Conviction

French athlete Barber fined for biting police — A debate about the aggressive behaviour of the French police was fuelled today by the conviction of the former athletics champion, Eunice Barber, for resisting arrest two years ago.... [Tags: aggressive behaviour, champion, conviction, eunice barber, french athlete]

Words Fail — Freddie DeBoer on the limits of language:When we are presented with a grief so enormous and incomprehensible, we who have made language our business feel a desperate desire to use that language to make some sense of what we've confronting. We want to be heard, and we express ourselves out of the conviction that we must. That's natural. But the temptation, which we have to work to avoid, is to believe that there is some utility in merely piling up adjectives to express our frustration. The temptation is to believe that if one person is saying "awful," the second says... [Tags: adjectives, conviction, deboer, desperate desire, frustration]

Cops: DWI Driver Kills College Student in Crash — According to Newsday, a 21-year-old college student "was killed when a drunken driver's SUV slammed head-on into his car, Nassau police said." Jason Shein, on Thanksgiving break from the University of Miami and a volunteer EMT, had been driving home in Farmingdale with three friends when the crash occurred shortly after midnight on Sunday. Of Shein's passengers, one was seriously injured and two others were treated and released from the hospital. The SUV's driver, Persi Esquivel, who was also treated for injuries, had apparently "crossed the double yellow line to pass another vehicle" and ending up hitting Shein's car. Esquivel... [Tags: conviction, cops, crash, drunken driver, esquivel]

MySpace ruling could lead to jail for lying online daters, others — The recent conviction in the MySpace suicide case could mean that the days of being able to freely lie on the Web could be coming to an end.... [Tags: conviction, myspace suicide, suicide case]

The Hefty Costs of a DUI — From bail to lawyers' fees, the costs of a drunken driving conviction add up quickly.... [Tags: conviction, dui, lawyers fees]

Was Makeover Mom's Undercover Sting Worth It? — So Doreen Giuliano transformed herself from a 46-year-old Brooklyn mother into a sexy, blond, and tanned 30-something in order to befriend a juror from her son John Giuca's murder trial--and is now using recorded conversations with the juror to get Giuca's conviction overturned. But will it work? The NY Times speaks to some experts about the results from Giuliano's elaborate scheme which allegedly resulted in juror Jason Allo telling her he should never have been on the jury since he knew people on the prosecution witness list. A Legal Aid lawyer tells the Times, “Even if this had come to... [Tags: brooklyn, conversations, conviction, juror, law professor]

Lori Drew Not Guilty Of Felonies, But Guilty Of Misdemeanors — In the landmark cyberbullying case, Lori Drew was found not guilty of three felonies, but guilty of three misdemeanors. The jury is deadlocked on the fourth count of felony conspiracy. The three counts of "accessing a computer without authorization" relate to the creation of a fictitious account on MySpace that was used to engage in an online relationship with Megan Meier. This verdict is not surprising considering the emotionally charged nature of this case. Prosecutors were desperate to convict Lori Drew of something, despite the fact that she may not have technically done anything illegal. If what Lori Drew did... [Tags: computer fraud, conspiracy, conviction, dangerous precedent, felonies]

How Fox Helped Make Torture Happen — Philippe Sands shares mail he has gotten in response to his reporting that 24 influenced interrogation practices:My writings on this subject have generated a decent mailbag over the past few months. But the most interesting correspondence came just last week. "I'm a US actor, living in Los Angeles," wrote the author. "In September of 2007, I was offered a role on 24." The actor told his agent to reject the offer, because he objected to the programme's message. His agent told him that Howard Gordon, the principal executive producer, wanted to speak. The actor sent Gordon an email, expressing his... [Tags: conviction, convictions, correspondence, decent man, efficacy]

UPDATE: Presidential Pardon Season — Picking up the conversation from our earlier thread: President Bush issued 14 pardons and commuted two sentences yesterday. The NYT's Eric Lightblau tells us: There has also been growing speculation in Washington that Mr. Bush might issue blanket pardons to government officials and intelligence officers who took part in counterterrorism programs like Qaeda interrogations, to protect them from the threat of criminal prosecution. But none of that came to pass on Monday. Those issued reprieves had been found guilty of mostly garden-variety offenses; one recipient, Leslie O. Collier, was issued a pardon for a 1996 conviction for the unauthorized use... [Tags: bald eagles, bank embezzlement, conviction, counterterrorism programs, criminal prosecution]

Fear of failure spreading to Silicon Valley? — The following is a quote from Judy Estrin’s Closing the innovation gap: The crucial conviction that “the only way you can be a failure in Silicon Valley is not to have tried” is now at risk. “Having been a participant in a company that failed is a much bigger stigma than it was in the past” says VC David Liddle.... [Tags: conviction, david liddle, fear of failure, gap, innovation gap]

Connecticut Finally Drops Charges Against Julie Amero — In a case of what appears to unfortunately be "too little, too late" Techmeme points us to the news that Connecticut officials have finally agreed to drop felony charges against Julie Amero. As you may recall, Julie Amero was a substitute teacher who was randomly surfing some webpages on a classroom computer while students were working on some projects. On one webpage, the computer started opening a never ending series of windows showing pornographic pictures -- symptomatic of a computer infected with some malicious spyware. However, Connecticut police and prosecutors chose to try Amero on felony charges, threatening to put... [Tags: classroom computer, connecticut officials, connecticut police, conviction, declining health]

