An Army cadet who left West Point just months shy of his graduation to make a high-profile protest of religious proselytizing at the school now faces Pentagon demands that he repay the cost of his education — either through active-duty service or by paying as much as $250,000.

The notification this week that he would be hit up for the fees blindsided Blake Page, 24, who says that top leadership at West Point assured him that "recoupment" of costs for his taxpayer-funded education would be waived when he left the school in December.

The Army’s move to deny the waiver — rejecting recommendations of the three-star general who runs West Point — was within its authority, but unusual enough to raise eyebrows.

"As a general matter, the secretary of the Army usually follows recommendations that come up through the chain of command," Philip Cave, a retired Navy judge advocate who practices military law in Alexandria, Va.

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Page’s supporters see demand for recoupment as punishment for a scathing commentary he wrote calling attention to what he considers illegal Christian proselytizing at West Point and discrimination against non-religious cadets. The commentary was published in The Huffington Post as he was leaving.

"Countless officers here and throughout the military are guilty of blatantly violating the oaths they swore to defend the Constitution," Page wrote in a Dec. 3 commentary entitled "Why I don’t want to be a West Point Graduate."

Original report by NBC News: West Point cadet quits, cites 'criminal behavior' of officers

He said the academy’s leaders were guilty of "unconstitutional proselytism, discrimination against the non-religious and establishing formal policies to reward, encourage and even at times require sectarian religious participation."

The way recoupment works is that if a student attends at least two years at the taxpayers’ expense, and then does not finish for reasons they could control — especially misconduct or poor performance — they are required to repay the government, said Cave. If things out of their control cause their departure, including many medical conditions, recoupment can be waived.

Page had been diagnosed with clinical depression during his time there and was told that he was not qualified to be a commissioned officer, according to military documents. Nonetheless, he said, he was in good academic standing and on track to graduate in May.

But the senior classman, a self-described atheist, decided to forego his diploma.

"I could have stayed and graduated," said Page, who established a Secular Students Association at West Point. "By resigning I was able to make a very loud and bold statement. I believe it had some positive impact on the non-religious cadets."

Page's supporters believe he’s being punished — apparently not by West Point, but the Pentagon — for his unflattering portrayal of academy.

"This may be the clearest example I’ve ever seen of reprisal and retribution," said Mikey Weinstein, the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group that battles evangelism infused in military business. "It sends an extremely dangerous message to anyone who wants to stand for their constitutional rights."

Weinstein, who recently brought Page on as his assistant at the nonprofit, says that in December he and Page separately received assurances from West Point leadership that the former cadet would not be called into active duty or handed a huge bill for his early departure.

In a memorandum dated Dec. 12, the superintendent of West Point, Lt. Gen. David Huntoon, did recommend to Army headquarters that Page be honorably discharged and that recoupment — in the form of money or service as an enlisted soldier — be waived.

The response, signed by Thomas R. Lamont, assistant Army secretary, approves Page for an honorable discharge, but disapproves the waivers. In the Jan. 28 memorandum, he orders the West Point superintendent "to conduct a recoupment investigation."

"They have to provide a line by line breakdown of the costs that were incurred from (Page) being there," said Maj. Scott R. Johnson, who is a liaison with West Point at the Department of the Army.

The amount varies from one case to another. But the estimated cost of attending four years at West Point is estimated at $200,000-$250,000. The military could also order Page back to active duty.

Asked why Huntoon’s recommendations on Page’s behalf were rejected, Johnson said:

"We are an impartial third party. We review each individual packet … There’s merit to an organization such as the academy and a three-star general making a recommendation. But if it were always in their favor, there would be no reason for us to review the packets."

Once the Pentagon demands recoupment, there’s not much recourse for the soldier, according to Cave, the Virginia attorney. 

"To the extent that there might be remedy, there’s not effective remedy," he said.

Weinstein is threatening legal action.

"My message for the Army is they better be ready to face a whistleblower lawsuit," he said. "If they are not going to fairly state why they are doing this, they can tell it to the 12 members of a federal jury."

Meantime Page, who now lives in Minnesota, is finishing up a certification program to work as a personal trainer. He's also written a book about his experiences, which he hopes will generate some revenue.

