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Former Peruvian president (1990-2000) Alberto Fujimori waves upon his arrival at the Supreme Court's Special Court 11 December, 2007 in Lima. Fujimori was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for ordering an illegal search of an apartment belonging to the wife of his corrupt spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos in November 2000. On Wednesday, Fujimori is scheduled to be back in court for the continuation of the separate trial, in which he is accused of ordering a death squad to kill 25 suspected rebel sympathisers in the early 1990s, the kidnapping of an opposition journalist and a businessman, and several counts of corruption. AFP PHOTO/Eitan ABRAMOVICH (Photo credit should read EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty Images)
Sentencing of Paul Manafort in Virginia, by Judge Ellis. Reporters run out with news, but it isn't yet news of the sentencing term.
Irish Penal Reform Trust Open Forum 2010: 'Exploding Prisoner Numbers'. Main contributing guest speakers included Tom O'Malley NUI Galway; Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly (Chairperson); Dr Mary Rogan, IPRT; Vivian Geiran, Director of Operations, The Probation Service; Louis Harkin, Assistant Commissioner, An Garda Síochána. Photo by Derek Speirs.
NJ Governor Phil Murphy announces that he is convening the Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission created by the Legislature, to examine racial and ethnic disparities in the state’s criminal justice system on Sunday, February 11th, 2018. Carol McKenna/OIT/Governor’s Office.
St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist's Church
Just the very position of the church – at an angle and out of the line of ul. sw. Jana– proves that it dates from before the City’s Charter (i.e. from before 1257). This is further attested by the remnants of the 12th-century Romanesque walls discovered in 1962 in the bottom part of the nave and in the apse of the crypt. The Church owes its present, baroque form to the reconstruction that took place in the mid-17th century, when the new façade and vaulting were added, and the presumably Gothic buttresses that must have existed earlier were reinforced.
In the first half of the 18th century, the Convent of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built adjacent to the church with the participation of Kacper Bazanka. Besides the nunnery, the building also housed one of Poland’s oldest girls schools, whose most famous graduate was Helena Modrzejewska, the actress known to the English-speaking world as Helena Modjeska. At the same time, the church was renovated and slightly expanded.
The single-aisle interior of the church received baroque decoration. There is an altar of note with a miraculous painting of the Madonna dating back to the 16th century. Suspended by the altar are the most unusual votive gifts: two pairs of iron manacles with chains. They were offered in the 17th century by a prisoner sentenced to death. When he was praying here before the execution, calling for the help of Our Lady, the manacles miraculously fell off his hands, and he was freed. From that day, the icon acquired the name of Our Lady of Ransom of Slaves.
A Rethink Autism therapist teaching the Academic lesson 'Reading Sentences' using flash cards and a token board.
Rethink Autism offers web-based educational treatment solutions: assessment, training, curriculum & data tracking.
A Chinese man who set his ex-wife on fire as she livestreamed to her online followers was sentenced to death on Thursday, concluding a murder case that received nationwide notoriety.
The victim, 30-year-old Lhamo, was a farmer and livestreamer in a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in southwestern Sichuan province. She was streaming a video of herself last September when a man burst in, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. She died two weeks later.
Her ex-husband, Tang Lu, was arrested soon after. On Thursday in court, he was found guilty of homicide, sentenced to death and ordered to pay compensation, according to state-run broadcaster CCTV.
The court found his crime "was extremely cruel" and "deserves severe punishment," CCTV reported.
Tang had a history of physical abuse toward Lhamo, reportedly beating her many times before they divorced in June 2020, according to CCTV. In the following months, he repeatedly sought her out and asked to remarry, but was turned away -- leading to the murder.
The case was widely covered in national and international media, drawing attention for the gruesome nature of Lhamo's death -- as well as raising discussion on the larger problems surrounding women and violence in China. On Chinese social media, there was heated debate over how the country's legal system often fails to protect victims while easily pardoning perpetrators of abuse.
Heavy "finish the job" figther, more pics later !
Inspired a little by the Steppenwulf01 (peterlmorris)
A Doha Criminal Court has sentenced in absentia a Kenyan maid to one year in jail for stealing her employer’s jewellery, local Arabic daily Arrayah has reported.
The maid’s employer, a lady, had deported her earlier as she did not find her trustworthy. But later she saw the ...
goqatar.co/maid-sentenced-in-absentia-for-stealing-employ...
