Is Texas about to execute an innocent man? Pablo Melendez, Jr. is scheduled for execution March 14. Even the victim's mother thinks he is innocent.

Melendez’s case is alarming because he has a strong innocence claim. His case is surrounded by evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, conflicting witnesses, and undeniable facts which point to his innocence. Perhaps most compelling, is the fact that Gracie Jett, mother of victim Michael Sanders, is convinced that Melendez did not murder her son.

Here's why

• There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime.
• One victim of the crime described his attacker to police. A composite sketch was drawn of this suspect - a sketch which does not resemble Melendez at all.
• He was convicted largely on the testimony of gang members and jail house informants.

Click on the link above to add your voice of opposition to the execution.

A report scheduled for release Friday blasts President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" and argues it is unconstitutional. In a 77 page report by the National Conference on State Legislatures,

....a bipartisan panel of lawmakers drawn from many states yesterday pronounced it a flawed, convoluted and unconstitutional education reform initiative that had usurped state and local control of public schools.

Among the findings:

by TChris

The President's past drug use (like the past drug use of everyone else lucky enough to avoid arrest) is no big deal, although his hypocrisy on the subject is hard to stomach. Of greater interest -- at least to the Washington Post -- is the decision by most of the domestic mainstream media to downplay the story while the foreign press finds it noteworthy.

The divergent coverage of Bush's apparent drug use is a textbook study in the difference between the international online media and their American counterparts. On the issue of youthful illicit drug use, most U.S. news editors -- liberal, conservative or other -- defer to Bush in a way that their foreign counterparts do not.

Also interesting is the disparate domestic coverage of President Clinton (who never inhaled) versus President Bush (who never admits he inhaled). Can the difference be attributed to the success that conservatives have had in their efforts to perpetuate the myth of a "liberal media bias," and the media's fear that full coverage of the story would prompt more right-wing attacks?

If the big-name newspapers had played up the drug angle it's reasonable to assume that Republicans and conservatives on talk radio would renew such accusations. They might say liberal editors were dredging up an old story from a disloyal friend to thwart the agenda of a popular conservative president. Foreign editors (and local TV) have no such worries. They have a simpler view: George Bush using illegal drugs is worth a headline.

Hunter Thompson's son and daughter-in-law are interviewed in today's Rocky Mountain News. It's long, so here's a recap:

Hunter S. Thompson died Sunday as he planned: surrounded by his family, at a high point in his life, and with a single, courageous and fatal gunshot wound to the head, his son says. His son and daughter-in-law could not be sadder. And they could not be prouder. ...The couple chose to speak out for the first time since Thompson's suicide because they believe the act has been misunderstood. "Some people said, 'How could he do this?'

by TChris

Believing it should be a government unto itself, unhindered by checks and balances, Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon "is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said."

The plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president's top representative in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations. The Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country, if any.

The Pentagon hopes to avoid "time-consuming debates" about the advisability of transgressing the borders of a sovereign nation. To its dismay, the pesty State Department has been standing in the way of the Pentagon doing anything it pleases.

Welcome to TalkLeft, the on-line source magazine for liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news.

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by TChris

Talon "News," the right-wing media outlet that employed James Guckert, a/k/a "Jeff Gannon," pulled the plug on its website in the wake of Gannongate.

The Web site, closely linked to Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle and his GOPUSA.com, posted a message on its home page today announcing that Talon was going offline for, as it said, a "top-to-bottom" review.

Readers interested in the Talon perspective will have to content themselves with White House press releases.

Beleagured Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill suffers another indignation at the hands of MSM (mainstream media for those of you just joining the conversation.) The Honolulu Star Bulletin yesterday quoted Churchill as saying he was not a Native American. Confronted with the audio and video of his speech, the paper has retracted its claim.

"In fact, he said the exact opposite," [Professor]Stannard said. "It's all over the place now (on the Internet). How do you put it back in a bottle? This gives strength to his argument that he is being misrepresented by the media."

.... Star-Bulletin reporter Craig Gima said he was standing at the back of the room and may have misheard Churchill....after a day-long search for a tape, and an evening spent listening, Star-Bulletin city editor Ed Lynch said the paper would be publishing a correction today. "He said, 'Lets cut to the chase on that,"' Lynch said. "We're going to have to publish a retraction."

