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Sunday, May 30, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Jury convicts man in NJ schoolyard triple slayings
By SAMANTHA HENRY (AP) 5 -24- 2010
NEWARK, N.J. — The first defendant to be tried for a triple schoolyard killing that jolted New Jersey's largest city into addressing its crime problem nearly three years ago was convicted on all counts Monday.
Rodolfo Godinez, a Nicaraguan who was one of six men and boys charged with the brutal slayings, was convicted on all 17 counts. A jury returned the verdict in state Superior Court after nearly four hours of deliberations.
The killings of Dashon Harvey, Iofemi Hightower and Terrance Aeriel spurred a wave of anti-crime measures in Newark.
A fourth victim survived and testified against Godinez. She is not being identified by The Associated Press because of sexual assault charges against two other defendants. All four victims were enrolled or about to be enrolled at Delaware State University.
Family members of the victims wept and rubbed one another's backs quietly as the verdict was read. Earlier, when it was announced the jury had reached a verdict, several of them had gasped and started clapping. The judge warned the gallery to stay calm once the verdict was read.
The three victims were found slumped against a wall of the playground, each having suffered a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Hightower and the survivor also were slashed with a machete.
Without a wealth of physical evidence tying Godinez to the scene — he left DNA on a beer bottle at the playground but wasn't tied to the gun or knife used in the attacks — prosecutors used statements Godinez made to police and to a jailhouse acquaintance that appeared to implicate him.
Before deliberations, state Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin instructed jurors that, under New Jersey's accomplice liability statute, they could find Godinez guilty of the murders even though there was no evidence presented that he pulled the trigger.
Godinez's attorney, Roy Greenman, had argued his client was at the scene but didn't take part in the attacks.
Godinez could face several life terms in prison at sentencing on July 8.
NEWARK, N.J. — The first defendant to be tried for a triple schoolyard killing that jolted New Jersey's largest city into addressing its crime problem nearly three years ago was convicted on all counts Monday.
Rodolfo Godinez, a Nicaraguan who was one of six men and boys charged with the brutal slayings, was convicted on all 17 counts. A jury returned the verdict in state Superior Court after nearly four hours of deliberations.
The killings of Dashon Harvey, Iofemi Hightower and Terrance Aeriel spurred a wave of anti-crime measures in Newark.
A fourth victim survived and testified against Godinez. She is not being identified by The Associated Press because of sexual assault charges against two other defendants. All four victims were enrolled or about to be enrolled at Delaware State University.
Family members of the victims wept and rubbed one another's backs quietly as the verdict was read. Earlier, when it was announced the jury had reached a verdict, several of them had gasped and started clapping. The judge warned the gallery to stay calm once the verdict was read.
The three victims were found slumped against a wall of the playground, each having suffered a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Hightower and the survivor also were slashed with a machete.
Without a wealth of physical evidence tying Godinez to the scene — he left DNA on a beer bottle at the playground but wasn't tied to the gun or knife used in the attacks — prosecutors used statements Godinez made to police and to a jailhouse acquaintance that appeared to implicate him.
Before deliberations, state Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin instructed jurors that, under New Jersey's accomplice liability statute, they could find Godinez guilty of the murders even though there was no evidence presented that he pulled the trigger.
Godinez's attorney, Roy Greenman, had argued his client was at the scene but didn't take part in the attacks.
Godinez could face several life terms in prison at sentencing on July 8.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Justices Bar Life Terms for Youths Who Haven’t Killed
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: May 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that juveniles who commit crimes in which no one is killed may not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The ruling expanded a principle the court has never endorsed outside the death penalty — that an entire class of offenders may be immune from a given form of punishment.
Five justices, in an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, agreed that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment forbids sentences of life without parole as a categorical matter for juvenile offenders who do not participate in homicides.
“A state need not guarantee the offender eventual release,” Justice Kennedy wrote, “but if it imposes the sentence of life, it must provide him or her with some realistic opportunity to obtain release before the end of that term.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr . endorsed only a case-by-case approach, but he voted with the majority in saying that the particular inmate in question had received a sentence so harsh that it violated the Constitution.
The case involved Terrance Graham, who in 2003, at age 16, helped rob a Jacksonville restaurant, during which an accomplice beat the manager with a steel bar. Mr. Graham was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation for that crime.
