Author: mopress

Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town
Crier
by permission

I admittedly was caught off guard twice over the last week or so. Distracted by the gorgeous fanfare of the international Olympics, I did not expect Georgia to brazenly invade Ossetia. But another thing caught me off guard, right here in Hidalgo County: the conviction of Christopher Hughes.

Christopher’s conviction was surprising, and depressing. First, he was convicted of killing his mom and got 45 years; secondly, he was 16 when the crime was committed. I think 45 years in prison for something one does at 16 is excessive, nuts, but I admit I still live in the past, when there were proud juvenile courts and some commitment to saving youth from the adult criminal justice system. I know. I live in the years of Jane Addams and the advent of social work, not the fiercely retributive, zero-tolerance, sock-‘em world we live in now.

Although often a maverick, I am mainstream enough to condemn killing. And if someone kills his mom, I think the state should step in and take appropriate action. But Christopher was not an adult criminal, despite the prosecutor declaring him one; this was a kid in a very troubled moment in his teen years. A father figure in Christopher’s life died of cancer in February, 2007. He was the husband of Laura Doyle, the teen’s mom, and within months Christopher was in police custody.

The Monitor reported, “In the months after [the father’s] death, the relationship of Laura Doyle and her son quickly grew volatile. Deputies responded to several domestic violence calls at the trailer home they shared, where the sheriffs found mother and son fighting about his drug use and past attempts to steal a family car. In March, Laura Doyle received two years of probation for felony drug possession. She had previously been convicted of reckless conduct, resisting arrest and unlawfully carrying a weapon.”

February and March must have been insane months for Christopher. Let me play Jane Addams, the founder of modern social work and of the now fast-disintegrating juvenile justice system: Where was our state and the help from the brave authorities during those two months? It isn’t like Hidalgo County didn’t know…authorities responded to “several domestic violence calls” during that time. Christopher was 16 and his father was dead and his mother was wacko and maybe scary, and now Hidalgo County, which didn’t intervene properly with social workers, feels righteous giving the kid a “fair trial” and 45 years in lock-up, reminding everyone not to kill their emotionally disturbed mothers.

Since I started this column by saying I was surprised by things recently, readers might ask why I was surprised by the jury’s verdict. Didn’t child advocate Jane Addams die in 1935? Well, here’s more on the conviction. Toward the trial’s conclusion — I followed the excellent reporting from The Monitor’s Jeremy Roebuck — it became obvious that the prosecution’s case was disintegrating. First, there was no physical evidence against the kid, and the body had decayed badly before being found.

Secondly, Christopher’s lawyer made a brilliant case that the sheriff’s deputies were virtually fixated on Christopher, pressuring teen friends to testify against him. Several friends testified that the deputies coaxed them for evidence against Christopher, and they said that things they told the deputies were massaged in the written reports. “They came at me like they were trying to scare me,” said Christopher’s best friend. “Like I had done something wrong.” (The Monitor, August 8th)

Thirdly, the sheriffs and prosecutors dropped to the bottom of the barrel and used a jail house snitch against Christopher. (The national Innocence Project — see their site — claims this jailhouse snitch practice has contributed to many false convictions.)

A convicted killer being held in the juvenile center testified that he had heard Christopher admit to the murder. This sort of evidence is unacceptable and should be inadmissible, and the prosecution should lose the case for trying to sway a jury with it. A 16-year-old like Christopher is expected to act tough in jail. Part of surviving there is to say you are a killer. Jailhouse talk, reported by a convicted teenage murderer, is hardly a “confession.”

Fourthly, The Monitor reported other possible suspects: Laura Doyle had told police before her death that she feared someone was “watching” her and “breaking in.” Also a 22-year-old convicted drug dealer, who once sold drugs to her, was found with a gun which might have been the weapon used. And Christopher’s older half-brother, who “discovered” the corpse, took pictures of it and called friends before calling the police.

I was surprised…This case had “reasonable doubts” stamped all over the package. And another journalist told me that two “alternate jurors,” (back-ups who watched the whole trial) said they too were surprised.

By Greg Moses

In Texas the top-to-bottom ratio is ten-to-one. For every pre-tax dollar earned by a family among the bottom twenty percent, a family in the top twenty percent earns ten dollars and forty cents.

