There was big news today in the white collar tax fraud case of 16 former partners and employees of the accounting powerhouse, KPMG. The Judge dismissed the charges against 13 of the defendants, harshly rebuking the Government for interfering with the defendants' 5th and 6th Amendment rights to due process, to effectively prepare and present a defense and to be represented by counsel of choice.

The opinion is here (pdf). For a wrap-up of news reports on the ruling, check out White Collar Crime Blog.

In a nutshell, and I'm coming late to the case, the Government made a cooperation deal with the company and offered it a deferred prosecution for its alleged misdeeds. In exchange, the Government for all intents and purposes demanded KPMG stop its long-time policy of paying legal fees for indicted employees.

The Judge previously had ruled these actions by the Government violated the indicted employees' 5th and 6th Amendment rights. But, he refused to dismiss the Indictment because attempts were being made in other court actions and on other fronts to get KPMG to pay the legal fees.

Those fell through, the Government refused to budge, and today it paid the price. The Court granted the dismissal against 13 defendants. The remaining three, whose legal fees were not subject to payment by KPMG, will go to trial.

The Government likely will appeal.

What's at issue is the so-called "Thompson Memorandum," named for former Ashcroft Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.

More (advance warning, this is one of the longest posts ever)...

The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole has granted Troy Davis, scheduled for execution tomorrow, a 90 day stay of execution.

The stay means the execution will be on hold while the board weighs the evidence presented as part of Davis' request for clemency. The board must rule by Oct. 14.

That's what his lawyers were asking for all along, a chance to present their evidence. The actual order is here (pdf).

Original Post 8:00 am :
Executioner's Clock Still Ticking for Troy Davis

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia on Tuesday. Time is running out as concern grows among his supporters that Davis is innocent. Witnesses against him have recanted, some stating their testimony against him was the product of police coercion.

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AP Photo

A man who entered the Colorado State Capitol with a gun claiming to be "the emporor" and announcing his intention to take over the state government, was shot and killed today. At the time, Governor Bill Ritter and his staff were working in their offices at the Capitol.

The good news is Governor Ritter and his staff were uninjured.

Now the questions:

Why aren't there metal detectors in the State Capitol?

Metal detectors were installed at the Capitol after the 9/11 attacks but lawmakers later had them removed.

Was it a necessary or excessive use of force to kill the gunman? Since he hadn't fired any shots and witnesses report hearing multiple shots, all of the shooting appears to have been done by one or more state troopers. One witness recounted hearing four shots.

I have to disagree with Gov. Ritter's spokesperson Evan Dreyer, who said:

"It’s a testament to the State Patrol that this incident ended quickly and that the governor and everyone else is safe."

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Senators will vote tomorrow on restoring habeas corpus rights to detainees and others who were stripped of those rights by the Military Commissions Act.

Via the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (received by e-mail):

If your senator were to call you this evening, and ask you what kind of vote she or he should make on habeas corpus on Tuesday, July 17, what would you answer?

[Would you answer]Yes, I want habeas corpus restored for all people from whom the Military Commmissions Act stripped that right--including U.S. residents who are not full citizens?

Or would you focus on the Guantanamo Bay detainees, who have been imprisoned for years without the benefit of this basic mandate of fairness?

The bill that will most comprehensively dismantle the Military Commissions Act is S. 576. The bill that will simply restore habeas, but not touch torture or accountability is S. 185.

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You got to give Senator Russ Feingold credit -- not a panderer (unless he is pandering to one person, me):

It is clear that there are many people in this country, including myself, who demand accountability from this Administration for the terrible mess it made in Iraq and its egregious and even illegal power grabs throughout its six-plus years in power. I believe that the President and Vice President may well have committed impeachable offenses. But with so many important issues facing this country and so much work to be done, I am concerned about the great deal of time multiple impeachment trials would take away from the Congress working on the problems of the country. The time it would take for the House to consider articles of impeachment, and for the Senate to conduct multiple trials, would make it very difficult, if not impossible, for Congress to do what it was elected to do – end the war and address some of the other terrible mistakes this Administration has made over the past six and a half years.

The impeachniks are in high dudgeon. It turns out Russ Feingold is a coward, sellout, Vichy, DLC, corporatist Dem too. That leaves the Senate with . . . exactly ZERO potential adherents to the impeachment movement.

I just finished a blogger conference conference call with the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Hillary has picked up a big new endorsement: Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Joe says he has known Hillary for over a decade and has spent a lot of time discussing Iraq with her. He thinks she is the most likely to get us out of there.

During the last four years while he and Valerie went through the Republican meat-grinder process, Hillary reached out to them repeatedly to share the lessons she learned from her experience in the meat-grinder.

She has the leadership ability. She understands the political process. She has an enormous commitment to this country. She is the best equipped to fight for us.

The call then opened up for questions. Taylor Marsh, Steve Clemons, Dave Johnson, Tom Burka were among those who questioned him. Check out their blogs for their reactions.

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The Daily Kos FP on what John Yoo says and how this means President Bush can attack Iran without Congressional authorization:

[John Yoo wrote that] the AUMF is "an express affirmation of the President's constitutional authorities by Congress." Not an authorization to use force, then, but an affirmation. An affirmation of what? That the power to use military force exists independent of this (or any other) act of Congress.

John Yoo is, of course, full of it, as Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman explained:

BA: The president has to get another authorization for a war against Iran. It isn't up to Nancy Pelosi or the House to prevent him; he doesn't have the constitutional authority to just expand the war. He does not have the authority to unilaterally invade Iran.... Air strikes would be an invasion. It's an act of war of an unambiguous variety....On a major incursion into another large Middle Eastern country, I believe that, when push comes to shove, the president will once again request the explicit authorization of Congress. When he was contemplating the invasion of Iraq, he was in a much stronger position politically -- and he was still obliged to request authorization

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Is it time to stick the fork in yet? Looks like it's getting closer, according to ABC News.

On Monday, five McCain press aides -- including his three top communications officials -- quit en masse, just days after the campaign lost its chief strategist and campaign manager among dozens of aides being shed as part of aggressive cost-cutting measures.

The aides to resign -- communications director Brian Jones, deputy communications directors Danny Diaz and Matt David, and press aides Adam Temple and Amanda Hennenberg -- all agreed to stay on a few extra days out of loyalty to McCain, and helped him set up his weekend trip to New Hampshire.

Reasons given by the aides were loyalty to the campaign manager McCain replaced last week. But, there was also grumbling about why he bothered to have a national communications staff when he only appears to be running in three states -- New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina.

The latest Newsweek poll reflects what I think is becoming a winning frame for Democrats on Iraq:

Americans remain cautious about the prospect of a hasty withdrawal from Iraq, afraid it would leave the country in chaos. Out of four possible options in the poll, 19 percent of the respondents chose immediate total withdrawal. Slightly fewer (13 percent) don't want any cutbacks at all. Nearly a quarter of all Americans (24 percent) would implement a gradual withdrawal plan that would start in the fall and extend until the spring, when the last troops would come home. Forty percent favor keeping a substantial number of troops on the ground there, but only on the condition that they fall back to their bases and focus solely on training Iraqis and targeting Al Qaeda. . . .

40% favor keeping troops in Iraq as long as they are not engaged in combat in the Iraqi civil war. This is the packaging contained in almost all of the Democratic proposals, including Reid-Feingold (the difference in Reid-Feingold to other plans is that is relies on the Spending Power, the one truly effective way for Congress to stop Bush.) Add to this the 37% who favor immediate withdrawal or withdrawal by the Spring of 2008 and it seems clear to me that the baseline position that 77% of the country has taken on Iraq is the Democratic position. More.

A major trial lawyers group held its annual meeting this week. Most of the major Democratic presidential contenders were in attendance, including Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Bill Richardson. They had sharp criticism for Alberto Gonzales and recent decisions the Supreme Court. Some quotes:

Hillary called Bush an extremist:

"I would argue that his is the most radical presidency we've ever had in our country's history," she said.

Obama:

We want a president who will defend civil justice but we have one who is only listening to Alberto Gonzales justice.....People are tired of Scooter Libby justice."

Bill Richardson (the only non-lawyer amond the candidates):

"I will appoint someone who I will direct and say: 'You will be an attorney general for the people. I don't want to even see you talking to the political arm of the White House staff.'"

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The thoroughly discredited Fred Hiatt, leader of the Washington Post's Editorial Board, faces the abyss. To deny it, he attempts to argue that Senator Hillary Clinton agrees with his views but is afraid to say it loudly:

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton traveled to this crucial caucus state today to assure voters that she would keep U.S. troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future because "we cannot lose sight of our very real strategic national interests in this region." . . . [This] would have been an accurate, if incomplete, rendition of her long address on Iraq policy. That she wanted to go on the record with such a view, but didn't want voters to really hear it, says much about the current Washington bind on Iraq policy.

Actually this column, and the misleading nature of it, says much about the current bind DC Gasbags like Fred Hiatt are in. They are a discredited, much ignored group now. They strive to regain relevancy. Hiatt tries here by simply misleading his readers. More.

In a move that is sure to upset some, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned a teenage suicide bomber and sent him home to Pakistan.

The extraordinary case involved Rafiqullah, 14, a would-be suicide bomber, who was captured in May by Afghan police in the province of Khost, which borders Pakistan. He was wearing a suicide vest and riding a motorbike. His target was Arsala Jamal, the governor of the province.

He had crossed the border from South Waziristan, a troubled tribal belt in Pakistan, where he lived and had been attending a religious school. “Today we are facing a hard fact, that is, a Muslim child was sent to madrassa [religious school] to learn Islamic subjects, but the enemies of Afghanistan misled him towards suicide and prepared him to die and kill,” Mr Karzai told reporters.

Karzai issued the pardon at a formal ceremony:

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