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In this Chapter, Sister Prejean acknowledges that society will always want retribution, so in order for her to get rid of capital punishment she must find another substitute that society will deem worthy. She ends up meeting up with Robert for a second time, where Robert shows empathy towards his crime but also lets Prejean know that he didn't kill Faith. He also goes on to explain that he had a bad upbringing and has battled a long time drug addiction as well. Sister Prejean let's Robert know that if he should die, he should die with his integrity and admit for his role in the crime. Sister Prejean goes on to show that retribution is just another form of revenge and that it accomplishes nothing for the state or the victims. She confronts Robert to acknowledge the mistakes and role he had in the murder of Faith but he refuses to admit he killed her and instead blames it all on his background and the alcohol and drugs. Prejean knows that the jury bias will lead to Robert receiving the death penalty.

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This chapter starts with Millard informing Sister Prejean about both Robert and Joseph; two guys who went on an eight-day rampage, where they murdered and raped women. Knowing the dangerous reputation these two guys have, sister Prejean chooses to speak to both of them. Rumors also spread about Sister Prejean being emotionally involved with Elmo. Sister Prejean meets Blackburn who is a methodist minister and the new warden of Angola prison. She challenges him on the death penalty and describes how Jesus' nonviolent teachings can be disregarded. She meets Robert and tells him about her life. Robert becomes part of the class action suit for death row inmates. On October 26, Sister Prejean disembarks on her three day march to Baton Rouge LA, where they end up encountering a counter-protest awaiting them.

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The next chapter (5th) takes place right after Elmo's execution. Sister Prejean takes a notice on the SWAT team right outside the prison, Eddie, Elmo's brother is present at his funeral. Elmo was buried in the nun's cemetary. One thing that kind of stuck out to me was a reporter asking Sister Prejean if she was in love with Elmo. I honestly thought it was an inappropriate question. Sister Prejean dedicates herself to be a full time death penalty abolitionist. Sister Prejean meets up with Phelps who is also against the death penalty. She joins up with other abolitionist of the death penalty and recalls famous death penalty cases and how judges described them as retributive.

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Currently finished episode 8 “What’s Going on Down There?”. This episode just shows how terrible the Stearns County’s Sherriff Department is at investigating crimes that were occurring throughout 40 years. If you’re an officer and your partner gets shot in front of you, you don’t just sit there you get up and pursue the suspect. When officer Tom Decker was shot at point blank range with a 12 gauge shotgun and the only officer there that witnessed it said it was a pistol, I couldn’t believe that he was that naïve. Police officers are around weapons all the time, I would assume they knew the difference between a shotgun and a handgun. This and any other Sherriff’s department just shows how they go from being unchecked by other government agencies.

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Currently reading Chapter 9 and this book has definitely opened my eyes on how the Criminal Justice System has failed many Juvenile delinquents. There are many short stories about young adults that had terrible upbringings that led them into making those terrible choices in life. The stories on Ian, Trina, and Antonio are heartbreaking but George's story in my opinion is the worst. What happened to George Stinney just showed how racist, cruel, and unprofessional the Southern Criminal Justice System was at that time.

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The books starts off with Sister Helen Prejean being asked if she is willing to correspond with a death row inmate named Elmo Patrick Sonnier. Elmo has been convicted for the raping and murdering of young woman and her boyfriend. Sister Helen mainly works with teenage single mothers who are unable to make a living on their minimum wage they receive. Sister Helen Prejean lives in the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans and came to work there through a spiritual enlightenment. I find this very intriguing through my perspective because although I don't necessarily believe in religious deity, I've always had the mentality that society needs religion to keep afloat. Sister Helen sends a letter to Elmo with three pictures of herself. They end up writing to each other back and forth with Elmo describing the cell he spends 23 hours out of the 24. Sister Helen gets in contact with Chava and gets a hold of the newspaper clippings describing the victims of the crime that Elmo and his brother Eddie committed.

