Five more defendants were sentenced to death for their roles in summer riots that killed around 200 people in western China, officials said Thursday.

The five sentenced to death were among 22 defendants that went on trial this week by the Intermediate People’s Court of Urumqi, according to a local government statement.

Along with the five people to be executed, another five were sentenced to death but the execution will be postponed for two years, the statement said.

The others received sentences ranging from 10 years in prison to life in prison.

…..

Click on the link to read the article

via Five more face execution for role in China riots – CNN.com.

Done with December 2009 Releases? Then get ordering these January 2010 Releases. For titles even further into the future, check my Reading Wishlist. As always, this list doesn’t include everything, release dates may change, etc. US, Canada, UK and Australia represented.

Kylie Chan
Earth to Hell (Journey to Wudang, Book 1)
HarperCollins (AU: 1st January 2010)
It is eight years since Xuan Wu, God of the Northern Heavens, living in Hong Kong as wealthy businessman John Chen, was exiled from the mortal realm. Emma and Simone, John’s daughter, are facing a new series of threats, while their best fighter, Leo, sits in Hell. They must persuade him to come home…but, in Hell, nothing is as it appears. On Earth, Simon Wong, the Demon King’s son, is no longer around to trouble them, but his associates have taken over Simon’s underworld activities. The otherworldly stones are being targeted and are in danger of their kind being completely destroyed. It seems that the Demon King is the only one Emma can turn to for help…

Jocelynn Drake
Dawnbreaker (Dark Days, Book 3)
HarperCollins Eos (AU: 1st January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Those of her race fear Mira for the lethal fire she bends to her will – a power unique among nightwalkers, both a gift…and a curse. The naturi despise Mira for what she is – as they prepare the final sacrifice that will destroy the barriers between the worlds. And once the naturi are unchained, blood, chaos, and horror will reign supreme on Earth. Mira can trust only Danaus, the more-than-mortal vampire slayer, though he is sworn to destroy her kind. And now, as the day approaches when titanic forces will duel under cover of darkness, destiny draws them toward an apocalyptic confrontation at Machu Picchu. But all is not lost, for a wild card has been dealt to them: a rogue enemy princess who can change the balance of power and turn the dread tide.

Kelly Gay
The Better Part of Darkness (Charlie Madigan, Book 1)
Simon & Schuster Pocket (AU: 1st January 2010)
Review
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Divorced mother of one, Charlie Madigan, lives in a world where the beings of heaven and hell exist among us, and they aren’t the things of Sunday school lessons and Hallmark figurines. In the years since the Revelation, they’ve become our co-workers, neighbors, and fellow citizens. Charlie works for ITF (Integration Task Force). It’s her job to see that the continued integration of our new “friends” goes smoothly and everyone obeys the law, but when a new off-world drug is released in Underground Atlanta, her daughter is targeted, and her ex-husband makes a fateful bargain to win her back, there’s nothing in heaven or earth (or hell for that matter) that Charlie won’t do to set things right.

Megan Hart
Switch
Harlequin Spice (US: 1st January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The anonymous note wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in the habit of reading other people’s mail, but it was just a piece of paper with a few lines scrawled on it, clearly meant for the apartment upstairs. It looked so innocent, but decidedly – deliciously – it was not. Before replacing the note – and the ones that followed – in its rightful slot, I devoured its contents: suggestions, instructions, summonses, commands. Each was more daring, more intricate and more arousing than the last…and I followed them all to the letter. Before the notes, if a man had told me what to do, I’d have told him where to go. But submission is an art, and there’s something oddly freeing about doing someone’s bidding…especially when it feels so very, very good. But I find that the more I surrender, the more powerful I feel – so it’s time to switch up roles. We play by my rules now.

Erica Hayes
Shadowfae (Shadowfae Chronicles, Book 1)
Pan Macmillan Griffin (AU: 1st January 2010)
Review
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In a city infested with psychotic fairies and run by sadistic vampire mafiosi, life as a soul-sucking succubus rarely involves lacy lingerie, hot guys or great sex. Enslaved by a demon lord, Jade must spend her nights seducing vampire gangsters and shapeshifting thugs. After two hundred years as a succubus, she burns for freedom and longs to escape her brutal life as a trophy girl for hell’s minions. Then, she meets Rajah, an incubus who touches her heart and intoxicates her senses. Rajah shares the same bleak fate as she, and yearns just as desperately for freedom. But the only way for Jade to break her bonds is to betray Rajah – and doom the only man she’s ever loved to a lifetime in hell.

Anya Bast
Wicked Enchantment (Dark Magick, Book 1)
Penguin Berkley Sensation (US & CA: 5th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
All eyes are on Gabriel Mac Braire the day he makes his first appearance in the Seelie Court, including those of Aislinn Finvarra. Despite deep bitterness over her last failed relationship, Aislinn cannot help but be curious about the half incubus who is known to possess dark magick, both lethal and sexual in nature. Rumours abound of the women who have become enslaved to his irresistible charms. So when the Summer Queen of the fae orders Aislinn herself to act as his guide in the court, she is understandably on guard. She’s fallen under the spell of far less persuasive men before. In addition, Gabriel might be more than he seems and his true mission is far from innocent. This time, Aislinn must protect not only her heart, but her very life…

Karen Chance, Marjorie M. Liu, Yasmine Galenorn & Eileen Wilks
Inked (Anthology)
Penguin Berkley (US & CA: 5th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Karen Chance’s “Skin Deep” tells the tale of a war mage in Las Vegas who stumbles across an ominous magical ward that appears as a dragon on her skin – and has a mind of its own…When Marjorie M. Liu’s demon slayer Maxine Kiss investigates a grisly murder at a high-class soirée, she finds herself involved in a conspiracy dating back to World War II – and a secret mission that her grandmother may have carried out for the US Government, one that involves the mysterious “Armor of Roses.” In Yasmine Galenorn’s “Etched in Silver,” a supernatural agent is on the trail of a sadistic serial killer, when an unexpected ally comes to her aid, setting in motion a magical ritual that may end up binding them together, body and soul. When the heavily tattooed body of a man is found in a Northern California town, FBI Agent Lily Yu is drawn into the case. Trouble is, the victim wasn’t human – and the killer isn’t finished in Eileen Wilks’s “Human Nature.”

Lauren Dane
Coming Undone
Penguin Berkley (US: 5th January 2010; CA: 12th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Brody Brown has always been responsible for others. After his parents’ death, he gave up a promising artistic career to care for his younger brother and sister. Now, with his siblings grown, Brody owns his own business, has a nice house, makes a nice living, and for the first time in years he’s on his own. Elise Sorenson has come to Seattle with her young daughter to find peace. After years as a world-famous ballerina – and just as many years in a marriage-gone-bad – she’s looking for neither love nor attention. But she finds both in the handsome, honest man who befriends her with no strings attached. More than friends, Brody and Elise discover in each other what they need – wild, physical passion without commitment. But it’ll take a shadow from Elise’s past to make them look beyond what they need – to what they truly desire.

