Troy Kunkle won a stay tonight from the U.S. Supreme Court. It's the second time he's received a stay, both times while in the execution chamber. Tonight's stay came 40 minutes after the scheduled start of his execution. At least they waited.

Kunkle has been dubbed by the press as the "Metallica" killer.

According to testimony at his capital murder trial, Kunkle was 18 when he fatally shot Stephen Horton, 31, then chanted: "Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath" -- the refrain from the Metallica song "No Remorse" on an album called "Kill 'Em All." A pool of blood is depicted on the album cover....Prosecutors also remembered him at one point playing an air guitar in the courtroom at his trial as lawyers discussed whether the Metallica song could be admitted into evidence.

Like the stay granted to another Texas inmate this week, the Court found that the Texas court improperly prevented the jury from considering mitigating evidence.

"Plainly, Mr. Kunkle's sentencing hearing was marred by the same constitutional flaw," attorney Robert McGlasson said. "The jury heard evidence that could have persuaded it to spare Mr. Kunkle's life, but was limited to instructions that gave it no vehicle for expressing that conclusion."

Rolling Stone magazine's 500 best songs of all time has just been released. The judges included Joni Mitchell, Brian Wilson, Berry Gordy, Art Garfunkel,Ozzy Osbourne, Jakob Dylan and someone named Tweedey of a group called Wilco.

Little seems to have changed since the magazine's heyday. It affirms what needed no affirmation, that the 1960s was the pre-eminent decade of rock music, followed far behind by the 1970s.

Drumroll, please, here's the top song of all time:

Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone

Followed by:

The Rolling Stones, Satisfaction

Here's the rest of the top 10:

John Lennon's "Imagine," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and Aretha Franklin's "Respect." "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, "Johnny B Goode" by Chuck Berry, the Beatles' "Hey Jude," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Ray Charles' "What'd I Say."

Some I would have ranked higher than did the Judges:

21: Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run 1975
27: Derek and the Dominos, Layla 1971
28: Otis Redding, (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay 1968
32: Rolling Stones, Sympathy For The Devil 1968
38: The Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter 1969
41: The Band, The Weight 1968
49: The Eagles, Hotel California 1977

Here's the rest of their top 25:

Uber-right family values chief James Dobson had this to say about Arlen Specter's approval for Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

We are disappointed by the announcement that Sen. Specter will become the Judiciary chairman; however, he will assume his new position on a very short leash. The senator will have ample opportunity in his new position to follow through on his pledged support for the values of the Bush administration, the Senate leadership and the majority of this nation's voters. As the outcry of the past two weeks demonstrates, neither the Republican Party nor the American people will tolerate obstructionist politics when it comes to the confirmation of judicial nominees.

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.