Not surprisingly, Texas has enacted another dumb, probably unconstitutional law--delivery of a controlled substance to a minor--via the womb. It's now a felony to smoke pot while pregnant --punishable by two to 20 years in prison. Alma Baker has become the first casualty of the law--receiving a five year deferred sentence for smoking pot in her backyard while pregnant with her twins. The presence of pot was discovered in their bloodstream when born.

The law came about through the legislature's redefinition of the term "individual."

The law defines an individual as "a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth."

NORML reports that according to a 1997 scientific review authored by John P. Morgan and Lynn Zimmer, "Studies of newborns, infants, and children show no consistent physical, developmental, or cognitive defects related to prenatal marijuana exposure."

by TChris

Investigating the theft of a jet ski from his stepson's home, Sweetwater, Florida police officer Catalino Rodriguez questioned the owners of Extreme Jet Ski (one of whom was Peter Daniel). They denied knowledge of the theft. When Daniel drove through Sweetwater ten days later, a police car driven by Officer Allen St. Germain began to follow him. Daniel got scared and managed to lose St. Germain by turning off his headlights. That turned out to be a bad decision, as he was arrested later that night for "fleeing and eluding."

As Daniel was being booked into the jail, St. Germain slapped him, knocking him to the floor. The dispatcher, Robert Viera, decided it was a good time to take a lengthy "smoke break." St. Germain and Sgt. George Alvarez later pulled Daniel out of his cell to question him about the stolen jet ski. Daniel denied any knowledge of the theft, but that wasn't what the officers wanted to hear, so they used interrogation methods calculated to produce the desired answer.

Investigators alleged Alvarez then punched Daniel in the left cheek. Daniel fell to the floor. Daniel later testified that Alvarez and St. Germain kicked him and hit him repeatedly while he was on the floor. At one point, he said, Alvarez picked him up off the floor by his shirt and St. Germain hit him in the stomach area. He was not sure how many times he was kicked or punched nor how long the beating lasted.

As people who are brutally interrogated often do, Daniel told a story to put an end to the beating. He said that his friend, Danny Izquierdo, may have stolen the jet ski. The police arrested Izquierdo, but released him after a few hours of incarceration and questioning produced no evidence of his involvement. But Daniel's troubles didn't end there.

Tonight on PBS, Frontline will report on the plea bargaining system in America.

....it may surprise many to learn that nearly 95 percent of all cases resulting in felony convictions never reach a jury, but instead are settled through plea bargains, in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence.

"The real American justice system is unlike anything depicted on Law & Order and Court TV," says Ofra Bikel, producer of the 90-minute FRONTLINE® documentary, "The Plea," which premieres Thursday, June 17, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings). "I know I was stunned when I realized that only about 5 percent of all felony convictions result from jury trials. The rest are settled by plea bargains. And these deals aren't always to the defendant's advantage."

Frontline always produces great shows, be sure to watch if you can.

The first civilian contractor has been charged with crimes in federal court as a result of the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan.

A contractor working for the CIA was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan. The North Carolina man is the first civilian to face criminal charges related to the detainee abuse scandal. The four-count indictment was handed up in Raleigh, N.C., against David A. Passaro for the June 21, 2003, death of a prisoner in U.S. custody. Copies were distributed in Washington ahead of a planned news conference by Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The prisoner, identified as Abdul Wali, was being held at a U.S. detention facility in Asadabad, in the Kunar province of Afghanistan. Court documents say Wali had surrendered voluntarily and was being questioned by Passaro about frequent rocket attacks directed at the U.S. facility. Wali died after Passaro allegedly beat him "using his hands and feet, and a large flashlight" during two days of interrogations, the indictment said.

Passaro has been charged with two counts of assault and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon - a flashlight. He faces a total of up to 40 years in prison.

This a fascinating proposal. A promoter has reserved Giants Stadium on September 1 and is running a petition to ask Bruce Springsteen to lead the music industry in a politically oriented concert timed around the time of the Republican Convention. Please, go over and sign the petition to draft Bruce. [hat tip Matt Stoller]

by TChris

TalkLeft has frequently taken note of Florida's efforts to assure that people who once committed a felony are never allowed to vote, no matter that they've paid their debt to society, changed their attitudes, and lived productive and law-abiding lives for many years. Apologists for Florida -- one of only seven states to disenfranchise felons even after they've completed their punishments -- argue that felons can apply to reinstate their right to vote. Sure they can, but unless they have connections, it's obvious that most of the applications won't go anywhere.

