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.

Media Matters reports that a group of almost 100 advertisers on ABC radio networks have demanded their ads not air on Air America Radio.

Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy.

The actual memo is here.

He was yelling "I want Jesus" and carrying a bible. The cops tasered him. He died at the hospital.

Will the cops say they thought the bible was a gun?

In a report released in March, international human rights group Amnesty International said it had logged at least 156 deaths across the country in the previous five years related to police stun guns.

The rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. ....Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office said.

Mark Halperin again, with Hugh Hewitt, via atrios and Tristam:

MH: . . . I will say this, Hugh. I will say that many people I work with in ABC, and other old media organizations, are liberal on a range of issues. And I think the ability of that, the reality of how that affects media coverage, is outrageous, and that conservatives in this country for forty years have felt that, and that it’s something that must change.

. . . HH: And so, given that we know that proportion is there, I don’t know the relevance that the fever swamp generates some antagonism towards you, that Daily Kos yells at you, doesn’t in any way, I think, not you personally, but media, doesn’t in any way change the basic underlying problem, which is that you’ve set up sort of castles full of liberal and hard left reporters, and that they’re criticized from the left doesn’t in any way diminish their left wing bias, does it?

MH: Not at all. It only adds to the current problems, or the previous problems of the left wing bias on a lot of issues. What it adds is, people feeling cowed from the other direction, and it adds to the general lack of respect, which we have brought on ourselves, because look, we are too weak, and we are too superficial, and we have failed to stand up to power, as we should, if we’re going to play a proper role in a democracy. So the left criticisms, I think, don’t diminish the liberal bias, but they do make weak organizations, already under siege, more under siege, taking fire from a different direction.

Failing to stand up to power is what Mark Halperin is arguing. But somehow that is liberal bias. Because liberals have ALL the power in this country right? Sheesh. Not only is Halperin a disgrace, he is apparently an idiot as well.

Isn't it funny that Democrats keep showing up on "no fly" lists? Does TSA think Democrats are terrorists by definition?

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who has been a critic of the no-fly list, said her staff had booked her a one-way ticket from Boise, Idaho, to Cincinnati through Denver. But they were prevented from printing her boarding pass online and at an airport kiosk.

Sanchez said she was instructed to check in with a United employee, who told her she was on the terrorist watch list.