Vin Burnham has made a name for herself as a costume designer behind some big Hollywood blockbusters and hits on both the stage and screen.
And her decades-long career has seen her collect a rich seam of stories, including the time she nearly accidentally delayed the filming of a Batman movie.
Burnham helped create the iconic Batsuit worn by Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's Batman, which she later refined for the sequel Batman Returns.
On the very first day of filming Batman, she said she was in the dressing room getting the cowl ready when she mistakenly put her thumb through the front of it.
"There was only one and that is a complete crime," Burnham added.

#filming #hollywood #batsuit #name

Stars Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale walked the red carpet at the world premiere of Prime Video's Madden, in which Cage plays the **** ular John and Bale plays then-Raiders owner Al Davis.
Also on hand were co-stars Kathryn Hahn, Sienna Miller, John Mulaney, Shane Gillis and director David O. Russell.
More from Deadline
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Christopher Nolan's 'The Prestige' Sets 20th Anniversary Re-Release For 2027

#john #prime

Police searched Trippie Redd's all-black South Florida mansion on Tuesday, Oct. 6, while executing a search warrant.
NBC6 reported several police vehicles outside the home in Southwest Ranches, a town in western Broward County.
Officials have not disclosed what prompted the search or what investigators were looking for. It also remains unclear whether Trippie Redd, whose legal name is Michael Lamar White, is a target of the investigation.
TMZ reported that the rapper's representatives had not responded to its request for comment.
Reporting from outside the home for NBC6, Lena Salzbank said law-enforcement personnel had been coming and going for hours. She identified SWAT officers and crime-scene investigators among those entering and leaving the property.

#home

Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly unleashed a tirade at Olivia Rodrigo on Monday (October 5), telling the pop star to "shut up and stick to singing" after she spoke out about the Cornell 7 case.
"Olivia, in sum, you don't know what the f*** you're talking about. Shut up and stick to singing," Kelly said on her SiriusXM show, per Variety. "I liked you better when you were in front of a microphone singing your weird little depressing songs."
On Sunday (October 4), Rodrigo shared a post on her Instagram Story supporting the Jane Doe at the center of the Cornell 7 lawsuit. "Shame on Cornell and on every institution who protects rapists and abusers over women," the "drivers license" singer wrote. "I stand with Jane Doe. Her bravery reverberates across the country and the crimes against her will not go unpunished."
She added, "What she lived through matters, and so does the failure of those who could have intervened but chose not to. She deserves answers, consequences, and lasting change."
Rodrigo was talking about the lawsuit filed against Cornell University by an unnamed student, who accused seven men of raping and drugging her at a frat house party in October 2024. Her lawsuit claims that the university failed to protect her and instead protected the perpetrators.

#lawsuit #jane

Barry Keoghan has built a career by choosing characters that are rarely easy to understand. The Irish actor can appear vulnerable in one film and deeply unsettling in the next, often bringing an unpredictable quality to his performances. His journey into acting was equally unconventional, beginning far from the traditional routes into the entertainment industry. A difficult childhood in Dublin shaped his early years, while an unexpected opportunity introduced him to acting. Since then, Keoghan has developed into an internationally recognized performer with roles spanning independent dramas, major blockbusters and psychological thrillers.
Born in Dublin, Keoghan experienced considerable instability while growing up. His mother struggled with drug addiction and died when he was young, and he and his brother spent several years in foster care before being raised largely by their grandmother and aunt. Despite his later success, Keoghan has spoken warmly about returning home and immediately slipping back into ordinary family life, joking that celebrity status does not excuse him from making his bed or cleaning up after himself.
His entrance into acting came almost by chance. As a teenager, Keoghan noticed a casting advertisement in a local shop window for the Irish crime film Between the Canals. He responded despite having little professional experience and eventually secured a role. Television work followed, including the Irish drama Love/Hate, helping him develop his craft and attract greater attention.
His international profile grew dramatically in 2017. Keoghan appeared in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk as George Mills, a young civilian caught up in the evacuation of Allied soldiers from France. That same year, he delivered a very different performance opposite Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer. As the mysterious Martin, Keoghan demonstrated the unnerving screen presence that would become one of his greatest strengths.
Rather than remaining within one genre, he continued moving between dramatically different projects. He entered the Marvel universe as Druig in Eternals, appeared in The Green Knight and gained major acclaim for Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin. His performance as Dominic Kearney earned him a BAFTA and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

