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People V. LaValle
''People v. LaValle'', 3 N.Y.3d 88 (2004), was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of the statute's direction on how the jury was to be instructed in case of deadlock. New York has since then abandoned the death penalty, as the law has not been amended. Background of the case Stephen LaValle, who raped, sexually molested, and murdered high-school track coach Cynthia Quinn (stabbed seventy-three times with a screwdriver) during her Sunday morning jog was tried and convicted by a lower court of rape and murder in the first degree. The Supreme Court of Suffolk County sentenced him to death. LaValle largely argued the case himself (despite a complete lack of legal training), after a falling out between him and his two attorneys; they wanted to take the case in different directions. The case was eventually appealed to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Court Of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the State Senate to 14-year terms. The Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals also heads administration of the state's court system, and thus is also known as the Chief Judge of the State of New York. Its 1842 Neoclassical courthouse is located in New York's capital, Albany. Nomenclature In the Federal court system, and most U.S. states, the court of last resort is known as the "Supreme Court". New York, however, calls its trial and intermediate appellate courts the "Supreme Court", and the court of last resort the Court of Appeals. This sometimes leads to confusion regarding the roles of the respective courts. Further adding to the misunderstanding is New York's terminology for jurists on its top two courts. Those who sit on its supreme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Screwdriver
A screwdriver is a tool, manual or powered, used for turning screws. A typical simple screwdriver has a handle and a shaft, ending in a tip the user puts into the screw head before turning the handle. This form of the screwdriver has been replaced in many workplaces and homes with a more modern and versatile tool, a power drill, as they are quicker, easier, and can also drill holes. The shaft is usually made of tough steel to resist bending or twisting. The tip may be hardened to resist wear, treated with a dark tip coating for improved visual contrast between tip and screw—or ridged or treated for additional 'grip'. Handles are typically wood, metal, or plastic and usually hexagonal, square, or oval in cross-section to improve grip and prevent the tool from rolling when set down. Some manual screwdrivers have interchangeable tips that fit into a socket on the end of the shaft and are held in mechanically or magnetically. These often have a hollow handle that contains various t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liz Krueger
Elizabeth Krueger (born November 20, 1957) is a member of the New York State Senate, representing District 28 on the East Side of Manhattan. First elected in a special election in 2002, Krueger is a Democrat. Background Krueger was born in New York City to Harvey M. Krueger and Constance Krueger. She has two sisters, Abigail and Cathleen. A brother, Peter, died of AIDS in 1988. Her father was the CEO of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and served as vice chairman of Lehman Brothers following the merger with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in 1977. She earned a B.A. from Northwestern University in Social Policy and Human Development, and a master's degree from the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Prior to elected office, Krueger served for 15 years as associate director of the Community Food Resource Center (CFRC), and she is the founding director of the New York City Food Bank. She is married to John E. Seley, a professor of urban planning and geography at The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan composition The New York State Senate was dominated by the Republican Party for much of the 20th century. Between World War II and the turn of the 21st century, the Democratic Party only controlled the upper house for one year. The Democrats took control of the Senate following the 1964 elections; however, the Republicans quickly regained a Senate majority in special elections later that year. By 2018, the State Senate was the last Republican-controlled body in New York government. In the 2018 elections, Democrats gained eight Senate seats, taking control of the chamber from the Republicans. In the 2020 elections, Democrats won a total of 43 seats, while Republicans won 20; the election results gave Senate Democrats a veto-proof two-thirds su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and is the first African American governor of New York. Following his graduation from Hofstra Law School, Paterson worked in the District Attorney's office of Queens County, New York, and on the staff of Manhattan borough president David Dinkins. In 1985, he was elected to the New York State Senate to a seat once held by his father, former New York secretary of state Basil Paterson. In 2003, he rose to the position of Senate minority leader. Paterson was selected to be the running mate of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election. Spitzer and Paterson were elected with 65% ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008. Spitzer was born in New York City, attended Princeton University, and earned his law degree from Harvard University, Harvard. He began his career as an attorney in private practice with New York law firms before becoming a prosecutor with the office of the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney. From 1999 to 2006, he was the New York State Attorney General, Attorney General of New York, earning a reputation as the "Sheriff of Wall Street" for his efforts to curb corruption in the financial services industry. Spitzer was elected Governor of New York in 2006 New York gubernatorial election, 2006 by the largest margin of any candidate, but his tenure lasted less than two years after it was uncovered he Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, patronized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Bruno
