Law Prof Mark Godsey of CrimProfBlog writes about the difficulties the innocent imprisoned face when going before a parole board. Parole boards want you to 'fess up. It's a sign to them that the rehabilitation process has begun. Many won't grant parole to those who continue to deny the crime. But what if you really didn't do it? Tough.

Just as tough to take is Monday's California Supreme Court decision holding that parole boards can deny parole based solely on the seriousness of the crime. In other words, the court has decided it's okay to withhold the carrot and just give prisoners the stick. This renders the concept of rehabilitation a complete nullity. The board can deny even the model prisoner.

While that may be a good thing when we're talking about Charles Manson, it's another story for someone like Leslie Van Houten. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. California's prison system is in a horrible state of crisis and the state just took away one of the only incentives prisoners have for abiding by the rules-- a hope of early release for good behavior.

And if you don't agree with me about Van Houten, then what if it's an innocent person convicted of a horrible murder or brutal rape? The parole board now has the court's blessing to decide that nothing that inmate does while incarcerated will get him out early.

CrimProfBlog reports that the Pakistani man who videotaped U.S. skyscrapers has been sentenced to six months in jail:

Kamran Akhtar, 36, from Pakistan, was arrested in July after the police found him videotaping the FBI headquarters in Charlotte. When the police reviewed the tape in his camera, they found it full of other shots of skyscrapers and other American landmarks across the country. He has been jailed since July, but after the government was unable to prove that he had any connection to terrorists, he was charged with five immigration offenses, including false possessing identification cards. This week he was sentenced to six months impisonment on those charges, in effect time served, and will be deported shortly.

News article here.

Scottish citizen Kenneth Richey has been on Ohio's death row for 18 years. Today his death sentence was overturned by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in a decsion that blasted his incompetent defense counsel. The court said but for their incompetence, Richey might have been acquitted.

Richey, 40, who had been diagnosed with behavioral problems before coming to the United States to live with his American father, became a global cause celebre that elicited pleas for mercy from a British parliamentarian to Ohio Gov. Robert Taft.

The last four of the British detainees held at Guantanamo arrived back in Britain today. The British Government will decide what happens to them next. But, this is significant--Britain is about to reject such treatment for its own terror detainees:

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is expected to announce today that he will accept the law lords' ruling that the indefinite detention without trial of 12 terror suspects in Britain breaches human rights laws.

Meanwhile, the four released detainees are complaining of gross acts of mistreatment:

The ACLU finds even more documents referencing incidents of torture in which soldiers have not been held accountable for the abuse.

One set of documents released today by the ACLU includes multiple accounts of abuse at Al-Azimiyah Palace in Baghdad. In sworn statements, private contractors report having witnessed numerous instances of abuse of male and female detainees, including forced sodomy, electric shocks, cigarette burns and beatings. According to one statement, Al-Azimiyah Palace was the site of at least "about 90 incidents" of abuse.

These newest documents can be viewed here. Also, don't miss this Los Angeles Times article describing this incredible case:

Many bloggers are joining together over at Daily Kos to argue against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions. In this case, we, the undersigned bloggers, have decided to speak as one and collectively author a document of opposition....With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him.

Watch this film from Human Rights First on Gonzales. And via Norwegianity:

With the release of the Oscar nominations today, we thought we'd mention a few lesser publicized films:

"After Innocence" was shown at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend. The New York Times today discusses the film, noting:

...viewers leaped to their feet, many in tears, at the end of the first screening on Saturday.

Thursday night, Court TV will air the film version of the critically aclaimed play, The Exonerated, starring Susan Sarandon, Brian Dennehy, Danny Glover, Aiden Quinn and more. It is directed by Bob Balaban, who also directed the play. The movie tells the story of six exonerated inmates.

Human Rights First:

Human Rights First is formally opposing Alberto Gonzales’ confirmation and they have created a web movie that explains how Gonzales’ legal advice opened the door for the prison abuse scandals that shocked the United States and the rest of the world. Click here to view the web movie now. Once you’ve seen the movie, you can take action by urging your Senators to vote against Albert Gonzales’ nomination for U.S. Attorney General.

Also, reacquaint yourself with this article in Salon by Alan Berlow with new information on Gonzales and Bush.

The attorney general nominee claims he and then Texas Gov. Bush held "rolling" discussions before executions were approved. He's almost certainly not telling the truth.

There is an excellent article by Andrew Moravcsik in Newsweek contrasting the Bushite view of America with how others see us. The writer says the difference is nowhere more apparent than in Bush's inaugural speech, with its over-hyped use of the words freedom and liberty.

For many in the world, the president's rhetoric confirmed their worst fears of an imperial America relentlessly pursuing its narrow national interests. But the greater danger may be a delusional America—one that believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, that America remains a model for the world, one whose mission is to spread the word.

The gulf between how Americans view themselves and how the world views them was summed up in a poll last week by the BBC. Fully 71 percent of Americans see the United States as a source of good in the world. More than half view Bush's election as positive for global security. Other studies report that 70 percent have faith in their domestic institutions and nearly 80 percent believe "American ideas and customs" should spread globally.

Human Rights Watch has issued a new report on torture in Iraq today. Torture continues. Is anyone surprised?

The 94-page report, The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody, documents how unlawful arrest, long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees (including children) by Iraqi authorities have become routine and commonplace. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews in Iraq with 90 detainees, 72 of whom alleged having been tortured or ill-treated, particularly under interrogation.

The people of Iraq were promised something better than this after the government of Saddam Hussein fell,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. “The Iraqi Interim Government is not keeping its promises to honor and respect basic human rights. Sadly, the Iraqi people continue to suffer from a government that acts with impunity in its treatment of detainees.”

Here's a description of the torture techniques used:

Former Chicago police officer Steve Manning was framed by two FBI agents and ended up on death row. A jury has now awarded him $6 million in damages.

The jury also held that one of the FBI agents also framed Manning in a Missouri kidnapping case. Manning spent 14 years in prison before both convictions were overturned and the prosecutions were dropped. The damages could go even higher. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly, who presided over the six-week trial, is yet to rule on whether the United States shares responsibility with the two agents for malicious prosecutions.

"It's a long, long way from Death Row to complete vindication,'' Manning said after the verdict.

Smart move by Robert Kennedy, Jr. He's decided against running for Attorney General of New York. He now leaves the field clear for his soon-to-be former brother-in-law, Andrew Cuomo, a far better choice, as we explain here. Cuomo hasn't yet made a decision.