#keoghan #irish #dublin #despite

A woman claims she's cracked the code on identifying people you need to stay away from. In a TikTok video, Sid (sidandlisten) explained that her extensive experience watching true crime documentaries, along with her background in managing a YouTube channel that focused on true crime at one point, has given her insights into the types of people to be cautious of when dating.
"If you are dating someone and they have dead eyes, like, they. They. It doesn't express anything, and they just kind of look at you like this without moving their eyes or anything like that, and, like, there's just, like, no movement. There's no movement at all," Sid said. As she mentioned this, she stared blankly into the camera in an effort to show what the expression would look like in person.
Sid then highlighted another thing people should look out for when dating: pursed lips. "And they purse their lips like this when they're talking, and their eyes are really dead. Run!," Sid said in her video's conclusion.
Sid's video has gained more than 2 million views, with thousands of people liking, commenting, sharing, and saving it. Speaking of the comments, some people appear to agree with Sid, primarily because of their personal experience.
One person wrote, "this is 100% True. my grandma used to always tell my mum "you can tell a person by their eyes", needless to say I didn't heed this information and ended up in a relationship where I was almost part of the next true crime series…(run before they start planning to skin you alive folks LOL…)" Another person said, "girl I can see it. I used to avoid people I would meet and had an empty look in their eyes 20 even 30 years ago… you can just tell when someone is basically possessed…"

#like #people #dating

Jim Bakker, who along with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful "The PTL Club" TV show, only to lose it all over a ****** scandal and financial crimes, has died. He was 86.
Bakker died Monday, his second wife, Lori Bakker, said in a statement. His cause of death was not immediately clear.
"He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry," she said.
The pair lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed their TV show "The Jim Bakker Show" there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.
But it was another evangelical program that made Jim and his first wife Tammy Faye Bakker cultural icons — so much so that they were often skewered in the 1980s and 1990s by late-night comedians and parodied on "Saturday Night Live." A theatrical movie on their lives, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," was released in September 2021.

#show

American Idol star Caleb Flynn was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday, after being found guilty of murdering his wife, Ashley Flynn, on February 16.
The 40-year-old broke down in tears as he was convicted of aggravated murder, felonious **** ault and tampering with evidence, after he staged the crime scene to make it appear as though an intruder was responsible for her death.
The jury deliberated for over two hours before they reached a verdict, and Miami County Common Pleas Judge Jeannine Pratt called his actions "abhorrent" before sentencing him to life behind bars.
Caleb was sentenced to life behind bars for murdering his wife
Before his sentence was read out, Caleb maintained in a statement in court that he did not kill his wife, and apologized for how he had spoken about Ashley in texts sent to his mistress, Alleigha Botner.

#life #ashley #behind #bars

Caleb Flynn was found guilty of murdering his wife, Ashley Flynn.
An Ohio man who was found guilty of murdering his wife and staging the crime scene to make it seem as if an intruder had broken into their home and fatally shot the mother of two was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Caleb Flynn, 40, a former pastor who once appeared as a contestant on "American Idol" in 2013, was found guilty of aggravated murder and multiple counts of murder, felonious **** ault and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of his wife, 37-year-old Ashley Flynn.
Judge Jeannine Pratt called the former pastor's actions "abhorrent" and "quite honestly impossible to fathom" while handing down the life sentence on Monday.
Caleb Flynn called 911 early on Feb. 16 to report that his wife had been shot by an intruder at their home in Tipp City, north of Dayton. He was arrested three days later. Prosecutors alleged that Caleb Flynn "executed" his wife by shooting her twice in the back of the head in bed so that he could be with his mistress and manipulated the crime scene to make it seem as if an intruder had broken in through the garage.

#wife #intruder #crime #scene

Caleb Flynn, the former American Idol contestant who was found guilty of murdering his wife, Ashley Flynn, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The musical pastor received his sentence in court on Monday (Oct. 5), six days after an Ohio court determined he was guilty on all charges spanning aggravated murder and multiple counts of murder, felonious ****** ault and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of Ashley, with whom he shares two young daughters. He was given the maximum possible sentence for his crime.
More from Billboard
Former 'American Idol' Contestant Caleb Flynn Found Guilty of Murdering His Wife
'American Idol' Singer Caleb Flynn Charged With Wife's Murder & Staging Crime Scene

