Andy Thibault's Blog, page 26
February 28, 2015
#Tsarnaev case updates 3-4-15 #BostonMarathonBombings
Jury Set to Begin Hearing Case
Artist Art Lien: Seating the jury
10 Women, 8 Men Selected as Jurors
Tweet by WGBH staffer @phillipWGBH 3-3-15: #Tsarnaev 's defense team voiced about tiny # of people of color in eligible jury pool. Final jury confirmed their fears, zero. @wgbhnews
Greater Boston discussion by @rooneyemily
from filings late Monday, 3-2-15:
Govt on jurors believing #Tsarnaev guilty: Opinion was weakly held precisely because it was based only on media reports.
Govt on #Tsarnaev jury racial makeup: No law entitles defendant to jury of any particular composition or a venire that will be a substantially true mirror of the community.
Addendum to Role of Race,
Lack of Diversity in Jury Pool
posted 3-2-15
Marathon Bombing Trial Can Stay in Boston, Court Rules
A federal appeals court in Massachusetts has denied a request by lawyers of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to halt his trial and change the venue from Boston.
Complete Article via NBC
Divided Appeals Court Ruling
WGBH: The Tsarnaev Jury Pool: Questioning the Role of Race and the Absence of Diversity
Defense attorneys for alleged Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Thursday filed new information under seal to bolster their request before the US Appeals Court to move the trial out of Boston.
The defense team also moved to dismiss the 30-count indictment against Tsarnaev and cited the absence of racial diversity of the jury pool and the way it was selected.
Andy Thibault has sat in courtroom number 6 from the start to the finish of one-on-one juror questioning, which began five weeks ago. He’s taken meticulous notes and one observation stands out above all others he says.
“The most striking observation is that there have been so few people of color. So that whenever there is a person of color called during voir dire there is a great flutter of Twitter activity.”
Thibault, a legal writer and researcher, is the author of more COOL JUSTICE ...
... In this most recent complaint they state that the order of jurors who were questioned one-by-one by Judge O’Toole was not random and had “non-neutral effects on cognizable groups”. In other words young people and people of color were under-represented during voir dire. The consequence says Harvard Law school professor Charles Ogletree is significant ...
Complete Article & podcast via WGBH
Cool Justice Editor’s Note 3-2-15, from an ongoing review of voir dire reports:
On Jan. 26, a day of heightened security, pool reporters noted the first black jurors appeared. This was the seventh day of voir dire or individual questioning. A total of 81 jurors had been questioned during the first six days.
Many of the jurors questioned to that point expressed strong feelings about the guilt of the defendant and positions for or against the death penalty. Some said they would vote to convict even if the prosecution fails to make its case.
By Friday, Jan. 30 – the ninth day of voir dire – prosecution and defense teams exhausted the first panel of 1,373 jurors. Juror #246 – from the second panel – was the 109th to be interviewed.
It appeared that a clear majority of prospective jurors questioned to that point gave answers which would tend to eliminate them as fair, impartial and aware of or accepting of the burden of proof on the prosecution.
On Feb. 18 – the 17th day of voir dire – The Boston Globe noted the first juror of the day was a brown-skinned man. He was the 207th juror to be questioned.
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Boston Bombing: Tsarnaev's Lawyers Argue to Relocate Trial
BOSTON — Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense lawyers argued Thursday [Feb. 19] that the trial's jury pool has been irrevocably tainted with a presumption of prejudice and therefore the proceedings should be moved out of town.
Complete Article via NBC
News item: U.S. Judge O'Toole says jury selection going well in Boston Marathon bombing case #Tsarnaev
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#Tsarnaev case updates 3-2-15 #BostonMarathonBombings
Addendum to Role of Race,
Lack of Diversity in Jury Pool
posted 3-2-15
Marathon Bombing Trial Can Stay in Boston, Court Rules
A federal appeals court in Massachusetts has denied a request by lawyers of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to halt his trial and change the venue from Boston.
Complete Article via NBC
Divided Appeals Court Ruling
WGBH: The Tsarnaev Jury Pool: Questioning the Role of Race and the Absence of Diversity
Defense attorneys for alleged Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Thursday filed new information under seal to bolster their request before the US Appeals Court to move the trial out of Boston.
The defense team also moved to dismiss the 30-count indictment against Tsarnaev and cited the absence of racial diversity of the jury pool and the way it was selected.
Andy Thibault has sat in courtroom number 6 from the start to the finish of one-on-one juror questioning, which began five weeks ago. He’s taken meticulous notes and one observation stands out above all others he says.
“The most striking observation is that there have been so few people of color. So that whenever there is a person of color called during voir dire there is a great flutter of Twitter activity.”
Thibault, a legal writer and researcher, is the author of more COOL JUSTICE ...
