Before the House voted to extend the Patriot Act, Henry Hyde slipped in a little-noticed new drug provision:

Offered by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), the successful amendment would make manufacture, sale, possession with the intent to sell Schedule I and II drugs, or conspiracy to do any of the above "narco-terrorism" if it "directly or indirectly, aids, or provides support, resources or anything of value to: (a) a foreign terrorist organization; or (b) any person or group involved in the planning, preparation for, or carrying out of a terrorist offense."

A "narco-terrorism" conviction would draw a mandatory minimum 20-year prison sentence, with the possibility of a life sentence. Under the provision, "the government need not prove that the defendant knew that an organization is a designated foreign terrorist organization,'" according to the House floor summary.

Who comes under the provision? It's not entirely clear, but it could be your corner street dealer who has no ties at all to terrorism.

The Guardian reports on the negotiations underway to send many Guantanamo detainees back to their home countries for continued incarceration. The countries include Afghanistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The principal issue is whether there will be, or even can be assurances that the returned detainees won't be tortured. These countries are known for human rights violations. The Washington Post has an editorial noting this today.

The New York Times reports:

The new transfers to Afghanistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia would be explicitly for those countries to take over the detention and not release any individuals immediately.

Amnesty International has released this statement of concern.

by TChris

Doug Hanks abandoned his race for a city council seat in Charlotte after a newspaper revealed that Hanks posted more than 4,000 comments to a white supremacist website over a three week period. Hanks, who had been seeking the Republican nomination, claims he was merely posing as a racist to research a novel he's writing. Hanks found inspiration for his novel in The Turner Diaries, "a racist novel by William Pierce that begins with a truck bombing of FBI headquarters as part of a war against the government."

Hanks says he isn't a white supremacist, but was trying to target the novel to white supremacists to improve sales. That subtle distinction is undermined by Hanks' other antics:

State Court chief justices from around the country had their annual conference this week. Among the resolutions passed was one opposing the Streamlined Procedures Act, a bill that would limit death penalty appeals. The only "nay" vote came from Wallace Jefferson, the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, who said he hadn't had time to study the bill.

This bill is a bad idea. It would in effect kill habeas rights for prisoners - the chance for federal court review of a state court conviction and sentence.

Prisoners on death row generally reach federal courts using a legal petition known as habeas corpus — a centuries-old method of challenging allegedly illegal imprisonment. The petition gives an inmate a day in court to assert that his constitutional rights were violated at trial, leading to a serious error in the case.

The pending measures "may preclude state defendants in both capital and noncapital" cases from seeking relief in the federal courts "and may deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction in the vast majority of these matters, all with unknown consequences for the state courts and the administration of justice," the chief justices said in their resolution, passed at the group's annual meeting, in Charleston, S.C.

As I said here, this bill gets it a** backwards:

by TChris

Miranda v. Arizona was decided in 1966. Since that time, a whole lot of courts have decided a whole lot of cases refining the requirement that persons in custody be told of their rights to counsel and silence before they are interrogated. The resulting Miranda warning is so routine that a television junkie can recite it from memory. Suprising, then, that Homeland Security can't get it right.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow ruled that statements made by four men accused of smuggling cocaine aboard a cruise ship could not be introduced in court because the Miranda warning failed to spell out that they could have an attorney present during — not just before — interrogation by authorities.

"From a legal standpoint, the warnings on the Homeland Security form are ambiguous, at best," Snow said in her 16-page decision.

Defense attorney Ellis Rubin has a message for Homeland Security: "Somebody has to tell these people, 'Hey, wise up.'" And that's exactly what Rubin and Magistrate Snow did.

by TChris

Unbelievable:

Denver Manager of Safety Alvin LaCabe announced Friday he is suspending the officer involved in the deadly shooting of Frank Lobato for 90 days without pay. LaCabe said the use of deadly force by Officer Ranjan Ford was not reasonable.

Ford shot and killed Lobato in his bed on July 11, 2004 because he thought Lobato was wielding a gun. It turned out to be a soda can.

Update (TL): My opinion on this is at 5280.

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

The District of Columbia arrested a deaf, mute homeless man and detained him in mental institutions for two years, mistakenly believing he was mentally ill. He wasn't. The City yesterday has settled with him for $1M plus attorney's fees.

Some of you might remember the arrest and handcuffing of a twelve year old girl for eating "a single french fry" on a Metrorail platform in violation of the "zero tolerance" no-food policy. Stupid, yes; unconstitutional, no. According to Circuit Judge, Supreme Court Justice to be, John Roberts:

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the City of New York on Thursday for random suspicionless searches of backpacks, bags and briefcases in the subway as reported here.

As a Fourth Amendment buff I'll be watching closely. NYC lost cases last year over its searching protestors around the Republican National Convention.

by Last Night in Little Rock

In a post last month about the LAPD SWAT Team shooting a man holding his toddler, one that generated vitriolic comments from both sides, the autopsy results are out this week: police killed the girl, blowing her brains out according to CNN.com and the LA Times.

Both articles note that the toddler had a small amount of cocaine in her system, either ingested from touching the coke her father had on his desk or from her mother's milk.

Eleven officers fired 100 rounds at the man who first fired on them and then fired 40 rounds.

It is still hard for me to imagine that he could use a toddler as a human shield and not be killed himself. I've tried several murder cases where the ME testified that a shot to the cerebral cortex produces instant death and collapse with no pain felt by the person shot.

by TChris

It's difficult to believe that it took this long for most people to recognize the president's dishonesty.

Less than half of Americans now say they think President Bush is honest, according to an AP-Ipsos poll taken at a time of increasing concerns about Iraq, a potential problem for a president who won re-election declaring that "people know where I stand."

Weren't folks paying attention before the election?

• Happy Birthday to Jesse at Pandagon. He's jones'ing on birthdays (at 23, he talks about aging no less) so go cheer him up with a comment.

• Billmon on Judge Roberts' participation in a gay-rights case. [My take on it is over at 5280 today.]

• Jesus' General has very funny pictures today.

• Mark Kleiman says the AIPAC Indictments are bad news for Karl Rove

• Digby's on another roll, just read them all.

• Arianna's latest Judith Miller post is up - connecting dots between her and David Kelly, the British WMD expert who committed suicide.

• TBogg on AdoptionGate

Crackberries beware. If your phone is being wiretapped by the feds, or at the state level in California, Arizona and Illinois, to name a few places, your text messages are being read as well.

Chicago Police will start intercepting text messages during their investigations now that Gov. Blagojevich has signed a bill expanding state-authorized wiretaps beyond "oral communication."

Lt. John Rowton of the Chicago Police Narcotics and Gang Investigation Section said the department will dismantle computer software that blocks text messages that are retrieved during state-authorized wiretaps of phones. The feds already have the capability to intercept text messages, but Illinois law had lagged behind other states such as California and Arizona, Rowton said.

"This is a great tool," Rowton said of the new law. "We have done wiretaps where you get a text message at a crucial time and are in the dark. You don't know what you are missing."

This is just another step down the road of intruding on our private conversations in the name of fighting crime. With a wiretap, the listening agents are required to minimize (stop listening) to the call once they determine it is not pertinent to the matter they are investigating. How do they do that with a text message?