Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 US
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Purvi Patel: Joseph County Courthouse in South Bend, Ind. Attorneys for Patel
will urge the Indiana Court of Appeals on Monday, May 23, 2016 to reverse her
2015 convictions on charges of feticide and neglect of a dependent resulting in
death. The state's attorney general's office will defend the northern Indiana
jury's decision. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Provided by Associated Press Joseph County Courthouse in South Bend, Ind.
Attorneys for Patel will urge the Indiana Court of Appeals on Monday, May 23,
2016 to reverse her 2015 convictions on charges of feticide and neglect of a
dependent
INDIANAPOLIS A judge on Indiana's Court of Appeals pointedly questioned an
attorney for the state Monday on whether there was evidence a woman found guilty
of neglect and feticide in a self-induced abortion knew she had given birth to a
live child.
Judge Nancy Vaidik noted during the hearing on Purvi Patel's bid to have the
charges thrown out that no evidence was presented at trial that the 35-year-old
northern Indiana woman knew she had delivered a live child. Such evidence would
help support her conviction on a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in
death.
"You can't endanger a dead baby, can you?" Vaidik asked deputy attorney general
Ellen Meilaender, who presented the state's arguments.
One of Patel's attorneys, Stanford University law professor Lawrence C. Marshall,
told the court that the charges aren't supported by the evidence in the 2013
death of her premature child after Patel ingested abortion-inducing drugs.
"Multiple independent reasons compel reversal of both counts here," Marshall told
the court.
Patel was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison on the neglect charge and six
years in prison on the feticide charge, with the terms to be served concurrently.
Patel's appeal contends prosecutors failed to prove she knew she had delivered a
live baby or that she could have done anything to save his life. It argues that
summoning medical help would have been "futile," citing a forensic pathologist's
testimony that the infant likely would have died within about a minute.
Her appeal also says that Indiana's feticide law was "passed to protect pregnant
women from violence" that could harm their developing fetus, not to prosecute
women for their own abortions. The state argues that the law "is not limited to
third-party actors" and can apply to pregnant women.
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Patel, of Granger, was arrested in July 2013 after she sought treatment at a
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local hospital for profuse bleeding after delivering a 1-pound infant boy and
putting his body in a trash bin behind her family's restaurant. Court records
show Patel purchased abortion-inducing drugs online through a pharmacy in Hong
Kong, took those drugs and delivered a premature baby in her home bathroom.
Patel lived with her parents and grandparents, and she feared her family would
discover she had been impregnated by a married man, according to court documents.
Two dozen women's advocacy groups, as well as Planned Parenthood and the American
Civil Liberties Union, all have filed friend-of-the-court briefs siding with
Patel.
Judge Vaidik told attorneys for both sides at the end of the hearing that they
had given the court "a lot to think about" and said the panel would rule as soon
as it can.
At least 38 states have fetal homicide laws, according to the National Conference
of State Legislatures. But the Patel case was the first time a state feticide law
has been used against a woman specifically because of "an alleged self-induced
abortion," said Jill E. Adams, executive director of the abortion rights advocacy
group Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice.
Attorneys for the state argue that Patel's infant was at least 25 weeks into
gestation, just beyond the threshold of viability, and had taken at least one
breath before dying. The state's brief also argues that Patel "has not met her
heavy burden to prove that Indiana's feticide statute constitutes an undue burden
on the right to obtain an abortion."
In its brief, the state argues that prosecutors were "not required to prove that
an attempt to obtain medical care would have saved the baby's life, only that
Defendant placed her baby in appreciable danger by not obtaining medical care for
him."
2 US
Cosby due in court in Pennsylvania sex-assault case
PHILADELPHIA Bill Cosby is due in Pennsylvania court Tuesday morning for a key
hearing in his criminal sex-assault case.
The preliminary hearing will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence
to send the 78-year-old entertainer to trial.
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Constand was not only impaired, but unconscious after Cosby gave her three
unidentified blue pills. Cosby said they engaged in consensual sexual activities,
and that he was a friend and mentor to her.
Prosecutors reopened the criminal case last year after dozens of women raised
similar claims, and Cosby's deposition in Constand's lawsuit surfaced.
Constand had gone to him for career advice. Cosby said he gave her the pills to
address her stress.
He settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in 2006, after giving four days of
testimony about his extramarital affairs, his pursuit of quaaludes to seduce
women and his efforts to hide payments to former lovers from his wife.
The confidential settlement bound both sides to secrecy, but a federal judge last
year unsealed portions of Cosby's deposition on a petition from The Associated
Press. The full deposition was later released by a court reporting service.
Montgomery County prosecutors then reopened Constand's decade-old complaint last
summer, after realizing the 12-year window for felony sexual assault had not yet
run out.
Cosby has not entered a plea since his Dec. 30 arrest. He would do so at a formal
arraignment if the case is held for trial. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Cosby also is fighting defamation lawsuits across the country for allegedly
smearing accusers and is trying to get his homeowners' insurance to pay his legal
bills.
