by TChris

Update: Be sure to follow the links provided in the comments by readers Nicole Black and Peter G to learn more about this case and about false confessions.

original post:

It was easier for the Rochester, NY police to elicit Douglas Warney's confession than it would have been to track down the actual killer of William Beason.

Warney, who has a recorded IQ of 68 and a history of mental health issues, was convicted based almost entirely on a confession he gave police after hours of interrogation-even though the confession was riddled with inconsistencies, he had a history of making false reports to police and the physical evidence at the time failed to link him to the crime. Warney was initially charged with capital murder, though he was ultimately sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

In papers filed to vacate Warney's conviction and release him from prison, the Innocence Project said Rochester police officers provided key details of the murder to Warney during interrogations. Once Warney repeated those details-which were not publicly available-in a confession, police and prosecutors focused on no other suspects and secured his conviction by saying nobody but the perpetrator of the crime would know such details.

Via Atrios, for those who can't attend Yearly Kos in person (like me), Air America Radio will be streaming live video, from start to finish. For $10, you can have access to all of it. Sign up here.

And check out actor Will Keenan's latest promo for Yearly Kos.

He is so cool.

For those who would like to see the famed Owl Farm in Woody Creek, Colorado, home of the late, great gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, painstakingly preserved and tended to by his beautiful wife Anita, here's a little movie I made of our visit there Saturday during NORML's Aspen Legal Seminar. Since it is 20 megabytes, I put it on youtube where it isn't as clear as the original, but you'll get the idea. It also looks better on a Mac than it does on a PC.

Update: Much clearer version is now here.

I took a few of the photos, but most were taken by Timothy Tipton. There are no titles, but the first photo is of Anita and Hunter's son, Juan Thompson. The second is Hunter's kitchen, from which he managed his world. The big, grinning guy in the middle of the movie is Aspen Sheriff Bob Braudis -- one of Hunter's closest friends and my favorite Sheriff ever. The last photo of the pig may be at the Woody Creek Tavern, Hunter's favorite watering hole. And as you can see from the baby photos, it was a family affair.

by TChris

Some judges are disinclined by nature to credit the testimony of a defense witness, but this is beyond belief:

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's trial said Monday four defense witnesses have been jailed on suspicion of perjury, drawing accusations from defense lawyers that the court was trying to intimidate witnesses.

Duh, yeah. Jail is an effective weapon of intimidation. So is thuggery.

The defense lawyers said Iraqi soldiers beat several of the witnesses during their arrest May 31.

Lawyers for Jose Padilla have filed a motion to suppress evidence and statements in his federal terrorism case. He alleges that the FBI failed to advise the Court in its 2002 affidavit for his arrest as a material witness that statements taken from one of the government's witnesses was obtained through torture, and another witness provided statements while "heavily medicated."

For the second time in two years, the U.S. Senate is debating a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Today, Colorado Senator Wayne Allard argued in favor of the constitutional Amendment. A procedural vote may be held tomorrow.

"It's not about politics or discrimination," Allard told colleagues on the floor of the U.S. Senate. "It's about marriage and democracy."

I don't understand the connection between marriage and democracy. I thought in a democracy, all people are equal. If marriage is a democratic value, then shouldn't everyone be able to choose their spouse?

The Democrats have their talking points in order. Instead of arguing against a prohibition of same-sex marriage, they are talking about all the critical issues the Senate should be debating instead of marriage.

Duke University has announced the lacrosse team will resume playing this fall. Stricter conditions will be in place.

"The reinstatement is inevitably probationary. ... (If) we did not allow these players the chance to take responsibility for creating a new history for their sport at Duke, we would be denying another very fundamental value: the belief in the possibility of learning from experience, the belief in education itself."

by TChris

As TalkLeft discussed here, the North Carolina Bar accused two prosecutors (one of whom is now a judge) of concealing evidence and encouraging perjury in a case that sent Jonathan Hoffman to death row. The Bar was unable to impose discipline because the misconduct wasn't revealed until after the time for making disciplinary complaints against them had expired.

The N.C. Bar's counsel asked District Attorney Michael Parker to investigate potential criminal charges against the two former prosecutors. But one of those prosecutors helped Parker get his current job, and Parker really shouldn't be investigating misconduct in Hoffman's first trial when Parker's office intends to try Hoffman a second time.

Here's the latest development:

by TChris

If Congress won't investigate the president, it's up to the ABA. The trade group for lawyers has already investigated domestic spying. Now it's tackling the president's reliance on signing statements.

The board of governors of the American Bar Association voted unanimously yesterday to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office.

The signing statements task force includes former Rep. Mickey Edwards, a Republican from Oklahoma, who explains:

"I think one of the most critical issues in the country right now is the extent to which the White House has tried to expand its powers and basically tried to cut the legislative branch out of its own constitutionally equal role, and the signing statements are a particularly egregious example of that."

by TChris

Let's hear it for Mother Nature. Two cloned mules won their qualifying heats, but finished third and seventh in a race won by a mule that was born the old fashioned way.

by TChris

Accountability avoidance is habitual in the Bush administration. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that the Justice Department has grown increasingly reliant on the "state secrets" defense to evade judicial review of alleged governmental misconduct.

The privilege has been asserted by the Justice Department more frequently under President Bush than under any of his predecessors -- in 19 cases, the same number as during the entire eight-year presidency of Ronald Reagan, the previous record holder, according to a count by William G. Weaver, a political scientist at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The examples are wide-ranging:

Tonight is the final episode of the Sopranos until next year.

Kaisha: Tony gets Carmela's career back on track; Chris picks up where Tony left off; AJ gets a work perk; Phil won't let well enough alone.

What did you think?