by TChris

Debra Lafave was placed on probation in Hillsborough County, Florida for having sex with a minor student. As a condition of probation, she must serve three years of home confinement. That wasn't good enough for Judge Hale Stancil, who rejected a proposed agreement to have Lafave serve essentially the same penalty in a separate prosecution in Marion County, where Lafave allegedly had sexual contact with the same boy in an SUV. The deal, Judge Stancil said, "shocks the conscience of this court."

The agreement was proposed in large part because the minor doesn't want to testify in this well-publicized case. A psychiatrist told the judge that testifying would be harmful for the child, but the judge apparently thought the need to punish Lafave more harshly outweighed any harm that might be inflicted on the child if the case proceeded to trial. Today the prosecutor in Marion County decided to dismiss the charge.

Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway, in explaining the decision to drop the charges, said: "The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not."

The Connecticut Supreme Court has denied Michael Skakel's petition to rehear its January decision affirming his conviction. His lawyer says she will take the case to the Supreme Court. Skakel, the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was 15 years old in 1975 when Martha Moxley was murdered. The crime went unsolved for more than 20 years and suspicion had always focused on his brother Tommy. After Dominick Dunne and Mark Fuhrman re-ignited interest in the case through their books, suspicion shifted to Skakel and in 2000, he was charged with murder. He was convicted at trial and sentenced to 20 years to life.

by TChris

President Bush is confident that progress is being made in Iraq, although -- as the headline of this story suggests -- "explaining where is difficult."

No kidding:

About 100 masked gunmen stormed a jail near the Iranian border at dawn Tuesday - cutting phone wires, firing rocket-propelled grenades and killing 20 security men - in an operation that freed 18 fellow insurgents who had been captured in police raids just two days earlier.

It's time for the Tuesday Open Thread....

• Update your bookmarks, Firedoglake is at new digs and they look awesome. Also, Christy (Reddhedd) weighs in on the Moussaoui stunner.

• Seth at The Talking Dog has an interview with Dr. David Nicholl, the lead doctor signing the letter decrying the force-feeding of detainnes at Guantanamo.

• Don't forget to vote in the finals for the Koufax Awards for liberal bloggers. You can only vote once in each category. We're up for Best Single Issues blog. You can leave your vote in the comments to there or or you can e-mail your vote directly to Wampum by clicking here and hitting your send button.

The town of Covington, Kentucky is bucking the national trend and has rejected a bill that would limit sex offenders from living there.

It may seem that every time a legislators proposes to restrict sex offenders, the measures passes, but it doesn't always turn out that way. A proposal to ban registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of Covington, Ky., schools and day care centers is dead after local residents overwhelmingly spoke against it last night, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. More than 300 people packed an elementary school gym for a hearing; all but a few of the 33 speakers opposed the distance restrictions.

Critics said the proposed 2,000-foot restriction would essentially drive registered sex offenders from the city's urban core into a handful of neighborhoods, including one that boasts affordable housing and is populated by young families with children. Several cited studies from other states showing that similar restrictions have led to more sex offenders failing to register. Attorney Steven Johnson-Grove said 80 to 90 percent of sex offenses are committed against children by trusted adults, not strangers.

Banishment laws are counterproductive and short-sighted. They are not the solution. TChris has an excellent take on them here.

by TChris

After suffering a reversal of accounting firm Arthur Andersen's conviction last year, the government has again been dealt an appellate defeat in a high profile white collar criminal prosecution. The Second Circuit yesterday vacated Frank Quattrone's convictions for obstructing justice and witness tampering. The court concluded that the jury instructions failed to make clear that a directive to destroy records violates the obstructing statute only if the person giving the directive knew that the records in question were being sought by the government. The instruction on witness tampering was similarly flawed.

Although the court was careful not to agree with Quattrone's contention that his trial judge was biased, the Second Circuit ordered the case reassigned, noting diplomatically that the proceedings had "taken a toll on all involved" and that some of the judge's remarks "could be viewed as rising beyond mere impatience or annoyance."

