CNN and other media outlets prevailed today in their quest for the list of felons Florida wants to purge from the voting rolls. The state will not appeal.

A state court judge in Florida ordered Thursday that the board of elections immediately release a list of nearly 50,000 suspected felons to CNN and other news organizations that last month sued the state for access to copies of the list.
The list is used to determine who will be eligible to vote in November's presidential election in the state.

....In 2000, a similar list was the center of controversy when state officials acknowledged after the election that it contained thousands of names in error, thus barring eligible people from voting. Many of the barred voters were African-Americans, who traditionally tend to vote Democratic. Bush won the state by a 537-vote margin and, with it, the presidency.

Background on the lawsuit is here. Florida needs to pass this constitutional amendment restoring the right to vote to Floridian felons who have completed their sentences. Approximately 600,000 Floridians are banned from voting due to felony convictions according to the Florida Equal Rights Voting Project.

[link via Memeorandum]

Here's some of the Post-Blakely court action to date. Law Prof Doug Berman's Sentencing Law and Policy is totally on top of it. And say hello to the Blakely Blawg .

Utah is the big one of course, U.S. v. Croxford. There is a federal W. Virginia decision in U.S. v. Shamblin. Sentencing Law and Policy reports:

Judge Goodwin concluded that a defendant involved in significant drug operation --- who would have received a life sentence before Apprendi and 20 years before Blakely --- could only now be sentenced to a term of 12 months! Interestingly, in footnote 11 of this opinion, Judge Goodwin expressly rejects Judge Cassell's conclusions in US v. Croxford about the right way to sentence now in light of the conclusion that Blakely applies to the federal guidelines.

Then, also from SL&P, here's a partial transcript from a Maine federal sentencing on June 28, 2004 in U.S. v. Fanfan:

The federal judge that sentenced the D.C. 'Tractor Man' to six years in prison last week has signed an order reducing his sentence to 16 months due to the Supreme Court's Blakely decision. He was released from prison today.

Still wearing his navy blue jail uniform, Dwight W. Watson was set free tonight, nearly 16 months after driving his tractor onto the Mall and making a phony bomb threat in a protest that paralyzed parts of the city.... Watson's release came a few hours after a federal appellate court rejected a last-chance effort by the Justice Department to keep him locked up. Federal prosecutors had been scrambling since U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson cut Watson's sentence to 16 months. With credit for good behavior, Watson's time was up.

Prosecutors contended that there was no reason for Jackson to act, arguing that the judge had misinterpreted a Supreme Court ruling issued June 24, a day after Watson's sentencing. Jackson said the decision, handed down in an unrelated case, convinced him that he had unjustly added time to Watson's sentence in a way the Constitution did not allow. Prosecutors wanted Watson to stay in jail while they appealed Jackson's ruling, but the appellate court turned them down.

Congrats to A.J. Kramer, Watson's federal defender.

The latest flash animation on Attorney General John Ashcroft from Alliance for Justice. It's better than great.

Here's the story behind it and how you can help.

Armed with the far-reaching USA Patriot Act, John "Spy-der-man" Ashcroft abuses his power and abuses his authority as our nation's top cop. The flash ends with the ultimate call to action for Ashcroft: resign.

Although humor is used to convey the strong message of Spy-der-man, Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron points to the seriousness of Ashcroft's actions. "Under Attorney General John Ashcroft's leadership, the Justice Department has issued anti-terrorism policies that intrude on free speech, privacy, and due process," said Aron. "Ashcroft's actions have enabled the government to look at private information and spy on religious and political groups."

Also check out their Independent Judiciary website.

Help Stop Feeney II! Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), a proponent of the notorious Feeney Amendment, has introduced legislation to further curtail the sentencing discretion of federal judges. A hearing is set for July 6. The "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act" (H.R. 4547) would:

• Establish draconion mandatory minimum sentences for drug distribution involving persons under 18 years of age. The sale of any quantity of any controlled substance (including anything greater than five grams of marijuana) by a person older than 21 to a person younger than 18 would be subject to a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence; persons 21 years or older convicted a second time of distributing drugs to a person under 18 or convicted a first time after a felony drug offense has become final would receive a mandatory life sentence.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton told the City Council in a 2 hour briefing that the officers involved in the videotaped beating of Stanley Miller, who had surrendered to police before the hits began, did not follow departmental policy:

"It is a mess. It is not what we teach at the academy," Bratton told the Los Angeles City Council during a two-hour briefing Wednesday.....He said a series of tactical errors were made during the arrest, beginning with an officer who holstered his gun before tackling Miller when he should have kept it trained on the suspect while other officers handcuffed him. Officer John Hatfield's kicking of Miller also was not departmental policy, he said. "We don't teach kicks," Bratton said.

Background on the incident by TChris is here.

The Washington Post has this account of Saddam Hussein's feisty court appearance today.

Update: Christine Amanpour provides a first hand account. BBC has good quotes from the hearing. [link via Norwegianity, who calls today's appearance "the mother of all perp walks.]

Update: Jeff at Protein Wisdom has a funny take on Saddam's courtroom theatrics.

Saddam Hussein's chief defense lawyer spoke out today and said any trial of his client will be a mockery of justice because his fate has already been decided:

"This is a mockery of justice. We are facing clear legal violations. ... The allegations that this is going to be a fair trial is baseless," said Mohammad Rashdan, one of a 20-member legal team appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him.

"Any trial of the president is illegal and unjust and it follows from the aggression that took place against Iraq. The trial is a farce and the guilty verdict had been issued even before the trial has begun," he added. Rashdan said he and his legal associates in the United States filed suits against the U.S. authorities for not allowing them access to Saddam. The defense team was not given any of the tons of documentation prepared by a special tribunal that will try the former Iraqi leader, he added.

Big news in the Kobe Bryant case. Mark Hurlburt, the elected DA who made the decision to charge Kobe, has announced he won't be trying the case, but leaving it to the deputy
DA's. He's decided his county needs him to do administrative work.

While its not unusual for elected DA's to spend more time on administrative matters than trying cases, they often try the high profile ones. Here, the citizens of the 5th Judicial District are paying Hurlburt to be the prosecutor--yet Hurlburt has decided to spend the district's money importing two prosecutors from Boulder and Jefferson County. If Hurlburt were really concerned about conserving the district's resources, he'd send the two prosecutors back and try the case himself.

On the other hand, we commend Hurlburt for recognizing there are other cases and people in his district in need of prosecution services and that far too many of the district's resources, both in time and money, have been spent on Kobe's case. How many prosecutors does it take to try a rape case?

The Denver Post has more here.

Matt Drudge is reporting that an anonymous Washington insider is certain Kerry will pick Hillary as the VP candidate. We think the story is either a plant or a trial balloon. While personally, we'd welcome Hillary as VP (see our enthusiastic coverage of her 2000 campaign at Run Hillary Run), we don't see it. We see Edwards.

by TChris

How absurd is this?

North Carolina's Supreme Court ordered a judge Tuesday to restore references to God used when he enters the courtroom and when witnesses swear to tell the truth.

The judge quite reasonably viewed the court system as serving everyone, not just those who believe in God.

Honeycutt told officials in March he was revising the oath because of the increasing number of non-Christians and people of diverse beliefs served by the court system.

Although state law allows a witness to "affirm" that he will tell the truth without swearing an oath to God, juries notice if every witness but one swears an oath that mentions God. That's not fair to the party calling the witness who wants to affirm.

References to God in an oath do not make an oath any more binding or meaningful. A common "one size fits all" oath serves just as well: "Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth?"

He's a CIA employee named Michael Scheuer and you can get the whole story here. [link fixed]