A criminal probe is underway in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where Carla Martin was licensed to practice law, pertaining to her unauthorized communications with FAA witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial:

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia are investigating a government lawyer who nearly derailed Moussaoui's sentencing trial by coaching witnesses and lying to his defense attorneys. The criminal investigation of Transportation Security Administration lawyer Carla J. Martin was revealed in the recently unsealed transcript of a closed March 21 hearing in the Moussaoui case.

At that hearing, Brinkema disclosed that she had been "advised by the U.S. Attorney's office that there may very well be a prosecution of her, at least they're looking at the possibility." Rob Spencer, the lead prosecutor in Moussaoui's case, said the matter was referred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where Martin is a member of the bar. Prosecutors in Alexandria decided to take no part in the investigation.

Update: Cryptome has the transcript of the March 14 hearing (html) where Martin was present and the Judge said it was one of the most egregious violations she had seen as a judge. There's lots of good stuff in the transcript.

The jury did not reach a verdict today in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial. They did ask for a definition of "weapons of mass destruction" and were told it could include "planes, used as missiles."

The verdict form is now available here. (pdf). In order for Moussaoui to be eligible for the death penalty, it requires the jury to find,

(b) the defendant intentionally participated in an act, i.e. lying to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001

© the defendant participated in the act, i.e. lying to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001, contemplating that the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used in connection with a person, other than one of the participants in the offense

d) at least one victim died on September 11, 2001, as a direct result of the defendant's act, i.e. the defendant's lies to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001

This seems to require an affirmative act of lying -- as opposed to concealing information. The jury instructions are not yet online. It will be interesting to see if the word "lying" is defined and if the definition includes or excludes omissions.

The defense had proposed this verdict form:

by TChris

Economic inequality and its relationship to racial inequality was big news for two or three days after Katrina. Perhaps the Urban League's annual report, "State of Black America 2006," will reawaken interest in one of the nation's most pressing problems.

The report, which assessed factors including home ownership, income, unemployment, poverty rates and net worth, said the economic status of blacks in 2006 is 56 percent of that of white Americans, 1 percentage point worse than last year.

by TChris

A couple of months ago, TalkLeft wrote about a lawsuit against R. Lindley DeVecchio, an FBI agent who allegedly ended surveillance of Nicholas Grancio at the request of an informant so that Grancio could be killed by the Colombo crime family. The lawsuit has become the least of DeVecchio's worries.

DeVecchio was indicted today for conspiring with members of organized crime who committed four murders.

"This is the most stunning example of official corruption I have ever seen," [District Attorney Charles J. Hynes of Brooklyn] said in a statement. He said a federal agent whose job is to protect lives instead assisted in murder.

Jill Caroll's been released. William Arkin has a fascinating column on what 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had to say about the plans for the 9/11 and future attacks.

The South Carolina Senate has approved the death penalty for pedophiles.

Murray Waas has a new National Journal article on pre-war intelligence.

And an open thread for you.

Here's the story: A police officer may have accidentally shot herself outside a house in Long Beach, California. She was found slumped over the wheel of her car. An "Officer Down" call went out. Then,

Long Beach police said dispatchers received an "officer down" call made from inside the Wrigley neighborhood home about 6 a.m. Moments after finding Rosa wounded in the driveway, officers swarmed the area and conducted house-to-house searches.

The 911 call was placed by the resident of the property where the officer was found. The resident appears to be her partner.

So the police go to the house, find the woman dead on the scene, and on her partner's word they search - the neighbors? House to house searches of a neighborhood without a warrant in this situation sounds quite excessive--and frightening.

[Hat tip to reader Kirk]

Robert Scheer over at Truthdig says there's no immigration crisis and we should legalize the illegals.

There is no immigration crisis -- other than the one created by a small but vocal stripe of opportunist politicians, media demagogues and freelance xenophobes. So it has always been throughout the history of this country when anti-immigrant hysteria periodically reigns during ebbs in our national sense of security and vision.

As to the undocumented workers, Scheer writes:

USA Today has this recap of the Government's closing argument.

"Zacarias Moussaoui came to this country to kill as many Americans as he could," Raskin said. "He was supposed to fly the fifth plane into the White House. Instead he killed people by lying and concealing the plot...that resulted in the worst terrorist attack in the country's history."

Since the prosecutor was allowed to say "lying and concealing", I take it the defense lost on its argument to the Judge that the two are different and the Government should only be allowed to get the death penalty if it shows Moussaoui's lies contributed to a death on 9/11. He had a 5th Amendment right not to say anything, so why are prosecutors being allowed to argue his silence makes him guilty? More on this here.

Update: The defense argued Moussoui is a liar:

Jack Abramoff caught a break today. The judge sentenced him to five years, ten months, the bottom of his guidelines. Adam Kidan received the same sentence. Both will remain free on bond.

The sentence will be concurrent with his Washington sentence, yet to be imposed. Abramoff will continue cooperating and a further reduction of the 70 month sentence is expected.

Bottom line: I don't think Abramoff will do more than three to four years. But, with a $21 million restitution order hanging over his head, he may never be a fat cat again. Great, great lawyering by Abbe Lowell and Neal Sonnett. More on that here.

The Department of Justice has issued a press release stating that Richard Convertino, the lead prosecutor in the failed Detroit terrorism trial, who later claimed to be a whistleblower and sued Ashcroft, has been indicted.

A former federal prosecutor and a Department of State special agent were indicted by a federal grand jury today in Detroit on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false declarations in the 2003 terrorism trial United States v. Koubriti in the Eastern District of Michigan, the Department of Justice announced today.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Convertino, 45, of Canton, Mich., and Regional Security Officer Harry Raymond Smith III, 49, were named in the indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Detroit. The grand jury also charged Convertino with obstruction of justice in a second criminal case in the Eastern District of Michigan described only as United States v. John Doe.

by TChris

Democracies depend upon citizens exercising their right to vote. Arbitrary deprivations of that right undermine democracy. Judge Michael Spearman in King County, Washington, stood up for democracy by declaring unconstitutional a state law that denied ex-offenders the right to vote if they failed to pay "any and all legal financial obligations" required by their sentences.

"There is simply no rational relationship between the ability to pay and the exercise of constitutional rights," the judge, Michael S. Spearman of King County Superior Court, wrote.

Denying the right to vote to people who simply can't afford to make prompt payment of (often burdensome) fines, court costs, and restitution payments violates their right to equal protection of the law. Judge Spearman noted that Washington was unable to explain why defendants with enough wealth to make immediate payment should have the right to vote, while poorer defendants who had to rely on payment plans should be deprived of that right.

The Judge in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial has barred the defense from playing the martyr card in its closing argument:

The latest strange turn in Moussaoui's behavior could bolster the defense's claims that he would say anything to achieve martyrdom. Defense attorney Edward MacMahon told jurors in opening remarks that Moussaoui can only achieve that now if they vote to execute him. "Don't make him a hero," MacMahon pleaded.

Prosecutors got Brinkema to bar a repeat of that plea as an emotional rather than legal argument. But she agreed to allow MacMahon to argue Wednesday that evidence of a desire for martyrdom calls into question the credibility of Moussaoui's confession to being a part of Sept. 11.

I think she's wrong and that it's entirely proper for the defense to tell the jury in closing arguments that Moussaoui wants to be a martyr. Similar arguments were made in the 2001 Embassy Bombers' trial and were among the reasons the jury returned a life sentence. The lead prosecutor in the case, by the way, was Patrick Fitzgerald.