RSS FeedWeird Legal News: Ancient Archery Law and God’s Ambassadors on the Bench
Here’s another digest of some articles I collected this week that are either funny, interesting, or just plain weird.
- Wiltshire vicar revives ancient archery law – BBC
A vicar in England has relied on an unrepealed law from the middle ages to require all men in her village to report to archery practice. Residents complying with the law were rewarded with a BBQ. No word on what happened to the violators. - San Diego Christian lawyers lose bids to be judges – CBS
A quartet of Christian lawyers vowing to be “God’s Ambassadors on the bench” will not be donning judicial robes — at least not in this electoral cycle. Critics raised concerns that the lawyers’ religious agenda would threaten the impartiality of the court system and violate the separation of church and state. Nevertheless, the candidates won between 35-40% of the votes in their respective districts. - Cop Caught Flashing Lights, Speeding To Get Coffee – CBS
A New York City traffic cop is under investigation for abusing his power to get to a Dunkin Donuts. The donut-desiring cop was spotted unnecessarily using his emergency lights, speeding, blowing through stop signs, and weaving in and out of traffic, all while chatting on his cell phone. When a city councilman caught this misbehaviour on camera, the cop stopped to give him a ticket for his troubles! - Predictions are fine, but there are better ways to protect a population – The Guardian
After a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Abruzzo, killings hundreds, the Italian government swung into action. Its response was to issue manslaughter indictments for seismologists who failed to predict the quake! Not surprisingly, the international scientific community is protesting the charges, given that earthquakes are presently impossible to predict.
The previous installment of Weird Legal News is here.
Weird Legal News: Capricious Juries, Secret Recipes, and the Constitutional Right to Swear
Here’s a digest of some articles I collected this week that are either funny, interesting, or just plain weird.
- Blind Justice? Attractive Get Breaks with Juries – CBS News
In completely unsurprising study results, Cornell researchers have found that juries are significantly more likely to convict an ugly person than an attractive person in identical circumstances. Where evidence is strong and the case is serious, attractiveness plays less of a role. But where the charges are minor, or the evidence is ambiguous, ugly people are at a serious disadvantage. They get higher sentences too — way higher! - Toilet Brush ‘Blunder’ Death – The Sun (UK)
A man is taking legal action after an inquest found that his wife died due to serious errors by her examining doctors. The woman had somehow fallen onto a toilet brush handle which embedded itself in her buttock. The foreign object was missed by doctors. The woman died of complications during surgery to finally remove the handle — four years after she had fallen on it. - Pizza in Naples ‘cooked with wood from coffins’ – Telegraph (UK)
Prosecutors in Italy are claiming that the oak wood being used in Naples’ pizza ovens has come from a grisly source. It is alleged that gangs are digging up coffins from the local graveyard and selling the wood to owners of local pizza parlours looking to save on costs. - U.S. rights group sues to protect right to swear – Vancouver Sun
The American Civil Liberties Union is taking action against Pennsylvania police. Apparently, the cops have been arresting (and in some cases jailing) about 750 people per year simply for uttering profanities or making profane gestures. The ACLU claims that the disorderly conduct charges are unconstitutional, because swearing is protected speech under the First Amendment.
I’ll post more articles when I get some free time.
Law is Cool – Podcast #10
Show Notes
25:29 Total Running Time
0:16 Thomas Wisdom and Omar Ha-Redeye introduce themselves, with interviews from David Aylward and Hon. Chris Bentley.
1:14 Omar discusses the 7 Year Law Degree from Jordan Furlong, while Thomas mentions the importance of learning on the job.
2:25 Thomas shares his new smoking habit that he picked up during law school.
4:50 Omar introduces David Aylward, founder and director of COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, on how to transition out of a typical legal career into other sectors.
5:22 David Aylward describes his educational, legal and political career in Congress and the U.S. House of Representatives.
6:37 David Aylward relates how the discipline of the legal education and the focus on the meaning of words helped him outside the law and creating a non-profit promoting agency interoperability.
7:52 David Aylward explains how in responding to any emergency there is a need for information exchange and a system that allows voice, data and video sharing.
9:31 Public agencies don’t look at the private or commercial sector enough for communications capability and have a higher degree of cultural resistance to sharing, but technically still have similar challenges.
12:02 David Aylward provides career advise on how to psychologically prepare on transitioning into non-traditional legal careers where the essence of the work isn’t the law.
14:42 There are lots of opportunities in North America, and anyone who has a law degree has lots of choices.
15:56 Thomas describes his trip to Florence, Italy and the 10 year delays in the tort system there.
16:28 Omar introduces Min. Chis Bentley, the Attorney-General of Ontario.
17:25 The Attorney-General of Ontario relates his experience teaching at the University of Western Ontario faculty of law.
18:02 Min. Bentley explains the access to justice issue, and changes his office have made to the criminal justice system such as the Justice on Target program.
21:02 Min. Bentley says we have a good human rights system and shares groundbreaking initiatives they have undertaken starting June 30, 2008 which will strengthen human rights in Ontario.
22:22 Min. Bentley explains why human rights are so important to our society, which values optimism and opportunity without barriers and discrimination.
24:52 Omar signs off.