The Office of Executive Clemency has a backlog of 44,000 requests for reinstatement.

Today at its quarterly meeting in Tallahassee, the governor's Executive Clemency Board will consider just 56 applicants from the waiting list.

"It's kind of embarrassing" for the state, contends state Sen. Mandy Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, who's been trying unsuccessfully for many years to change the law. Like other advocates, the Daytona Beach native points to the disproportionate number of minorities affected by the original law that went into effect in 1868, shortly after blacks got the right to vote.

Roger Clegg (a former high-level official in the Justice Department) makes the absurd argument that ex-felons shouldn't be allowed to vote because they might vote for legislators who would be "soft on crime." By that reasoning, the government should disenfranchise all voters who might not cast their ballots for politicians favored by Clegg. Clegg's point isn't that reformed felons are unworthy of voting, but that they might not vote for Republicans. And that's exactly the reasoning that secretly underlies Florida's unwillingness to restore the voting rights of the 600,000 disenfranchised Floridians who once commited a felony.

Ex-felons work, pay taxes, and send their kids to school just like everyone else. They should have the same right to representation as everyone else, even if people like Roger Clegg fear that they might vote the "tough on crime" folks out of office.

by TChris

Before Republicans took control of the House, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) complained that Democrats weren't paying adequate attention to Republican concerns. Now that Republicans hold the majority, he's changed his views. Now he understands that the majority has a "responsibility to govern" -- that is, a responsibility to shut out the other half of the country from the governing process.

As chairman of the House Rules Committee, Dreier ... routinely uses his gavel to crush Democrats' efforts to air their proposals, much less enact them. His party writes legislation without Democrats' input, limits Democrats' ability to amend that legislation and prolongs votes in the House for as long as it takes to win. Republicans redraw congressional lines to elect more Republican members and pressure interest groups to hire more Republican lobbyists.

The "responsibility to govern" is something Dreier says he "didn't completely understand" when his party was in the minority. How educational it is to hold the reins of power. Dreier sees things much more clearly now. But is his party, in fact, governing responsibly?

The linked article summarizes some of the ethical missteps of the governing majority, including: accusations that Republicans tried to bribe Nick Smith by offering campaign contributions in exchange for his support of Medicare legislation; Tom Scully's insistence that Richard Foster withhold accurate cost estimates from Congress as it debated the Medicare legislation; Tom DeLay's pressuring of business associations to hire Republicans as lobbyists; and DeLay's illegal solicitation of campaign contributions.

Democrats lost power when the public came to believe that they'd grown complacent and arrogant in office. After a decade of Republican control of the House, the public is feeling much the same way.

by TChris

If Iraq ever becomes truly sovereign, will the Iraqi government try to hold Donald Rumsfeld accountable for this? Will President Bush?

Pentagon officials tell NBC News that late last year, at the same time U.S. military police were allegedly abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered that one Iraqi prisoner be held “off the books” — hidden entirely from the International Red Cross and anyone else — in possible violation of international law.

The Pentagon claims that it's entitled to hold prisoners in secret if they pose a threat. A dubious claim at best, but just silly in this case. The detainee was no longer being interrogated and had been returned to Iraq where he became "entirely lost in the system." You'd think the Pentagon would do a better job of keeping track of prisoners it deems a threat.

The Pentagon confirms that the detainee has been held since October, but the International Red Cross wasn't notified and the detainee wasn't given an identification number as required by the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld's hands-on approach to this detainee invites inquiry into his degree of involvement in the prisoner abuse scandals. At the very least, Rumsfeld's arrogant disregard of international law invites inquiry into his fitness to hold his job.

The New York legislature is close to final approval of a bill allowing doctors to presecribe marijuana for medical purposes.

A bipartisan agreement on legislation that would let doctors prescribe marijuana to ease the pain and other medical symptoms of very sick patients could be reached before the year is out, state lawmakers said Wednesday. A bill initially introduced in 1997 by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, that would legalize pot for medical use was overwhelmingly passed Tuesday by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and is now in the Rules Committee -- the last stop before a full house vote.

This kind of news doesn't happen often and as defense lawyers, it makes our day. From the St. Petersburg Times--Feds Lose Cocaine Case, 16 Go Free:

TAMPA - The federal government took a hit Tuesday in its ongoing efforts against overseas drug smuggling. After a six-week trial involving 16 people from Lithuania and Ukraine accused of smuggling drugs, jurors deliberated for three days and came back with not one guilty verdict. They acquitted 15 of the defendants and couldn't agree on whether the remaining defendant was guilty.

