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Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Friday, March 11, 2005
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
rushing around in the day.
nearly evening also still rushing with jasmine.. went to meet her besties for drink.. fun girls to be with!!!
for the first time last night , i went chinablack instead of zouk. totally different. lol.. and this time went with A BIG group. jasmine's coursemates.
met so many ppl there. people from my pri sch. people from my class. people from my tuition class. people who i used to play pool with. and bumped into many others too! lol. it was all fun!
poor jasmine didn't club much. went out to meet a friend. and was stucked at the bloody long and not moving re-entry queue for nearly 1 hour but i headed down to join her, after dancing and sweating like a mad pig! HOT ! went down. i help her queued, waited another 30 mins and the queue WAS not moving too! BAH! :(
around 1245, paul and the girls came down due to some issues, wanted to go zouk BUT was pointless for the guys. pay 20 just to go, and for 1 hour or so ? might as well not. so yea...after everything in their group came down, nearly 2+, headed to bedok 85 for bak chor mee!! YUMMY!! i was damn hungry already! yeah!! nearly 17 people were with us! so fun! so big group! heehee!! i was so drained out!
memories jotted down @ 12:51 PM `
jasmine is going to HK for her grad trip!
that crazy woman! wanted to scream everywhere we went!
bah!
oh well, i love her still!
=D
she's soo excited..
i wanna go hk too!!
disney!
:(
we watched the eye 10 yesterdae..fucking hilarious! and the lovely woman beside me kept grabbing my arms and screaming and laughing.. kicking the chair of the person in front. and the person beside her kept looking over.. damn paiseh!
=D
but overall was fun la! time rushing! stitches! and everything..
i always enjoy my time with my besties! =D smuaks!
memories jotted down @ 11:48 AM `
sunday at sentosa! whee!! the sun was pretty alright, the rain came and gone.. jasmine got burnt though.
there are some pictures...going this week again! *hopefully*
memories jotted down @ 12:38 AM `
good friday was okay..
DID not sleep the entire thursday night.
headed LCK early morning till early noon.
headed back to the house that i spent my childhood years, running around and fighting with the boys.
lols.
the house seems sooo much smaller..
painted the house.
den had dinner.. den headed down his place.
yawn.. was so tired already.knocked out.. till 9am.. a cold war broke!
=D
oh well..
now. gotta go sleep.. waking up at 530 to go church for easter sunday service with his mum. =D.
den SSB here we come!! me him n jasmine.
bah!
SCHOOL OF SEDUCTION!
if i had that much of everything.. how cool right, jas ?
guys will die!
MUAHAHah!
okay. i'm tired!
nites!
here's a very nice passage.
---------------------------
Ladies,
Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of
hot,
who calls you back when you hang up on him,
who will stay awake just to watch you sleep.
Wait for the boy who kisses your forhead,
who wants to show you off to the world
when you are in your sweats,
who holds your hand in front of his friends,
who thinks you're just as pretty without
makeup on.
Wait for the one who is constantly reminding
you
of how much he cares about you
and how lucky he is to have you.
Wait for the one who turns to his friends and
says, "...that's her."
GUYS...
Find a girl who calls you immature in that
affectionate way instead of hot
or sexy,
who can't stand it when you hang up on her
and
calls right back,
who would sit there for hours looking into your
eyes,
who doesn't care what you look like, but
what's
inside counts the most,
Who looks at you with the twinkle in her eyes
and
kisses you,
Wants to be with you in public, even if you
wear
those old grass stained and ripped pants with
the
bleached jersey like always,
Wait for the girl who is a constant reminder of
your
happiness and joy, who makes you smiles
just by
knowing she loves you back.
Wait for the girl who you give piggy back rides
to in
public and she still is in view of her friends,
while
she gets off and you hear her go: "you're the
one
for me, for always"
-----------------------------
where to find this kinda guy !?!!
BAH!!!
WHERE WHERE WHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
okay..i'm going psycho..
memories jotted down @ 1:35 AM `
just got home from lunch and collecting some photos from jasmine's place..
i just realised its michael's death anniversary today.
he passed on 4 yrs ago..
it was a very heart-wreaching news for ppl close to him.
he was suffering from lung cancer and was in pain when he locked himself up in his room , in pain and led him to heaven.
he was a very nice guy. sweet. understanding.
but he loves the dark, hates the light. his entire room's wall is painted black.
he called himself the devil. but i called him my angel.
i can still clearly remember our first date 7 yrs ago, he wore a black shirt as usual but with a white jacket. everyone was so shocked.. its so not him wearing other colours.
he was a great artist.
picked me up from sch everyday in the evening. when he stays at novena.
being first love, everything was so sweet..his friends. and everything. even he crashed at his friend's place.. he'll call like every 15 mins. always telling me he'll be my guardian angel.
but one thing abt him.. he smokes like hell..
that was WHEN i HATED smokers. cos it took someone who sweet away from ppl..
(but now things are different.. hee!)
we broke up mid june in 1999. kept in contact still.. and he was dating someone from our group too..he's changed.. in gangs and all.. making all of us worried..but i know his character was still there..somehow i could sense it.
then i got attached to someone else and i left mike off my mind...
a big mistake.
in 2000, during my years in Youth Challenge... i gave him a call.. supposedly to meet him in town. at my booth.. but he waited at the telephone booth instead.. from 530 , we waited till 10+. we did not managed to bump into each other..i was so frigging mad cos i thought he did not want this meeting at all..after that i did not call him at all..
on july 13 2001, i called his place and wanting to wish him happy bdae.. his maid hanged up on me.. i tried calling again..she asked me where was i calling from..den i talked to his mother.. she broke the news to us.
it was just after tuition and sitting at the bus stop with nicole, in total shocked with the news. tears just flowed from both our eyes. how can someone who nice be taken away by the Lord! but after all those crying, i told myself that it must have been God's plan to take him away and make him my guardian angel..
since then. every march 24th and july 13th i'll make my way to lim chu kang to pay my respect, and the night b4 these 2 dates, i'll always have dreams of him talking to me.
except this year, clearly forgot
and this is the only yr i did not dream abt him.