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The second chapter of the book is basically Sister Prejean finally getting to meet Elmo in Angola prison. The book also references how Angola used to be plantations which was a throwback to the times of slavery, probably making a comparison to those that are now "enslaved" by the penal system. Sister Prejean also describes the past brutality and violence of Angola in this chapter. She finally gets to speak with Elmo and he goes on a tangent about memories and stories he has. Elmo shows sympathy and remorse towards the crime Eddie committed, and Sister Prejean sees this and decides to help Elmo with his case.
The Third chapter of the book, Millard Farmer and Sister Prejean join forces to help Elmo with his case. During her long car ride with Millard, she recalls that Legal system cares more for procedural rules than the protection of rights and life's of the incarcerated individuals. Sister Prejean and Millard file a petition with the pardon board and meet with Howard Marsellus who surprisingly agrees with them, that the death penalty is the poor man's punishment.

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The fourth chapter of the book starts off with Elmo only having four days until his execution...so its getting real, real fast. Sister Prejean tells Elmo about the Pardon Board Hearing, which angers Elmo and has Sister Prejean write a letter to the governor asking permission to plead guilty before the board. The state must complete some tedious work such as preparing a last meal and forms that must be typed up and filled. Elmo now knowing of his impending death, writes a few last words on his bible and hands it over to Sister Prejean. Elmo has his hair cut off, as it could catch on fire and he is forced to wear a diaper. Sister Prejean isn't able to comprehend Elmo's death and states that everyone bears the guilt in participating in Elmo's execution. The death of Elmo plays a crucial role in this chapter and Sister Prejean states that no one should ever experience what Elmo felt in his last hours before execution; his loneliness and sadness that plagued him.

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Baltimore Police Dept. Exposed for Corruption

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Baltimore Police Dept. Exposed for Corruption

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The Baltimore Police Department plans to require officers to scan their fingerprints at the start and end of shifts to prove they've worked the hours claimed on their payslips, offifcials have confirmed to The Baltimore Sun.

The move comes as the department struggles to control continuing overtime spending of nearly a million dollars a week, and amid the ongoing federal trial of two Gun Trace Task Force officers whose corrupt colleagues have admitted to rampant overtime fraud by the unit.

"Let's not sugar-coat this: Criminals found a gap in the system and took full advantage of it," T.J. Smith, a department spokesman, said Wednesday. "That's not fair to the city, and it's not fair to the men and women in this agency who do their job honorably every day."

Smith said the department is in the early phases of implementing the new biometric technology. Officials have purchased some hardware, but Smith could not estimate when officers will begin using it or how much the system will cost.

Smith said adoption of the biometric system does not reflect a lack of trust in officers and supervisors to tell the truth on their time sheets, but "instilling a layer of trust in the community that we are doing something" about the vulnerability of the current paper-based payroll system to fraud.

"We're not just going to say, 'Oh well,' and everybody crosses their fingers and hopes we do better in the future," Smith said. "We're taking steps to make sure we do better."

According to multiple current and former commanders in the department, the hope is that the technology will not only halt outright corruption, but curtail a longstanding culture in the department in which front-line supervisors - lieutenants and sergeants - use unearned overtime and other unapproved paid time off as an "internal currency" for motivating and rewarding proactive policing.

In the Gun Trace Task Force case, officers are accused of, and some have admitted to, outright overtime fraud. Some officers claimed overtime pay while on vacation or while gambling at a local casino.

But prosecutors, defense attorneys, and witnesses called in the case also have discussed officers being given informal days off, called "slash days," as a reward for good work. Former Detective Maurice Ward, one of six officers who have pleaded guilty in the case, testified that unearned overtime pay was used in the department to motivate officers.

Several commanders who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the department said the actions of the gun unit were criminal and in no way reflected common practice. But they said front-line supervisors using slash days - or "g days," to reward a gun seizure - is more widespread, despite not being sanctioned by top leadership.

Supervisors, they said, are desperate for ways to keep officers motivated in a city where morale-crushing crime is rampant. They said the practice goes back years.

"You would hear squads say, 'Yeah, we got five guns last week, so we got five g days,' " one former commander said. "Some districts were well known for it. Some supervisors were well known for it."

"It's a well-known, not-talked-about secret," said another former commander. He said he saw slash days used to motivate officers, to reward them, and to get them to work undesirable details. "I don't think that the overwhelming majority of supervisors who are doing it think that they are doing anything wrong. They think that they are looking out for guys who are working hard."

