Lots of Prosecutors Go Too Far. Most Get Away With It.

It was an extraordinary scene when Michael B. Nifong, the district attorney in Durham, N.C., took the stand to defend his law license after his failed crusade to convict innocent Duke University lacrosse players of gang rape. He had no more success with his own defense. After being disbarred for "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation," he was suspended from his job last week and now faces a possible lawsuit in civil court.

What's most remarkable about the whole scene, though, is how rare it is. Nifong's misconduct was hardly unusual: Some of the most high-profile cases in history have involved strikingly similar acts of prosecutorial abuse. But instead of being punished, the worst violators are often lionized for their aggressive styles -- maybe even rewarded with a cable television show.
source:www.washingtonpost.com

Fatty Arbuckle and a case of career death

Michael Barrymore’s arrest in connection with the death in 2001 of a young man found in his Essex home with severe internal injuries is the latest low point in the career of an entertainer who was once one of Britain’s most loved television personalities.

A mysterious death, a comic entertainer, lurid headlines . . . it has shades of another famous case. In 1921 Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was, literally, the biggest thing to hit Hollywood. Weighing in at almost 300lb, the slapstick comedian had a $1 million-a-year contract with Paramount Studios. It was the single highest fee that Hollywood had paid to any actor. The chubby baby-faced star was adored across America.

Until, that is, the events of the night of September 5 hit the newsstands. Arbuckle threw a small party in a San Francisco hotel. Among those who came along to the star’s suite were two young women, Maude Delmont, and her acquaintance Virginia Rappé, a minor actress who had appeared in the films His Musical Sneeze and The Foolish Virgin.

Fuelled by bootleg liquor, Rappé – who had come to town for an illegal abortion – got extremely drunk and began vomiting in Arbuckle’s bathroom. Increasingly hysterical, she started shouting that she was dying and ordered Arbuckle to stay away from her. A doctor was called and pronounced her inebriated. She was given a cold bath and the party recommenced.

But within four days, Rappé was dead. A post mortem indicated that peritonitis from a ruptured bladder was the cause of death. Delmont – who had police records for prostitution, blackmail and swindling – alleged that it had all been Arbuckle’s doing. Rappé’s severe internal injuries, she claimed, were the consequence of a lurid sexual assault.

“Fatty Arbuckle Sought in Orgy Death” ran the newspaper headlines. The entertainer was arrested. His studio dropped him. A group calling itself the Women’s Vigilante Committee turned up to spit on him as he turned up at court. Delmont was considered so unreliable (except by the press) that even the prosecution preferred not to call her as a witness. Although medical evidence suggested the bladder rupture was not caused by external force, the first jury failed to agree a verdict. A retrial was called, resulting in a second hung jury.

In March 1922 a third trial finally ended in Arbuckle’s acquittal, the jury signing a letter of apology to him for the “great injustice” done him and expressing the “hope that the American people” would accept “that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame”. Fat chance. His career nose-dived and he eventually succumbed to the bottle. In 1933 he died of a heart attack, aged 46.

There is, sadly, little comfort for Mr Barrymore in this story of a much-loved entertainer’s demise.
source:www.timesonline.co.uk

Taiwan: Didn't know shark was ill

When they were negotiating with Taiwan to get two more whale sharks, representatives of the Georgia Aquarium didn't tell the Taiwanese officials that Norton the whale shark was seriously ill, an employee of the nation's fisheries agency said Thursday.


An aquarium spokesman disputed that. The Taiwanese were "made aware" that Norton was receiving care, he said.

The aquarium, meantime, conducted a necropsy Wednesday on Norton, the second whale shark to die at the facility. It had not released any information about the procedure by late Thursday.

Word that Norton was dead spread Thursday through the Taiwan Fisheries Agency, which last month approved the exportation of two more whale sharks to the Georgia Aquarium.

Aquarium officials told the Taiwanese that Norton wasn't eating regularly, but that was all, said Wu Man-chuan, director of the resource management section.

"The Georgia Aquarium told us that another whale shark was not eating well, but they said it was not seriously sick," Wu said.

The aquarium euthanized the fish early Wednesday.

Another Taiwanese who worked on a committee that reviewed the aquarium's export proposals recalled similar communications with the aquarium. "We did not know the other whale shark [Norton] was sick," said Zhuang Shouzheng, an associate professor at National Taiwan Ocean University and a member of the export review committee.

The panel, Zhuang said, was "very cautious about granting the permit to export the last two whale sharks because the other whale shark [Ralph] had died."

The panel recommended that Taiwan approve the export of the two sharks, named Taroko and Yushan. They arrived in Georgia on June 1 and appear healthy.

Dave Santucci, the aquarium's director of public relations, said the Taiwanese agency knew Norton was not well. "Taiwanese fisheries management was made aware Norton required supplemental care," he said.

Norton's death was reminiscent of Ralph's. A male whale shark, Ralph glided to the bottom of the aquarium's Ocean Voyager exhibit Jan. 11 and died. A necropsy showed he had peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal cavity's lining.

The aquarium conducted an identical necropsy on Norton. The aquarium, Santucci said, would release details of that procedure when it had information to share. "It [the investigation] moves at the speed of science," he said.