Dear Lord,
Please Bless Michael Wherever He is, Be It In Ur Kingdom or Watching Over Me.
Let Him Be Happy. Let Him Watch Over People He Care For. Apologises To Forgetting Today. Michael, I Wish U Every Happiness. Thank You For Watching Over Me.
Amen
---------------
i feel so bad.
so full of guilt.
argh!
this is bad!
:(
i'm so sorry
memories jotted down @ 7:04 PM `
FUCK LA!!
i wrote a long entry and my fucking netscape CLOSE!
FUCK MAN!
:(
argh!!
new phone. new mp3player. new bf! (I'M KIDDING!!)
haha! me n jas rented a car on mon!
initally had a nissan sunny! but the car CMI! passenger window CANNOT be opened! and the key could not take out. after jas complained continuously to the rental lady. we managed to change car.. HYUNDAI MATRIX
so comfy! I LOVE U BABE! THANKS FOR DRIVING AROUND!
rounding singapore like mad!
and headed to chris's place for mahjong. my virgin game! so excited!
and tuesday happened to be the 8th mth anni!
how time flies!
heehee!!
on tuesday before returning the car.
went to pick the boy up from camp.
we drove past the bus stop .. the number of eyes we had was too many..scary!
my baby felt so proud! and lucky too!
2 hot babes in a hyundai matrix fetching him home!
i bet the others were full of envy!
den after sending him home to change.. we headed to bishan to return the car den had dinner and caught 'HITCH'.. damn funny movie!
heehee!
den headed home! and knocked out!
yesterdae night , mambo night!
so tired. and was bored too.
a fight nearly broke out with the angmoh and our group.
last night was full force.
yiiyii's bdaE! happy bdae darling! 21 le!
practically everyone was down.
headed home and we overslept.
woke up at 745. he rushed to camp.
bah!
oh well!
wat to do!
taken by my darling, while watching american idol! hee!
i was in a dress!
i was too lazy to wear 2 piece la. so just 1 slip in piece lor! easy mah!
hee!
now waiting for jasmine to cme back tampines to have lunch!
hee!!
memories jotted down @ 11:43 AM `
hello!
i'm growing FAT!
been eating n eating like a pig since sat!
:(
but the food was irresistable!
=P
like today's.. me n jasmine had this craving for crabs.. so we were around tampines central to see!
bought 1.4kg of it!
and durian!
YUMMY!
steamed crab!
damn SHIOK!
p/s: girl. next time i cook u somethin special! =D
bye!
gonna watch shallow Hal , View from the top and get over it!
whahaahaha!!
overall: spent the whole day @ her place. slacking and watching some psychotic movie!
gosh! tml is my first day at school! SO EXCITED! -.-' .. but seriously.. i cant wait!
memories jotted down @ 9:58 PM `
bad start to the morning.. had a mini conflict with the boy.
oh well. settled.
den SUPPOSEDLY to go sch for something stuff but i was allowed not to go.. yeah!
den headed to the IT Fair. to check out prices of MP3 players n digicams..
SO FCUKING CROWDED
and i saw LIONEL LEWIS!! he recognised me! WHEE!
okay.
went to the iPod section to find my best girlfriend, Miss Jasmine.
den had lunch!
den home.. knocked out till 8.
and just got back from prata!
=D
so tired!
lol
my brain has been fried by jasmine!
=D
gonna to crash again and will be the boy tml!!
cant wait!
memories jotted down @ 2:07 AM `
Your a Guradien Angel! Guardien Angels are also
knows as Warrior Angels, because they are the
army of God. Not always meaning that they are
in war, simply that their job is to protect
unwary humans from dark dragons, or other evil
demons. Warrior Angels are not always friendly
with humans, but they will watch over them all
the time. Humans say that when a miracle
happens, thank your guradien angel.
What Kind of ANGEL are you? (For Girls only) This Quiz has amazingly Beautiful Pictures!
brought to you by Quizilla
You have a kind soul! What can be better than
cooking lemon-pastries? Only helping out sick
kids of course! Congratulations, you have a
kind soul. Known for your purity and goodness
you follow your heart and your brain. The path
you seem to talk on is golden, and your touch
can make others forget about their pain. Your
always the one who donates to charity, feeds
the squirrels in the park, and volunteers down
at the shelter. Youre determined to make the
world a better place, and be sweet and
thoughtful everywhere. You are probably
multi-talented, and others love being around
you. Be careful though. Dont let them take
advantage of you.
What Kind of SOUL do you posses? (For Girls only) Incredible Anime Pictures!
brought to you by Quizilla
The Goddess of Night and Regret. You are a perfect
confidante. Always understanding and
solicitous, you could be a queen and you are
exceptionally honest. You are an intelligent
beauty.
Which gorgeous goddess are you? For girls! (breath taking pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla
You're Lili St. Cyr!
What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You are a Hip hop Dancer. You are the witty chick
in the gang, you have a special life style and
that makes you different with your own unique
way, your friends love you because they know
they can trust you. Your ideal man is the guy
with a free style not afraid of saying how he
feels, and life is never dull with him.
What kind of dancers are you? (Girls only)
brought to you by Quizilla
Cocktail
?? Which Alcoholic Drink Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla
In your eyes, people see kindness... You're just
so... so... so... Sweet! You're kind and love
to give others in need, a helping hand. You're
pretty shy but can be warm and friendly towards
those you know, and those who know you best.
