This was left in the comments today to our latest post on the juvenile death penalty:

how wonderful it was to see my son today. we laughed and talked for a couple of hours. we enjoyed a drink and some junk-food out of the vending machines. we took a couple of photos with a instant camera, photos that i will cherish for ever. we gazed into each others eyes and enjoyed each others company. the time passed so fast, as if it were only minutes.

time's up said the guard, so i gathered my trash and photos. we say our good bye's and i love you's. i walk away, leaving the youngest boy on texas death row waiting for the guards to take him back to his cell.

this is what we do, once a week, until the state of texas kills him or until our standards of decency evolve.

by TChris

During the 25 years he's worked for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Kevin Harrington has worn a turban. The Sikh subway driver is now being told he'll be demoted to a job in the yards if he defies a directive to wear an MTA badge on his turban.

"I feel wearing the patch violates my religious freedom," Harrington, 53, told The New York Daily News. "The turban is a sacred space, so it's like asking a priest to wear a logo on his vestments."

Harrington's lawyer, Amardeep Singh, said his client had always worn the turban in his 25 years on the job, but it was only after "9/11 that the agency tried to get its Sikh and Muslim employees to stop wearing their turbans and hijabs."

Employees who don't wear turbans presumably affix their badges to other articles of clothing. It's difficult to imagine a nondiscriminatory rationale for denying Harrington the same opportunity. A Justice Department lawsuit, filed in September, should put an end to MTA's infringement of Harrington's right to practice his religion. Until then, Harrington is complying (albeit grudgingly) with MTA's demands.

"It just feels stupid," he said. "I feel like a church has been desecrated."

For reactions on the Andrea Yates decision, see:

• Drop Capital Murder Charges Against Yates.

• Set the Bar Higher: False Witness Rightly Cancels Yates Conviction

• Yates Release, Change in Law Unlikely

• Yates Wins, Shrink Was Delusional

by TChris

The Broward County Sheriff's Office Professional Review Board recommended the suspension of detectives who falsified reports "to make it appear they were solving more crimes than they really were." The suspension were never implemented. Instead, the detectives were transferred to road patrol.

The Broward State Attorney's Office also is conducting an investigation into whether other BSO deputies falsified confessions on official documents.

Meanwhile, Sgt. Raleigh Barnett, the only police detective in Dayton, Kentucky, "resigned after being charged with failing to investigate an allegation of sexual abuse against a child." Barnett failed to investigate the allegations when conducting a background check on a police officer who applied for a position in the Dayton police department. Allen Peace was hired for that position, then fired after officials learned of his arrest for the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl.

Less serious allegations contributed to the firing of police sergeant Glenn Pearson in Whitman, Massachusetts: he showed poor judgment by "bringing a stripper to a class he taught at Massasoit Community College."

It was alleged the stripper performed lap dances in the class and students were allowed to touch her, claims that Pearson has repeatedly denied.

by TChris

Former District Attorney Joseph Paulus is in prison after swapping cash for dismissals of drunk driving charges (TalkLeft background here and here). But officials have been less willing to investigate the prosecutor's other -- and more serious -- misdeeds.

Bill Lennon, elected to replace Paulus, doesn't understand why the Wisconsin Department of Justice has been slow to investigate reports that Paulus' ethical lapses may have resulted in convictions of innocent defendants. Among other matters, Lennon wants to investigate:

allegations of recently missing evidence from the Oshkosh Police Department in the 1990 Mark Price murder conviction; and allegations that a transcript in the 1999 John Maloney murder case prosecuted by Paulus was altered to exclude "exculpatory statements" by the defendant. ... [T]he probe will look at allegations against Paulus, including "getting people convicted who may not have been guilty of crimes, taking bribes, manufacturing evidence, hiding evidence."

Lennon deserves credit for pursuing these matters, but why isn't the state's Department of Justice taking the lead?

"I understood that the attorney general's office was going to keep us informed and allow us to be minimally involved, and to date that just hasn't happened," the Republican district attorney said. "I don't know what the state of the attorney general's investigation is. They haven't shared anything with us. They haven't kept us up to date -- they have basically put a block on everything."

Perhaps the state's attorney general should spend less time grandstanding and more time trying to recitify the damage caused by this corrupt public official.

by TChris

Defendants who face the death penalty often have an incentive to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment. Even the innocent might want to make that deal rather than risking death.

Deborah Green made that deal, but it turns out that she may not have benefitted from it. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state's death penalty statute is unconstitutional. Since she could not have been put to death even if convicted in a trial, should she be entitled to withdraw her plea so she can have her day in court?