The next year, at 17, Mr. Graham and two 20-year-old accomplices committed a home invasion robbery. In 2005, a judge sentenced Mr. Graham to life for violating his probation.
In the context of capital punishment, the Supreme Court has carved out categories of offenders and crimes that are not subject to the death penalty, including juvenile offenders and those who do not take a life. Monday’s decision applied those two decisions in Venn diagram fashion to life-without-parole sentences.
Justice Kennedy, who was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, said both national and international consensuses supported the court’s ruling.
Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr., said the majority was wrong about the facts in both cases and wrong as a matter of principle to take account of the international opinion.
Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia and the federal government have laws allowing life-without-parole sentences for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide offenses. That represents, Justice Thomas said, a super-majority of states in favor of the punishment.
Justice Kennedy responded that a study relied on by Mr. Graham and supplemented by the court’s own research located only 129 juvenile offenders convicted under such laws. Seventy-seven were in Florida, the rest in 10 other states. Those numbers, Justice Kennedy said, make the sentence “exceedingly rare” and demonstrate that “a national consensus has developed against it.”
Justice Kennedy added that the sentences at issue had been “rejected the world over.” (Indeed, only the United States and perhaps Israel, he said, impose the punishment even for homicides committed by juveniles.)
“The judgment of the world’s nations that a particular sentencing practice is inconsistent with basic principles of decency,” Justice Kennedy wrote, “demonstrates that the court’s rationale has respected reasoning to support it.”
Justice Thomas disputed Justice Kennedy’s math, saying 11 nations seem to allow the punishment in theory. More important, he said, “foreign laws and sentencing practices” are “irrelevant to the meaning of our Constitution.”
He added that most democracies around the world remain free to adopt the punishment should they wish to. “Starting today,” Justice Thomas wrote, “ours can count itself among the few in which judicial decree prevents voters from making that choice.”
Although the majority limited its decision to nonhomicide offenses, advocates may try to apply its logic more broadly to the some 2,000 inmates serving life-without-parole sentences for participating in killings at 17 or younger.
Justice Kennedy noted, for instance, that juveniles serving life will typically spend more years and a greater percentage of their lives in prison than people who commit the same crime later in life.
The case decided Monday, Graham v. Florida, No. 08-7412, was argued in November along with a companion case, Sullivan v Florida, No. 08-7621. The court declined to decide the second case, which involved Joe Sullivan, who raped a woman when he was 13.
Instead, the court dismissed the case as improvidently granted, probably because it was beset with procedural difficulties. Mr. Sullivan’s lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, said his client and everyone else in his situation would be entitled to challenge their sentences under the Graham decision.
-http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com
Published: May 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that juveniles who commit crimes in which no one is killed may not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The ruling expanded a principle the court has never endorsed outside the death penalty — that an entire class of offenders may be immune from a given form of punishment.
Five justices, in an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, agreed that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment forbids sentences of life without parole as a categorical matter for juvenile offenders who do not participate in homicides.
“A state need not guarantee the offender eventual release,” Justice Kennedy wrote, “but if it imposes the sentence of life, it must provide him or her with some realistic opportunity to obtain release before the end of that term.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr . endorsed only a case-by-case approach, but he voted with the majority in saying that the particular inmate in question had received a sentence so harsh that it violated the Constitution.
The case involved Terrance Graham, who in 2003, at age 16, helped rob a Jacksonville restaurant, during which an accomplice beat the manager with a steel bar. Mr. Graham was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation for that crime.
The next year, at 17, Mr. Graham and two 20-year-old accomplices committed a home invasion robbery. In 2005, a judge sentenced Mr. Graham to life for violating his probation.
In the context of capital punishment, the Supreme Court has carved out categories of offenders and crimes that are not subject to the death penalty, including juvenile offenders and those who do not take a life. Monday’s decision applied those two decisions in Venn diagram fashion to life-without-parole sentences.
Justice Kennedy, who was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, said both national and international consensuses supported the court’s ruling.
Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr., said the majority was wrong about the facts in both cases and wrong as a matter of principle to take account of the international opinion.
Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia and the federal government have laws allowing life-without-parole sentences for juveniles convicted of nonhomicide offenses. That represents, Justice Thomas said, a super-majority of states in favor of the punishment.
