Category: Crime & Justice

Jose Padilla re-sentenced after original punishment deemed ‘too lenient’

http://twitter.com/#!/David_Ingram/status/509377319551504385

In 2007, Jose Padilla was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing support to al Qaeda. He was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison.

Today, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who handed down his original sentence, re-sentenced Padilla to 21 years.

http://twitter.com/#!/ryanlcooper/status/509371056541691904 http://twitter.com/#!/wsvn/status/509371657610616832

More from the Miami Herald:

In 2011, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Padilla should have received harsher punishment reflecting his extensive criminal record. The appellate court found that Judge Cooke “unreasonably discounted” Padilla’s criminal history before lowering a potential 30-year-to-life sentence.

…

The appellate court, in an opinion written by Chief Judge Joel F. Dubina and joined by Judge William H. Pryor, sided with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami. Prosecutors, who were seeking life imprisonment for Padilla, appealed Cooke’s sentence of about 17 1/2 years. They argued the judge’s prison term was about 13 years below the low end of the sentencing guidelines: 30 years.

…

“[Cooke] attached little weight to Padilla’s extensive criminal history, gave no weight to his future dangerousness, compared him to criminals who were not similarly situated, and gave unreasonable weight to the condition of his pre-trial detention [in the Naval brig],” Dubina wrote.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2014/09/09/convicted-terrorist-conspirator-jose-padilla-re-sentenced-after-original-punishment-deemed-too-lenient/

McGruff the Crime Dog actor busted for possessing 1,000 pot plants

http://twitter.com/#!/inthefade/status/431935818467246081

Those who grew up with McGruff the Crime Dog are reexamining the crime-fighting mascot Friday as the actor who once portrayed him is sentenced to 16 years in prison. NBC News reports:

John Russell Morales, 41, an actor who once played the crime-fighting cartoon bloodhound, has been sentenced to nearly two decades behind bars after pleading guilty to possessing 1,000 marijuana plants and a cache of nearly 30 weapons — including a grenade launcher and thousands of ammunition rounds.

 Morales was arrested in 2011 after Galveston, Texas, police and drug-sniffing dogs — real dogs, that is — stopped him for speeding, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kusin, who later prosecuted the case.

Morales reportedly had a cache of 27 weapons and 9,000 rounds of ammo.

http://twitter.com/#!/randrew_Z/status/431945872889610240 http://twitter.com/#!/AsheSchow/status/431857656513708032 http://twitter.com/#!/RyanJohnsonCO/status/431930752511782912

McGruff the Crime Dog was sentenced for selling pot. [sigh] My heroes are always such a letdown.— Navy Bean (@Navy_Bean_Soup) February 07, 2014

http://twitter.com/#!/talabi/status/431945681797132288 http://twitter.com/#!/jjammerzs/status/431942625449766912

Editor’s note: The headline of the post has been changed to clarify that the actor was busted for pot possession, not ammo possession.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2014/02/07/mcgruff-the-crime-dog-actor-busted-with-9000-rounds-of-ammo/

Scott Walker takes on media feeding frenzy about alleged ‘criminal scheme’

FED PROSECUTORS CLOSE IN ON SCOTT WALKER OK, THEY WERE STATE I MEAN COUNTY & THE CHARGES WERE DISMISSED & REDISMISSED ON APPEAL KTHXBAI

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 19, 2014

The MSM and others were off and running today with a story about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, which some have reported as a “criminal scheme.”

Here’s a sampling of how the frenzy spread, and many didn’t of course even bother to fully explain the background or circumstances:

http://twitter.com/#!/samsteinhp/status/479681107663650816 http://twitter.com/#!/LukeRussert/status/479677199784493057 http://twitter.com/#!/politico/status/479686332684718080 http://twitter.com/#!/markos/status/479681617959473152

Judging only from those kinds of stories, you might think that Scott Walker was going to be perp-walked as soon as tonight. But, as usual, there’s a lot more to it.

Walker took to Twitter this evening to explain his side of the story:

http://twitter.com/#!/ScottWalker/status/479758864049790976 http://twitter.com/#!/ScottWalker/status/479759180279320576 http://twitter.com/#!/ScottWalker/status/479759336567484416

Here’s a detail about the Wisconsin investigation you might not read about in some MSM reports:

http://twitter.com/#!/GrayerDreams/status/479699658415947776

“Politically motivated” frivolousness sounds about right:

http://twitter.com/#!/seanmdav/status/479761876608241665

Now there’s an item we’d be reading a lot more in news reports if Walker were a Democrat and the DA’s office was full of Republicans.

The lefty feeding frenzy over the latest Scott Walker non-story might best be summed up this way:

http://twitter.com/#!/Matthops82/status/479700722062475264

That appears to be the case.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2014/06/19/scott-walker-takes-on-categorically-false-media-feeding-frenzy-about-alleged-criminal-scheme/