by TChris

North Carolina's new Innocence Inquiry Commission is a worthy experiment. It gives wrongfully convicted prisoners a final chance to prove their innocence after the judicial system has declared their convictions final.

Cases will be reviewed by a finely balanced, eight-member panel: a judge, a prosecutor, a sheriff, a defense lawyer, a victim's advocate, and three at-large members. If a majority finds compelling evidence of innocence, the case would go to a panel of three Superior Court judges, who would have to rule unanimously to overturn the conviction.

Whether the panel will feel insulated from political pressure to keep the convicted behind bars is unclear, but North Carolina is at least responding to the serious problem of wrongful convictions.

USA Today reports on the number of death row inmates in the U.S. refusing to appeal their sentence. One of every eight persons on death row is now volunteering to die.

Death row volunteers account for 123 of the 1,041 executions carried out since capital punishment resumed in 1977, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group in Washington, D.C., that opposes the death penalty. That rate -- about 12% -- has held constant for nearly 30 years.

This year, five of the 37 murderers put to death were volunteers. Two of the remaining 14 prisoners scheduled for execution have asked to die. Some volunteers, such as Elijah Page -- scheduled for execution in South Dakota next week -- give no reason for their choice.

Why do the condemned volunteer for death?

Jon Bon Jovi on Larry King Live singing an acoustic version of Who Says You Can't Go Home. I made the video myself and put it on You Tube.

As I've probably said before, I think he has the best face in music. The other night I didn't think anything would distract me from the incessant Ramsey coverage and as I was channel surfing, I came across his hour long appearance on LKL. I watched the whole thing.

by TChris

In the judgment of his former local supporters,Tom DeLay has made a mess of things.

[Republicans] are in such disarray now that the hope of backing a single write-in candidate has essentially vanished. There are three declared write-ins, and one top state Republican, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, is urging Republicans to consider voting for the Libertarian candidate, who does have a spot on the ballot.

Citing the divisions and the $3 million that Democratic nominee Nick Lampson has raised, two leading political analysts -- Charlie Cook and Larry Sabato -- changed their ratings of the seat this week to "leans Democrat." It had been "leans Republican" only a few days ago.

Nick Lampson has a chance to clean up DeLay's mess. Reading the linked article about none-too-happy-with-DeLay Republicans, you might particularly enjoy the timeline entitled "The Rise and Fall of Tom DeLay."

by TChris

Once information has been in the public domain for a few years, it wouldn't seem to be "secret," but that bit of common sense hasn't deterred the Bush administration from reclassifying information about nuclear weaponry that used to be publicly available.

Researchers at the National Security Archive, an independent library that belongs to The George Washington University, found that officials from the Pentagon and US Department of Energy have been trawling through reports that have been released to the public and deleting numbers of missiles, despite some of the statistics being decades old.

You may recall this TalkLeft post about the administration's obsession with secrecy, leading to the reclassification of more than 55,000 documents. Today's news is more of the same. Open government, anyone?

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that driving with cash is evidence of drug activity and may be seized. The money had been seized during an Indiana traffic stop.

Associates of Gonzolez testified in court that they had pooled their life savings to purchase a refrigerated truck to start a produce business. Gonzolez flew on a one-way ticket to Chicago to buy a truck, but it had sold by the time he had arrived. Without a credit card of his own, he had a third-party rent one for him. Gonzolez hid the money in a cooler to keep it from being noticed and stolen. He was scared when the troopers began questioning him about it. There was no evidence disputing Gonzolez's story.

The trial court had ruled for Gonzales. The 8th Circuit reversed:

"We respectfully disagree and reach a different conclusion... Possession of a large sum of cash is 'strong evidence' of a connection to drug activity."

At least there was a dissent. You can read the opinion here (pdf). [hat tip Patriot Daily.]

A federal judge in Miami has dismissed the most serious count of Jose Padilla's terror indictment on grounds of multiplicity. David MarKus at the Southern District of Florida Blog has all the details -- and praise for the Bush-appointed judge who issued the decision.

Judge Marcia Cooke has dismissed Count I of the indictment against Jose Padilla because it is multiplicitous. In other words, Count I represents the same offense that is also charged in Counts II and III. An indictment is multiplicitous when it charges a single offense multiple times, in separate counts.

The dismissed count charged conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and maim persons in a foreign county, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 956(a)(1).

Your turn. I'm sure there are other things beside John Mark Karr and the Jonbenet murder case you want to talk about. Here's a place.

Via Buzzflash: The head of a British airline has told the government it will sue unless terror restrictions are relaxed within seven days.

TERRORISTS are "rolling around the caves of Pakistan, laughing" at Britain's response to the terror threat, an airline boss said last night as he gave the government a seven-day deadline to relax restrictions or face legal action.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary described some of the security measures as "farcical, Keystone Kops-like and completely insane and ineffectual". ... Banning items such as water bottles and toothpaste was "nuts".... He said it was "complete horse manure" to infer that passengers either faced delays or death. Mr O'Leary said the people being subjected to intense security were "not terrorists and not fanatics ... they are actually called holidaymakers". He went on: "The best way to defeat terrorists and extremists is for ordinary people to continue to live their lives as normal.

"We are not in danger of dying at the hands of toiletries. Normal security measures have successfully prevented any terrorist attack on any British plane in the last 25 years."

Some pilots agree.

Lambert at Corrente outlines how the Republicans plan to take Iraq off the table for the 2008 election. How? With the help of James Baker and a new working group called the Iraq Study Group-- that reportedly has Bush's blessing.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) says the Republican party is in trouble for the fall elections and has lost its way.

"Where is the fiscal responsibility of the party I joined in '68? Where is the international engagement of the party I joined -- fair, free trade, individual responsibility, not building a bigger government, but building a smaller government?"

"I think we've lost our way," Hagel said. "And I think the Republicans are going to be in some jeopardy for that and will be held accountable."

Crooks and Liars has the video of Hagel on Fox News Sunday, in which he reiterates his belief that the U.S. should start withdrawing troops from Iraq within 6 months.

Hagel also said Bush went too far with his warrantless NSA spying.

Spike Lee's four hour film on Hurricane Katrina and the government's woefully inadequate response airs Monday and Tuesday nights on HBO:

One of the most poignant interviews in the Hurricane Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke" is given by a man who lost his mother in the aftermath of the storm, filmmaker Spike Lee said Sunday. In the interview, Herbert Freeman recalls his mother's death at New Orleans Convention Center and the moment he had to leave her body there as he and other evacuees were taken out of the city.

"Before he got on a bus _ he had a piece of paper, wrote his name, his cell number and her name and placed the paper between her fingers, her body," Lee said on ABC's "This Week."

Just unbelievable. Here's a little action alert that should be easy to do.