Yasmine Galenorn
Bone Magic (Otherworld, Book 7)
Penguin Berkley (US & CA: 5th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
We’re the D’Artigo sisters: savvy – and sexy – operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But being half-human, half-Fae short-circuits our talents at all the wrong times. My sister Delilah is a two-faced Were who turns into a golden tabby when she’s stressed. And Menolly’s a vampire who’s still trying to get the hang of being undead. As for me? I’m Camille D’Artigo, a wicked-good witch who’s learning death magic with my youkai-kitsune husband. Until now, the Moon Mother’s pretty much ignored me, but she’s about to take me on the Hunt of my life…Another equinox is here, and life’s getting more dangerous for all of us. The past is catching up to our friends, Iris and Chase. Smoky – the dragon of my dreams – is forced to choose between his family and me. To top it off, there’s a new demon general in town and we can’t locate her. And when the Moon Mother and the Black Beast summon me to Otherworld, I think I’m just going to reunite with my long lost soulmate. But once there, I’m forced to undergo a drastic ritual that will forever change my life, and the lives of those around me.

Faith Hunter
Blood Cross (Jane Yellowrock, Book 2)
Penguin Roc (US & CA: 5th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The vampire council has hired skinwalker Jane Yellowrock to hunt and kill one of their own who has broken sacred ancient rules – but Jane quickly realises that in a community that is thousands of years old, loyalties run deep. With the help of her witch best friend and local vigilantes, Jane finds herself caught between bitter rivalries – and closer than ever to the secret origin of the entire vampire race. And in a city of old grudges and dark magic, Jane will have to fight to protect both sides, even if no one will protect her…

Carrie Jones
Captivate (Need Pixies, Book 2)
Bloomsbury (US: 5th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Zara and her friends knew they hadn’t solved the pixie problem for good. Far from it. The king’s needs grow deeper every day he’s stuck in captivity, while his control over his people gets weaker. It’s made him vulnerable. And now there’s a new king in town. A turf war is imminent, since the new pixie king, Astley, is moving in quickly. Nick nearly killed him in the woods on day one, but Zara came to his rescue. Astley swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he’s one of the good guys. Nick isn’t buying it, though Zara isn’t as sure – despite herself, she wants to trust the new king. But it’s a lot more than her relationship with Nick that is at stake. It’s her life – and his.

P. C. Cast (ed.)
Immortal (Anthology)
Turnaround Ben Bella (UK: 7th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Rachel Caine revisits the setting of her popular series, where the vampires are in charge and love is a risky endeavour, even when it comes to your own family. Cynthia Leitich Smith gives us a love triangle between a vampire, a ghost and a human girl, in which none of them are who or what they seem. Claudia Gray takes us into the world of her Evernight series, in which a pre–Civil War courtesan-to-be is courted by a pale, fair-haired man whose attentions are too dangerous to spurn, in more ways than one. Richelle Mead brings us the tale of a young vampire on the run from the rest of her kind, and the human boy who provides the getaway car, as well as a reason to keep running. Nancy Holder immerses us in a post-apocalyptic New York where two best friends are forced to make a choice that may kill them both. Kristin Cast introduces us to a new kind of vampire: one with roots in Greek mythology, and the power to alter space and time to save the girl he’s meant to love. Rachel Vincent explores a new corner of her series with the story of a leanan sidhe capable of inspiring the musician she loves to new creative heights, or draining him, and his talent, dry. And Tanith Lee shows us what happens when a bright young woman with some supernatural savvy encounters a misguided (but gorgeous) young vampire.

Rachel Caine
Fade Out (Morganville Vampires, Book 7)
Allison & Busby (UK: 11th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Life has changed dramatically in Morganville. The resident vampires have made major concessions to the human population and with their newfound freedoms, Claire Danvers and her friends are starting to feel comfortable again – almost. Claire can actually concentrate on her studies again, and Eve joins the local theatre company. Yet when one of Eve’s castmates goes missing during work on a documentary, Eve suspects the worst. But Claire and Eve soon realise that this film project is a whole lot bigger – and way more dangerous – than anyone suspected.

Joss Ware
Beyond the Night (Awakening Heroes, Book 1)
HarperCollins Avon (US & CA: 12th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilisation is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott’s extraordinary new “gift” – he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences. Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one…until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defences, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart? If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that take them beyond danger. Beyond desire.

Rachel Vincent
Prey (Shifters, Book 4)
Harlequin Mira (UK: 15th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Faythe has finally come to accept that she will someday be Alpha of the Pride, and she is hell-bent on changing the sexist Tribal Council from the inside. But first she must ensure that there will still be a Pride left to lead. Her father’s role as Alpha is at risk, as is his control over the territory they all love. At the same time, Faythe’s exiled boyfriend is under attack from rogues somehow connected to the political schemes of the tribal council. With her world collapsing around her, Faythe must fight to keep her friends and family together, as their enemies conspire against them.

Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Dead and the Gone (Last Survivors, Book 2)
Graphia (US: 18th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
At the moment the asteroid hits the moon, Alex Morales’s young life changes. Forever. As freak weather engulfs the globe, New York is plunged into a nightmare from which many will never wake. With no food, no electricity, and no parents, Alex must keep himself and his sisters alive…whatever the cost.

Stacey Jay
Undead Much? (Megan Berry, Book 2)
Penguin Sleuth Razorbill (US: 21st January 2010; CA: 26th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Megan Berry had a perfectly average new-sundress-and-boy-obsessed life – until her power to settle the Undead returned. Oh, and then her best friend tried to kill her – and ruin homecoming – with a bunch of black magically raised zombies. At least she got a spot on the pom squad and a smokin’ boyfriend (Ethan). But now Megan is in deep fertiliser all over again. Why? Well, let’s see…Feral new super-strong zombies? Check. Cheerleader vs. pom squad turf war threatening half time as they know it? Check. An Undead psychic hottie (Cliff) who’s predicting a zombie apocalypse – and doing his best to tempt Megan away from Ethan? Yum. I mean, Check. Earth-shattering secrets that could land Megan in Settler prison for life? Um, IT WASN’T ME!!! Everyone thinks Megan’s at fault for the new uber-zombie uprising. Looks like she’ll need the help of both Cliff and Ethan if she’s going to prove her innocence before it’s too late…

Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge
Black and White (Icarus Project, Book 1)
Hachette Piatkus (UK: 21st January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Once best friends at an elite superhero training academy, Callie Bradford – code name Iridium – and Joannie Greene – code name Jet – are now mortal enemies. Jet is a by-the-book hero, using her Shadow power to protect the citizens of New Chicago. Iridium, with her mastery of Light, runs the city’s underworld. For years the two have played a dangerous game of cat and mouse. But now playtime’s over. A looming evil threatens both them and the world they share. As Jet works with a “normal” man who has an extraordinary ability to make her weak in the knees, Iridium teams with a mysterious vigilante called Taser. Both Jet and Iridium are convinced that the other woman is the key to a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. And one of them is right.

