What do we make of the news today that Judge Alito was once a defendant in a civil suit for damages resulting from a traffic accident in which his wife was the driver and which was settled for an undisclosed sum?

When it comes to personal injury lawsuits, you can't really judge a lawsuit by its pleadings. The plaintiff will put his injuries in the most severe light while the defendant will say it wasn't his fault and the plaintiff wasn't really hurt that bad. Still, the disparity between the plaintiff's complaint and Judge Alito's explanation warrants further examination.

Bump and Update: The church bells have rung. Australia may not be willing to impose trade sanctions on Singapore, but I am. I will never visit or buy any piece of goods made in Singapore until they rescind the death penalty for drug traffickers.

Update: At 5pm ET, which is 6am Singapore time, Nguyen will have a black hood placed over his head and be walked to the gallows. At his Melbourne church in Australia, bells will toll twenty-five times, one for each year of his life. By all accounts, Nguyen is at peace and will walk confidently to his violent death.

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25 year old Nguyen Tuong Van will be hanged at dawn in Singapore for a drug offense. His lawyer says he is in "a beautiful state of mind."

by TChris

The United States, of course, isn’t the only country with a criminal justice system that leads to wrongful convictions. When the system breaks down in France, at least the government has the good grace to apologize.

A French appeals court today overturned the conviction of six people accused of participating in a pedophilia ring in northern France five years ago, unraveling one of the most mismanaged cases in French judicial history and leaving the nation asking how the court system could have gone so awry.

"I apologize to the acquitted and their families," the French justice minister, Pascal Clément, said at a press conference after the appeal verdict was announced in Paris. He ordered investigations of the police, judiciary and social services involved in the case and asked for a report by February.

The apology comes too late for a seventh innocent man, who committed suicide in prison. The chief prosecutor asked the appellate court to acquit the six remaining defendants and demanded an investigation to determine responsibility for the wrongful convictions.

The 1,000th execution in the U.S. since 1976 when the death penalty was restored will take place Friday in North Carolina. Kenneth Boyd is unlikely to receive clemency.

Only China, Iran and Vietnam held more executions in 2004 than the United States.

It would be a welcome miracle if every Governor decided they did not want their name and legacy to become a footnote in history whereby they were known more as the Governor who okayed the needle on the 1,000th prisoner in the U.S. than for their good works.

We've already had one, Gov. Mark Warner in Virginia. If we could get a second with Mike Easley, the Governor of North Carolina, and then Gov. Mark Sanford in South Carolina where another execution is planned Friday, it could become a movement. Just like in Alice's Restaurant.

Bump and Update: As I suspected, it was a disgruntled former employee who blew the whistle.

A former associate in trial attorney Geoffrey Fieger's firm said Friday that he and his wife each gave $2,000 to Democrat John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign on the promise that they would be reimbursed by the firm.....Joseph Bird, an attorney fired from Fieger's firm over the summer, told The Associated Press that about two weeks after he joined the firm in 2003, partner Ven Johnson came into his office, closed the door and told him that he was expected to give to the Edwards campaign.

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original post 12/1:

In what Michigan attorney Geoffrey Fieger says is a politically motivated act, the FBI and IRS today searched his law offices. Fieger is running for Michigan Attorney General.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service raided Fieger's Southfield office Wednesday night, seizing boxes of financial documents, Fieger said. He was not present. ''It's McCarthyism all over again,'' he said Thursday.

According to Fieger:

by TChris

Politicians fear being perceived as “soft on crime,” but those perceptions may be misplaced. While governors in recent years have too rarely exercised their power to spare inmates from execution, angry voters generally haven’t punished governors who commute a death sentence.

In the decade since 1993, 15 governors have granted clemency in capital punishment cases, mostly on humanitarian grounds. Only one of the governors failed to win re-election. In nearly every case, the approval ratings of the governors who granted clemency remained steady or climbed.

As Gov. Schwarzenegger considers the fate of Tookie Williams, he should be comforted by the realization that his plummeting popularity isn’t likely to be further impaired by granting clemency. If Schwarzenegger’s miserly approach to clemency is based on political fear, the fear is groundless.

Say Hello to 1,000 Executions and check out the photos of regular folks who oppose the death penalty. If you make one of yourself and e-mail it, they will add it to the list. If you need a saying for your sign, try these:

Not in My Name.
Choose Life, End the Death Penalty
An Eye for An Eye Leaves the Whole World Blind
Execute Justice, Not People

Update: More than 380 towns around the world joined forces Thursday to condemn the death penalty.

Rome's Colosseum, Brussels' Atomium, Madrid's Santa Ana Square, Buenos Aires' Obelisk and the Moneda Palace in Santiago were being lit up as part of the "Cities for Life" initiative, according to the organiser, the Catholic Sant' Egidio Community in Rome.

Many of the other towns and cities that have signed up to the initiative - around half of them in Italy - were hosting vigils or rallies to mark the day. "Capital punishment supports a culture of death instead of fighting it, and puts the state on the same level as those who kill," said Sant'Egidio spokesman Mario Marazziti.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and the ACLU are seeking plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging the Government's ban on student aid for those with a drug conviction.

Since taking effect in 2000, more than 175,000 students have been deprived of aid under the “drug provision” of the Higher Education Act (HEA), often for minor offenses such as possession of marijuana.

“Congress has failed to listen to the growing chorus of student voices demanding repeal of this discriminatory and counterproductive law,” said Scarlett Swerdlow, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “Far too many students have had their education held hostage by Drug War politics. It’s time to stand up and take our aid back.”

If you or someone you know has lost their financial aid because of the HEA drug provision, please get in touch with them as soon as possible. Here's a full list of the more than 250 organizations that have called for a repeal of the aid ban.

Please raise your voice and be counted.

The California Supreme Court today denied Stanley Tookie Williams latest appeal. He moves one step closer to execution.

All of the recent pleadings in his case are available here.

Jane at Firedoglake reports an "unsubstantiated rumor" from a source that desires to remain anonymous that Viveca Novak told Rove's lawyer Robert Luskin that his client was a source of Cooper's back in May, 2004 when Cooper was subpoenaed about Libby. [Background here.]

Jane's source reports that it was Luskin's conversation with Novak that jogged his memory about Rove's e-mail to Stephen Hadley.

Does it help Rove? Back to the dates again. The New York Times reported on November 4, 2005:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Key West: Time again for the annual NORML drug law seminar at the Pier House in Key West. This is the 22d.

Today is the end of the hurricane season, and there was, in Key West sytle, a ceremony for the burning of the hurricane warning flags at sunset, at the Pier House beach, and CNN even thought enough of it as a symbol of the end of a horrendous hurricane season to broadcast it live. Fitting for Key West, the mayor gave a tribute to the dead and displaced from hurricanes throughout the United States, and it was sounded on a conch shell by a man in a pirate costume.

In a suprise move, the 4th Circuit has delayed the transfer of Jose Padilla from military custody to civilian custody.

... the three-judge panel said it needs to know whether it should set aside a September opinion that upheld Padilla's military detention before returning him to civilian authorities.

The court said it wants to hear arguments on whether the opinion was to be vacated "as a consequence of the transfer." The judges pointed out that the facts alleged by the government "warranting" Padilla's military detention differed from the charges in the indictment.

Padilla's lawyers are not pleased.