Your sanctuary would just be any place that is
warm, cozy, and inviting to all people. You
love to show signs of affection to your lover
but a small simple talk does the trick as well
;) Sadly, your kindness can be used to your
disadvantage. People can use you, and take
advantage over your sweet and sensitive
mind.... But fear not! With you being so kind
and generous, people look up to you and adore
you ^-^ No one would dare hurt you because they
can't bear the thought of your sweet smile
turning into a frown :)
What Lies Behind Your Eyes? (With Pics, See All Results!)
brought to you by Quizilla
memories jotted down @ 1:20 AM `
BREAK-THROUGH DISCOVERY ON LITERALLY WATCHING YOUR WAISTLINE (Excerpts from a friend's friend's blog)
I was reading a blog of a 3rd degree acquaintance and i found this hilarious write-up and i felt that i must pay him my fullest compliments for thinking of something like this. All the avid weight-watchers please read the following.
These quick tips will show that you can have your cake and eat it too. Your call.
Tip #1 - Donuts
Eat donuts instead of solid pastries. You will be saving a tremendous number of calories by eating something with a hole in the middle. You can save upwards of 3 to 5 calories per pastry by doing this. That means if you eat 10 donuts, you've saved yourself almost 50 calories! Besides, everyone knows nuts are good for you...
Tip #2 - French Fries
French fries can help prevent heart attacks. It is a fact that French people suffer fewer heart attacks and have lower rates of heart disease. French fries are obviously from France, therefore it naturally follows that French fries can prevent heart disease.
Tip #3 - Pizza
Pizza is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. There are many reasons for this:
The bleached flour in the crust sucks up all the grease that drips down from the toppings, trapping it so you don't see it while you're eating. If you don't see it when you eat it, it has no calories.
It's round (stay with me here). Because square-shaped foods have corners, they contain a lot more calories than round foods. To save even more calories, cut a hole in the center of the pizza (refer back to #1 for full details).
The cheese on the pizza is loaded with calcium -- even more than the Tums you're going to need after eating the whole thing.
You can easily reduce your servings without sacrificing enjoyment. Instead of cutting the pizza into 8 slices, try cutting it into only 4. You've just eaten HALF the number of slices you ate before! Imagine how many calories you'll save by doing that!
Vegetables covered in grease are still vegetables. Never mind that all the nutrition has been baked out of them, you're still getting you're recommended daily servings of veggies.
There is plenty of fiber in the paper that's stuck to the bottom of the pizza. Don't be afraid of it.
Tip #4 - Beer
Beer is the absolute best beverage you can drink when you're watching your waistline. It helps to put it right out there in front you where you can see it.
Tip #5 - Air Bubbles
Look for foods that have air bubbles in them. Examples include chocolate bars, Twinkies (after you suck the cream filling out), soda pop, sponge cake, and cheese puffs. As you know, air has no calories. Look at these foods as the wrapping for a low-calorie, low-fat serving of air.
Tip #6 - Ketchup
Putting ketchup on anything makes it healthy. Think about it. You're getting your vegetables in a concentrated paste. It's like stepping into the future... today!!
Tip #7 - Zero Calories
Here are a number of delicious, zero-calorie foods you may not be aware of:
Anything eaten while standing has zero calories.
Anything eaten off somebody else's plate has zero calories.
Food sampled for "tasting" purposes during preparation has no calories.
Food sneaked from someone after you distract them is also calorie-free.
Anything eaten after the expiration date contains no calories.
Tip #8 - Ice Cream
Eating ice cream can actually help you burn an enormous amount of calories. The key to this lies in its temperature. Ice cream is very cold. When you eat ice cream, your body must expend energy (a.k.a. calories) to warm it up to your internal body temperature.
When you work through the scientific formulas for heat conversion, you can see you will end up expending approximately 6,000 calories to heat up a small dish of ice cream to body temperature. Drinking ice cold beer with your ice cream amplifies this effect.
These diet tips should have you well on your way towards effectively peeling off pounds of unsightly fat.
Think of me next time you're eating a pizza with french fries and ketchup on top, dunking your donuts in a glass of cold beer, and shoving down Twinkies (with the filling sucked out) mashed into a dish of nice cold ice cream!
Disclaimer
The preceding information is not medical advice and should not be taken as such. If you feel the urge to take any of this "information" seriously, please lie down until the feeling goes away. Thank you.
* credits to tony n his friend's friend.
memories jotted down @ 10:28 AM `
if u are intending to skip this.. READ THIS.
its very interesting.. everyone is born female!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Straits Times, Home FrontPage, Monday Mar 7 2005
Title: It's a baby boy... Sorry, it's a baby girl
Genital Anomaly affects one in 10,000 babies
By Salma Khalik
Health Correspondent
Baby A was a boy, the doctor thought. But when it was born, the father took one look and fainted. The baby looked like a perfectly normal girl.
The doctor was equally shocked, as he had been telling the parents how their "son" was doing. "What have I done?" he asked himself. This baby was one of the two such cases delivered by Associate Professor Arijit Biswas, head of foetal maternal medicine at the National University Hospital (NUH).
The hospital re-checked all the tests done to make sure there was no mix-up. There wasn't. But it took weeks for the parents to be reconciled. "They were angry, shocked , and in rejection," recalled Prof Biswas. Their baby had a medical condition called genital anomaly.
It affects one in 5,000-10,000 babies - which means between 400 and 800 people here probably have this problem. A girl may be born with what looks like a scrotum and penis, or a boy may have almost none of the external organs normal in males.
Baby A would not have been accepted as a girl had it not been for the test on the pregnant mother. The truth may have emerged only at puberty when menstruation failed to occur. Such babies usually grow up to be extremely attractive and very feminine girls, Prof Biswas said.
