ABBEVILLE, South Carolina (AP) -- Steven Bixby considers himself a patriot and a prophet with no regrets about gunning down two law officers at his parents' home, according to hundreds of pages of letters written after his arrest.
The letters, each signed "chaotic patriot Steve," also reveal his personal demons and ironclad beliefs, and in one he questions his own sanity.
The 39-year-old man was convicted Sunday, after a five-day trial, of murdering the two officers. On Tuesday, the penalty phase of his trial begins; the same jury that convicted him has a choice of sentencing him to death or to life without chance of parole.
His family was upset because the state wanted to take about 20 feet of land near their home to widen a highway. Witnesses said Bixby and his father, who is awaiting trial on murder charges, had threatened to gun down any officer who set foot on their land.
During deliberations that lasted less than 2-1/2 hours, jurors asked to rehear some of the letters to a former girlfriend in which Bixby described how he took one wounded officer's gun, handcuffed the dying man, dragged him inside the house and read him Miranda rights.
"I started to cry but I got refocused on the job," he wrote to former girlfriend Alane Taylor. "If we had wanted to, that whole day would have been an entire bloodbath."
The officer, Abbeville County sheriff's Sgt. Danny Wilson, was dragged into the house after he was gunned down while standing on the front porch, authorities said.
State Constable Donnie Ouzts was sent to check on Wilson and was shot when he stepped out of his patrol car. Ouzts died on the way to a hospital.
Police surrounded the house for the rest of the day in a standoff with Bixby and his father that didn't end until after hundreds of rounds were fired.
Steven Bixby and his father, Arthur, who was wounded, were charged with murder.
Public defender Charles Grose said Bixby composed more than 1,500 pages worth of letters to Taylor in the first year after his arrest that day in 2003. In them, Bixby is steadfast in his belief that the shootings were justified, calling them "right and correct in God's eyes."
"We the people are a majority," Bixby wrote. "The laws were made to protect us from the police."
On the stand for the defense Saturday, Bixby's mother agreed. "He has the right to protect his property by any means necessary," testified Rita Bixby, 74.
Although she wasn't home during the gun battle, she was charged as an accessory because authorities say she knew her husband and son planned to harm police officers.
The 20 feet of land the family refused to give up has since been used to expand a highway that runs near the now-vacant home.
The letters include ramblings about the significance of some numbers, including mathematical equations involving his birth date, age and length of jail time.
He says God "wants all the evil to be exposed" and mentions a premonition of the shootout: "I saw this in a dream about a month before it happened."
ATLANTA — In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Alabama statute banning the commercial distribution of sex toys, saying that there is no fundamental right to privacy raised by the plaintiff’s case against the law.
According to the statute, it is “unlawful for any person to knowingly distribute any obscene material or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.”
In 1998, the Alabama chapter of the ACLU brought suit on behalf of several plaintiffs — chief among them adult toy retailer Sherri Williams — seeking to enjoin the statute. The recent ruling by the 11th Circuit marks the third trip through the appellate process for the case.
In his opinion affirming the Alabama District Court’s ruling, Judge Charles Wilson concluded that the state has a “legitimate rational basis for the challenged legislation” despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision — Lawrence vs. Texas which overruled anti-sodomy laws across the country.
Adult entertainment industry attorney Reed Lee told XBIZ that the Lawrence case, which overruled Bowers vs. Hardwick, combined with another famous line of cases — Griswold vs. Connecticut and Roe vs. Wade — establish a clear right to what the U.S. Supreme Court has called a personal zone of autonomy protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
“I think the plaintiffs in this case are having a difficult time because although they rely on well-established doctrine that says consensual acts between adults is within that zone of protected autonomy, that doctrine comes from some of the most controversial Supreme Court cases in the last few decades,” Lee said. “But from the word ‘go’ the U.S. Supreme Court has given a plaintiff such as Williams the analysis necessary to win.”
Lee said that cases involving substantive due process issues often require multiple appellate challenges to vindicate a plaintiff’s rights.
In deciding the Williams case, Wilson wrote that the recent decision in Lawrence was distinguishable because that case did not involve the sale or distribution of anything — merely the right to engage in sexually protected acts within a zone of privacy.
The statute at issue in Lawrence criminalized private sexual conduct, the statute at issue in this case “forbids public, commercial activity,” Wilson wrote.
But according to Lee, the U.S. Supreme Court in Griswold made clear that the right to use contraception — the issue in that case — didn’t mean anything without the right to buy it.
“It seems to many of us that right to use a mechanical device such as a sex toy is already encompassed in the Griswold and Lawrence decisions,” Lee said.
According to Lee, the third decision by the 11th Circuit looks to be the last word on the case from that court. But he said the plaintiffs are likely to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whether the U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear the case is unclear. But Lee said, if the Court does not take the case, it says nothing about the merits of the law in question.
In October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a Texas case banning the distribution of “obscene sex toys.”
In that case, Acosta vs. Texas, attorney Roger Diamond urged the Court to weigh in on the matter because of conflicting opinions around the country from various state courts.
Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana courts have all said that laws banning the sale of sex toys on obscenity grounds are unconstitutional.
Courts in Georgia, Mississippi and Texas have upheld sex toy bans.
As those cases work their way through the federal appellate ranks, a split in the circuits would likely compel the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a sex toy case.
