Word: iowa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...church's renewed determination to speak out for traditional marriage comes at the end of a year in which advocates for gay marriage saw some big wins, including Iowa's landmark decision to allow gay marriage, bookended by their two biggest defeats. When voters rejected gay marriage in California a year ago, some activists in other parts of the country warned that supporters had pushed too hard for marriage in liberal states, inflaming the opposition to a broad array of gay rights. But those concerns were mostly ignored, as many other activists insisted that time was on the side...
...July 1977, retired police captain John Schweer was shot and killed while working as a night watchman at an Oldsmobile dealership in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Two teenagers, Curtis McGhee and Terry Harrington, were convicted of the murder based on evidence they allege was knowingly fabricated by prosecutors. (Watch a 1937 newsreel of President Roosevelt confronting the Supreme Court...
...Supreme Court heard oral arguments not over whether Richter and Hrvol had framed two men for murder, but whether they could be sued for it. In 2003, Iowa's supreme court overturned Harrington's conviction, while McGhee pled guilty to lesser charges and was released. Now both men are suing the Pottawattamie County prosecutors, claiming they coerced and coached witnesses, fabricated evidence and arrested them without probable cause. But according to federal law supported by numerous legal precedents, prosecutors have immunity for anything they do during a trial. Richter and Hrvol say they were just doing their...
...Usually when there's a case of fabricating evidence, it's done by the police officers because they're the ones investigating the crime. Like with Mark Furman allegedly planting a bloody glove on O.J. Simpson's property," says Todd Pettys, a law professor at the University of Iowa. Police officers don't have absolute immunity and can be sued when their actions are egregious enough. Framing someone for murder definitely falls into that category. "But if the prosecutors do it," says Pettys, "then what...
...Pushing the issue to the courts, however, has paid uneven dividends for gay-marriage supporters. While courts have followed Massachusetts' lead in Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, Connecticut and California, voters who have had a chance to weigh in have uniformly rejected that thinking...