Supreme Court rules cops can be filmed

Russia Today

Smile for the camera, coppers — the US Supreme Court has decided to let stand a lesser ruling that allows citizens in the state of Illinois to record police officers performing their official duties.

Up until just last year, an anti-eavesdropping legislation on the books across Illinois meant any person within the state could be imprisoned for as much as 15 years for recording a police officer without expressed consent. In August 2011, a federal appeals court struck down the law, but an Illinois prosecutor has asked the Supreme Court — unsuccessfully — to challenge that ruling.

On Monday, the top justices in the US said that they would not hear the case and will instead rely on last year’s ruling where a federal appeals court in Chicago agreed that the eavesdropping law, as written, “likely violates” the First Amendment.

“The Illinois eavesdropping statue restricts a medium of expression commonly used for the preservation and communication of information and ideas, thus triggering First Amendment scrutiny” and that the “statute restricts far more speech than necessary to protect legitimate privacy interests,” the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals opined previously.

Under that ruling and thanks to the Supreme Court’s refusal to weigh in this week, last year’s decision to not allow the enforcement of that law will stand, essentially making it for once-and-for-all perfectly legal at the highest level to tape record cops on the job.

Harvey Grossman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, says in a statement that the ACLU was "pleased that the Supreme Court has refused to take this appeal.”

“The ACLU of Illinois continues to believe that in order to make the rights of free expression and petition effective, individuals and organizations must be able to freely gather and record information about the conduct of government and their agents – especially the police,” Grossman says. “The advent and widespread accessibility of new technologies make the recording and dissemination of pictures and sound inexpensive, efficient and easy to accomplish."

The ACLU says they will now attempt to secure a permanent injunction in the case of Anita Alvarez v. ACLU of Illinois so that state attorneys will be barred from attempting to enforce the eavesdropping law ever again, “so that the ACLU’s program of monitoring police activity in public can move forward in the future without any threat of prosecution.”

More records indicate that inmate was in jail when 1992 double murder occurred

Chicago Tribune
Steve Mills

State attorney general begins inquiry into conduct of Cook County prosecutors in case

The Illinois attorney general's office has opened an in-depth examination of how Cook County prosecutors have handled the trial and nearly two decades of appeals in a controversial 1992 double murder case that sent a teenager to prison for life, even though records showed he was in a Chicago police lockup when the crime occurred, according to court documents and interviews.
 
At issue is whether prosecutors failed to turn over key information to defense lawyers that would have helped the case of Daniel Taylor, whose defense at trial seemed ironclad: that he had been arrested on unrelated charges before the murders occurred and was not released until after.

Taylor's case, in turn, casts doubt on the entire criminal investigation, since eight suspects in all confessed and implicated each other.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that included Judge Richard Posner recently found Taylor's claims were worth pursuing and took the unusual step of granting his request to file a second appeal in federal court — a move that could lead to a new trial. And that was before the attorney general's office began digging deep into the case and uncovered additional documents it said were not turned over to Taylor.

"When combined with the testimony of (a) newly revealed witness and the newly disclosed police reports," the judges wrote in an order late last year, "this is strong proof that Taylor's participation in the crime was physically impossible. In contrast, the circumstances surrounding the non-videotaped confession are suspect."

The case against Taylor and the seven other defendants was the focus of the Tribune's 2001 investigation "Cops and Confessions." Five of the eight defendants were convicted and sent to prison, and Taylor was sentenced to life without possibility of parole. The Tribune has continued to investigate the case. Among the subsequent revelations: A Taylor co-defendant said he and several other men committed the murders and that Taylor and the others who were arrested are innocent.

In some cases, crucial documents or witnesses that can turn a prosecution upside down do not surface for years. That it is happening in a case that has received such scrutiny may raise questions about who in the prosecutors' office had knowledge of the documents and why they were allegedly withheld.
The failure to turn over material that can help a defendant's case at trial is among the most serious violations a prosecutor can commit.

The current inquiry began as the attorney general's office took over the federal appeal from Cook County prosecutors, a routine job for litigators in the office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Signs the Corrupt GOP Fraud Machine Working Against Ron Paul is Beginning to Crack

Lone Star Watch Dog
realman2020

Good citizens pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain.

We see an act of desperation on the part of the GOP to keep Ron Paul from securing the nomination. First, we see a news piece written in Politico saying the Ron Paul campaign is going broke. It is very apparent that the establishment wants Mitt Romney to be their person. This former governor of Massachusetts is just a vanilla version of Obama that would continue the continuity in carrying out the policies no matter who is in the White House.

First indicator is in Utah where limited government conservatives, libertarians and constitutionalists became persona non Grata at the caucus and miraculously the neo con big government RINO Senator Orin Hatch wins. Then we see in Missouri Ron Paul supporters being arrested for pointing out the GOP leadership breaking their own rules to block Ron Paul from winning. The party that is supposed to have a big tent to be all-inclusive for every one of all points of view. It does not look like it, we are all welcome just as long we sit down and shut up and not bring up personal liberty and the Constitution.

 The state of Illinois, the ABC affiliate released the primary poll numbers 24 hours early showing the primary results before one person cast a ballot. The land of Lincoln is the place where elections are stolen. It is time for a hostile take over of the state political parties and the election system to rout out the corruption. The people of Chicago and the State of Illinois have suffered under a corrupt system for a long time with loss of liberty and a system that no longer serves the people. A place like Illinois would be a good place to start.

That is not a sign of arrogance; this is a sign of desperation trying to put off the inevitable. It is time for Ron Paul supporters now have to fight to win and take no prisoners. it is not the time to be nice and civil when the Party hacks rigged the game. We cannot allow corruption to rob our future putting people on the ballot that are no different then the opponent in the other major party. The party leadership does not work for the people; they work for offshore corporations and the bankers. Ron Paul is a threat to the establishment.

 Now I see this fraud machine is starting fall apart and unravel. The leadership is desperate to suppress Ron Paul from winning. It is not about not allowing Ron Paul to win. Now it is matter, can they stop it? When we see them changing the rules as they go, disregarding the rules in their bylaws or just flat out just ignore the result. We might start seeing the leadership being removed by hostile takeover calling a special vote to unseat the local or state party chairman for corruption when they are being caught rigging the vote.

BREAKING: ELECTION FRAUD? Why Did ABC-TV Post Illinois GOP Primary Results 24 Hours Early?!