“If Texas can’t have a law against sodomy, it seems difficult to say that Alabama can ban the sale of sex toys,” Lee said.
Bixby needs to be a little more familiar with US Law.
The government has every right to take people's land if they feel it is within the greater good of society (i.e. to expand roads, build highways, etc).
However, the government is required to give these people advance notice and pay them "fair value" for the land, which is typically appraised by an independent contractor. If a landowner disputes by finding it worth more by another contractor, the courts will typically take the average value of the two appraisals.
If nothing else, the police are just doing their jobs. They don't benefit from the government taking Bixby's land (aside from the convenience of the extended road, but all other citizens enjoy that too). They shouldn't be punished.
An 82-year-old woman told a neighbour's daughter that she was a "witch" and would cast a spell on her family and kill her pet dog, a court has heard.
Dorothy Evans denies verbally abusing the 13-year-old's family, who live next door in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.
The girl's mother told Cardiff Crown Court how her daughter grew so scared of the threats she wore a crucifix.
Mrs Evans denies harassment and breaching an anti-social behaviour order.
The hearing was told Angela Casa's family feared she would have a nervous breakdown as a result of her elderly neighbour's behaviour.
The court heard how the Casa family had moved into their three-bedroom house in November 2004, and for the first year there were no problems.
But in December 2005 there was a disagreement over a boundary wall which Mrs Evans wanted to remove stones from.
Mrs Casa said from that point on her neighbour became abusive.
The jury was told of arguments over a lorry delivering paving stones to the Casas' house.
"Mrs Evans was shouting abuse through the window, saying that we had paid a company to park near to the tree and destroy the tree with fumes," Mrs Casa said.
The pensioner blamed the Casas' property for her home's flooding problems, but a council inspection found this was not the case, she told the court.
Mrs Casa said during parking disputes Mrs Evans had blocked her vehicle in and attempted to drive into it on several occasions.
She said the pensioner always used bad language towards her - once calling her a "slut" because she was sat on the front doorstep of her home - and her children were often present when the verbal abuse took place.
Mrs Evans had displayed photographs of the Casas' home in her garage window alongside a sign saying "scum", the jury heard.
"It's absolute hell. You're afraid to go out of your own front door, because you know she's going to start," Mrs Casa said.
"She's in the window watching you constantly."
Mrs Casa, who has had CCTV installed in her house, told the court she had developed a rash and was taking sleeping tablets.
She said Mrs Evans had threatened her daughter on "numerous occasions" and had told her she would have her pet Jack Russell destroyed.
She said her daughter wore a cross and chain around her neck because of the pensioner's comments about her being a witch.
"It has affected my daughter badly. She sleeps in my bed most nights when my husband is away," she said.
When cross examined from David Webster, defending, Mrs Casa said if she could find someone to buy the house, she would "move tomorrow".
"I just want a peaceful life, that's all. I don't want any more aggro.
"It's day in, day out, and I can't cope with it," she added.
Mrs Casa admitted saying she wished her neighbour was "six feet under", adding: "The only time I made that comment was when she had hit me with a walking stick, and I had a red line down my face."
Her husband Roberto, who lives in London during the week, told the court leaving his home was a relief but returning made his heart beat "10 to the dozen".
Mr Casa denied purposefully spraying Mrs Evans and her daughter with a hosepipe as they sat in a car outside his property.
Mrs Evans was arrested in July 2006 and charged in September, and had denied abusing her neighbours during police questioning, the jury heard.
Keep in mind, you aren't allowed to push the kid out until you're 10 cm (almost 4 inches) dilated (as in diameter of opening), plus you stretch a lot like rubber. Also, your average baby is about 7 pounds.
According to my growth chart, the average newborn head circumference is 32-38 cm (13-15 in), which would put the diameter at a little over 10 cm, or about 4 inches.
Edit: Also, newborn heads are squishy because the bone hasn't hardened yet.
We're designed alright for the pushing part. It's labor that hurts like hell.
I hate people. If you're kid can't tell the difference between a shot to keep a disease out of society and an OK to have sex, you have failed as a parent. Your kid's gonna have sex or not have sex regardless of the vaccination.
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11th Circuit Court of Appeals Says: No Fundamental Right to go Fuck Yourself
So that guy's completely insane.
The government has every right to take people's land if they feel it is within the greater good of society (i.e. to expand roads, build highways, etc).
However, the government is required to give these people advance notice and pay them "fair value" for the land, which is typically appraised by an independent contractor. If a landowner disputes by finding it worth more by another contractor, the courts will typically take the average value of the two appraisals.
If nothing else, the police are just doing their jobs. They don't benefit from the government taking Bixby's land (aside from the convenience of the extended road, but all other citizens enjoy that too). They shouldn't be punished.
Dumbass.
What's CCTV?
What's "10 to the dozen"?
Vietnam: A colossal pain in the ass for America in the 70s
No, I'm not kidding, they do, at least some.
It's still probably the equivalent of pushing a golf ball out your penis so ya got a point.
According to my growth chart, the average newborn head circumference is 32-38 cm (13-15 in), which would put the diameter at a little over 10 cm, or about 4 inches.
Edit: Also, newborn heads are squishy because the bone hasn't hardened yet.
We're designed alright for the pushing part. It's labor that hurts like hell.
That's not something I would have thought of by myself.