All 16 were charged with possession of cocaine on a vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction and could have spent 25 years to life in prison if convicted... The verdict comes nearly a year after the men - crew members of the 500-foot freighter M/V Yalta - were arrested in connection with an apparent attempt to smuggle nearly 4 tons of cocaine.

Link via Drug War Rant, who says:

So they seized a ship with 4 tons of cocaine, but couldn't get a single conviction? Embarrassing. There was a 17th crew member who pleaded guilty in September and agreed to testify for the Feds ... and they still couldn't get a conviction. My favorite quote from the article:

"This verdict is a major black eye to the government in their ongoing Panama Express operation," said Steve Crawford, one of the court-appointed defense attorneys. "The philosophy of 'Let's arrest everybody and see if the evidence is there' lends itself to these kinds of verdicts."

Update: Some commenters have wondered why the acquittal pleases us. The main reason is the draconian penalties the crew members would have received if convicted. 25 years to life for a hired crew member (far lower in culpability than the organizers or owners of the load) is outrageous.

by TChris

Two of the government's key sources of evidence against Zacarias Moussaoui have told conflicting stories. Under the best of circumstances, stories told by informants are unreliable. When the stories don't match, it's time to look for better evidence.

[Ramzi] Binalshibh, the self-described coordinator of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, said he sent $14,000 to Moussaoui in July 2001 on instructions from [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed that he understood to be "part of the 9/11 plot," the commission's report says. The report says "there is good reason to believe" that Mohammed was preparing Moussaoui as a potential substitute pilot because one of the 19 hijackers was considering dropping out.

The language is a bit speculative, but this would be powerful evidence if it could be corroborated. Mohammed would be the logical source of corroboration if Binalshibh is telling the truth, but Mohammed has a different story.

Mohammed, who was al Qaeda's operations chief, "denies that Moussaoui was ever intended to be part of the 9/11 operation," the report says. Instead, it says, Moussaoui was being groomed for a second wave of attacks on the West Coast after Sept. 11. That wave fizzled, and Mohammed said the two other pilots who had been recruited for it already had backed out before Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001.

The government's theory may be that Moussaoui conspired to do something (even if it's not quite sure what), a theory that Moussaoui may be able to refute if he's allowed to question Mohammed and Binalshibh. The government hasn't been inclined to let that happen (TalkLeft background on the issue collected here). Not only has Moussaoui been denied the right to see the complete statements, but his ability to have a fair trial (if he ever has a trial) has been compromised by the public disclosure of portions of statements that don't tell the whole story.

Sources close to the case said the detainees' statements released by the commission are incomplete, adding that Binalshibh indicated at different points in his interrogations that Moussaoui was not part of the Sept. 11 plot. Both the federal judge overseeing the case in Alexandria and a federal appeals court have found that the detainees gave interrogators information that could help Moussaoui's case.

If the public gets to see evidence that hurts Moussaoui's case, shouldn't Moussaoui be able to see evidence that helps him?

Democrats today introduced the Civil Liberties Restoration Act to curtail the abuses of the Patriot Act:

U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and four other Senate Democrats introduced legislation Wednesday designed to correct what they consider the excesses of the USA Patriot Act and similar national security measures. The legislation would end the special registration program aimed at immigrants from the Middle East, create an independent immigration court and eliminate harsh penalties for some immigration violations.

Civil rights and immigrant groups praised the proposal as a long-overdue effort to protect civil liberties. "This law is necessary to restore constitutional freedoms that are being encroached upon by this administration," said Corzine, D-N.J. "This law, however, will not compromise the nations security. We can be both safe and free."

Here's the good things the bill would do:

The changes proposed in the Senate bill would end the government's blanket right to conduct deportation hearings in secret, allowing closures on a case-by-case basis, and would guarantee prompt release-bond hearings. The legislation also would require detainees to be apprised of the charges against them within 48 hours and would eliminate criminal penalties for minor technical violations of immigration law, such as failure to report a change of address within 10 days. The bill would limit the secret seizure of private databases and individual records.

Co-sponsors include: Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin. U.S. Reps. Howard Berman, D-Calif., and William Delahunt, D-Mass., co-sponsored it in the House.

[link via Patriot Watch]