The law and the jungle

I have written before that I have both libertarian and conservative instincts when it comes to gay marriage. My libertarian side says that if two consenting adults want to enter into a union, it's not government's business to decide who should or should not be able to. But my conservative half says that marriage has been defined one way in most places in most times and we should be careful messing around with it (unintended consequences and all that).

Two differfent victims, same set of circumstances, different verdict because of who one of the victims is. Sounds a lot like the justification used for hate-crimes legislation, doesn't it?

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An unusual verdict in the case of a former police officer accused of killing his pregnant lover opens up possible grounds for appeal if he's sentenced to death, some legal experts say.

Reason links to a fascinating back-and-forth on "12 Angry Men," the wonderful movie set entirely in a jury room. Was the kid actually guilty, gotten off by Henry Fonda's self-rightously liberal architect character? Or was the movie deliberately unclear on whether the kid actually did it as a way to show the difference between "guilty" and "beyond a reasonable doubt"? I tend toward the latter. That movie, by the way, shows why Henry Fonda was probably the best American actor ever.

Criminal geniuses of the week:

MUNCIE

As many as 56,000 Hoosiers may lose their drivers' licenses because they don't match the information in a Social Security database, and the American Civil Liberties Union is suing to keep it from happening:

"What the BMV is doing is taking legally an entitlement from thousands of people," the ACLU's Ken Falk said. "You're entitled to have a driver's license and the state can't come and take it away from you."

How to get out of prison after serving only a third of your time:

An Indiana teen convicted in a deadly DUI was released from prison Monday. Paige Grable served her time, but not as much as the victim's family -- or prosecutors -- expected. WAVE 3's David McArthur explains.

Grable was sentenced to 30 months but is out after nine months.

[. . .]

This seems like a harsh approach to discouraging bad habits, though I sometimes wonder how close to it we will get on anti-smoking measures in this country:

A young Iranian man has been sentenced to hang for repeatedly drinking alcohol which is strictly banned in the Islamic republic, the Etemad newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Not in the running for mother of the year. First up, this Hoosier:

An Indiana mother was arrested and jailed this morning after her toddler son was found trapped and unconscious underneath the passed-out woman and was declared dead an hour later.

OK, it's not a bad idea to encourage bartenders to quit serving people who are obviously drunk. But for the "give 'em an inch" file:

Mississippi legislators this week introduced a bill that would make it illegal for state-licensed restaurants to serve obese patrons.

Sure hope the next step isn't barring -- well, you fill in the blank.

The crack Muncie Police Department goes after a vicious criminal:

Whitney Stump didn't like watching drivers ignore the stop signs at the intersection outside his home, so he asked the city to paint crosswalks there.

When the city said no, he made one himself. And the city wasn't appreciative.