Asked what will he do if the military sends him a bill for $200,000, he responds: "File for bankruptcy, I guess."

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The Chemistry Department at Villanova University in Pennsylvania is reviewing all protocols and procedures after a lab experiment prompted evacuation of the science building and sent nearly 30 people to the hospital on Tuesday — some with nose bleeds and many others who were having trouble breathing.

"One student fell ill, she was taken to the ladies room, they thought it was an asthma attack, then she started having nose bleeds," said Police Superintendent Bill Colarulo of Radnor Township, just northeast of Philadelphia, NBC Philadelphia reported.

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The teacher who was overseeing the lab experiment then started to feel faint and other students began having adverse reactions. The most common complaints were of dizziness, nausea, breathing problems and feeling light-headed.

"There was no indication of a chemical spill or reaction," David Tedjeske, director of public safety at the university, said in a statement on Wednesday. "The experiment being conducted was a commonly performed organic synthesis using propionic acid and alcohol to create a compound. The chemistry department is conducting a comprehensive review of their protocols and procedures as the safety of our students is always our highest priority."

According to New Jersey’s Right to Know Hazardous Substance List, propionic acid is a corrosive chemical used as a preservative, fungicide, and antimicrobial agent.

Direct contact with the acid can severely irritate and burn the skin and eyes and inhaling it can irritate a person’s nose, throat and lungs, causing shortness of breath and other complications, according to the website.

"There are fume hoods in the lab and the students all wear protective gear when performing the experiment, including eye protection," said John Gust, director of media relations at Villanova. "This was a commonly performed experiment that has been run the same way numerous times before without incident."

Hazmat crews evacuated the whole science center building, and set up hazmat tents for treating affected students.

"We got evacuated, nobody was really sure what was going on," student Justin Wickersham told NBC Philadelphia. "We just thought it was a regular fire drill."

All students in the lab were contacted and asked to return to the area for evaluation, said police and university officials.

In total, 45 individuals were evaluated by Villanova and Radnor emergency responders and 29 of those were transported to local hospitals, evaluated and released.

The science building was deemed safe and reopened on Wednesday.

Amid continuing anger over the poor handling of sexual abuse cases by Catholic Church officials over several decades — and still deeply in the red from settlements with victims — the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is considering the launch of a massive fundraising campaign, according to the website of a Catholic fundraising organization.

The non-profit Guidance in Giving lists the Los Angeles-area Catholic Church among its "diocesan accounts" and says it is exploring a campaign to raise $200 million for the diocese to meet "a variety of needs," including "priests' retirement, seminarian education, Catholic schools, Catholic Charities and parish needs."

The archdiocese did not respond to NBC queries in time for publication, but a church spokesman acknowledged the possible campaign to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported it.

In 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a $660 million settlement with 562 victims of abuse by priests and other church personnel. According to the Times, financial reports show that the church remains $80 million in debt.

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The effort to shore up church finances is the initiative of Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, who was installed in 2011, and now seems keen to move the church away from its tarnished past.

On Jan. 31, Gomez presided over the release of thousands of pages of priest personnel files that had been the subject of a legal tussle for six years. The 12,000 pages, made accessible through the archdiocese web site, reveal many communications among officials who appear to be concealing allegations of the priests' sexual abuses from police.

The court ordered the documents be released in 2007 as part of the settlement, but the church lawyers fought to redact many of the names in the documents until earlier this month, when a judge ruled against them.

In a letter written by Gomez  to congregants and read in many services on Sunday, the archbishop described the files as "brutal and painful reading," and went on to rebuke his predecessors for failing to protect the children from adult predators. He announced removal of his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, from administrative and public duties and said a high-ranking bishop, Thomas J. Curry, had been dismissed from his role as regional bishop of Santa Barbara.

"I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages," Gomez said in his letter.

"To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry."

In the introduction to the files, the archdiocese website says that the release "concludes a sad and shameful chapter" in the history of the archdiocese.

But critics of the church may not let the matter rest.

Just a few days after the documents were made public, The New York Times reported on watchdog allegations that many names in the files that should have been made public were redacted, and that parts of the personnel files were missing.

