by TChris

The Senate Judiciary Committee, as expected, voted to send the nomination of Judge John Roberts for Chief Justice to the full Senate with a recommendation for confirmation. His confirmation vote will be held next week.

All Committee Republicans voted in Roberts' favor. Also voting for Roberts were Senators Leahy, Kohl, and (surprisingly) Feingold. Keep in mind, however, that Feingold voted to confirm John Ashcroft as Attorney General on the theory that the president's nominations are entitled to deference.

Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, said he had been persuaded because of the nominee's "sterling reputation as a lawyer and a judge" and was therefore voting with "my hopes, not my fears." Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Democrat also from Wisconsin, said he was voting yes because he considered the nominee "a lawyer's lawyer," not an ideologue.

Let's hope he's right. The Democrats voting against Roberts were Senators Feinstein, Kennedy, Biden, Schumer, and Durbin.

by TChris

It shouldn't take another study to tell us what has been obvious for years: black on white crime is more likely to be punished by death than is white on black crime. Another study nonetheless concludes that the race of the victim is a significant factor in the imposition of the death penalty.

The murder of a white person, especially in nonurban counties, is far more likely to result in a California death sentence than urban crimes against minorities, according to a new study. Death penalty opponents say this new evidence that race and geography dictate how the state metes out capital punishment proves the system is skewed and must be halted at least until it is fixed.

The study will be presented to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which was formed last year "to study causes and prevalence of wrongful convictions and wrongful executions in California, and to find ways to improve the system's fairness and accuracy."

by TChris

When Martha Stewart sold some stock before its price fell, suspicions of insider trading led to an investigation that led to a criminal conviction (although not of insider trading). What will happen to Bill Frist, who sold his stock in HCA, the hospital company that his family founded, just before its shares began to plummet in value?

Sen. Frist says he sold the stock to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest as the Senate considers health care legislation. Funny that he never troubled to disinvest himself of that conflict before. Could Frist have dumped the stock because he had inside knowledge of an upcoming announcement of poor second-quarter earnings that would cause its value to decline? Will federal investigators come knocking on his door, as they did with Martha?

by TChris

David Glazier explains why new rules for the military commissions that try suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo -- rules that are supposed to assure the fairness and accuracy of the commissions' decision-making process -- fail to achieve their goal. One of the glaring problems: trial procedures that permit a defendant to be convicted on the basis of "secret evidence" that the defendant is never entitled to see. Is someone in the Bush administration a fan of Kafka?

Glazier's recommendation:

by TChris

William Mullins-Johnson of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, spent 12 years in prison for raping and strangling his 4 year old niece. No forensic evidence connected him to the crime. His conviction rested on the testimony of a pathologist, Dr. Charles Smith, whose testimony in 40 cases of "suspicious" child deaths is now under review.

Two experts, including Ontario's chief pathologist, now say [the niece] was never sexually abused or strangled. They argue she in fact died of natural causes, possibly from choking on her own vomit caused by a chronic stomach ailment.

by TChris

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell has started producing its always-helpful previews of cases that will be soon be argued before the Supreme Court. This is the preview of a case scheduled for argument on October 5 that raises fascinating questions (once again) about the federal government's power to trump state law.

Oregon's Death With Dignity Act permits a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of a drug to a patient who is both terminally ill and competent to make a rational decision to commit suicide. In 1997, the DEA, relying on a federal law that requires doctors to prescribe medications only for a legitimate medical purpose, decided that it had the authority to arrest physicians who dispense drugs to assist suicide (a purpose DEA deems illegitimate).

Janet Reno declined to prosecute Oregon doctors who acted in accordance with state law, but John Ashcroft quickly changed course when he became Attorney General. He issued the Ashcroft Directive, concluding that "assisting suicide is not a legitimate medical purpose."

Breaking news...a Jet Blue flight en route from Burbank to JFK with 144 people on board has a landing gear failure and will try and touch down shortly at LAX with its landing wheels sideways.

Think good thoughts...

Update: the cable news stations are carrying the landing live. There are over 100 emergency personnel on the ground. It's trying to dump more fuel so it can make the emergency landing - maybe in five to ten minutes.

Update: It's coming in for a landing. Front wheels are smoking, it landed fine, no fire, it's fine. Good work by the crew - wow. That was unbelievable. Everyone's safe.

The Houston Chronicle wants local hurricane bloggers:

Do you have a blog, live in the Houston-Galveston area and plan to ride the storm out? If so, we'd like your help with an experiment in citizen journalism. We're launching a blog this afternoon called Stormwatchers. We'd like volunteers in key parts of the area with experience blogging to tell us what they're seeing as the Hurricane Rita comes closer, makes landfall and moves on.

We're particularly interested in bloggers who live in the I-45 South corridor; in the Freeport/Angleton area; and the southwest area, including Katy.

More details at the link above. [Via Romanesko.]

Dateline Beijing:

A rubber company in China has begun marketing condoms under the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky, apparently seeking to exploit the White House affair that led to the impeachment of America's 42nd president. Spokesman Liu Wenhua of the Guangzhou Rubber Group said the company was handing out 100,000 free Clinton and Lewinsky condoms as part of a promotion to raise consumer awareness of its new products.

I blogged from Shanghai about the AIDS crisis in China a few years ago. As far as I'm concerned, whatever works, including these new condoms, is fine.

by TChris

The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to learn about "a secret Pentagon unit that some claim identified several of the 9/11 hijackers more than a year before the attacks." (TalkLeft background here.) But Sen. Specter accuses the Pentagon of obstructing the committee's work by ordering "five key witnesses" not to testify.

Remember when the administration kept referring to Democrats as "obstructionists" for daring to oppose the president's initiatives? The true obstructionists are in the administration.

by TChris

Tony Blair's decision to use force to free two British soldiers who were arrested in Iraq hasn't endeared him to the Iraqi police.

Hundreds of Iraqi civilians and policemen, some waving pistols and AK-47s, rallied Wednesday in the southern city of Basra to denounce "British aggression" in the rescue of two British soldiers.

The Basra governor threatened to end all cooperation with British forces unless Prime Minister Tony Blair's government apologizes for the deadly clash with Iraqi police. Britain defended the raid.

by TChris

At a hearing before the presentation of evidence begins in PFC Lynndie England's trial, Judge Col. James Pohl cast doubt on the primary defense advanced by her lawyers: that England's mental incapacity made her "overly compliant toward authority figures and [that she] could not always make reasoned judgments for herself."

"You are painting a picture of a woman who cannot think for herself in almost all circumstances," Pohl told lead defense lawyer Capt. Jonathan Crisp.

The judge also reversed an earlier ruling, and will now permit prosecutors to use a statement England gave to investigators implicating herself in prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.