Here's what Churchill actually said, according to today's Star Bulletin:

by TChris

When the government's only witness in a criminal prosecution is a dead terrorist, the government might want to rethink its decision to prosecute. But the absence of reliable evidence that a crime was committed doesn't stop the Justice Department, which is asking a judge to detain Ahmed Omar Abu Ali without bail despite its apparent inability to prove its case.

Abu Ali was arrested in Saudi Arabia, where he had gone to study. His detention without charges in Saudi Arabia eventually provoked a lawsuit by his family against the United States on the ground that the U.S. engineered his arrest and continuing detention and acquiesced in his torture. The lawsuit evidently persuaded the government to bring Abu Ali to the United States so it could pursue terrorism charges against him. An indictment was unsealed this week in Virginia.

The government claims that Abu Ali discussed the assassination of President Bush while in Saudi Arabia, but the only witness to that alleged discussion was killed by Saudi authorities 17 months ago. The absence of evidence didn't stop the government from seeking to continue Abu Ali's detention without bail after his return to the United States. Even if it prevails in that request, the prosecution may ultimately be doomed.

[Federal] officials said they worried that the prosecution, by relying on information from overseas intelligence sources, could become bogged down in legal difficulties like those that have stalled the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, and could also become overshadowed by allegations from Mr. Abu Ali's family that he was tortured in Saudi custody with the knowledge of American officials. A federal terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department said the defense is almost certain to raise accusations that the testimony of foreign detainees was tainted by alleged torture. The prosecutor added, "I think it's going to make it very difficult for the government to make its case."

Probation and Supervised Release are no walk in the park. Ask Tommy Chong:

The Marijuana-Logues" show starring Tommy Chong has gone up in smoke. Chong, best known as half of the comedy team, Cheech & Chong, was set to perform the show at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on March 5. But Chong said Tuesday he has canceled his part of the show.

"I had to pull out," Chong told The Macomb Daily. "I have to wait until July 6 to continue." Chong said as part of probation he is serving on an undisclosed matter, he is not allowed to be near people who smoke marijuana. He said attendees have frequently begun smoking pot during the show.

Thanks to TalkLeft readers for coming through once again. Wampum, the incredibly generous hosters of the Third Annual Liberal Blogging Awards, announced tonight that TalkLeft has won in the Best Single Issues blog category, making us the only "threepeat" winner.

This year is different though because there are two winners in our category ...TalkLeft and Grits for Breakfast, an excellent blog that specializes in Texas Criminal Justice Issues. Wampum reports:

Only one blog, Jeralyn Merritt’s Talk Left, has ever won a Koufax for Best Single Issue Blog. Jeralyn won in both 2002 and 2003. With the Daily Kos edging out Atrios for Best Blog this year, only Jeralyn has a chance for a threepeat.

Grits for Breakfast’s focus is on the Texas Criminal Justice system. ...GFB received a large number of votes in this category. If you go to the appropriate comment thread and count the votes, you will see that GFB has the most votes. A number of those votes per posted after I closed the voting for the awards. At the time I closed the voting, Talk Left, by virtue of a large number of email votes, held the lead by a very small margin. The votes for GFB coming in after the close of voting would erase that margin and swing the award, also by a very narrow margin.

Update: ABC News provides this in-depth look at the jurors.

*************
Jury selection has been completed in the Michael Jackson trial. It resumed yesterday after a two week hiatus.

The panel included four men and eight women, ranging in age from 20 to 79. The racial and ethnic breakdown appeared to be: seven whites, four Hispanics and one Asian.

They are now in the process of selecting eight alternates for what is expected to be a six month trial. The jurors are between 20 and 79 years old.

Among the jurors were a woman who said her grandson was required to register as a sexual offender because of a crime; a woman who said she was related to the pilot of Flight 93, one of the planes that went down on Sept. 11; a 20-year-old man who likes "The Simpsons" TV show; and a man who is interested in Western art and country music.

One of the jurors had been asked during selection if he recognized celebrity witnesses in the case including self-help guru Deepak Chopra. He responded, "I think he's a rapper."

Michaels' defense will allege the mother of the accuser told him (and persumably his brother) to lie.