The "penalty enhancement" of flag desecration — As a follow up to my general examination of penalty enhancements, let's take a detailed look at flag desecration. I consider this a penalty enhancement, because the laws that have been passed against flags have not been passed against other pieces of cloth. about.com identifies two reasons why flag desecration laws were passed at the state level after the Civil War:In the years immediately following the Civil War, many felt that the trademark value of the American flag was threatened on at least two fronts: by many white Southerners' preference for the Confederate flag, and by business' tendency to use... [Tags: 48 states, american flag, bottling company, burni, civil rights leader]

Misdemeanor Plea Ends Norwich Pornography Case — An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from the Hartford Courant: "Almost 18 months after a pornography conviction that could have sent her to jail for 40 years was thrown out, former Norwich substitute teacher Julie Amero plead guilty to a single charge of disorderly conduct Friday afternoon. The plea deal before Superior Court Judge Robert E. Young in Norwich ends a long-running drama that attracted attention from around the world. ... She had originally been charged with 10 counts of risk of injury to a minor and later convicted on four of them. ... In June of 2007, Judge... [Tags: anonymous reader, computer experts, conviction, disorderly conduct, e young]

In October 2007, while most tech media attention was focused on the OiNK raid, another large site got police attention. TV-Links, which linked to videos on YouTube-like sites was raided and shutdown, with the admin arrested. A year later, we catch up with the ex-admin of TV-Links for the entire story. When it became apparent that TV-Links.co.uk had been raided by police and the admin arrested, the news was met with some disbelief. TV-Links was a site that linked to videos that were hosted on video sharing sites like YouTube. It carried absolutely no illicit video content of its own.... [Tags: anti piracy, bust, civil offense, conviction, copyright infringement]

Hewlett-Packard Added To Goldman Conviction Buy List — Goldman Sachs hardware analyst David Bailey this morning added Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to the firm’s Conviction Buy List, replacing Emulex (ELX). “Given our negative view on enterprise tech spending, particularly in the first half of 2009 when CIOs are likely to under spend already-soft IT budgets, we believe Hewlett-Packard should outperform on a relative and absolute basis due to the company’s earnings resiliency and diversity,” Bailey writes. He says the company’s earnings pre-announcement earlier this week “reaffirmed” his thesis that “the company’s diversity and cost-cutting abilities should allow it to show solid earnings despite deteriorating tech demand.” Bailey maintains his Buy... [Tags: absolute basis, announcement earlier this week, budgets, checks, cios]

Progress? — SurveyUSA writes that the prop 8 protests "have not changed many minds":Of the those adults who tell SurveyUSA they voted FOR Prop 8, 90% of them told us recent rallies held by “No on Prop 8″ Protesters have not changed their minds about the issue.  8% say protesters have changed their minds.But an 8 percent swing among Yes on 8 voters would have made the difference. Imagine if we had run ads with gay couples in them and revealed our conviction before the vote. This campaign could have been won. Our bad.... [Tags: adults, conviction, gay couples, protesters, protests]

ARM Holdings: Goldman Ups To Buy On Valuation Basis — ARM Holdings (ARMH) shares are on the mend this morning after Goldman Sachs analyst Simon Schafer upped his rating on the semiconductor IP licensing company to Buy from Neutral, adding the stock to the firm’s Conviction Buy List. Schafer says he recommends the stock as a core European technology holding, noting that the stock has traded down to levels at which the shares are pricing in falling revenues over the next 5-10 years. He contends the stock trades “significantly below” the net present value of the company’s 10-year royalty stream and close to a worst-case scenario for royalties plus net... [Tags: 10 years, arm holdings, consensus, conviction, estimates]

RIMM Added To Goldman “Convicton Buy” List — Goldman Sachs this morning added Research In Motion (RIMM) to the firm’s Conviction Buy list, replacing Cisco Systems (CSCO), which still remains Buy rated. The company also removed Riverbed (RVBD) from its Conviction Sell list, while maintaining its Sell rating. “For RIMM, we want to take advantage of the stock’s very compelling valuation and upcoming catalysts, including to Storm launch and fiscal Q3 (November) earnings,” writes analyst Simona Jankowski. She notes that RIMM shares are down 62% over the last 3 months, compared with 51% for the average stock she covers and 32% for the S&P 500, on concerns of... [Tags: catalysts, cisco, cisco systems, consensus estimate, conviction]

RIMM Added to Goldman “Convicton Buy” List [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Goldman Sachs this morning added Research In Motion (RIMM) to the firm’s Conviction Buy list, replacing Cisco Systems (CSCO), which still remains Buy rated. The company also removed Riverbed (RVBD) from its Conviction Sell list, while maintaining its Sell rating. “For RIMM, we want to take advantage of the stock’s very compelling valuation and upcoming catalysts, including to Storm launch and fiscal Q3 (November) earnings,” writes analyst Simona Jankowski. She notes that RIMM shares are down 62 percent over the last three months, compared with 51 percent for the average... [Tags: aapl, barron, blogger, catalysts, cisco]