In the vast majority of cases, anamolies are obvious to the doctor who carries out routine checks on the baby, said Associate Professor K. Prabhakaran, chief of paediatric surgery at NUH. A chromosome test verifies the baby's sex - girls have the XX chromosome, and boys have XY. But in some cases, the chromosomes are garbled - such as XXY or some XX and some XY.
The recent case of the Zimbabwean sportswoman who was "exposed" as a man, and who said she had been born a woman and intended to be one again, could have been due to an excess of testerone, said Prof Prabhakaran. This could have made her female genitalia appear like male organs. In her case, neither the judge nor the hospital which checked her could say for sure what gender she is.
Excess testosterone production, the cause of most genital anomalies, is the easiest problem to deal with, as the "male" organs can be removed witha series of operations. However, hormonal imbalance will persist and have to be corrected with regular medication. Foetuses begin life as females. At eight to twelve weeks, the Y gene in boys starts working to develop the testes and produce testosterone, which turns the clitoris into a penis.
It also produces other hormones that shrink female organs like the fallopian tubes, uterus and vagina. Things can go wrong here, said Prof Prabhakaran. Even if the chromosomes are fine, they may not produce enough hormones. Or the hormones may be present but the body may not read them correctly.
In Prof Biswas' other case, the mother was distraught and teh father was furious, insisting the doctors were trying to pass his son off as a girl. But they finally accepted it. "Making a diagnosis and remedying the problem are very different," said Prof Prabhakaran. "It's very difficult to make a male. It's much easier to make a female if the organs are not adeqate."
To make a boy, doctors carry out reconstructive surgery to give him male organs. But he will lack erectile tissue and hence will not be able to have an erection. If a boy is just a few weeks old, and cannot be turned into a functional male, the parents and doctor may decide to make him female, by removing the male organs and suppressing testosterone production.
It's easier, as there would be a vagine. But this child will not be able to bear children - no matter what gender it's assigned. Doctors will not do it, however, if the child has already been imprinted as a boy. This could occur at as young as two months. "When the baby has been exposed to testosterone in the first two months of life, the brain is imprinted with the testosterone. So if this boy's parents want to make him a girl because of inadequate male external genitalia, he might not function, or might not be happy as a girl," Prof Prabhakaran explained.
"That's why this sort of sex assignment has to be done very early in life, before the baby leaves the hospital. No one knows anything is wrong except the parents." Aside from this condition, they are perfectly normal people
*credits to The Straits Time, Monday 7th March 2005
jasmine for being such a darling to type it out.
memories jotted down @ 10:25 AM `
An Article based on Criminology
January 23, 2005
A Sentence Reluctantly Applied
IN 1647, Alice Young of Windsor was convicted of witchcraft, and became the first recorded person in the state to be executed. There are few mentions of her execution in official records of the time, but if it were like others from the mid-17th century, it took only weeks to carry out.
"The time between conviction and hanging, unless there were extraordinary circumstances, was very swift," said Walter Woodward, Connecticut's state historian and a professor at the University of Connecticut.
In Ludlow's Code, enacted in 1650 as Connecticut's most comprehensive legal code to that date, the state classified all sorts of misdeeds as capital offenses, including idolatry and blasphemy, and New Haven's Code (New Haven was a separate colony then) imposed a death sentence for such crimes as working on Sunday. But, even then, the state was reluctant to tie the noose, Dr. Woodward said.
Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz, in a speech on the death penalty to the Connecticut Bar Association in 1994, noted that the sentence was applied sparsely in colonial times, and never for idolatry, blasphemy, kidnapping, or the cursing or smiting of parents by children. She said the state administered its early capital laws mildly.
"They tended to use them more to ward off bad behavior than to actually punish it," Dr. Woodward said.
Now, Connecticut is preparing to execute Michael Ross, the convicted murderer, on Wednesday. It will be the first time the state has exercised the death penalty in 45 years. Alice Young was executed within weeks of her trial. Joseph Taborsky, known as Mad Dog, the last person executed in the state, was put to death in 1960, three years after his conviction. Mr. Ross was sentenced almost 18 years ago, and a handful of the six other death row inmates have been there almost as long. And Mr. Ross would still be waiting if he were not insisting he wanted to die.
Unlike a dozen other states, Connecticut has decided to keep the death penalty on the books, but has shown little inclination to use it. For various reasons, death penalty trials and appeals have lasted longer in Connecticut than elsewhere in the country. The gravity of a death penalty case keeps lawyers and judges from moving hastily and compels public defenders to use every avenue to try to save their clients. But the length of time between executions, experts on the death penalty said, also reveals a deeper ambivalence in Connecticut and other states in the Northeast about imposing the ultimate punishment.
"Over all, ambivalence does slow things down," said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group in Washington, which is critical of the way the penalty is applied. "There are ways this process can go slower if you're more deliberative."
Depending on where people stand on the death penalty debate, Connecticut's history of deliberation is a good or bad thing. For relatives of victims, it can be maddening.
"When it takes 20 and a half years, she did not receive justice," said Raymond Roode, the stepfather of April Brunais, who was one of Mr. Ross's eight murder victims.
"The way the state acts, they act like my daughter's life was a throwaway," he said. "I think he should've been executed 10 years ago." he said.
Mr. Ross himself said he was going forward with the executions to end the pain for the families of victims.
"My execution will not heal the families of my victims, and it will not bring back their daughters," he wrote in a letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell. "But it will bring about an end to the seemingly never-ending proceedings whether it be future court appearances, or be the future filing of the various post-conviction appeals."
Others were encouraged by the length of deliberations. Susan Omilian, a lawyer from West Hartford who was on the Commission on the Death Penalty, created by the Legislature in 2001 to review the capital punishment laws, acknowledged in an interview that the lags can be difficult for the families of victims. But, she added, they show that the deliberations are taken seriously.
"It should be a long process, because this is a serious decision," she said.
