A recent report has discovered that drug defendants who’ve gone to trial in the past couple of years are being forced to plead guilty. According to the Huffington Post, in 2012, drug defendants who went to trial and lost are sentenced more than three times as many years than defendants who took plea deals. The majority of defendants who did go to trial (89 percent) ultimately lost. The amount hasn’t been lower since the ’80s – and even then it was a high 60 percent. [Huff Post]
A Brooklyn resident was held in a police cell for over 30 hours after police believed the breath mints the man were carrying were Ecstasy pills. Ron Hankins is now suing after he was still charged for a crime he didn’t commit. The incident happened in April. Although he tried to tell cops they were mints, he was still arrested for possession of MDMA. [Gawker]
If BlackBerry needs a mascot, they should ask President Obama. The president claims that he doesn’t use an iPhone because of ‘security reasons.’ The statement was said Wednesday at a meeting with youth leaders while he was discussing the Affordable Care Act. Obama also claims that he had to fight to keep using his BlackBerry after entering office in 2009. [Huff Post]
After allegedly putting the needs of the pasture before safety during the horrific blaze of Yarnell Hill that killed 19 firefighters, an Arizona state agency has been fined $559,000. The report claims that the fire was handled incorrectly. With the firefighters fighting two fires just before, they were most likely exhausted when they arrived at Yarnell Hill. [Buzz Feed]