Justice Kennedy responded that a study relied on by Mr. Graham and supplemented by the court’s own research located only 129 juvenile offenders convicted under such laws. Seventy-seven were in Florida, the rest in 10 other states. Those numbers, Justice Kennedy said, make the sentence “exceedingly rare” and demonstrate that “a national consensus has developed against it.”
Justice Kennedy added that the sentences at issue had been “rejected the world over.” (Indeed, only the United States and perhaps Israel, he said, impose the punishment even for homicides committed by juveniles.)
“The judgment of the world’s nations that a particular sentencing practice is inconsistent with basic principles of decency,” Justice Kennedy wrote, “demonstrates that the court’s rationale has respected reasoning to support it.”
Justice Thomas disputed Justice Kennedy’s math, saying 11 nations seem to allow the punishment in theory. More important, he said, “foreign laws and sentencing practices” are “irrelevant to the meaning of our Constitution.”
He added that most democracies around the world remain free to adopt the punishment should they wish to. “Starting today,” Justice Thomas wrote, “ours can count itself among the few in which judicial decree prevents voters from making that choice.”
Although the majority limited its decision to nonhomicide offenses, advocates may try to apply its logic more broadly to the some 2,000 inmates serving life-without-parole sentences for participating in killings at 17 or younger.
Justice Kennedy noted, for instance, that juveniles serving life will typically spend more years and a greater percentage of their lives in prison than people who commit the same crime later in life.
The case decided Monday, Graham v. Florida, No. 08-7412, was argued in November along with a companion case, Sullivan v Florida, No. 08-7621. The court declined to decide the second case, which involved Joe Sullivan, who raped a woman when he was 13.
Instead, the court dismissed the case as improvidently granted, probably because it was beset with procedural difficulties. Mr. Sullivan’s lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, said his client and everyone else in his situation would be entitled to challenge their sentences under the Graham decision.
-http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tube Catches ‘Some’ Oil From Leak
By SHAILA DEWAN May 16, 2010
May 16, 2010 nytimes.com
NEW ORLEANS, La. — An experimental attempt to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico experienced some limited success over the weekend, BP announced Sunday afternoon.
Engineers successfully inserted a tube into the damaged riser pipe from which some of the oil is spewing, capturing “some amounts of oil and gas” before the tube was dislodged, the announcement said. The tube was inspected and reinserted, BP said.
“While not collecting all of the leaking oil, this tool is an important step in reducing the amount of oil being released into Gulf waters,” the announcement said. It did not say why the tube had come dislodged or how much oil and gas were taken aboard the Discover Enterprise, the drill ship waiting to separate the oil, gas and water as it is siphoned off. The gas that reached the ship was burned using a flare system on board.
The tube is one of several proposed methods of stanching the flow of at least 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf, threatening marine life and sensitive wetlands and beaches in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. BP officials have emphasized that none of the techniques has been previously attempted at the depth of this leak, 5,000 feet below the surface.
Efforts to insert the tube, a five-foot section of pipe with a rubber seal designed to keep seawater out, into the broken riser pipe from which the majority of the oil is gushing, began on Friday using robotic submarines.
But the initial attempt to connect the mile-long pipe leading from the drill ship to the tube failed, and the device had to be brought back to the surface for adjustments.
“This is all part of reinventing technology,” said Tom Mueller, a BP spokesman, on Saturday. “It’s not what I’d call a problem — it’s what I’d call learning, reconfiguring, doing it again.”
BP still has an array of untested short-term options for reducing the flow, including a small “top hat” that could be placed over the leak, a “junk shot” that would involve plugging the blowout preventer at the well’s opening with debris like old tires, and a “top kill” that would pump mud and cement into the preventer in an attempt to seal the opening.
The long-term solution, already under way, is to drill two relief wells, a process that will not be completed until August, officials said.
May 16, 2010 nytimes.com
NEW ORLEANS, La. — An experimental attempt to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico experienced some limited success over the weekend, BP announced Sunday afternoon.
Engineers successfully inserted a tube into the damaged riser pipe from which some of the oil is spewing, capturing “some amounts of oil and gas” before the tube was dislodged, the announcement said. The tube was inspected and reinserted, BP said.