(Foto is digitally captured from my paper print)
Borobudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist Temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside a perforated stupa.
Built in the 9th century during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty, the temple's design in Gupta architecture reflects India's influence on the region. It also depicts the gupta style from India and shows influence of Buddhism as well as Hinduism. The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the monument and ascends to the top through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology: Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness). The monument guides pilgrims through an extensive system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades.
Evidence suggests Borobudur was constructed in the 9th century and abandoned following the 14th century decline of Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam. Worldwide knowledge of its existence was sparked in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, then the British ruler of Java, who was advised of its location by native Indonesians. Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, following which the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Borobudur is still used for pilgrimage; once a year Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument, and Borobudur is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction.
There is no written record of who built Borobudur or of its intended purpose. The construction time has been estimated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the 8th and 9th centuries. Borobudur was likely founded around 800 CE. This corresponds to the period between 760 and 830 CE, the peak of the Sailendra dynasty in central Java, when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire. The construction has been estimated to have taken 75 years and been completed during the reign of Samaratungga in 825.
There is confusion between Hindu and Buddhist rulers in Java around that time. The Sailendras were known as ardent followers of Buddhism, though stone inscriptions found at Sojomerto suggest they may have been Hindus. It was during this time that many Hindu and Buddhist monuments were built on the plains and mountains around the Kedu Plain. The Buddhist monuments, including Borobudur, were erected around the same time as the Hindu Shiva Prambanan temple compound. In 732 CE, the Shivaite King Sanjaya commissioned a Shivalinga sanctuary to be built on the Wukir hill, only 10 km east of Borobudur.
Construction of Buddhist temples, including Borobudur, at that time was possible because Sanjaya's immediate successor, Rakai Panangkaran, granted his permission to the Buddhist followers to build such temples. In fact, to show his respect, Panangkaran gave the village of Kalasan to the Buddhist community, as is written in the Kalasan Charter dated 778 CE. This has led some archaeologists to believe that there was never serious conflict concerning religion in Java as it was possible for a Hindu king to patronize the establishment of a Buddhist monument; or for a Buddhist king to act likewise. However, it is likely that there were two rival royal dynasties in Java at the time—the Buddhist Sailendra and the Saivite Sanjaya—in which the latter triumphed over their rival in the 856 battle on the Ratubaka plateau. This confusion also exists regarding the Lara Jonggrang temple at the Prambanan complex, which was believed that it was erected by the victor Rakai Pikatan as the Sanjaya dynasty's reply to Borobudur, but others suggest that there was a climate of peaceful coexistence where Sailendra involvement exists in Lara Jonggrang.
Borobudur lay hidden for centuries under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts behind its abandonment remain a mystery. It is not known when active use of the monument and Buddhist pilgrimage to it ceased. Sometime between 928 and 1006, King Mpu Sindok moved the capital of the Medang Kingdom to the region of East Java after a series of volcanic eruptions; it is not certain whether this influenced the abandonment, but several sources mention this as the most likely period of abandonment. The monument is mentioned vaguely as late as ca. 1365, in Mpu Prapanca's Nagarakretagama written during Majapahit era and mentioning "the vihara in Budur". Soekmono (1976) also mentions the popular belief that the temples were disbanded when the population converted to Islam in the 15th century.
The monument was not forgotten completely, though folk stories gradually shifted from its past glory into more superstitious beliefs associated with bad luck and misery. Two old Javanese chronicles (babad) from the 18th century mention cases of bad luck associated with the monument. According to the Babad Tanah Jawi (or the History of Java), the monument was a fatal factor for Mas Dana, a rebel who revolted against Pakubuwono I, the king of Mataram in 1709. It was mentioned that the "Redi Borobudur" hill was besieged and the insurgents were defeated and sentenced to death by the king. In the Babad Mataram (or the History of the Mataram Kingdom), the monument was associated with the misfortune of Prince Monconagoro, the crown prince of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in 1757. In spite of a taboo against visiting the monument, "he took what is written as the knight who was captured in a cage (a statue in one of the perforated stupas)". Upon returning to his palace, he fell ill and died one day later.
