Random notes: July 2, 2010.

Department of “The Jokes, They Just Write Themselves”:

Substance abuse research into Ozzy Osbourne’s DNA will cost genetics experts in Massachusetts $40,000 and take them three months to map out.

Today’s NYT has a followup article on the Ronell Wilson case, going into more detail on the legal issues. Basically, the death penalty sentence was overturned because prosecutors hammered that Wilson had not pled guilty, had refused to testify, but was claiming remorse. Several people in the article are quoted as wondering how the prosecution could have made “such a simple procedural mistake”. But I’m actually a little bit sympathetic to the prosecution: before the prosecution made their statements, Wilson was allowed to read a “statement of remorse” to the jury, without being cross-examined by the prosecution.

…in a penalty phase trial, “the defendant had the burden of proof of establishing that he was remorseful and that he accepted responsibility. When he argued that his unsworn, uncross-examined statement proved he was remorseful, the government should be allowed to say, ‘Don’t credit it because it wasn’t tested through cross-examination.’”

Loser update: Astros still hanging on to fifth place. Baltimore at 24-54, for a .308 (God’s caliber) winning percentage, projected to win 49.896 games over the 162 game season. Put another way, roughly 112 losses. Remember, though: we’re closing out the first half of the season. Things can change for the better (worse?) during the second half.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 7:38 am and is filed under Clippings, Law, Loser, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.