“While not collecting all of the leaking oil, this tool is an important step in reducing the amount of oil being released into Gulf waters,” the announcement said. It did not say why the tube had come dislodged or how much oil and gas were taken aboard the Discover Enterprise, the drill ship waiting to separate the oil, gas and water as it is siphoned off. The gas that reached the ship was burned using a flare system on board.
The tube is one of several proposed methods of stanching the flow of at least 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf, threatening marine life and sensitive wetlands and beaches in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. BP officials have emphasized that none of the techniques has been previously attempted at the depth of this leak, 5,000 feet below the surface.
Efforts to insert the tube, a five-foot section of pipe with a rubber seal designed to keep seawater out, into the broken riser pipe from which the majority of the oil is gushing, began on Friday using robotic submarines.
But the initial attempt to connect the mile-long pipe leading from the drill ship to the tube failed, and the device had to be brought back to the surface for adjustments.
“This is all part of reinventing technology,” said Tom Mueller, a BP spokesman, on Saturday. “It’s not what I’d call a problem — it’s what I’d call learning, reconfiguring, doing it again.”
BP still has an array of untested short-term options for reducing the flow, including a small “top hat” that could be placed over the leak, a “junk shot” that would involve plugging the blowout preventer at the well’s opening with debris like old tires, and a “top kill” that would pump mud and cement into the preventer in an attempt to seal the opening.
The long-term solution, already under way, is to drill two relief wells, a process that will not be completed until August, officials said.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Illegal immigrant KSU student hopes to stay in U.S.
By Andria Simmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday 5-14-2010
A Kennesaw State University student on Friday criticized the national immigration system that brought her to the brink of deportation and remains a looming threat to the future of students like her who are illegally in America.
"I just hope for the best," said Jessica Colotl, a 21-year-old who entered the country illegally when she was 10. "I hope something positive comes out of this because we really need reform for this messed-up system."
The Mexico native gained national attention in March when she was arrested in Cobb County for a minor traffic violation on the KSU campus and narrowly avoided being deported. Colotl addressed about 50 supporters and reporters at a rally just hours after being released from jail on $2,500 bond on a second charge accusing her of lying about her address.
The young student is being held up as an example of what's wrong with the nation's immigration system by both pro-immigrant groups and opponents of illegal immigration.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel said students who are undocumented should be expelled from colleges. State Sen. Eric Johnson, another GOP candidate for governor, said through a representative Friday that state and federal laws are very clear that those in this country illegally are not eligible for any public benefit, including postsecondary education.
"Especially at a time when they are raising tuition, we can’t afford to have illegal immigrants taking a taxpayer-subsidized spot in our colleges," Johnson spokesman Ben Fry said. "We must enforce the law."
Two other GOP candidates for governor, Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, also gave statements about Colotl's case. Oxendine called for the expulsion of all illegal immigrants in the higher education system, and Deal said current immigration law needs to be enforced.
Colotl said she is looking forward to graduation and hoping to avoid forced removal to the home country she barely remembers.
"If I were to be deported, I would have to start all over again," Colotl said. "I am just hoping for the best and hopefully immigration reform ... will help me."
Her criminal defense attorney, Chris Taylor, said someone with a 3.8 grade-point average coming out of high school is "the kind of person we want in our country."
The forum at Plaza Fiesta in Atlanta to address Colotl's case was organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, all of whom have rallied to her cause. A criminal defense attorney and immigration lawyer also have taken her case for free.
Near the speaker's podium was a poster for the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights featuring Colotl's image and the slogans "Education not deportation" and "I march for Jessica."
Colotl's case has prompted pro-immigrant and human rights organizations to renew calls for the termination of the 287(g) program, an agreement local law enforcement agencies, such as the Cobb Sheriff's Office, have with immigration officials to check the status of everyone taken into custody. Opponents say the program promotes racial profiling and tears apart families.
Colotl was handed over to immigration authorities following her first arrest under the 287(g) program. At the urging of KSU, Colotl's friends and advocacy groups, ICE agreed to defer her case for a year until she completed her degree. She was then released from a federal detention center in Alabama.
