Cellmark is the world's largest private DNA testing firm. It has analzyed data in some of the country's most high profile cases, including the murder investigation of JonBenet Ramsey and the OJ Simpson case, as well as more routine crime cases. This week, Cellmark fired one of its analysts, Sarah Blair, charging that she electronically manipulated data during DNA analysis in 20 cases. Blair denies the allegations.

The ex-Orchid Cellmark employee electronically manipulated the analysis in 20 tests, the company says. Though she did not alter the outcome of the tests, she overrode procedures designed to ensure the accuracy of the tests by substituting data in the known specimen, or control samples, according to Cellmark.

This is shocking to the forensic community which has always believed that raw data cannot electronically be manipulated.

"I have not heard of anything like this before," said Lawrence Kobilinsky, an associate provost at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Here's what Blair is alleged to have done wrong:

Check out Martin Van Creveld's article on Moshe Dayan in Vietnam and the parallels to Iraq today:

In other words, he who fights against the weak – and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed – and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel; to let that opponent kill you is unnecessary and therefore foolish. As Vietnam and countless other cases prove, no armed force however rich, however powerful, however, advanced, and however well motivated is immune to this dilemma. The end result is always disintegration and defeat; if U.S troops in Iraq have not yet started fragging their officers, the suicide rate among them is already exceptionally high. That is why the present adventure will almost certainly end as the previous one did. Namely, with the last US troops fleeing the country while hanging on to their helicopters’ skids."

[hat tip to Fred.]

Ever wonder what's in it for the ultra-rich who raise oodles of cash for presidential campaigns? In President Bush's case, 1/3 of his top fundraisers, meaning those that raised over $100,000 have been appointed to prestigious positions.

One-third of President Bush's top 2000 fund-raisers or their spouses were appointed to positions in his first administration, from ambassadorships in Europe to seats on policy-setting boards, an Associated Press review found.

The perks for 246 "pioneers" who raised at least $100,000 also included overnight stays at the White House and Camp David, parties at the White House and Bush's Texas ranch, state dinners with world leaders and overseas travel with U.S. delegations to the Olympics and other events, the review found.

Here's some numbers:

Sen. Arlen Specter today won the support of Republicans to chair the Judiciary committee. It's a done deal.

Specter promised to do his best to stop Democrats from blocking more of Bush's nominees. In the last four years, Democrats have been successful in halting 10 judicial nominees through threats of a filibuster, while allowing more than 200 to be confirmed.

"I have already registered my opposition to the filibuster and will use my best efforts to stop any future filibusters," Specter said. "It is my hope and expectation that we can avoid" future gridlock with next year's 55-45 Republican Senate majority.

Bottom line: A chastened Specter is better than the alternatives, which likely would have been Hatch (by extending his term) or going with the next in line, Jon Kyl.

8th Circuit Senior Judge Donald Lay has an op-ed in the New York Times today, Rehab Justice. He argues for federal drug courts, like those in the state system. We need more Judges--and most importantly, Congress--to adapt Judge Lay's reasoning:

Unlike the states, the federal criminal justice system offers no alternatives for nonviolent offenders charged with drug-related crimes. In the federal system, it is almost a certainty that a convicted drug offender will be incarcerated rather than going through a community-based treatment program. It is little wonder then that the federal prison system will continue to be overburdened. Given the success of drug courts in the states, the federal government should study how to modify its sentencing to incorporate elements of the drug court model and to assess the effectiveness of community-based alternatives to imprisonment for nonviolent federal drug felons.

Update: The New York Times profiles Harriet Miers .

***********
President Bush yesterday named his long time advisor and former personal lawyer Harriet Miers as White House Counsel. She will replace Alberto Gonzales.

I served with Ms. Miers on the Martindale Hubbell-Lexis Nexis Legal Advisory Board for a few years. She resigned in 2000. I didn't get to know her well, but I liked her. We only talked law, not politics, but I'm betting she will be very different from, and a big improvement over, Alberto Gonzales.

