Bump and Update: O.J. is charged with ten felonies and a misdemeanor, including kidnapping with a deadly weapon. Here's the Criminal Complaint (pdf.) The kidnapping charge is directed at Bruce Fromong, who is now in critical condition in a hospital in LA, having suffered a heart attack. I hope he recovers, but I wonder whether if he dies, they'll charge O.J. with that too.

****

Original Post:
Judge Denies Goldman Attempt to Seize All O.J.'s Property

A Los Angeles judge today denied a request by the family of Ron Goldman to seize all O.J.'s property. [More...]

The Judge sent the Phil Spector jury home today after it advised the judge it was deadlocked, 7 to 5. (Background here.)

The Judge is hearing arguments this afternoon as to what to do. I think he should declare a mistrial. One thing he shouldn't do, as apparently he's contemplating, is give the jury a lesser charge to consider at this late date.

The parties agreed to only submit the murder charge. The Judge endorsed that decision.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler told attorneys Wednesday he pondered whether there could be "lesser included offenses," which might allow the jury to consider voluntary or involuntary manslaughter rather than murder. "I don't see it," he concluded. Both the prosecution and defense agreed that the legal definitions of lesser crimes do not fit this case.

The parties relied on there only being a murder charge in composing and delivering their closing arguments. To allow the jury to consider a charge neither side had the opportunity to address and argue would be manifestly unfair in my view.

The Judge should declare a mistrial.

Via Eric Alterman at Media Matters, Karen Tumulty at Time has a long article on presidential wives, past and hopeful. On Judith Giuliani and Jeri Thompson:

Judi G:

The public displays of affection that front runner Rudolph Giuliani and wife Judith put on for Barbara Walters -- holding hands and calling each other "baby" and "sweetheart" -- only served to remind viewers that this first blush of love is also the third marriage for each, and that wife No. 3 is one of the reasons his children with wife No. 2 won't campaign for him.

...."My role is really to support my husband in the ways I have always supported him. I love to take charge of his personal health needs, make sure he's exercising, getting the right food, which is a real challenge on the campaign trail," she says.

On Jeri Thompson:

Their family portrait — a man who qualifies for Social Security with a 40-year-old blond, a toddler and a baby — is a far cry from that of Ike and Mamie. "He sadly now looks like their grandfather," says [journalist Kati]Marton.

Ouch.

Yesterday I read about John David "Roy" Atchison, the Assistant U.S. Attorney in Florida who was arrested in a sex sting in Detroit after flying there allegedly hoping to have sex with a five year old girl.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has issued this statement. They refer to him as a "civil attorney" while the Detroit Free Press said he handled both criminal and civil cases.

The facts are ugly. You can read the criminal complaint here. My first thought was he needed to be put on a suicide watch.

He's now got a terrific lawyer, James Thomas of Detroit. Jim got him taken off the suicide watch saying he's confident it's not necessary. He also waived the detention hearing, which means Atchison will be held without bond pending trial or reconsideration.

The grand jury has already returned a three count indictment against him, available here(pdf). One of the charges carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 30 years.

I'm sure some will try to turn this into a political story but I don't see it that way -- unless he prosecuted and convicted others for child sex crimes while committing them himself. If he did these disgusting things, I see a sick man who needs help.

Sen. Larry Craig has returned to Washington and resumed his Senate duties.

Some shunned him, some were friendly. His hearing on his motion to withdraw his guilty plea is September 26.

Meanwhile, the bathroom where he was busted has now become a tourist attraction.

Sen. Patrick Leahy and Chris Dodd introduced a bill this week to restore habeas. Help them out.

They need 60 votes tomorrow. Latest word is 55 Senators are on board so far, with key targets as Lugar, Hagel, Collins, Ben Nelson, and Joe Lieberman.

If these are your Senators, pick up the phone and call. If you've got a blog, post and ask your readers to call.

As Christy of Firedoglake says in her informative post, the Constitution needs your help today.

Another inappropriate use of the taser in Florida yesterday, on a student asking a question at a John Kerry forum. Here's what happened.

As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., can be heard saying, "That's alright, let me answer his question." Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room. Meyer screams for help and tries to break away from officers, then is forced to the ground and officers order him to stop resisting.

As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student's "very important question," Meyer yells at the officers to release him, crying out, "Don't Tase me, bro," just before he is shocked by the Taser. He is then led from the room, screaming, "What did I do?"

I received an invite yesterday from Zach Edwards of the Nevada Barack Obama campaign to contribute a post on the campaign blog. They never asked if I was a Obama supporter, the topic never came up. Since I had a few minutes and thought the topic they assigned me is an important one, I sent in my answer.

It's now online at Obama's Nevada blog. Here is how I responded:

Question One: Should bloggers be considered journalists?

Answer: See Below.

Good news in the academic freedom department. Liberal Law Prof Erwin Chemerinsky has been rehired to be the dean of the University of California's (Irvine)law school.

Via the AP:

The new Donald Bren School of Law will be the first new public law school in California in 40 years and is expected to welcome its first class in 2009.

Chemerinsky taught for 21 years at the University of Southern California law school before moving to Duke University in 2004. In April 2005, Legal Affairs magazine named him one of the top 20 legal thinkers in America.

At midnight tomorrow night, the New York Times will end its hugely unpopular Times Select program, which required readers to pay to read their columnists.

It's been two years since I've read Maureen Dowd. I've only seen Frank Rich's column when another blogger has posted it. Sometimes, there would investigative pieces put behind the wall that I would have liked to have read and blogged about. Sometimes I read them on Lexis the next day. Mostly, I forgot by then.

The Times Select program had to be one of the worst decisions ever -- both business-wise for the Times and for news consumers.

Now that it's over, I'll be spending more time at the site.

Update: Here are my photos of President Clinton taken this afternoon in Boulder.

*****

I may have a touch of the Norman Hsu political groupie syndrome. While I didn't bundle any money to attend, I'm off to see Bill Clinton at a Hillary fundraiser in Boulder -- even though it means I have to drive 60 miles afterwards to see a client in jail.

Here's an open thread.

I'll leave you with a quote from Judge Mukasey contained from an article, New York's Federal Judges Protest Sentencing Procedures (The New York Times December 8, 2003, available on Lexis.com) about the Feeney Amendment that raised criminal sentences, limited the ability of Judges to impose downward departures and imposed a reporting requirement on judges who granted downward departures. The report was to be submitted by the Chief Judge and made available to members of Congress.

More...

The ACLU has filed a "friend of court" brief with the Minnesota Court considering Sen. Larry Craig's motion to withdraw his guilty plea over his bathroom sting arrest. You can read the brief here. The ACLU says (press release will be available here later today):

“The real motive behind secret sting operations like the one that resulted in Senator Craig’s arrest is not to stop people from inappropriate activity. It is to make as many arrests as possible – arrests that sometimes unconstitutionally trap innocent people,” said Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “If the police really want to stop people from having sex in public bathrooms, they should put up a sign banning sex in the restroom and send in a uniformed officer to patrol periodically. That works.”

After noting that Sen. Craig has not always been a friend to civil liberties, the ACLU says that doesn't matter and explains its legal reasoning:

More...