Lieutenant Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles took great interest in the history of Java. He collected Javanese antiques and made notes through contacts with local inhabitants during his tour throughout the island. On an inspection tour to Semarang in 1814, he was informed about a big monument deep in a jungle near the village of Bumisegoro. He was not able to make the discovery himself and sent H.C. Cornelius, a Dutch engineer, to investigate. In two months, Cornelius and his 200 men cut down trees, burned down vegetation and dug away the earth to reveal the monument. Due to the danger of collapse, he could not unearth all galleries. He reported his findings to Raffles including various drawings. Although the discovery is only mentioned by a few sentences, Raffles has been credited with the monument's recovery, as one who had brought it to the world's attention.
The Dutch East Indies government then commissioned F.C. Wilsen, a Dutch engineering official, who studied the monument and drew hundreds of relief sketches. J.F.G. Brumund was also appointed to make a detailed study of the monument, which was completed in 1859.
Borobudur attracted attention in 1885. The restoration was carried out between 1907 and 1911. Due to the limited budget, the restoration had been primarily focused on cleaning the sculptures, and Van Erp did not solve the drainage problem. Within fifteen years, the gallery walls were sagging and the reliefs showed signs of new cracks and deterioration. Van Erp used concrete from which alkali salts and calcium hydroxide leached and were transported into the rest of the construction. This caused some problems, so that a further thorough renovation was urgently needed.
In 1973, a master plan to restore Borobudur was created. The Indonesian government and UNESCO then undertook the complete overhaul of the monument in a big restoration project between 1975 and 1982. The foundation was stabilized and all 1,460 panels were cleaned. The restoration involved the dismantling of the five square platforms and improved the drainage by embedding water channels into the monument. Both impermeable and filter layers were added. This colossal project involved around 600 people to restore the monument and cost a total of US$ 6,901,243. After the renovation was finished, UNESCO listed Borobudur as a World Heritage Site in 1991. It is listed under Cultural criteria "to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius", "to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design", and "to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance".
Borobudur contains approximately 2,670 individual bas reliefs (1,460 narrative and 1,212 decorative panels), which cover the façades and balustrades. The total relief surface is 2,500 square metres and they are distributed at the hidden foot and the five square platforms.
The narrative panels, which tell the story of Sudhana and Manohara,[69] are grouped into 11 series encircled the monument with the total length of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). The hidden foot contains the first series with 160 narrative panels and the remaining 10 series are distributed throughout walls and balustrades in four galleries starting from the eastern entrance stairway to the left. Narrative panels on the wall read from right to left, while on the balustrade read from left to right. This conforms with pradaksina, the ritual of circumambulation performed by pilgrims who move in a clockwise direction while keeping the sanctuary to their right.[70]
The hidden foot depicts the workings of karmic law. The walls of the first gallery have two superimposed series of reliefs; each consists of 120 panels. The upper part depicts the biography of the Buddha, while the lower part of the wall and also balustrades in the first and the second galleries tell the story of the Buddha's former lives. The remaining panels are devoted to Sudhana's further wandering about his search, terminated by his attainment of the Perfect Wisdom.
Apart from the story of the Buddhist cosmology carved in stone, Borobudur has many statues of various Buddhas. The cross-legged statues are seated in a lotus position and distributed on the five square platforms (the Rupadhatu level) as well as on the top platform (the Arupadhatu level).
The Buddha statues are in niches at the Rupadhatu level, arranged in rows on the outer sides of the balustrades, the number of statues decreasing as platforms progressively diminish to the upper level. The first balustrades have 104 niches, the second 104, the third 88, the fourth 72 and the fifth 64. In total, there are 432 Buddha statues at the Rupadhatu level. At the Arupadhatu level (or the three circular platforms), Buddha statues are placed inside perforated stupas. The first circular platform has 32 stupas, the second 24 and the third 16, that add up to 72 stupas. Of the original 504 Buddha statues, over 300 are damaged (mostly headless) and 43 are missing (since the monument's discovery, heads have been stolen as collector's items, mostly by Western museums).
At first glance, all the Buddha statues appear similar, but there is a subtle difference between them in the mudras or the position of the hands. There are five groups of mudra: North, East, South, West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass points according to Mahayana. The first four balustrades have the first four mudras: North, East, South and West, of which the Buddha statues that face one compass direction have the corresponding mudra. Buddha statues at the fifth balustrades and inside the 72 stupas on the top platform have the same mudra: Zenith. Each mudra represents one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas; each has its own symbolism.
Jorge Luis Jimenez of Chicago, shown in a November 1954 photograph, was a Puerto Rican Nationalist Party member accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.
Luis Jimenez was sentenced in 1954 to six years in prison for sedition.
