The book is about a young man, Holden Caulfield, who travels home after being expelled from an exclusive preparatory school. Instead of going directly home, Caulfield takes a wandering trip, thinking about what he wants to tell his family, and how best to deal with being kicked out of school. Caulfield narrates the story himself, to a psychoanalyst. (Hints are made as the story moves forward, that he is in a mental hospital. At the end of the book this is revealed.)
The book contains many profanities, and many people do not like the book for that reason. It was banned in many places. Other people see the profanity as Caulfield's way of showing his feelings of frustration and isolation with life. Many young people, boys in particular, relate to the story and its language, and feel that Caulfield would understand them if he knew them. For this reason, many schools require their students to read it.
Evan Lysacek
Evan Lysacek (born June 4, 1985) is an American figure skater. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. Lysacek has trained all over the world, including in Switzerland and in Moscow. He now trains in El Segundo, California under his trainer Frank Carroll. Carroll at one time trained Michelle Kwan.
Lysacek won the United States Figure Skating Championships in 2007. He has won two bronze medals at the World Figure Skating Championships. He has also won the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships twice. Lysacek has won three silver medals at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships. That, followed immediately by his two bronze medals at the senior World Championships, meant that until 2007, he had won a medal at every World Championship he had ever entered.
Richard Childress Racing
Richard Childress Racing is a NASCAR racing team that is owned by Richard Childress. The team has operated for over 10 years and won over 100 races in the Sprint Cup Series. The team has also won 6 Sprint Cup series Championships. Notable drivers who have raced for Richard Childress Racing include Dale Earnhardt, and the current drivers are Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman.
Bobby Darin
Walden Robert Cassotto (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973), better known as Bobby Darin, was an American pop singer, most famous during the 1950s. His hits included "Mack the Knife", "Dream Lover", "If I Were a Carpenter", "Splish Splash", and "Beyond the Sea". He also helped Wayne Newton begin his musical career.
Allen Klein, an accountant who became an artist manager, first came to public attention when he audited Darin's royalty payments, and discovered Darin had been underpaid. His record company paid up, and Darin split the money with Klein.
Darin was married to actress Sandra Dee from 1960 to 1967. They had a son, named Dodd. Darin died late in 1973 after heart surgery.
In 2004, a movie, "Beyond the Sea", was made about Darin's life and career. Actor Kevin Spacey, a longtime Darin fan, produced and starred in the movie, with Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee.
Sasha Cohen
Alexandra Pauline "Sasha" Cohen (born October 26, 1984) is an American figure skater. She is the 2006 U.S. National Champion, 2003 Grand Prix Final Champion, and 2006 Olympic silver medalist.
Justification (theology)
In Christian theology, justification is God's act of pardoning someone's sins, because of their belief in Christ.
The idea of justification is found in several books of both the Old Testament, and New Testament. Protestants believe justification is the line that divided the Roman Catholics from the Protestants during the Reformation Martin Luther and other reformers taught that faith alone made a person right with God, apart from doing good works. However, they taught that after they were justified by faith, good works would follow. Catholics tended to stress that the good works were part of what made a Christian acceptable to God. In recent times these two positions have come closer together.
Jury nullification
Jury nullification is a jury on purpose ignoring evidence or refusing to apply the law as explained in the jury instructions. A jury may feel the application of the law is unfair, unjust, or immoral in some way or may want to "send a message" about some social issue.
Jury nullification is not a legal function of a jury and is not usually considered to be consistent with a jury's duty to judge a case on the facts and the law.
It is clear that juries have the power to nullify. However, it is another question on if they have the right to nullify. Once the verdict of not guilty is returned, double jeopardy applies and so the defendant cannot be tried again. If a judge learns that a juror intends to nullify the verdict, the judge has the right to remove that juror. Typically, jurors are not told by the court that they have the power to nullify. Judges fear if they told jurors they would have jury anarchy on their hands with jurors doing whatever they please. However, jury nullification can provide valuable feedback and is sometimes useful if it is used wisely.
Jury nullification goes back to the beginnings of the jury system in England as established by the Magna Carta in 1215. The practice came to the United States during the colonial period. The case thought to be the precedent for jury nullification in the US is that of John Peter Zenger in 1735. He was put on trial for seditious libel. Zenger had criticized the governor in his newspaper, "The Weekly Journal". Trying everything he could to insure a guilty verdict, the governor even had Zenger's lawyers disbarred to prevent him from having legal representation. But the jury refused to convict him, going against the judge's orders.
Along with a history of jury nullification in the US, there is also a history of discriminatory acquittals.
An example of discriminatory acquittal is when jury nullification is used to punish female rape victims by allowing their rapists to go free. The same is true of female victims of domestic violence. The "appropriateness" of a female victim's behavior in court can a great deal to do with how a jury will act, according to studies on the subject. Another example is the 1991 case of Rodney King. King was an African-American man who was beat up by police officers on videotape. The jury acquitted the police officers of beating him up even though they watched the video in court.
Jury nullification can be a way for a jury to express their own prejudice and bias. Examples include all-white juries enforcing Jim Crow laws on black defendants while letting white defendants who committed racial crimes against blacks go free. Also, it can seem unfair to allow one defendant to go free for committing the same crime while another defendant is convicted, just because one jury decided to nullify the law. This challenges the concept of equal protection under Fourteenth Amendment.
In the 1895 Supreme Court decision "Sparf v. United States" the Court ruled that judges did not have an obligation to tell jurors about jury nullification. The decision did not say judges could not tell jurors about nullification or that jurors did not have that power. They only said judges were not required to tell jurors. This led to the now common practice of judges in the U.S. penalizing defense attorneys who try in any way to present a nullification argument.
When a jury lets guilty people go free, it is called jury nullification. When a prosecutor decides not to charge a guilty person of a crime, it is called "prosecutorial discretion". Prosecutors are legal professionals while jury members are not. However prosecutors are also politicians and may make politically motivated decisions or may be corrupt. Judges will often instruct a jury to return a verdict based on the merits of the case and not the merits of the law. But one argument is that juries have a responsibility to decide if they think the law is wrong in a particular case.