Wilian Gomez v. William J. Fiessner

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvani

Is it Fair to Criminalize Possession of Firearms by Ex-Felons?

Steven Gomez was being held in the county jail when he learned that he had been acquitted of the charges against him. Upon hearing that Gomez would be released shortly, Imran Mir, a fellow inmate who had been charged with participating in an international drug conspiracy, offered Gomez $10,000 per person to kill the six witnesses who were going to testify against Mir. Gomez reported Mir’s offer to the jail guards. Eventually, the customs agent working on Mir’s case promised anonymity and protection to Gomez in return for his help in gathering evidence against Mir. Gomez then pretended to accept Mir’s offer and, over the next three months, received detailed information about each targeted witness, was promised weapons to carry out the killings, and received a cash down payment from Mir. But, when the government charged Mir with solicitation to commit murder, the Assistant United States Attorney disclosed Gomez’s full name in the indictment. Shortly after he was released, Gomez was accosted by a man with a gun who accused Gomez of cooperating with law enforcement and insinuated that there was a contract out on Gomez’s life. The federal agents, the county sheriff, and Gomez’s parole officer all refused to take Gomez into protective custody. Gomez then started running for his life, sleeping at friends’ houses and living on the streets. After receiving death threats in several locations and not knowing what else to do, Gomez took possession of a twelve-gauge shotgun that had been stored at a friend’s house even though he was generally prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law due to a prior felony conviction. Federal agents later sought to make contact with Gomez, not to belatedly offer him protection, but to get further help in making their case against Mir. After two days of searching, they found him at a friend’s house, carrying the shotgun. Gomez was later indicted on two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), one count for the shotgun, the other for the shells in it. Given his dire situation and the government’s refusal to protect him, Gomez sought to introduce evidence tending to prove that his possession of the shotgun was justified, but the district court refused to allow this affirmative defense. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Gomez, the court found that Gomez’s situation fit within the very narrow justification exception to the federal felon-in-possession statute. Therefore, Gomez should have been allowed to present his justification defense to the jury. Gomez’s case neatly lays out some of the costs and benefits of prohibiting ex-felons from possessing firearms, and the sympathetic defendant helps create an objective perspective and dispel some biases that easily cloud the issue of whether ex felons should be able to arm themselves. This Note will attempt to objectively tally up the ways that prohibiting ex-felons from possessing firearms both helps and harms members of society, using data to support arguments wherever possible. Data are not available on topics such as where ex-felons reside, their experiences as victims of crime, or their perpetration of violent crimes, so the arguments presented here will necessarily only paint a partial picture

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network Newsletter – Fall 1997

Content: The Storm -- October 1997 by Steven J. Meyer, School of Natural Resource Sciences NESEN at 1997 NATS Fall Conference NESEN Announces 1998 Summer Workshop Series The NESEN Pod People are Coming NESEN to Hire Part-Time Secretary News from the NESEN Students by Brian Lang, Derek Geise and Peter Gomez UnSTEDII Seminar at NATS STEDII GROWS Drought Education Materials El Nino The Miracle Planet Series Now Available NESEN Membership Grows Conservation and Survey Division Home Page Selected Catalogs and Directories Available from the NESEN Lending Library Special Feature: STEDII Student Article

A Fragmented Parallel Stream: The Bass Lines of Eddie Gomez in the Bill Evans Trio

Eddie Gomez was the bassist in the Bill Evans Trio for eleven years. His contribution to the group’s sound was considerable, but while there has been some recognition of his virtuoso solos in the trio there has been little academic interest in his bass lines. This essay examines bass lines from the album Since We Met, recorded in 1974 by Evans, Gomez and drummer Marty Morell. Analysis of the bass accompaniments to the piano solos on “Since We Met” and “Time Remembered” reveals that they form a fragmented two-feel. A traditional two-feel employs two notes to emphasise the first and third beats in bar of 4/4 time. In Gomez’s bass lines these two notes are frequently replaced with short rhythmic motifs. These motifs occur in a variety of forms and at different metric displacements that alternately propel and retard the forward motion of the music. Additionally, Gomez uses a wide range of register and varied articulations to create a richly diverse bass line. The resulting effect has often been interpreted as interactive or conversational with the soloist. However there is very little interaction between the bass line and Evans’ solo. The bass line is a parallel stream to the solo that energises and colours the music

Crecimiento y caracterización de películas delgadas de tio2 y ti1- xfexo2

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Fe-doped titanium dioxide (Ti1-xFexO2) thin films were grown on silicon substrates using the magnetron sputtering Rf (13.56 MHz) technique. The relevant growth parameters for the samples (pressure, power, gas mixture ratio, distance between target-substrate, among others) were found. The plasma deposition environment for the ternary films was characterized by optical emission spectroscopy in order to verify and identify the present species which were iron and titanium. The TiO2 films, deposited on silicon substrates [100], showed an amorphous phase while the ternary films showed low crystallinity. After annealing at 800 °C crystalline phases appeared, rutile in binary films and mixed in ternary films.Fil: Galvis, J.. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Ramirez Jimenez, Helena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Montes, J.. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Sanchez, L.. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Beltran, J.. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Barrero, C.. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Morales, A.. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Gomez, J.. Universidad del Quindío; ColombiaFil: Tirado Mejia, L.. Universidad del Quindío; ColombiaFil: Osorio, J.. Universidad de Antioquia; Colombi

Impact of Prenatal Checkups of Mothers and Immunization of Children on the Health Status of Children (0-3 years) - A Study in Rural areas of Aligarh District, Uttar Pradesh.

Background and objectives: A survey based study on rural areas of Aligarh District was conducted to assess the prenatal checkups pregnant women and its effects on health status of children between the age of (0-3 years), and immunization received by children and its effects on their health status. Methods: Five hundred children from five villages of rural areas of Aligarh District were randomly selected. For the purpose of the study, a self prepared structured interview schedule was used. To get the qualitative information of the study anthropometric measures include height weight were used for assessing growth pattern of the child. The stepwise analysis of two variables height for age and weight for age was done on the basis of Water low’s and Gomez’ classification. To examine the relationship between Health Status of the child and selected variable that affects Health Status of children, Chi-square test was employed. Results: Based on Gomez’ classification out of 88% mothers who did not go for prenatal ups majority 80% of children were underweight, and 80% of children who did not receive immunization majority 60% were underweight. Based on Waterlow’s classification majority 68% of children were stunted whose mother did not go for prenatal checkups and 50% of their children were stunted who did not receive immunization. Conclusion: Majority of children were stunted whose mother did not go for prenatal checkup and the children who did not receive immunization