Sedition trial:
Following the wounding of five U.S. Representatives in the Capitol building March 1, 1954 by four Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire on them from a visitor gallery, the U.S. government began a series of mass arrests that resulted in two conspiracy trials 1954-55. A third trial took place in Puerto Rico.
The four participants in the shooting—Delores Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores Rodriguez and Andres Figueroa Cordero—were quickly arrested and convicted in the attack with sentences varying from 16 years to 75 years in jail.
But the federal government went further, convening three different grand juries, summoning 91 Puerto Ricans and bringing indictments against 17 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party for “seditious conspiracy to overthrow the United States government by force.”
The four charged in the shootings were also among the 17 charged with conspiracy.
The indictment alleged that the defendants were “active members, leaders, officers or persons in control of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, which is charged to be an organization dedicated to bringing about the political independence of Puerto Rico from the United States by force of violence or armed revolution.”
In effect, the government was using the same strategy it was using to break up the U.S. Communist Party during that period. If you were an active member of the Nationalist Party, you were guilty even if you committed no illegal acts yourself.
Four of those charged turned state’s evidence and gave testimony against the other defendants.
At the first month-long trial in October 1954, much of the evidence against the group consisted of testimony by police or informers of speeches given by Nationalist Party leaders who had used slogans like, “Throw the Yankees out at pistol point,” “give your life and property for independence,” and saying that President Harry Truman “could be hanged in a place in San Juan.”
Many of the speeches dated prior to the 1950 attempted armed revolution in Puerto Rico by the Nationalist Party that was defeated and for which many party members were jailed in Puerto Rico.
Defense attorney Conrad J. Lynn charged the government sought “proscription of a dissenting political group because of its ideas.”
Julio Pinto Gandia, a defendant who was acting as his own counsel and was the alleged leader of the group in the U.S., told the court that the party, founded in 1922, was not “a band of terrorists” and that any violent actions arose out of individual “despair.”
The most sensational specific testimony came from one of those indicted who turned state’s evidence--Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, brother of Delores Lolita Lebron who was the leader of the four shooters.
Lebron Sotomayor testified that Pinto Gandia told him there would be attacks on Congress, President Dwight Eisenhower and the Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner in Washington, but could not say how the plans would be carried out.
Other specific testimony involved another of those indicted who turned state’s evidence. Angle Luis Medina testified he had purchased a number of pistols and three carbines in Chicago at the direction of a party leader who told him “to be ready in case of a revolution” to free Puerto Rico.
The evidence against most of the defendants committing any specific illegal act was thin.
U.S. Attorney J. Edward Lumbard summed up the case saying that the Nationalist Party had supplied the pistols used in the U.S. Capitol shooting and a 1950 attempt to assassinate President Harry Truman and that each of the 13 defendants had their “moral fingerprints on the guns” used.
Lumbard further told the jury that the government did not have to prove that the defendants were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government—only that they had conspired to overthrow the authority of the United States in Puerto Rico.
The defense called five witnesses to testify that the Nationalist Party did not advocate overthrow of the U.S. government and only sought total independence for Puerto Rico.
Lynn told the jury that the government was trying “proscription of a dissenting political group because of its ideas.”
Pinto Gandia had earlier sought dismissal of the indictments against the four shooters as double jeopardy and because the government, “intended to bring the guilt of the four defendants upon the other defendants by association or inference.”
He added, “it is not a crime to preach and work for the freedom of a nation and that membership in the Nationalist Party itself did not indicate anyone was part of a conspiracy.
The jury deliberated only a few hours before finding all the defendants guilty.
Two weeks after the verdicts, more arrests took place and a second trial scheduled.
The trial of 11 other Nationalists took place February-March 1955 and followed the same lines as the first trial, except that Lebron Sotomayer gave additional details to his earlier testimony.
Ten of the 11 were found guilty. Serafin Colon Olivera, 28 of New York, was acquitted. Testimony had indicated he was a Nationalist Party member in 1949 and attended a Nationalist dance in 1953.
Those found guilty in the two trials received sentences ranging from 18 months to six years in prison. Appeals failed.
In Puerto Rico, Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos hailed the attack as “sublime heroism.” The governor revoked a previous pardon of the party leader and he was arrested after a shootout and imprisoned.
Charges were placed against 15 party members on the island, however 12 were acquitted at trial in late 1954. The three found guilty were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3-10 years.
Albizu Campos’ health suffered badly in prison where he suffered a stroke in 1956 that left him unable to talk or walk. He was pardoned in 1964, but died a few months afterward.