#flynn #american #guilty #ashley

Michael Douglas hit back at a decades-old rumor that he went to rehab for an alleged *** addiction during a strained interview published Sunday by the U.K.'s Sunday Times.
Douglas, 82, was discussing his new memoir, "One **** uva Ride," with British journalist Decca Aitkenhead. She reminded him that he wrote about having to break things off with five women before becoming monogamous with actor Catherine Zeta-Jones, whom he married in 2000 shortly after the end of his first marriage, to Diandra Luker.
Crime: Harvey Weinstein Admits He 'Misled' Women — But Still Won't Accept ****** **** ault Allegations
"No, no, it's not what it was," the actor told Aitkenhead of how he became monogamous with his now-wife. "What Catherine said is, if we're going to continue this, then I want it to be monogamous. And so I therefore, that evening, you know, made some calls to some people I was seeing, and that was that."
In her article, Aitkenhead writes that Douglas then gives her an expression that "suggests that he thinks he's just corrected me."

#women

Caleb Flynn, a former "American Idol" contestant and pastor who was convicted last week of murdering his wife, a crime he tried to blame on an intruder breaking into their home, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole Monday in Ohio.
Flynn did not take the stand in his defense during the trial, but he proclaimed his innocence before he was sentenced.
"I have unfortunately lied about a lot of things over the last couple of years, but as I stand here before God, who is my ultimate judge, I am not lying when I say I did not kill my wife," Flynn said. "I will continue to fight for my innocence as long as the lord allows me to, as I did not kill my wife."
Flynn was found guilty of nine charges in total, including aggravated murder and three charges of murder, two charges of felonious **** ault and three charges of tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said Flynn shot his wife, 37-year-old Ashley Flynn, twice in the back of the head while she was asleep in bed on Feb. 16. They alleged he then staged their Tipp City, Ohio, home to mimic a break-in and called 911 to claim an intruder was responsible for the murder.

#stand

A Cornell University student gave campus police leads in the alleged rape of Jane Doe in 2024 but expressed dismay over how the authorities handled the case.
The student, who spoke to NBC News on Sunday on condition of anonymity over concerns about repercussions, said she first heard about allegations that Doe was raped as a rumor on campus about 24 to 48 hours after the incident. Doe, who filed a lawsuit last month, claimed she was plied with alcohol and ketamine and gang-raped at the Chi Phi fraternity house the night of Oct. 19-20.
The student recalled rumors that Doe was planning to have a threesome but that it had “gone off the rails,” and she remembers being “really horrified by it.”
“From that night, I think, we just kind of started, like, hearing more,” the student said.
Talk of the alleged **** ual **** ault became widespread on campus after the school issued a crime safety alert about a report of a **** ual **** ault at a fraternity.

#raped #assault #cornell

Norman Mailer advocated for Jack Henry Abbott's release, believing in his literary talent after exchanging letters with him
Abbott was paroled in 1981 but killed a waiter six weeks later, prompting a two-month manhunt before his capture
Abbott's prison memoir, In the Belly of the Beast, became a bestseller despite his violent history and life sentence
Norman Mailer played a role in getting Jack Henry Abbott released from prison on parole in June 1981, only for the felon to commit another crime just months later.
Mailer was a writer, journalist and filmmaker whose career included 11 best-selling books, including The Armies of the Night, which won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction as well as the National Book Award. Abbott, meanwhile, spent most of his childhood in reform schools and juvenile centers before being convicted of forgery as a teenager and later killing a fellow inmate in 1966.

#jack #prison #belly

Harvey Weinstein allegedly tried to spend $1.75 million from behind bars to influence the jury pool in his New York ****** crimes case, according to prosecutors, who say they have recordings of the disgraced Hollywood producer discussing the offer with a podcaster.
The stunning allegation emerged via The New York Post during Weinstein's sentencing for ****** ually ****** aulting former Project Runway production ****** istant Miriam "Mimi" Haley. Manhattan ****** istant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told the court that Weinstein offered the money during a jailhouse phone call in an effort to release videos that could reach potential jurors—and even people already seated on the case.
According to Blumberg, the material was intended to help Weinstein's defense by "contaminating the jury pool and reaching the seated jurors before and after the trials." She accused Weinstein of engaging in a "scheme to disrupt the trial and instill fear in his victims."
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Prosecutors did not publicly identify the allegedly involved podcaster. Candace Owens, however, released a 2025 podcast series ****** led Harvey Speaks that featured jailhouse videos of Weinstein, leading to speculation that she was the podcaster offered the handsome payout.

