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Now even drug dealers are going dot.com. A new company called iToke, based in Amsterdam, plan to let customers order marijuana through the website, or via new "WAP"internet-enabled phones, from next month.

A Democratic appointee on a federal appeals court disclosed yesterday that he was the source of a story that a new grand jury has been impaneled to consider evidence on whether President Clinton should be indicted after he leaves office on charges arising from the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation.

Justice Department officials said Thursday that they will keep pressing to expand the FBI's wiretap capabilities, despite a federal appeals court's rejection of recent government surveillance proposals as threats to personal privacy.

Abbie Hoffman is gone, but the Yippie prankster's spirit lingers with the closing of the latest Democratic National Convention. ''Steal This Movie'', tracing Hoffman's 1960s activism, odd romantic life and years as a fugitive, is hitting theaters Friday.

Independent counsel Robert Ray, who has said he might seek Bill Clinton's indictment when the president leaves office, has assembled a new grand jury to hear evidence in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, lawyers with knowledge of the proceedings said Thursday.

On Wednesday, circuit judges unveiled a new approach to the drug war: drug court. The idea is to straighten out some people`s lives through treatment instead of jail time. Nonviolent addicts will get intensive counseling, random urine tests and biweekly meetings with a judge, who makes sure they are on the right track.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman continued his efforts today to win the full support of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party as one of its prominent members, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, went before the New York delegation to praise the historic alliance between Jews and blacks.

Hundreds of activists protesting police brutality marched Wednesday to a Los Angles Police Department station at the center of a growing corruption scandal. Police arrested protesters kneeling in front of the station who refused to disperse.

Faced with an undercurrent of grumbling about the centrist tone of its ticket and platform, the Democratic Party devoted much of its convention today to reassuring its liberal base, sending its vice-presidential candidate, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, to appear before black delegates and declare his unequivocal support for affirmative action.

In the first of two days of potentially pivotal hearings in the case of the scientist accused of mishandling important nuclear weapons secrets, defense lawyers offered evidence today suggesting that he had been singled out for prosecution largely because he is Chinese-American.

Ricky Nolen McGinn, the only inmate ever granted a stay of execution by Gov. George W. Bush, is headed back to the death chamber. Convicted of raping and murdering his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Mr. McGinn, 43, came within minutes of being executed on June 1 when Mr. Bush granted him a 30-day reprieve to allow for new DNA tests. But the results of the tests, made public today at a court hearing, further incriminated Mr. McGinn and prompted the presiding judge to reschedule the execution for Sept. 27.

A federal appeals court dealt law enforcement authorities a setback Tuesday in their efforts to keep criminals from using such telephone features as conference calls and call-forwarding to thwart surveillance.

Gov. George W. Bush said Monday he will pardon a man who has served 10 years of a life sentence for rape after DNA evidence suggested he didn't commit the crime. Following recommendations from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Bush said he would sign a pardon for Roy Wayne Criner, 35. Bush also said he would sign a pardon for Ronnie Mark Gariepy, 41, in an unrelated sexual assault case.

More than 3,500 protesters, from gay rights to animal rights activists, marched through Los Angeles today, the eve of the Democratic National Convention, demanding the end of capital punishment and a new trial for a death row inmate, the convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

President Clinton commanded the Democrats' convention-city spotlight Saturday, mingling with celebrities and supporters while his understudy struck an environmental theme on a distant campaign trail. "We're going to win this election," declared Vice President Al Gore.

In a release of opinions that highlighted nearly every problem plaguing the state's criminal justice system, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed or remanded six death penalty cases Thursday, ordering new trials, sentencings, briefs or hearings based on allegations of torture by police, cheating by prosecutors and ineptitude by defense attorneys.

The United States Supreme Court ruled that Larry Youngblood did not need to be released from prison just because evidence that might have exonerated him on child molestation charges had been damaged. But this week, 12 years later, DNA testing of evidence in the case set him free.

The number of people behind bars in the United States broke the 2 million mark last year, a record high despite the slowest prison population growth rate in 20 years, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has turned down a request for clemency from Oliver Cruz, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of an Air Force enlisted woman. Mr. Cruz, who defense psychologists say is mentally retarded, is to be executed at 6 p.m. today.

