In a rare move, an Israeli court has awarded “American”-style punitive damages against defendants in an assault case. In addition to awarding 700,000 shekels (NIS) for direct damages, the court also awarded 300,000 NIS in punitive damages both to teach the criminals a lesson and to deter similar conduct. The Israeli courts have had the authority to issue punitive damages but were waiting for a “suitable” case. The judge said in issuing the ruling: “The awarding of punitive damages is indeed reserved for unusual and extraordinary cases, and I firmly believe that this is an unusual and extraordinary case. It is not every day that two people conspire to grievously harm another, pouncing on him with knives, practically slaughtering him and causing him such extensive wounds.” (Anat Roeh, “Teaching criminals an expensive lesson in the ‘American’ way,” Haaretz Daily, Jan. 31). It will be interesting to see if judges in Israel continue to reserve punitive damages for such extraordinary cases or if this is the beginning of a more “American” system of compensation.
Posts Tagged ‘crime and punishment’
Student’s shooting rampage: law school to pay $1 million
Once again the deep pocket pays for the crime: at the end of last year the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va. agreed to pay $1 million “to settle four lawsuits over a deadly shooting rampage by a struggling student. … The lawsuits accused the [school] of ignoring repeated warnings that Peter Odighizuwa was a threat before he opened fire in 2002, killing the dean, a professor and a student and wounding three other students. Odighizuwa pleaded guilty earlier this year and is serving six life sentences. … The plaintiffs had argued that the school should have foreseen the violence because the 46-year-old Odighizuwa — who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia — had a history of outbursts, threats and other disruptive behavior.” On the other hand, the Nigerian-born Odighizuwa “told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this year that the students should not get any money from the school. ‘The law school isn’t a psychiatrist. It doesn’t know what’s in my head,’ he said.” (“Settlement Reached in Suits Over Law School Shooting Rampage”, AP/Law.com, Jan. 3)
Annals of creative lawyering
Carlisle, Pa.: “A pregnant Newville-area woman charged with murdering her 3-year-old son is asking to be freed from jail because her imprisonment constitutes ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for her unborn child.” William C. Costopoulos, described as a local defense attorney and constitutional law expert, is quoted in the article commending defense attorney Karl Rominger for “creative lawyering” for raising the argument, but a district attorney says it has “no basis in law”. (Matt Miller, “Woman says jail ‘cruel,’ for fetus”, Harrisburg Patriot-News, Jan. 19).
Dept. of tasteless defense attorney arguments
From Reuters coverage of the Charles Graner court-martial:
“Don’t cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?” Guy Womack, Graner’s attorney, said in opening arguments to the 10-member U.S. military jury at the reservist’s court-martial.
Low Culture gets reaction from the editor of American Cheerleader magazine.
Suing New York City
Some of the characters who’ve sued the New York City government in cases previously unremarked on this site:
* The alleged wife-beater who, on being arrested by police, stumbled drunkenly down the stairs and broke his ankle, though he got nothing from a Manhattan jury;
* The legally blind Bronx man who “drove his car into a concrete barrier” and sued arguing that better lighting might have prevented the accident;
* The man who sued for wrongful arrest after being charged with buying a stolen SUV at a city airport parking lot for $75; he claimed in his unsuccessful suit (PDF) that he thought that was a legitimate sale price;
* The “two inmates who shot themselves with a smuggled handgun in their Rikers Island jail cells — and sued. (A guard was responsible, they argued before a judge kicked out their case.) ”
Meanwhile, a 1998 jury award of $76.4 million to remains on appeal; that’s the one where “a reputed Bronx gang member [was] left paralyzed by a gunfight with an off-duty police officer. The city argued that the officer only returned fire after the plaintiff shot at him with a Tech-9 submachine gun.” (Larry McShane, “Who Do You Call When Someone Says ‘Sue the City’? Meet Michael Cardozo”, AP/New York Lawyer, Dec. 20). Two other cases won by the city this summer, not mentioned in the article: this excessive-force case (PDF) involving a Bronx man who tried to escape two officers in a high-speed chase (more high-speed chase cases); and this slip-fall accident (also PDF) in which the locus and circumstances of the injury seemed mysteriously to have revised themselves in a manner unfavorable to the city. (More on suits against New York City.)
Couldn’t outrun cops, sues them instead
Connecticut:
A 21-year-old New Haven man who led Hamden police on a high-speed chase on his all-terrain vehicle before crashing into a utility pole last summer wants the town to pay his medical bills.
Britt Martin, of 75 George Street, claims that Officer Stephen DeGrand and four other unidentified officers were responsible for his injuries because they violated a Police Department policy to discontinue high-speed pursuits when the risk exceeds the need for immediate apprehension….