#according

Sandra Bullock's journey to becoming one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars began far from the blockbuster action movies that eventually made her famous. Growing up with an opera singer mother, she was introduced to performance at an early age and studied music, ballet and other forms of movement. Acting eventually became her focus, but major success did not arrive immediately. Bullock spent years building experience before finding the role that transformed her career. That gradual rise helped shape a performer known for moving comfortably between action, comedy, romance and drama.
Bullock began appearing professionally during the late 1980s, taking smaller roles as she worked toward greater opportunities. Her breakthrough finally arrived with Speed in 1994. Starring alongside Keanu Reeves, she played Annie Porter, a passenger forced to take control of a Los Angeles bus rigged to explode if its speed dropped below a dangerous threshold. The movie combined large scale action with humor and chemistry between its leads, turning Bullock into an international star.
The production also demanded considerable physical commitment. Bullock later described the genuine fear she experienced while filming scenes aboard the speeding bus. Although she was not actually controlling the vehicle during the most dangerous sequences, being positioned at the front made the action feel very real. That sense of physical vulnerability contributed to the urgency of her performance. She returned to the franchise for Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997, this time facing danger aboard a runaway cruise ship.
Bullock was already looking beyond acting alone. In the 1990s, she established Fortis Films, giving her greater involvement in developing and producing projects. That experience became especially important with Miss Congeniality, the 2000 action comedy in which she played FBI agent Gracie Hart. Bullock also served as a producer, helping shape a movie that combined physical comedy, crime and an unconventional transformation story.
Her career continued to expand across genres. Films such as While You Were Sleeping, The Proposal and Gravity demonstrated her ability to move between romantic comedy and intense drama. One of her most significant dramatic successes came with The Blind Side in 2009. Her performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy earned Bullock the Academy Award for Best Actress, adding another dimension to a career already **** ociated with major commercial films.

#speed #films

Halle Berry and ex-husband Olivier Martinez attended "co-parenting therapy" for their son Maceo in 2024, PEOPLE can confirm
Court documents outlined individual meetings followed by six joint sessions with a coach selected by the former couple
Berry's fiancé Van Hunt was permitted to participate in the sessions, which came years ahead of Martinez filing for sole custody of Maceo and alleging abuse
Halle Berry and ex-husband Olivier Martinez attended "co-parenting therapy" two years ago.
In May 2024, the Crime 101 actress and Martinez, both 60, agreed to "co-parenting therapy" with a coach to "resolve disputes and conflicts between them in an effort to successfully co-parent" their then-9-year-old son Maceo, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

#parenting #husband

What do you get when you combine a hilarious actor, a popular social media influencer, and some furry best friends with a well-known brand? A hilarious series of videos that puts a playful spin on an everyday reality of being a cat parent that's sure to make you laugh.
Actor ***** ail Nanjiani and viral content creator Jordan Howlett teamed up for the purrfect collab that will have you running to your nearest pet store to stock up on Tidy Cats litter.
Kumail Nanjiani had some time earlier this week to sit down with The Blast to talk exclusively about the new partnership and collaboration, his upcoming roles, and what he loves about being a cat dad.
Tidy Cats
Kumail and Jordan recently joined forces to help put a stop to a crime every cat parent is well aware of – bad litter. The cat litter brand from Purina just launched the Special Litter Unit, a three-part crime series starring ***** ail and Jordan. Fans can follow the case online and New York City cat lovers can join the investigation in person on Friday, Oct. 2 for a one-day pop-up experience that features some loveable adoptable feline agents.

#actor

Former special counsel Jack Smith fielded insults from Republicans and questions about his prosecutorial decisions as he sat before lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been a leading voice in scrutinizing Smith’s twin probes into President Trump, obtaining and releasing reams of documents about the investigations while criticizing his decision to subpoena some lawmakers’ call logs.
Smith defended his work, saying Trump faced criminal charges related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and the case tied to the president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as a result of his own illegal conduct. He added that he would have brought charges against any president who committed such crimes.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), meanwhile, accused the GOP of “gaslighting” the American public about how damaging the Jan. 6 attack was to democracy.
But Smith largely served as a punching bag for the committee’s Republicans.

#president #lawmakers #documents #case

Striking a blow to Mayor Mamdani’s rollout of his signature pied-à-terre tax, a New York City judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of owners of pricey second homes and ordered the city to restart the process.
Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi found that notices the city mailed to homeowners informing them that they may be subject to the surcharge were unlawful and had to be canceled and re-sent. He also ruled that a supplemental property tax roll posted online must be taken down.
“No crime is involved here, but homeowners are being substantially harmed and penalized needlessly,” Ozzi wrote in his 22-page decision, referring to the city’s controversial rollout of the tax on high-value second homes.