The Nationalist Party was all but dead as a result of the U.S. trials and by suppression by authorities in Puerto Rico, although it continues to exist today.
First trial sedition trial in 1954:
Jorge Luis Jimenez, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Manuel Rabago Torres, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Rosa Collazo, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Juan Bernardo Lebron, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Juan Francisco Medina, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Armando Diaz Matos, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Julio Pinto Gandia, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Carmelo Alvarez Roman, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Jose Antonio Otero Otero, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Andress Figueroa Cordero, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Rafael Cancel Miranda, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Dolores Lolita Lebron, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Irvin Flores Rodriguez, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Second trial in 1955:
Juan Hernandez Valle, Puerto Rico, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Maximino Pedraza Martinez, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Santiago Gonzalez Castro, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Esteban Quinones Escute, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Angel Luis Arzola Velez, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Antonio Herrera Moreno, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Carmen Dolores Otero Torresola, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Pedro Aviles, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Julio Flores Medina, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
Miguel Vargas Nieves, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
Those who turned state’s evidence:
Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, suspended sentence
Francisco Cortez Ruiz, suspended sentence
Carlos Aulet, suspended sentence
Angel Luis Medina, suspended sentence
Acquitted at May 1955 trial:
Serafin Colon Olivera
For more information and related images to the 1954-55 conspiracy trials of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, see flic.kr/s/aHskRMRawC
For more information and related images to the 1950 attempted assassination of President Truman and the 1954 wounding of five U.S. Representatives, see flic.kr/s/aHskghBC71
The photographer is unknown. The photo is believed to be a mugshot. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Irish Penal Reform Trust Open Forum 2010: 'Exploding Prisoner Numbers'. Main contributing guest speakers included Tom O'Malley NUI Galway; Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly (Chairperson); Dr Mary Rogan, IPRT; Vivian Geiran, Director of Operations, The Probation Service; Louis Harkin, Assistant Commissioner, An Garda Síochána. Photo by Derek Speirs.
Myon Burrell departs the Stillwater Correctional Facility in Stillwater, Minnesota, following the commutation of his sentence. He had served 18 years for the 2002 death of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, a crime Burrell consistently maintained he did not commit. His release on December 1, 2020, came after a national investigation raised significant questions about the evidence in his original conviction. The Stillwater Correctional Facility, officially known as the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater, is a maximum-security state prison that has operated since its opening in 1914.
This image is part of a continuing series following the unrest and events in Minneapolis following the May 25th, 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Esteban Quinones Escute, 39, of New York is shown in a November 1954 photograph. He was a Puerto Rican Nationalist Party member accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.
Escute was convicted and sentenced in 1955 to four years in prison for sedition.
Sedition trial:
Following the wounding of five U.S. Representatives in the Capitol building March 1, 1954 by four Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire on them from a visitor gallery, the U.S. government began a series of mass arrests that resulted in two conspiracy trials 1954-55. A third trial took place in Puerto Rico.
The four participants in the shooting—Delores Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores Rodriguez and Andres Figueroa Cordero—were quickly arrested and convicted in the attack with sentences varying from 16 years to 75 years in jail.
But the federal government went further, convening three different grand juries, summoning 91 Puerto Ricans and bringing indictments against 17 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party for “seditious conspiracy to overthrow the United States government by force.”
The four charged in the shootings were also among the 17 charged with conspiracy.
The indictment alleged that the defendants were “active members, leaders, officers or persons in control of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, which is charged to be an organization dedicated to bringing about the political independence of Puerto Rico from the United States by force of violence or armed revolution.”
In effect, the government was using the same strategy it was using to break up the U.S. Communist Party during that period. If you were an active member of the Nationalist Party, you were guilty even if you committed no illegal acts yourself.
Four of those charged turned state’s evidence and gave testimony against the other defendants.
At the first month-long trial in October 1954, much of the evidence against the group consisted of testimony by police or informers of speeches given by Nationalist Party leaders who had used slogans like, “Throw the Yankees out at pistol point,” “give your life and property for independence,” and saying that President Harry Truman “could be hanged in a place in San Juan.”
Many of the speeches dated prior to the 1950 attempted armed revolution in Puerto Rico by the Nationalist Party that was defeated and for which many party members were jailed in Puerto Rico.
Defense attorney Conrad J. Lynn charged the government sought “proscription of a dissenting political group because of its ideas.”
