Category Archives: Criminal Injustice

UPDATE I: Commute The Troy Davis Death Sentence

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Justice, Law, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, The Courts

If it hasn’t yet, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, reconsidering the death sentence of Troy Davis, ought to consult Dr. Elizabeth F. Loftus. According to Dr. Loftus’ seminal work, eye-witness testimony is terribly unreliable.

A man should not be put to death based solely on the testimony of eye-witnesses most of whom have since recanted.

Troy Anthony Davis (born October 9, 1968) was convicted of the August 19, 1989, murder of Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a restaurant when he intervened in an argument between several men in a nearby parking lot. He was shot in the heart and face without having drawn his gun. One of the men, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, went to police and implicated Davis in the killing, and Davis was arrested four days later. During Davis’ 1991 trial, many witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail. Two others testified that Davis had confessed the murder to them. The murder weapon was never found, and no physical evidence linked Davis to the crime. Throughout his trial and subsequent appeals, Davis has maintained his innocence. Davis was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1991.

(I discovered the work of this leading world authority on memory in the late 1990s, when I was writing and raging about the the recovered memory ruse. I also heard Dr. Loftus testify in court thereby securing a man’s liberty. As is obvious from the prominence of characters like Drs. Phil and Drew Pinsky, the profession of psychology is festooned with popularizers, poor thinkers and plain charlatans. Elizabeth F. Loftus has always stood apart.)

On the other hand, Joshua Komisarjevsky needs killing.

He and his accomplice, Steven Hayes (already waiting to die), were arrested at the scene of the crime—the Petit family home in Cheshire, Connecticut. He and Hayes had just killed all three—and raped two—of the women of the Petit family. They then proceeded to burn down the house.

UPDATE I (Sept. 20):Breaking News vial Amnesty International: The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency to Troy Davis on Tuesday. This means that very little is standing in the way of the state executing a potentially innocent man this Wednesday.” Amnesty International is “calling on the Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing.”

More from Amnesty International:

Death penalty supporters like Bob Barr, former Texas Governor Mark White, and former FBI Director William Sessions also support clemency in this case, for the same reason. And at least three jurors from Davis’ trial have asked for his execution to be called off. Putting Troy Davis to death would be a grave injustice to those jurors who believe they sentenced Davis to death based on questionable information.

Although I want to see the Troy Davis death sentence commuted, I don’t like the way this cause celebre has the media omitting mention of the name of the victim. “A police officer from Savannah” is how this lot is referring to the late Mark Allen MacPhail. Google throws up not much about this heroic, off-duty officer. You have to dig:

The 27-year-old former Army Ranger was moonlighting on a security detail when he ran to help a homeless man, who had cried out because he was being pistol whipped. MacPhail was shot three times before he could draw his handgun.

Understandably, The victim’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, has expressed the need for closure. She believes, however, that executing Davis will give her a sense of finality. Killing a man who may not have pulled the trigger is not the kind of closure a victim has the right to demand. A commutation of the death sentence would probably still mean life in jail for Davis. That should suffice.

UPDATED: Solyndra Scandal

Barack Obama, Business, China, Crime, Criminal Injustice, Economy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Ethics

“This new factory [Solyndra] is a result of the Recovery Act, a result of those loans,” puled Barack Obama back in 2009. “The company received the loan and expanded their operations,” the man continues with arrogant certitude. The president really doesn’t understand how a viable market functions. The fact that Solyndra was awarded $527 million from the taxpayers (at $479,000 per temporary job created), and was seen to be doing spiffy stuff with the funds—this, thinks Obama, is sufficient to secure a profitable market for the product.

Chris Horner, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism (Regnery, 2007), has the goods on the racket Obama is running for green energy’s special pleaders. Obama has created a bubble worth $80 billion dollars, stolen from productive workers and funneled into these unsustainable, gangrene “revenue streams”

The waste. The theft. The thug from Chicago.

UPDATE (Sept. 15): “At least four other companies have received stimulus funding only to later file for bankruptcy, and two of those were working on alternative energy,” reports Fox News. The companies implicate China in their uncompetitiveness. Prediction: American rent seeking will morph into a political opportunity for Donald-Trump like, bellicose synophobia. The perfect distraction.

UPDATE II: ‘The Myth That Democracy = Freedom’ (Man Up As I Have!)

Constitution, Crime, Criminal Injustice, Democracy, Ilana Mercer, libertarianism, Political Correctness, Race, Racism, South-Africa

Written by Professor Tom DiLorenzo, author of The Real Lincoln, on the hugely popular, iconic, website of LewRockwell.com, there is a wonderful review of Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa.

