News Story
Report: Just 3% of Drug Defendants in Federal Cases Chose Trial Over Guilty Plea
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A tiny fraction of drug defendants in federal cases chose to go to trial instead of pleading guilty. A new report from Human Rights Watch indicates that just 3% of defendants charged with drugs choose to go to trial, the Huffington Post reports. The reason: The excessive penalties for drugs, according to…
ATF Agent Blasts Handling of Botched ‘Fast and Furious’
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com John Dodson said he’s barely hanging onto his job. The ATF agent blew the whistle on the botched gun trafficking scheme, “Fast and Furious,” and is the author of “The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle And Expose Fast and Furious.” Dodson said not enough people were held accountable. “Nobody’s…
Case of the “Badly Beaten Bank Robber”
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com This wasn’t your typical bank robber. The young man with a busted lip, facial bruises and a swollen eye walked into a Houston Bank wearing no disguises. He pulled out a pistol and demanded money, the Houston Chronicle reports. The robber escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash. Investigators have dubbed him…
Supreme Court Case Pits Protesters’ Rights to Be Heard Against Politicians
The Daily Astoria Editorial Can political protests be restricted so that political leaders don’t have to listen? This is one way of framing the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court when it considers this term whether Secret Service agents were right in ordering protesters to be removed from President George W. Bush’s sight and hearing…
Justice Department Tackles Wrongful Convictions by Demanding More Investigative Scrutiny
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Justice Department officials are combating wrongful convictions by demanding that law enforcement agencies to a better job scrutinizing eyewitness accounts and police interviews, Medill News Service reports. It’s impossible to know for sure how many people are wrongfully convicted, but more than 1,100 have been exonerated from 1989 to 2012, according to…
Fugitive Drug Lord Complains That U.S. Is Causing ‘Infernal Nightmare’ for His Family
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A fugitive drug lord accused in the 1985 kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarenais complaining that the U.S. is causing an “infernal nightmare” for his loved ones, McClatchy reports. Rafael Caro Quintero, who was released from on Aug. 8 prison early on procedural grounds, is appealing to Mexico’s president for…
U.S. Senate to Vote Soon on Extending Ban on Guns That Evade Metal Detectors, X-Ray Machines
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The increasing use of 3-D printers has made it easier for people to make plastic weapons that can evade metal detectors and X-ray machines, the Associated Press reports. The U.S. House responded by passing a bill that would renew the 25-year-old prohibition against plastic firearms by a decade. After returning from a…
Column: Santa’s Helper, a Giant Elf, a Cuban Inmate Uprising and the Salvation Army
Greg Stejskal served as an FBI agent for 31 years and retired as resident agent in charge of the Ann Arbor office. A note from Greg Stejskal: “Despite not having sold the screen rights & in an effort to make this story a Holiday classic, we’re running this story again. Happy Holidays!” By…