This is the life that too often follows a wrongful conviction:

"In Durham, I feel like I'm already labeled," [Erick] Daniels said. "You can be pardoned, get your record expunged, get compensated, but in some people's minds I'm always going to be guilty. If I'm stopped for anything, even driving 10 miles over the speed limit, I'll make the front page of the newspaper. I don't have room to be guilty of anything."

A casualty of Durham's criminal justice system at age 15 (years before lawyers for the Duke lacrosse players exposed its dysfunction), Erick Daniels did about 7 years of adult time for an armed robbery he didn't commit. A judge recognized his innocence and set him free in September, but by that time Daniels had served most of his sentence. Now Daniels lives with and cares for his disabled grandmother. He hopes to be hired for a $10-an-hour job that might also send him to community college.

Good luck and best wishes, Erick.

The relentless Rep. John Conyers subpoenaed Karl Rove again to testify about the White House's political influence on the Justice Department's U.S. Attorney firings and the prosecution of Don Siegelman, but when, if ever, will Rove testify? Not Monday, the day for which the subpoena originally compelled his testimony. Conyers rescheduled the deposition to February 23 to give Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, "time to consult with the Obama administration and learn whether the new president would uphold Bush's order against testifying."

This comes in the wake of Fred Fielding's letter (pdf) advising Luskin that President Bush was directing Rove "not to provide information" to Congress about "the U.S. Attorneys matter" and not even to appear before Congress if subpoenaed. Larisa Alexandrovna asks what authority Fielding has to direct Rove to break the law by disregarding the subpoena's command to appear (as opposed to its command to answer questions upon appearance). Good question.

Here's another good question: [more ...]

Or is it merely on life support?

Here is an early result of the pernicious decision in Herring v. United States, the Supreme Court ruling that refused to apply the exclusionary rule to an unlawful search that resulted from a police agency's failure to remove a withdrawn warrant from its database:

In one of the first trial court decisions to interpret Herring, a federal judge in New Jersey took the broader view, refusing to suppress evidence obtained from computer hard drives under a search warrant based on false information supplied by a Secret Service agent. The agent had told the judge that DVDs found during an earlier search contained child pornography. This was false: other law enforcement officials had reviewed the DVDs and had found no child pornography. The agent, who was leading the investigation, testified that he did not know of that review when he made his statement.

[More ...]

For the second time in a month, there's a riot underway at a private Texas prison.

This time it's the Reeves County Detention Center in West Texas. More than 1,000 prisoners are involved. The prison is run by The GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla. Here's a list of the prisons they operate in the U.S.

The Reeves County Detention Center, according to GEO, is low security and houses 2,400 inmates. Check out its description of programs -- almost sounds like a cross between rehab, summer camp and a hotel:

Bite mark identification evidence is "sham science and glorified guesswork."

Critics say human skin changes and distorts imprints until they are nearly unrecognizable. ... Since 2000, at least eight people in five states who were convicted largely on bite-mark identification have been exonerated, according to the Innocence Project.

In the case of Robert Lee Stinson, "two forensic odontologists testified that Stinson's teeth were a match [with bite marks on the homicide victim's body], even though Stinson was apparently missing a tooth in a place where the bite marks indicated a tooth." Nonetheless, Stinson would likely not have been freed from his life sentence (imposed in 1985) if not for new DNA evidence. DNA on the victim's sweater didn't match Stinson's.

Stinson has been awarded a new trial, although there's some likelihood that the case will be dismissed. Kudos to the Wisconsin Innocence Project for its diligent work on Stinson's behalf.

The Washington Post reports criminal defense lawyers in Juarez, Mexico are shying away from taking drug cases, out of fear of being threatened and killed -- by their clients, the cartels or the Mexican military police.

Here's Johny Cash and Cocaine Blues, probably my favorite of his songs since it's one of just a few songs I can play on the guitar. The lyrics are great:

Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down
I went right home and I went to bed I stuck that lovin' 44 beneath my head

Got up next morning and I grabbed that gun
took a shot of cocaine and away I run
Made a good run but I run too slow
they overtook me down in Juarez Mexico

More...

Via TBogg, conservative bloggers like Protein Wisdom (whose proprietor Jeff is a friend of mine) and LGF and many others who joined Pajamas Media got unwelcome news: PJ is letting the bloggers go from their advertising network. They are going to focus on Pajamas TV, aka internet video. Instapundit has more.

Here's the letter PJ sent to its blogger corps: [More....]

Teresa and I are focused on one thing - the big hoops game between the Vols and the Gators tonight in Knoxville. The rest of you probably are concerned with other matters.

This is an Open Thread.

In 1933, Congress enacted the Buy American Act:

. . . [O]nly such unmanufactured articles, materials, and supplies as have been mined or produced in the United States, and only such manufactured articles, materials, and supplies as have been manufactured in the United States substantially all from articles, materials, or supplies mined, produced, or manufactured, as the case may be, in the United States, shall be acquired for public use.

Despite the existence of this law, a Buy American provision was attached to the House stimulus plan. I neither understand the clamor for this provision nor the opposition to it. It seems superfluous to me. What am I missing?

Speaking for me only

After making the splashy headline about limiting executive compensation pay (which is fine, but does nothing to help the economy), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) stuck in the shiv to House Democrats. From a HuffPo interview:

McCASKILL: I think that there have been some mistakes made [by House Dems]. From my perspective there have been mistakes made on the stimulus bill. There has been such a starvation diet for some of these programs that the appropriators got a little over anxious in the House. They probably did some things they shouldn't have...

We do need to look at the safety net side of the stimulus bill that can get into the economy quickly. But we can't right every wrong in terms of programs we support in the stimulus bill. And the other thing is, whether it is the National Endowment of the Arts or some of the STD funding or contraceptive funding, all we did was just tee up ammunition for the other side to tear this thing down. And I would like to think we are smarter than that. I'm hopeful on the Senate side we will be smarter than that.

[MORE . . .]

A federal prison inmate in South Carolina has filed a motion seeking to intervene in a Securities Investor Protection Corporation lawsuit against Bernie Madoff. He accuses Madoff of promising inmates a 16.9% return on their investments, but instead sending their money to Switzerland.

Even stranger, the inmate claims he had an intimate relationship with Madoff and that they met at Harmony.com.

That claim, of course, raises a bit of a flag, since eHarmony has refused until this year to match same-sex couples.

But never mind that little fact. Mr. Riches says in his motion that Mr. Madoff was attracted to his identity theft skills and that he schooled the former Nasdaq chairman on how to commit fraud for two years. Mr. Riches also claims he has “documents, photos, exhibits and phone transcripts” that contain “juicy details” about Mr. Madoff, now 70, that he wants to share with the court.

The motion was denied by a bankruptcy judge who told the inmate to file a claim in bankruptcy court like everyone else. He also noted that this particular inmate has filed over 1,000 lawsuits in the past 3 years, mostly against famous people.

What country would do this?

For the first time, TSA Behavior Detection Officers, who are trained to observe characteristics indicating a person is about to engage in wrongdoing, will patrol the Super Bowl. TSA will also deploy their Visible Intermodal Protection and Response (VIPER) teams and additional National TSA resources.

In plain English:

For the first time Sunday, federal behavior-detection officers will team with local police to use a controversial technique on people heading to a major event, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says. The officers usually work in airports.

A flagged person gets a casual interview from an officer who determines if he or she should be formally questioned or arrested.

Welcome to the New America.