UNBIASED - Blinken Visits China, Synagogue Shooter Faces Death, Florida’s Recent Execution, and the Missing Submersible.

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

1. U.S. Secretary of State Visits China Attempting to Ease Tensions; Why Tension? What Was Expected to Happen vs. What Actually Happened (1:14)2. Jury Finds Pittsburg Synagogue Shooter Guilty; The Charges He Faced and What to Expect at the Sentencing Phase (9:48)3. Florida Executes Inmate, Duane Owen, via Lethal Injection; His Appeal Attempt, Final Meal and Final Words (17:11)4. Submersible Meant To Dive to Titanic Wreckage Loses Contact With Ship; Here’s What The Search and Rescue Operation Looks Like (20:16)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and share it with those you know that also appreciate unbiased news!Subscribe to Jordan's weekly free newsletter featuring hot topics in the news, trending lawsuits, and more.Follow Jordan on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features,

BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for? Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only.

Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario Helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

You are listening to the Jordan Is My Lawyer podcast, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Enjoy the show. Welcome back to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. Happy Tuesday. I have four stories for you today. Number one, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China. We're going to talk about what was expected to happen at the meeting versus what actually happened at the meeting. The second story is going to be about that Pennsylvania synagogue shooter that was found guilty on Friday and faces the death penalty. The third story is going to be another death penalty related case,

that is the recent execution out of Florida. And the fourth and final story is going to be about that missing submersible that went out to sea to look at the Titanic wreckage and has not resurfaced and has lost communication with the ship that it loaded off from. So without further ado, let's get into today's stories. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China on Sunday and Monday, marking the first meeting of its kind since 2018. You might remember he was supposed to visit China back in early February, but that meeting was actually canceled very last minute when that Chinese balloon was found flying over the United States and it was subsequently shot down. Let's first give a little background on the relationship between China and the United States,

and then the intention of the meeting will make a little more sense. So we're definitely not going to break down everything that's gone on between China and the United States since 1949 when the tensions started rising. But instead, we're just going to go over a quick overview. So I do have a full timeline of events linked on jordanismylawyer.com if you are interested in the full history. But again, we're just going to make this fairly quick. So right now there is a lot of tension between China and the United States. The tension between the two is really nothing new, but over the last few years it has escalated. China's foreign minister actually deemed the relationship between the

United States and China as its lowest point in years. And most of that tension stems from Taiwan and the war in Ukraine, but also trade and climate change. So there's a lot going on. But like I said, the tension started in 1949, and that was when the Chinese Communist Party leader at the time established the People's Republic of China. And when this happened, the nationalist leader and thousands of troops fled to Taiwan. They didn't want to be a part of the People's Republic of China. When they fled, the United States supported this move, and that set the stage for years and years of tension. Since then, Taiwan has been governed independently of China, but Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory, and it has promised to eventually unify Taiwan with the mainland of China, but Taiwan wants

nothing to do with that. So that's when all the tension started in 1949. Let's fast forward to 2017. In 2017, former President Trump met with Xi, who is the Chinese president, at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. There was said to have been tremendous progress at that meeting, and the very next month, there was this agreement that was unveiled between Beijing and Washington by the U.S. Commerce Secretary that was going to expand on trade. Things are seemingly going well, right? Ten months later, the Trump administration announces new tariffs on Chinese imports, and this was due to what the White House called Chinese theft of United States technology and intellectual property. China then retaliates by imposing similar measures on United States products, and this goes back and forth,

and we eventually land ourselves in a trade war with China. Subsequently, Trump signs the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. This was in 2019. And this allows the United States to do a few things. But one, it allowed the United States to sanction people that were responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong. And two, it allowed the United States to conduct an annual evaluation as to whether Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy from Beijing. Now, Beijing did not like this. So then fast forward to January 2020, after this trade war is going on for two years approximately, Trump and China's vice president sign an agreement that relaxes