Mr. Roode said he understood and shared the concern many people have about executing innocent people. But Mr. Ross, he said, is certainly guilty.
"There was no question of innocence here," he said. "This guy's guilty. He would've been dead a long time ago in Florida or Texas or other states."
That may be true. The average amount of time nationally between the imposition of a death sentence and execution was 10 years and 7 months as of 2003, according to statistics from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. In Connecticut, of the seven men on death row, two were first sentenced in 1989, two others in 1991.
Most discussions of the death penalty focus on the period after 1972, when the United States Supreme Court declared that the death penalty as administered was unconstitutional. Many states, including Connecticut, rewrote their death penalty statutes to deal with the ruling. But since 1976, when the court upheld revised capital punishment laws, states in the Northeast have been comparatively slow to put people to death. Only Pennsylvania, which is included in the Northeast in federal statistics, has executed anyone since the ruling and it has executed three people. Texas, by contrast, has executed 337 in that same period.
In states like Texas, arguments and deliberations are often much shorter, said Samuel R. Gross, a death penalty expert at the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. Gross said he had been at entire trials in the South that took just a few days. Texas death row inmates are executed in an average of 10 years 5 months, according to 2003 statistics from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. One Texas inmate, Joe Gonzales, spent just 252 days on death row before being executed.
In Southern states, there are more people on death row, sent there by aggressive prosecutors, willing juries and conservative appeals courts, Mr. Gross said.
In Mr. Ross's case, the delay in moving from the sentence to the execution was caused in part by the decision of the state's Supreme Court to grant him a new hearing on whether he deserved the death penalty. Although Mr. Ross was arrested in 1984 and his initial trial ended in 1987 with the jury sentencing him to death, the Supreme Court reversed the sentence in 1994 because some evidence about the defendant's mental state wasn't introduced. Mr. Ross's conviction stood, but he got a new trial on whether he should be executed.
Before that trial, however, Mr. Ross asked to die to spare the families a second penalty hearing. Arguments about his request went on for two more years before the Supreme Court ruled that his appeal should continue.
The new jury, which heard evidence from psychiatrists about Mr. Ross's sexual sadism, deliberated for nine days in 2000 before agreeing he should die. The Supreme Court affirmed the sentences in May 2004, and again Mr. Ross asked to die. Mr. Ross could still make various appeals to the state and federal government that lawyers said could last at least five more years.
In its report issued in 2003, the Commission on the Death Penalty calculated that it took Connecticut an average of 1 year 264 days to put on trial the defendants who ended up on death row. After conviction, the interval between the notice of appeal and the filing of the defendant's appeal brief took 2 years 284 days. And the interval between the defense's appeal brief and the prosecution's brief was 1 year and 125 days. Once the Supreme Court hears oral arguments, it has taken an average of seven months for it to issue a decision. And further delays can occur if a new hearing must be scheduled, new evidence surfaces, laws change, or the defendant makes a request that must be reviewed.
Lawyers who spoke to the commission said the delays are necessary to make sure the state has put the right person on trial and imposed the right sentence. Defense lawyers pore over transcripts to search for injustice and prosecutors must address each challenge made by the defense. While defense lawyers in a noncapital case might limit appeals to the strongest points, they generally challenge all possible issues in death penalty cases.
"The record of the trial that needs to be reviewed may be 10 or 20 times longer," Mr. Gross said.
In one pending death penalty case in Connecticut, the defendant's appeals brief cited nearly 300 other cases. The prosecution cited more than 350. The appeals brief for the prosecution in Mr. Ross' case was more than 300 pages. The Office of the Chief Public Defender, which has six lawyers working exclusively on capital cases, also employs two mitigation specialists, whose job it is to go over a defendant's background and find reasons why he should not be executed.
In addition, because the state hasn't tested its death penalty statute in so long, many of the issues that often come up in death penalty cases have not been litigated, so the case law is still thin.
When Mr. Ross asked to be executed after his first appeal, for instance, courts spent years considering his request.
"That involved quite a bit of time to decide how to do it," said T. R. Paulding, a lawyer Mr. Ross hired to expedite the process of putting him to death.
The commission, however, found that the process was also slowed by an attitude among the people involved.
"The commission's review found that the principal players in death penalty appeals (defense counsel, the State, or the Courts) do not generally focus upon expediting the death penalty appeals process," the commission wrote.
Mr. Dieter said a death penalty case can be delayed in a state like Connecticut "if any actor along the way questions it."
"In places like Connecticut, sometimes it's the state court, sometimes it's the federal court, sometimes it's the governor," he said. "Just in being ambivalent, they might say, 'I'm just going to have that expert testify or have that DNA tested.' Things do have a way of slowing down when you look at things closely.
"You almost need all the elements to work well to move executions forward," he said.
In interviews, commission members praised the work of the public defender's office, saying it ensured that defendants receiver adequate representation. The commission concluded that the state should not expedite the trials if it risked harming the rights of the defendants, though it did urge the state to increase the budgets for the offices involved to speed the process. Officials at the public defender's and state's attorney's offices said their budgets had not increased markedly in response to the recommendation.
Garrett Flynn, a Farmington lawyer who was on the commission, also said he thought some of the court battles over the death penalty were really deliberations about whether the state should even have the death penalty. Even when there was no question of innocence, people continue to fight, he said.
"I think people still fight the imposition of the death penalty because they're against the death penalty, not based exclusively on the facts of the cases," he said. "In some ways, defense attorneys are fighting the death penalty itself as much as the case in front of them. That can lead to delays."
Patrick J. Culligan, the chief of trial services for the Office of the Chief Public Defender, said the public defender's office was focused specifically on Mr. Ross's case.
"Our belief is that he is not competent to make the decision to forgo further legal proceedings available to him to fight for a life sentence," he said.
Mr. Ross has argued repeatedly that he was competent and that he was sure that now is the time for him to die.