According to the Times, lawyers for the abuse victims say they may file a motion next week to compel the church to release what they believe are missing or are erroneously redacted documents.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese is the largest in the United States, comprising Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, with an estimated 4.6 million members.

Related:

Los Angeles Catholic officials shielded pedophile priests, report
L.A. police pore over 12,000 pages of priest abuse records for leads
Pedophile victims urge renewed probe Los Angeles Catholic leaders

 

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It is a tangled tale that could perhaps be best told through a graphic novel.

A former Texas police investigator appeared in federal court Tuesday accused of stealing comic books worth hundreds of thousands of dollars -- from a man who was himself facing charges for stealing millions of dollars from his employer, which he then used to buy the valuable classics, the Houston Chronicle reported.

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Lonnie Blevins was an investigator for Harris County involved in the case of lawyer Anthony Chiofalo, who was charged last May with bilking his employer out of $9 million.

In the course of the case, authorities seized Chiofalo’s high-priced comics and other collectibles — including a first-edition Batman comic book worth about $900,000 and an original Green Lantern comic valued at $300,000.

But after a months-long federal investigation, Blevins was arrested in the disappearance of some of those assets which he allegedly sold.

Blevins, who left the Harris County District attorney's office in December, resigned from his subsequent job with the Bexar County D.A.'s office on Monday after learning of the charges, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin told the Chronicle.

The FBI believes Blevins stole the Chiofalo’s comic books from a storage unit containing evidence from the fraud case, and that he sold some of them to dealers in Chicago for $70,000, according court documents obtained by local TV station KTRK.

According to witnesses interviewed by the FBI, Blevins asked for the money in small check amounts, the report says.

Chiofalo's path to the present has many twists. He was charged last May for stealing millions from Japan-based crane manufacturer Tadano America, by getting his company to pay millions to a phantom law firm and then pocketing the money. When Chiofalo's wife, 51-year-old Susan Chiofalo was arrested, he fled Texas.

Chiofalo was was on the lam until December, and by coincidence staying in Newtown, Conn. at the time of the horrific grade school shootings. As police swarmed into the town, he left and turned himself in at a police station in Rhode Island.

Now, under a civil judgment Chiofalo is attempting to pay restitution to Tadano, according to his attorney, Paul Doyle.

Doyle said that how much his client is able to repay in the civil case could affect Chiofalo’s sentencing in the criminal case against him.

"We have been trying to cooperate and provide the company with restitution, but have not been able to," Doyle said.

Doyle says that the county did not follow inventory and security procedures for the seized assets, and there appear to be dozens of comic books missing — worth more than $1 million, he said.

Doyle says he is drafting a motion to get Chiofalo’s case dismissed, because of the alleged misconduct by the Harris County DA in handling the assets and other aspects of the case, including the arrest of Chiafalo’s wife, 51-year-old Susan Chiofalo, for alleged involvement in the theft. She is out on bail, and her case is pending.

Meantime, Chiofalo remains in the Harris County jail, unable to make the $18 million bail.

Blevins is out on bond.

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Police in Florida announced Friday that they had arrested a suspect in the disappearance of 166 manhole covers.

The Polk County Sheriff’s detectives launched an investigation on Wednesday after the local utility company, Toho Water Authority, reported that dozens of the 300-pound steel lids had gone missing over a period of about two weeks, a release from the Sheriff said.

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A "scrap alert" to all secondhand metal dealers sparked a tip leading to Christopher Fink, 40, who was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly offloaded the covers — worth more than $22,000 in total — with Gregco Recycling.

Local authorities were not amused.

"The lack of manhole covers significantly increased the risk of harm to drivers and pedestrians in the area," said a release from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. "Toho placed temporary plywood covers over the spaces and marked each area as a hazard."

Fink was charged with 21 counts of grand theft, four counts of dealing in stolen property, four counts of false verification to secondhand metal dealer and 166 counts culpable negligence exposure to harm.

The theft of manhole covers, typically made of cast iron, is a global problem, and generally worsens when the price of scrap metal is high.