#second #striking #mamdani

As President Donald Trump tries to convince voters that Democrats have let crime run amok, he's digging into the country's political past to cite one of the most controversial campaign advertisements that relied heavily on racist tropes.
During a campaign stop Wednesday in Gastonia, North Carolina, to stump for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, Trump resurrected a 1988 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign ad featuring Willie Horton, a Black man convicted of rape and ****** ault after his release through a Massachusetts prison furlough program.
A grainy black-and-white prison photo of Horton was used in the ad targeting then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was ahead of Bush in the polls. On Wednesday, Trump evoked the Horton ad in an effort to convince voters Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper, Whatley's opponent in the Senate race, is soft on crime.
"Willie Horton was a bad guy, really bad guy," Trump said, before comparing Dukakis's release of Horton to the pretrial release of a Black man who faces a murder charge for last year's killing of a white Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina.
But Cooper was not the governor when the man was released or when he was later charged with killing the refugee.

#black

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday left two 14-year-old students and the teenage gunman dead and wounded at least eight people, local government and police officials said.
The shooting at Banga National High School in the South Cotabato town of Banga is under investigation, the Philippine National Police said in a statement. Police officers secured the campus and coordinated with school officials and medical responders, the statement said.
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo said the two students killed were a boy and a girl, both 14. He said the gunman also shot himself and died.
Banga Mayor Albert Palencia told DZBB radio that the gunman hit 10 students in the classroom next to his, two of whom died while eight were wounded. A person who was hyperventilating was also brought to a hospital, according to the governor.
Tamayo said the gunman's best friend told officials that the teenager was a member of an online "true crimes community." Authorities were investigating the account and whether it had any connection to the shooting, he said.

#students #south

About 13 years ago, “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn gushed about his wife Ashley, who he said encouraged him to audition for the 12th season of ABC’s singing competition.
“I love my wife more than anything,” he said in an interview during his brief stint on the show. “She’s very, very pretty, just – woof, I love her.”
Now, Flynn stands trial for her murder, as investigators allege the former music pastor fatally shot his wife of almost 16 years and staged the crime scene to make it appear she was killed by an intruder.
Flynn, 40, was arrested in February, days after he frantically called 911 to report someone broke into their Tipp City, Ohio, home and killed his wife – a beloved middle school volleyball coach – while he was in their daughters’ bedroom.
“We’re looking forward to trying the case,” his defense attorney, Patrick Mulligan, told CNN Tuesday. “We’ve been waiting for this.”

#years

Kohberger is working to undo his guilty plea to the 2022 Idaho murders.
The family of Bryan Kohberger is supporting his efforts to challenge his 2025 conviction, saying in a statement exclusive to ABC News, "Our full support of Bryan’s decision to pursue post-conviction relief does not come from a place of disregard.”
Kohberger, who is currently serving four consecutive life sentences for killing four college students in Idaho, said in his petition that the circumstances of his plea deal are now suspect because, among other things, he was “convinced to falsely confess” to a crime he says he did not commit.
“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” he said in a statement to the New York Times last month.
Kohberger's family told ABC News that they did not want their support of their son "to compound the unimaginable grief the families have borne so courageously."

#plea #conviction #four

GENEVA (AP) — Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.'s top human rights body say they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab.
The international fact-finding mission on Iran says the findings center on a pair of airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.
At the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one U.S. missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an ****** ociated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of what happened. Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.
"Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects," the fact-finding team said in a statement.
The Trump administration has yet to directly accept the blame or release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing.

#school

By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware, Sept 15 (Reuters) - As U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to crack down on what he says is widespread illegal voting by noncitizens, several people charged with that crime are trying a novel strategy to get their cases dropped.
Five people being prosecuted in separate federal cases in Miami and Madison, Wisconsin, have ‌argued for the first time in court that the 1996 law used to charge them is unconstitutional, according to a Reuters review of court filings.
A ruling for the ‌defendants, which could come before the November 3 midterm elections, would raise questions about the federal government's authority to prosecute noncitizen voting cases. The Trump administration has pushed to deport noncitizen voters, raising the stakes for defendants who previously faced as little as a $150 fine if convicted.
The defendants were accused of violating the federal "Voting by Aliens" statute enacted three decades ago. The law makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and violators can be fined up to $100,000 or imprisoned for up to a year.

