History was made this morning when North Carolina Governor Mike Easely, a former prosecutor, signed into law a bill establishing an Innocence Commission.

Gov. Mike Easley signed a measure Thursday, creating the country's first innocence inquiry commission -- a state panel that will examine possible wrongful convictions.

"As a state prosecutor for more 15 years, I know that law enforcement's greatest nightmare is to have an innocent person in jail or on death row," Easley said. "As a state that exacts the ultimate punishment, we should continue to ensure that we have the ultimate fairness in the review of our cases.

"Its creation gives our criminal justice system yet another safeguard by helping ensure that the people in our prisons in fact, belong there. This is something all North Carolinians can be proud of," Easley said.

Bump and Update: According to a new Quinnipiac poll, Ned Lamont leads Sen. Joe Lieberman 54% to 41% among likely Democratic primary voters. This compares to a 51% to 47% Lamont lead in the last poll two weeks ago. 85% of those polled said their minds are made up.

The Washington Post has more on the poll. There's also a nice profile of Lamont in the Hartford Advocate, explaining his opposition to the war.

*****
Original Post:
8/2/06

The Connecticut Primary is six days away. Political Wire reports tonight that Joe Lieberman is planning for a loss and will shake up his campaign staff if it happens.

Expect Lieberman to can anyone who was associated with 2004 Kerry campaign and replace them with a team of pungent veterans who will take the fight to Lamont. As Lieberman tours the broiling state, you can almost hear the gloves coming off in preparation for a fight to the finish in November.

Lieberman thinks he will get the spotlight with his petition run if he loses the primary. Even the Republicans look like they will line up behind Lieberman, since the Republican challenger is so weak:

Los Angeles prosecutors today filed two misdemeanor charges against Mel Gibson, one for DUI and one for having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.

Interesting: The police reports said Gibson was "clocked" going 85 miles an hour in a 45 mile per hour zone. Yet he's not charged with speeding, which would have required a jail sentence if convicted.

Under state law, a driver under the influence whose speed exceeds the posted limit by 20 mph or more on streets or 30 mph on faces a minimum of 60 days in jail if convicted.

Nor was he charged with resisting police or arrest.

In his report, Deputy James Mee said Gibson "attempted to escape custody" and repeatedly threatened him.

by TChris

Voters in Kansas dealt another defeat to extremists who believe that public education about the origins of life should be faith-based rather than science-based.

Conservative Republicans lost control of the State Board of Education on Tuesday only nine months after they had enacted science standards expressing doubt about evolutionary theory. Critics saw the standards as an attack on evolution, and Kansas received international ridicule as a result.

The conservative board majority was 6-4 going into this year's election, and moderate Republicans unseated one conservative incumbent and captured a seat held by a retiring conservative in Tuesday's primary elections. That left the balance of power at 6-4 in favor of moderates who believe the standards should reflect mainstream scientific views - and treat evolution as a well-established theory.

Two conservative Republicans who held off moderate challengers in the primary may still lose to science-friendly Democrats in the general election.

There's a lot going on today-- from Haditha and Murtha (Taylor Marsh has the full scoop) to the release of the 9/11 Norad tapes (Kevin Drum has some thoughts on them) to the countdown to the Joe Lieberman-Ned Lamont primary (Firedoglake has all the latest). Here's an open thread to talk about it and any other topics. After spending the last five days entrenched in the Twilight Zone, I'm ready for a break and something less stressful today, like visiting a few clients in jail.

