Beaten to death in Bangladesh

Imagine being brought before a religious council because you broke one of the Ten Commandments. You have no right to an attorney because it's not a formal legal proceeding. The only think you can do is plead for mercy. Your knees buckle when the head of the council announces you will be publicly lashed for your sin.

Nevermind if what you're accused of isn't a crime. If it's proscribed in the Bible, the Torah, the Quoran or any other religious tome, it's fair game for the religious council.

"What sort of justice is this? My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have die." -- Dorbesh Khan, the father of Hena Begum

Hena Begum, 14, was alleged to have had an affair with her cousin, a married man, in Bangladesh. Village clerics issued the fatwa, or religious ruling, that Ms. Begum was to receive 80 lashes for violating Sharia law. After the lashing, Ms. Begum was admitted to a hospital for treatment of her injuries where she died six days later.

Last year another woman, Sufia Begum, was sentenced to 40 lashes for committing adultery. The 40-year-old woman died almost a month later after she was admitted to a hospital a week after the beating.

"Her body was swollen and I couldn't even recognise her." -- Taimur Rahman, Ms Begum's brother

Both of these incidents have taken place since the government of Bangladesh outlawed the practice of fatwas in early 2010. It is likely these incidents would never have made news outside of Bangladesh but for the deaths of the women. While these women died, how many others were beaten by religious officials for sinning? How many other religious councils openly flaunt the law in Bangladesh by issuing illegal fatwas?

Police have arrested six people in connection with the two deaths. No word on whether the men involved in the affairs were punished.

Lined up in the deep freeze

It would appear that my colleague, Murray Newman, beat me to the punch with his pictures of folks lined up outside the Criminal (In)justice Center this morning in temperatures that hovered around 27 degrees. Murray's photos show the view up San Jacinto Street.

As Paul Harvey might have said once or twice, here's the rest of the story -- the folks lined up in front of the courthouse on Franklin Street.

Enough of the madness. Most of the security measures at the courthouse are unnecessary. There are plenty of courthouses around this state without metal detectors and they seem to operate just fine.

It's time to stagger the morning dockets. It's time to granting longer resets for cases in which the defendant is out on bond. It's time to tune down the metal detectors. Do we really need everyone to take their shoes and boots off just to get into the courthouse?

You can bet that if the judges, prosecutors, county commissioners and the Office of Court Administration had to stand outside in a slow-moving line in sub-freezing temperatures, things would change.

Police brutality in action

Courtesy of KTRK-13 in Houston and Quannel X, this is the actual video footage of the beatdown of burglary suspect Chad Holley by members of the Houston Police Department.

You will see Mr. Holley getting clipped by a patrol car, falling to the ground, rolling onto his stomach and putting his hands behind his head. Then you will see members of Houston's finest kicking and punching Mr. Holley while he is on the ground.

Anyone who thinks this is an isolated incident is naive. It's just that, more often than not, these incidents take place away from security cameras.



I had a conversation with a client's mother today who couldn't understand why the prosecutor wouldn't dismiss a case against her son. I told her it was because when a prosecutor reads an offense report, he takes it as the gospel truth. Prosecutors either don't realize, or don't care, that offense reports, particularly the reason for the encounter, have more in common with historical fiction than the truth.

Of course when the only person who can challenge the assertions made in the report is the person who arrested, you can almost lie with impunity -- so long as there's no video camera around.

Is the courthouse open?

From Bonnie Quiroga, the director of Justice Administration for Galveston County, comes this link to find out which courts are closed due to inclement weather.

http://www.courts.state.tx.us/courtclosures.asp

Is wintry mix found next to spring mix in the produce section?

Here's what we have to look forward to tonight and tomorrow. My daughter can't quite understand why her daddy doesn't want snow. Ah, the innocence of youth.

Who knew this cold weather was coming?

And what was the cause behind today's rolling blackouts in Texas? A frozen pipe and a busted pipe at two coal-fired power plants took some 7,000 megawatts off the grid this morning. Compounding the problem were pressure drops in natural gas lines due to the freezing temperatures.

A frozen pipe and a broken pipe. Just think about that for a second. The utility companies are swimming in cash but couldn't be bothered with insulating their pipes? The freezing weather wasn't a surprise - we all knew it was coming.

And here's something for all of y'all who had to deal with periodic blackouts -- Jerry World (otherwise known as Cowboys Stadium) was not affected by the blackout order.

One of the state's largest utility providers said rolling statewide electrical outages that started Wednesday in response to high demand from a rare ice storm will not affect Cowboys Stadium in suburban Arlington. But Oncor spokeswoman Jeamy Molina said other Super Bowl facilities, such as team hotels, were not exempt.

So not only do the owners of sports franchises receive public money to build their money-making monuments to wastefulness, they are also exempt from the blackouts that other residents of Texas have had to endure today. Public expenditures for private gain. That, apparently, is the capitalist creed these days.

Think about that while you're watching the millionaires' ball Sunday evening.

Is there an information blackout, too?

Looking for information from ERCOT (Energy Reliability Council of Texas, Inc.) about the rolling blackouts across Texas? Here's what you'll find on their website:

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