... In this most recent complaint they state that the order of jurors who were questioned one-by-one by Judge O’Toole was not random and had “non-neutral effects on cognizable groups”. In other words young people and people of color were under-represented during voir dire. The consequence says Harvard Law school professor Charles Ogletree is significant ...
Complete Article & podcast via WGBH
Cool Justice Editor’s Note 3-2-15, from an ongoing review of voir dire reports:
On Jan. 26, a day of heightened security, pool reporters noted the first black jurors appeared. This was the seventh day of voir dire or individual questioning. A total of 81 jurors had been questioned during the first six days.
Many of the jurors questioned to that point expressed strong feelings about the guilt of the defendant and positions for or against the death penalty. Some said they would vote to convict even if the prosecution fails to make its case.
By Friday, Jan. 30 – the ninth day of voir dire – prosecution and defense teams exhausted the first panel of 1,373 jurors. Juror #246 – from the second panel – was the 109th to be interviewed.
It appeared that a clear majority of prospective jurors questioned to that point gave answers which would tend to eliminate them as fair, impartial and aware of or accepting of the burden of proof on the prosecution.
On Feb. 18 – the 17th day of voir dire – The Boston Globe noted the first juror of the day was a brown-skinned man. He was the 207th juror to be questioned.
more COOL JUSTICE
Cool Justice Twitter
Boston Bombing: Tsarnaev's Lawyers Argue to Relocate Trial
BOSTON — Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense lawyers argued Thursday [Feb. 19] that the trial's jury pool has been irrevocably tainted with a presumption of prejudice and therefore the proceedings should be moved out of town.
Complete Article via NBC
News item: U.S. Judge O'Toole says jury selection going well in Boston Marathon bombing case #Tsarnaev
Tweet
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#Tsarnaev case updates 2-28-15 #BostonMarathonBombings
Marathon Bombing Trial Can Stay in Boston, Court Rules
A federal appeals court in Massachusetts has denied a request by lawyers of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to halt his trial and change the venue from Boston.
Complete Article via NBC
Divided Appeals Court Ruling
WGBH: The Tsarnaev Jury Pool: Questioning the Role of Race and the Absence of Diversity
Defense attorneys for alleged Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Thursday filed new information under seal to bolster their request before the US Appeals Court to move the trial out of Boston.
The defense team also moved to dismiss the 30-count indictment against Tsarnaev and cited the absence of racial diversity of the jury pool and the way it was selected.
Andy Thibault has sat in courtroom number 6 from the start to the finish of one-on-one juror questioning, which began five weeks ago. He’s taken meticulous notes and one observation stands out above all others he says.
“The most striking observation is that there have been so few people of color. So that whenever there is a person of color called during voir dire there is a great flutter of Twitter activity.”
Thibault, a legal writer and researcher, is the author of [more C OOL JUSTICE].
Complete Article
more COOL JUSTICE
Cool Justice Twitter
Boston Bombing: Tsarnaev's Lawyers Argue to Relocate Trial
BOSTON — Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense lawyers argued Thursday [Feb. 19] that the trial's jury pool has been irrevocably tainted with a presumption of prejudice and therefore the proceedings should be moved out of town.
Complete Article via NBC
News item: U.S. Judge O'Toole says jury selection going well in Boston Marathon bombing case #Tsarnaev
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February 10, 2015
News item: U.S. Judge O'Toole says jury selection going well in Boston Marathon bombing case #Tsarnaev
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole–in his third motion denying a change of venue for the Boston Marathon bombing trial–boasted again that “the process of interviewing prospective jurors in person … is proving successful.”
O’Toole pointed to a particular juror as an example of fair-mindedness: One human resources professional explained that it was a common occurrence in her experience for her initial impression of the merits of a workplace controversy to be altered or even reversed when she had information from a fuller or more careful investigation, and so she had learned to keep her judgment suspended until she had all the necessary information.
The court interviewed this particular juror on Jan. 22, the fifth day of voir dire, as the individual questioning of prospective jurors is known.
However, the human resources professional O’Toole cited as a voir dire success story made quite a few statements the judge declined to note in his ruling …
Complete article @whowhatwhy
Where presumption of innocence is just ‘a term of art’
WGBH’s Emily Rooney on the jury pool
Documents and rulings O’Toole doesn’t want anyone to see Washington Post: O’Toole rips defense on disclosures about jury pool
Gideon: It depends on what you mean by a fair trial- updated
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January 25, 2015
The latest #Tsarnaev memo U.S. District Judge George O’Toole doesn’t want anyone to see
Among hundreds of others judge hides,
or tries to hide,
in sealing frenzy
The pre-trial results are in from a straw poll of prospective jurors in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capital felony case.
Not suprisingly, it’s a landslide for guilty.
