The jury in the Brian Nichols' trial today told the court it was deadlocked on whether he should get the death penalty. The Judge has ordered them to keep deliberating.

Prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty for Nichols, 36, who was convicted of killing a judge and a court reporter in the Fulton County Courthouse, where he was being tried for rape.

He also was convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy outside the courthouse and a federal agent in northern Atlanta.

The possibilities now: [More...]

The Judge overseeing the Tony Rezko case has granted his request for a quick sentencing date. He'll be sentenced January 6. As I wrote the other day, this says to me Rezko didn't get what he was hoping for from Fitzgerald for his cooperation. Fitz went out of his way in the Blagojevich complaint to mention numerous times that Rezko's information differed in key respects from that of other witnesses. That makes him less valuable as a witness.

The Chicago Tribune reports today that it's unclear whether the Government will call Rezko as a witness against Blagojevich. [More..]

Most people could care less if the landscaping or house cleaning firm they hire employs undocumented workers. But most people aren't in charge of Homeland Security.

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official. The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants.

The owner of the cleaning firm is understandably grumpy that the IDs were good enough for the Secret Service but not for ICE, which fined the company more than $20,000 for neglecting "to check identification and work documents and fill out required I-9 verification forms." [more ...]

The nominees for this year's Golden Globe awards have been announced. Here's the list.

Some of the nominees' reactions are here and a summary is here. I haven't seen any of the nominated films yet, but I'm now looking forward to seeing Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler, Javier Bardem in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Leonard DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road.

The TV ads for Benjamin Button have me overdosed on the film already. Frost/Nixon has gotten great buzz and MILK is reportedly excellent as well. Australia, which I think will be great, isn't on the list. The Reader looks fairly promising.

Which ones look good to you?

It is difficult to be happy that only 37 inmates have been executed this year (with no new executions expected before 2009), the smallest number of executions in 14 years. The controversy over lethal injection resulted in a de facto moratorium on executions for much of the year. The number of executions may increase next year as the killing machine resumes operation.

More encouraging is that only 111 defendants were sentenced to death this year, down from 115 last year. This may be further evidence that the public (at least outside of Texas, which accounted for 26 of the 37 executions) is losing its stomach for state-sanctioned killing. [more ...]

Good probation officers help offenders avoid a return to criminal behavior by assisting their efforts to find housing, jobs, mental health care, and substance abuse treatment. Bad probation officers do everything they can to get offenders revoked so they have one less person to supervise. Good or bad, probation officers who provide meaningful supervision of probationers help protect the community.

That's why it's short-sighted for states like Arizona, in their efforts to cope with budget deficits, to cut probation staffs.

[more ...]

I have a busy day ahead. Hopefully, J and TChris will be around. In the meantime, here is an Open Thread.

This is an Open Thread.

Good for Harry Reid:

If the $14 billion bailout plan for U.S. automakers passes, it will help more than just Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. Federal judges would get a pay raise, as well. The raise — an annual cost of living adjustment, or COLA — would bring U.S. District court judges up to par with members of Congress, who will receive an almost $5,000 boost on Jan. 1. District judges and lawmakers now earn $169,300 a year but are expected to be awarded a 2.8 percent raise next year, said Dick Carelli, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., insisted that the judicial pay raise go into the automaker loan measure, which is the only item of business on Congress' lame-duck agenda.

Federal judges are underpaid as it is. This COLA is only fair.

Speaking for me only

As someone who thought Jane Harman had learned her lessons about the Bush Administration and its "intelligence techniques," I thought those who favored Silvestre Reyes over her for Chair of the House Intelligence Committee were wrong. Reyes was not competent to fill the slot and had no record to speak of on the issues. But Speaker Pelosi's anti-Harman sentiments swept all this aside. Here is our reward, via Greenwald:

In an interview, Reyes said he believes that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael Hayden should be kept in their posts. . . . [Reyes]recommended to Obama's transition team that some parts of the CIA's controversial alternative interrogation program should be allowed to continue.

Reyes, knowing nothing about the subject, has been rolled by the intelligence community. He never should have been named Chair of the Intelligence Committee and gawd knows he should not be listened to now on the subject. Let's hope Obama has the good sense to ignore him.

Speaking for me only

Now we know Arlen Specter (R-PA) is seriously considering running for another term as Senator (and fears another challenge in the GOP primary from extreme conservative Pat Toomey.) He is proposing a confirmation fight over Eric Holder:

In a speech on the Senate floor today, reports The Hill, Specter expressed surprise that Leahy, the committee chair, had scheduled a January 8 kickoff for Holder's confirmation hearing for the Attorney General job. Barack Obama is scheduled to be sworn in January 20. Specter cited concerns about Holder's role in the pardon of Marc Rich in the waning days of the Clinton administration.

Specter voted for the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales after the worst confirmation hearing performance (not to mention a record of support for torture) that I can remember. Who is Specter kidding? This is about extreme conservative Pat Toomey running in another GOP primary against him in 2010. Book it now - Specter is voting no on Holder - and will make quite a show of it.

Speaking for me only

It's not often that liberal John Amato at Crooks and Liars and conservative Ed Morrissey at Hot Air agree. Today, they do, in reacting to news reports brought to our attention by Robert Cox that New Rochelle High School bowdlerized school library copies of the book "Girl Interrupted."

Students at New Rochelle School High School are going to find it difficult to complete their next assignment: comparing the film adaptation of "Girl, Interrupted" to the best-selling book. In the book, Kaysen recounts her confinement at a Massachussets mental hospital in the 1960's.

Pages from the middle of the book have been torn out by the school district after having been deemed "inappropriate" by school officials due to sexual content and strong language.

...."The material was of a sexual nature that we deemed inappropriate for teachers to present to their students," said English Department Chariperson Leslie Altschul, "since the book has other redeeming features, we took the liberty of bowdlerizing."

As a graduate of NRHS, I'll add my disappointment in the censorship attempt. It's certainly not the New Rochelle I remember.

The book mutilation has been widely criticized. The good news is the school district has now acknowledged it was wrong. [More...]

These are not the words Don Siegelman's appellate lawyer wanted to hear during Tuesday's oral argument:

“I don’t think that’s going to be your best argument today,” Judge Edmondson said.

You never know the content of a judge's thought bubble, or whether the judge is speaking for any other member of the panel. Still, "that's not your best argument" doesn't usually permit the optimistic reading that Siegelman's lawyer hopes to give it.

“I think it’s absolutely ambiguous as to whether it means, ‘I’m not convinced,’ or, ‘You’ve already got me, don’t worry,’ ” [Sam] Heldman said afterward.

"I'm not convinced" would be the most benign interpretation of a phrase that is often taken to mean "You can't convince me." [more ...]