Cathy “I know Georgia law” Latham looks terrified.
Awww… Meadows’ and Clark’s motions to remove this case to a federal court were… denied.
Looking forward to Mark Meadows’ mugshot! My guess is he’ll go for the angry defiant look, rather than relaxed smiles.
I’m smiling because I know I’ll be vindicated and the joke is totally on the prosecution. And because I’m too egomaniacal to seriously entertain the notion I might be utterly, thoroughly, most definitively screwed.
Mug shots on arrest are worthwhile in case the accused becomes a fugitive. But this thread shows that they can also be a form of prejudicial pretrial publicity. Authorities should stop releasing them except if needed to find a fugitive.
The accused can request Straight Dope to take the photos down. I expect that this is too minor a web site to get their attention, but here’s Georgia law:
I still think that. I also think that it isn’t the SDMB that has made these photos public. Further, I don’t think there’s (much) point-and-laugh-at-the-unpopular-kids going on here. These photos are a milestone on a pretty important historic event, and worth observing and discussing as such.
(Edit: There are a couple of comments on people’s appearances, especially the female humans, which amused me but which I hypocritically also think are in poor taste.)
In the Oh-the-Irony Department:
How long until the defendants start complaining how they can’t get a fair trial in this case because of all the pretrial publicity?
He’s going to have to get there in a hurry. I’ve been hearing that he’s inconvenienced by that, and finds it burdensome🤣
Oh, now this is a concern!
I don’t think it went that far. It looks like they both applied for an order that they didn’t have to appear for booking in Fulton County, pending their applications to move to Federal Court. That’s what the judge denied today, according to The Hill article. Court hasn’t considered the merits of their request to move.
Judge dismissed the application just six hours after it was made. I think the courts are not having any patience with delay tactics.
You’re right, of course. I should have been more precise with my language. It’s a busy time for me right now and I didn’t slow up enough to verify the particulars.
I agree, the courts aren’t going to indulge their efforts to delay.
While their motion for removal might have some merit (although I’m quite skeptical), this was absolutely the right thing to do while those motions are pending. It’s not a federal case until the judge rules it is. State procedure applies in the meantime.
Right. The correct place to send a request for removal of the pictures would be Twitter. Assuming the request successfully gets through the dumpster flames there, it should result in the pictures no longer rendering on any site that links to the tweets…eXcretes…whatever they are now.
As to the value of their public posting…while there is unquestionably some schadenfreude involved, the important element is that this is visible confirmation that these people are going through the normal booking process. This is a small bit of reassurance for those who feared the system was incapable of acting against crimes like those at issue here. It also demonstrates normal treatment of the arrestees, and it may serve as a wake-up call for a few people who have not accepted that this is a serious criminal matter.
Agreed. That’s why I didn’t put my post in “About This Message Board.”
We could have a separate thread on mug shot privacy, except that, outside of the context of what happens if Trump and associates are indicted down south, there might not be much disagreement.
Considering the mugshots are appearing on news outlets all across the world, including on “anti-liberal” websites such as Fox News, I wouldn’t think that requesting the Straight Dope remove them would be a worthwhile use of anyone’s time or energy.
I kinda want to monetize the mugshots, by putting the images on one side of a coffee mug, and a brief description of their roles on the other side.
Better hurry before Trump turns them into NFTs.
I was serious about turning them into trading cards.
Would that just be a new thing for prominent right wing politicians and their lawyers, or were you posting about this for regular folks in the past?
It can go both ways. Looksist attacks on defendants should backfire, and probably will. I believe politicians experience a lower-than-normal conviction rate. Pretrial publicity may be part of it.
Except at the edges, prejudicial pretrial publicity is unavoidable in a free country. Keeping mug shots private is a good idea that can only help a little.