Colotl was released from jail about 11:40 a.m. Friday. Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren secured a warrant Wednesday night to arrest Colotl, 21, on a felony charge alleging she made a false statement about her address on a jail booking form. A KSU officer had arrested Colotl in March on a charge of driving without a license.
A spokeswoman for Warren said he would be unavailable to comment about the rally for Colotl on Friday. She referred a reporter to a written statement Warren issued Thursday that said “it is sad that Ms. Colotl’s parents chose to enter the United States illegally and ultimately put her in this position.”
Warren said that his investigation revealed that she had never lived at the address listed on her booking records.
Taylor, Colotl's attorney, said that she had lived at the Duluth address as recently as November 2009 and her motor vehicle insurance and car registration paperwork were still being mailed there.
Colotl gave deputies her old address, Taylor said, because it matched her car insurance paperwork. On the same day, she also gave immigration enforcement officers her current address in Norcross. Sheriff's deputies should have known where to find her, Taylor said.
An ICE spokesman said Friday that the agency chose not to detain Colotl again following her second arrest. Her case will be reviewed again on its merits at the conclusion of the deferment period.
Colotl was accepted to KSU in 2006 as an in-state student, which was in keeping with the policy of the Board of Regents at the time. The following year, the rules were changed so that undocumented students could no longer receive in-state tuition, which costs about a quarter of out-of-state tuition.
Colotl was still paying in-state tuition up until her March arrest. That's when university officials learned she was an illegal immigrant, according to a statement KSU issued Friday. The university's administration said from now on she will be charged out-of-state tuition rates.
Chris Kuck, an Atlanta immigration attorney who is representing Colotl, said because she entered the country illegally as a minor, there is no path to legalization open to her. She has an academic scholarship to KSU, but she has not been receiving federal or state financial aid, including the merit-based HOPE scholarship.
While she had high enough grades for the HOPE scholarship, Kuck said she never applied. Only Georgia residents are eligible for the scholarship, which covers tuition and other expenses at public colleges.
“She’s not eligible for HOPE,” Kuck said. “You have to be a Georgia resident. She paid for it all on her own.”
Kuck said he is trying to get her a work permit, since her deferment status with ICE means she is technically authorized to be in the country now. If she gets a work permit, Colotl might again be eligible for in-state tuition, he said.
Staff writer Jim Galloway contributed to this article.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday 5-14-2010
A Kennesaw State University student on Friday criticized the national immigration system that brought her to the brink of deportation and remains a looming threat to the future of students like her who are illegally in America.
"I just hope for the best," said Jessica Colotl, a 21-year-old who entered the country illegally when she was 10. "I hope something positive comes out of this because we really need reform for this messed-up system."
The Mexico native gained national attention in March when she was arrested in Cobb County for a minor traffic violation on the KSU campus and narrowly avoided being deported. Colotl addressed about 50 supporters and reporters at a rally just hours after being released from jail on $2,500 bond on a second charge accusing her of lying about her address.
The young student is being held up as an example of what's wrong with the nation's immigration system by both pro-immigrant groups and opponents of illegal immigration.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel said students who are undocumented should be expelled from colleges. State Sen. Eric Johnson, another GOP candidate for governor, said through a representative Friday that state and federal laws are very clear that those in this country illegally are not eligible for any public benefit, including postsecondary education.
"Especially at a time when they are raising tuition, we can’t afford to have illegal immigrants taking a taxpayer-subsidized spot in our colleges," Johnson spokesman Ben Fry said. "We must enforce the law."
Two other GOP candidates for governor, Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, also gave statements about Colotl's case. Oxendine called for the expulsion of all illegal immigrants in the higher education system, and Deal said current immigration law needs to be enforced.
Colotl said she is looking forward to graduation and hoping to avoid forced removal to the home country she barely remembers.
"If I were to be deported, I would have to start all over again," Colotl said. "I am just hoping for the best and hopefully immigration reform ... will help me."
Her criminal defense attorney, Chris Taylor, said someone with a 3.8 grade-point average coming out of high school is "the kind of person we want in our country."
The forum at Plaza Fiesta in Atlanta to address Colotl's case was organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, all of whom have rallied to her cause. A criminal defense attorney and immigration lawyer also have taken her case for free.
Near the speaker's podium was a poster for the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights featuring Colotl's image and the slogans "Education not deportation" and "I march for Jessica."