But before the lethal fluids are injected, state law still gives him the chance to call it off because he still has appeals available. Some of those awaiting his death doubt he will stick to his pledge to die.
"He's a real coward," Mr. Roode said. "I don't see him allowing himself to be executed for us. I think he's going to blink."
* credits to NYtimes.
-------------------------------
this article is COOL!
memories jotted down @ 10:23 AM `
all taken on monday!
jas! my bestest gf. waiting for the bus to go town!
smuaks! love u!
while in the toilet. waiting for jas's interview at UAN.
and again!
at raffles city's bk waiting for dinner! MUSHROOM SWISSS!!!
i lurve mushrooms!
the girl whom all darkest secrets are with! hiak hiak!
still taking photos!
heehee!
tuesday.
headed down to sch to make my study plan..
cool! i'm a student once again!
=D
degree HERE I COME!
=D
whaha.. was walking aimlessly to mum's office den bumped into penelope.
(one of my previous entries were abt her. update again. she's my ex-bf's sister.. great girl.. taught me alot of things and she's so fun to be with..) since i had time to spare.. accompanied her to bugis to buy things. den we took the train back west. heading to meet him @ clementi. took pictures too! =D
taken on tuesday
penny n me at bugis MRT!
graduating from her uni already. left back for aussie to clear things up and the ceremony.
i sent my regards to her parents too.. nice ppl.. always laughing..
so proud of myself! she says i'm the best girl so far the bro has brought home! WAHAHA! the rest.. all either attitude.. i got my ways with parents(quoted stacy!)
i'm gonna catch up with her again when she comes back! =D
wed:
mambo..so fcuking packed. POP, ORD. guys. pissing the shiet out of me!
argh!
this guy was getting fresh with me till i had to hold on to chris for support and help.. den when this friend of ours told jason to keep a look out for me.. that guy suay la... he brushed my hair den jason pulled him back. knowing my baby's temper.. i ran over his side.. to let him feel safer..my baby so sweet! protect me!
met up with michelle too!
she's so much happier now.. i can hear it from her tone. its laughing from within.
at least i know she's in good hands now.
ah beng la.. but i know he'll protect her!
taken on wed after mambo!
blur n looking damn tired! after supper @ bak ku teh with my dearie! smuaks! love u!
p/s: dearie! i wish u all the luck in the world!
den we headed to bak ku teh after mambo for supper!
and i saw ling hao(sec sch junior) and pingwen (roger's soccer mate).
its been like ages since i last saw them.. no pics. nvm..=P
thurs:
den headed home. the boy still has his rashes
watched Real Madrid Vs Juventus.
till 6. den his mum knocked the door.(he has already knocked out)
he woke up ard 9 to go see the doc. letting me continue my beauty sleep.
woke up. went for lunch at this jap place @ clementi where penny introduced to me.
not bad la. quite nice!
like 2 gluttons eating!
lol. bought more ps2 games.
den we headed back home. we fell asleep again
PIGS!
so tired.
den woke up ard 830 for dinner.
eat, sleep, eat!
den played our new games.
we bought the ddr one!
lame but its damn challenging.
den shark tale! so cute!
lol
and headed back.
met jasmine for ORH LUAH. the whole week craving finally satisified!
taken on thursday!
piping hot orh luah!
the oyster!
YUMMY!!!
baby called me to tell me something..den the moment i hung up.
a fight broke out at the coffeeshop! (the coffeeshop is DIRECTLY opp a police centre)
few bangalas workers were fighting. breaking the dustpans n brooms... fought until they nearly smashed one of the stalls.
the police ran over.
1 police car came from the other direction..(dunno why)
den ambulance came to aid the cuts n whatever.(it was was parked at the bend of the entrance to the housing estate. totally obstucting the traffic.)
den everything calmed down.. the idiots were escorted to the centre. and i saw my darling cousin, ah hua!
i was looking ard for him.. JUST NICE he finished his shift so none of his business. cant imagine he was the guys who came over to check out the scene.. he's so fierce! the suspects would have died in his hands.
talking abt it.
i want to major in crimilogy.(however its spelt)
psycho the suspects using the worst tactics.
lol..
me being such a psychobitch.. psycho-ing ppl. the suspect will die sia..lol
oh well..
blogger is down! so i'm using notepad to blog..tml mrn den i shall transfer over.
yeah! having orientation on sat at school.. i wonder who are my classmates.. i saw the emails. nparks.org.sg, doctors.com . wah.. all the national developments ones.. impressed!
nvm!
memories jotted down @ 10:00 AM `
baking in the sun!
taken by miss loke, Jasmine!
once again, by her!
and again!
memories jotted down @ 1:38 PM `
ha!
i'm so fickle-minded..changed the skin again
had great weekend..
fri. rushed jasmine's project with her. ran around TP like idiots!
=D
sat. went tanning! GOOD! but not that GOOD! coz its not that even. nvm. at least i got my lines. den dinner in town with jasmine. den headed down to han's to see dogdog! baby wants a west highland. if he gets a dog. i'll be thrown aside! NVM. i'll get a rockweiler and tear his westie up!
*whahaahahah*
sun: turf city. watched the boy played match. den went to toh yi drive for dinner.
the 2 had craving for orh luah. but we missed it by the second. *urgh* nvm.. den me n jas took 67 all the way back home. the driver IS NUTS. took us 40 mins to get home from Bukit Timah. how fucking cool is that!
den walking back to our block.. her craving came up again!
wahaha
these 2 ppl are EXTREMELY INFECTIOUS!
untill yesterdae, i had craving too!
see la!
the 2 siao charbor of tampines went around the whole bloody tampines east JUST TO LOOK FOR orh luah. at 8 coffeeshops.
in the end, NONE HAD!