Another commander, who said he supports the introduction of biometric systems, said the culture of the department has allowed some supervisors and officers to think they are owed something extra for doing their jobs.

"Unless you have a way to track where people are when they say they're working, particularly overtime, then there is always going to be abuse," he said.

For years, the police department has far exceeded its overtime budget.Last year, it budgeted $16 million for overtime and spent $44.9 million.

Much of that spending is to cover patrol shortages, the department says. Officials have said the department is hundreds of officers short, and that a scheduling structure in the officers' contract - four days on, three days off - is forcing it to draft officers to work additional overtime shifts during the week to maintain necessary staffing levels.

Current and former commanders say overtime is a necessary component of every police department's budget, as police must respond to unforeseen emergencies.

But the fraud revealed in the Gun Trace Task Force case, coupled with record violent crime and ballooning overtime expenditures despite a half-billion-dollar police budget, have forced a new reckoning within City Hall.

After the Gun Trace Task Force officers were indicted in March, Mayor Catherine E. Pugh ordered an audit of police overtime, which she said she wanted completed "as soon as possible."

"We allow police overtime to run up when a lot of other areas of the city, like schools, housing and parks and recreation, could benefit from that money," she said at the time.

The audit has not been completed.

City Solicitor Andre Davis said Wednesday he could not discuss the status of the audit because it is "an integral part of ongoing litigation" around a police union lawsuit against the city claiming failure to pay adequate overtime.

Lt. Gene Ryan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said he has heard of officers' getting days off for getting guns off the street, and of supervisors letting officers leave work a couple of hours early after good arrests. But he said he hasn't heard of officers getting unearned overtime hours.

Ryan said he has no problem with the department's adopting a biometric system, which he thinks will "help with gaining the trust of the public." He said it also could help officers get paid in a more timely fashion, as the current paper-based system can lead to clerks' falling behind and backlogs. (The union's lawsuit, he said, has to do with a separate issue: officers' getting paid a lower rate for overtime hours than is mandated by federal law.)

The current and former commanders who spoke with The Sun said the city's audit of police overtime would not be easy, in part because the payroll systems in place to track overtime have long been inadequate.

Officers put in for overtime by using paper forms that must be filled out by hand and then entered manually by clerks. The computer system in which overtime is logged lacks clear categories that distinguish the reasons for the work, making it more difficult to track and justify.

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Baltimore Police to use fingerprint scanning to track officers' time at work after years of abuse

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The Baltimore Police Department is procuring a biometric system that will require officers to scan their fingerprints at the start and end of shifts in order to prove they've worked the hours claimed on their payslips, officials confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.

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I've been following Count Dankula's case ever since I saw the video of the pug and I am kind of glad he isn't facing any jail time but I still find it troublesome to be demonized over a hilarious prank (in my opinion).

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A man who filmed a pet dog giving Nazi salutes before putting the footage on YouTube has been fined £800.

Mark Meechan, 30, recorded his girlfriend's pug, Buddha, responding to statements such as "Sieg Heil" by raising its paw.

The clip was viewed more than three million times on YouTube.

Meechan, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, was sentenced at Airdrie Sheriff Court after being found guilty of committing a hate crime last month.

He had denied any wrong-doing and insisted he made the video, which was posted in April 2016, to annoy his girlfriend.

But Sheriff Derek O'Carroll found him guilty of a charge under the Communications Act that he posted a video on social media and YouTube which was grossly offensive because it was "anti-semitic and racist in nature" and was aggravated by religious prejudice.

There was a small demonstration outside court by protesters claiming the case went against the principle of freedom of speech.

Comedian Ricky Gervais had taken to Twitter to comment on the case after guilty the verdict.

He tweeted: "A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed 'grossly offensive'.

"If you don't believe in a person's right to say things that you might find 'grossly offensive', then you don't believe in Freedom of Speech."

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A man who filmed a pet dog giving Nazi salutes before putting the footage on YouTube has been fined £800. Mark Meechan, 30, recorded his girlfriend's pug, Buddha, responding to statements such as "Sieg Heil" by raising its paw. The clip was viewed more than three million times on YouTube.