DeGrand said the suspect went through red lights and made illegal turns while driving well in excess of the speed limit during the chase.
(Fred Musante, Cops blamed for ATV crash, Hamden Journal, Dec. 29). More high-speed chase suits: Feb. 18 and Apr. 27, 2004; Sept. 21, 2003, etc.
Canadian court: co. to blame for unionist’s bomb
A Canadian employer has now been held partly to blame for a murderous onslaught by one of its adversaries in a labor dispute:
A court has awarded $10.7 million in damages to the widows of nine men killed by a bomb during a labour dispute at Yellowknife’s Giant Mine, blaming the mining company and the union almost as much as the man who laid the explosives….
Justice Arthur Lutz ruled that none of the involved parties did enough to control the relentless and escalating violence on the picket line that summer. He assigned almost equal blame to the union, Royal Oak Mines and Roger Warren, who was convicted of the murders. Lutz also assigned a share of the damages to Pinkerton’s security, two union activists and the N.W.T. government….
Royal Oak had argued that it couldn’t have predicted the deaths, but Lutz scorned the reasoning. … The judge said violence and threats were rampant during the 18-month strike, including physical injuries, property damage and sabotage. Strikers staked out the houses of replacement workers and stole explosives from the mine, setting off one blast that cut off power to a hospital.
(“Giant Mine widows awarded $10.7M”, CBC, Dec. 16).
Inmate to be freed after 25 years
“The Ohio Parole Board has decided a Cleveland-area man has spent the last 25 years behind bars for a crime he may not have committed and voted unanimously for his release.” Gary Reece was convicted of rape in 1980 on the accusation of a neighbor despite his denials and a lack of any evidence that he had ever been in the accuser’s apartment. In the years since then much evidence has accumulated casting doubt on the credibility of his accuser, Kimberly Croft. In fact, “on one television news program, [Croft] claimed that Gary Reece actually killed her during the attack in question, but that ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ brought her back to life,'” according to a brief filed with the parole board by law students working with the Ohio Innocence Project. (Roy Wood, “UC law students convince board: Man is innocent”, Cincinnati Post, Dec. 18; “Imprisoned on a shaky story”, (editorial), Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 5).
Apartment complex liable for $15.7 million for shooting
College student Lai Chau told a Florida jury that she was rented at the Remington Apartment Homes because of its security gate and alarms. The security gate was slow-moving (perhaps because of fear of liability for damage caused by the alternative), and cars would sometimes “piggyback” through the open gate. Nevertheless, despite this, and despite hundreds of police calls to the neighborhood, poor lighting in the complex, and the fact that the complex’s security patrol was cancelled in January 2001 to save money, Chau renewed her lease in the summer of 2001, perhaps because apartments rent for only a few hundred dollars a month. In the lease, which the jury was not allowed to see, Chau agreed that the complex was not responsible for security. Chau also complained to the jury that the complex never told her about violent crime in the area; the jury was apparently infuriated by executive testimony acknowledging this with the statement that the owners and managers didn’t feel it was their obligation to do so.
In December 2001, Jabari Armstrong, high on cocaine and fresh off a 44-month sentence for carjacking and armed robbery, his stepbrother, and another accomplice previously convicted of carjacking, snuck into the complex and carjacked and kidnapped Chau. Armstrong shot Chau three times in the head; miraculously, she survived, with only hearing loss and some scars. The three criminals have been convicted, the shooter sentenced to life.
New York Death Penalty Controversy
Ten years ago a mildly successful Republican state senator in New York won a huge upset — defeating the three-term incumbent governor of New York and Bill Clinton ally, Mario Cuomo. Part of the reason was probably Cuomo fatigue — he had been governor since succeeding Hugh Carey in 1983 and had been Carey’s lieutenant governor before that. But the biggest part of Gov. George Pataki’s victory was his promise to sign into law a statute reinstating the death penalty in New York.
Cuomo had vetoed numerous death penalty statutes. In 1994, New York had terrible crime, especially in New York City (which later dropped precipitously under Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly) and New Yorkers wanted to send the message that the state needed to get tough on crime and, especially, ensure that cop-killers would not walk free after 20-25 years (this was a big issue for supporters of the bills).
True to his word, Pataki signed a death penalty bill. By most measures, it was about as progressive a bill as death penalty provisions could get: requiring instructing jurors of the consequences of their sentencing decisions, setting up an administrative group of lawyers that would set fee rates for defense attorneys in capital cases (to ensure better quality representation), and mandating direct appeals of capital convictions to the New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court). Ultimately, the statute seemed designed to insure the rights of the accused, be used only in extreme cases and be constitutional.