In some of other recent manhole cover disappearances, Bessemer City, N.C. in December was investigating the disappearance of 30 covers in a week according to local TV station News 14 while in Cleveland earlier this month, a driver was stopped around 1 a.m. with at least 10 stolen manhole covers and stolen storm grates in the back of his truck.

Last year, the town of Birmingham in the United Kingdom called a crisis meeting over a spate of metal thefts after 900 manhole covers disappeared in 6 months, people posing as city workers brazenly walked off with metal street signs and thieves stripped the plumbing from empty houses.

In the Indian city of Calcutta, the problem of manhole covers disappearing became so severe at one point that the government started making the covers from concrete, according to a report in the Telegraph India. But thieves took them anyway, and cashed in on the rebar embedded inside.

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A former CIA agent was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Friday for revealing the identity of CIA operative involved in the agency’s harsh handling of alleged terrorists.

John Kiriakou, 48, who was among the first government officials to confirm the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures, had been accused of disclosing classified information to reporters and lying about the source of other information he published in a book.

But Kiriakou pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by leaking the identity of an agent to a reporter. 

The sentencing in federal court in Alexandria, Va., was the result of a plea deal between defense and prosecutors. Kiriakou's defense team failed to persuade the judge that his release of information was the act of a whistle blower concerned about practices used in the war on terrorism in the name of the United States.

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"I think 30 months is way too light," said U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria, Va. She went on to describe the damage that Kiriakou had caused the agency and the agent whose cover was made public, according to The New York Times' account.

"This is not a case of a whistleblower," Brinkema said. "This is a case of a man who betrayed a solemn trust."

Many of the details of Kiriakou’s alleged disclosures were kept under wraps by the Justice Department in its original criminal filing, the Washington Post  reported. But the complaint suggested that he provided information that was the basis for stories by the Times and other news organizations in 2008 and 2009 about sensitive post-9/11 CIA operations, it said.

The information included the capture and interrogation, including waterboarding, of key suspects, including Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Information and photographs supplied to journalists by Kiriakou ultimately came into play in the defense of these high-value detainees, the Justice Department said.

Kiriakou worked for the CIA from 1990 to 2004.

After a 2007 interview with ABC News, during which Kiriakou provided a description of the waterboarding of Abu Zubaida, he was frequently sought out by the media for interviews.

He went on to publish his memoir, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror," in 2010.

Prosecutors accused Kiriakou of using media attention to get consulting work and sell copies of his book, the Post reported. 

The FBI arrested him on Jan. 23, 2012, and he pleaded guilty to a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Kiriakou did not speak at Friday’s proceedings. However, Kiriakou’s lawyer, Robert Trout, said his client did not intend to harm the United States or "cause injury to anyone."

"He was concerned about certain practices that were employed in the war against terror," Trout said.

Since 2009, the Obama administration has charged five other current or former government officials with leaking classified information, the Times reported.

Claims of negligence and wrongful death against the Colorado theater where a gunman went on a shooting spree in July should be tossed out, a federal magistrate judge said on Thursday.

The Denver Post reported that the decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty applies to seven lawsuits filed last year in federal court against Cinemark, owner of the Century Aurora 16 theater where the attack took place.

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The shooting, which left 12 people dead and 58 wounded, sparked at least 10 lawsuits against Cinemark claiming that poor security at the theater enabled the gunman’s attack, the report said.  

 

Hegarty says that Colorado law does not allow people wounded or families of people killed in the shooting to make claims of negligence and wrongful death against the theater. His decision is merely a recommendation to U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who is overseeing the case, but it carries significant weight, according to the Post.

The suspected gunman, James Holmes, is in prison awaiting trial. He is charged with 24 counts of first-degree murder — two for each of the people killed when he opened fire on the audience at a late night showing of "Dark Knight Rises." He is also charged with 116 counts of attempted murder and possession of explosives. Holmes has not entered a plea.

The Century Aurora 16 in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., which was closed after the July 20 mass killing, reopened last week, after months of renovation and redesign.

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U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan on Thursday ordered the removal of a steeple and crucifix erected over a remote American base in the Muslim country after a soldier deployed there noted that the symbols violated Army regulations, and could reinforce suspicions that the United States is fighting a holy war.

