Word: misdemeanor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Born into a dull, grey Victorian world, Chichester became a loner in a home dominated by a clergyman father who "squashed any enthusiasm," and in private schools where the punishment for a misdemeanor was a whipping. So in later life-after careers as a sheep-shearer, gold prospector and land speculator in New Zealand and a mapmaker in England-Chichester was struck with sea fever. Though he thought "the whole prospect of the Atlantic so appalling that I can't face it," he nonetheless thrilled to "the moan of the wind in the rigging," loved drawing "deep, mad breaths...
...West during the 18th century, a new view gathered momentum-that a man's life was his own to do with as he pleased. Slowly, sanctions against suicide began to be lifted. In the U.S., attempted suicide is still a felony or a misdemeanor in nine states, though the laws are rarely enforced. Even the Roman Catholic Church has modified its position. It is not unusual these days to give a suicide a proper Roman Catholic funeral and a consecrated grave, on the ground "that his demented soul did not possess sufficient freedom of will for his heinous deed...
...other choice because a state statute limits arrests without warrant to offenses committed in the arresting officer's presence. "I'm not criticizing the use of an airplane," explained Williams, "but a police officer [on the ground] who hasn't observed a man committing a misdemeanor can't arrest...
...facts were not in dispute when twelve defendants faced a nonjury trial before General Sessions Court Judge Harold H. Greene on various misdemeanor charges of violating Washington, D.C.'s obscenity ordinance. Among the twelve were four dancers accused of giving "an indecent exposition" after admittedly "baring their breasts" at the capital's Gayety Burlesk Theatre. Common as it was, the case produced a precedent that promised to baffle prosecutors all over the country simply because Judge Greene asked the prosecutor: What are "national standards" in sexual expression...
Bullet for an Answer. The legislators who wrote New York's stop-and-frisk law in 1964 held that big-city police clearly need authority to stop and question anyone whom they "reasonably suspect" of committing or being about to commit a felony or serious misdemeanor. They justified the frisk on grounds of elemental safety. As the New York Court of Appeals put it in a key 1964 case (People v. Rivera): "The answer to the question propounded by the policeman may be a bullet...