Blog #7

Look up Todd Willingham; do you think he was guilty or innocent, why/why not?

In 1991 a large fire broke out in a small home in Corsicana, Texas and 3 little girls (one was two years of age, and the other two were one year old twins) perished in the blaze. Their father who was watching them at the time was able to get out of the house unharmed. He was eventually arrested, convicted, and executed for the “crime” (Grann). The man’s name was Cameron Todd Willingham, and an incredible amount of controversy surrounds his conviction, his supposed wrongful execution, and the Texas justice system as a whole.

This case is very iffy to me. I can see where doubts about his innocence may have sprung up such as the refrigerator blocking the back door, the question of the whether or not some kind of accelerant was used to set the fire, the abuse allegations, and how he was able to get but of the house with minor injuries but his children were not. And probably the most glaring, there WAS motive. Willingham and his family were living in extreme poverty. He was unemployed and stayed home with three very young children while his wife worked at a bar. I can imagine the strain and the toll it took on his marriage, his manhood, and his sanity (Cummings). That said, I’m wondering if the jury actually listened to the evidence that was presented in the case because there is definitely cause for speculation with some of the prosecutions theories. The most obvious of these being the fire investigation evidence that came to light during (and even after) the trial which should have warranted a new trial at the very least; but was largely ignored. Not to mention unreliable witness testimonies from family members and convicted criminals used as proof his guilt (Chicago tribune). The very definition of reasonable doubt states that “Reasonable doubt is a standard of proof used in criminal trials. When a criminal defendant is put on trial, the prosecutor must prove the defendant's guilt Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.”(legaldictionary).

Do I think Todd Willingham was guilty? I honestly don’t know I think there was way more to the story, but the man did go to his grave proclaiming his innocence. The state was far too quick to execute. I know one certainty, there is something wrong with the Texas justice system, and it needs to be revised ASAP. According to the Innocence Project, “more people have been freed through DNA testing in Texas than in any other state in the country, and these exonerations have revealed deep flaws in the state’s criminal justice system.” Some 85 percent of wrongful convictions in Texas, or 35 of the 41 cases, are due to mistaken eyewitness identifications” (Diamond). There is no amount of monetary compensation you can give to an innocent person who loses their freedom, and spends decades in jail away from their family and friends. The state cannot give them back the wasted years of their life, but what they can do is make sure it never happens again by fixing the problem immediately.  


Works Cited

Cummings, Dennis. “Texas Capital Punishment System Examined as Doubts
Remain in Cameron Todd Willingham Case” findingdulcinea.com .20 Oct.
09 Web. 1 May 2012.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/2009/October/Texas-Capital-Punishment-System-Examined.html#1

Grann, David “Trial by fire”. The New Yorker.com. 7 Sep. 09. Web. 1 May 12
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann#ixzz1tfuujcf5

legaldictionary.com Web. 1 May 2012
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Reasonable+Doubt

Staff Reporter. “Timeline of the Cameron Todd Willingham
Case”.Chicagotribune.com 25 June 2011. Web. 1 May 2012
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-25/news/ct-met-perry-execution-2-20110625_1_fire-investigation-willingham-home-texas-forensic-science-commission

Diamond, Marie. “Despite 41 DNA Exonerations In Texas In Last 9 Years, Perry Says He Never Loses Sleep Over Executing The Innocent”.Thinkprogressjustice.com. 8 Sep. 11 Web. 5 May 12

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/09/08/314493/despite-41-dna-exonerations-in-texas-in-last-9-years-perry-says-he-never-loses-sleep-over-executing-the-innocent/?mobile=nc

BLOG #6

Earth Day and what it means to me

Today is April 22, 2012 otherwise known as Earth Day!! Recognized and celebrated in almost 200 countries worldwide by billions of earthlings, Earth Day has become a global tribute to the planet we live on. It also brings issues such as conservation of natural resources, pollution, global warming, greenhouse emissions, and preservation of wildlife and plants to the forefront. Earth Day began in 1970, as the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson (who is known as the founder/father of Earth Day) from Wisconsin (Helmensteine). “Inspired by the "teach-ins" held by Vietnam War protestors on U.S. college campuses, Senator Gaylord Nelson announced his idea for Earth Day. It would be a large-scale, grassroots demonstration against the degradation of America's natural resources” (Vincent).  In 1970, Senator Nelson proposed a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate our planet. The bill passed and Earth Day has been celebrated on this day ever since; not to mention every Earth Day has had a theme such as: the global youth (1988), clean energy now (2000), lighten up (2011), and the 2012 theme- mobilize the Earth (Vincent).

