The government cannot deprive anyone of "liberty" without your consent. If you feel the statute involved in any criminal case being tried before you is unfair, or that it infringes on the defendant's God-given inalienable or Constitutional rights, you can affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime; for no man is bound to obey an unjust command. In other words, if the defendant has disobeyed some man-made criminal statute, and the statute is unjust, the defendant has in substance, committed no crime. Jurors, having ruled then on the justice of the law involved and finding it opposed in whole or in part to their own natural concept of what is basically right, are bound to hold for the acquittal of said defendant. [continues 146 words]
There is no silver bullet to fighting Iowa's growing methamphetamine epidemic, but a state agency thinks it might have a lock on the problem. According to the director of the Governor's Office on Drug Control Policy, Marvin Van Haaften, a new anhydrous ammonia tank-lock program has slowed the growth of methamphetamine production. The locks that will help solve the theft of an ingredient used in the meth process were invented by Dave Christianson of the Tanks-A-Lok, Humboldt. [continues 917 words]
CHILLICOTHE, Mo. - The Kahoka, Mo., police chief faces a charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute after being arrested at a motel in Chillicothe, Mo., Thursday afternoon. The charge alleges that Police Chief Steve L. Edlen possessed less than five grams of marijuana with intent to distribute. If convicted of the Class C felony, Edlen could face up to seven years in prison. Edlen's arrest was the result of an undercover investigation starting July 11 and conducted through an Internet chat room by Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox. [continues 147 words]
The prison population in Iowa has increased 112 percent in the last 10 1/2 years, according to figures from January 1990 to last Friday, an Iowa prison official said. In 1990 the Iowa Department of Corrections had 3,800 inmates incarcerated in its facilities, said public information officer Ted Nelson. Currently, the Iowa Department of Corrections has 8,065 inmates in the system - a 4,265 increase. "The prison population in Iowa has gone up," Nelson said. "One thing we're trying to do is take a look at the sentencing laws to divert non-violent offenders - property offenders, drug offenders and other low risk offenders - not the type of people that would normally be put into high security prisons. They would be better treated in the community." [continues 648 words]