#cases #people

The Justice Department has charged dozens of people for suspected fraud related to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday.
Speaking with reporters in the White House Rose Garden, Blanche said that between mid-June and September, federal prosecutors from across the country helped facilitate the arrests of 160 criminal defendants, including around 80 who were newly charged over suspected COVID fraud in Missouri and neighboring states.
The suspected crimes involved more than $245 million in losses, Blanche said.
White House Launches Interactive Map Tracking Billions In Suspected Fraud
Attorney General Todd Blanche has announced charges against dozens of people connected to suspected COVID-19 relief fraud.

#white #House

Fourteen years ago, Ken Jouppi, who had operated a charter airplane business in Alaska since the 1970s, agreed to fly a passenger from Fairbanks to Beaver, one of the state's dry jurisdictions. The passenger's luggage included 72 cans of Budweiser and Bud Light, which she planned to share with her husband on his birthday. Although most of the beer was boxed, a six-pack "was packed only in a grocery bag and would have been in plain view to Jouppi as he was loading the airplane," the Alaska Supreme Court noted last year.
State troopers discovered the beer before the plane took off, and Jouppi was convicted of a misdemeanor. The trial court, which concluded that Jouppi had been "willfully blind" to the six-pack, sentenced him to three days in jail and a $1,500 fine. But state law mandated another punishment that was 63 times as severe: forfeiture of Jouppi's $95,000 airplane. Although that penalty seemed grossly disproportionate, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that it did not violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on excessive fines.
In July, responding to a petition filed by the Institute for Justice, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review that decision. It will hear oral argument in Jouppi v. Alaska on December 1. In a brief supporting Jouppi's appeal that it filed last week, the Cato Institute argues that the Alaska Supreme Court erred by failing to consider the gravity of his conduct and the financial consequences of the forfeiture. Both of those factors, Cato attorney Matthew Cavedon says, have been central to the common-law understanding of excessive fines for eight centuries.
"The Eighth Amendment was designed to prevent this kind of abuse by limiting excessive fines," Cavedon writes. "Long before the United States was founded, the common law protected people from extreme monetary penalties. But the Alaska Supreme Court's view is that challenges to excessive fines 'should rarely succeed.' This dismissive view led it to conclude that there is nothing excessive about the forfeiture of an airplane worth 'only 9.5 times the maximum fine'—and over 60 times the fine actually imposed. The decision below cannot be reconciled with this Court's precedent or the Excessive Fines Clause's original meaning."
In weighing the proportionality of the airplane forfeiture, the Alaska Supreme Court thought the relevant consideration was the harm caused by excessive drinking. "Alcohol abuse in rural Alaska leads to increased crime; disorders, such as alcoholism; conditions, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; and death, imposing substantial costs on public health and the administration of justice," Justice Jude Pate wrote in the majority opinion. "Within this context, it is clear that the illegal importation of even a six-pack of beer causes grave societal harm."

#court #excessive #jouppi

The Supreme Court will no longer hear an oral argument for a case centered on bond rights for noncitizens detained for lengthy periods, ruling the case moot after New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned a lawfully present Dominican citizen, who pleaded guilty to second-degree ******* ault.
Hochul pardoned Keisy Guerrero Mariano, who is identified in court documents as "Keisy GM," in late August, effectively killing the Trump administration's appeal to the Supreme Court arguing that noncitizens, including those with green card status, do not have a legal right to a bond hearing for a prolonged detention if they have committed crimes that are grounds for mandatory deportation.
Hochul, who is staunchly opposed to President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement crackdown, issued the pardon for Mariano just as the brief was due.
Federal Appeals Court Compares Trump Migrant Detention Policy To ******* anese American Internment
FILE - New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned Keisy Guerrero Mariano in late August.

#pardoned

A Bahamian national who arrived in the U.S. during President Gerald Ford's administration and was living with a green card racked up a violent rap sheet before investigators found he voted illegally in the 2020 election, sparking the deportation process, officials say.
The case of Anthony Tyrone Higgs is only the latest in a slew of arrests connected to illegal votes cast in recent elections, as the Trump administration engages in a broader crackdown on election integrity-related crimes.
"This alien was a guest in our country who forfeited his right to be in the U.S. when he committed these violent crimes and voted in the 2020 election," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis exclusively told Fox News Digital on Friday.
Ice Arrests Peruvian National Accused Of Illegally Voting In 2024 Election As Dhs Cites Similar Cases
ICE agents **** emble in Minnesota, left; Anthony Tyrone Higgs, inset right.

#national