A federal judge has sent home an entire grand jury after one of its members allegedly tried to sell secret information to accused drug lords. Defense lawyers are expected to file a flurry of court documents challenging the estimated 100 indictments that the panel returned in eight months of work.

Bush's lead was reduced to 2 points, 45%-43%, in the poll that included Lieberman on the Democratic ticket. That's down from 19 points among registered voters in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll conducted Friday and Saturday.

Al Gore has selected Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman to be his running mate, rounding out the Democratic ticket with the first Jewish vice presidential candidate in American history, the Associated Press has learned.

Oliver Cruz can barely read and write. He has an I.Q. of either 64 or 76, depending on the test. He flunked the seventh grade three times. Now, at 33, he has spent 12 years on death row in Livingston for a rape and murder of a 24-year-old woman. Mr. Cruz awaits execution at a time when there is growing opposition across the country to the execution of the mentally retarded.

Prosecutors here have dropped charges against two men accused in separate rapes inside the Newark Public Library in 1998, after DNA testing found that a third, unknown man had committed both crimes. The DNA tests, completed last month, exonerated Edwin Diaz, 25, of Parsippany and Jason Yantin, 20, of Newark, who had been identified by the victims from photographs.

A panel trying to find ways to fix the death penalty heard more than 40 lawyers and activists ask that it be ended altogether.

President Clinton delayed the first federal execution since 1963 for at least four months so the convicted killer can use new government procedures to appeal for presidential clemency. The execution of Juan Raul Garza had been set by a court for Aug. 5, but Clinton signed an order Wednesday that postpones the administration of lethal chemicals at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., until Dec. 12.

A federal judge Wednesday gave the FBI 10 days to respond to a privacy group's request for information about the government's "Carnivore" e-mail surveillance system. The Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center is seeking documents and software concerning the inner workings of Carnivore, which is designed to monitor and capture e-mail going to or from people under criminal investigation.

There is no evidence that the Brady law requiring background checks of handgun buyers reduced homicide rates after it went into effect in 1994, according to a study published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Scores of protesters were arrested in a running cat-and-mouse contest with the police across downtown thoroughfares today as they sought to disrupt the Republican National Convention with illegal hit-and-run demonstrations.

The Internet has given a platform to death-row inmates and other American prisoners to plead their cases and seek pen pals....officials in New York and Arizona have enacted policies or laws that forbid prisoners to use third-party Internet service providers. Washington and other states have debated similar measures. But in the view of many civil libertarians, these measures infringe on the First Amendment rights of inmates.

Thousands of homeless activists caused traffic headaches but few other problems Monday as a third day of Republican National Convention-related protests remained peaceful with only 11 arrests.

Abbie Hoffman is gone, but the Yippie prankster's spirit lingers with the opening of this new movie tracing Hoffman's 1960s activism, odd romantic life and years as a fugitive. ''Steal This Movie'' stars Vincent D'Onofrio as Hoffman, Janeane Garofalo as his wife, Anita, and Jeanne Tripplehorn as his common-law wife, Johanna Lawrenson. Read the New York Times Review of "Steal this Movie" and Watch Selected Scenes and Trailer

A new anti-war movement -- a movement to end the war on drugs and demand that the country's drug policies be based on common sense, science, public health and human rights. Begins Sunday, August 13, 2000, Patriotic Hall, 1816 Figueroa St., Los Angeles. For Directions, Registration and to Volunteer

Congress is in Recess until September 5 - 6, 2000. You may contact your Representatives at their Home District Office during this period. Tips from the A.C.L.U. for Meeting with Your Elected Officials

Summary of S. 2463, the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2000, introduced in the Senate on April 26, 2000. The bill's stated purpose is to institute a moratorium on the imposition of the death penalty at the Federal and State level until a National Commission on the Death Penalty studies its use and policies ensuring justice, fairness, and due process are implemented.

Text of S. 2463, the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2000

Action Alert, Stop the Execution of the Innocent

S. 2073, The Innocence Protection Act

The advent of DNA testing raises serious concerns regarding the prevalence of wrongful convictions. The Innocence Protection Act will ensure that wrongfully convicted persons have an opportunity to establish their innocence through DNA testing.

Barry Scheck's Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony on Post-Conviction DNA Testing

Text of S. 2073, the Innocence Protection Act

Read the proposed Grand Juror's Bill of Rights--then contact your elected officials and urge passage!