Mark Del Franco
Unperfect Souls (Connor Grey, Book 4)
Penguin Ace (US & CA: 26th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In the Boston neighborhood known as the Weird, a decapitated body floats out of the sewer, and former Guild investigator Connor Grey uncovers a conspiracy that may bring down the city’s most powerful elite. As the violence escalates, Connor is determined to stop it – with help from one of the most dangerous beings of Faerie. Even if it means unleashing the darkness that burns within him.

Catherine Fisher
Incarceron
Penguin Dial (US & CA: 26th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible. And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside – she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don’t realise that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.

Janni Lee Simner
Bones of Faerie
Random House (US & CA: 26th January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so fifteen-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Corn resists being harvested; dandelions have thorns. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Still Liza feels safe. Her father is strong and has protected their town by laying down strict rules. Among them: Any trace of magic must be destroyed, no matter where it is found. Then Liza’s sister is born with faerie-pale hair, clear as glass, and Liza’s father leaves the baby on a hillside to die. When her mother disappears into the forest and Liza herself discovers she has the faerie ability to see – into the past, into the future – she has no choice but to flee. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.

Gena Showalter
Intertwined
Harlequin Mira (AU: January 2010)
Review
Buy (US) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him: One can time-travel. One can raise the dead. One can tell the future. And one can possess another human. With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now, they’re causing him all kinds of trouble. Like, he’ll blink and suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll change the future. Or, he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she’s going to die. He’s so over it. All he wants is peace. And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, for as long as he’s with her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But it’s too late…Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist. Two romances, both forbidden…doomed. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger…but not everyone will come out alive…

Alexander Gordon Smith
Death Sentence (Furnace, Book 3)
Allen & Unwin Faber (AU: January 2010)
Buy (UK) Buy (Worldwide)
We were so close. We had one last shot at freedom and we failed. This time the warden will show us no mercy. This time, our punishment is a death sentence. Only death won’t come for us here, not in Furnace. It wouldn’t dare. No, our fate is something much, much worse. Because in the bloodstained laboratories deep beneath the prison lies the horrific truth behind the warden’s plans. Down here, monsters are made.

MPs in Uganda will debate today a Bill that proposes the death sentence for gay sex under certain conditions. http://www.LesbianSugarLounge.com for more on this story.

Date of execution: May 28, 2002

Offender: Napoleon Beazley #999141

Last statement: “The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here – I am.

I’m not going to struggle physically against any restraints. I’m not going to shout, use profanity or make idle threats. Understand though that I’m not only upset, but I’m saddened by what is happening here tonight. I’m not only saddened, but disappointed that a system that is supposed to protect and uphold what is just and right can be so much like me when I made the same shameful mistake.

If someone tried to dispose of everyone here for participating in this killing, I’d scream a resounding, “No.” I’d tell them to give them all the gift that they would not give me…and that’s to give them all a second chance.

I’m sorry that I am here. I’m sorry that you’re all here. I’m sorry that John Luttig died. And I’m sorry that it was something in me that caused all of this to happen to begin with.

Tonight we tell the world that there are no second chances in the eyes of justice…Tonight, we tell our children that in some instances, in some cases, killing is right.

This conflict hurts us all, there are no SIDES. The people who support this proceeding think this is justice. The people that think that I should live think that is justice. As difficult as it may seem, this is a clash of ideals, with both parties committed to what they feel is right. But who’s wrong if in the end we’re all victims?

In my heart, I have to believe that there is a peaceful compromise to our ideals. I don’t mind if there are none for me, as long as there are for those who are yet to come. There are a lot of men like me on death row – good men – who fell to the same misguided emotions, but may not have recovered as I have.

Give those men a chance to do what’s right. Give them a chance to undo their wrongs. A lot of them want to fix the mess they started, but don’t know how. The problem is not in that people aren’t willing to help them find out, but in the system telling them it won’t matter anyway. No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious.”

If there are “caste taunts ” targeted at you, you can have a sympathetic hearing in a court of law even after you have indulged in a killing spree. I am not merely saying this. The Supreme Court actually put this on record last week.

In May, 2004, Dilip Tiwari and two accomplices, barged into the house of  the 26 year old “low caste” Prabhu and stabbed him to death. Prabhu had dared to first fall in love and then marry Sushma, the “upper caster” sister of Tiwari. The trio also killed Prabhu’s 70 year old father, 13 year old nephew and a friend. They seriously injured Prabhu’s mom and younger sister. Sushma, who was then seven months pregnant escaped sure death because she was visiting a relative at the time. The “honour killings” apparently “shook” the entire nation.

But it seems that the Supreme Court was not so shaken. On Thursday last, the Apex court, reduced the High Court’s death sentence for Dilip Tiwari to a life sentence. The court ruled that “caste taunts suffered by an offender in an honour killing need to be factored in before pronouncing a verdict on him”.

So, will it be wrong to assume that I can brutally kill three to ten “low castes” and just get 14 years in jail, if any of my relatives dares to have an inter-caste marriage against my wishes. If I am say just 18 or even 25 at the time, I can become a free man again by the age of 32-38, after going on a murdering spree! So, all families in India looking to carry out “honour killings” – which have now by virtue of this judgement alone been separated from general killings or murders – can employ the youngest person in the family to wreck vengeance and rest in peace knowing that the person will be out of jail after a mere 14 years of “sacrifice” for the cause.

What is beyond me is that how can any killing be different. Murder is murder after all – does the cause or degree matter when someone is anyway losing their life? The law lays down an exception in the form of self defence. Now the honourable Apex Court has added “honour killings” to it!

We talk about one India. We talk about ending discrimination on grounds of caste. We take of right to equality irrespective of caste, creed, class, sex and religion. In fact our Constitution guarantees this right. And then the unchallengeable Apex Court goes and adds a new dimension to caste – in the form of “caste taunts”. One is allowed to feel angered by taunts on one’s sister marrying a lower caste to that extent that one can get only life sentence – not a death sentence – for wiping out an entire family for revenge.

Will this judgement end “honour killings” in the name of caste? Will it put instill fear in those trying to maintain caste divides it India? Does it protect the rights to equality and freedom of choice of Sushma Nochil, who lost her entire family that night in May. To whom does this judgement provide justice?

And again to pick up a point in law – if a death sentence is to be issued in a “rarest of rarest case”, then why was Dhananjay Chatterjee hanged? Isn’t rape more common than honour killings in our country? So why was he hanged and why was Dilip Tiwari’s death sentence reduced to a life term? How to decide on what is rare and what is not rare? If caste is a prevalent – albeit shameful – fact in Indian society, then so is rape – rape of minors too.

The fact remains that the Supreme Court judges thought first as people belonging to certain castes themselves, then as objective protectors of the law of the nation. They could themselves “feel” the “humiliation and anger of caste taunts” and that’s why they could “factor in the caste taunts” and probably “understand” murderer Dilip Tiwari’s thirst for blood. The question is does the law allows them to “feel” – that too along caste lines? Or, are they supposed to uphold justice at any cost?