some of those imposed tariffs. And then comes COVID. And we all are probably familiar with the tensions that arose between the United States and China because of the pandemic. Then you get to the end of 2020 and the United States goes ahead and adds dozens of Chinese companies to its blacklist. It tightens visa rules for roughly 90 million members of the Chinese Communist Party. It sanctions Chinese officials and it bans United States investments in Chinese companies that have ties to the Chinese military. President Biden then takes over in 2021 and continues a lot of Donald Trump's policies, including the tariffs, the sanctions, the blacklist, and even expands Trump's ban on

those American investments into Chinese companies that have ties into the Chinese military. Following this, the Olympics happens. So the Winter Olympics took place in Beijing, and the United States imposed a diplomatic boycott where they wouldn't send diplomats to the Olympics in Beijing. Other countries also joined in on this. But then following that, the war between Russia and Ukraine happens, and President Biden warns China's President Xi and threatened consequences against China if it provided Russia with support. Also at this time, China is not necessarily condemning Russia or Putin for the war, and President Biden eventually issues sanctions against Russia, to which Xi criticized these sanctions. Then in 2022,

Nancy Pelosi heads to Taiwan, and this was done to show support for Taiwan. This leads to Beijing suspending United States climate talks, it cuts off military communication channels with the United States, and it sanctions Pelosi. And this was kind of a pivotal moment in the relationship between China and the United States. I said that the relationship has not always been good, but this really was a moment in which those already existing tensions sort of tightened. So later that year, President Biden and Xi finally sit down and they try to ease these tensions and they agree that they're going to reopen communication channels. And it seems like some progress is being made. Well, a matter of months later, the balloon incident happens. So

you probably remember that balloon that was found to be flying over the United States. The United States shot it down and China said they will do everything in their lawful power to retaliate and, you know, kind of show the United States that they made a mistake. So you can see how this tension hasn't really it hasn't really gotten much better. Given that the purpose of this meeting between Blinken and Xi was to ease this tension, and that was really the only goal. Both sides didn't really go into this with any huge goals, but rather just sit down, talk, give their relationship a little bit of slack, and kind of take some of this tension off. With that said, neither Blinken nor Xi called out specific areas

of agreement. They just said that there was a mutual decision to return to a broad agenda for cooperation and competition, which was that agreement that Xi and President Biden reached last year when they talked in Bali. And both Blinken and Xi said that they were pleased with the outcome of the meeting. Blinken said that, you know, the United States set limited objectives for the trip and achieved them. However, there was at least one objective that wasn't achieved. Blinken had requested better communications between the Chinese and U.S. militaries. And this is something that had been requested in the past. But she actually refused to agree to this. And he said that China isn't ready to resume military to military contacts.

The problem is, is that since 2021, China has either declined and or ignored dozens of requests from the Department of Defense for top level dialogues, meaning meetings between top officials with the Department of Defense and the Chinese defense minister. And that Chinese defense minister is actually currently under U.S. sanction. He has been since 2018 for engaging in military transactions with Russia, but he could still meet with United States officials, though he won't and China won't let him. So the U.S. says that it needs China to promise better communication between the United States and the Chinese military in order to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan. But China is just not ready. Following the meeting,

Blinken said that it was clear coming in that the relationship between the United States and China was at a point of instability, and both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it. Blinken went on to say, quote, I came to Beijing to strengthen high-level channels of communication, to make clear our positions and intentions in areas of disagreement, and to explore areas where we might work together on our interests, align on shared transactional challenges, and we did all of that. But again, I want to emphasize none of this gets resolved with one visit, one trip, one conversation, end quote. That takes us into our second story, which is the synagogue shooter who was found guilty on Friday. Federal death penalty cases are pretty rare. But on Friday, Robert Bowers, the man who walked into a synagogue in 2018 and killed 11 people,

was found guilty and now faces the death penalty. Keep in mind that this guilty verdict does not automatically mean he gets the death penalty, and we will talk about why. But first, let's talk about the facts surrounding this case. Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life synagogue on 27th, 2018, and shot 11 people in what is now known as the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. Upon his arrest, he told the investigators that he wanted to kill Jewish people, and that was his goal. Now, let's go through the counts as they are set forth in the indictment. In total, there are 63, but of course it's not 63 individual charges. It's 11 of one