Julio Pinto Gandia, a defendant who was acting as his own counsel and was the alleged leader of the group in the U.S., told the court that the party, founded in 1922, was not “a band of terrorists” and that any violent actions arose out of individual “despair.”
The most sensational specific testimony came from one of those indicted who turned state’s evidence--Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, brother of Delores Lolita Lebron who was the leader of the four shooters.
Lebron Sotomayor testified that Pinto Gandia told him there would be attacks on Congress, President Dwight Eisenhower and the Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner in Washington, but could not say how the plans would be carried out.
Other specific testimony involved another of those indicted who turned state’s evidence. Angle Luis Medina testified he had purchased a number of pistols and three carbines in Chicago at the direction of a party leader who told him “to be ready in case of a revolution” to free Puerto Rico.
The evidence against most of the defendants committing any specific illegal act was thin.
U.S. Attorney J. Edward Lumbard summed up the case saying that the Nationalist Party had supplied the pistols used in the U.S. Capitol shooting and a 1950 attempt to assassinate President Harry Truman and that each of the 13 defendants had their “moral fingerprints on the guns” used.
Lumbard further told the jury that the government did not have to prove that the defendants were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government—only that they had conspired to overthrow the authority of the United States in Puerto Rico.
The defense called five witnesses to testify that the Nationalist Party did not advocate overthrow of the U.S. government and only sought total independence for Puerto Rico.
Lynn told the jury that the government was trying “proscription of a dissenting political group because of its ideas.”
Pinto Gandia had earlier sought dismissal of the indictments against the four shooters as double jeopardy and because the government, “intended to bring the guilt of the four defendants upon the other defendants by association or inference.”
He added, “it is not a crime to preach and work for the freedom of a nation and that membership in the Nationalist Party itself did not indicate anyone was part of a conspiracy.
The jury deliberated only a few hours before finding all the defendants guilty.
Two weeks after the verdicts, more arrests took place and a second trial scheduled.
The trial of 11 other Nationalists took place February-March 1955 and followed the same lines as the first trial, except that Lebron Sotomayer gave additional details to his earlier testimony.
Ten of the 11 were found guilty. Serafin Colon Olivera, 28 of New York, was acquitted. Testimony had indicated he was a Nationalist Party member in 1949 and attended a Nationalist dance in 1953.
Those found guilty in the two trials received sentences ranging from 18 months to six years in prison. Appeals failed.
In Puerto Rico, Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos hailed the attack as “sublime heroism.” The governor revoked a previous pardon of the party leader and he was arrested after a shootout and imprisoned.
Charges were placed against 15 party members on the island, however 12 were acquitted at trial in late 1954. The three found guilty were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3-10 years.
Albizu Campos’ health suffered badly in prison where he suffered a stroke in 1956 that left him unable to talk or walk. He was pardoned in 1964, but died a few months afterward.
The Nationalist Party was all but dead as a result of the U.S. trials and by suppression by authorities in Puerto Rico, although it continues to exist today.
First trial sedition trial in 1954:
Jorge Luis Jimenez, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Manuel Rabago Torres, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Rosa Collazo, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Juan Bernardo Lebron, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Juan Francisco Medina, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Armando Diaz Matos, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Julio Pinto Gandia, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Carmelo Alvarez Roman, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Jose Antonio Otero Otero, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Andress Figueroa Cordero, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Rafael Cancel Miranda, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Dolores Lolita Lebron, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Irvin Flores Rodriguez, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Second trial in 1955:
Juan Hernandez Valle, Puerto Rico, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Maximino Pedraza Martinez, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Santiago Gonzalez Castro, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Esteban Quinones Escute, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Angel Luis Arzola Velez, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Antonio Herrera Moreno, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Carmen Dolores Otero Torresola, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Pedro Aviles, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Julio Flores Medina, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
Miguel Vargas Nieves, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
Those who turned state’s evidence:
Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, suspended sentence
Francisco Cortez Ruiz, suspended sentence
Carlos Aulet, suspended sentence
Angel Luis Medina, suspended sentence
Acquitted at May 1955 trial:
Serafin Colon Olivera
For more information and related images to the 1954-55 conspiracy trials of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, see flic.kr/s/aHskRMRawC
For more information and related images to the 1950 attempted assassination of President Truman and the 1954 wounding of five U.S. Representatives, see flic.kr/s/aHskghBC71
The photographer is unknown. The photo is believed to be a mugshot. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, shown in a November 1954 photograph, was a Puerto Rican Nationalist Party member accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.