For me, and definitely for Sushma Nochil and her now five-year old daughter, justice was not upheld. It is beyond comprehension how a court of law can factor in “caste taunts suffered by the offender” to commute a sentence for the brutal killing of  an entire family of a pregnant woman.

Unfortunately, even after 62 years of Independence and with a Constitution which calls for no discrimination on grounds of caste, sex or religion, we live in a country where all application forms – be it for private or government organizations – have columns asking for religion, caster, sex and age. How does these matter when constitutionally there should be no discrimination on the basis of these categories? The columns are there, in my opinion, just to facilitate discrimination. By allowing such practices to continue, we are actually violating the tenets of our Constitution, of Indian democracy.

The Supreme Court, in all its learnedness has passed a sentence to which the victim of caste hate, Sushma Nochil responded “it’s a social ill that sadly exists even in the 21 century. My case is not one of its kind. Many have suffered a similar fate in the name of caste and religion. When the lower court saw this crime as a rarest of rare case, why can’t the Supreme Court understand the repercussions of such a crime”.

I am a Hindu married to a Muslim. My brother or father, thankfully, did not go on a killing spree inside my in-laws’ home. I say thankfully, because today I know that the legal custodians of this country would not have protected my rights – even if my marriage did take place legally under the Special Marriages Act. They would have then thought “communally” as they did here as “casteists” and factored in “communal taunts” to pass sympathetic sentences on my brother and father.

One thing is for sure, every caste, communal and sex offender in this country is now going to plead “caste taunts”, “communal taunts” and “sex taunts” to justify their actions and get commuted sentences.

What does it take for a woman like Sushma Nochil to file criminal cases against her own brother and parents? What does it take to fight a case against her blood-relations for years, to give testimony again and again against them, to probably alienate all her other blood relatives in the process? What does it then take to survive the final realization that after all that effort to seek justice for her own right to choose and justice for her dead husband and other in-laws, the law of the country does not finally come through – or if it does then it does so after “factoring” in certain discriminatory matters!

I identify with the trauma and anguish of Sushma Nochil. I feel the Supreme Court of India made a huge mistake. I stand shoulder to shoulder with Sushma on this. This was an opportunity for the Apex Court to deliver a strong message through capital punishment against the divisive, discriminatory forces in India, to take a step forward in curtailing a persistent social evil, to make it clear that anyone infringing on the fundamental rights of others will be severely punished,  but instead it succumbed to a weird, non-justifiable sympathy for the offender’s reasons for the crime and failed to mete out justice to the victim.

And therein lies the tragedy of our legal system and legal custodians. When there is a provision for Capital Punishment, then why is it kept reserved when its use can show zero tolerance of the most prominent prevailing social evil in India?

Everybody knows that a diagnosis with HIV is not the death sentence it used to be years ago, due to many improvements in anti-retroviral drugs and the emergence of new therapies.

However, some politicians in Uganda are trying to change that, literally.

Lawmakers in Uganda are trying to pass a new anti-homosexuality bill that would make it even more difficult for someone to be gay in that country. Mind you, homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the new bill will introduce even tougher penalties for being gay/engaging in homosexual acts.

The bill has a lot of disturbing penalties and clauses in it. The most disturbing however is the clause in the bill that allows the state to execute anyone who tests positive for HIV. Yes, you read that right. People who test positive for the virus that causes AIDS can be put to death.

Other oddities of the bill include a measure that will allow prosecution of gays that have engaged in homosexual acts outside of Uganda but can still be put on trial for it in Uganda itself. Sounds more like a lynching campaign to me.

I will spare you the annoying details, however the bill is rife with various basic-human-rights-insulting-clauses. Feel free to browse it at this link. Just a quick review of the table of contents is sufficient enough to give any human being a severe headache.

the warmest memories come first
flashing a fantasy of rotting childhood
when animals could speak my name
I hear the children laughing
taste the only kiss
as water refreshes quenches
how my mouth is dry
like feigned apologies

then
copper veins short circuit
muscles in my face
the ones that let me smile
the chair is cold and numbs
I grip the arms
hands swell stung with splinters

blurred words fall into my lap
where bound legs can’t kick
dark clouds form behind my eyes
I see their tortured faces
fairies in the smoke
a haunting I regret I made

tremors       then
the smell of yellow
melting to the floor
flesh            boils

shaking
chair is hot
shaking                     endless shaking
bite my tongue can’t stop                 shaking
taste crimson bitter            thin
blinding      white     sweat and spasm
strobing silhouettes
remembering
when i         wasn’t scared
screaming    shaking
a sudden pleasure
endless    energy

then

Today’s Charitable Gift Idea for Advent is Angel Tree.  Did you know that the United States has more people in prison (2.3 million) than any other country in the world?  We also have the highest rate of incarceration per capita in the world – 1 in every 100 people in our country is in prison at any given moment!  When a person goes to prison, they often leave behind a spouse and children, who must struggle to get by.  Families are often the unintended and innocent victims of a crime – they did nothing wrong, yet they, too, suffer the consequences when a loved one is convicted.  In America’s overcrowded prison system, there are not always enough prison jobs to go around, and those who can work do so for very low wages –$1 an hour is considered a good prison wage.  Those in prison obviously can’t afford to send gifts home to their kids, so Angel Tree (an arm of Prison Fellowship) buys and delivers gifts to the children of people in prisons around the country.  Time is running out to give!  This is yet another fun way to teach your kids about charitable giving and helping other children who are less fortunate.

We’re on to John 3 today in our Advent reading plan.  Jesus tells a Pharisee, Nicodemus, that one must be “born again,” and Nicodemus (rightly) scratches his head and asks what Jesus means:

“How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?”  (John 3:4 MSG)

I live with a married couple that just had its first child, so Nicodemus’s question creates some pretty interesting images in my mind’s eye – it’s just plain silly (not to mention gross and weird) to imagine trying to put the new baby back in his mother’s womb now.  Jesus goes on to explain to Nicodemus that the rebirth He’s talking about is a spiritual one, not a physical one.  And why is a rebirth even necessary?  I think it’s interesting that babies feature so prominently in John 3, because they offer a lot of insight into what Jesus is getting at with this “born again” talk.

Newborn babies are pretty much innocent.  They’re not disobedient yet (that takes at least a couple more months to develop), they haven’t hurt anyone yet, they haven’t made stupid decisions or mistakes yet, they haven’t done any of the bad stuff that all of us eventually end up doing (unless you’re a perfect person.  If you are, leave a comment, because I’d be interested in meeting you).  Suffice it to say, you and I are not newborn babies anymore.  We’ve messed up, hurting ourselves and others and failing even on our best days.  For some of us, our screw-ups feel like a death sentence – we feel hopelessly imperfect, beyond redemption.  But, imagine this – wouldn’t it be amazing if we could return to that newly-minted, spotless, newborn condition (at least spiritually)?  Well, the good news Jesus gives to Nicodemus is that we can, and all it takes is faith:

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. (John 3:16-18 MSG)

Trusting in Jesus just means going to Him and admitting what we all already know is true: we’ve messed up.  (See Romans 3:9-20)  The good news is that God knows this about us already, and He offers a way out.  He’s not pointing an accusing finger.  Trusting in Jesus gets us out of the hopeless death sentence that our flawed condition has become. It’s entirely up to us whether we want to take Him up on the offer.

