Amber Guyger, who was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering 28-year-old Botham Jean in his apartment, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence her to no less than 28 years - the age Jean would be, were he still alive today. Botham's brother Brandt was the first to speak following the sentencing: "If you truly are sorry, I know I can speak for myself, I forgive you," he told Guyger. "I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you." He then asked the judge whether he could give Guyger a hug. It was as if Guyger ran to him for that hug.
The US Department of Homeland Security intends to collect DNA samples from people detained by immigration authorities and enter the information into a federal database. "Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that the Justice Department was developing a federal regulation that would give immigration officers the authority to collect DNA in detention facilities across the country that are currently holding more than 40,000 people," the New York Times reported. Is this over the top, even for the national security state?
"The FBI is running ads on Facebook in the Washington DC area seemingly designed to target and recruit Russian spies as well as those who know about their work," CNN reported Wednesday. Who are they really planning to recruit here? "Some of the Russian in the ads is awkwardly phrased or contains typos - an indication they may not have been written by a native Russian speaker," the outlet noted. Leaving aside a discussion about whether it's smart, if you are going to do this, at least make sure the ads are convincing. Instead they are written in gibberish pseudo-Russian? If there are potential spies out there, I doubt they would ever cooperate with such inept group.
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed into law historic legislation that would allow the state's cities and counties to establish public banks as an alternative to private financial institutions, a move advocates hailed as a 'stunning rebuke to the predatory Wall Street megabanks that crashed the global economy in 2007-08,'" Common Dreams reported Thursday. How significant of a change is this?
GUESTS:
Kara Gotsch — Director of strategic initiatives at The Sentencing Project, for which she oversees federal advocacy work and develops special projects and partnerships to advance the organizational mission of reducing mass incarceration.
John Burris — Lead attorney and founder of the Law Office of John L. Burris. He is primarily known for his work in the area of civil rights, with an emphasis on police misconduct and excessive force cases.
Attorney Mark Shmueli — Manages a solo practice dedicated exclusively to immigration law. Shmueli represents asylum seekers before the Asylum Office and Executive Office for Immigration Review and handles employment-based non-immigrant and immigrant visa petitions. He has authored articles on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and the Violence Against Women Act for the Maryland Bar Journal and is a frequent lecturer at national and local conferences on immigration law.
Mark Sleboda — International affairs and security analyst.
Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression."
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