We all have been reading about some spectacular (for Dane County) murder cases recently.

At a preliminary hearing yesterday, the Capital Times reports on: “an emotional day in court Friday as family members and friends of Joel Marino … heard audio tapes that offered the first glimpse of what appears to be limited words spoken during the interaction between the two men that resulted in Marino's death.” 

Accused murderer Adam Peterson, said, in a recorded phone conversation with his father, “I just stabbed him out of nowhere,” reports the Capital Times.

Incomprehensible. Senseless. Unstoppable?

And no comfort for the grief-stricken Marino family.

But I hope that the Madison citizen, John Brodan, who called police about Peterson after spotting him working at Capitol Centre Foods, and making the connection to a sketch of the murder suspect released March 10, gets the $30,000 reward for “information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Joel Marino.”

- via MAL Contends
Madison, Wisconsin—An official Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) document contradicts the U.S. prosecutor’s narrative of alleged events that led to the conviction of a Wisconsin Vietnam-era veteran on federal wire fraud charges in 2006.

Jim Henning

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The document, a VA “Statement in Support of Claim,” written by the late Jim Henning, a Shawano County (Wisconsin) Veteran’s Service Officer, argues for an earlier retroactive date for disability benefits for Airman Keith Roberts (1968-74), who was diagnosed by several medical professionals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after witnessing a fellow airman being crushed to death in the wheel well of a C-54 airplane at a U.S. base in Naples, Italy in 1969.

Henning was known as a passionate and highly ethical advocate for veterans.

- via MAL Contends
The US House Committee on the Judiciary last week held an oversight hearing featuring Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Wisconsin citizens got a chance to see the newest member of the committee in action, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison).

Baldwin was aggressive in her questioning of Gonzales, while Gonzales was typically evasive, inane and insincere.

What stood out was the focus of Baldwin’s questions—US Atty Stephen Biskupic, and Gonzales’ spirited defense of Biskupic.

Baldwin opened by citing an April 16, 2007 editorial in the New York Times by Adam Cohen , and quoting passages about Biskupic’s specious and discredited prosecution of Georgia Thompson.

by MAL Contends

Madison, Wisconsin—As Airman Keith Roberts (1968-74) sits behind bars, serving a four-year sentence for federal wire fraud for seeking disability benefits; the fight to free him has been launched.

The Gillett, Wisconsin native Roberts filed for disability benefits in 1999 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to an assault by the Navy Shore Patrol in 1969, and the death of a fellow airman killed in a gruesome aircraft accident, also in 1969, at Naples, Italy where Roberts was stationed.

As Roberts was adjudicating his claim in 2005 with the US Veterans Administration (VA), Stephen Biskupic, US Atty for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, in an extraordinary development, stepped in and secured federal indictments and a conviction of Roberts on charges of wire fraud in fraudulently obtaining over $350,000 for the period of 1992 to 2004.

Critics see Roberts as an innocent victim of an unfeeling VA bureaucracy, rightwing forces allied with VA Secretary Nicholson, and an overzealous prosecutor.

by Michael Leon

- Via MAL Contends

Madison, Wisconsin—Since March 2007, Airman Keith Roberts has been imprisoned, serving the first few months of a four-year sentence for five counts of federal wire fraud.

Keith Roberts filed for disability benefits in 1999 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by private and public medical health professionals.

Though not nearly as horrific as many, Roberts’ Vietnam-era service (1968-74) affected him badly, and includes an incident in which he was assaulted by the Navy Shore Patrol in 1969, and he witnessed a fellow airman killed in a gruesome aircraft accident, also in 1969, at Naples, Italy where he was stationed.

Roberts jumped through all of the hoops that the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) makes claimants jump through, and was granted service-connected benefits for his diagnosed PTSD in 1999 retroactive to 1993 (later revised to 1992), and received over $300,000 in benefits.

Roberts and his wife believed that after a paperwork-endurance ordeal in finding all supporting documents that the VA had finally come through and honored his service, and affirmed his medical condition after the long benefits application process.

Madison, Wisconsin—The opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that explained the freeing of the innocent state worker Georgia Thompson is being used by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to provide political cover for US Atty Biskupic. 

The Journal-Sentinel editorial, “Mistakes aren't crimes” (April 24, 2007), seized a slender reed at the end of the 14-page opinion that was also used by Biskupic in his own audacious public relations move after the written opinion was issued April 20.

Reads Biskupic’s statement on the Court’s opinion: “We are studying the decision to determine its impact on other cases. Meanwhile, given the initial rhetoric surrounding the result, we are heartened that the opinion notes the good faith legal difference inherent in the case.”

by MAL Contends

Madison, Wisconsin—The life of Robert Houghwout Jackson (1892-1954) is many things.

Scholar and jurist, public servant, humanity’s chief advocate at Nuremberg (1945-46), US Supreme Court Justice (1941–1954), and Brown v. Board of Education’s champion (his Brown opinion drafts were more confrontational and scholarly, reflecting the man’s moral outrage and intellect), Jackson’s like is difficult to locate among contemporary jurists.

As the Bush administration has turned the Department of Justice into a political operation of the White House, and liberal district attorneys around the country (including Wisconsin, see Brian Blanchard, for example) engage in frenzied quests to prove their tough-on-crime bone fides in furtherance of political careers, Jackson, as the US Attorney General (1940-41), speaks to us today with urgency.