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners . . . and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself.  A pure gift.  He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear.  (Rom. 3:23-26 MSG)

This is what we’re remembering at Advent.  We are flawed, but God doesn’t leave us in that condition.  He sent hope and a clean slate to us in the very real and human form of Jesus.  Jesus can return us, spiritually, to that perfect newborn baby condition.  That’s good news for us this Christmas.

–GalEast

Jeff Gamso at “Gamso – For the Defense” put up a thoughtful post that is responsive to the question I posed in my entry on the Gallup poll numbers.  You can visit check out his insightful analysis here: http://gamso-forthedefense.blogspot.com/2009/11/numbers-speak.html.

How unfortunate for Lebanese TV presenter Ali Sibat who made a living from making predictions on telly, he has found himself  on death row after going on a pilgrim to Saudi Arabia! Guess those religious police watch the Lebanese satellite channel. Thanks to his little regular soothsayer show he has been charged with  “charlatanry” and “sorcery” and given the death sentence. That’s a ratings killer. Every friggin human rights group is trying to overturn the conviction. I might be scratching that off my list of holiday destinations, imagine if the religious police read Friggin Loon!!! Ain’t bear thinking about!

What does justice sound like? Words that ring like the fall of the judge’s gavel? If you ask me, they are the words of Hannah Arendt in her imagined death sentence of Adolf Eichmann.

Reading it sends shivers of awe down my spine- awe of what, exactly, I am not sure. The thought of the entire human race casting the same disapproving gaze, maybe: the epic scale of the walls that close in on Eichmann at that very moment, the force of the conviction behind the decision that this man’s life must end.

“For politics is not like the nursery; in politics obedience and support are the same. And just as you supported and carried out a policy of not wanting to share the earth with the Jewish people and the people of a number of other nations- as though you and your superiors had any right to determine who should and who should not inhabit the world- we find that no one, that is, no member of the human race, can be expected to want to share the earth with you. This is the reason, and the only reason, you must hang.”

Hannah Arendt

No trial ? Death sentences , what a shock !
No Human rights violations here …Move along !

….
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Five people have been sentenced to death and 81 have received jail terms of up to 15 years in connection with unrest after Iran’s disputed election in June, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Tuesday.

Citing a statement by the public relations office of Tehran’s provincial court listing verdicts issued so far over post-vote incidents, it said those sentenced to death were affiliated to or members of “counter-revolutionary groups.”

The same court said last month that death sentences had been handed down against three people over the street unrest and links to exiled opposition organizations.

It was not immediately clear if the five cited in Tuesday’s statement were the same as those reported by an Iranian rights group earlier this week to have been sentenced to death.

The IRIB report did not name any of the accused nor say when the sentences were handed down.

Three more Iranians have been sentenced to death for Homosexuality offenses.

A death sentence is the price one pays for being discovered as a Homosexual in Iran.  According to Pink News, the largest Gay news bureau in Europe, the three men were all minors, at the ages of 16 and 17, at the time of the alleged crimes of engaging in consensual Gay sex with other young males  Iran reportedly leads the world in the numbers of its own children it put to death for various offenses.

Could you imagine Heterosexual children in Holland being executed for engaging in sexual relations as 16 and 17 year olds?  Or in England or Italy?   To our modern way of thinking it is beyond preposterous!  Yet this is the life Gay people must live in the dark corners of the world.  For most of the rest of the world, people cannot see these desperate lives or choose not to pay attention to them.

So while we in the west go on about our lives, remember the millions of people around the world who must fear for their safety and risk decades in prison if their true Gay nature is discovered.  Where is the public outrage?

Lawyers for the men believe the executions could take place any day, but no dates have yet been scheduled.  Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch are following the story.

The takeaway:  The Heterosexual oppressors would prefer we disappear and they are willing to exterminate us given the chance.  There is no living as a free people as long as they have their boots on our necks.

I found my last bed

in the place of the first

lesser my heartbeat

greater my thirst

only my pain can realize

        the silent fear

        that lingers here

among a dozen wetted eyes

and hearts doubled over

to see yellow skin

my last fleshly covering

a sad soul within

whose mate in tears resides beside

        my rock and love

        my precious dove

in whom I hope my fate abides

yet she refers me

toward other things

with halos of light

and feathery wings

but I cannot see the light from here

        with eyes gone grey

        fading away

and filled with cold and bitter tears

for fear and regret

all these chains that I’ve earned

in those toiling days

whose dreams I burned

with tunnel vision and selfish pride

        my fate I chose

        the thorny rose

whose beauty at last has bled me dry

leaving naught but a shell

that cannot receive

a blessing that’s blocked

by anger and grief

but I may have one final gift

        my heart to give

        to one who lives

long after this soul passes through the rift

may he love her with care

for better, for worse

and learn from my death

lest he fall to the curse

that still lingers here within the air

        with brutal eyes

        on new love lies

and fixes them with unmerciful stare

so my final act

will not be a cry

for mercy or peace

I simply will die

an example to a foolish world

        to which I belong

        a son of its song

        its promises lies

        when everyone dies

but lives like their lives cannot be unfurled

so breathe like it matters

live without regret

and love while you live

and never forget.

Hate crimes.  Racism.  These are things that are only possible if a white person commits them against a black person, or a conservative against a liberal.  Many recent court cases and the new idiotic “hate crimes” legislation are proof.

If you commit a crime against someone, does it matter what color the skin of the victim is?  No.  It doesn’t.  If you think it does, I feel sorry for you.  You have bought into the lies that liberals have been trying to sell you for so long.  Crime, as a form of sin, has no shades of right or wrong.  It’s either wrong or it’s not.

Now let’s take a look at how our politicians and legal system decide what is or is not a hate crime.  The answer is simple:

FEAR.

If a white person murders a black person, the liberals and the courts immediately assume that it is a “hate crime.” Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton immediately hit the streets and stir up the mobs, the facts be damned (Duke rape case or Tawana Brawley anyone?).  The courts have no problem convicting the white person of a hate crime, because they are pretty confident that white people aren’t going to riot, burn cars and buildings, and generally go on a crime spree when the verdict is released.

If the roles are reversed and a black person murders a white person, you immediately get the statement from the authorities as seen in this article :  “Authorities said race didn’t appear to be a factor.” The judges and politicians sit in their back rooms and wring their hands saying “If we convict this person, the blacks will riot like they did over Rodney King in 1992.”

This is what our “justice” system has come to.  We punish based on thought.  We punish crime based on which ethnic group you belong to.  We don’t punish because we’re afraid the “group” to which the convict belongs might BREAK MORE LAWS.  We don’t punish based strictly upon the crime that you actually committed.  When you look at the statue of Lady Justice holding the scales, she is wearing a blindfold.  That is supposed to signify that justice is blind.  What is has become is Lady Justice being ashamed to see what the “justice” system has become.