It is unclear how long ago the Christian symbols at the chapel at Forward Operating Base Orgun-E had been in place. In terms of religious displays, they are hardly ostentatious — a cross on a small rooftop steeple and cross-shaped windows in the doors. But Sgt. Joel Muhlnickel was alarmed by the symbolism at Orgun-E, especially the cross that rises up over the rooftops at the base.

"When I think of an army sporting a Christian cross, I think Crusades," Muhlnickel wrote on Facebook from Orgun — a message that was forwarded to NBC News by a third party. "Neither my country nor my army force me to swear allegiance to Odin, Jesus, Buddha or Horus. Freedom from religious oppression is pretty much the reason why the United States was founded."

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"It is the sort of thing that provides a boundless bonanza of terrorist propaganda for the mujahedeen, the insurrectionists, the Taliban and al-Qaida that we are supposedly fighting to protect our national security," said Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the non-profit Military Religious Freedom Foundation. "The message of the cross on the chapel is basically putting out the message in Pashto, Dari and Arabic to please blow me up because I'm a latter day Christian crusader."

The U.S. military provides chapels for troops around the world and has thousands of chaplains deployed — the majority of them Christian, while there are also Jewish, Muslim and other faith leaders.

Chapels are set up even in outposts as far-flung as Orgun-E.

But Army regulations state that these facilities — usually nondescript temporary structures — are to be neutral gathering spaces, not dedicated to any one faith, except when being used for a specific worship service. Portable symbols, icons or statues can be used during religious services, but then must be removed or covered up for others who use the space.

"In general the chapels have to be ecumenical so they can be converted from one religion to another," said Elizabeth Hillman, professor of law at University of California Hastings College of Law and President of the National Institute of Military Justice. "To create permanent structures that evoke one particular religion — that is problematic.

"I would think that anything that would increase the vulnerability of a forward operating base is a problematic," Hillman added.

Muhlnickel raised his concerns through his chain of command, and then — unconvinced that it would result in action — turned to outside organizations, including the nonprofit American Atheists.

"Chaplains know the regulations very well," said Justin Griffith, an Army sergeant at Fort Bragg, N.C., and military director for American Atheists in his personal time. "Whoever authorized (the steeple and crosses) knew exactly what they were doing. It's intentionally disrespectful to the non-Christians in the U.S. military ... Put it in Afghanistan, the danger is very real, to personnel, even to Christians."

The Army, contacted by NBC on Tuesday morning, responded to queries Wednesday afternoon, saying the cross had been removed and boards had been placed over the cross-shaped windows while the base ordered new doors.

"The local command in Afghanistan is aware of this chapel and has taken appropriate action to ensure that it is changed into a neutral facility," said a statement from an Army Spokesman at the Pentagon.

Hours later, Orgun command sent out a memo throughout the base explaining that the chapel was to be brought into compliance by eliminating the crosses, and assuring soldiers that it would be handled in a respectful manner.

Griffith, an atheist who often calls out practices that he believes cross the line from the free exercise of religion to unconstitutional proselytizing or discrimination, has learned that his views are unpopular with many in the military. He's concerned about Muhlnickel suffering reprisal. 

"Sgt. Muhlnickel’s efforts just put the pin back in the grenade," said Griffith. "The military now needs to protect him from any backlash ... and not punish him for speaking out against the dangerous 'crusader' symbolism."

In similar situations that have come to light, military commanders have ordered the removal of the religious symbols. In April 2012, when a Marine Corps squadron revived the "Crusaders" name with the shield and cross logo for fighter jets, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation challenged the move, citing constitutional and security concerns. The next month, the Marine Corps said that the squadron had converted back to the moniker "Werewolves," replacing the logos from the jets, uniforms, buildings and elsewhere.

A chapel at Camp Marmal, another U.S. base in northern Afghanistan, was ordered to remove a large cross from its chapel after complaints, Politico reported. A spokesman from the Pentagon agreed that the Camp Marmal cross had violated Army regulations.