thing, 11 of another, two of another, and so on and so forth. So let's go through this. There are 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, two counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon resulting in bodily injury. Eight counts of that same thing, but as it pertains to a public safety officer. And four counts of that same thing as it pertains to a public safety officer, but without the attempt to kill. So obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs and use of a dangerous weapon resulting in bodily injury to a public safety officer. There are 11 counts of

hate crime act resulting in death, two counts of hate crime act involving an attempt to kill, 11 counts of use and discharge of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence and possession of a firearm in furtherance to a crime of violence and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. And lastly, 14 counts of that same thing, but without the murder component. So just the use and discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime. A couple of things to note here, you probably noticed that a lot of those sound like the same thing. The reality is, is they do sound like the same thing, but they are

not, though they are very similar. Sometimes there are very slight differences in charges, but that just means that the elements that must be proven to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt are slightly different. So as an example, you know, counts 12 through 22, hate crime resulting in death versus counts 36 and 37, hate crime involving an attempt to kill are similar but different. One results in death, one is attempting to kill, did not result in death. Another thing to note is that in this case, the number of counts pertaining to a particular charge are going to directly correlate to the number of victims that fall into that category. So if you hear 11 counts of one thing, there are 11

victims that fall into that category. Two counts, there are two victims that fall into that category. So obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, there were 11 counts of that, which means that there were 11 victims that died while practicing their religion. One final thing to note is that not all of the counts were punishable by death. So 22 of the 63 counts carried the death penalty. We call these capital offenses. And those included specifically the crime of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. So because he was found guilty of all 63 counts, inclusive of those 22 counts that relate to capital offenses, he is eligible for the death penalty. Had he been found guilty of some counts, but none of those 22 counts that

were capital offenses, he would not have been eligible for the death penalty. So he just needed to be found guilty of at least one count punishable by death to be eligible for the death penalty, which we know that he was. Now you might be asking, in a case like this, how does the defense even present a case? The answer is, is that they often don't. So in this case, his attorney conceded at the very beginning that he was the shooter and there was no question, but the attorney's focus was getting him out of the death penalty. So not necessarily getting him off completely, but instead saving his life, really. So in doing that, his attorney focused on his intent. So she acknowledged that he shot

every person he saw on the day in question, even injuring first responders who came to help. But she asked the jurors to really analyze his intent and his motive. And she argued that his intent wasn't to stop religious study, but rather he was motivated by his irrational thoughts that by killing those people in the synagogue, he would stop genocide. And his attorney claimed that Bowers carried out the attack because he didn't want more refugees and immigrants coming to the United States, admitting herself that this rationale was nonsensical and totally irrational. But she said he didn't kill these people specifically to stop them from practicing Judaism, but rather because he thought by killing them, he was going to stop refugees and immigrants from coming to the United States. So the reason she argued this was because

one, they didn't really have a defense. And two, this case now goes to the sentencing phase. And so she kind of just used this as an opportunity to start the case for why he should get life without the possibility of parole and not death. It doesn't really matter now at this stage at the guilt phase, but rather than not saying anything, the attorney essentially just prepared for the next phase. It took the jury a matter of hours to reach the guilty verdict. The jury was comprised of 11 women and seven men. And next comes the sentencing phase. And that's where the jury will decide whether he gets the death penalty or not. That phase is set to start on June 26th. There, it'll be the same jury. They'll have to

sit through more evidence. And essentially what will happen is the defense will present evidence as to why he shouldn't be put to death. These are typically known as your mitigating factors or mitigating evidence. It's usually things like hardships, mental illness, childhood struggles, adulthood struggles, things like that. By that same notion, the defense attorney will likely hinge on that idea that he was focused on stopping genocide and not killing the Jews just because they were Jewish. The prosecutor, on the other hand, will present evidence as to why he should

be put to death. These are known as aggravating factors or aggravating evidence, and it'll then be up to the jury to decide his fate. So he's either going to face death or the maximum punishment, if not death, is life without parole plus a consecutive 535 years. Even if he is sentenced to death, he has a long way to go. The last federal death row inmate was executed in 2021, and execution has not happened since then at the federal level, and inmates are spending on average 20 years on death row. Though the federal government may not often carry out executions, the states do. And the most recent state to carry out an execution was Florida. Last week, Florida executed inmate Dwayne Owen via the lethal injection, and he was actually

