I've got a lot to do today, and every time I look at the news, it seems I'm only interested in reading about Ghislaine (hoping her Denver lawyers Laura and Jeff kill it on cross-examination) and events in Central and South America.

Since I doubt many readers are as interested in these topics as I am, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

If you do want my thoughts on these topics or other international criminal cases, let me know in comments. I'm pretty fascinated these days by Alex Saab, kidnapped or extradited from Camp Verde (depending on your point of view); the capture of Otoniel in Colombia (the Colombian President says Pablo Escobar was small potatoes by comparison); and the sentencing of Emma Coronel-Aispuro (El Chapo's wife) to 3 years.

What I'm not interested in: school and workplace shootings, missing white girls, the January 6 events at the capital, or anything having to do with Donald Trump. I barely remember him and I have no desire to be reminded.

From the first I heard about the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the Rust movie set, I suspected that the gun Alec Baldwin was holding in the "church pew" discharged on its own as he was practicing the "cross-body move" he was supposed to make with it. Many news accounts were pretty sketchy on whether he pulled the trigger or intended to pull the trigger.

In an interview to be broadcast on ABC with George Stephanopoulos, Baldwin gives his first detailed interview on the shooting.

Asked .... how a real bullet got on the "Rust" set, Alec Baldwin says: “I have no idea. Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”

He also says the scene he was practicing didn't call for the shooting of the weapon. There would be no reason for him to practice shooting with it, and he would never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger.

There is new evidence in the case. Yesterday, the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office executed its fourth search warrant, this time on the business of Seth Kenney, who supplied the ammunition for the movie. You can read the Affidavit for the warrant here. [More...]

CNN has suspended Chris Cuomo indefinitely, after a report was released this week with thousands of pages from the NYS Attorney General's investigation of sexual harrassment allegations against his brother, Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. CNN released a statement saying it had given him a pass in August when the topic came up, but after the documents were released, it appears he had a greater role advising his brother than previously dislosed.

Chris' 348 page deposition is here. I'm on page 131 and haven't found anything objectionable yet.

I like watching Chris Cuomo. He's comfortable, like a favorite pair of slippers. He's polite to his guests, and he wears his feelings on his sleeve. He doesn't sound phony. Why wouldn't he give his brother the benefit of his thoughts? [More...]

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Personally, I find the media depictions of large and mostly maskless crowds at , at grocery stores, airports and public events concerning. I would have thought by now we all know what comes next - another round of mutating Covid viruses.

Colorado happens to be one of the states with a high number of new COVID cases and increased deaths. [More...]

Kyle Rittenhouse's chief counsel, Mark Richards, hasn't been known to give interviews about the case. Now that it's over, he has spoken.

It's an enlightening interview about the role of criminal defense attorneys. We don't represent causes, we represent individuals.

I was hired by the two first lawyers. I’m not going to use their names,” Richards said Friday. “They wanted to use Kyle for a cause and something that I think was inappropriate – and I don’t represent causes. I represent clients"

.....Richards...said that to him, the only thing that mattered was “whether he was found not guilty or not.'"

As for the choice of a defense strategy:

Regardless of what was happening behind the scenes, the strategy from Richards and [co-counsel] Chirafisi in court was clear: get the jury to regard Rittenhouse as a scared teenager who shot to save his life.

[More...]

Closing Arguments are taking place in the Rittenhouse trial.

Here is a summary of the prosecution's argument.

The judge tossed a charge of possession of a weapon by a person under 18 today because the statute required the gun barrel to be of a certain length, and the prosecution agreed that Rittenhouse' weapon was short-barreled and didn't qualify. It was punishable by a maximum sentence of 9 months.

The Judge also allowed a lesser included instruction for the shooting death of Anthony Huber.

Where the parties differ:

Rittenhouse said he feared for his life and acted in self-defense. Prosecutors sought to portray him as the aggressor who bears responsibility for the bloodshed.

The defense argument is live here.

500 National Guard troops are on call for after the verdict if requested by the state police. [More...]

I'm sorry for my absence the past few weeks -- it's temporary, to be sure.

We need a new open thread, so here it is, all topics are welcome.

Former New York federal court Judge Shira Scheindlin has an op-ed in the Guardian on how Trump took over the federal Judiciary with his abundant lifetime appointments of judges to our federal courts --including district and appellate courts and the Supreme Court.

There are a total of 816 active federal judges comprising the supreme court, the 13 appellate courts, and 91 district courts. In just one term Trump was able to appoint 28% of those judges due to past and continuing vacancies. Most importantly, he appointed 33% of America’s nine supreme court justices and 30% of the appellate judges.

Trump, desperate as always to leave his mark on something he touched, made sure to appoint young (by judicial standards) mostly white males to our nation's courts. [More....]

Some good news to report about Joe Biden. He has rapidly been filling the open slots for federal District and Appeals Court judges. So far, 8 of those appointed and confirmed have backgrounds as public defenders.

That is as many as (un)president Donald Trump, and Presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton landed in their first years combined, said Chris Kang, the chief counsel of Demand Justice.

...Set against recent history, [appointing 5 of these judges to the Courts of Appeal] t...is a remarkable statistic. President Barack Obama confirmed five former public defenders to the appeals courts over his entire eight years, according to the progressive judicial group Demand Justice. Biden has matched that in his first nine months.

For decades, federal judicial appointments have favored ex-prosecutors and corporate lawyers, the latter of whom have no criminal experience. [More...]

General Colin Powell has died from complications from COVID-19. He was 84 and fully vaccinated. However, his immune system had been compromised by having had blood cancer.

Powell, who was 84, received his second Pfizer shot in February but was immunocompromised as a result of his cancer and suffered from Parkinson’s disease, [his longtime assistant Peggy] Cifrino said in an interview. Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that severely impairs the immune system, lowering the effectiveness of vaccines.

“He was actually scheduled to receive his booster when he fell ill last week,” Cifrino said. “He couldn’t go to his appointment. … He thought he was just not feeling quite right, and he went to the hospital.”

According to the CDC which has followed 7,178 deaths among fully vaccinated people, 85% of the deaths occurred in the over age 65 population. [More...]

We've always known that most non-millionaire Donald Trump supporters are marginalized and under-informed. (Just a nicer term for under-educated and/or stupid). So perhaps it's no surprise that many of those charged in the Capitol riots are now seeking to represent themselves, despite repeated warnings from the Judge that it's a bad idea, and despite being offered the services of court-appointed counsel.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth told one such defendant he hadn't seen a successful case of self-representation since he took the bench in 1987. New York Civil Rights Lawyer Ron Kuby says he hasn't seen a successful case of self-representation in his 40 years as a lawyer.

I say this all the time on TalkLeft, but I'll do it one more time: You have the right to remain silent. Use it or lose it. Our jails are filled with people who thought if they could only tell their side of the story, the police (or judge or jury) would see it their way. It rarely happens.

Many of these under-informed defendants think that if they represent themselves, they will be able to put the corrupt "system" on trial. It won't happen. The system is not on trial, you are. Judges, not defendants, decide what is admissible at a trial. Any hint of something that seeks jury nullification won't be permitted in federal court.
(More...)

I'm obsessed with bodies of water these days. From Drake's Passage that goes between Ushaia, Argentina and the Antarctic, to the amazing waters around Tasmania, just below Australia, I've spent hours looking at pictures and ships and adventure tours.

By contrast, I also love the photo above. It's neither in South America, Australia, Asia nor the Indian Ocean. It's somewhere in Europe. I would love to sit on one of those chairs and do nothing but stare at the ocean. Any guesses?

Have any of you crossed Drake's passage or been to Tasmania? (Not the same as Tanzania in Africa).

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.