Only two states, New York and Mississippi, outscore Texas on the raw top-to-bottom scale. Massachusetts is tied with us. In California and New Mexico, every single bottom dollar is matched at the top by ten dollars and twenty cents.

Over time the pattern only gets worse. In Texas over a period of 17 years (from 1988 to 2005) the average pre-tax income for families of the bottom fifth grew by 13 percent or about $1,800 in annual income; whereas, for families in the top fifth, pre-tax incomes grew by about 31 percent or $38,000 in annual income.

Tax policies tend to narrow the top-to-bottom ratio by a couple of points. But whether you’re looking at the top-to-bottom ratio before taxes or after, the gap between the top fifth and bottom fifth grows tenaciously year by year.

The same trend holds between top incomes and middle incomes. During the first five years of the 21st Century, middle income Texas families managed to increase their incomes by about one percent or $500 in annual income (after taxes); whereas families from the top fifth added about nine percent to their incomes or about $10,000 (after taxes).

If the business of America is business, then the business of business in America is inequality. And this poses an environmental hazard to civil rights. What can it mean to fight for equality, equity, or equal opportunity in a society where everyone is daily experiencing inequality on the rise?

In a 2008 report co-authored by Arthur B. Laffer, Ph.D., the tax policies of Texas were declared to be better than California’s based upon a supply-side matrix. It was another way of saying in so many words that we should keep a state income tax off the table in Texas.

But what’s interesting about the tax policies of Texas and California from a top-to-bottom point of view is that the tax policies take both states from their top five positions in pre-tax inequality and move them down the scale to where they are tied around 17th place for growth in inequality after taxes.

The tax policies of the Lone Star State have not only satisfied the supply-side guru, but since Texas families start off more unequal than California’s in pre-tax numbers, we have also managed to eliminate slightly more inequality in the process.

In both states, we might add, the top-to-bottom gap in after-tax incomes stands above 13-to-one if by “top” we mean top five percent instead of top fifth. Would it be too radical to suggest notching this number down via tax policies to a more polite dozen-to-one?

Notes

Numbers for the top-to-bottom study (in 2005 dollars) were released last Spring in a joint study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. See PULLING APART: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends by Jared Bernstein, Elizabeth McNichol, and Andrew Nicholas, April 2008 [in pdf format].

For the “Laffer Report” see, COMPETITIVE STATES, Texas v. California: Economic Growth Prospects for the 21st Century, Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics, August 2008, Texas Public Policy Foundation [in pdf format].

PS

Laffer and associates have also been busy in Oklahoma. A Tulsa Today Staff Report of Nov. 21 covers a supply side review of Oklahoma taxes dated January 2008 [in pdf format]. The report offers fond remembrances of Laffer’s prophetic support for “Prop 13,” the California property tax revolt that signaled the advent of the Reagan Revolution worldwide.

Email from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Aug. 15, 2008).

Greetings from TRAC. The latest available data from the Justice Department show that new prosecutions by Customs and Border Protection during the first eight months of FY 2008 have soared. If CBP’s prosecutions continue at the same pace for the rest of the year, the FY 2008 total will be almost twice what it was in the previous year. For details, see the TRAC Report at:

trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/191/

According to the Justice Department, the CBP enforcement surge is the result of Project Streamline, a Bush Administration policy of bringing criminal charges against undocumented aliens.

By contrast, the Justice Department data, obtained by TRAC under the FOIA, show a much less precipitous increase in prosecutions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also in the DHS. For details, see:

trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/192/

Although immigration raids in Iowa and other inland locations have been heavily covered by the media, the data show that a substantial proportion of the criminal enforcement effort — even by ICE — takes place along the Mexican border.

TRAC continues to provide free reports on the latest enforcement trends. Go to trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/ for timely information on prosecutions and convictions that occurred in May for many categories of enforcement such as immigration, terrorism, white collar crime, official corruption, drugs, etc. Free reports are also available for major agencies such as the DEA, FBI, IRS and DHS.

The May 2008 criminal data are also available to TRACFED subscribers via the Express, Going Deeper and Analyzer tools. Go to tracfed.syr.edu for more information. Customized reports for a specific agency, district, program, lead charge or judge are available via the TRAC Data Interpreter, either as part of a TRACFED subscription or on a per-report basis. Go to trac.syr.edu/interpreter to start.

TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC’s ongoing efforts, go to:

trac.syr.edu/sponsor/

David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
Syracuse University

By Greg Moses

The final report on Riad Elsolh Hamad was signed by the Travis County Medical Examiner on May 14, 2008. Death by drowning. Suicide.

The widely beloved teacher and founder of the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund (pcwf.org) had gone missing on the evening of April 14. He telephoned Paul Larudee in California at about 7:30 Pacific Time (9:30 Central), and when Larudee told Hamad that a donation had arrived to the new address of the PCWF, Hamad said, “it doesn’t matter.” His body was pulled from Lady Bird Lake at about 2 p.m. on April 16. From the viewpoint of the medical examiner on the morning of April 17, the body was “in a state of early decomposition characterized by marbling and maroon discoloration of the skin.”

“The body is received with the wrists loosely bound in front of the body with a tan rubber telephone-type cord. One end of the cord is looped loosely once around the left wrist and arranged in a very loose knot. The cord is looped loosely three times around the right wrist, and then arranged in a very loose knot. The hands are separated by approximately 1 ½ foot of cord. The cord ligature is easily slipped off of both hands.

“The ankles are bound loosely by black rubber speaker-type cord. The cord is looped twice around each ankle. On the right ankle, the cord is looped over the surface of the skin. On the left ankle, the cord is looped over the surface of the pants. The ends of the cord are arranged in a loose knot in front of the ankle, medially. The loops around the ankles are loose enough to slip off of the body intact. The loops are separated by approximately 6 inches of cord between the ankles.

“Gray duct tape is wrapped neatly twice around the head just above the eyes, and leaves a blanched, slightly depressed band of imprint on the skin. The duct tape passes above the eyelids, and does not cover the eyes. The duct tape passes over the ears.”

The term “atraumatic” appears several times to describe the body’s head, face, neck, and hands. No signs of strangulation. No drugs. The left ventricle of that once exuberant heart had grown thick with hypertension. There was a “history” — notes the report — “of recent depression and stress.”

***

Reporters for the Oak Hill Gazette and the Austin Chronicle have told the story of Imams who reported “bruising” or “facial bruising” when the body was washed for burial. Imam Ibrahim Dremali found the post-autopsy condition of the body so offensive that he complained to officials, to his mosque, and to the press.

“I believe they were sending us a message,” he said, “and that’s what I told the people here [at the mosque], that they believe they do not have to respect the bodies of Muslims,” said Imam Dremali to Austin Chronicle reporter Michael King.

In April, Imam Mohamed-Umer Esmail, of the North Austin Muslim Community Center, told Oak Hill Gazette reporter Ann Fowler, “Those that knew [Riad Hamad], their concern is why was the case closed so quickly? The investigation was made and they closed it really quickly, saying it was suicide.”

***

Although Hamad’s advocacy in behalf of Palestinian children had attracted FBI attention for many years, his recent troubles began in November 2002 when a neighbor complained to the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI that packages were coming to Hamad from the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Hamad was famous for carrying around boxes full of Palestinian crafts that he sold, or gave to friends to sell, as fundraising supplies. Of course, the government found no evidence of terrorism, but Hamad was apparently a tax resister and sloppy bookkeeper.

On the morning of Feb. 27, a team of federal agents entered his house and packed up at least 20 boxes of papers, books, and computer disks. In an email, Hamad estimated the number of boxes at 40. (If the government’s own bookkeeping is to be believed, there is a box numbered 100. I personally suspect, however, that the record for box 100 is a result of sloppy bookkeeping on the part of the FBI.) Federal agents even took a David Rovics CD and a book that was resting on Hamad’s piano entitled, “War on Freedom.” Hamad immediately started looking for a lawyer.

In preparation for this article, the Texas Civil Rights review emailed a query to the Hamad family. A reply was forthcoming from the family attorney: “They are obviously still in the middle of the grieving process [and] are not at a stage where they want to discuss any details regarding his death or the months leading up to it.. . . Thank you so much for respecting the family’s privacy and for your understanding.”

If I ask myself what Riad Hamad would ask me to say next, it is this: donations may be sent to the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, 405 Vista Heights Rd., El Cerrito, CA 94530; 510-236-5338; or visit pcwf.org to access an online donation link.