“One thing that Into the Cannibal’s Pot demonstrates is that democracy alone is not at all desirable if it is not attached to a culture that highly values the protection of life, liberty and property. The new rulers of South Africa do not. South Africa competes with Iraq and Colombia for the title of ‘the most violent’ country of the world. The homicide rate in South Africa today is twenty times what it is in the U.S., as Mercer documents. A rape occurs every twenty-six seconds. The annual murder rate in South Africa has increased three-and-a-half fold since the ending of the reprehensible apartheid regime. There are more than 52,000 rapes/year in South Africa today, ten percent of which victimize infants because of the bizarre superstition that is widely believed there that sex with a virgin is a cure for AIDS…”

MORE.

A question that a reader had posed concerned secession. The reader took secession in the South African context (my book cites a classic book by that title published by the Mises Institute, and edited by David Gordon) to include only the Afrikaners. Of course, secessionists may include all people who are deemed desirable, no matter their color, religion or creed.

As I said on a radio show the other day, a secessionist state could incorporate any individual approved by by private property owners—blacks, whites, colored, Indians, pygmies, farmers, accountants, whomever—anyone with the skills and disposition property owners and their proxies saw fit to include in the arrangement. But a seceding state would defend itself vigorously against bad elements. I also wrote that it was not for me, an expat, to give territorial content to that state.

In addition, I made the point in the book that the much-revered South African Constitution is a horrible document; it has a section devoted to the “Limitation of Rights.” That section provides philosophical imprimatur to the destruction of property currently under way. I also make it clear that, whereby our overlords who art in DC flout the will of our Founding Fathers and our constitution—South Africa’s ruling, dominant-party-in-perpetuity is faithful, in a sort of sick way, to that country’s foul constitution and to the will of the majority.

UPDATE I (July 22): Westie: Would you put this exact comment you wrote hereunder on Amazon, please? The best way to raise awareness of the issues and the book’s angle is via Amazon. I appreciate and reply to every comment I get (a LOT!). But readers here already know the power of this pen. Let others know via Amazon.

UPDATE II (JuLy 23): MAN-UP AS I HAVE.

Cuan: As one of the few privileged individuals who’ve received a book for the purpose of writing multiple reviews—in the plural—is there any chance that you might actually finally share these insights where they will make a difference, on Amazon!!!??? That was an expectation that came with a review copy from a cash-strapped operation such is mine. It is the least a reviewer can do: simply copy and paste to Amazon these insights you keep posting on BAB (and others send to my email). On this forum, we understand what you and others keep repeating. What good does it do to speak in an echo chamber; to preach to the converted? What will it take to get you and the rest to do the right thing by this book and its mission?

This woman has manned-up. A few good men have. But where are the rest, especially the South Africans, who are best able to affirms their experience as captured in this book, at great cost (professional and other) to its author?

American Veteran-Hero Jailed

Criminal Injustice, GUNS, Law, Private Property, Racism, Regulation, South-Africa

The following is from “American Veteran-Hero Jailed,” now on WND.COM:

“As I document in my new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa, ‘South Africa’s ruling dominant party disregards the importance of private property and public order and the remedial value of punitive justice. Consequently, innocent victims of crime often defend themselves in their own homes and businesses on pain of imprisonment.’

But are the impediments to the defense of life and property enacted by South Africa’s dominant-party-in-perpetuity so different from the decisions issuing from American courts?

A world away from South Africa, Dr. Jerome Ersland was recently condemned to life in prison for defending his property and his employers from a gang of armed robbers.

As abcnews.com reports,

“Ersland, 59, had been hailed as a hero for protecting two co-workers during the May 19, 2009, robbery attempt at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in south Oklahoma City. Dramatic surveillance video of the attempted burglary shows 16 year-old Antwun Parker and an accomplice running into the pharmacy in the crime-ridden neighborhood and pointing a gun directly at Ersland. The video then shows Ersland, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, firing a pistol at the two men, hitting Parker with one shot that knocked him to the ground. After chasing Parker’s accomplice out of the store, Ersland retrieved a second gun and returned to shoot Parker five more times, 46 seconds after firing the first shot.”

Ersland was accused of hastening the descent into hell of “Parker” with excess zeal.” …

The complete column is “American Veteran-Hero Jailed,” now on WND.COM

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.

Please note that you can purchase the lower-cost Kindle copy of “The Cannibal” without having to own a Kindle – all you need is a PC or a hand-held device (iPad or phone). This hyperlink describes the free Amazon software application for these devices. So you do not require a new gadget to read the book on Kindle.

The print copy is available from the Publisher too. Hurry: Publisher is currently offering free shipping, including to our readers in South Africa. To purchase, click on the “Buy From StairwayPress” Button.

A good way to help this work’s mission is to post your reviews to Amazon. Us talking among ourselves will do nothing to raise awareness of the issues covered in depth and in detail in the book. And you don’t have to have purchased the book from Amazon to review it on the site.

Man up!

Make a note of upcoming Mercer media appearances here.