In the heinous crime written of in the article below, will you HONESTLY tell me that race WAS NOT a factor?  I believe it was, but I also believe IT DOESN’T MATTER! Whether the crime was white-on-white, white-on-black, black-on-white, or black-on-black SIMPLY DOES NOT MATTER.  The crime was so heinous and reprehensible that at least one juror feinted while listening to the testimony.  What these people did was so inhumane and cruel they should ALL be put to death, REGARDLESS OF WHAT COLOR THEY ARE. These animals have forfeited their right to live among civilized people.

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http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/29/tennessee-jury-hears-testimony-fate-convicted-kill/?print

Tennessee: Jury hears testimony on fate of convicted killer

Thursday, October 29, 2009

By:
Associated Press

–> DUNCAN MANSFIELD,Associated Press Writer

KNOXVILLE — A jury weighing a possible death sentence for the ringleader in the fatal carjacking of a young Knoxville couple heard Thursday about the warm loving middle-class background of the victims and the poor, neglected and abused upbringing of the defendant.

The testimony came a day after the same panel of seven men and five women convicted Memphis native Lemaricus Davidson, 28, of more than 30 counts in the 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, including premeditated murder, felony murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery.

At the defense’s request, Judge Richard Baumgartner told the jury a 2004 report from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury suggested “the economic cost of imposing the death penalty is more expensive than imprisoning somebody for life without parole.” (Are you kidding me?  It costs on average $30K to $50K per year to incarcerate a criminal.  That cost versus $1 for a bullet, and a few dollars worth of cleaning supplies to clean up the mess?  I’ll take the second option, and I’ll even pay for the next 10 murderers in line.)

However, he said, that “should have absolutely no bearing” on its decision.

Rosalind Andrews, a former federal probation officer hired by the defense to investigate Davidson’s background, testified he was one of six children from five fathers raised by a single mother who was a prostitute and drug abuser who would beat the children and relied on an aunt to help raise them.  (None of this justifies anyone of any color killing another human being.  Bill Cosby was right.  The liberal attack on the black nuclear family is illustrated by this “evidence.”  As Cosby said, the black community as a whole needs to stand up and throw off the oppressive bonds of liberalism and take control of their lives.)

He was sexually molested by a teenage boy when he was 8 years old, shuttled from school to school, made poor grades, and after his aunt died went to a group home, she said. His mother died earlier this year.  (Again, tell me how you think any of this justifies killing an innocent human being.  The only person who he MAY have been justified in going after would be the person who sexually molested him.  But our liberals side with the molesters rather than the children that they molest, so he would lose that one before it even happened.)

At 17, Davidson was taken in by a foster home in Jackson, where he found support and the promise of a better life. But he was kicked out less than two years later when he was caught with marijuana and soon afterward charged with aggravated robbery that sent him to prison, Andrews said.  (Life is all about choices, and this guy made bad ones.)

Davidson, one of four people charged in the carjacking slayings, chose not to testify.  (Every one of the scum bags involved in these murders should either fry or get a bullet in the brain.  The bullet would cost less than the electricity.)

The victims’ families presented a far different story.

“We cannot really verbalize the pain out loud because we would break down,” Newsom’s older sister Andrea Bowers said, trying to describe the families’ loss to the jury.

Christian, 21, was a college senior majoring in sociology. She hoped to work with children some day, and have four of her own. She was responsible; she held two part-time jobs. She was “daddy’s girl,” her family said.

She was “an inspiration to anyone who ever met her. She could literally light up a room, her smile was contagious. She was truly my best friend,” said her older brother Chase Christian.

She had been seeing Newsom, a 23-year-old trim carpenter, about two months before they were carjacked on a Saturday night date in her Toyota 4-Runner in January 2007 by several gun-wielding men.

They were dead less than two days later after being beaten and raped. He was shot and left naked along railroad tracks. She suffocated in a trash can in Davidson’s rented house, experts testified during the 10-day trial.  (Apparently the victims were also raped, sodomized, and had house cleaning chemicals poured down their throats.  But it’s OK because the murderers had a rough childhood.)

The jury convicted Davidson on all counts, except of raping Newsom, instead finding him guilty of the lesser charge of facilitating the rape by others.

Newsom had “a great personality and loved life,” his mother Mary Newsom said. “He was a loving and caring person.”

“Chris was not a saint. However, he has never been charged with any major offenses,” his father Hugh Newsom said, looking toward Davidson.

“I know Chris was scared to death, but his concern was for ‘Channon with a C,” as Newsom called her, his father said. “I know that hurt him far more than any of those three bullets that tore into his body.”

Christian “wasn’t perfect” either, her mother Deena Christian said. But “she was a beautiful young woman and had a beautiful soul.” She also said her daughter wasn’t a drug user, as the defense suggested in trying to show the couple came to Davidson’s house willingly to buy drugs from him.

“The thought of what she had to endure haunts us each and every day,” Deena Christian said.

The killings became a racially charged case: The victims were white and the defendants black. Some conservative Internet commentators and white supremacist agitators claimed it didn’t get the same attention as white-on-black hate crimes. Authorities said race didn’t appear to be a factor.

Davidson’s brother Letalvis Cobbins, 26, of Lebanon, Ky., was convicted earlier by a jury brought from Nashville to avoid pretrial publicity. He was sentenced to life without parole.

Two co-defendants, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, are awaiting trial. Thomas will have a jury from Chattanooga when he is tried in December.

A fifth conspirator, Eric Boyd, was convicted in federal court of being an accessory after the fact for hiding Davidson, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

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I was in a guesthouse the other night and I couldn’t sleep because I was up watching this Discovery Channel special on wheat, which is apparently nature’s miracle grass and can even be made into doors that are lighter and more fire resistant than the average wooden door.  Anyway I finally go to sleep around 2 or 3 when something apparently startled me and I woke up.

I can’t see anything because I’m not wearing my glasses, I’m still sort of in the fog of sleep, and I have an inside room without an outside window so it’s pitch-black.  But I do notice what looks like a glowing lit cigarette hovering in the corner, and it appears to be moving.

I’m terrified.

I’m thinking, Who is in my room, How’d he get in here, and What does he want.

I become completely still because it’s pitch-black and maybe he doesn’t even know I’m here!, and if he starts to panic then it’s surely bad news for both of us.

I lock on to the glow of the cigarette and eventually realize it’s not moving at all, that it only appeared to move because my head moved and as it turns out I was looking into the mirror, and that little red dot wasn’t so much a cigarette at all but instead the red indicator light on the TV.  So once I realize that all along I’ve been terrified of the TV it becomes sort of funny, but I still don’t get back to sleep for quite a while.

Anyway, my theory is that none of this would’ve happened if before the wheat special came on I hadn’t watched Death Sentence, the revenge movie starring Kevin Bacon in which he single-handedly kills an entire street gang.