Constand is now a massage therapist in Toronto. It's not known if she will
testify Tuesday or if police will instead read her statement about the encounter
that night.
Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of aggravated indecent assault.
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He then pulls out an imitation handgun from his handbag before his
crash-helmet-wearing accomplice Raymond Price, 45, joins him in the shop in
Leatherhead High Street, Surrey.
After the robbers demanded cash and jewellery, two staff members in the store
tackled them, causing Valentines wig to go flying and his skirt to partially
fall down.
Price was detained at the scene but Valentine fled. He was arrested in Sussex
several days after the attempted raid, which happened on 19 February.
DS Joe Easterbrook said: This was a highly unusual incident where two men in
very distinctive clothing attempted to rob a local business in broad daylight.
The two members of staff working that day refused to be intimidated by the
suspects and showed tremendous bravery to challenge the two men and stop Price
from leaving the store until our officers arrived.
Although the members of staff were both very shaken by what took place,
fortunately they both only suffered minor injuries during the incident.
Why are they making us out to be such a threat?: Turks react to Vote Leave
The Brexit groups claims that higher levels of criminality puts Britain at risk
if country joins EU prompts anger and alarm
The stock of British politicians can rarely have been lower on Green Lanes, the
historical heart of Britains Turkish community. Its quite racist to be
honest, said Ebru Ozcan, referring to the Vote Leave campaigns strategy of
attempting to portray her compatriots as inherently disposed to criminality and
desperate to flock to Britain. The way they talk has gone too far, added the
32-year-old, who runs the popular Ozcan jewellers on the bustling artery in
Haringey, north London.
3 UK
A would-be robber who tried to carry out a raid at a jewellers while dressed in
womens clothing has been jailed.
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If you can lie, then you become a politician. Why are they making us out to be
such a threat? said Huseyin Babir, 25, who works at Safir jewellers, and whose
family moved from central Turkey to Palmers Green, north London, when he was aged
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Footage released by police shows Ryan Valentine, 39, entering the shop wearing a
long dark wig, a pair of sunglasses and a black skirt.
one.
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Justice secretary Michael Goves claim that 5 million migrants, many of them
Turkish, could come to Britain if the public votes to stay in the European Union
was treated with either disbelief or contempt. That will never happen, we have
family who live in Turkey and we always have to visit them, instead of them
coming here, because they like it there and also the cost is prohibitive, said
Dilek Oksuz, 24, who works at Turkish travel agent Right Holidays.
The manager at the nearby Gold Bar jewellers was aghast at the suggestion that
large swaths of the Turkish population would come to the UK. The Turkish dont
even want to come here. Turkey itself is a better country, a safer country the
police have things much more under control there.
He said that the claim that crime was higher in Turkey than the UK was
preposterous and that, given the opporunity, he would move there immediately.
You are more likely to get mugged here than Turkey, its as simple as that. If I
didnt have responsibilities, then I would head out there straightaway.
The attempt by the Vote Leave strategists to associate the Turkish people with
criminality was scoffed at, with many believing that Brexit campaigners were
deliberately trying to conflate media images of battles between Turkish military
and the Kurdistan Workers party, or PKK, and the threat of Islamic State (Isis)
attacks to portray its people as dangerous.
Its not even Turkish people doing crime, it is terrorists entering the
country, said Babir. Others said that they felt much safer in Turkey than in
London. Turkey is very safe; of course, you see the news and the fighting but
that is confined. Turkish people like to go back and visit because it is so
safe, said Sevda Kadir, 29, who works selling olives at the Dostlar supermarket
but also admitted that her hometown village, near the eastern city of Bingl, was
sometimes too dangerous to visit because of fighting between the PKK and the
military.
I do wish they [British politicians] would be more careful how they talk. The
fact is that we are very hard-working, but they talk like we dont work. The
Turkish people here work very hard to build up their businesses, added Kadir.
It was a common refrain along Green Lanes on a typically busy Saturday morning.
We pay among the highest taxes, higher than anyone I think, said Babir, who
said business rates for his shop were between 7,000 and 10,000 a year. At Ozcan
jewellery, claims that Turkish people were prone to criminality prompted anger.
We work very hard, full time, and pay high taxes and rates, and that should be
recognised.
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Away from Green Lanes, others warned that the Vote Leaves anti-Turkish tactics
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would alienate a country that needed more meaningful engagement with Europe when
dealing with issues such as the refugee crisis. The fear is that a
Muslim-majority country of 76 million will come to Europe and Britain should save
itself from that contamination. This rhetoric and a Brexit would isolate Turkey
even more, said Ezgi Basaran, a leading Turkish journalist and an academic
visitor at St Antonys College, Oxford University. We are all in the same boat
when dealing with the quagmire in the Middle East that has already spilled into
Turkey.
Basaran added: What the latest refugee crisis shows is very clear: if people
find themselves under authoritarian regimes and destitute, no border barrier is
good enough to keep them where they are. No wall is tall enough; no crossing is
wide enough to keep them away. The fear of 76 million Turks at the gate would
come true if the EU and the rest of the world do not engage with Turkey and the
region in a meaningful way.
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