In Afghanistan, where the population is more than 99 percent Muslim, the tiny Christian population worships in secret, out of fear of attack by extremist Muslims. Christian evangelism is illegal in the country, and foreigners suspected of spreading Christian teachings have been deported by the government, and attacked and kidnapped by extremists.

Related stories:

Foxhole atheists plan to rock the base at Fort Bragg 

Outrage, calls for action over anti-Muslim materials in military training

West Point cadet quits, cites 'criminal' behavior of officers
 

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Lawmakers in Rhode Island's House on Thursday easily passed a bill to allow gay marriage, putting the state one step closer to joining the rest of New England in legal recognition of same-sex couples.

But observers on both sides of the issue said that the ultimate fate of the legislation was hard to call.

The bill passed the House 51-19, but it faces a much more difficult battle in the state Senate, supporters and opponents said.

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Moments after the House vote, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, a firm supporter of the measure, tweeted: "Certain votes can be characterized as 'historic.' RI House's overwhelming passage of marriage equality is one such vote."

Opponents were quick to weigh in as well.

The House vote "undermines the common good of our state and strikes against the very foundation of our culture," said a statement from the Rhode Island Catholic Conference. "Unfortunately, this bill redefines marriage and fails to protect the religious liberties of many faith communities and individuals of conscience who believe that marriage is a union of one man and one woman."

"There is incredible momentum behind this movement," said Ray Sullivan, the campaign manager for Rhode Islanders United for Marrriage, a coalition of groups that had pushed for passage. There was "first a unanimous Judiciary Committee vote, and now two-thirds of members, Republicans and Democrats, stood in support of marriage equality."

The vote came after nearly two hours of discussion among state representatives.

The focus will now turn to the state Senate, which must hear its version of the bill by April 11.

That battle is expected to be much closer.

"We're not taking anything for granted," said Sullivan. "Tonight we will celebrate and tomorrow we will double and triple our efforts."

In lobbying a state senators who are on the fence or opposed to same-sex marriage, Sullivan said his group will continue to emphasize the human side of the issue, bringing the testimony of same-sex couples who have been together for decades to legislators, an approach he believes was the key to persuading undecided members of the House.

Same sex couples have the legal right to marry in nine states plus Washington, D.C. They include Rhode Island's neighbors in the northeast — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, New York and New Hampshire — as well as Iowa and Washington state. 

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A man on a long list of people pardoned by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in 2012 is a suspect in a shootout that left another man dead, the Jackson Free Press reported Friday.

Wayne "Honkey" Harris, who was one of 203 people pardoned during Barbour’s last week in office — touching off a storm of controversy and a legal battle — was attending a “friendly cookout,” on Thursday when he got into an argument that escalated into a gunfight, the Calhoun County Journal reported.

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In the melee, Chris McGonagill was shot multiple times, allegedly by Harris, and died later at the hospital. Harris was shot twice, allegedly by McGonagill, and was hospitalized with a shattered femur and a bullet lodged in his side,  according to the Journal. Harris was due for surgery Friday afternoon, the report said.

Harris, whose gun was allegedly used in the shootout, was permitted to own a gun because of the 2012 pardon had wiped his record clean of a 2001 felony conviction for selling marijuana.

Three other men were present when the shooting occurred and were being questioned as witnesses, the Jackson Free Press reported, citing Calhoun County Sheriff Greg Pollan.

Pollan told the Journal that at least 13 shots were fired, but they did not know who had fired first. No charged had been filed as of Friday evening.

Barbour pardons, many issued the day that his successor was inaugurated in January 2012, wiped the record clean for many people who had already served time for their crimes. It also granted release to some inmates and pardoned four people convicted of murder, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Controversy over the list led to a legal challenge but the Mississippi Supreme Court in March ruled 6-3 to reaffirm the governor’s right to use his executive powers to grant clemency.

Barbour defended the pardons as well-considered acts of mercy, the Monitor reported, citing a statement he issued at the time:

"These were decisions based on repentance, rehabilitation, and redemption, leading to forgiveness and the right defined and given by the state constitution to the governor to offer such people a second chance."

A judge in Indiana sentenced former Gary resident Riley Choate to 80 years in prison on Friday for neglect in the death of his son, a 13-year-old who had been regularly beaten, confined to a dog cage for two years, and fed a starvation diet.

