BIBLES AND GUNS

If Bibles were shot full of holes and holes were filled full of guns the world would be a more peaceful place. 

Agree/disagree, add your comments below.

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

DNA evidence frees US man after 32
years in prison

5:30 AM Sunday Jul 8, 2012 NZ Herald

Andre Davis makes a phone call after 32 years locked away

 A Chicago man who spent 32 years behind bars before DNA evidence helped overturn his conviction in the rape and killing of a 3-year-old girl was released from prison yesterday, just hours after prosecutors dropped the case against him.

An Illinois appeals court in March had ordered a new trial for 50-year-old Andre Davis after tests found that DNA taken from the scene of the 1980 killing of Brianna Stickle wasn't his. The girl was attacked in Rantoul, about 32km north of Champaign.

Davis was released from the super-maximum security prison in Tamms in far southern Illinois around 7.30pm local time, said Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kayce Ataiyero.

Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz had decided earlier in the day not to pursue charges against him.

Judy Royal of the Centre on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, which represented Davis, said he was the longest-serving of the 42 people exonerated by DNA evidence in Illinois.

"Mr Davis served 32 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit," said Royal. "Tamms is a difficult place to do time. He is hoping to rebuild his life, with the support of his family."

Reitz said that while she didn't doubt the results of the DNA tests, she decided not to retry Davis because of the difficulty in taking a 32-year-old case to trial.
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"After 30 years, witnesses are either deceased, missing or no longer credible to testify," said Rietz. She noted that Davis was twice convicted by juries. His first conviction was overturned because of a mistake made by a bailiff during jury deliberations.

Rietz said any further steps in the investigation of Brianna's death will be up to police.

Davis was arrested shortly after Briana was found on August 8, 1980, in a house on the street where she lived with her mother and stepfather in Rantoul.

According to trial testimony, Davis - who was 19 at the time - was visiting his father in Rantoul. He spent the day the girl died drinking at the home where she was eventually found with the two brothers who lived there. At some point the brothers left, leaving Davis there alone.

Briana's stepfather, Rand Spragg, said he left the girl playing in the family's front yard and last saw her sitting under a tree.

The family later searched for her. She was found in the brothers' home, naked and under bed clothes in a utility room. She died that night at a local hospital.

An acquaintance told police that Davis said he had killed "a woman" at the home.

DNA testing wasn't available in 1980. But in 2004, Davis requested that evidence gathered at the scene of Briana's death be DNA tested.

According to the tests, blood and semen found at the scene weren't from Davis. That led to the March appellate court decision.

Royal wasn't sure what plans Davis had, but she said that after so many years he was fortunate that family members were still alive to greet him and help him acclimate to life outside prison.

"A lot of times when people are incarcerated for lengthy periods of time, family members die," Royal said. "That is one good thing, that he will have their support.

"I think it's difficult for him to know exactly what to do," she added, noting that the Centre on Wrongful Convictions works with the people it helps free to aid in their adjustment.

"I know that he's very intelligent and he has been assisting in the preparation of his appeal for years and giving some good suggestions in that regard."

Peter’s Comment

There was a time when ninety-something per cent of people everywhere had total faith in police, judges, witnesses and juries. Not anymore.

DNA testing has played a major part in the turnaround in public thinking. DNA testing over the last few years has exonerated many wrongfully convicted people and given credence to claims that wrongful convictions have always been a large, but officially unrecognized, part of criminal justice systems.

In addition to DNA testing, another factor has helped highlight this pernicious flaw in the system; individuals and organized groups prepared to stand up be counted and to campaign on behalf of the wrongfully convicted, often in the face of overwhelming and sometimes intimidating public opinion.

The campaigners appear to understand that it is not possible to alleviate the suffering of victims by creating more victims. They understand that it is not good enough to convict a man or woman on the basis that a crime has been committed and someone must have been responsible and therefore the arrested one will do.

The Center on Wrongful Convictions should be praised for their excellent work. In New Zealand and Australia the pattern of wrongful convictions is similar to elsewhere in the western world and there is a need for a Center on Wrongful Convictions or similar organization.

I recently appeared in court, pleading not guilty to a minor traffic infringement, listened to a vindictive police officer commit perjury, and faced two justices of the peace, who were too timid to rock the judicial boat. I found the experience very frustrating, but I can't even begin to imagine how Andre Davis must have felt, locked away for 32 years.

A WORTHLESS CONFESSION

Expert: Confession was utterly flawed

By Phil Taylor

5:30 AM Saturday Jul 7, 2012 NZ Herald

Murder victim Susan Burdett

The world's leading expert on false confessions says statements that resulted in a 17-year-old (New Zealand) boy being twice convicted of a notorious rape and murder "are fundamentally flawed and unsafe".

Teina Pora's self-incriminating statements in the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett came about due to Pora's intellectual impairment and desire to claim a $20,000 reward, Gisli Gudjonsson, professor of forensic psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, has said in a report seen by the Weekend Herald.

Dr Gudjonsson recently examined nine hours of police video interviews with Pora and visited him in Paremoremo Prison.

His report comes soon after two former senior detectives who worked on the Burdett case came forward with their concerns, prompting the Police Commissioner's office to take an interest in the case.

In 1996, the semen in Ms Burdett's body was linked to Malcolm Rewa, who at the time had a conviction for attempted rape. Rewa was later convicted of sex attacks on 24 women, all committed alone.

Pora has applied for the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, under which the Governor-General can order a new trial.

Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess yesterday told the Weekend Herald that police did not have a view on Dr Gudjonsson's "opinion evidence".

"If the defence elect to present it as part of their application it will no doubt be assessed and considered with all other evidence," Mr Burgess said.

"In due course a decision will be made by others on the merits of the application."

Applications are considered by Justice Ministry officials, sometimes with the help of an independent lawyer.

A Government website says cases "will normally be reopened when new information becomes available that raises serious doubts about a conviction".

Dr Gudjonsson said Pora had psychological vulnerabilities which had been confirmed by recent psychometric tests. This constituted new evidence as that type of assessment was not available at Pora's trials.

"Having evaluated Mr Pora and studied his [police] interviews very carefully, I have no confidence in the self-incriminating admissions he made about his alleged witnessing and participation in the rape and murder of Ms Burdett," Dr Gudjonsson said in the 80-page report.

"I am in no doubt that Mr Pora's self-incriminating admissions are, beyond reasonable doubt, unreliable."

Dr Gudjonsson pioneered research into how people might make false confessions to crimes they hadn't committed during which he identified a range of emotional and psychological factors, such as compliance, suggestibility and personality disorders.

This led him to produce the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales which are now used throughout the world when issues of false confessions arise.

Dr Gudjonsson's testimony is credited with overturning the convictions of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four - groups of people wrongly accused of terror bombings in Britain.

Ms Burdett, a 39-year-old accounts clerk who lived alone, was bashed repeatedly on the head with a softball bat she kept in the bedroom of her Papatoetoe home for her own protection.

The case horrified the public and baffled police who had no firm leads until Pora voluntarily made his inconsistent confessions.

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But in 1996, DNA testing showed the semen belonged to Rewa.

Rewa was 39 when Ms Burdett was murdered and had been a senior member of a rival gang to that with which Pora was associated.

Rewa was eventually convicted of raping Ms Burdett but two juries could not reach a decision on the murder charge.

Pora was convicted again in 2000 after a retrial was ordered.

In May, Dave Henwood, a multi-award winning criminal profiler whose expert testimony convicted Rewa of sex attacks on the 24 other women, told the Weekend Herald he has no doubt that Pora is innocent and that Rewa alone attacked Ms Burdett.

He based his view on Rewa's criminal signature, elements of which were present at the Burdett crime scene.

Dr Gudjonsson said his impression from watching the videoed police interviews was that Pora did not know the crime scene and was trying hard to pretend that he did.

The prospect of receiving the reward money and his impaired mental function resulted in Pora becoming entangled in a web of lies, he said.

He was repeatedly caught lying but could not tell the truth if he was to maintain the story of having witnessed the crimes that he hoped would gain him the reward money, Dr Gudjonsson said.

"The longer he lied, the harder it became to own up to having no useful knowledge about the crime whatsoever and to having completely wasted the time of the officers who had been kind to him."

Dr Gudjonsson said the fundamental flaws in Pora's story should have "alerted the police, prosecution, defence and trial judges to their apparent inherent unreliability".

Pora is in his 19th year in prison on a life sentence.

Peter’s Comment

How many more years will it take before this unfortunate young (now middle-aged) man is pardoned, freed and compensated?

Footnote: Teina Pora was granted parole on April 14, 2014 and is still awaiting a review of his case by the Privy Council which is scheduled for November 2014. Meanwhile his conviction stands.

SMELL THE CARBON RISING

Carbon price talks 'reveal tax chaos'

BY: BEN PACKHAM  From: The Australian  July 05, 2012 12:14PM

Australian Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott

TONY Abbott (Australian Leader of the Opposition) has seized on revelations the government is considering cutting its carbon floor price, as Wayne Swan (Federal Treasurer) refused to rule out changes to the scheme.

The Opposition Leader said talks between Labor and the Greens on dropping the $15 floor price, to apply when the carbon tax reverts to an emissions trading scheme, showed the policy was flawed and the government in disarray.

“It just shows this is a government which is in chaos five days into the carbon tax,” Mr Abbott said.

“Five days into the carbon tax, they're already trying to change it.

“You can't fix this carbon tax, you've just got to get rid of it, and the only way to bin the tax is to change the government.”

The Australian has confirmed talks between Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and the Greens on the final shape of the floor price.

According to sources, Mr Combet last week put to the Greens that the $15 floor price, which will underpin the scheme for its first three years after it becomes a floating ETS in 2015, be dropped.

The Australian has also been told that Mr Combet raised moving to a cap-and-trade system earlier.

The Treasurer today refused to comment on the talks but played down their significance.

“I think there will be discussions at all levels, from time to time, in the community, from the business community, from others, about matters to do with the carbon price,” Mr Swan said.

“But it doesn't change the fact that there is a fixed price for three years.”

Pressed on what floor price should apply when the carbon tax reverted to an emissions trading scheme, Mr Swan said: “I'm not getting into the hypotheticals of that. We've got a fixed price for three years.”

The Australian understands discussions have centred on how to more closely align the Australian scheme to the European Union's scheme - the biggest carbon trading market in the world.

The Gillard government hopes to link the Australian emissions trading scheme to the EU market, where carbon is currently trading at about $9.80 a tonne compared to the fixed starting price in Australia of $23 and the floor price from 2015 of $15.

Earlier this week, New Zealand said it would soften the impact of its ETS, delaying plans to increase its low carbon price.

A farming scene near
Queenstown, New Zealand

Mr Abbott said New Zealand's move was the latest evidence of a trend in which nations across the world were rejecting carbon taxes.

Peter’s Comment

You can smell the carbon rising from their collective breaths in Canberra, the Australian Capital.

Carbon taxes have always been a speak good, feel good, fraud on ordinary people who will pay the price of inflation and unemployment for no good purpose.

In 2003 the New Zealand government raised a stink when it proposed a tax on dairy farmers because rich pasture produces stomach gases in dairy cows. Farmers overwhelming rejected the ‘Fart’ Tax.

Only wet-behind-the-ears countries will impose carbon taxes and when they wake up to reality the tax will die a silent, obscure death.

THE GREAT HOAX

Bill McKibben on the Global Warming

Jul 3, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

We can now admit it: global climate change is one big hoax. But let’s give credit to the special effects experts who have given us wildfires, downpour, and record heat this past month writes Bill McKibben.

Please don’t sweat the 2,132 new high temperature marks in June—remember, climate change is a hoax. The first to figure this out was Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who in fact called it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” apparently topping even the staged moon landing. But others have been catching on. Speaker of the House John Boehner pointed out that the idea that carbon dioxide is “harmful to the environment is almost comical.” The always cautious Mitt Romney scoffed at any damage too: “Scientists will figure that out ten, twenty, fifty years from now,” he said during the primaries.

Still, you have to admit: for a hoax, it’s got excellent production values.

Consider the last few weeks. Someone turned on the rain machine up in Duluth, Minnesota, where they broke all their old rainfall records (and in an excellent cinematic touch flooded the city zoo with so much water that the seal escaped and swam down the road. You can make this stuff up). And when that was over, the production team hastened to the Gulf of Mexico, turning on the giant fans to conjure up Tropical Storm Debby—the earliest fourth storm of the season ever recorded, which dumped “unthinkable amounts of rain” on central Florida. (Giveaway movie moment: the nine-foot gator that washed into a Tampa swimming pool).

The special effects guys were doing their best in Colorado: first they cranked up the heat, setting a new state record at 115 degrees. And then came the fire stunts!  They looked real enough—one Waldo Canyon resident wrote a harrowing account of driving his SUV across soccer fields to escape the blaze, with “a vision of hell in his rearview mirror.” But there were giveaways it was all faked: for one, the “flames” perfectly framed the famous chapel of the Air Force Academy, and on the very day the new cadets arrived. And really, the producers took it a bit too far: they staged a firestorm near the Boulder campus of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, forcing the evacuation of the planet’s foremost climate scientists. I mean, c’mon.

It’s amazing what you can do with CGI these days. As a “giant heat wave” moved east across the nation, heat records that dated back to the Dust Bowl fell with uncanny speed. Images of the farmer kicking the dust in his drought-ridden field—that old Hollywood staple—reappeared on the evening news; the scene worked so well that the price of corn and wheat shot through the roof.

An absurd number of catastrophes kept happening at the same time, just like in the best disaster films. On Friday, for instance, Washington set all-time heat records (one observer described it as like “being in a giant wet mouth, except six degrees warmer”), and then shortly after dinner a storm for the ages blew through—first there was five minutes of high wind, blowing dust and debris (and tumbleweeds? surely some tumbleweeds), followed by an explosive display of thunder and lightning that left millions without power.

Hoaxes require verisimilitude to make sure everyone’s taken in. So it was necessary to make sure that Arctic sea ice is melting ahead of the record pace set in 2007, and wildfires are burning out of control across Siberia, and there is massive flooding n British Columbia, and…We’ll see what bizarreness next week brings….

Peter’s Comment

The special effects team has certainly been working overtime. But Bill McKibben only tells of half their work.

Down here in the Southern Hemisphere we are having near record low temperatures. It is so cold as I type that my fingers are almost sticking to the keys. For the last two winters we have had snow where it has never been seen before within living memory.

People are asking, “What’s happened to Global Warming?”

Now I’ll be able to tell them about Bill McKibben’s discovery of the tie-up between climate change and special effects.

The special effects team must be getting a bit long in the tooth now because they’ve been on the job for at least a hundred years. You see the hottest temperature ever recorded in the world was a heart-stopping 136.0°F (57.8°C) in Libya in 1922.

Now if it wasn’t for the special effects used in 1922 we would be led to believe that the world is cooler 90 years after Libya. Perhaps it is getting cooler. The lowest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world was recorded as a spine-zapping -128.6°F (-89.2°C) in 1983 at Vostok, Antarctica.

The global warming alarmists tell us that as the planet heats up the storms get wilder. Let’s have another look at what the special effects team has been up to.

The strongest wind gust ever recorded was at Mount Washington, USA, and it measured 231 miles per hour (372 kilometers per hour) in 1934. I guess the special effects team was younger and fitter in those days and therefore better able to pump up the bellows. We had a whole stretch last week with no wind at all so perhaps the team is about to die of old age.

Tornados, we are told, are getting more and more devastating as the climate warms. If so, do we blame special effects for the fact that the US Tri-state Tornado of 1925 killed 695 people and all subsequent twisters have killed fewer people in spite of increased population?

And what of floods, the most devastating of all natural disasters? In the last hundred years the world population has grown from under two billion to more than seven billion now and the largest increase has been on the plains and along river banks.

The worst ever flood in recorded history struck Huang He (Yellow River), China, in 1931 when an estimated 1,000,000 to 3,700,000 people died. Even special effects would have struggled to find enough extras for that one.

I believe that the above events tell us that the world is neither safer, nor less less safe, than before and that climate change talk is alarmist only. We should all get on with our lives and make the most of the best quality of life in the history of the mankind.

DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE

Drive safely and avoid a shipment from Batesville Casket Company.

                   Photo posted by Sabrina Estrada, Springfield, Missouri

TRAFFIC

ABC Radio, Melbourne, Australia

And what about buses? Bus Vic exec director Chris Lowe says more on-street parking should be sacrificed to give buses a better run

Is this Chinese motorway coming to a town near you soon?

Peter’s Comment

Sorry, Chris, the city fathers are unlikely to do anything as radical as making room for buses. It’s the same here in New Zealand cities where car drivers make up the majority of taxpayers and politicians are afraid of them. They would rather see traffic backups like the picture above.

But it makes sense to provide easier access for buses (much more efficient and adaptable than trains) at the expense of car parking and car traffic lanes.