Joseph Louis Bruno (April 8, 1929 – October 6, 2020) was an American businessman and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from upstate New York. Bruno served in the New York State Senate from 1977 to 2008 and was Senate Majority Leader from 1994 to 2008. Bruno was convicted of federal corruption charges in 2009, but his conviction was overturned on appeal and a subsequent retrial resulted in an acquittal. Early life Bruno was born in Glens Falls, New York and grew up in a six-room cold water flat. Bruno graduated from St. Mary's - St. Alphonsus Regional Catholic School, St. Mary's Academy and earned a B.A. in business administration from Skidmore College. He served in the Korean War as an infantry Sergeant#United States, sergeant. Bruno was president of the New York State Jaycees; in 1964, he was named by them as one of the five "Outstanding Young Men of the State." He “became a millionaire after founding and then selling the Coradian Corporation, a company ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. Since Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s, conservatism has been the dominant ideology of the GOP. It has been the main political rival of the Democratic Party since the mid-1850s. The Republican Party's intellectual predecessor is considered to be Northern members of the Whig Party, with Republican presidents Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison all being Whigs before switching to the party, from which they were elected. The collapse of the Whigs, which had previously been one of the two major parties in the country, strengthened the party's electoral success. Upon its founding, it supported c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or else they may be rearrested and returned to prison. Originating from the French word ''parole'' ("speech, spoken words" but also "promise"), the term became associated during the Middle Ages with the release of prisoners who gave their word. This differs greatly from pardon, amnesty or commutation of sentence in that parolees are still considered to be serving their sentences, and may be returned to prison if they violate the conditions of their parole. Modern development Alexander Maconochie, a Scottish geographer and captain in the Royal Navy, introduced the modern idea of parole when, in 1840, he was appointed superintendent of the British penal colonies in Norfolk Island, Australia. He developed a plan to prepare them for event ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Due Process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law. Due process has also been frequently interpreted as limiting laws and legal proceedings (see substantive due process) so that judges, instead of legislators, may define and guarantee fundamental fairness, justice, and liberty. That interpretation has proven controversial. Analogous to the concepts of natural justice and procedural justice used in various other jurisdictions, the interpretation of due process is sometimes expressed as a command that the government must not be unfair to the people or abuse them physically. The term is not used in contemporary English law, but t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witness
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. In law a witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jury, before an administrative tribunal, before a deposition officer, or in a variety of other legal proceedings. A subpoena is a legal document that commands a person to appear at a proceeding. It is used to compel the testimony of a witness in a trial. Usually, it can be issued by a judge or by the lawyer representing the plaintiff or the defendant in a civil trial or by the prosecutor or the defense attorney in a criminal proceeding, or by a government agency. In many jurisdictions, it is compulsory to comply with the subpoena and either take an oath or solemnly affirm to testify truthfully unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confession (legal)
In the law of criminal evidence, a confession is a statement by a suspect in crime which is adverse to that person. Some secondary authorities, such as Black's Law Dictionary, define a confession in more narrow terms, ''e.g.'' as "a statement admitting or acknowledging all facts necessary for conviction of a crime," which would be distinct from a mere admission of certain facts that, if true, would still not, by themselves, satisfy all the elements of the offense. The equivalent in civil cases is a statement against interest. History This specific form of testimony, involving oneself, is used as a form of proof in judicial matters, since at least the Inquisition. The value of confessions, however, are discussed, and law generally request cross-checking them with objective facts and others forms of evidence (exhibits, testimonies from witnesses, etc.) in order to evaluate their truth value. Confessions were first developed in the Roman Catholic Church under the Sacrament of Pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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