NVM.. we settled for teh n prata at prata shop... again..
waiting for han to come and meet us too!
jas showed me a very interesting article online.
there it is.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcript - Night stalkers
February 27, 2005
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Stephen Rice
INTRODUCTION
LIZ HAYES: You have to ask, how on earth can this happen? Every year, hundreds and hundreds of bright-eyed young Australian girls head for the bright lights of Tokyo, every one of them in grave danger. Innocents like 21-year-old Carita Ridgway are easy prey for rich Japanese men. She died a terrible death, a victim of Japan's worst serial rapist. A monster who not only drugged and raped more than 150 women, he videotaped all his hideous crimes. And the frightening thing is, he's not alone. In Tokyo tonight, the predators will be on the prowl looking for young Australians.
STORY
LIZ HAYES: It was meant to be the beginning of a new career. At 21, Carita Ridgway was already an accomplished model and now trying to make it in the movies. But first, this young beauty wanted to take a working holiday and, like thousands of other Australian girls, boarded a plane for Tokyo.
So Carita had never expressed any concerns about this job at all?
NIGEL RIDGWAY: No, she hadn't. I think they just thought it was a bit of a laugh, really, easy money.
LIZ HAYES: What happened to Carita in Japan has, until now, been a mystery. It's a horrifying story — a story of rape and murder and men who prey on innocent young Australian women.
ROB COX: Sexual violation to a stripper or hostess would happen every night. Every night.
LIZ HAYES: Every night an Australian girl is abused?
ROB COX: Yep. Yep. Every night.
LIZ HAYES: This is Tokyo's red-light district, Roppongi. It's a Saturday night and, like millions of other Japanese men, Mr Sagawa is looking for love and, in particular, the love of a young Western girl.
ISSEI SAGAWA: They're beautiful, especially white young girls.
LIZ HAYES: You just love young white girls?
ISSEI SAGAWA: Yeah, blonde hair and, uh, blue eyes and white skin.
LIZ HAYES: Mr Sagawa's heart has already been broken once by a young Australian dancer whom he showered with gifts and money.
And where is this?
ISSEI SAGAWA: In Canada. Toronto.
LIZ HAYES: You went on holidays together?
ISSEI SAGAWA: Yes.
LIZ HAYES: But the 22-year-old Melbourne girl was lucky, for she quickly learnt that her mild-mannered boyfriend had a despicable secret.
ISSEI SAGAWA: I really, I wanted to eat her. She looks very delicious.
LIZ HAYES: For the shocking truth about Issei Sagawa is that he is a psychopath, a killer. He's Japan's most notorious cannibal.
ISSEI SAGAWA: First part I ate is from her hips, yeah. I don't know why, but the hips of the girls really attract me.
LIZ HAYES: It was in Paris 20 years ago that we first heard about Issei Sagawa. One night he lured a young woman named Renee Hartevelt to his apartment. There he shot her, methodically cooked her, then ate her body. But Issei Sagawa got away with murder. Judged incurably insane by a French court, he was deported back to Japan and once there, his influential and very wealthy father ensured that he's never spent a day in jail.
ISSEI SAGAWA: A lot of pictures of beautiful girls.
LIZ HAYES: There certainly are. Here in his bedroom Sagawa proudly keeps a record of his obsession. Now he'd like another Australian girlfriend, preferably one that he can add to his trophy wall.
ISSEI SAGAWA: Are you shocked?
LIZ HAYES: Yes, I'm shocked.
ISSEI SAGAWA: I know I'm crazy. I'm crazy. So please don't hate me.
LIZ HAYES: This is Issei Sagawa's hunting ground. It's a lawless place. Here the Mafia is in control. The police are paid to look the other way. On any given night there are more than 500 girls from Australia working at bars like this.
ROB COX: They are the fresh meat, as they call them over there.
LIZ HAYES: The fresh meat?
ROB COX: The fresh meat. Oh, yeah.
LIZ HAYES: Were you working for the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia?
ROB COX: The owner of the company is under the control of the Yakuza.
LIZ HAYES: Rob Cox has broken the Yakuza's code of silence. He's an insider. He once worked for a Tokyo strip club. Cox says it's a world where money can buy you anything — sex, drugs and even the police.
ROB COX: The police and the Yakuza work hand in hand to make sure that the sex industry keeps spinning around and around.
VANESSA: Sometimes you can make up to 10 grand a week or more, you know.
LIZ HAYES: Like every Australian girl who arrives here, Vanessa had to make a choice. She could work in a hostess bar, which involved nothing more than talking with Japanese businessmen, or, for four times the money, she could become a stripper.
Part of the job entails, does it not, dealing with perfect strangers who do want to touch you?
VANESSA: Yeah.
LIZ HAYES: So what do you do about that?
VANESSA: Well, that's why most of the girls get mixed up with, you know, alcohol and drugs.
LIZ HAYES: It has to be said that not all of the young Australians who arrive here succumb to this lifestyle. One was Carita Ridgway, the aspiring actress who had been trying out for movie parts back home.
NIGEL RIDGWAY: She had a great sense of humour. She used to keep us in stitches as a kid because she would mimic all her teachers at school and she'd have them down pat.
LIZ HAYES: Carita's dad Nigel wasn't worried when she left for Japan in 1991 and found a job in a hostess bar.
Did she ever express feeling unsafe?
NIGEL RIDGWAY: No, no. In fact, the opposite. They said that they always felt safe.
LIZ HAYES: But then Carita was asked to go out on a dohan, a Japanese practice where clubs allow a customer to take a hostess out on a date.
VANESSA: In most cases, the girl will go for dinner with the customer. The customer will take you shopping, buy you Gucci … shoes, handbags, that sort of thing.
LIZ HAYES: Once you're taken away, anything can happen?
VANESSA: Oh, definitely. Obviously, it's very dangerous.
