Drug Defense Attorney Matthews Bark Of Orlando | Saudi Arabia Executes People Over Drugs

Source    : Salon
By        :  Ben Norton
Category  :  Drug Defense Attorney Matthews Bark Of Orlando

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen bin Walid bin Abdulaziz was caught in an airport in Lebanon on Monday with over two tons of drugs.

Lebanese security found 40 suitcases full of more than 4,000 pounds of amphetamine pills and cocaine on the prince’s private plane, which was on its way to Saudi capital city Riyadh. A security source told AFP that this was the largest smuggling operation ever foiled by Beirut International Airport security.

While this may seem like just another case of rich and powerful aristocrats going wild, the implications of this drug bust are much more insidious: In Saudi Arabia, people are executed over drugs. And not rarely — several times a month, on average.

In fact, just hours after the Saudi prince was caught with thousands of pounds of drugs, a Pakistani drug smuggler was executed by the Saudi government.

Roughly half (47 percent) of people executed in Saudi Arabia are killed for drug-related offenses, according to Amnesty International. From August 2014 to August 2015, Amnesty documented 175 Saudi executions, an average of one every two days.

Every four days then, on average, the Saudi government executes someone for drug-related offenses — while its own princes are caught in airports with tons of drugs.

Although an extremist theocratic absolute monarchy in which women are not granted equal rights, Saudi Arabia — which has the world’s second-largest proven oil reserves — is a close Western ally.

When the Saudi regime was appointed to be the head of a U.N. Human Rights Council panel last month, the U.S. State Department said it “welcomed” the news, happily adding “we’re close allies.”

The Saudi regime officially has the world’s third-highest execution rate, after China and Iran. Yet China has almost 50 times more people, and Iran’s population is roughly three times that of Saudi Arabia.

Beheading is the most common form of execution in the kingdom. Firing squads are not uncommon either.

Critics have pointed out that, while Western governments and media are absolutely outraged at the brutal beheadings carried out by ISIS, those same governments and media are largely silent about the regular beheading of people by the Saudi monarchy.

Equally hypocritical are the standards by which the Saudi royal family are treated. Abdel Mohsen is by no means the first prince to be caught up in controversy. Mere days before he was caught in Lebanon, female staffers at a Beverly Hills mansion filed a lawsuit against another Saudi prince, Majid bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, accusing him of sexually abusing them and using illegal drugs. Staffers say the prince, who was doing cocaine and heavily drinking — another illegal activity in Saudi Arabia — ordered them all to strip naked, while uttering “I am a prince and I do what I want.” They also say the prince engaged in homosexual sex, which is punishable by death in the Saudi regime.

The Saudi royal family is infamous for its decadence. These two recent cases are not isolated. WikiLeaks cables show that Saudi princes regularly throw opulent parties inundated with alcohol, drugs, and sex, while the totalitarian religious police turn a blind eye to their felonious activities.

Saudi royalty live by a completely different set of rules — while the rest of the population lives under a ruthlessly violent Western-backed feudal dictatorship, in which they can and will be executed for stepping out of line.

(Source:salon.com/2015/10/27/saudi_arabia_executes_people_over_drugs_while_its_princes_are_caught_with_tons_of_drugs_at_the_airport/)

Drug Trafficking Attorney | FL Attorney General Won’t Ask Court to Block Pot Measure

Source    : wkrg
By        :  Associated Press
Category  : Trafficking in Drugs Attorney Matthews Bark

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi isn’t going to fight a measure to legalize medical marijuana.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the proposed amendment. The court must decide whether or not the ballot initiative is misleading and whether it complies with single-subject requirements.

Bondi spokesman Whitney Ray says the office isn’t going to file anything with the high court.

Bondi opposed the amendment that appeared on the 2014 ballot. That ballot measure failed because it didn’t meet the 60-percent threshold needed to pass.

Backers of medical marijuana need to collect more than 683,000 signatures by February in order to go before voters in 2016.


(Read More : wkrg.com/2015/11/09/fl-attorney-general-wont-ask-court-to-block-pot-measure/ )

DUI Attorney Matthews Bark | The loophole in DUI convicted drivers behind the wheel

Source    : wiat
By        : Brittany Bivins
Category  :  DUI Attorney Matthews Bark

In the early morning hours of August 5, 2015, 49-year-old Allison Elliott crossed the busy Highway 280 in Birmingham. That’s when police say Michael Terry Canty, a Tuscaloosa man, hit her and left the scene. Elliott later died.

Law enforcement officials say Canty fled the scene, and he was later charged with leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence. However, a WIAT investigation shows that Canty had other serious charges on his record, dating back nearly a decade.

Those include two court appearances for drunk driving, a DUI conviction and guilty plea, and a charge for driving a vehicle with an open container of alcohol. However, records indicate Canty was driving with a license on the day he is charged with hitting Elliott.

The WIAT investigative team set out to find out how that could happen. We turned to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office for answers. The DA could not speak specifically about Canty’s case, because it is still open, but they did speak with us in a more general way about the challenges of prosecuting DUI’s.

“They’ve taken away the district attorney’s ability in some of these cases to argue for imprisonment,” said Shelby County Assistant DA Alan Miller.

Miller tells us the laws surrounding DUI cases recently changed, making it more difficult to punish someone who has multiple DUI charges.

“The second DUI offense requires you to spend five days in the county jail. The third DUI offense in a five-year period requires you to spend sixty days in the county jail. If you commit a felony DUI, under the presumptive sentencing guidelines, you are not required to serve any jail time whatsoever,’ said Miller.

A felony DUI is classified as four or more DUIs and a five year period. Miller says that’s a change, too. The law used to mandate four or more DUIs over a lifetime of driving would result in a criminal record.

Shelby County District Attorney Jill Lee says the new sentencing guidelines passed by the state legislature this year are aimed at easing prison overcrowding.

“It’s very frustrating for me. It is very frustrating, I am certain, for others in the justice system. I am sure it is likewise frustrating for folks who have to make our laws and deal with prison overcrowding,” Lee told us.

We wanted to hear directly from Canty, so we went to the home address listed in court records. When we reached the house, we were told Canty was not home, but his stepfather, Bobby Miller, was.

Miller told us Canty did not know he had hit Allison Elliott on the day Canty is charged with hit-and-run. He told us Canty told him about the accident the day it happened.

“He said I was going to work over there on Highway 280, and I hit a dadgum deer,” said Miller.

We reached out multiple times to Canty’s attorney Jason Neff, who is listed as his lawyer in court records. Neff, however, would not return our calls or meet with us when we came to his office.


(Source : wiat.com/2015/11/18/dui-and-still-driving-the-loophole-that-lets-convicted-drivers-behind-the-wheel/ )