The defense team argues that out of 1,373 prospective jurors, 68 percent believe Tsarnaev is guilty of taking part in the Boston Marathon bombing. If one adds to that personal connections or allegiances to people affected by the terrorist attack, the number of jurors who already have a reason to vote for guilty leaps to 85 percent, according to a motion filed by the defense.
What’s even more unusual is the reaction of U.S. District Judge George O’Toole to the motion, which was filed publicly and disseminated widely on social media … Link to memo & complete article at WhoWhatWhy
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Hardware on display outside court
--
more COOL JUSTICE Jazz Trailer
Louis The Coin: ‘You Thought It Was More’
Cool Justice Blog
January 22, 2015
. @LouisTheCoin Equipment Redux [links to NL Day feature &] signed copy 'You Thought It Was More' #WorldsGreatestCounterfeiter
NEW: This Saturday [Jan. 24], Louis Colavecchio is scheduled to appear with Franz Douskey at "Untold Stories," an event at Artspace in Hartford
Artspace's 'Untold Stories'
Strip after coinage blanks have been punched out, dies and rubber impressions of tokens
Electrical Discharge Machine used to reproduce the token dies - also known as a spark erosion machine
Rolls used to produce strip of the required thickness
Press to produce coinage blanks or strike the tokens
A press to strike the tokens
Electro plating equipment
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NL Day features @LouisTheCoin’s new book #YouThoughtItWasMore
Follow Louis on Twitter @LouisTheCoin
Signed copy
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January 20, 2015
NL Day features @LouisTheCoin’s new book #YouThoughtItWasMore
"My style was to take a couple hundred grand from each casino," he said. "If I didn't do your casino, it was an insult."
Complete Article by Karen Florin
ANNOUNCEMENT: World’s Greatest Counterfeiter Louis ‘The Coin’ Pens Memoir
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January 14, 2015
January 9, 2015
What Is 'more COOL JUSTICE?' Jazz Trailer Tells The Story
Trailer via YouTube
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more COOL JUSTICE print edition signed copy
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Flashback: 'The joint was jumpin' -Bob Thiesfield photo gallery #HickoryStickBookshop #moreCOOLJUSTICE 10-10-14
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Courant Sunday Book Page 12-21-14 has 'more COOL JUSTICE' in good company
Cool Justice Blog
December 29, 2014
ANNOUNCEMENT: World’s Greatest Counterfeiter Louis ‘The Coin’ Pens Memoir
click on book jacket images
for better viewing
“You Thought It Was More,”
By Louis Colavecchio
with Franz Douskey
and Andy Thibault
WESTPORT, Conn., Dec. 29, 2014 – “You Thought It Was More” is a profane and raucously funny memoir from the world’s greatest counterfeiter, Louis ‘The Coin’ Colavecchio.
Colavecchio, who created mass quantities of undetectable slot machine tokens, writes with commanding vigor about his wild adventures throughout the US and Europe His talents as a jeweler, manufacturer and man of romance are part of the historical record – as seen on The History Channel and The BBC. It might be an understatement to say Colavecchio changed the face of casino gambling forever.
Ride with Louis The Coin at 160 mph in his Lamborghini making score after score. From Providence to Atlantic City and Vegas to Rome, Milan, Florence and Geneva, he’s the genuine article. As one of the cops who arrested Louis notes in the introduction, “He was very creative, an artist.” Who knew metallurgy could be riveting? What? You thought it was more … The just-published book from Westport-based Icebox Publishing will be available on Amazon as well as in bookstores internationally in the coming days.
“We concentrate on unique, out-of-the-box content here at IceBox and Louis’s life story definitely fits that bill,” said L. Todd Wood, principal of IceBox Publishing. “It’s a great book to pick up and whisk yourself away to another world where most people would never be allowed entrance. I couldn't put the book down.”
Louis The Coin began a life of entrepreneurial adventure as a youngster.
Along the way he got to know many characters on all sides of the law, throughout the United States and Europe.
His father had arrived in Providence from Italy in 1903. As an established businessman, Benedict Colavecchio and his wife Theorora encouraged young Louis to gain an education.
While working fulltime, Louis Colavecchio earned a degree in business administration from Providence College.
Colavecchio was such a great counterfeiter – The Providence Journal reported – that after he spent more than two years in federal prison for his handiwork, he was paid $18,000 by the feds as a consultant to explain why his manufacturing dies outlast those at the U.S. Mint.
They say he was a hero in Providence as well because The Coin did not rat out any of his friends.
Over the past eight years, The Coin worked with co-authors Franz Douskey and Andy Thibault to bring the manuscript to IceBox.
Now, Louis applies all his talents and imagination in a new venue – storyteller.
Follow Louis on Twitter @LouisTheCoin
You Thought It Was More via Kindle
Signed copy
For more information, contact:
Andy Thibault, 860-690-0211
tntcomm82@cs.com
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