The number of wrongfully convicted persons is not just a problem in the U.S. Even China recognizes that mistakes can happen. While it would be preferable for China to abolish the death penalty altogether, this news is encouraging:

China's highest court must approve all executions under legislation enacted Tuesday, prompting human rights activists to express hope that the country will reduce its use of the death penalty.

The amendment to China's capital punishment law follows reports of wrongly convicted people being executed and criticism that the death penalty has been imposed arbitrarily by lower courts.

What is the Bush Administration doing? You guessed it. Nothing. And don't cite the watered-down version of the Innocence Protection Act. That ended up with almost all funds going to test old rape kits to catch perpetrators, with a very small percentage going to test or re-test DNA in cases showing innocence.

Here is how the NYTimes and the Washington Post reported the Kerry distraction:

For at least a few hours on Tuesday, President Bush had a chance to relive his victorious campaign of 2004, taking a break from a bleak Republican campaign season as he attacked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts over the war in Iraq.

Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was Mr. Bush’s opponent in 2004, is not running for office this year. But the president seized on what he said were Mr. Kerry’s disparaging remarks about the troops — and what Mr. Kerry insisted was a botched joke aimed at Mr. Bush — as he sought to make Mr. Kerry the face of the Democratic Party this fall.

In the process, Mr. Bush brought renewed attention to the war in Iraq, which he defended with vigor while campaigning in Georgia, at the very moment that a number of Republican Congressional candidates, following the advice of party strategists, were stepping up their efforts to distance themselves from the White House on the war as the campaign enters its final days.

Not bad at all for Democrats from the Times. WaPo is a different story.

I thought Bush went to war in Iraq to destroy its non-existent weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy to Iraq and dethrone Saddam.

The Pentagon, in releasing the names today of the latest U.S. troops to die in Iraq, says they died while supporting the "global war on terror."

Marine Sgt. Luke J. Zimmerman, 24, of Luxemburg, Wis., died Oct. 27 from injuries suffered while conducting combat operations in Iraq’s Anbar province. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Army 1st Sgt. Ricky L. McGinnis, 42, of Hamilton, Ohio, died Oct. 26 in Balad, Iraq, when a roadside bomb detonated near his dismounted patrol in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. McGinnis was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

How transparent. Now that there's no support for the war in Iraq and civil war is rampant, Bush thinks he can change the name and fool us into thinking we're fighting in Iraq to destroy amorphous terrorists.

Last week we wrote about two border agents sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively for shooting a pot smuggler and an ensuing cover-up at the border.

In an unrelated case today, a federal judge sentenced two veteran border patrol agents to six years each for bribery in an immigrant smuggling scam.

Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren released smugglers and their customers from jail while working on a prisoner transfer program with the Mexican government. They once released a prisoner in a Wal-Mart parking lot for a fee of $6,000, according to court documents.

The agents, based in El Centro, once smuggled two illegal immigrants across the border themselves in a government vehicle and released them for cash, according to court documents. They turned over the location of surveillance cameras and other Border Patrol intelligence to smugglers.

Total amount of the bribes received by the agents: $180,000.00. According to the Justice Department:

Another jury got it wrong. Another innocent man languished in prison. And another DNA test set him free.

You've heard the story before. (If you haven't, check out TalkLeft's innocence cases link.) This man's name is Larry Fuller. He served honorably in Vietnam before he served two decades for a rape he didn't commit.

The woman looked at two photo lineups, both of which included Fuller. She picked him in the second one, even though Fuller was bearded in the picture and she said her attacker had no facial hair.

The police contributed to Fuller's misidentification by including his photo in two photo arrays. The unduly suggestive tactic (I know I've seen that face before) all but assured that the victim would pick Fuller. (TalkLeft explores identification procedures in more detail here.)

Fuller has consistently asked for the DNA evidence to be retested, but the Dallas County prosecutors didn't agree to retesting until this year. Remarkably, Fuller is the tenth Dallas County prisoner to be exonerated by DNA testing in the last five years.