Kerry Sanders, a man with a history of mental health problems, served more than two years in a New York State prison because he shares a last name and a birth date with a violent criminal. He was recently returned to his mother in Los Angeles carrying $48, a pack of cigarettes, a soda, some medications and deeper mental troubles. The family hired a lawyer, who has settled with Los Angeles County for its role in this wrongful imprisonment. But in New York, the case is headed for trial in federal court. That is an outrage given the scandalous negligence and incompetence shown by the state in failing to identify its prisoner properly. The state should negotiate a settlement with Mr. Sanders that would acknowledge its negligence, fairly compensate him for two lost years and provide him with top-notch psychiatric care for the rest of his life.

Many commentators have noted the impact that the coming election will have on the direction of the Supreme Court. But a compelling issue for the federal courts is being overlooked. With the next president expected to appoint more than 20 federal appellate judges and close to 100 federal district court judges, the candidates and their parties should articulate the extent of their commitment to diversity on the federal bench.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, in striking down a state parental notification requirement for minors seeking abortion, has followed the court's longstanding tradition of interpreting the New Jersey State Constitution in a manner broadly protective of fundamental privacy rights.

If history is any predictor, then the 2000 Democratic Party platform to be released next week won’t say much. It will gloat about the unprecedented prosperity enjoyed by some without seriously addressing the ever-widening gulf between rich and poor. It will take safe positions on broad topics, while failing entirely to address some of the most pressing issues of the day: from public funding of campaigns to meaningful gun control to abolishing the death penalty to a trade policy that puts people first.

Trailing in the polls and struggling to counter George W. Bush's "new kind of Republican'' appeal, Al Gore has chosen a novel approach to the vice presidential selection process. He has tapped as his running mate a man who is the closest thing the Democratic Party has to a Republican.

Among the candidates considered by Al Gore for the vice-presidential nomination, Joseph Lieberman was the most politically conservative. While Bush supporters are claiming that Lieberman's voting record shows a man closer to Bush than to Gore, and may be lamenting the political capital Gore may thereby accumulate with conservative voters, the rest of us have a deeper concern. Joseph Lieberman is likely to accelerate the process in which the two major parties seem to be merging into one pro-business, pro-wealthy, elitist, and morally tone-deaf governing force.

The African-Americans and Latinos being paraded across the stage at the Republican Convention are intended to give a hip, multicultural feel -- and dispel the pervasive notion that the G.O.P. is largely a party of, by and for white Americans. But subtract the minority props -- the break dancers and the gospel choir and the beaming schoolchildren -- and what you have is the same ultra-white party that shocked many Americans' sensibilities at the 1992 and 1996 conventions. The deluge of black and Latin faces on display in Philadelphia is deceptive, given that the party's delegates and senior managers are as white as they have ever been.

John Artis was wrongly convicted of a triple murder along with Rubin ``Hurricane'' Carter in 1966. After 15 years, he and Carter were exonerated. Artis now works with at-risk youth in Portsmouth, Va. This piece was published in the July 30, 2000 edition of the Miami Herald.

Earlier this year, I made a noisy exit from the Republican Party in an effort to send a message to party leaders that, Mr. Bush's endless photo ops with black and brown children notwithstanding, it was past time for the party to move beyond the oratory of inclusion....At the convention, Mr. Powell and a parade of African-American and Hispanic speakers are taking center stage, a made-for-television illusion of inclusion. Fans of reality TV, meantime, may want to check their local listings.

TalkLeft Commentary

Examine this frame of a videotape of Austin police officer Robert Merrill's custodial interview of a murder suspect (now facing a trial for first degree murder and a possible death sentence,) then take the short multiple choice test.

How would Presidential candidate George Bush, Jr. fare under an experienced criminal defense lawyer's cross-examination about possible past cocaine usage?

It's the most revolutionary document in American history. Therefore a perfect place to begin a revolution in publishing. Ten unique pieces of digital content (eMatter) on the Bill of Rights today. Called American Perspectives, they are yours to instantly download, print and read. Free from MightyWords.com.

Seven years after the conviction of three young men in the "Paradise Lost" triple homicide, a burgeoning movement insists they're innocent.

Reads like a novel but much scarier because it's all true. A page-turner! Read a Chapter Excerpt

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