The boy, Christian Choate, weighed less than 50 pounds when he died on April 4, 2009, of blunt force trauma to the head, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"The pain and the suffering, the degradation this baby went through for two years of his life is incomprehensible," Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Boswell said, according to the report.

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A sister of the victim — one of as many as 10 children who lived with Choate and his wife in a trailer in Gary, Ind. — said that on the day of his death Christian had refused to eat, enraging his father, who punched the boy several times with "full force" before throwing him back in the cage, said the Tribune, citing court records.

Choate and his wife, Kimberly Kubina, the boy’s stepmother, were accused of burying the boy on their property and moving the family to Kentucky shortly thereafter, telling others that Christian had run away.

Deputy Prosecutor Michael Woods described Choate's abuse of Christian as persistent, cruel and depraved, according to a report in the Northwest Indiana Times.

"Christian Choate sat in that cage, losing his mind, losing his strength and probably his humanity,” Woods said, while his father sat at the desk next to the cage playing games on his computer, according to the report.

"There were many other children in this house. They all saw Christian suffer. Those images haunt their sleep and drive them back into counseling," the prosecutor said.

The boy’s body, buried under concrete with a Bible and a cross in the Gary, Ind. mobile home park, was found in May 2011.

"We feel very strongly that the system failed this child, this young man, Christian Choate," Lake County Indiana Sheriff John Buncich said at a press conference Friday. "The system failed him and a lot of information slipped through the crack and we feel his life could have been saved if things had been dealt with in a different manner."

In December, Choate pleaded guilty to a Class A felony for neglect of a dependent causing death, and felonies for moving the boy’s body and depriving his daughter, Christina, of an education. He also admitted to being a habitual offender for previous felony theft convictions, the Times said. In doing so, he avoided a jury trial on charges of murder, battery, criminal confinement and obstruction of justice. In the plea deal, he was sentenced to 80 years instead of a possible 120 if convicted of the original charges.

Before the sentencing on Friday, Choate apologized for his actions, the Chicago Tribune reported: "All my actions will haunt me forever. I loved my son."

Kubina, who was also charged with child abuse, divorced Choate in 2011 and cooperated in his prosecution. As a result, she is due to be released from jail in February, the Tribune said.

At the trial for Mohamed Osman Mohamud in Portland, Ore. — which began with jury selection on Thursday — no one is expected to dispute these chilling facts: The Somali-born teen tried to set off an explosion that was meant to rip through a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the city center on Nov. 26, 2010.

The deliberations will focus on how Mohamud came to that decisive moment, when he was arrested using what turned out to be a fake detonator for fake explosives, part of a federal sting operation.

The defense will argue "entrapment" — that the federal agents lured the teen, who was 18 when they first contacted him — into a violent plot that he would not have been inclined to pursue on his own. Legal experts say this is essentially a Hail Mary pass — a legal argument extremely hard to win — but some factors in this case, including the defendant’s youth, could give the strategy a chance of success.

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"The entrapment defense is that the person’s independent will was overborn by the suggestion or manipulation of the government," said Kenneth Lerner, a criminal defense attorney and former federal public defender in Portland. "The government has to show that the person was willing to do it. That’s the tension."

In many ways, Mohamud’s case resembles others in which U.S. citizens or residents, apparently inspired by radical websites, have tried to carry out attacks, only to be arrested in a sting featuring undercover agents or informers posing as terrorists or their liaisons.

A 36-page government affidavit says the FBI agents’ arranged a first meeting with Mohamud in July 2010, after he had suspicious email exchanges with a militant Islamist in northwest Pakistan. The document said the FBI believes Mohammad was trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to travel to the region to train for "violent jihad."

It says that when the undercover agent, posing as a contact with the militant and referred to as UCE1, asked what Mohamud was willing to do for "the cause," Mohamud chose violence:

"UCE1 told Mohamud that there were a number of ways that he could help, ranging from simply praying five times a day to becoming a martyr. MOHAMUD said that he wanted to become 'operational.' Asked to elaborate, MOHAMUD stated he thought of putting an explosion together but that he needed help doing so."

