Eyewitness testimony, often the worst evidence a jury can rely upon, sent Willie Williams to prison more than 21 years ago. Today he walks free, thanks to the Georgia Innocence Project, which used new DNA testing to establish that he wasn't the man who raped a woman in 1985.

The victim told the jury that she was certain of Williams' guilt. Unfortunately, the jury didn't know that the certainty of an identification doesn't correlate with accuracy. Victims typically focus their attention on guns and the trauma of the moment, not on faces. And they typically believe the police officers who assure them that the "right guy" has been arrested.

The DNA evidence was marked for destruction, and it was only by happenstance that the evidence was preserved until a 2003 Georgia law required the state to maintain DNA evidence. Every state should enact a similar law to help free people like Willie Williams from their wrongful imprisonments.

A huge thanks to Empty Wheel who live-blogged Fitzgerald's and Ted Wells' opening statments this morning over at Firedoglake. Wells will continue his statement this afternoon.

Shorter Version so far: Libby says the White House set him up to take the fall for Karl Rove.

Attorney Theodore Wells, in the opening statements of I. Lewis Libby's perjury trial, said Libby went to Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003 and complained that the White House was subtly blaming him for leaking Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak.

''They're trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb,'' Wells said, recalling the conversation between Libby and Cheney. ''I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected.''

More below the fold, to be updated throughout the day. Also, if you'd like your own place to discuss the trial, you can use the TalkLeft Libby Forums. Free registration is required as they are on a different part of the TL server than the blog.

In striking down California's sentencing law yesterday which allowed judges, as opposed to juries, to determine aggravating factors warranting an increase in a criminal sentence, the Supreme Court further solidified the principles it began with its Apprendi, Blakely and Booker decisions. The New York Times provides this analysis.

First, the prior cases in a nutshell,

[Apprendi]invalidated New Jersey’s hate-crime statute, which gave judges the power to make the specific factual findings that converted an ordinary crime into a hate crime, with an enhanced sentence. The court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury gave that role to juries.

As President Bush gets ready for yet another State of the Union Address, his poll numbers have dropped to levels that rival Richard Nixon's.

President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president while 33 percent approve. The rating matches Bush's career low in a May 2006 poll.

Seventy-one percent of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, up from 46 percent in an April 2003 poll, the month after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A majority of those polled this month don't approve of how Bush is handling the Iraq war, terrorism or the economy.

CNN's most recent poll also shows a big drop for Bush.

The jury has been seated in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Christy at Firedoglake reports the jury is composed of:

9 Women, 3 Men
10 Caucasian, 2 African American And one of the Caucasian women may or may not be Hispanic — there's some uncertainty there.)

....The alternate jurors are summed up as 2 African American women, 1 white woman and one white man.

As for occupation:

One of the interesting, and I think somewhat predictable developments has been the newfound "virtues" of Hillary in the Media, particularly the Gang of 500. With the fall of Bush, to an extent that even Mark Halperin has had to suck it up, Hillary actually is getting a real chance to control her political message and image. Consider this from The Note:

The Gang of 500, every cable network, talk radio host, and pajama-clad blogger is significantly more interested in all things Clinton than they are in health care tax credits, nuanced global warming positions, or Cheney-Pelosi body language. And between now and Tuesday night's 9 pm SOTU, Hillary Clinton will claim some really choice network television real estate . . . Senator Clinton has already answered many key questions about her presidential campaign, but left some very much tbd. Now known: . . . she will manage the Clinton Brand in a hands-on fashion; she is going to compete hard for the netroots; there will be no photo op left behind.

This is respectful coverage from the Beltway. Her second act will be in her hands. More.

Council for a Livable World has put together a compendium, with links, of the various bills introduced in Congress seeking to limit President Bush's plan to increase troops in Iraq.

Think Progress reports that Sen. John Warner will introduce his legislation opposing the troop increase today.

The American Constitution Society has Streaming video of a panel discussion of Congressional power to limit the President's ability to escalate the Iraq War.

Empty Wheel, Pachacutec and Christy of Firedoglake have been doing a great job of live-blogging this morning's jury selection in the Scooter Libby trial.

The magic number of needed jurors is 36, so that the Government can have 8 peremptory challenges and the defense 12. This will leave 16 jurors, 12 regulars and 4 alternates.

The jury pool has been directed to return at 3:00 pm. At that time, each side will exercise their peremptory challenges. Since no reasons for the strikes need be given, it will take each side just a few moments to regroup after hearing the other side's challenge and the whole process should take well under an hour. Then we will have a jury. Opening arguments begin tomorrow. My thoughts on openings in the case are here.

More below the fold:

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Pachacutec has done a great job at Firedoglake of live-blogging and commenting on the jury selection process in the Scooter Libby trial (also see here and here, and as updated in the comments to the posts.) With 30 of the 36 needed prospective jurors already qualified for cause, I think we'll have a jury by Monday afternoon. It won't take long for both sides to exercise their peremptory challenges. Then what?

Then we're off to the races. Opening arguments will begin Tuesday. Looseheadprop did a nice job of explaining the process of openings here.

Since I've never been a prosecutor, only a defense lawyer, I can't get behind the prosecution mindset to predict Fitz's strategy for his opening statement. But I can say what I expect of Libby's defense lawyers in opening.

More troops, more death. The BBC reports:

More than 3,000 US troops have arrived in Baghdad, the first deployment of extra forces promised for the Iraqi capital by US President George W Bush.

As the deployment began, the US military said four soldiers and one marine had been killed in the restive western province of Anbar.

It took to 25 the number of US deaths in Iraq on Saturday - one of the worst days for US troops since the invasion.

Right wing chatterers, outraged as always, are calling upon the president to pardon Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed Mexican in Texas. The agents, having been tried and convicted, would seem unlikely candidates to become a conservative cause celebre, but advocates of a more lethal approach to border security stand in strong support of their rogue tactics. In their simple world, law enforcement officers are always heroic, and suspected drug dealers from Mexico inevitably deserve to be shot. They have no interest in the actual evidence.

Johnny Sutton, the United States attorney who oversaw prosecution of the case, dismissed the idea that the two men were simply doing their jobs or defending themselves. During their trial, the agents said they had scuffled with the suspected drug dealer, who they believed had a gun, before firing at him. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Mr. Sutton said in a statement last week, noting that the two men did not report the shooting to their superiors.

“These agents shot someone who they knew to be unarmed and running away,” Mr. Sutton said. “They destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and then filed false reports about what happened. It is shocking that there are people who believe it is O.K. for agents to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away.”

Since when did conservatives lose their abiding faith in guilty verdicts?

Ed Kilgore writes an interesting post about Netroots attitudes towards Bill Clinton. Only problem - it is based on a false premise:

Chris [Bowers] and others didn't come to grips with Scott [Winship]'s underlying argument about the anti-Clinton worldview of the Netroots Left. And that's a shame.

Sorry Ed. Indeed, I think that is part of the whole problem of the discussion at TPMCAfe - the idea that the Netroots has some type of New New Left ideology. That simply is wrong. More.