LIZ HAYES: One of Carita's first dohans was with this man, a wealthy and well-connected playboy called Joji Obara.
Most of the girls who are hostesses are asked to go out on dohans, which are dates with customers. Were you aware of that?
NIGEL RIDGWAY: No, I wasn't. In fact, you having mentioned it just now is the first time I knew that that was part of the deal.
LIZ HAYES: Joji Obara seemed charming and invited Carita back to one of his luxury apartments for a drink. Within hours, she was in a coma and taken to hospital. Obara told the doctors it was something she ate. Carita died here in Tokyo women's hospital without regaining consciousness. Doctors ruled that she had been suffering from hepatitis. When Carita's family asked the Japanese police to investigate, they were fobbed off, even laughed at. It was to be the first in a series of extraordinary blunders by the Japanese police, blunders that would allow Obara to continue and drug and rape young women for the next eight years.
TIM BLACKMAN: She was very vivacious, a hugely entertaining young lady.
LIZ HAYES: Five years ago, Lucy Blackman told her dad Tim she was heading off to Japan.
TIM BLACKMAN: It seemed an entirely safe and a standard thing to do, really.
LIZ HAYES: She, too, got a job as a hostess and like Carita Ridgway was taken out on a dohan by a charming English-speaking Japanese man who invited her down to his apartment on the coast. It was the last time Lucy Blackman was seen alive.
You basically blanket-bombed Tokyo with your message that you wanted to find your daughter?
TIM BLACKMAN: That's right, because we set up a hotline out there so that girls didn't feel they had to go to the police. They could come to us and tell their story.
LIZ HAYES: One name kept coming up — Joji Obara.
TIM BLACKMAN: Various girls came to us and related this story about being taken to the coast and being date-raped.
LIZ HAYES: Tim Blackman's pressure finally forced the police to act. They raided Obara's seaside haunt. Lucy's dismembered body was found in a shallow grave in a beachside cave just metres from Obara's apartment. How her body could have gone undiscovered for so long is still a mystery. What we do know is that Joji Obara brought hundreds of young Western women here. The pattern was always the same. He would offer the girl a drink spiked with a knockout drug, then rape her while she was unconscious. When Japanese police finally raided his apartment, they found more than 1000 tapes. Obara had recorded his own crimes — the rape of more than 150 women. Some of the women identified on the tapes were Australian. One of them was Carita Ridgway, the 21-year-old from Perth. Now, 10 years later, her family is finally being told the truth. Carita didn't die of hepatitis at all but from the drugs Obara had used while he raped her.
NIGEL RIDGWAY: It is another dimension of, like, horror and disgust. It is just a horrible feeling to think your child has been violated by somebody.
LIZ HAYES: Obara has not been charged with the murder of either Carita Ridgway or Lucy Blackman. Instead, he's on trial for much lesser charges — abduction, rape resulting in death and improper disposal of a body.
What do you believe Lucy's case has exposed about this Japanese society?
TIM BLACKMAN: I think the only thing it actually shows is that the Japanese aren't going to change, unfortunately.
LIZ HAYES: And the risk for Australian girls still remains. In the seedy hostess clubs of Roppongi, it is business as usual, as we discovered when we followed Issei Sagawa on a night out. Here Japan's most notorious criminal quickly found just what he was looking for — three young Australian women. Mr Sagawa introduced himself as his favourite secret agent...
ISSEI SAGAWA: My name is James Bond, okay.
LIZ HAYES: …and chatted happily to the unsuspecting girls.
WOMAN: ST Moths? Yes, in summer.
ISSEI SAGAWA: I am very scared of them, yeah, yeah.
WOMAN: Oh, they're nothing to be scared of. They're cute.
LIZ HAYES: Issei Sagawa swears that these young women have nothing to fear from him.
ISSEI SAGAWA: Never. Never. At least, um, kill, never. Of course I want to eat the meat of young beautiful girls. It will not change at all, but...
LIZ HAYES: You still want to eat the girls, you just don't want to kill them.
ISSEI SAGAWA: Yeah, so I know now that killing is really terrible. So for eating I never kill.
LIZ HAYES: By the time he left, all three of these trusting young Australians had handed him their private phone numbers. Outside, we politely took the girls' phone numbers back from him.
How dangerous do you believe the Roppongi bars and strip clubs are for young foreign girls?
ISSEI SAGAWA: Of course it is very, very dangerous because, um, the customers are very rich. They can do everything.
the original article is here
-------------------------------------------
the man is PSYCHO!
omg.
madness!
memories jotted down @ 1:18 PM `
for now.. this is the best i can do..
own background layout. own codes.
only afew copy n paste
the main page with the songs are supposed to be played..
that is from the original person..
i haven registered at angelfire yet.. so yea...
hang in there for a lil while!
this abit plain..
i'm an HTML idiot..
going this far..its considered GOOD!
=D
memories jotted down @ 2:59 AM `
okay.. i did the styles up.. after understanding SHIET LOADS OF codes..getting me giddy..
OKAY.. i want 3 frames!! i kept on editting ..but still these 2..
can someone help me out here!! PLS!
memories jotted down @ 2:12 AM `
sweet right!
staring at each other!
ps* I HAVE MY CLOTHES ON!
awaiting for the stupid bus to go zouk
looking very retarded
feeling very very giddy!
memories jotted down @ 12:04 AM `
changing the skin again!
HANG ON TO UR TAGS!
it will be BACK!
*ps: my legs are killing me after not mamboing for 2 weeks! :(
memories jotted down @ 8:38 AM `
us in the rain while swimming..
haha!
we look sick!
dun ask why his eyes o0.. it turned red when we were swimming. chlorine affecting it.
thank for the rain..now i'm sick AGAIN!..
will update abt the weekend soon...
memories jotted down @ 1:45 AM `