Lebron Sotomayor was the brother of the leader of four Puerto Rican nationalists Delores Lolita Lebron who opened fire on the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen.
Lebron Sotomayor lived in Chicago and turned states’ evidence after his indictment in October 1954.
During two trials of 24 members of the Nationalist Party, Lebron Sotomayor gave lurid testimony about alleged plans to kill President Eisenhower, U.S. lawmakers and Puerto Rican officials.
However, his testimony provided few, if any, details of the alleged plans and rested on a single conversation he claimed he had with one of the defendants, Julio Pinto Gandia. He also testified that he tried to persuade his sister from taking part in any illegal activities.
After pleading guilty to sedition, he received a suspended sentence.
Sedition trial:
Following the wounding of five U.S. Representatives in the Capitol building March 1, 1954 by four Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire on them from a visitor gallery, the U.S. government began a series of mass arrests that resulted in two conspiracy trials 1954-55. A third trial took place in Puerto Rico.
The four participants in the shooting—Delores Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores Rodriguez and Andres Figueroa Cordero—were quickly arrested and convicted in the attack with sentences varying from 16 years to 75 years in jail.
But the federal government went further, convening three different grand juries, summoning 91 Puerto Ricans and bringing indictments against 17 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party for “seditious conspiracy to overthrow the United States government by force.”
The four charged in the shootings were also among the 17 charged with conspiracy.
The indictment alleged that the defendants were “active members, leaders, officers or persons in control of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, which is charged to be an organization dedicated to bringing about the political independence of Puerto Rico from the United States by force of violence or armed revolution.”
In effect, the government was using the same strategy it was using to break up the U.S. Communist Party during that period. If you were an active member of the Nationalist Party, you were guilty even if you committed no illegal acts yourself.
Four of those charged turned state’s evidence and gave testimony against the other defendants.
At the first month-long trial in October 1954, much of the evidence against the group consisted of testimony by police or informers of speeches given by Nationalist Party leaders who had used slogans like, “Throw the Yankees out at pistol point,” “give your life and property for independence,” and saying that President Harry Truman “could be hanged in a place in San Juan.”
Many of the speeches dated prior to the 1950 attempted armed revolution in Puerto Rico by the Nationalist Party that was defeated and for which many party members were jailed in Puerto Rico.
Defense attorney Conrad J. Lynn charged the government sought “proscription of a dissenting political group because of its ideas.”
Julio Pinto Gandia, a defendant who was acting as his own counsel and was the alleged leader of the group in the U.S., told the court that the party, founded in 1922, was not “a band of terrorists” and that any violent actions arose out of individual “despair.”
The most sensational specific testimony came from one of those indicted who turned state’s evidence--Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, brother of Delores Lolita Lebron who was the leader of the four shooters.
Lebron Sotomayor testified that Pinto Gandia told him there would be attacks on Congress, President Dwight Eisenhower and the Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner in Washington, but could not say how the plans would be carried out.
Other specific testimony involved another of those indicted who turned state’s evidence. Angle Luis Medina testified he had purchased a number of pistols and three carbines in Chicago at the direction of a party leader who told him “to be ready in case of a revolution” to free Puerto Rico.
The evidence against most of the defendants committing any specific illegal act was thin.
U.S. Attorney J. Edward Lumbard summed up the case saying that the Nationalist Party had supplied the pistols used in the U.S. Capitol shooting and a 1950 attempt to assassinate President Harry Truman and that each of the 13 defendants had their “moral fingerprints on the guns” used.
Lumbard further told the jury that the government did not have to prove that the defendants were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government—only that they had conspired to overthrow the authority of the United States in Puerto Rico.
The defense called five witnesses to testify that the Nationalist Party did not advocate overthrow of the U.S. government and only sought total independence for Puerto Rico.
Lynn told the jury that the government was trying “proscription of a dissenting political group because of its ideas.”
Pinto Gandia had earlier sought dismissal of the indictments against the four shooters as double jeopardy and because the government, “intended to bring the guilt of the four defendants upon the other defendants by association or inference.”
He added, “it is not a crime to preach and work for the freedom of a nation and that membership in the Nationalist Party itself did not indicate anyone was part of a conspiracy.
The jury deliberated only a few hours before finding all the defendants guilty.
Two weeks after the verdicts, more arrests took place and a second trial scheduled.
