Monday, September 26, 2022

Ryan Mays: California: Court-Marshall Hearing: The young sailor who has been accused by the U.S. Navy of aggravated arson and wilfully hazarding a vessel (against the advice of a military judge) in connection with a blaze on the 'USS Bonhomme Richard' which was docked for maintenance. Megan Rose, author of this stunning account, notes in Propublica that starting this week, Mays is being court-martialed in a military trial in San Diego. (Stay tuned for developments. HL)

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STORY: "After the 'USS Bonhomme Richard' fire, investigators found missing fire hoses, a broken sprinkler system and other syst...
Sunday, September 25, 2022

Shawn Parcells: Kansas: Notorious self-taught pathology assistant who purported to be a "forensic pathology expert' sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to running an illegal autopsy scheme, 'The Blaze' (Reporter Candace Hathaway) reports..."Parcells gained notoriety in 2014 when he and a professional pathologist were hired to perform an autopsy of Michael Brown, the young man fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. At the time, Parcells appeared on several media outlets claiming to be a 'forensic pathology expert'. He received criticism from CNN after an investigation into Parcells' background exposed his lack of professional training. The CNN article reported that Andrew County, Missouri, hired Parcells to perform an autopsy on Robert Forrester, 74, who doctors concluded died from a brain bleed. Parcells admitted to conducting the examination without a professional pathologist present. The autopsy report, which was used as evidence against the suspected murderer of Forrester, had to be thrown out by the court since it was not performed by a professional. As a result, the suspect in the case was released."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "According to court records, as the owner of National Autopsy Services, Parcells convinced a client to pay $5,000 f...
Saturday, September 24, 2022

Criminalizing reproduction: (Attacks on Science, Medicine and the Right To Choose): From our (very ugly) 'Sign of the Times" department: Proposed Louisiana bill in which "male politicians are pushing for women who receive abortions to be punished with prison time: Reported by CNN (Reporters Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken) on September 21, 2022..."Under a bill they promoted, pregnant people could face murder charges even if they were raped or doctors determined the procedure was needed to save their own life. Doctors who attempted to help patients conceive through in-vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment used by millions of Americans, could also be locked up for destroying embryos, and certain contraception such as Plan B would be banned. “The taking of a life is murder, and it is illegal,” state Rep. Danny McCormick told a committee of state lawmakers who considered the bill in May, right after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. “No compromises, no more waiting,” Brian Gunter, the pastor who suggested McCormick be the one to introduce the legislation, told the committee."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " Only four people spoke against the bill during the committee meeting— all women. They pleaded with the lawmakers ...
Friday, September 23, 2022

Annie Dookhan: Massachusetts; Major (Alarming) Development: State Superior Court judge said in a ruling related to the release of a trove of state investigative materials that there is evidence that other employees at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute — beyond disgraced former chemist Annie Dookhan — may have engaged in misconduct - and, at least one person was referred to the state attorney general’s office in 2015 for potential prosecution, NBC News (Reporters Maggie Mulvihill and John Schuppe) report...“This is a significant development. It justifiably raises questions about the criminal convictions that the lab helped to produce with or without Annie Dookhan’s involvement,” said Matthew Segal, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, who has led the fight by defense lawyers to unearth the massive misconduct at a pair of government-run Massachusetts labs that prompted the state’s highest court to dismiss 61,000 drug charges."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  "Lu’s ruling last week, which ordered that the defendants be given access to state documents in which the names of...