Thanks to all the TalkLeft readers who voted for us in the opening round of the Koufax Awards for liberal bloggers. We've made it to the finals in the "best single issues blog" category once again. The polls just opened and here is the list of finalists.

TalkLeft has won this award the past three years, but this year will be a lot harder, especially since they've increased the number of finalists from 8 to 10 and there's a professionally sponsored blog in our category.

If you'd like to vote for us, you can vote here by scrolling down to the end of the comments section, or you can e-mail your vote directly to Wampum by clicking here and hitting your send button.

Be sure to check out all the categories. You won't find a group of finer liberal blogs anywhere. Your support in this final round of voting is greatly appreciated.

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, the 277 page final report of the U.S. Sentencing Commission on the impact of the Supreme Court decision in Booker v. U.S. which made the guidelines advisory rather than mandatory is now available free online. (pdf) Every federal criminal defense lawyer will want a copy.

Republicans in Congress have been toying with the idea of making all sentences mandatory minimums to avoid having judges issue sentences below the guidelines. Hopefully, this report will show that's not necessary.

The majority of federal cases continue to be sentenced in conformance with the sentencing guidelines. National data show that when within-range sentences and government-sponsored, below-range sentences are combined, the rate of sentencing in conformance with the sentencing guidelines is 85.9 percent. This conformance rate remained stable throughout the year that followed Booker.

....The severity of sentences imposed has not changed substantially across time. The average sentence length after Booker has increased.

If the cart ain't broke, don't fix it.

Gregory Wallis left a Texas jail Monday after serving 18 years for an attempted rape and burglary he didn't commit.

"You should not be incarcerated - not a moment longer," District Judge John Creuzot said before granting him a personal recognizance bond while his attorneys pursue a legal process that would have him officially declared innocent and pardoned.

"I don't know how to apologize," said Judge Creuzot, who was not involved in the first trial. "I don't know where to start, but I'll start with me and 'I'm sorry.' "

The cause of the conviction: erroneous eyewitness identification.

"I don't know how she picked me," he said. "I was sitting at home, and they came and arrested me. The next thing I know, I'm standing trial."

Prison officials in California are uneasy, as they embark on a program to desegregate the states' prisons to comply with a Supreme Court decision.

California's prison population is combustible, divided roughly evenly among three groups: 38% of inmates are Hispanic, 29% are black and 27% white. Recent race-related prison violence in Southern California has focused concerns about thrusting inmates together in biracial cells. For more than a month now, clashes of black and Latino prisoners have gripped Los Angeles county jails, resulting in two deaths and more than 100 injuries.

Big Media Ezra has an excellent take on Al Gore in the new American Prospect.

The smartest thing Gore may have done is align himself with MoveOn and Howard Dean...he could reap mega-millions from the netroots if he decides to run. Hillary has the big money sewn up, but liberals don't appreciate her born-again centrism or support for war.

Gore has given no indication he wants to run. Part of me hopes he does. He's got more passion than he did six years ago. He seems more liberal. He's loosened up and expresses himself better. I think he can rally the liberal troops and that a lot of people may believe because he got robbed in 2000, it's his due.

And he'd bring his social security lockbox with him to the White House. I miss that lockbox.

FBI Agent Greg Samit turned the tables on the Government at the Moussaoui trial today during his cross-examination by Moussaoui's lawyers.

The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 testified Monday he spent almost four weeks trying to warn U.S. officials about the radical Islamic student pilot but "criminal negligence" by superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop the 9/11 attacks.

FBI agent Harry Samit of Minneapolis originally testified as a government witness, on March 9, but his daylong cross examination by defense attorney Edward MacMahon was the strongest moment so far for the court-appointed lawyers defending Moussaoui.

Samit testified he believed Moussaoui was a terrorist but no one would allow him to get a search warrant.