bill bickel's crimeweek

In Suffolk County (NY) Superior Court Judge Patrick F. Brady's courtroom last Monday, defendant Richard Glawson, without warning, punched a juror.

Now on one hand it's going to be very difficult for the jurors to feel impartial toward Glawson after seeing that. Glawson's attorney is on record as saying that continuing the trial would be a "miscarriage of justice," and clearly that's going to be grounds for appeal in the likely event that Glawson is convicted.

On the other hand, you can't simply allow a defendant to attack jurors in order to provoke a mistrial - or for any other reason. Glawson claims voices told him to attack the juror. It might be cynical to wonder whether one of those voices was his attorney's, since it's basically a win-win scenario for the defense.

(Glawson is standing trial for a two-day crime spree that ended with his allegedly shooting a police sergeant, so assaulting a juror would be a relatively minor additional charge)

Judge Brady agreed to the juror's request to be dismissed, refused to declare a mistrial, and ordered Glawson to be chained to the floor with a  pair of court officers standing guard on either side of him for the duration of the trial (though having him flanked by court officers does seem like overkill, given that he's being chained to the floor).

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Former astronaut Lisa Nowak's mad dash from Houston to Orlando to confront (and allegedly assault or attempt to kidnap or attempt to murder) the woman she perceived as her rival for the affections of fellow astronaut William Oefelein has claimed another victim: Commander Oefelein was released from NASA last week. No official reason was announced, but his very high-profile extra-marital affair with Nowak is presumed to be the reason.

Just for the record... I can't say this with scientific certainty, but I'm fairly certain that since the February attack took place, there hasn't been a single newspaper, magazine or broadcast story about the case that hasn't included the word "diaper."

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Wake County (North Carolina) Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway ruled last week that courtroom witnesses should have the right to swear oaths on the Holy Book of their choice, rather than (as mandated by state law) only the King James version of the Christian Bible. The American Civil Liberties Union was arguing the case on behalf of Syidah Mateen, who was refused the right to swear an oath on the Koran when she gave witness in a trial.

The real mystery here is why, once this law was challenged, the state expended the money and other resources to defend it.

The state now has thirty days to appeal the ruling.

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There's some controversy right now in Oklahoma over a proposed bill that would make it a felony to file a false child abduction report that leads to an Amber Alert being issued. The maximum penalty would be one year in prison. Right now, filing a false report of child abduction is a misdemeanor carrying the same penalty as filing any false police report: up to a year in prison.

State Senator Richard Lerblance opposes the bill, referring to it as one in a series of proposed laws that could add to the problem of prison overcrowding.

I'm sure I must be missing something here...