So thanks for nothing, Kevin Bacon.

On October 13, I sat in on the two oral arguments scheduled for the morning: Padilla v. Kentucky and Smith v. Spisak.  For this post on the Spisak case, I’ve relied on my own notes from the argument, the transcript posted on the Supreme Court’s website, and some media observations after the argument.

The State’s cert petition to the Supreme Court raised two issues for the Court to resolve: (1) Whether the Sixth Circuit’s ruling that the trial court’s jury instructions violated Mr. Spisak’s constitutional rights contravened the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA); and (2) Whether the Sixth Circuit’s ruling that the defense lawyer’s closing argument rendered his assistance ineffective contravened AEDPA.  When the Court agreed to hear the case, those concerned with the rights of criminal defendants shuddered, particularly because the Supreme Court had already remanded the case once before in 2007.  See Hudson v. Spisak, 128 S. Ct. 373 (2007) (noting that three liberal Justices – Justice Stevens, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer – would deny the petition for writ of certiorari).  By all accounts – before and after oral argument – it appears the defendant (and the Sixth Circuit) should brace for a ruling that puts him back under a sentence of death.

To the extent facts about offenders influence how courts view the legal issues presented in a case, Mr. Spisak has effectively made himself as unsympathetic as possible.  The State’s brief on the merits highlights some of the key facts from the notorious Ohio case:

Respondent Frank G. Spisak, Jr. killed Horace T. Rickerson, Timothy Sheehan, and Brian Warford in a series of shootings at Cleveland State University in 1982. . . . He said that his actions were motivated by his hatred of gay people, blacks, and Jews, and he specifically targeted the campus of Cleveland State University. . . . During his days-long testimony, Spisak . . . identified Hitler as his spiritual leader. . . . Other cues during the trial reinforced the depravity of Spisak’s beliefs. Before trial, Spisak grew a moustache and shaved it to resemble Hitler’s. And on cross examination, after the prosecutor read into evidence a violent letter from Spisak that was laced with racist epithets, Spisak declared “HeilHitler” and performed the corresponding salute.

With these facts in the background, Richard Cordray, the Attorney General of Ohio, began his oral argument on behalf of the State.  He first addressed the Sixth Circuit’s ruling that the trial court’s jury instructions violated the rule set forth by the Supreme Court in Mills v. Maryland.  Justice Sotomayor immediately asked the first question, pointing out an oddity to the Sixth Circuit’s ruling:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Why? I — I have been trying to figure out why the State court would know in its decisionmaking that Mills commanded a different result when Mills was issued after the State denied its petition for rehearing.

MR. CORDRAY: It’s a bit of a conundrum, Your Honor, because Mills was issued after the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision here, but before it became final on direct review when cert was denied by this Court in March of 1989.

Kent Scheidegger over at Crime & Consequences elaborates on the conundrum here (http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2009/10/spisak-new-rules-and-justice-s.html), and appreciates the signal that Sotomayor may be willing to enforce AEDPA “vigorously.”

As the argument proceeded, Mr. Cordray explained why the State believes the Sixth Circuit’s ruling is a new extension of the rule enshrined in Mills.  One might wonder if Mills itself is in trouble with this Court, or if the Court will give a green light to states that want to stop the practice of instructing the jury about the effect of one juror holding out on a death sentence:

MR. CORDRAY: At the time, the instructions pushed the jury toward unanimity one way or the other. Do the aggravators outweigh the mitigators or do they not? Since that time, the Ohio Supreme Court as a matter of practice has been willing to go further and instruct the jury, or have the jury be instructed, that if a single one of you feels that the aggravators do not outweigh the mitigators, that will preclude a death sentence. But that has never been constitutionally required by this Court. It is an extension of Mills v. Maryland that has never been so held by this Court, and in fact is a source of a — of a significant overwhelming majority of circuits the opposite way.

The State’s argument proceeded on to the second issue – the defense counsel’s closing argument.  Based on the questions the Justices asked Respondent, it seemed that the State’s argument here was well-received by most Justices.

Mr. Michael Benza argued on Mr. Spisak’s behalf.  At the outset, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia jumped on his claim that the defense counsel’s closing argument constituted ineffectiveness assistance.  Even Justice Breyer seemed to endorse the trial counsel’s strategy to agree that his client was a cold-blooded and unsympathetic murderer, but argue that he is clearly mentally ill and therefore should not be executed:

JUSTICE BREYER: What would you have done? I mean, I’m — I’m not experienced in this. But I mean, I have heard the other side and I have read the argument. And it makes sense logically to say he has the worst defendant he has ever seen. He’s murdered lots of people in cold blood. He gets up on the stand and says: I’m going to kill a lot more. He sounds totally bonkers. And — and he says to the jury, I can’t tell you that what he did was not aggravating; it was terrible. I can’t tell you that there’s anything here that should make you feel better about him; there is nothing. But we are a nation of people who are humane and our law says don’t put a person to death when he fills with his nuttiness that third prong, which is a lower standard of insanity than I had to meet. But it’s clearly met and here are the experts; I point to their testimony, and that’s what they said. So be humane.

In what seems to be a rare occurrence, Justice Scalia agreed with Justice Breyer, and went even further: “I thought it was a brilliant closing argument. . . . This was an extraordinary trial, and it seems to me that the — that the technique that — that counsel used to try to get mercy for this fellow was — was the best that could have been done.”

After Mr. Benza defended his position, he and the Justices were sidetracked for several minutes on an interesting question about AEDPA deference.  I explore this discussion below.  That peripheral discussion became so involved that Justice Ginsburg had to remind the Respondent that he had a limited amount of time: “Mr. Benza, you might want to use what time is remaining to deal with the other issue, which we haven’t talked about at all.”

On the Mills issue, Mr. Benza gave a straightforward answer to the timing conundrum originally raised by Justice Sotomayor:

Teague says that the decision for application of a newly established law or a new established constitutional rule is predicated on the denial of direct appeal, which in this case would be the cert denied by this Court of the direct appeal of the case, which happened in 1989, a year after the decision in Mills was handed down.

He then argued that the Ohio jury instructions were confusing because they would lead a reasonable juror to believe that there must be unanimity on the existence of a mitigating factor before it could be considered and given effect by any juror.

As this AP article points out, “most of the justices were skeptical of Benza’s arguments.”  There is little doubt about how this case will come out.

Although not central to the dispute in this case, Mr. Cordray raised a suggestion that later became the source of a major discussion between the Justices and Mr. Benza.  In arguing that appellate courts must give deference to trial court decisions under AEDPA, Mr. Cordray explained why the trial court’s summary disposition of the ineffective assistance claim warranted deference under the two-prong Strickland test:

If the court simply gives a summary affirmance or summary disposition and doesn’t specify which prong, I think the Court has to give deference under both prongs, because the alternative would be to give deference under neither prong, which is inconsistent with the — the AEDPA statement that we have to did defer to an adjudication on the merits by a State court.