Thanks to those of you who donated to TalkLeft yesterday to help me with the site fix-it costs. I'll be sending you personal e-mails this weekend. There's still a lot to cover, so if any more of you feel like helping out, here's how:

• PayPal
• Amazon (can be anonymous)

The Senate Armed Services and Judiciary Committees began consideration today of Bush's latest proposal for trying detainees. It's a sandbag, as worse if not worse than the plan thrown out by the Supreme Court in June. Call your Senator and tell them to vote against it and insist that detainees be tried under standards that meet the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions. As the ACLU states in a new press release:

Specifically, the White House proposal would: gut the enforceability of important Geneva Convention protections; allow the use of evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment during interrogations; take the unprecedented step of allowing the federal government to convict a defendant based on secret evidence; bar a defendant from being present at his own trial; and allow the use of the types of hearsay evidence banned from every military and civilian court in America.

The ACLU's July 31 letter outlining the deficiencies is here. The Washington Post reports:

Here's an example of how tougher punitive immigration bills can be misapplied:

Prosecutors in Arizona have charged two volunteers who say they tried to save the lives of three sick migrants stranded in the desert with felony charges of transporting illegal immigrants. If convicted, Daniel Strauss, of Manhattan, and Shanti Sellz, of Iowa City, Iowa, both 24, could face up to 15 years in federal prison and a half-million-dollar fine.

...in court papers, the Border Patrol contended the work of the faith-based group No More Deaths was encouraging migrants to cross illegally into the United States. The agency also contended group leaders were warned volunteers could be arrested. The leaders dismissed the arguments as absurd.

Daniel Strauss had this to say:

(National Lawyers Guild Photo)

A federal judge in San Francisco has jailed blogger-journalist Josh Wolf, age 24, for refusing to turn over videotapes he took at an anti-capitalist protest last year and to testify before the grand jury.

The protest, tied to a Group of 8 meeting of world economic leaders in Scotland, ended in a clash between demonstrators and the San Francisco police, with one officer sustaining a fractured skull. A smoke bomb or a firework was also put under a police car, and investigators are looking into whether arson was attempted on a government-financed vehicle.

....Mr. Wolf, who posted some of the edited video on his Web site, and sold some of it to local television stations, met with investigators, who wanted to see the raw video. But Mr. Wolf refused to hand over the tapes, arguing that he had the right as a journalist to shield his sources.

A portion of the video is posted here. The San Francisco Chronicle has a more detailed article here. Josh Wolf's mom is posting on his blog .

For those of you sweltering in the East, here's Martha and the Vandellas and Heat Wave:

Below the fold is the Who performing "Heat Wave" in Germany in the 60's.

The war in Lebanon is escalating. Israel has captured 7 Hezbollah soldiers in Baalbek, Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, and taken them to Israel.

The BBC's Bethany Bell in Jerusalem says many in Israel expect the fighting to intensify over the next few days. Israel launched the current offensive after Hezbollah militants seized two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Another BBC analyst says despite what Condoleezza Rice said today about a cease-fire by the end of the week, it's not likely.

Did Ms Rice misread the Israeli mood, which seems to be more committed than perhaps some optimistic outsiders have realised? ....Much depends on what the US does, but Condoleezza Rice herself is in a difficult position. She has in effect promised but delivery is uncertain. Will she be sidelined by a President Bush unwavering in his support for Israel?

by TChris

The conflict between reporters who want to protect their sources and prosecutors searching for leakers is in the news again. So is Judith Miller, and again the reporters are losing in court.

Someone told Miller and another reporter, Philip Shenon, that the government was poised to seize the assets of two Islamic charities. The charities were allegedly tipped to the government's plan when the reporters contacted them to get their reactions to the upcoming raid. Prosecutors want to know who tipped the reporters.

In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the government's interest in learning the identity of the leaker outweighs the interest of a free press in protecting its sources.

A few weeks ago Lewis "Scooter" Libby notified the court it would seek to introduce the testimony of a memory expert at trial. In March, Harvard psychology professor Daniel L. Schacter told NBC News he was Libby's expert, which a member of Team Libby confirmed.

Yesterday, Libby filed his "Rule 702" advisement of the proposed expert's testimony and the bases and reasons for it. The expert is not Dr. Schacter but Robert Bjork from UCLA. The New York Sun has more.