Zhuang, meanwhile, said he was curious about the deaths. He has not seen a necropsy report on Ralph, Zhuang said, and he wants to know why Norton was sick.
source:www.ajc.com

Jonathan Turley: Prosecutors who go too far

It was an extraordinary scene when Mike Nifong, the district attorney in Durham, N.C., took the stand to defend his law license after his failed crusade to convict innocent Duke University lacrosse players of gang rape. He had no more success with his own defense.

After being disbarred for "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation," he was suspended from his job last week and now faces a possible lawsuit in civil court.

What's most remarkable about the whole scene, though, is how rare it is. Nifong's misconduct was hardly unusual: Some of the most high-profile cases in history have involved strikingly similar acts of prosecutorial abuse. But instead of being punished, the worst violators are often lionized for their aggressive styles -- maybe even rewarded with a cable television show.

source:www.sacbee.com

Second whale shark dies at Ga. Aquarium

Norton, the largest whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium, was euthanized Wednesday morning, the second whale shark to die at the facility this year.

A team of specialists ended the ailing whale shark's life before sunrise. Workers reported that the 23-foot-long fish sank to the bottom of Ocean Voyager, the aquarium's largest display, about 3 a.m.
He'd been swimming erratically, and blood samples indicated he wouldn't recover, aquarium officials said.

Norton had not been eating regularly for months, prompting the aquarium to force-feed the fish with a PVC pipe. Despite his loss of appetite, aquarium workers had noticed Norton occasionally showed an interest in eating and hoped he would improve, said Ray Davis, the aquarium's senior vice president of zoological operations.

"In a sense, this caught us by surprise," he said.

The death didn't shock Naomi Rose, a marine mammal specialist at the Humane Society of the United States. A frequent critic of large aquariums, she accused aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus and Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium's president and executive director, of "showboating to sell tickets" by having the world's largest fish on display.

"Now that two of them [whale sharks] are dead, it will be very interesting to see what happens to the other four," Rose said. "The fact remains that very little is known about whale sharks. Maybe these four will live longer; maybe they won't."

Ralph, another male whale shark, died in January. Like Norton, he drifted to the bottom of the 6.2-million-gallon tank, and efforts to revive him failed. Like Norton, he came to Atlanta in June 2005.

Like Norton, Ralph was in the tank when the aquarium treated it with a pesticide to rid it of parasites. The aquarium has refused to say what chemical its workers used. Both fishes stopped eating sometime after the chemical had been applied; the aquarium started force-feeding each.

A necropsy on Ralph showed that the 22-foot fish had died of peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal lining. He also had perforations in his stomach, possibly caused by the force-feedings. His stomach, veterinarians noted, also appeared to have thin walls.

The aquarium's other four whale sharks, which weren't in Ocean Voyager when workers applied the pesticide, appear well. Females Alice and Trixie, which arrived in June 2006, are eating regularly, aquarium workers say. The latest arrivals, males Taroko and Yushan, which came to the aquarium on June 1, also seem healthy. All the fishes came from Taiwan, which recently banned the capture, sale and export of whale sharks, beginning in 2008.

It's too soon to trace the chemical treatment to the whale sharks' deaths, Davis said. "It's a little early to make a correlation of these two," he said.

News of Norton's death traveled quickly among people who study Rhincodon typus. Jason Holmberg, a whale shark researcher from Portland, Ore., said he hoped the two latest arrivals to the aquarium might profit from the big fish's death.

"Now that he has perished, I hope that, with the next two, they [aquarium workers] will do a better job," he said.

The aquarium, meantime, hummed with visitors Wednesday like Maia Smith of Douglasville. She jiggled her 2-year-old son, Nasir Smith on her hip. Fishes flashed gold and silver like coins tossed in a fountain, and the little boy wiggled with excitement.
source:www.ajc.com

Ga. aquarium gets 2 new whale sharks

Two large trucks with police escorts flashing their lights rumbled up to the world's largest aquarium early Friday with its newest residents—two whale sharks that had made an 8,000-mile journey from Taiwan.

Veterinarians measured the new sharks and took blood samples before they were transferred by canvas harness from the trucks into their new home. The aquarium's other whale sharks, Norton, Alice and Trixie, circled nearby, seemingly curious about the newcomers.

Their arrival comes just over four months after the death of Ralph, another whale shark that was a star of the Georgia Aquarium when it opened in 2005.

Ralph had stomach problems that led to an inflammation of a membrane in his abdomen, according to aquarium officials. But some animal rights groups have questioned whether his death involved a chemical used in the tank to treat parasites.

The aquarium officials agree the tank's treatment routine—which has since been changed—likely contributed to Ralph's loss of appetite, but they say it's not clear that it had anything to do with the fatal peritonitis.

Taiwan fishery officials said they were satisfied that the aquarium provides high-quality care of the animals before sending the two new whale sharks.

The two new young males were given Asian names in honor of their origins: Yushan means "jade mountain," and Taroko was named for a national park in should be roomy enough for the massive sharks—which can grow up to 40 feet long.
source:origin.mercurynews.com