights lawyer and St. Louis University Law Scool professor who is involved in a lawsuit against Ferguson and a neighboring municipality. Roediger said Brockmeyer “was never the worst municipal court judge” in the St. Louis region, where similar conflicts exist in many courtrooms. A group of residents waiting outside a closed meeting of the Ferguson City Council on Monday night cheered the news. “That’s big,” said Melissa Sanders, 32, of Ferguson. “I’m elated — for now.” Sanders, of the activist group Lost Voices, said she was concerned that “they may be just pacifying us.”

Army Court Orders Military To Use Correct Pronouns For Manning

March 8, 2015 Staff, www.chelseamanning.org Resist! Chelsea Manning, Courts, Transgender

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered the military to stop using male pronouns when referring to Chelsea Manning in all legal papers filed in her appeal (see below). This Order comes after the military filed an opposition to requests by Manning’s attorneys to use her legal name and female pronouns when referring to her in court documents. The Order specifies that “future formal papers filed before this court and all future orders and decisions issued by this court shall either be neutral, e.g., Private First Class Manning or appellant, or employ a feminine pronoun.”

People Regaining Right To Fly After Court Ruling

October 12, 2014 Noa Yachot, www.aclu.org Organize! Courts, No Fly List, Right to Travel

Seven American citizens who were banned by the government from air travel received word yesterday evening that they are cleared to fly. For them, the notice ends a years-long struggle to find out why they were blacklisted and clear their names. As of last night, the seven can finally make plans to visit family, travel for work, and take vacations abroad. The seven – six men and one women – had been on the government No Fly List, which prevented them from flying to, from, and over U.S. airspace. Even after they were surrounded by TSA agents at the airport and questioned by the FBI, the government refused to officially confirm that they were included on the list. They were also never provided reasons for being banned from air travel, or given a meaningful opportunity to contest the ban. In short, our clients have been locked in a fight to regain their freedoms with virtually no information. The notice that the seven are “not currently on the No Fly List” came after a federal court last week set deadlines for the government in the ACLU’s challenge to the No Fly List.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources