The ACLU is one of four organizations that have been granted status as human rights observers at the military commission proceedings. Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney will be blogging from Guantanamo here.

Bump and Update: The LA Times is on the three fired U.S. Attorneys who opposed the death penalty.

Original Post:

Fired Margaret Chiara and the Death Penalty

On February 24, I wrote about the possibility Michigan U.S. Attorney Margaret Chiara was fired because of her anti-death penalty beliefs.

Quoting the Washington Post,

Chiara -- who had once studied to be a nun -- is personally opposed to capital punishment....Another of the fired U.S. attorneys, Paul K. Charlton of Phoenix, also clashed with Washington over the death penalty.

The Washington Post today has more on Chiara's firing and it isn't pretty for the White House. She was well-respected by the judges, federal prosecutors and defense lawyers in her district.

More...

A common word appeared yesterday on MSNBC's website about "Meet the Press" and in the NY Times in their stories posted two minutes apart: Mr. Gonzales's GOP support "Erodes." Today's NY Times article's heading uses a softer word: Republican Senators Express Reservations Over Gonzales.

Prior to this Democrat controlled Congress being sworn in, the GOP would never have asked the questions necessary to have made this an issue. They didn't dare to.  But, consider the timing: the rank political firing and then the cover up of its motives and people behind it all occurred after the election. The machinations were all before, but the axes fell after.

So why the GOP interest, now?

As usual, I speak only for me

Daily Kos trumpets the Senate's quick move on the Iraq Supplemental:

The Senate appears to be prepared to move quickly toward a vote on the supplemental spending bill containing language about benchmarks and withdrawal from Iraq that the House passed Friday - the vote could come as early as Tuesday. Republicans will be trying to remove all timetables from the bill - to them, even non-binding deadlines are too much an affront to Bush's power to wage endless war.

So now the fight is to retain NON-binding deadlines in the supplemental funding bill? Oh by the way, look and see who you'll be fighting with:

Webb doesn't favor a timeline for withdrawal, as the Nancy Pelosi bill passed by the House on Friday proposes . . . and he's working with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel . . . to come up with a bipartisan bill that would incorporate some of what he calls "the more workable points" from the House bill without unnecessarily tying the hands of the military.

h/t MYDD.

What a win passing the House Iraq`supplemental funding bill was. What a bunch of unrealistic purity types those of us opposed to it were. Why, who could have imagined the Senate would likely weaken the bill? But hey, it was the best Dems could do, right? Clap louder please.

The first Guantanamo military commission proceeding is set to begin Monday with the arraignment of Australian David Hicks. He will be called upon to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to providing material support to terrorists. He was originally charged with three charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy, but those charges were dropped.

Today, David McLeod, his Australian lawyer said a plea deal is a possiblility.

Asked how Hicks would plead at tomorrow's arraignment McLeod said: ``That remains to be seen''.

More....

I read Max Frankel's 7,800 word article on the Scooter Libby trial last night. It left a bad taste, and I didn't write about it. Marcy Wheeler has a terrific analysis of the article and what's wrong with it at Firedoglake.

However, my problem with the article was not so much Frankel's embrace of Judith Miller, but his implication that no real crime was committed and Fitzgerald should not have compelled the journalists to testify.

This wasn't a case of whistle-blowing. This was a case of Administration officials using the media to discredit a war critic by outing his CIA agent wife through allegations that his trip to Africa was the result of nepotism and therefore his findings on that trip were not worthy of belief.

Since when are perjury and obstruction of justice not really crimes?

Max Frankel disappoints with this article.

Don't forget to watch "60 Minutes" tonight. John and Elizabeth Edwards will be on.

Update: My thoughts (also expressed in the comments below): I was surprised at how negative Katie Couric was. Everything from her repeatedly asking the same thing to her stern expression seemed off to me. I am wondering whether she was trying to prove she can be a tough interviewer.

The Edwards were great. Composed and very articulate. I don't know how anyone could argue with their decision ... either that it's theirs to make or that it's right for them. Very impressive.

Update: Transcript and video are here.

Florida v. UCLA, a rematch of last year's Final. A heck of a game on paper.

Georgetown v. Ohio State. Hibbard v. Oden. Tremendous matchup.

Not to brag or anything, but I nailed all 4 Elite Eight games. In addition, I picked 3 out of 4 of the Final Four teams, Florida, UCLA, and Georgetown. I had Texas A&M coming out of the South region, but the miracle Buckeyes survived and then won handily over Memphis in the Regional Final.

After live-blogging the Scooter Libby trial, it seemed natural to me to give it another try for the insider trading trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio. I live-blogged the jury selection, opening arguments and first day of testimony last week, over at 5280.com

David Kopel, writing in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News, has this review of internet trial coverage.

Denver criminal defense lawyer and civil liberties advocate Jeralyn Merritt runs the TalkLeft.com weblog, which sets a great example of how to write about legal issues in an intelligent way while still connecting with readers who haven't gone to law school. Merritt has been live-blogging the Nacchio trial for 5280 magazine's weblog, Elevated Voices.

She provides a running semi-transcript of courtroom events, in far greater detail than you can find anywhere else while the court is in session. She doesn't attend every day of the trial, but when she's there, Elevated Voices is the best Web site for up-to-the minute coverage.

The trial runs Monday through Thursday. This week I'll be there live-blogging Monday and Tuesday. TChris will be blogging here.

The Chicago Tribune has a great editorial today on why the death penalty should be abolished. The chief reasons:

• Arbitrary decisions as to whom it's applied
• Racial disparity in its application
• The increasing number of wrongfully convicted inmates, as revealed by DNA tests conducted after their trials

Who gets a sentence of life and who gets death is often a matter of random luck, of politics, of geography, even a matter of racism. Mistakes can occur at every level of the process.

More...

Kirk Osborn, one of the chief lawyers for accused Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligman, has died, following a massive heart attack on Friday.

Osborn was a respected lawyer who had been in high-profile cases for years. He had participated in a number of death penalty cases and his wife said he was most proud that he had never lost a death penalty case.

R.I.P. Mr. Osborn, and I'm very sorry that you didn't live to see your client vindicated, as I expect he will be when the Attorney General's office concludes its investigation.

More....

Two of the fired U.S. Attorneys were on Meet the Press this morning. They said they believe they were fired for political purposes, there's a cloud over the Justice Department.

Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter, said Alberto Gonzales' credibility is at stake.

Now the attorney general's statement of just a few days ago has been contradicted by a fact,'' Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.,) said of Gonzales on NBC News' Meet the Press today. "He was involved in a meeting… It really raises a question of credibility.

"This shadow, this cloud, across the U.S. attorney offices all across the country has to be lifted,'' Durbin said, adding of Gonzales: "I don’t believe he enjoys the confidence of the American people or the Congress.''

More...