When is sugar not sugar

Yesterday's post resulted in the receipt of this story, said to be true:

"An ex-boyfriend was charged with putting sugar in his ex-girlfriend's gas tank. She saw him doing it and called the police. The police stopped his vehicle and found a gallon jug nearly full of sugar. Sugar was found in the girlfriend's gas tank, the car was damaged, sugar was spilt in the defendant's floorboard, etc.

During cross-examination, the clever defense attorney questioned the arresting officer about the gallon jug found in defendant's possession. Defense attorney asked if, in fact, any field tests had been done on the substance to prove that the white substance was sugar. The officer responded 'no, sir.'

The defense attorney, sensing a vulnerable prey, continued by stating 'That's right, officer. You really don't know what that substance is. For all you know, that white substance found in my client's car could be COCAINE, couldn't it?!'"

When is a firearm not a firearm

VLW Blog links here to this opinion from the Court of Appeals, in which the panel of Judges Kelsey and Petty and Senior Judge Bumgardner granted a writ of innocence.

And, the basis was evidence that the firearm was not a firearm.

Which makes me think of a case years ago, where a Bristol lawyer was defending somebody charged with transporting a truckload of marijuana, and he was going to try to prove that the stuff was not marijuana, and I think the plan was that since he had no expert witness he offered to prove this at trial by putting some in the Commonwealth's Attorney's pipe to see what would happen.

On trees and mining

The Bristol paper reports here on last week's proceedings in the Sierra Club case, including some quotes attributed to me.

Then, the same paper published a front-page story in the paper today, with the bold prediction that mountain-top mining will be outlawed by the end of 2009.