[A]ttorneys for the former Prairie Village doctor say she should be allowed to withdraw those pleas. "As a result of this decision, Ms. Green received no benefit from her bargain with the state, and allowing her plea to stand in light of this decision would result in a manifest injustice and violation of due process of law," attorneys Angela Keck and Jessica Travis asserted in a motion filed this week in Johnson County District Court.

Green is accused of setting a fire that destroyed her home and caused the death of her two children. She's also "challenging the validity of her pleas based on new scientific methods of arson investigation."

Update: The jury of ten has been seated. All men, four officers and six enlisted men.

Charles Graner is scheduled for trial today in Fort Hood, Texas on abuse charges stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. He is considered a ringleader. He is also the father of Lynndie England's baby. In civilian life, he was a Pennsylvania prison guard who has been accused of beating an inmate and a husband accused of spousal abuse.

The prison guard from Uniontown, Pa., is accused of jumping on detainees, stomping on their hands and feet, and punching one man in the temple hard enough to knock him out. In one of the photos that blew the scandal wide open, Graner is shown giving a thumbs-up behind a pile of naked Iraqi inmates. Another photo shows him cocking his fist as if to punch a hooded detainee.

The Office of Government Accountability is an investigatory arm of Congress. Thursday it released its finding that Bush's anti-drug videos broke the law:

The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Thursday that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people.

The accountability office said the videos "constitute covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, which were distributed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They were broadcast by nearly 300 television stations and reached 22 million households, the office said.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzegger announced in his State of the State address Wednesday he would reverse 100 years of policy and shift the focus of the state's penal system from punishment to rehabilitation:

Reversing a century-long tradition of allowing California's prisons to operate as fiefdoms, Schwarzenegger administration officials Thursday unveiled a new model that places one man in charge and aims to reduce crime by better preparing inmates for release. Under the plan, prison leaders for the first time in decades emphasize rehabilitation, marking a shift away from an era when punishment was the overriding mission.

Over the past year, California's prisons have been rocked by federal investigations, budget overruns, a videotaped beating of juvenile inmates, audits exposing waste and mismanagement and a federal judge's threat to place the adult lock-ups into receivership. Since his election, the Republican governor has expressed a strong desire to clean up the mess, visiting prisons and declaring that "the purpose of corrections should be to correct."

Gov. Arnold is ready to put his plan into action.

Jeff Jarvis is worried that the impending Michael Jackson trial will knock the Tsunami coverage off the front page. He's dreading the cable tv coverage and predicts blog coverage won't be that heavy. [link via Instapundit.]

Blog coverage of high profile criminal trials has never been that heavy. I think there was more for Kobe Bryant than for Scott Peterson, but still, I don't think the blog reading audience is the same as the cable tv viewing audience.

Michael Jackson trial coverage will start out wall-to-wall on cable news, but whether it stays that way will depend on ratings.

Jarvis is correct that if the Jackson case takes off, it could knock things like the Tsunami crisis off the front page. Did anyone notice this morning that the news of the reversal of Andrea Yates' conviction was the lead story above the articles on the confirmation hearing of Alberto Gonzales?

We warned it was coming, and so it begins - the back door draft:

Army leaders are considering seeking a change in Pentagon policy that would allow for longer and more frequent call-ups of some reservists to meet the demands of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Army official said yesterday.

Reservists are being used heavily to fill key military support jobs, particularly in specialty areas, but Army authorities are having increasing difficulty limiting the active-duty time of some normally part-time soldiers to a set maximum of two years, the official said. He described the National Guard's 15 main combat units as close to being "tapped out."

A federal judge in California has thrown out the criminal charges against Republican activist and fundraiser Katrina Leung, accused of being a double agent for the U.S. and China.

District Judge Florence Marie Cooper dismissed the case for prosecutorial misconduct, finding that the government had purposely made sure that Katrina Leung, a socialite with extensive China contacts, would not have access to her former lover, James J. Smith, for information regarding her case.

Smith, Leung's FBI "handler" for many years, has pleaded guilty to a single count of making a false statement about the affair and agreed to cooperate with the government. He had been accused of mishandling classified material and allowing it to fall into Leung's hands.

Leung, of the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino, allegedly took the documents from his briefcase. She was not accused of transmitting them to China.

The Judge found the Government engaged in a "pattern of stonewalling entirely unbecoming to a prosecuting agency." Congratulations to Janet Levine and John Vandevelde, who did an outstanding job representing Ms. Leung.

Background on the case is here and here.