In a later meeting with two agents, Mohamud proposes the Christmas tree lighting ceremony as a target for an attack, according to the document.

"The undercover agent pointed out that there would be lots of children at such an event, to which MOHAMUD replied he was looking for a 'huge mass that will  ... be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays.'"

And later still, he asserted that he wanted everyone to leave the ceremony "dead or wounded," according to the document.

The meetings culminated with Mohamud dialing a number into a cell phone that he believed would ignite a van full of explosives parked at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square as thousands of people gathered there.

The "car bomb" provided by agents was not operational, authorities reassured the public later.

Mohamud, now 21, was arrested and charged with attempting to use weapons of mass destruction, which carries a potential life sentence.

The defense is likely to stress Mohamud’s lack of maturity when he was first approached by agents shortly after high school graduation.

Mixed picture
A recent profile of Mohamud by The Associated Press suggests he was not as single-minded that the person described in the affidavit.

He entered college at Oregon State University just months before the would-be attack, taking on pre-engineering classes. While he was exploring radical interpretations of his religion, Islam, and decrying the U.S. military presence in Muslim countries, he went to parties where he was said to enjoy drinking gin, socialized with a range of students, including a group of guys who played video games and the trading-card game "Magic: The Gathering," the AP report said, citing Mohamud's friends and acquaintances.

Mohamud is a naturalized U.S. citizen who came with his mother came to the country as a refugee when he was 5. His parents were reunited, but later divorced.

In pre-trial testimony, it emerged that Mohamud’s father, Osman Barre, an engineer in Portland, reported his son to the FBI in August 2009, saying that he was afraid his son was being "brainwashed" by extremists.

The defense team, led by attorney Steve Sady, is expected to paint a picture of Mohamud as vulnerable to manipulation — not just by the actual terrorists but by the federal agents.

"Here’s a kid who is at a time in life when things are a little mixed up. He’s trying separate from his family and establish his own identity, perhaps to understand his religion, trying to understand Americas’ role in the world and what they are doing in Muslim countries …," said Lerner, the former federal public defender.

"Mohamud was a very young, very impressionable kid... at the time the police approached him," said Steve Sherlag, a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer in Portland. "I would explore and exploit that to the greatest extent possible."

Missing recording
The defense is also likely to highlight the fact that the FBI does not have an audio recording of the initial meeting between Mohamud and the FBI agent, because of reported technical difficulties. Subsequent meetings, in which Mohamud expressed his determination to kill people, were recorded.

The absence of that first recording could dent the prosecution’s case that Mohamud was predisposed to commit a violent attack, says Sherlag.

"That is the crux of the entrapment case," he said, referring to that initial conversation. "It’s very indicative of who he was when they government sting operation began. Who was he before the government started putting ideas in his mind?"

Talking to reporters shortly after Mohamud's arrest, Attorney General Eric Holder said he confident that an entrapment defense would not be successful in the case.

"There were... a number of opportunities that the subject in this matter, the defendant in this matter, was given to retreat, to take a different path," he said. "He chose at every step to continue."

Samuel Rascoff, assistant professor at New York University School of Law, says that the legal standard for proving coercion in a case like this is extremely strict, and rarely sticks, even when it involves young offenders.

"The law only favors those people who can successfully show that they were not predisposed to want to carry out such an attack and would never have done so without active official involvement,” said Rascroff. "On the other hand, this is probably someone who in the absence of the FBI probably wouldn’t have gotten to the point of blowing up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. But that does not constitute entrapment within the meaning of the law."

Ultimately, it comes down to the jury, which is now being selected. Some experts have suggested that the panel in Oregon may be more critical than average of FBI tactics and any missteps.

"Oregonians take tremendous pride in being different, independent. They have the ability to question authority," said Sherlag. "They are willing to say 'prove it'."

But even with a strong entrapment defense,  a skeptical jury will be challenged to set aside the horrific plot that Mohamud imagined he was carrying out.

"The idea of blowing up the square packed with families the day after Thanksgiving during an event for Christmas — it is highly emotional," Sherlag said. "That is going to be very hard to defuse."