The trial of 11 other Nationalists took place February-March 1955 and followed the same lines as the first trial, except that Lebron Sotomayer gave additional details to his earlier testimony.
Ten of the 11 were found guilty. Serafin Colon Olivera, 28 of New York, was acquitted. Testimony had indicated he was a Nationalist Party member in 1949 and attended a Nationalist dance in 1953.
Those found guilty in the two trials received sentences ranging from 18 months to six years in prison. Appeals failed.
In Puerto Rico, Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos hailed the attack as “sublime heroism.” The governor revoked a previous pardon of the party leader and he was arrested after a shootout and imprisoned.
Charges were placed against 15 party members on the island, however 12 were acquitted at trial in late 1954. The three found guilty were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3-10 years.
Albizu Campos’ health suffered badly in prison where he suffered a stroke in 1956 that left him unable to talk or walk. He was pardoned in 1964, but died a few months afterward.
The Nationalist Party was all but dead as a result of the U.S. trials and by suppression by authorities in Puerto Rico, although it continues to exist today.
First trial sedition trial in 1954:
Jorge Luis Jimenez, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Manuel Rabago Torres, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Rosa Collazo, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Juan Bernardo Lebron, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Juan Francisco Medina, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Armando Diaz Matos, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Julio Pinto Gandia, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Carmelo Alvarez Roman, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Jose Antonio Otero Otero, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Andress Figueroa Cordero, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Rafael Cancel Miranda, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Dolores Lolita Lebron, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Irvin Flores Rodriguez, one of 4 convicted shooters, sentenced to additional six years imprisonment
Second trial in 1955:
Juan Hernandez Valle, Puerto Rico, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Maximino Pedraza Martinez, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Santiago Gonzalez Castro, sentenced to six years imprisonment
Esteban Quinones Escute, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Angel Luis Arzola Velez, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Antonio Herrera Moreno, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Carmen Dolores Otero Torresola, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Pedro Aviles, sentenced to four years imprisonment
Julio Flores Medina, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
Miguel Vargas Nieves, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
Those who turned state’s evidence:
Gonzalo Lebron Sotomayor, suspended sentence
Francisco Cortez Ruiz, suspended sentence
Carlos Aulet, suspended sentence
Angel Luis Medina, suspended sentence
Acquitted at May 1955 trial:
Serafin Colon Olivera
For more information and related images to the 1954-55 conspiracy trials of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, see flic.kr/s/aHskRMRawC
For more information and related images to the 1950 attempted assassination of President Truman and the 1954 wounding of five U.S. Representatives, see flic.kr/s/aHskghBC71
The photographer is unknown. The photo is believed to be a mugshot. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Gary Stephen Kaplan, founder of BetOnSports, a large illegal offshore sports wagering business, was sentenced to 51 months in prison on multiple federal charges yesterday. Court Documents as to BetOnSports, Gary Kaplan, Et Al Released for Instant Download
Pursuant to a complex plea agreement, on August 14, 2009, Gary Stephen Kaplan, 50, entered pleas of guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute, conspiring to violate the Wire Wager Act, and violating the Wire Wager Act.
As part of the plea, Kaplan has forfeited to the United States $43,650,000 in criminal proceeds. An additional amount of approximately $7 million has been forfeited in related proceedings, bringing the total forfeiture in this case to over $50 million.
Kaplan admitted that beginning in the mid to late 1990’s, he set up business entities offshore in Aruba, Antigua and eventually Costa Rica to provide sportsbook services to U.S. residents through Internet websites and toll-free telephone numbers. He founded, operated, and controlled, with other co-conspirators, the enterprise known as “BetOnSports.” BetOnSports advertised heavily in the U.S. to solicit U.S. residents to place sports wagers by telephone and over the Internet. BetOnSports-related entities controlled toll free numbers and domain names advertised by BetOnSports. Technologically, Kaplan’s toll-free telephone lines terminated in Houston, Texas or Miami, Florida and then were forwarded to Costa Rica by satellite transmitter or fiber-optic cable. Some of Kaplan’s web servers were located in Miami and were remotely controlled from Costa Rica. U.S. residents became customers of BetOnSports by depositing funds on account and placing wagers over U.S. toll-free telephone lines and via the Internet using the deposited funds. Funds were sent from the U.S. customers to BoS operations outside the U.S. and BoS sent winnings from outside the U.S. to its U.S. customers.