Month: May 2013

“In Guantanamo, Have We Created Something We Can’t Close?”

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

“In Guantanamo, Have We Created Something We Can’t Close?”

That was the title of a recent story on NPR’s All Things Considered.  Here is how the story began: 

The crisis at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp keeps growing in size and intensity. According to the military’s own count, 100 of the 166 men held in the prison there are now on hunger strike, and the 27 most in danger of dying are being force-fed.

Last month, guards had to forcibly subdue a camp where even the most cooperative detainees are held.

The hunger strike was triggered by a February search of inmates’ Qurans, though the details are hotly disputed. What’s remarkable, however, is that everyone — including detainees, lawyers and the military — agrees that the real reason for the unrest is simply the frustration that the camp has stayed open so long.

Syracuse University Helps Wounded Vets Start Small Businesses

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Syracuse University Helps Wounded Vets Start Small Businesses

Tonight, 60 Minutes ran a story about  veteran Mike Haynie, who has created a course to teach vets how to launch their own businesses at the Whitman School of Management   The segment starts as follows: 

In January, Walmart pledged to hire any recent veteran who wanted a job – the company projects that could be 100,000 vets in the next five years. That’s a big commitment at a time when it’s needed.

 

There are three million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and they face a host of problems when they come home. It’s not just unemployment, nearly half have a disability because of their service. Most tragically, more soldiers killed themselves last year than died at the hands of the enemy.

 

One veteran turned business school professor has an innovative solution to help them succeed as civilians: give the vets a new mission — business ownership. Funded in part by Walmart, PepsiCo and other companies, he started a small business incubator, tailor-made to help disabled vets trade in their combat boots for business suits.

“Will Accused Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Get the Death Penalty?”

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

“Will Accused Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Get the Death Penalty?”

This was the question being investigated on the Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast.  Here is a description of the show: 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother of the accused for the Boston marathon bombings, has become a face of the media lately. His prosecution and potential sentence raises many questions for both the public and the legal world. Attorneys and co-hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi joinAttorney Jack Cunha and Professor Douglas Berman to discuss the prosecution and trial of the suspect.

  • Jack Cunha, of Cunha & Holcomb, is a practicing criminal attorney based in Boston, Massachusetts. A former instructor at Suffolk and Harvard Law Schools, Cunha lectures nationally for various associations and schools such as The National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, Harvard Law, and CLE Programs mainly on criminal defense.
  • Douglas Berman, Professor of Law at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, has taught a myriad of courses at Ohio State including criminal law, criminal punishment and sentencing, and the death penalty. He is co-author of a casebook, Sentencing Law and Policy: Cases, Statutes, and Guidelines. He also writes a popular blog titled Sentencing Law and Policy.

Tune in to hear what these experienced professionals have to say as they answer questions such as: Although Massachusetts outlawed the death penalty in 1984, will prosecutors use federal law to seek the death penalty for Tsarnaev? Will the fact that the suspect is only 19 call for mitigation? and more.