by TChris

Kenneth Junious was the only eyewitness who (supposedly) placed Surgio Johnson at the scene of Melvin Jackson Jr.'s murder. That made Junious a vital witness. When Junious expressed reservations about testifying, prosecutor Barry Disney crossed a line:

The judge said Disney made a false threat of criminal charges and additional jail time to coerce Junious into testifying.

That attempt to coerce a witness prompted Sedgwick County District Judge David Kaufman to exclude Junious' testimony. The district attorney's office appealed the ruling, but its appellate office abandoned the appeal, undoubtedly concluding that it was fighting a losing battle. Perhaps the DA's office worried that an appellate court might ask unpleasant questions about its failiure to charge one of its own with intimidating a witness.

The jurors have recessed for the weekend. There's no verdict and there were no questions today. They've only been deliberating 12.5 hours total, so this is not unusual.

Update: I am still not finding the final jury instructions. The Court's website has only those proposed by both sides, and objections each filed to the other's submissions.

Even if the instructions were delivered orally by the Judge, you would think at least one news outlet who purchased the trial transcripts from Exemplaris would post them on their website. If any reporters out there have the transcript of closing arguments and jury instructions, please don't hesitate to e-mail them to me.

The Wall Street Journal today published article by Brody Mullins on Michael Scanlon and his former fiance Emily Miller. It fails to credit investigative journalist Jason Leopold who broke the story in January.

I did a Lexis search and found that Jason's article was the first to report the Scanlon-Miller story. Jason is understandably miffed. He writes by e-mail:

Bump and Update: Crooks and Liars has a video of Feingold, in which he mentions this post by blogger Glenn Greenwald. Christy has some after-hearing thoughts. Raw Story has transcripts from the hearing.

******
Original Post:

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Senator Russ Feingold's motion to censure President Bush. Christy (Reddhedd) at Firedoglake is live-blogging via C-Span. Crooks and Liars will have some video. Glenn Greenwald is covering there as well.

Via NORML:

NORML regrets to inform you that earlier this week the House and Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 8, Ohio's proposed per se "drugged driving" bill. While some of our allies on the House Criminal Justice Committee valiantly tried to address some of our concerns by introducing several amendments to the bill, SB 8 - as approved by both chambers - would still potentially punish marijuana smokers for "drugged driving," even if the individual is neither under the influence nor impaired to drive.

The bill is expected to be signed into law by the Governor, whose administration lobbied for its passage, and will take effect 90 days after his approval.

When one person does it, it's interesting. When two people do it, it's noteworthy. When three people do it, it may be the beginning of a movement.

Grant Urry

Of Winchester on January 04, 2006. Husband of Lillian (Alibertini) Urry. Father of Lisa Urry of El Cerrito, CA, Meg Urry of Guilford, CT, Serena Urry of Detroit, MI and Anthony Urry of Livonia, MI. Grandfather of Amelia, Lily, Sophia, Alex, Grant and Evan. Brother of Zada Christiansen of Salt Lake City, UT and Daniel Urry of Birmingham, AL. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Ph.D. from University of Chicago 1953. Professor of Chemistry (retired) at Tufts University. There will be no Funeral Services. Friends are asked to remember him by voting Democratic.

[Hat tip to Grant Urry's son Anthony who sent this in to TalkLeft.]

Sen. Ken Salazar gave a speech in the Senate Thursday, backing the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, including its guest worker provisions.

The theme of the speech was not the guest worker program. It was "broken borders and lawlessness," a phrase he repeated five times. He lauded the many criminal enforcement components of the bill, including those that:

• Double the number of Border Patrol agents--adding 12,000 new agents over the next five years;
• Double interior enforcement-adding 1,000 investigators per year for the next five years;
• Increase resources to expand the ability of federal agents to retrieve aliens detained by local police;
• Increase resources for additional detention facilities;
• Add new electronic surveillance technologies and resources to create a "virtual fence" at the border;
• Provide for reimbursement to states for costs of prosecuting and imprisoning undocumented criminal aliens; and
• Provide for faster deportation process, and enhanced penalties for gang, tunneling, smuggling, and greater resources targeting ID fraud.

by TChris

This can't be good news for Tom DeLay.

A former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy and promised to cooperate with a federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that has so far netted three convictions and prompted calls for ethics reform in Congress.

Tony Rudy, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff, admitted to conspiring with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff both while Rudy worked for DeLay and after he left the lawmaker's staff to become a lobbyist himself.

Via the San Francisco Chronicle:

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel spent more than 3 1/2 hours at the prison, accompanied by lawyers for the state and for Michael Morales, the condemned murderer from Stockton whose execution was halted by Fogel last month because of questions about the state's lethal-injection methods....the judge asked numerous questions about how the drugs were administered but gave no indication of his views or any areas of concern.

by TChris

Conflict between two elements of the Republican base -- corporate donors to the party who argue that immigrants are needed to fill low wage jobs, and extremists who are hostile to permitting anyone who wasn't born in the country to work here -- has Republicans squirming. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher thinks he has an ideal solution: turn the nation's prisons into forced labor camps.

He said businesses should be more creative in their efforts to find help and suggested that employers turn to the prison population to fill jobs in agriculture and elsewhere. "Let the prisoners pick the fruits," Mr. Rohrabacher said. "We can do it without bringing in millions of foreigners."

Jack Abramoff picking strawberries? Not likely. If Rohrabacher's plan were implemented, how long would it be before agribusiness started lobbying for mandatory minimum sentences to assure the availability of a large, stable workforce?

Congressman James "The Menace" Sensenbrenner is about to strike again -- this time, he's going to urge going topless. Via Law Prof Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy:

I have now heard from two different sources that House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner intends to introduce a bill mandating topless guidelines, and that there will be a hearing concerning the solution to the post-Booker sentencing problems that he identifies sometime in early May. My impression from the House hearing earlier this month was that most of the witnesses did a powerful job urging Congress to leave Booker alone for now, but apparently Sensenbrenner was unconvinced. Needlesss to say, this is a story to watch, and the links below provide plenty of background.

Tranlsation: For federal crimes, the top of the sentencing guidelines will now mean the sky's the limit.

P.S. I tried to make a find a picture of a topless Sensenbrenner for the post, but am not adept enough to create one. If any readers can come up with one, please send it on, anonymously or for credit.

Reporter's Committee for a Free Press has posted the trial exhibits in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial which recently were ordered released. The debriefing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed(pdf), now in custody in a secret overseas prison, describes not only Moussaoui's non-participation in September 11, but minute details of the planning of 9/11, the participants, the operational theories behind it and the unformed plan for a second wave of attacks. It was introduced into evidence at Moussaoui's trial.

Also among the documents are the many e-mails between FBI agent Harry Samit who believed Moussaoui was an imminent terrorist danger, and other FBI agents who thwarted his attempts for a FISA warrant. Personally, I don't believe the FBI would have connected the dots no matter what, but that's what the jury in the Moussaoui case now is deliberating.

Today's New York Times provides this analysis of the documents.

To me, the most fascinating document is the summary of debriefing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. From his overseas secret prison where he has been debriefed numerous times, he provided a wealth of information that anyone interested in 9/11, not just Moussaoui, will want to read.