I have no interest in watching pundits rail ad nauseum tonight about John Kerry. I've already written two posts today about his statement which is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Searching for alternative viewing, I found my pick. At 7:45 ET, the Sundance Channel airs the 1972 Tuesday Weld - Anthony Perkins movie, Play it As It Lays.

Based on the Joan Didion novel of the same name, which was my favorite book in law school (my copy is dog-eared and highlighted to death), the movie is rarely shown on tv and not available on DVD or VHS as far as I know. I have a copy that I've seen a dozen times over the years. Why? I'm not quite sure, but it's just like a train wreck, I can't not watch it.

So I'll be skipping the Kerry non-news and watching the film. Especially if you enjoyed Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins in Pretty Poison, you might want to do the same.

With a week to go, Republicans are backing out of supporting Bush/Cheney favorite Rick O'Donnell who has been trailing the excellent Ed Perlmutter in Colorado's 7th District for the seat being vacated by Bob Beauprez, who is running a seemingly losing race for Colorado Governor.

The beneficiary of the money that will not be spent on O'Donnell? Marilyn Musgrave, mother of the anti-gay marriage amendment.

The AP reports:

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time:

The mayor [of Edmond, OK] personally distributed thousands of fliers discouraging underage drinking only to find they mistakenly contained the phone number for a sex talk line.

The mayor insists that the mistake is "not part of the story." Correction: it is the story. And it's a pretty funny story, at that.

Who cares what John Kerry said? The issue is Iraq.

Guantanamo

Torture

John Kerry flubbed a live statement on Iraq. Here's the video.

What Kerry meant to say:

"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just Ask President Bush." - Senator John Kerry.

What Kerry said:

If you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.

Here's Kerry's official statement castigating those who are castigating him.

Of all people it would be wrong to accuse of not supporting the troops, John Kerry is at the top of the list. It's a side issue people, a distraction, let's move on.

Republicans and their supporters will jump at anything this last week to mitigate their upcoming losses. Balloon Juice explains how it works.

There's been a flurry of filings in the Scooter Libby case. Shorter version: Both Fitz and Libby want to keep information about l'affaire du Plame from the jury. Courtesy of Next Hurrah:

• Libby's Motion in Limine (pdf)

• Libby's Motion to Exclude Evidence re: reporters' litigation and Judith Miller's confinement. (pdf)

• Libby's Motion to Exclude information about Valerie Plame's employment status. (pdf)

Libby doesn't want it to be inferred that his talks with Judith Miller about the NIE were improper. He doesn't want it inferred that he thought he could lie because he believed reporters would refuse to testify. He doesn't think Valerie Plame's covert or non-covert employment status, or any damages she may have sustained, are relevant to the trial.

Fitz' filing is here (pdf.) Fitz doesn't want the jury to hear:

I, as do many, hurl words of invective at many I disagree with, too often. But those words are not meant to question the good faith of those who disagree with me in good faith and fairly. Republicans have a different world view and ideology than I, but this does not mean their expressions are not made in good faith. Too often, the Right, and to a lesser extent, the Left, questions motives, patriotism and honor. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it is merited. But not always.

Today, Andrew Sullivan acknowledges this and his excesses in the past:

I have indeed come to see that many, many liberals are indeed my brothers and my sisters. And increasing numbers of conservatives as well, thank God. For some on the far left, Bush could never have done any right, ever. I'm not going to exculpate the hate-filled parts of the far-left. But many, many others on the left were right about these people in power; and I was wrong. I threw some smug invective their way and, in retrospect, I am ashamed of it. Sure, I recognized my error before the last election, but that doesn't excuse it. Sure, some of it was just misunderstanding each other, in a climate of great fear, and some of it was just my arrogance that I was right. But that doesn't excuse it all either. My book is an attempt to rescue something from the wreckage - an atonement of sorts - and to move forward.

I welcome Andrew's acknowledgment and regret. But I have one bone to pick.