Word: conviction
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...friendly word for Rushdie, his literary intentions or his right to free speech. To be sure, few of his prosecutors had read the book, as the author pointed out repeatedly; most seemed to feel they had learned enough from printed excerpts or merely word of mouth to convict the author of blasphemy compounded by apostasy, the crime of renouncing one's religious faith. In the Muslim faith, the traditional punishment for an apostate is death...
...which carries a prison term of 8 1/3 to 25 years. Though the jurors emerged from eight days of deliberation with plans for a reunion, they reached their compromise verdict only after some heated quarrels. Most of them entered the jury room believing Steinberg was guilty. Some wanted to convict him on the more serious charge of second-degree murder. But four holdouts were convinced that it was Nussbaum who caused the brain injuries that killed Lisa, a claim raised by Steinberg's attorneys late in the 13-week trial, after several earlier defense strategies fizzled...
...decision on whether to convict Steinberg of murder or manslaughter hinged upon fine distinctions of intent and responsibility. The murder charge would have required the jury to find Steinberg guilty of "depraved indifference to human life." There certainly seemed to be evidence of that. After being pounded into unconsciousness, Lisa was left lying on a bathroom floor in the couple's Greenwich Village apartment for some twelve hours when Steinberg went out to dinner. Nussbaum testified that after his return, when she told him the girl could not be revived, he insisted they free-base cocaine before calling for help...
...more practical level, the Nunn plan seems to defeat its own purposes. Though it aims to give value to community work, it will in reality make community work less dignified. As lower income students are coerced into community service, they will perform with a detrimental resentment, much like the convict who receives a term of 90 hours of community work as penalty...
...reality is that [the Bush campaign] are sleazebags--they have a candidate with no moral center, who has allowed himself to be manipulated by people who don't care," says Goldman. "Dukakis' weakness is that he thinks education on the issues moves voters. In fact, Willie Horton [a Massachusetts convict who committed rape and murder while on furlough] moves voters...