Mr. Benza, however, argued that the trial court’s summary adjudication did not trigger AEDPA’s deference requirement:

MR.BENZA: We have no idea whether they decided that there was deficient performance, but no prejudice — that there was, in fact, deficient performance, but no prejudice, that this was not deficient because it was reasonable strategy. It is also possible that the lower courts were misapplying [the law].

I found this line of argumentation fascinating because it implicates the vast majority of decisions made by trial courts in habeas review.  Rather than give detailed reasons for their rulings, many trial courts deal with claims summarily.  I have always found it troubling that such cursory explanations become essentially unreviewable on appeal.  Apparently, the Respondent’s lawyer in this case agrees.  Justice Scalia does not, however:

JUSTICE SCALIA: When we — when you don’t know what a lower court has done, the rule is you assume the best, not the worst. Isn’t that the standard rule of review?

But, Mr. Benza elaborated on the problem as it applied to this case: “The problem that you have in that is, when you try to apply AEDPA to this particular claim, you don’t know how the state court, in fact, decided this case.”

Justice Breyer explained that the Respondent’s position has far-reaching implications:

JUSTICE BREYER: How — how does that work? Certainly, it’s a fairly common thing, that the defendant will make — let’s say, 20 arguments, maybe he would even number them. And it’s fairly common to find a court of appeals in a state that says, as to argument number 17, and then they characterize it, we reject that argument.

Mr. Benza took the (gutsy) position that:

MR. BENZA: I would — I think the issue then would become that, when a state court chooses to summarily deny, without evaluation, an explanation of the merits of the claim, that, when it comes to habeas review, the constraints of AEDPA are lifted.

The Justices took exception with this proposition, and worried that it would overburden lower courts to require that they elaborate on all of their decisions.  Yet, if giving reasons for rulings is the essence of providing justice, Mr. Benza’s proposition does not seem so crazy to me.

Oh, they are the best! They depict emotions in a raw, powerful form. And by revenge, I’m not talking about an underpaid, overworked guy sticking it up to boss’s ass. Nope. I am talking about when a loved one is murdered and the one who left behind takes justice into his own hands. The latest promising avenger movie is Law Abiding Citizen, starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx.

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (2009)

Butler’s character is the avenger. But the wonderful think about the film is he won’t be just taking care of the murderers that took his family’s life. He will also come after the prosecutor who cut a deal with them, the judge who let him and basically the whole system. Don’t worry, I didn’t give away any spoilers. It is all in the thriller. You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMoP35u8oN0.

I for one can’t wait till it comes to a theater near me. Until it does, I decided to pay a visit to some of the revenge movies I love.

BRAVEHEART (1995)

It is a revenge movie. Yes, it is epic,and glorious and tells us how the real life Scottish folk hero led his people to freedom by fighting the English. But the urge to take revenge starts all that. Wallace was just an ordinary boy when his father was killed. But he was taken and raised by his uncle, who taught him to be an intelligent, world-savvy person. He came back to his town and he had no desire to fight. But then the English kill his wife- a woman he loved deeply and loved more than anything and everyone else. So, this drove him to edge. It is possibly one of the most noble acts of revenge, since he did not give up after finishing off his wife’s murderers and continued to fight for his and his countrymen’s freedom. All of the scenes are priceless. The movie has 5 Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director; both won by the film’s lead actor/director/producer Mel Gibson. If you haven’t seen it yet, and you are not against the concept of historical epic movies, you really shouldn’t miss this.

The Crow (1994)

Such a dark,gothic,powerful cult classic. A rock musician’s ( Eric Draven played by Brandon Lee) fiancée is raped and murdered. Moreover, he is murdered. The great thing about this movie is that the avenger is also dead, and yet he comes back to avenge his and his fiancée’s murders. It is also fascinating to watch as the bad guys go nuts trying to kill him because he just can’t be killed. After all, he is already dead. It would have been lovely to follow Brandon Lee’s projects after this one, but unfortunately he died during the making of this film, which adds to its dark atmosphere. Director Alex Proyas created a cult status for himself. Although Dark City was brilliant, he disappointed quite a few times with his other work. But hey, it is hard to measure up to a film like this.

Death Sentence (2007)

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLT-sNZH7CQ&feature=related

Although it is not as highly rated and regarded as the two movies above, it is a solid example of the genre. Kevin Bacon plays a dad whose son is murdered and the guilty will not receive a slightly deserving punishment. He loses it. He kills the guy who did it. But where the other revenge flicks would normally end, this one actually starts. Now the gang the bad boy belonged to goes after the dad and the remaining of his family, which might end up in dad having to take revenge once again, more brutally and absolutely. I think revenge flicks should not be judged the originality of the script. Not that I find this one refreshing in some parts, I do. But this kind of drama takes its power from the actors and how the director handles the shots. And this movie was beautifully done. Bacon is apt at playing any character, good and bad. But I am guessing the fact that he is a father in real life and really big on his family, and his own fears helped him bring out such a powerful performance. Watch it. It is exciting, disturbing and emotional. I am not exactly a fan of Saw movies. Haven’t even seen the first one. But now that I found out that the director of the first movie,James Wan, directed Death Sentence, I have this newly found respect for the guy. May he make more movies like this…

Desperado (1995) :

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZdZv3kT9xk

Oh yeah. The movie that will make me love its director Robert Rodriguez regardless of how I feel about his other projects. This is a glorious,well-funded sequel to the more modest El Mariachi,which as good as it might have been, lacked one very important element: Antonio Banderas. In the first movie his girlfriend was murdered so now he seeks to avenge her death. Oh, and he has guitar case stuffed with the good guns and he will get rid of you if you try to get in his way.

The revenge movie’s lead is so undeniably significant. He needs to be likable. Yeah, sure it is
easy to identify with a guy whose loved one has been murdered- who loved that person so strongly that they risked their own lives in the name of taking justice in their own hands. He needs to look like a lover and a killer. Brandon Lee was charismatic in spite of his make-up-which added wonders to the cult image. Mel Gibson was tough,strong and masculine, and yet vulnerable, despite the traditional kilt. Antonio Banderas makes a wonderful action hero. He is hot,dark,well-built and passionate. What he lacks in height is more than made up to by his charisma and extreme good looks. Oh, he also sings, plays the guitar, uses his guitar as a weapon and meanwhile he does seduce and is seduced by the gorgeous Salma Hayek. Desperado is pure action, 0 drama and kick-ass entertainment. It doesn’t get deep.It just gets even. Kevin Bacon comes from the theater. He started in H0llywood as nice guy roles but he made a name for himself playing the bad guys. So he has no problem at all portraying a guy who is driven to the edge. In fact, he looks like he is made for it.
These movies are all different from each other but they have the core in common: You root for the good guy, you love the blood shed from the bad guys and the action sequences are brilliant. With the exception of Death Sentence, I have seen the rest many times.Which reminds me, I definitely should add the Kevin Bacon film to my collection. It sure as hell deserves a second viewing. I think for an actor, the action role doesn’t get better than a good revenge movie.