Back-to-Back Legal Victories!

Legal victories will be listed on this page without an article from Mary Neal, but a link to a news article will be used.

Death Penalty Secrecy Struck Down in OK

On March 26, 2014, Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish held that the state's lethal injection secrecy law violates the constitutional right to due process of inmates slated for execution. (B. E. McBride, "Oklahoma Judge Tosses State Execution Law," Associated Press, March 26, 2014). See Lethal Injection.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/5726 

Mayor to sign measure that replaces jail times with civil fines for small amounts of pot but keep public smoking a misdemeanor.
March 4, 2014 - The District of Columbia City Council voted Tuesday to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in the nation's capital. Mayor Vincent Gray said he intends to sign the measure, which replaces jail time with civil fines but does not legalize the use, possession, sale or growing of pot. Congress still has veto power, though that is considered unlikely given the divided control of each chamber.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/04/dc-marijuana-decriminalized/6028987/  

273 Death Row Clemencies Have Been Granted Since 1976
Illinois leads in clemencies with 187. The last clemency was by Ohio - Ronald Post in December 2012.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/clemency
CONTEST: The very first state to issue a death row clemency for 2014 will receive a Lady Justice trophy! On your marks, get ready, set, GO!

U.N. Declaration: Ratified

President Obama Ratifies U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People

On Thursday, December 16, 2011, President Barack H. Obama provided a belated U.S. endorsement on the the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The sad irony (at least for the Indian Freedmen of the 5 Civilized Tribes with a Class Action on behalf of that class pending in the U.S. Supreme Court) is that the announcement was given before an assemblage of 320 personally invited Representatives at the White House Tribal Nations Conference at the Department of the Interior, inclusive only of "Federally Recognized Tribes", forsaking all others.

President Obama gave no particulars in his address, which he promised to address later. The United States was one of a handful of countries to refrain from backing the doctrine in the past.

The president said, "I can announce that the United States is lending its support to this declaration. The aspirations it affirms--including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of the Native peoples--are ones we must always seek to fulfill."

http://www.blackindiansunited5tribesembassy.org/UN-Declaration--Ratified.html


Corporations Divest Nearly $60 Million From Private Prison Industry 
Scopia Capital Management, DSM North America, and Amica Mutual Insurance pulled nearly $60 million in investments from CCA and GEO Group in the final quarter of 2013, marking full divestment for DSM and Amica and a 27 percent decrease in shares for Scopia. (Scopia has decreased its private prison stock by 59 percent since December 2012.) Their announcements mark the first round of success for civil rights nonprofit Color of Change, which has been pushing over 150 companies to divest from for-profit incarceration companies since last year. Color of Change is one of 16 organizations working towards these divestment goals as part of the National Prison Divestment Campaign.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/04/investment-corporations-divest-60-million-private-prison-cca-geo-group

YOUR Legal Victory Could Be Listed Here. 
If your law firm, a judge, advocacy organization, or government agency did something you are proud of, such as set a new precedent or won a difficult case, let us join you in boasting. As you can see by the dates on this page, the legal victory does not have to be recent, but significant. Just add your legal victory as a comment. If you have a link to a web page to read more about your victory, please include it.

Next article in Legal Victories:
Judge Joe Brown Arrested/Released from the "Jail from Hell"
http://legalvictories.blogspot.com/2014/03/judge-joe-brown-arrestedreleased.html
Judge Brown also announced his candidacy for the District Court D.A. position

Note: The links on this page and throughout Legal Victories are all live links. If they do not appear to be live links on your cellphone or computer, please email the USDOJ and report abuse of power by someone. The link to the article about marijuana in D.C. was not live on my cellphone view. Copy/paste links into the search field at a new tab to reach the information. Also, email AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

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Wrongful Death of Larry Neal.com

http://JusticeGagged.blogspot.com

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