Congratulations, Harriet.

The torture debate is not limited to the U.S. It's the subject of an ongoing debate in Germany, where a policeman was accused of torturing a suspect in a child kidnapping case. The issue seems to be whether torture might be appropriate in exceptional circumstances. According to the BBC,

...it has also set alarm bells ringing, evoking historical memories of Hitler's Gestapo.

The policeman denied using torture. But he says "direct pressure" is allowed.

He said he ordered "direct pressure" to be used on Gaefgen, which he insisted was permitted under state law. "It is absurd to equate direct pressure with torture," he said.

What exactly is "direct pressure"? Sounds like a euphemism for torture to us.

The Washington Post has a really good article on phishing scams -- make sure you don't fall for one. [link via Orin at Volokh]

If you get an e-mail supposedly from paypal, you can tell immediately it's a phony if it is not addressed to you using your full name. Send it to spoof@paypal.com. They keep lists of them, and hopefully, have people trying to do something about it.

Is this a move to pressure Ken Lay into making a deal?

Federal prosecutors are investigating a stock sale by the wife of former Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth L. Lay just days before the Houston energy trader filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2001, according to lawyers involved in the probe.

At the center of the new inquiry is Linda P. Lay's sale of 500,000 Enron shares on behalf of the couple's family foundation on Nov. 28, 2001. The sales netted $1.2 million, which was used to cover pledges the foundation had made to local charities, said Michael Ramsey, the family's lawyer. He said prosecutors are examining whether Linda Lay traded on inside information -- namely, that Enron's merger with rival Dynegy Inc. was collapsing and that the company was about to declare bankruptcy and make its stock nearly worthless.

A civil rights sage set in 1920 won out over the 9/11 Report to get the non-fiction National Book Award Wednesday night.

"Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age," an account of the struggles of an African American in Detroit in the 1920s, took the trophy, disappointing the many who had contributed to and orchestrated the publishing industry's surprise bestseller of the year, the 9/11 Commission Report.

"Arc of Justice" author Kevin Boyle seemed awed by the triumph of his book, about the efforts of a man named Ossian Sweet to integrate a white neighborhood. He expounded on the unfinished work of integrating American cities. "Eighty years on, the system of segregation that Dr. Ossian Sweet confronted is still in place," Boyle said, "including in this extraordinary city that we're in at the moment."

The U.S. Sentencing Commission held a hearing in Washington today at which it solicited proposals from Justice Department officials, law professors and judges about how to remedy the Sentencing Guidelines if, as expected, the Supreme Court invalidates at least a portion of them in the aftermath of its Blakely ruling.

Leave it to the Justice Department to come up with a scheme to lengthen, rather than shorten sentences. It's referred to as the "topless" option:

Under the change recommended by the Justice Department, and appearing to enjoy some support on the commission, minimum sentences will not change. However, judges will have flexibility to give longer sentences, up to the maximum defined by Congress. Judges could decide on a long prison sentence, without adding extra time for specific things like gun possession. The plan was devised by Indiana law professor Frank Bowman. Assistant AG Christopher Wray, in testimony before the Commission today, said:

...the change, called by some the "topless" plan, would "preserve the traditional roles of judges and juries in criminal cases" and would be easy to get through Congress.

So you thought Republicans were the party advocating limited government spending and fiscal responsibility? Think again. The Republican-dominated Senate voted today for to increase our federal debt by $800 billion.

The bill, if approved by the House in a vote expected on Thursday, would authorize the third big increase in the federal borrowing since President Bush took office in 2001. Federal debt has ballooned by $1.4 trillion over the past four years, to $7.4 trillion, and the new ceiling would allow borrowing to reach $8.2 trillion.

With no end in sight to the huge annual budget deficits, which hit a record of $412 billion this year, lawmakers predicted on Wednesday that the new ceiling would probably have to be raised again in about a year.

Democrats opposed the measure.