Colotl's case has prompted pro-immigrant and human rights organizations to renew calls for the termination of the 287(g) program, an agreement local law enforcement agencies, such as the Cobb Sheriff's Office, have with immigration officials to check the status of everyone taken into custody. Opponents say the program promotes racial profiling and tears apart families.
Colotl was handed over to immigration authorities following her first arrest under the 287(g) program. At the urging of KSU, Colotl's friends and advocacy groups, ICE agreed to defer her case for a year until she completed her degree. She was then released from a federal detention center in Alabama.
Colotl was released from jail about 11:40 a.m. Friday. Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren secured a warrant Wednesday night to arrest Colotl, 21, on a felony charge alleging she made a false statement about her address on a jail booking form. A KSU officer had arrested Colotl in March on a charge of driving without a license.
A spokeswoman for Warren said he would be unavailable to comment about the rally for Colotl on Friday. She referred a reporter to a written statement Warren issued Thursday that said “it is sad that Ms. Colotl’s parents chose to enter the United States illegally and ultimately put her in this position.”
Warren said that his investigation revealed that she had never lived at the address listed on her booking records.
Taylor, Colotl's attorney, said that she had lived at the Duluth address as recently as November 2009 and her motor vehicle insurance and car registration paperwork were still being mailed there.
Colotl gave deputies her old address, Taylor said, because it matched her car insurance paperwork. On the same day, she also gave immigration enforcement officers her current address in Norcross. Sheriff's deputies should have known where to find her, Taylor said.
An ICE spokesman said Friday that the agency chose not to detain Colotl again following her second arrest. Her case will be reviewed again on its merits at the conclusion of the deferment period.
Colotl was accepted to KSU in 2006 as an in-state student, which was in keeping with the policy of the Board of Regents at the time. The following year, the rules were changed so that undocumented students could no longer receive in-state tuition, which costs about a quarter of out-of-state tuition.
Colotl was still paying in-state tuition up until her March arrest. That's when university officials learned she was an illegal immigrant, according to a statement KSU issued Friday. The university's administration said from now on she will be charged out-of-state tuition rates.
Chris Kuck, an Atlanta immigration attorney who is representing Colotl, said because she entered the country illegally as a minor, there is no path to legalization open to her. She has an academic scholarship to KSU, but she has not been receiving federal or state financial aid, including the merit-based HOPE scholarship.
While she had high enough grades for the HOPE scholarship, Kuck said she never applied. Only Georgia residents are eligible for the scholarship, which covers tuition and other expenses at public colleges.
“She’s not eligible for HOPE,” Kuck said. “You have to be a Georgia resident. She paid for it all on her own.”
Kuck said he is trying to get her a work permit, since her deferment status with ICE means she is technically authorized to be in the country now. If she gets a work permit, Colotl might again be eligible for in-state tuition, he said.
Staff writer Jim Galloway contributed to this article.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Monday, May 03, 2010
COPS: Times Square Car Bomber Got the Wrong Fertilizer
White Male in 40s Seen on Tape Near Site of Car Bomb Attempt
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MICHAEL S. JAMES and DEAN SCHABNER
May 2, 2010 -ABC world news
The would-be car-bomber who left an SUV loaded with propane and gas cans, fireworks and timing devices on a Times Square street also had more than 100 pounds of fertilizer, but not the kind that would explode, police said today.
Police examine security footage of a man removing his shirt in Times Square.
Instead of ammonium nitrate, the kind of fertilizer used by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the person who abandoned the van on the crowded New York City street had a metal gun locker full of a harmless fertilizer, New York City Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
While it is unknown who the potential bomber is, or the bomber's motive, officials told ABC, that if that person were not aware of the characteristics of the fertilizer it could point to the fact that the bomber did not know what he was doing.
Sources also told ABC News that the valves on the propane tanks were not open, which would have made it less likely that the gas inside would have ignited.
Police are looking for white male in his 40s who was seen leaving the area near the SUV and shedding a dark shirt, revealing a red shirt underneath, about a half block from where survellance cameras saw the vehicle entering Times Square at about 6:28 p.m. Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
The video of the possible suspect was expected to be released later today.
