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Tag: conviction

  • Cannibal Cop Conviction Overturned

    Gilberto Valle, known in tabloids as the “Cannibal Cop”, is a former NYPD officer convicted of attempting to kidnap, murder and eat dozens of women, including his own wife. Valle was convicted in March of 2013, but had not yet been sentenced. He was awaiting sentencing in prison, where he has spent 21 months, seven of which were in solitary confinement.

    But Valle’s conviction has been overturned and he is now free on bond, released into his mother’s custody, wearing an ankle bracelet tracker.

    Judge Paul Gardephe said that Valle’s conviction, though it seemed fitting for a man who was alleged to be planning such horrid crimes, was all a mistake.

    “The evidentiary record is such that it is more likely than not the case that all of Valle’s Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play,” Gardephe said.

    Valle apparently was talking with fetishists online about the grisly plans. He says he never really had any intent of doing any of it, but was just talking fantasies with others, which is not illegal.

    But prosecutors say there was more to Valle’s interests than just talking smack with other weirdos. They say he looked up targets in police databases. They say he researched information on how to knock someone out with chloroform.

    They even found a particular passage among his chat room transcripts: “I want her to experience being cooked alive. She’ll be trussed up like a turkey. … She’ll be terrified, screaming and crying.”

    After his release, Valle had a statement.

    “I want to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone who has been hurt, shocked and offended by my infantile actions,” Valle said. He also thanked his family and even his fellow inmates for helping him through his ordeal.

    Prosecutors say they will fight the overturn. They believe Valle is a dangerous man who was planning to hurt people. Valle’s attorneys say otherwise. They say it was all in his head, and not meant to become reality.

    “We don’t put people in jail for their thoughts,” said one attorney. “We are not the thought police.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams Arrested For IRA’s 1972 Slaying Of A Widow

    Irish republican and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was arrested and interrogated on Wednesday for being a suspect in the killing of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, in 1972. Adams confirmed his arrest and called it voluntary and pre-arranged.

    The murder happened during a turbulent time for Ireland, when the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was killing people almost daily.

    McConville was accused of being a British spy by the IRA, so they killed her and told her children that their mother had abandoned them. McConville’s body was then secretly buried, and the IRA only admitted to the crime in 1998. McConville’s shattered skeletal remains were found near a shoreline in 2003.

    When Adams was taken in, he was interrogated about IRA activities, such as shootings that happened in the 70s and 80s, bombings, and the car-bomb offensive in Belfast. Adams insisted that he has never had a position in the underground army, and said that he has only been convicted for a single IRA offense, which was a failed escape when he was imprisoned without going to trial.

    Before he entered the Belfast police station, Adams gave television interviews saying “Well publicized, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these.” He also said that he will never disassociate himself from the IRA but he is “innocent of any part in the abduction, killing, or burial of Mrs. McConville.”

    According to Ed Moloney, one of Ireland’s leading reporters,  it is unlikely that the authorities will charge him unless he confesses to committing the crime.

    The authorities who are in charge of McConville’s case have been arresting suspects based on taped interviews. These tapes, obtained from Boston College, consist of interrogations of IRA veterans. The only condition the IRA veterans had was that the tapes only be revealed when they are dead.

    In one of the tapes, Adams’ confidante Brendan Hughes, admitted that the one who ordered the killing of McConville was “the head of Sinn Féin.” Hughes died in 2008.

    Gerry Adams Interview

    Image via YouTube

  • Tom DeLay Wins Appeal of Money Laundering Conviction

    In 2005, Tom Delay, along with 2 others, were convicted by a Texas jury of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering through his re-channeling of corporate funds to pay for campaign financing. Today, the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals overturned this conviction, stating that prosecutors “failed in its burden to prove that the funds that were delivered to the seven candidates were ever tainted.”

    The original case was filed by Texans for Public Justice and tried by the Travis County district attorney’s office. The group claimed that DeLay and his political action committee collected contributions from corporations, the most notable of which being Enron, in the total of $190,000. Campaign finance laws state that this money cannot be used in the same state to finance campaigns. Thus, DeLay and two staffers sent said money to the RNC, which then dispersed the same amount of money to 7 Texas House candidates.

    The Republican candidates who won election using this money then want on to influence important redistricting legislation in Texas, resulting in increased numbers of Republicans in the House of Representatives in Washington D.C., where DeLay was Majority Speaker.

    Before the original jury handed out the verdict, they had asked whether or not it was still considered money laundering if the funds were not obtained through illegal means originally. Justice Melissa Goodwin, who wrote the majority opinion for the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals, stated that “The jury’s questions to the trial judge … point to the lack of evidence showing that the funds involved in the transaction were the proceeds of criminal activity.”

    The Travis County district attorney’s office released the following statement concerning the ruling:

    “We strongly disagree with the opinion of Judges Goodwin and Gaultney that the evidence was insufficient. We are concerned and disappointed that two judges substituted their assessment of the facts for that of 12 jurors who personally heard the testimony of over 40 witnesses over the course of several weeks and found that the evidence was sufficient and proved DeLay’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. We are preparing a response to this opinion and will ask the full Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review the ruling.”

    Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this appeal victory, however, is that the two other people who were originally indicted by the Texans for Public Justice case plead guilty to the accusations. This can only result in one questioning how DeLay can be innocent if his two compatriots were obviously guilty.

    When asked if he would use his pronounced innocence to return to Washington, DeLay said that he most likely would not because “There’s too much other things that the Lord wants me to do.” DeLay has been spending his time working with a new national prayer organization, and was meeting with groups whenever he was called to receive the good news: “We were all basically on our knees praying and our lawyer calls and says, ‘You’re a free man,’ ” said DeLay.

    Texas, Jesus, and Tom DeLay – 1, Liberal Do-Gooders – 0.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons