MAL Contends — Legal, political, campaign news, and analysis

Aug 13, 2008

Free Bird

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Spotting Political Prosecutions

Horton, Harper's Magazine Harper's Magazine, Spotting Political Prosecutions

Steven Avery Litigation - Manitowoc County 2005CF000381 Wisconsin vs. Steven A. Avery #122987

Manitowoc County Case Number 2005CF000381 State of Wisconsin vs. Steven A. AVERY #122987

Wisconsin v Steven Avery

Motion for Post-Conviction Relief. 08-16-2022. Includes affidavit from witness, Thomas Sowinski, who saw prosecution's star witness planting murder victim's car onto defendant's property. Tape and log of Mr. Sowinski's Nov. 5, 2005 phone call to Manitowoc Sheriff Dept was hidden from the defense, despite requests for all recordings and information, and despite duty of the State to disclose evidence, and duty not to withhold exculpatory evidence, Brady violation.

- Steven Avery Motion to Stay Appeal and Remand, includes new eyewitness affidavit. April 12, 2021

- Steven Avery Legal Filings - Updates

- State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288

- Wisconsin Democrats Block Exoneration Seekers

- Wisconsin Dept of Justice report of the investigation and prosecution of the wrongful conviction of the exonerated Steven Avery; authored by Amy Lehmann, Deb Strauss, Dec 17 2003

- Brendan Dassey 2019 Pardon Petition, denied by Gov Tony Evers, December 2019.

Steven Avery Documents

Steven Avery Documents

Richard Posner's evisceration of fallacious and deceitful argument against voting rights

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Frank v Walker; League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Wisconsin et al v. Deininger (Nos. 14-‐‑2058, 14-‐‑2059)
On Suggestion of Rehearing En Banc; Oct 10, 2014
Judge Richard Posner's work is an evisceration of major fallacious and deceitful arguments against voting rights, and in favor of restrictive photo voter IDs.

Republicans are not so certain about voters; enacting voter obstruction laws wherever they hold a majority, secure in the knowledge that federal Republican judges will reside in the Republican legislatures' "fact-free cocoon in which to lodge the federal judiciary." (Posner, Frank v. Walker; p. 26)

Public Health Madison, WI, Dane County; Wisconsin Coronavirus (COVID-19) Info

- Public Health Madison, WI and Dane County Coronavirus (COVID-19) Info
- Wisconsin Dept of Health Services
COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease)

News Updates

The Milwaukee Independent

The dream of school integration exists on paper but after 70 years has yet to become a reality
16 minutes ago
scheerpost.com

Israel Astroturfed Eurovision Vote But Lost Anyway, Gov. Admits
2 hours ago
Tone Madison

Ja’Tovia Gary’s films earnestly confront Black identity in an overly saturated, visually contradictory culture
4 hours ago
Informed Comment

Biden’s Potemkin Village: US Aid Dock Theatrics as Gaza Drowns in Starving Refugees amid Rivers of Shit
6 hours ago
Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories

Trump attacks Biden and CNN over debates during Minnesota GOP event
6 hours ago
How Appealing

“Law Professor’s Tireless Search for Rare Recordings Resurrects Voices of Landmark Segregation Case; Using AI and sleuthing, a team recreated unrecorded oral arguments from Brown v. Board; It’s ’amazing’ but ‘a little creepy,’ says retired Justice Stephen Breyer”
10 hours ago
The Kennedy Beacon

Ballot Access Breaking News: Kennedy Has Collected Enough Signatures in New Jersey to Qualify for the Presidential Ballot in the Garden State
13 hours ago
WisPolitics

Marstellar campaign: Announces campaign for 21st Assembly District
13 hours ago
McClatchy National, World News

Sisters in Christ group pays property taxes on Senate candidate Steve Garvey’s home. Why?
14 hours ago
Just Security

Do Not Destroy the Int’l Criminal Court for Pursuing Accountability in Gaza
15 hours ago
The Lever

Could These Fraud Allegations Land Boeing In A Criminal Trial?
16 hours ago
Mondoweiss

Joe Biden’s attending Morehouse College’s commencement is an insult to the Black radical tradition
17 hours ago
Jacobin

UC Workers Are Poised to Strike for Palestine and for Free Speech
19 hours ago
Racket News

America This Week, May 17, 2024: "Delusion, Not Just Once A Year"
20 hours ago
SCOTUSblog

The morning read for Friday, May 17
20 hours ago
WisconsinWatch

More complete data and nuanced narratives will help Milwaukee youth thrive
23 hours ago
NYT - The Upshot

They Supported Biden in 2020. What Made Them Change Their Minds in 2024?
1 day ago
Center for Public Integrity

Pennsylvania bill could prevent schools from barring homeless students
1 day ago
CounterPunch.org

In Praise of Editors: A Philosophical Argument
1 day ago
Milwaukee Neighborhood News

5 things to know and do the weekend of May 17
1 day ago
NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), located at the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center

30-second images of thunderstorms that produced damaging winds (with some fatalities) in the Houston, Texas area
1 day ago
Military Religious Freedom Foundation - Letters, Includes Hatemail, and Accolades

MRFF Rid the Military of Bible Verse “Jesus Rifle” Scopes Back in 2010 — “Christian Warfare Training” Website Now Hyping them for Church Security
1 day ago
U.S. Right to Know

Fauci aide allegedly boasted about ability to ‘make emails disappear’ including ‘smoking guns’
1 day ago
Silver Bulletin

First episode of Risky Business podcast
1 day ago
all's blog

Gaza genocide cements Israel's status as a pariah
1 day ago
The Marshall Project

Susan Chira to Step Down as The Marshall Project’s Editor-in-Chief in January
2 days ago
Sabato's Crystal Ball

The State Supreme Court Skirmishes
2 days ago
Humanity for Prisoners

Taking on Goliath!
2 days ago
The Appeal

Police Blame Accountability for Low Recruitment. But It’s Their Only Hope.
2 days ago
Freedom of the Press Foundation

Bill could let Trump shut down news outlets
3 days ago
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

Independent reporter held by NYPD while covering pro-Palestinian march
3 days ago
Richard Falk

Can the ICC Finally Gain Credibility
4 days ago
Captimes.com

Key Wisconsin absentee voting requirement remains under judge's ruling
1 week ago
OpenSecrets News

Biden administration invests in Arizona’s semiconductor industry ahead of the 2024 election
1 week ago
A Biologist's Guide to Life

Science Spills Over into Congress
1 week ago
Constitutional Law Analysis

SCOTUS Weighs Trump Immunity
3 weeks ago
Jamie Metzl

My Korean Doppelgänger
3 weeks ago
Biosafety Now

1918 And All That
5 weeks ago
Sixth Amendment Center

Strike 6: New lawsuit hits in San Mateo County, California
5 weeks ago
This Can't Be Happening

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1 month ago
Blog – Constitutional Accountability Center

Announcing CAC’s Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence, Professor Alexis Hoag-Fordjour
3 months ago
Reporters' Alert: Fresh Ideas for Journalists

Suggestions for Reporters: December 22, 2023
4 months ago
Innocence Project

Perry Lott is Exonerated After 35 Years of Wrongful Conviction in Ada, Oklahoma
7 months ago
U.S. Uncut

FDA Issues Warning Letters to Three Infant Formula Manufacturers
8 months ago
Cop Block

Remember Cell 411? You can help bring it back to life.
10 months ago
In These Times

How Israeli Spyware Endangers Activists Across the Globe
11 months ago
D.R.A.S.T.I.C. Research

The Furin Cleavage Site Part 1: Nexus
11 months ago
Blog - In Pursuit of Justice

Channel 3000 “Remembering Tony Robinson”
1 year ago
Tone Madison

Inaugural Madcity Meltdown skate contest set for May 7
2 years ago
Café Babylon

Russia, Ukraine, the UN and NATO
2 years ago
Truthdig

Placeholder Article for Testing
2 years ago
Democracy Docket

Back to School: Student Voting 101
2 years ago
David Bollier - digital commons

Philippe Aigrain (1949-2021): An Appreciation
2 years ago
The Innocence Network

Network Coordinator – Innocence Project
2 years ago
TomDispatch

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, The Madness of War, American-Style
3 years ago
The Wheeler Report

Child Care in Wisconsin – Part IV
3 years ago
Reuters Politics

Trump unfit to be U.S. president, Democrat Pelosi, conservative Bolton agree
3 years ago
John Ikerd

Why is Antitrust Reform a Big Deal?
4 years ago
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Wrongfully Convicted in Wisconsin

Prosectuors, police frame innocent men. Click above for linked documents and analysis in fast-developing story.

Election; Economic Coverage

Cook Political Report

Sabato's Crystal Ball Nate Silver.net, Silver Bulletin Real Clear Politics President Biden Job Approval

Insights on the Crisis and Economy

- Robert Reich's blog
- Baseline Scenario
- Naked Capitalism
- Paul Krugman's Blog (NYT)
- The Business Insider
- Financial News - Tech Ticker
- COWS - Center on Wisconsin Strategy
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- The Structure of the Federal Reserve System
- Economic Policy Institute
- Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor
- Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality with Both Hands
- Joseph E. Stiglitz on the Financial Crisis
- Robert Shiller's Homepage
- Robert Kuttner
- The Atlantic: The Quiet Coup (May 2009)

Support Local Dane County, WI Business

Follow Capital Newspapers' lead — support local business; click above

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Daily U.S. Department of Defense Contracts

Click on link for DoD contracts

Wrongfully Convicted: Penny Brummer

Who Killed Sarah; It Wasn't Penny Brummer

Social Security and Medicare Targeted by Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping Colleagues

"I left as an act of rational self-interest. Having gutted private-sector pensions and health benefits as a result of their embrace of outsourcing, union busting and 'shareholder value' the GOP now thinks it is only fair that public-sector workers give up their pensions and benefits, too. Hence the intensification of the GOP's decades-long campaign of scorn against government workers. Under the circumstances, it is simply safer to be a current retiree rather than a prospective one. If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté. They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be 'forced' to make 'hard choices' - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked."

- Mike Lofgren, who retired on June 17, 2011 after 28 years as a Republican Congressional staffer. TruthOut, Saturday September 3, 2011

Scariest 14 Words in Politics

I'm from the Republican Party and I'm here to save Social Security and Medicare.

Trump's ongoing message to white supremacists: White is right; black and brown are wrong.

Trump's dog whistles to racists including white municipal police continue. From August 2016 in West Bend, Wisconsin, as reported by Yamiche Alcindor in the New York Times:

Jack Beck, 65, a retired bricklayer who lives in West Bend, said he planned to vote for Mr. Trump.

"Every night in Milwaukee, there is someone being shot, and they make nothing of that until a cop is involved, and then all of a sudden it’s always blamed on the cop," said Mr. Beck, who added that he hoped West Bend’s black population would not increase. He tied much of the unrest in Milwaukee to his belief that black residents do not want to work hard and instead want to use police killings to get handouts from the government.
---
"You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe."
— Ralph McGill
Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 13, 1958
A Church, A School

Alex Kozinski on liberty

"The right to do what the law does not prohibit, without fear of harassment or punishment, is one of the hallmarks of a free society." — Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
(Foreword in Sidney Powell's Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice (Brown Books Publishing Group, 2014))

Wisconsin Misconduct in Public Office

SCR 946.12(3). Misconduct in public office. Any public officer or public employee who does any of the following is guilty of a Class I felony. See link above.

Class-action, civil rights suit against Milwaukee

Collins, et al v. City of Milwaukee, et al

"For almost a decade, the Milwaukee Police Department has pursued an aggressive and unconstitutional policing strategy promoting large numbers of stops and frisks citywide. Between 2007 and 2015, the department almost tripled their traffic and pedestrian stops, from around 66,000 to around 196,000, following the launch of the program in 2008."

Milwaukee residents have long protested that police officers are conducting stops and frisks of innocent people, and particularly treating people of color as suspects for no good reason, stopping innocent men, women, and children as they try to go about their daily lives. The department conducts far more stops and frisks in the parts of Milwaukee that are predominantly Black or Latino than in other areas."
- From the ACLU

Wisconsin Journals/Blogs

- Treaty Rights
- WisPolitics WalkerWatch
- Door County Pulse
- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
- The Progressive
- Bad River Watershed
- Wispolitics
- Cognitive Dissidence
- Democurmudgeon
- Wheeler Report
- The Daily Page - Isthmus
- Wisconsin Supreme Court
- ACLU Madison
- AFL-CIO Blog
- WisOpinion
- The Political Environment
- One Wisconsin Now
- Milwaukee Shepherd-Express
- Wisconsin LGBT News
- UW-Madison Center for Global Health
- University Place - Wisconsin Public Television

Sea of individual rights

"When conservatives like [Robert] Bork treat rights as islands surrounded by a sea of government powers, they precisely reverse the view of the Founders as enshrined in the Constitution, wherein government powers are limited and specified and rendered as islands surrounded by a sea of individual rights."
- Stephen Macedo. The New Right v. the Constitution (Washington: Cato Institute, 1987)

Free Penny Brummer Petition

Please sign Petition to demand new trial for wrongfully convicted Penny Brummer, convicted out of 1990s animus against lesbians by Dane County law enforcement, tunnel vision, and a frighteningly hostile stance of district attorneys toward claims of injustice and "blind obedience to finality," (Findley, Washington Post).

Reward - $10,000 for info leading to the arrest and conviction in 1994 killing of Sarah Gonstead

Updated - An innocent woman sits behind bars for 21 years now, sentenced to 50 years.

If you have any info leading to the arrest of the person(s) responsible for 1994 death of Sarah Gonstead, please call toll-free at 800-407-1178.

Sarah's murder, a bullet to the back of the head, is consistent with biker executions, likely a .22 magnum.

The murder of Sarah occurred in 1994 in Madison, Wisconsin. Saw something, know something? Call.

Robert Jackson's "The Federal Prosecutor"

- Jackson should be required reading for all U.S. Attys and prosecutors. "While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst. ... Any prosecutor who risks his day-to-day professional name for fair dealing to build up statistics of success has a perverted sense of practical values, as well as defects of character. Whether one seeks promotion to a judgeship, as many prosecutors rightly do, or whether he returns to private practice, he can have no better asset than to have his profession recognize that his attitude toward those who feel his power has been dispassionate, reasonable and just."

Innocence Consultants

American prison system

"The .... current American prison system, is a leviathan unmatched in human history,"
- Glenn C. Loury in Boston Review.

Wrongfully Convicted: John Maloney

From veteran Green Bay cop to inoocent, wrongfully convicted

Robert H. Jackson on the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg

“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”
— Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal; November 21, 1945, in the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg, Germany. Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States, made his opening statement to the International Military Tribunal in Case No. 1, The United States of America, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics v. Hermann Wilhelm Göring, et al.

- Advice for Prosecutors from a Brilliant Jurist -

"Any prosecutor who risks his day-to-day professional name for fair dealing to build up statistics of success has a perverted sense of practical values, as well as defects of character. Whether one seeks promotion to a judgeship, as many prosecutors rightly do, or whether he returns to private practice, he can have no better asset than to have his profession recognize that his attitude toward those who feel his power has been dispassionate, reasonable and just." - Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, April 1, 1940.

###

Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis

By Tim Townsend

When the Earth Moves Again

(A)nd if you care to see the future; look into the eyes of your young and dancing children…

- Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane (1971)

On being police

Hector Jordan - Trail-blazing Latino Hero-Cop-Humanist

The Strike — The Improbable Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest

James M. Dennis, professor emeritus of art history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

President Theodore Roosevelt on Veterans

Republicans are after veterans' benefits: "A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - President Theodore Roosevelt. Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903

U.S. Constitution

United States Constitution

Veterans' Resources

University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, Veterans Law Center - Vet Like Me, Hardy Stone War Is Truama - Veterans' Attorney, Robert Walsh -- Veterans for Common Sense - - Veterans' Suicide Prevention Hotline [1-800-273-8255, Veterans Press 1] - Fix the VA Movement - Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories - 91Outcomes - Blaming the Veteran: The Politics of PTSD (Ford, Huber, and Meagher) - PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within - Military Connections/Resources - Veterans' Attorney, Robert Walsh - Veterans for Common Sense - Economic Costs of the Military-Industrial Complex - Vietnam War Resources - Vietnam Center and Archive - Veterans' Post - Vets for Justice - The Veteran Voice - IAVA - Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America - Post's PTSD Primer - The American Vets and Servicemembers Survival Guide - Vote Vets - Military Veterans' Vital Phone Numbers

On the Fourth Amendment, back in 1972

"The price of lawful public dissent must not be a dread of subjection to an unchecked surveillance power. Nor must the fear of unauthorized official eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation." - Justice Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., writing for unanimous court in: United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972)

Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Human Rights, Civil Rights

- NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Brennan Center for Justice
- Hector Jordan, Trail-blazing Latino Hero
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Fourth Geneva Convention (full text)
- Innocence Project, Wisconsin-Madison Law School
- Military Religious Freedom Foundation
- Center for Constitutional Rights
- Amnesty International
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Witness Gaza
- Association for Civil Rights in Israel
- B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
- Palestinian Center for Human Rights
- Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
- Free Gaza Mission
- Guantanamo: Beyond the Law
- ACLU
- Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Boumediene v. Bush/Al Odah v. US, opinion preserving habeas corpus -
- United States Constitution
- Mordechai Vanunu Site
- National Council of La Raza
- Anti-Defamation League
- Bill of Rights Defense Committee
- Human Rights First
- Council on American-Islamic Relations
- American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Public Health Resources

- Wisconsin Department of Health Services
- Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) [Resources for Wisconsin lab, testing sites, and health care facilities]
- BloodCenter of Wisconsin
- U.S. CDC Flu Info
- WHO (World Health Organization)

National Weather Sites

- America's Weather -
- Severe Weather Map -

Radar Map

- Weather Radar - [Point and Click.]

Bertrand Russell

"Those whose lives are fruitful to themselves, to their friends, or to the world are inspired by hope and sustained by joy: they see in imagination the things that might be and the way in which they are to be brought into existence. In their private relations they are not pre-occupied with anxiety lest they should lose such affection and respect as they receive: they are engaged in giving affection and respect freely, and the reward comes of itself without their seeking. In their work they are not haunted by jealousy of competitors, but concerned with the actual matter that has to be done. In politics, they do not spend time and passion defending unjust privileges of their class or nation, but they aim at making the world as a whole happier, less cruel, less full of conflict between rival creeds, and more full of human beings whose growth has not been dwarfed and stunted by oppression."

- Bertrand Russell
Proposed Roads To Freedom
(1918, Cornwall Press, Inc, Cornwall NY)

U.S. Supreme Court Decision - Michigan Dept of State Police v. Sitz

- Michigan Dept of State Police v. Sitz (1988); Rehnquist Court allows police roadblocks; Brennan-Marshall-Stevens dissent

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Michael Leon

MAL: Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His reporting has been recognized by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Leon's writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, The Advocate, In These Times, CounterPunch and The Champion—the journal of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and locally in the Isthmus, the Capital Times and the Fitchburg Star. Leon works as a writer, editor, veterans' advocate, and public relations consultant.

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Aug 13, 2008

Free Bird

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