one of Florida's longest held death row inmates. He spent nearly 40 years on death row. What did he do to get himself on death row? On March 24th, 1984, he raped and killed a 14-year-old babysitter while the two children she was babysitting were asleep in the other room. Two months later, in May 1984, he entered the home of a mom and her two children while they were all sleeping. He killed the mom by repeatedly hitting her with a hammer. He then raped her, and one of her children found her body the next morning while getting ready for school. Owen confessed, so there was no question as to guilt. Leading up to the execution, his lawyers argued that he shouldn't be executed on grounds of insanity and that he suffered from schizophrenia and delusions. This argument stems from a Supreme Court case called Ford v. Wainwright. it's held that the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, prohibits the execution of a person who is insane and not aware of his execution or the reasons

for it. So although the court didn't define insane, it did say that the person has to be aware of the punishment that they are about to suffer, and they must understand why they are going to suffer it. Because of this, the prosecution rebutted the defense's argument by saying, yeah, he might be mentally ill, but he knows that he's being executed as a punishment for the crimes that he committed. And the courts agreed because both the Florida Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States rejected his appeal. Some final notes about his execution. In Florida, the lethal injection protocol is a three-drug cocktail. It's etomidate, which is a sedative, rocuronium bromide, which is a paralytic,

and then potassium acetate, which stops the heart. I do have the full Florida lethal injection protocol linked on my website if you're interested. His final statement was a written statement. He actually declined his oral statement. So before they're executed, they're asked if they want to say anything. He did not, but he did provide a final written statement, which said, quote, I have transcended space and time. I have seen the visions of the crow. My energy and particles will transform ad infinitum. I will live on. I am Tula, end quote. His last meal consisted of a bacon cheeseburger, no bun, onion rings, strawberries, a vanilla milkshake, cherry ice cream, and coffee. And Florida's final meal rule is that it can be from a local provider, but it can't cost

more than $40. So each state has their own rules. Texas actually doesn't offer a final meal, but other states have certain rules like, you know, it has to be made within the prison or there's a certain budget like Florida has. So it really varies by state. But that takes us into the fourth and final story, which is the search for the missing submersible. The news broke on Monday about the missing submersible that takes people to the depths of the ocean to see the Titanic wreckage. By the time the news broke to the public, the submersible had already been missing for roughly 24 hours. So let's talk about what we know. And of course, this is a developing story, so we could know more by

the time you're listening to this episode. But this is what we know as of Monday evening. This is following the press briefing held by the United States Coast Guard. First of all, what is a submersible? So a submersible differs from a submarine in the fact that it requires a ship to launch off of and come back to, whereas a submarine has enough power to actually depart from the port on its own and return to the port using its own power. So let's talk about this expedition and then we'll get into the press briefing. Ocean Gate Expeditions is the company that operates this tour and the tour is out of St. John's, Newfoundland in Canada. They conducted their first mission to the Titanic wreckage in 2021 and they successfully completed another mission to the wreckage in 2022.

Following that, they began inviting guests on board for private tours at a cost of $250,000 per person. The expedition would last a total of 10 days, with 8 of those 10 days at sea. And it actually takes four days to get out to the wreckage site and four days to get back, but they're down under the water for the day. In total, the submersible can accommodate up to five or six people. There was conflicting reports. Some said five, some said six, but that includes a pilot, a content expert, and three or four paying passengers. On this particular expedition, there were three guests making five passengers in total. And the submersible weighs 23,000 pounds, and it's made of carbon fiber and titanium. It's unclear at this time whether this was the first expedition with paying guests, but according to the website, the guest expeditions were set to

begin in the summer of 2023, which would be right now. And there was going to be a total of 18 expeditions. And this is what the journey looks like. So you board the ship called the Prince Portal. That's the ship that takes you out to the wreckage site. It's about 400 nautical miles out into the ocean. And on launch day, you get onto this 21-foot submersible called Titan. And it launches into the ocean. And on launch day, you get onto this 21 foot submersible called Titan, and it launches into the water. It then drops down to the ocean floor, which takes about two hours.

