"Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies..."

"...For false witnesses are risen up against me."  That was The defense attorney for Colombo crime family street boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli during his closing arguments yesterday.  The NY Post has more:

Perlmutter implored the Brooklyn federal court jury to be careful in weighing the source of the evidence amassed against Gioeli.
"You must evaluate the credibility of these witnesses to decide if you can believe them," the attorney said.
That's when the spiritual tone evaporated in the silent courtroom, as Perlmutter described the ex-mobsters who testified against Gioeli as government witnesses, calling them "untrustworthy, unreliable, desperate individuals."
"You know what else they are? Rats!" Perlmutter said of the FBI informants.
Furthermore, even if Gioeli admittedly was at the scene at one of the premeditated mob hits, the attorney argued, that doesn't mean that he played a role in the killing.
"Simply because he was there, he is not guilty of that murder," Perlmutter said.

2.  The NY Times discusses bad words in the Supreme Court:

The most versatile of the classic Anglo-Saxon swear words has, diligent research reveals, made just one appearance in oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The cursing, in 1971, probably won the case, which concerned the prosecution of a vulgar protest against the draft during the Vietnam War. By repeating the word in court, the protester’s lawyer showed that it could have a role in public discourse. Over the next two decades or so, the word was used in nine Supreme Court decisions, typically in quotations of something a criminal had said. Its last appearance was in 1993.

Popular culture has grown coarser over the years, and the word is commonplace in hit songs and ubiquitous on cable television. The Supreme Court has moved in the opposite direction.

The justices do not want to hear the word even when the case before them turns on it. In arguments in 2008 and 2011, they considered two aspects of a case about whether the government may punish the broadcasting of four-letter words from four-letter celebrities like Bono and Cher, but no lawyer or justice said the words. When an appeals court first heard the case in 2006, judges uttered and examined the key word, considering whether its every permutation had a sexual connotation. 

3.  Looks like John Goodman is going to get a new trial.  Roy is doing a great job (via the PBP):

One juror in the panel that convicted polo mogul John Goodman of DUI manslaughter last month said he was not convinced of Goodman's guilt.

Juror Michael St. John made the revelation this afternoon as Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath interviewed the six jurors and two alternates on the case in response to allegations of juror misconduct in the case surrounding the Feb. 2010 drowning death of 23-year-old Scott Wilson. St. John said that he was pressured by other jurors to find Goodman guilty of DUI manslaughter.
"So when I asked you at the end of the case whether the verdict was your verdict, and you looked at me and said yes, why did you say that?" Colbath asked St. John.
"I didn't look at anyone," St. John responded. "I didn't look at him, I didn't look at any of the other jurors. I just looked at the floor when you asked me."

4.  Former NFL players are charged with ID-theft (via Jay Weaver):

 Three former National Football League players have been arrested by the FBI on federal charges in connection with an alleged scheme to steal people’s identities and file false tax returns in others’ names to collect thousands of dollars in refunds, according to authorities.

The three ex-NFL players charged with defrauding the federal government and ID theft are: William Joseph, a University of Miami defensive tackle drafted in the first round by the New York Giants in 2003; Michael Bennett, a University of Wisconsin running back also drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Vikings in 2001; and Louis Gachelin, a Syracuse University defensive tackle who was drafted by the New England Patriots in 2004.

Joseph and Gachelin are Miami natives; Bennett was born in Milwaukee. All three were questioned after their arrests Monday by FBI agents at the bureau’s North Miami Beach regional office. They were then transferred to the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami for court appearances Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Dube, according to the clerk’s office. Details of the alleged scheme are expected to be disclosed in a criminal complaint to be released later Tuesday.