There are so many things we can do to help the environment; there are the common things like recycle, take public transportation/ride a bike/carpool, cutback on water usage, and buying in bulk. But there is something so simple that we as college students can do to give mother earth and ourselves a hand-embrace technology. Instead of buying multiple paper books in stores or on line, buy an e-reader and get them electronically. This will save you time, gas, and a lot of unnecessary waste from books that will only be good for a couple of semesters. You can also take online classes; this will cut down on air pollution from driving back and forth between campus and home. It will also cutback on paper supplies you would have to buy for that class. Taking notes on your laptop instead of writing them down on notebook paper will help save trees (and you’ll be able to understand what you wrote!), and if you have to use a printer, print out on both sides of the paper.  

I think Earth Day is a wonderful concept. I wish we could all remember to embrace it year round, and consider that we only have one planet so we have to take care of it.

Works cited

Helmensteine, Anne Marie. “What is Earth Day?” About.com .Web 22 April 12

http://chemistry.about.com/od/environmentalchemistry/f/earthday.htm

Vincent, Wendy. “A History of Earth Day” Ledyardpatch.com. 21 April 12. Web 22 April 12

http://ledyard.patch.com/articles/a-history-of-earth-day

BLOG #5

Who is your Texas Representative & Senator, what is a Texas issue of
concern that you'd like them to address?

My Congressman is from Congressional District 31 and his name is John R. Carter, and Texas' two current U.S. Senators are- Senator John Cornyn and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (stateoftexas). I would like to ask both Senators, and my Congressman to support more educational bills for our State. Texas’ public schools, community colleges, and public Universities are in dire straights at this time and something needs to be done about it quickly. We are ranked “47th in the nation in literacy, 49th in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math scores.” according to the New York Times. Despite high dropout rates and a low number of high school graduates, the state can still afford to “cut the number of teachers, increase class sizes, eliminate scholarships for underprivileged students and close several community colleges(Collins). It becomes apparent that there is a major problem when certain schools have to hold a lottery for students that want to attend it because it offers more than the rundown schools they are currently attending. Parents have to take off work to go to these raffles that only have a certain number of slots open for the hundreds of kids that want to transfer. We also lead the nation in teen births, due to Texas educators not getting the funding they need or the laws passed to teach sex education courses properly (Collins).  Per Collins, “The birth rate here is the highest in the country, and if it continues that way, Texas will be educating about a tenth of the future population” (Collins).

Meanwhile, our trusted officials are not doing the job we elected them for. They are voting down bills that would help, and backing others that hurt or make no sense. Senator John Cornyn has a terrible track record when it comes to education reform. He has consistently voted against bills that would “shift money from corporate tax loopholes and fund it back into schools”, or for money that would “give billions of dollars in grants to local educational agencies” (ontheissues).

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has also voted against the same bills as Senator Cornyn, but she has been more flexible on some educational issues that have nothing to do with education. She voted for “75 million dollars to be given to schools for abstinence education”, even though they already teach abstinence and it’s been proven ineffective, (hence the high pregnancy rate). She also backed a bill requiring schools to “allow voluntary prayer, and a bill allowing more foreign languages to be taught and more exchange students allowed to study in Texas” (ontheissues). I want to ask Senator Hutchison the following questions-How is allowing people to pray in is school going to help boost attendance or test scores? Who is going to teach these additional foreign languages if schools keep shutting down and teachers laid off? How does this help with the literacy rate if kids can barely read or understand English as it is? What government is going to want to send their children to the lowest ranking educational state in the USA to get them schooled?

 The worst offender of this trio is Congressman John Carter. He voted no on “giving $84 million in grants to minority colleges” (who lead the state in dropouts and pregnancies), and no against a bill that would “provide $10.2 billion for federal education and HHS (human and health services) projects” (ontheissues). I’m extremely dissatisfied with the job these three are doing, and I plan to vote against them in the next round of elections.

They seem to have no idea how important education is in every aspect of life. Education can cure or drastically reduce so many of our problems as a state: dropouts, teen pregnancy, crime, poverty, low graduation rate, school closings, teacher/instructor layoffs, etc., we just have to elect politicians who can get the job done.

Collins, Gail. “Mrs. Bush, Abstinence and Texas”. Nytimes.com 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 1 April 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/opinion/17gailcollins.html

Onetheissues.com. Web. 1 April 2012

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Kay_Bailey_Hutchison.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/John_Carter.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/john_cornyn.htm

StateofTexas.com. Web. 01 April 2012
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/find-your-representative/

BLOG #4

Justifiable Homicide

Justifiable Homicide is defined as “That which is committed with the intention to kill, or to do a grievous bodily injury, under circumstances which the law holds sufficient to exculpate the person who commits it” (Legal Dictionary).There have been several recent headline stories regarding justifiable homicide, but is murdering someone ever really necessary? How about just wounding them instead, or holding them at gunpoint until law enforcement arrives, or just walking away from the situation altogether if you’re able?
             In Pasadena, Texas 2007, Joe Horn shot and killed two burglars that were robbing his neighbor’s residence. The neighbors were not home, and he admittedly was not friends with them. He was on the phone with 911 who advised him to stay in the house, and not engage the two men. The caller watched as the two suspects entered the residence next door, stole property, and as the men ran away from the house with the items, they were both shot in the back and killed by Mr. Horn. Both men were illegal immigrants and had extensive records, and Horn used several racial slurs when referring to them. It is unknown if the killings were racially motivated or not. He was cleared of all charges by a grand jury, they concluded the act was a justifiable use of deadly force and not murder. Under Texas law, people may use deadly force to protect their own property or to stop arson, burglary, robbery, theft or criminal mischief at night (CBSnews).

Another such case occurred in Blanchard, Oklahoma on this past New Years Eve. A young mother named Sarah McKinley shot and killed an intruder that was armed with a knife. The eighteen year old woman was home alone with her child when  two adult men that were strung out on drugs tried to break into her house, even going so far as to kick in the door for twenty minutes after she blocked it with a couch. McKinley was on the phone with 911 when she asked if it was okay to shoot the intruders, the dispatcher told her to do what she needed to do to protect her child; so she shot and killed one of the men. The female will not be charged with the murder, but the intruder’s accomplice will be. Per Oklahoma law, the use of deadly force is allowed in cases of home invasions/intruders (Huffington post).

 The most recent of these cases occurred three weeks ago in Sanford, Florida. Seventeen year old Trayvon Martin was walking back from the store when he was confronted by the neighborhood watch president George Zimmerman. Zimmerman had called 911 about a suspicious black male in a hoodie walking in his neighborhood at night, and he decided to deal with him. An alleged altercation occurred, and Zimmerman who was armed with a gun shot and killed Martin. Zimmerman claimed self defense, and so far has not been charged with any crime due to lack of evidence. Florida's deadly force law, also called "stand your ground," allows a person to meet "force with force" if they believe they or someone else is in danger of being seriously harmed by an assailant (CNNnews).
          In my opinion, the only case that is an actual justifiable homicide would be the second. Mrs. McKinley was trying to protect not only herself, but her infant son from two men that were determined to get inside of her house. In a situation like that where the police may not make it in time, and there is no way you can get out of the house safely then you really have no other choice; because if it comes down to me or you I'm going to choose myself.  As far as the Joe Horn and George Zimmerman cases, I’m quite disappointed in our justice system. Neither one of these men should be walking free. I can understand Mr. Horn wanting to look out for his neighbor, but he did not have to kill these unarmed men that were running away from him. They presented no threat to him directly, and murdering someone over property is completely ridiculous. As far as the Trayvon Martin case, I see this as out and out cold blooded murder. George Zimmerman acted as a vigilante when there was no cause for him to, and it seems that this killing was racially motivated. An unknown person walking around your neighborhood is not a threat to you if you are inside of your house. It baffles me that no charges have been filed against this man yet, but because of public outrage I’m sure his day in court will come soon enough. There is a fine line between self preservation and homicide, and with so many citizens taking on the roles of judge, jury, and executioner, I think all the states need to seriously reconsider the laws they have enacted on protecting oneself when threatened.

Works Cited:

CBSnews.com “Man Kills Suspects While On Phone with 911”.11 Feb. 2009.
Web. 21 March 2012.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-3517564.html

CNN wire staff. “Outrage, protests grow over shooting of unarmed
Florida teen”CNNnews.com.18 March 2012. Web. 21 March 2012
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/21/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html

LegalDictionary.com. Web. 21 March

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Justifiable+homicide

Huffington Post.com. “Mom Shoots Intruder”.5 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 March 2012.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/okla-mom-shoots-intruder-no-charges_n_1186096.html

Blog #3 ONL2306

Pick an interest group that you'd consider joining & why.

If I had to choose only one interest group to join it would be Greenpeace. A decade ago this group wouldn’t have even made my top ten list, but now more than ever I believe we need to support the work Greenpeace is doing. Somewhat recent developments of the past few years  such as hormone injected food, outbreaks of natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, melting pack ice), the BP oil spill, and now another gas shortage, makes it evident that paying more attention to mother Earth needs to be a priority and a necessity in our everyday lives. Some people probably think of Greenpeace as the protesters in the boats that try to stop oil companies from drilling, or whale ships from poaching innocent whales, but Greenpeace is so much more than that. This organization was founded in 1971 by a group of environmental activists who wanted to protest the U.S. underground nuclear testing at Amchitka, a tiny island off the West Coast of Alaska, which is one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions. Amchitka was the last refuge for 3,000 endangered sea otters, and home to bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and other wildlife. Even though the protesters boat was intercepted before it got to Amchitka, the resulting media attention put enough pressure on the U.S. government to end nuclear testing on the island that same year (Greenpeace.org). They are opening our eyes to issues I never thought about, but should have been. So many of the topics Greenpeace has been trying to shine a light on are just now starting to make into the main stream media; such as the dangers of coal mines/plants. How many times over the past few years have there been stories from West Virginia to Chile about miners becoming trapped inside the depths of the earth because they dug too greedily to fuel our ever growing need for this natural resource (New York Times.com)? There are other issues that governments around the world are beginning to notice such as deforestation, the use/disposal of unsafe chemicals in our food and water, our dependence on dwindling natural resources such as coal, gas, and oil, and most importantly the effect global warming is having on our world. As the human population continues to expand reaching 7,000,000,000 in 2011, alone,  we must find ways to sustain our food, air, water, and resource supplies, and not use them up in a couple of generations.  This organization is not without its controversy, there have been some radicals that have taken activism too far, but even through their extreme measures, the core Greenpeace motto “Caring for the environment” still shines through. I would be proud to be a member of Greenpeace, and a crusader for the betterment of planet Earth and its inhabitants.

Works Cited

Greenpeace. “Our History”. Greenpeace.org 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/history/

The New York Times. Times Topics. “Mining Disasters” 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 2 Mar. 2012

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/mines_and_mining/mining_disasters/index.html

Blog #2 ONL2306

Gays in the U.S. Military vs. Political Opinion

One of the major hot button issues (that has been around for decades and seems to keep popping up) is whether or not gay men and women should be allowed to serve in the military. With 2012 being an election year, this is now a major topic of discussion; it’s back on the menu AGAIN along with abortion, the budget, welfare reform, healthcare, illegal immigration, and a whole slew of other recycled topics that seem to never get resolved. So with all these subject matters to choose from, WHY is this particular topic on the lips of every politician vying for the office of President of the United States of America? Simple, the repeal of the DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) Law has made it THE current event to debate. For those not familiar with DADT, journalist Rene Lynch summed it up nicely: “When it was signed by President Clinton in 1993, the policy was hailed by proponents for extending protection to gays and lesbians serving their country. Under the law, commanders were not allowed to ask about someone's sexual orientation, and gays and lesbians were expected to keep their orientation under wraps” (Lynch).

           It’s true that at one time this may have been needed, but it has long since outlived its usefulness. On September 20, 2011 the DADT policy was repealed by President Obama ending an eighteen year ban on hiding one’s sexual orientation from military personnel, at the risk of ending a military career if exposed as a homosexual(Griffin). Several of the top Republican candidates had very strong opposing views to this radical change sparking some right wing controversy. Presidential Candidate hopefuls Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney, (none of whom has ever served a day in the armed forces) are attacking the President (also never served) for repealing this outdated policy. They try to throw in red herrings like religion, family values, sexual deviance, the American image worldwide, etc. to distract from the actual topic at hand. Rick Santorum even went so far as to say:"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything,"(Goralka).Santorum’s comment went so far off the charts of topic and taste level that it’s a wonder he is even still in the running for President. 
          Personally, I’m glad the DADT policy was repealed. It reminded me of light skinned African Americans (back when slavery was still legal) that had to hide their ancestry in order to pass for whites; that way they could have a chance in life and be treated like human beings not property. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now. I don’t care what race, religion, color, or sexual orientation our troops are. I’m just completely grateful and thankful that they are willing to put themselves in harms way to defend this great country of ours, when others are unable or unwilling. They DON’T ASK us who we are before they sign up to serve, and they DON’T TELL us they will only defend a certain group, so we as a society shouldn’t ask them to hide who they are anymore. “Gay soldiers need to shoot straight, not be straight” Hillary Clinton 2003 (Gordon). 

                                                              Works Cited

 Goralka, Julie. Washington Times.com. Washington Times Newspaper, 11 Nov. 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 12 http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/end-day/2012/feb/11/rick-santorum-says-no-women-and-gays-us-military//

Gordon, Jesse. Issues2000.org. On the Issues: Every Political Leader on Every Issue, 13 June 11. Web. 16 Feb. 12

http://www.issues2000.org/News_Gays_in_Military.htm

Griffin, Jennifer.Foxnews.com. Fox News. 20 Sept.11. Web. 19 Feb 12 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/20/what-dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal-means-for-servicemembers/

Lynch, Rene. LATimesBlog.org. Los Angeles Times. 9 Sept. 11. Web. 15 Feb. 11 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/dont-ask-dont-tell-officially-repealed.html