by TChris

A reformed felon who has paid his debt to society, who works hard and pays taxes, should be entitled to vote. Reformed felons are not second-class citizens, and society is not well served by depriving them of a stake in their government. Felony disenfranchisement laws differ from state to state, but Virginia’s is among the worst.

Felons must wait for years after their release from prison to apply for restoration of their voting rights, and the government must decide on each petition individually, case by case. ... Even Texas and Georgia restore felons' voting rights automatically when they have completed probation and parole.

A NY Times editorial today calls on Gov. Mark Warner to “strike a blow for democracy with the stroke of a pen by restoring the right to vote to more than 240.000 felons who are now out of prison.” It’s the right thing to do.

Let the fallout begin. Alexander Strategy Group became the first lobbying firm to close up shop yesterday, due to ties to Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.

Alexander Strategy Group, which had thrived since its founding in 1998 thanks largely to its close connections to DeLay (R-Tex.), will cease to operate except for a relatively small business-development division, Edwin A. Buckham, the former top DeLay aide who owns the company, said yesterday.

Buckham said in a telephone interview that the company was fatally damaged by publicity about the ongoing federal investigation into the affairs of Abramoff, who pleaded guilty last week to fraud and conspiracy charges.

As Michael Isikoff reported Sunday in Newsweek, Buckman is now under investigation .

The Supreme Court has never upheld such a sweeping power to invade the privacy of Americans at home without individualized suspicion or judicial oversight.

Law Prof Geoffrey Stone at Huffington Post writes that 14 constitutional scholars and former government officials have written a letter to Congress detailing the reasons that Bush's warrantless electronic surveillance program violates the law.

Although the program's secrecy prevents us from being privy to all of its details, the Justice Department's defense of what it concedes was secret and warrantless electronic surveillance of persons within the United States fails to identify any plausible legal authority for such surveillance. Accordingly the program appears on its face to violate existing law.

Last Night in Little Rock is off to Africa in the morning for a month, where he will be continuing his representation of defendant Sam Hinga Norman, charged with war crimes in the Special Court for Sierre Leone.

Three alleged leaders of the former Civil Defence Forces were indicted separately on 8 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Sam Hinga Norman was indicted on 7 March 2003. Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa were indicted on 26 June 2003. On 28 February 2003 the Trial Chamber ordered the joint trial of Norman, Fofana and Kondewa, and on 5 March prosecutors issued a consolidated indictment.

The CDF trial began on 3 June 2004. On 14 July 2005, the Prosecution concluded its case. On 20 September, Trial Chamber II heard oral arguments on Defence Motions for Acquittal.

Since LNILR updates his 4th Amendment blog daily, even from Africa, he likely won't have time to post on TalkLeft until his return. We wish him a productive journey, and look forward to his return.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the gun-nutty 55 year mandatory sentence of 27 year old Weldon Angelos, who had no prior felony convictions.

Angelos was in possession of a gun, that he neither brandished, used nor displayed, when he conducted three marijuana sales. The total amount of pot involved was 24 ounces.

"Four former U.S. attorneys general and nearly 160 other ex-Justice Department officials and federal judges" filed an amicus brief on his behalf, arguing the sentence was so excessive as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In upholding the sentence,

.... the appeals court judges said they agreed with prosecutors who said the sentence was appropriate for Angelos' convictions and for other behavior involving drugs, guns and gang activity that prosecutors had evidence of, but did not charge him with.

by Last Night in Little Rock

From the list-servs: The New Jersey General Assembly adopted a moratorium on executions this afternoon by a vote of 55 to 21 with 2 abstensions. The NY Times noted Friday that this was the likely outcome, as did TChris here.

Update: (TL): Here's an AP article on the passage

by Last Night in Little Rock

... does it make a sound?

When 3,000 miners in China die in their coal mines, does it make a sound?

Not in the U.S., hardly ever. Yet our economy helps drive their need for electricity to produce. But, a coal miner's life is cheap in China, or so some Chinese think.

by TChris

Tom DeLay had hoped that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would agree that he should be tried on a pending money laundering charge immediately. A prompt acquittal might have given him a chance to resume a meaningful (i.e., disastrous) role in Congress despite his decision to relinquish his leadership position. DeLay’s slim hopes were dashed today, however, as the Court of Criminal Appeals refused to give him his requested relief.

We all better learn to think twice before clicking our mouses. A new law signed by President Bush last week makes sending annoying anonymous e-mails or posting annoying messages on websites a federal crime.

Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.....Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

For people who comment on use-net groups and blogs, this could be a problem. Here's the actual text:

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

by TChris

TalkLeft discussed here the folly of the government’s prosecution of convenience store clerks — mostly Indian immigrants, many of whom spoke limited English — for selling cold pills (pseudoephedrine) and antifreeze to police informants. The informants supposedly indicated that they intended to use the products to manufacture methamphetamine, but it’s unclear whether the clerks understood what the informants were saying.

As the prosecution has progressed, more people are questioning the wisdom of prosecuting merchants for selling legal products, and of singling out convenience store owners of Indian descent.

Calling federal drug charges against dozens of South Asian convenience store owners racially biased, several hundred people rallied Sunday in Decatur for an end to prosecution in what federal agents have dubbed "Operation Meth Merchant.

Bump and Update: Here is the Der Spiegel interview with Chancellor Merkel in which she discusses her view of U.S. interrogation tactics applied to terror detainees.

SPIEGEL: The US government feels it is legitimate to hold prisoners under water until they believe they are drowning. Is this acceptable to you?

Merkel: There was a similar debate in Germany over the 2002
kidnapping of Jakob von Metzler, the banker's son. The issue then was whether it is legitimate to threaten or use torture to save the life of a child. The public debate showed that the overwhelming majority of citizens believed that even in such a case, the end does not justify the means. That is also my position.

SPIEGEL: Do you agree with Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble's view that in the fight against terrorism, it is necessary to use information that may have been obtained through torture?

Merkel: Not in a criminal proceeding. Information obtained under dubious circumstances cannot play a role in legal proceedings in a constitutional state. But everything that's available must be taken into account in threat prevention. What do you do when other countries' intelligence agencies give you information and you aren't entirely certain about its source? Simply ignore it? That's impossible. We have a duty to guarantee the safety of our citizens.

The Alito hearings are not the only hearings of note this week. Military tribunal hearings begin at Guantanamo. Ari Cover, a senior associate at Human Rights First is blogging live from Guantanamo.

The first hearings Wednesday will be pre-trial hearings of 19-year-old Canadian citizen Omar Khadr and 37-year-old Yemeni citizen Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul. Ari writes:

As pre-trial hearings resume Wednesday amidst all of this uncertainty, I’ll do my best to pass along what I learn from commission proceedings (the limit of my narrow invitation to GTMO). At the same time, I’ll try to explore many of the concerns mentioned above – the health of detainees; their possible transfer; and potential changes in military commission rules.

He does a great job today, covering everything from the hunger strike to the fact that this week marks the 4th anniversary of Gitmo detentions.