WATCH: Mayor on Time Square Bomb: 'We Are Very Lucky'
Napolitano on NY Bomb - no evidence "anything other than a one-off"
The individual was looking around in a furtive manner, Kelly said, but he also stressed that the behavior could be totally innocent.
At a Sunday afternoon press conference, Kelly said police would be reviewing hundreds of hours of videotape, and that police had identified the owner of the green Nissan Pathfinder but had not yet spoken to them.
Detectives are in Pennsylvania today meeting with tourists who think they may have captured a suspect on video.
Kelly said "no evidence" supports the Pakistani Taliban's claim of responsibilty for the bombing, but he said investigators had not yet ruled out either domestic or international motives for the attempted attack.
"Clearly it was the intent of whoever did this to cause mayhem and create casualties," Kelly said. "It was just a sober reminder that New York is clearly a target of people who want to come here and do us harm."
At about 2 p.m. Sunday, NYPD opened the 55-by-32-inch gun locker that was inside the SUV and found it contained eight bags of an unknown, fertilizer-like substance and an inverted pot with a "bird's nest" of wires.
There were three propane tanks next to the gun locker, two five-gallon jerry cans of gasoline, and a timing device, police officials said. There was no high-grade explosive, and the timing device was clocks attached to wires. Attached to the propane tanks were M88 fireworks, some of which had gone off, but without igniting the gas.
One alarm clock appeared to be wired into the gun locker. Another alarm clock was wired to a can with up to 30 M88 firecrackers resting between the cans of gasoline.
Kelly said it was too early to determine whether the device was crude or not.
-davidsamuels7@gmIL.COM
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MICHAEL S. JAMES and DEAN SCHABNER
May 2, 2010 -ABC world news
The would-be car-bomber who left an SUV loaded with propane and gas cans, fireworks and timing devices on a Times Square street also had more than 100 pounds of fertilizer, but not the kind that would explode, police said today.
Police examine security footage of a man removing his shirt in Times Square.
Instead of ammonium nitrate, the kind of fertilizer used by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the person who abandoned the van on the crowded New York City street had a metal gun locker full of a harmless fertilizer, New York City Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
While it is unknown who the potential bomber is, or the bomber's motive, officials told ABC, that if that person were not aware of the characteristics of the fertilizer it could point to the fact that the bomber did not know what he was doing.
Sources also told ABC News that the valves on the propane tanks were not open, which would have made it less likely that the gas inside would have ignited.
Police are looking for white male in his 40s who was seen leaving the area near the SUV and shedding a dark shirt, revealing a red shirt underneath, about a half block from where survellance cameras saw the vehicle entering Times Square at about 6:28 p.m. Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
The video of the possible suspect was expected to be released later today.
WATCH: Mayor on Time Square Bomb: 'We Are Very Lucky'
Napolitano on NY Bomb - no evidence "anything other than a one-off"
The individual was looking around in a furtive manner, Kelly said, but he also stressed that the behavior could be totally innocent.
At a Sunday afternoon press conference, Kelly said police would be reviewing hundreds of hours of videotape, and that police had identified the owner of the green Nissan Pathfinder but had not yet spoken to them.
Detectives are in Pennsylvania today meeting with tourists who think they may have captured a suspect on video.
Kelly said "no evidence" supports the Pakistani Taliban's claim of responsibilty for the bombing, but he said investigators had not yet ruled out either domestic or international motives for the attempted attack.
"Clearly it was the intent of whoever did this to cause mayhem and create casualties," Kelly said. "It was just a sober reminder that New York is clearly a target of people who want to come here and do us harm."
At about 2 p.m. Sunday, NYPD opened the 55-by-32-inch gun locker that was inside the SUV and found it contained eight bags of an unknown, fertilizer-like substance and an inverted pot with a "bird's nest" of wires.
There were three propane tanks next to the gun locker, two five-gallon jerry cans of gasoline, and a timing device, police officials said. There was no high-grade explosive, and the timing device was clocks attached to wires. Attached to the propane tanks were M88 fireworks, some of which had gone off, but without igniting the gas.
One alarm clock appeared to be wired into the gun locker. Another alarm clock was wired to a can with up to 30 M88 firecrackers resting between the cans of gasoline.
Kelly said it was too early to determine whether the device was crude or not.
-davidsamuels7@gmIL.COM
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