It's about 12,800 feet below surface, just over two miles. You get to tour around the Titanic wreckage, and then you head back up to the surface, which takes another two hours. You then have four more days at sea getting back to the departure point. On the day of this launch, which was a Sunday, one of the guests actually took a picture of the launch pad that was some yards away from the Polar Prince ship, but that picture was then posted to his company page called Action Aviation. And whoever posted that picture, whether it was him, the guest on the submersible, or one of his employees, wrote that he was part of the Titanic expedition.

So we do know that that guest, his name is Hamish Harding. He's a billionaire. He owns the company called Action Aviation. And his stepson later confirmed on Facebook, writing, quote, Hamish Harding, my stepfather has gone missing on submarine thoughts and prayers, end quote. Other reports also stated that the CEO and founder of Ocean Gate Expeditions, which is the company that runs these tours, same as Stockton Rush, they had reported that he was

also on board. And then, of course, there was the pilot and then two other guests that we don't know, we don't know the identities of. So all five members got on board on the day of launch. And according to the polar prints, it was a successful launch. It wasn't until about an hour and 45 minutes into the descent when the polar prints lost contact with the Titan. Neither Ocean Gate Expedition nor the Coast Guard is really giving much information as to what happened exactly. All we know right now is that contact was lost.

So we don't know if it was like a check-in point where the Titan was supposed to check into the Polar Prince or if communication was abruptly lost. We're just not really sure. According to Ocean Gate Expedition's website, the submersible is said to have 96 hours of survival time. And Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger, who's actually also in charge of the search and rescue operation, thinks that this is based on the amount of oxygen that's available in the capsule. And we'll talk more about John Mauger in a minute. But of course, step one is going to be locating the submersible.

And then after that, it would have to be pulled out of the water, which is a whole other mission in and of itself. There is difficulty in the fact that this is all happening approximately 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. It is in a very remote area. And you couple that with the fact that you have a bunch of debris already on the ocean floor Cape Cod. It is in a very remote area, and you couple that with the fact that you have a bunch of debris already on the ocean floor from the Titanic. So if the Titan is somewhere among that wreckage, it could make it even more difficult to detect on radar. As far as the press

briefing goes, it was held by John Mauger. As I said, he is also the lead for this particular search and rescue operation. It was a very short press briefing, just 10 minutes, but he basically said that the call reporting the submersible came in yesterday afternoon. They reported it as overdue. And from there, the search started with a surface search as well as an aerial search. So they utilized both the polar prints and then two C-130 planes from the United States were flown out there. Canada also deployed a C-130 of their own that specifically has the capabilities of searching for a submarine or a submersible. And how they do that is they actually place sonar buoys in the water that listen for sounds. And according to Mauger, based on what

he knows, the buoys can pick up sounds as deep as 13,000 feet. So if there are sounds down there, these buoys should be able to pick them up. Canada has also had a P-8 plane doing an aerial search, and tonight the United States will be launching another C-130 from the New York National Guard. So by the time you hear this, that will have been deployed as well. The search and rescue team is also working on getting commercial operators out there to assist, and they're working on bringing in other assets that can search not only the surface, but the subsurface as well. And he also said that they're trying to understand what kind of underwater rescue capabilities that maybe other potential assets have that they can utilize in this search. The

search and rescue team will continue flying aircrafts and vessels to the site through the night. And it was also mentioned that currently as of Thursday afternoon, it was three to six foot seas with low visibility and fog, which was said to be fairly normal conditions for such a remote area. But he did also say that it could be much worse when storms come through. Those seas get much rougher and higher than just three to six feet. The next briefing will likely be on Friday, but the Coast Guard did say that it will be posting updates to its website and also on Twitter. That concludes this episode. Please don't forget to leave me a review and share this episode with your friends. And stay tuned for Friday's episode because I will be covering the brand new decisions

that come out of the Supreme Court on Thursday.