Gore vs. The Supreme Court: The justices and the ‘CSI effect’ [via The Washington Post]
The Supreme Court seemed more like an episode of “CSI,” The Post’s op-ed contributor Dana Milbanks said, during Tuesday’s argument in Harrington v. Richter, a case about competent counsel in a criminal investigation. Milbank fears the justices may have succumbed to the CSI effect, a new theory that jurors have come to expect more than forensic science can provide by watching popular TV procedurals such as “CSI” and “Bones.” “Sotomayor, who revealed during her confirmation hearings that she was a Perry Mason fan, told the lawyer that there was ‘nothing to refute the critical testimony at issue: that Klein was shot where he was shot because there’s a high-velocity blood ‘splatter’ in front of him and because the pooling on his face shows that.’”
Boy watches in horror as gator eats pet turtle he gave Gulfarium [via The Pensacola News Journal]
8-year-old Colton Guthrie of Florida was forced to watch as a pet turtle he had donated to the Gulfarium was eaten by an alligator right in front of him. “He was jumping up and down screaming,” Brenda Guthrie said of her son’s reaction. “He was shouting, ‘Oh no alligator, let it go.’ ” She added that they turned away but could still hear the crunching. Officials noted that the alligator had just been hand-fed and that gators rarely seem interested in turtles.
Public Employees and Elections: A Conflict of Interest? [via the National Review]
Wheel of Fortunate host Pat Sajak writes in the National Review questions whether government employees should not be allowed to vote due to an inherent conflict of interest. “If, for example, a ballot initiative appears that might cap the benefits of a certain group of state workers, should those workers be able to vote on the matter? Plainly, their interests as direct recipients of the benefits are far greater than the interests of others whose taxes support such benefits. I realize this opens a Pandora’s box in terms of figuring out what constitutes a true conflict of interest, but, after all, isn’t opening those boxes Ricochet’s raison d’être?”
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