Tag Archives: Law

Quitman 10+2 trial, three years late

Trials for the Quitman 10+2 have finally started. George Boston Rhynes is covering them every day on YouTube.

The only other reporter George has seen there was one from the Valdosta Daily Times. George is waving a copy of the VDT here as he discusses what the case is about: the Quitman 10 registered enough voters that several black people got elected to the school board in Brooks County for the first time ever.


Front Row: Linda Troutman, Lula Smart, April Proctor, Diane Thomas
Back Row: Latashia Head, Sandra Cody, Robert Dennard, Angela Bryant Nancy Dennard, and Kechia Harrison

Front page of the VDT yesterday, Quitman 11 trial gets under way, with no byline and no pictures, Continue reading →

No contract and no bids for County Attorney, yet 20% raise to $300,000

In response to (a second) open records request, County Clerk Paige Dukes stated in writing that Lowndes County does not have a contract with the person referred to in numerous minutes as “County Attorney”, and that no bids have been entertained for legal services for the county. According to the budget documents the Clerk referred to, the county raised the County Attorney’s budget 20% to $300,000 for 2013. Illustrations below (some with links) were added by me. -jsq

From: pdukes@lowndescounty.com
To: b-ahuntley@hotmail.com
CC: asmith@lowndescounty.com; JPritchard@lowndescounty.com; bswaller@bellsouth.net
Subject: Open Records Request
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:22:08 +0000

Good Morning Mrs. Huntley,

In response to your open records request Continue reading →

Pipeline opposition growing

Why should Georgia landowners have to cede property rights to benefit nobody in Georgia, and at risk of our aquifer and environment? But Dougherty County residents are still playing NIMBY instead of trying to stop it entirely.

Carlton Fletcher wrote for the Albany Herald 7 September 2013, Local opposition to natural gas pipeline growing,

Dougherty County landowners who’ve been contacted by representatives of a group planning the 465-mile Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline projected to run underneath their property say they’re not convinced by assurances that the $3 billion project is safe.

And they’re preparing to challenge the pipeline even as project surveyors seek access to their land.

“This is not just a threat to my land, to our region’s water, Continue reading →

CCA in contempt of court for understaffing Gladiator School in Idaho

CCA wouldn’t even turn in a correct count of its guards at its most notorious prison.

Rebecca Boone wrote for AP today, Judge: CCA in contempt for prison understaffing,

“For CCA staff to lie on so basic a point — whether an officer is actually at a post — leaves the Court with serious concerns about compliance in other respects, such as whether every violent incident is reported.”

More here from George Prentice in Boise Weekly, including the actual court decision and order.

Remember, this is the company our Industrial Authority wanted to build a prison in Lowndes County. Let’s insist on real due diligence.

-jsq

Decently and in order? Prayers do not match Commission behavior @ LCC 2013-09-10

The invocation didn’t match what the Commission did at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013, or at many another session, for that matter.

The invocation included this:

…we can gather here and not have to face the fear arrest or threat. That we can express our opinions openly.

I guess Minister Commissioner John Page hasn’t heard of Ashley Paulk’s Greatest Hits which include a not-so-veiled threat of arrest right there in that same chamber Continue reading →

Minimum wage law increased to livable wage? @ VLCoC 2013-09-04

Rep. Scott doesn’t want any federal laws about employment.

Alvin Payton (Valdosta Mayor Pro Tem and City Council District 4) asked:

What is your view or your stance on this current minimum wage law being increased to livable wages?
This was at the Chamber Federal Legislative Lunch with Rep. Austin Scott (R GA-08) yesterday.

Minimum wage law being increased to livable wages? --Alvin Payton (D Valdosta Mayor Pro Tem)

Answer from Rep. Scott: Continue reading →

Reopen the KJ investigation

I agree with the pathologist who did the second autopsy and found new evidence, Dr. William Anderson:

“My recommendation is to redo the investigation,” Anderson said Wednesday morning. “Open it back up and find out what happened.”

Jordan Conn wrote for Grantland yesterday, A Death in Valdosta,

Multisport athlete Kendrick Johnson was found dead in his Georgia high school’s gymnasium in January. Authorities ruled it an accident, but Johnson’s family believed something very different — and a second autopsy appears to support their suspicions.

I don’t always agree with Rev. Rose, but I still do on this one: the number of people colluding to cover up a thing like this would be most impressive.

However, the GBI is involved, and after the Quitman 10 are now several years without a “speedy” trial, GBI involvement taints the case. So with the new evidence let’s see a new investigation.

The Grantland story is confused about Continue reading →

Prohibition will bring both law, legislature and executive into open contempt –The Economist 22 September 1923

Alcohol Prohibition didn’t work. Prohibition of marijuana and other drugs actually failed in much worse ways than alcohol prohibition did. I don’t always agree with The Economist, but about this I do: it’s time to end the failed War on Drugs and ramp down the expensively bloated U.S. prison system.

Uncle Sam Will Enforce Prohibition, Our September 22nd 1923 issue examined the impact of America’s experiment with alcohol prohibition. The newspaper encourages a similarly liberal approach to drug control today.

We wrote: “A law is not necessarily a good or wise law because it aims at doing something which is desirable. If it is impossible of strict administration, it will not only fail in its object, but, what is far more serious will bring both law, legislature and executive into open contempt.”

Continue reading →

Video released of guards beating prisoner with hammer in 2010

GBI finally released video of prisoners being beaten with hammers by guards after the 2010 prisoner strikes for wages instead of working for free for things like call centers and building weapons. Two guards pled guilty in 2012 to conspiracy, assault with injury, and coverup. But GBI mysteriously hasn’t been able to identify the guard seen in this video beating handcuffed prisoner Kelvin Stevenson with a hammer.

Mary Ratcliff 29 August 2013, Video released of Georgia guards beating prisoners with hammer,

At the beginning of this video, you hear a prison guard shouting, “”Get down! Just get down! Get down! Get down!” presumably to the other prisoners. That exclamation is followed by, “Oh (inaudible) guy over there with his hands hitting him … and a damn hammer!”

The deplorable beatings you’re witnessing occurred Continue reading →

Watkins family on other cases

It’s not so much what you know as what you can prove, says a concerned father, and the mother wants better representation for others whose children like her daughter have gotten caught in a felony with little if any evidence at school.

Know Your Rights say the Watkins parents Mrs. Watkins said after her daughter was tackled at school be a deputy, she found “there are a lot of children in the judicial system that may not have good representation.” She and Mr. Watkins and George Boston Rhynes are starting an organization to at least show concern. George said in one visit to juvenile court he encountered two families with problems with probation and law enforcement knocking down doors and searching without search warrants.

Mr. Watkins wants to help people know their rights. Things we older folk may have done as children now there are laws against, and the children and their families need to know things like the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor, and the importance of writing things down. “Details is all that matters.” Later he noted that Continue reading →