by TChris

The Eighth Amendment provides: "Excessive bail shall not be required ..." That doesn't stop judges from setting bail in amounts that poor and moderate income defendants can never hope to raise. The amount of bail deemed "excessive" is often in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder is usually the judge who sets (or denies) bail.

Unless the bail is $3 billion (yes, billion with a B), a laughable amount that even New York real estate heir Robert Durst can't afford. A Texas jury found Durst not guilty of murdering his neighbor, but Durst still faces less serious charges of bail jumping and evidence tampering.

Durst's attorneys appealed the bond amounts to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston, which said in a ruling Tuesday it could not find a case where bail was set, let alone upheld, at even 1 percent of any of the amounts against the millionaire, "regardless of the underlying offense, wealth of the defendant, or any other circumstance."

"Considering the unprecedented enormity of the bail amounts and that any flight risk has been abundantly addressed by other bond conditions, we can find no conceivable justification for bail amounts remotely approaching the order of magnitude of those imposed in this case," the appeals court ruled.

The court suggested other ways to assure that Durst doesn't flee, including taking his passport and making him pay for his own 24-hour guard.

Congrats to South Dakota's new Congresswoman , Democrat Stephanie Herseth, who has won the special election for former Congressman Bill Janklow's seat. Daily Kos has the details.

The story of Ahmed Chalabi and his possible provision of U.S. secrets to Iran is growing. It's now alleged that he gave an important, specific secret to Iran:

Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials.

The New York Times says it was asked by the Bush Administration to sit on the details. Then, the information began getting out, and the request was withdrawn.

Billmon at Whisky Bar has a thorough recap and analysis.

Let it Begin here has the story of how America is becoming a Gulag nation. The latest figures released by the Government show 2.1 million people in jails and prisons.

Any time you hear America is a democracy, where citizens have rights, remember that prisons represent our 35th largest state. We have more people in prison than live in Nevada, West Virginia, New Mexico, Nebraska, Maine, Idaho, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, or Wyoming.

America now is the greatest jailer on earth. We imprison 715 out of every 100,000 citizens, the highest number on the planet. By contrast, Canada's rate of incarceration is 116 out of 100,000, China's is 119 per 100,000 and Germany is 96 per 100,000. Our rate of imprisoning our citizens is approximately 600% higher than either China or Canada.

Racially, things are even worse. In historical perspective, the 899,000 African Americans incarcerated today are nine times the number of 98,000 in 1954, the year of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. So there are now 900% more blacks in prison today than there were 50 years ago, while the black population has only doubled, or increased 100%.

Our favorite story of the day, by far. A man in Miami who spent 5 1/2 months in jail on a murder charge for which he could have faced the death penalty if convicted was freed when an HBO filming of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" established his alibi--he had been at a baseball game with his daughter eating a hot dog at the time of the murder. Kudos to defense attorney Todd Melnick whose persistence for his client paid off. Really, read the article, it's heartwarming.

Police arrested Catalan in August, alleging he killed Martha Puebla, 16, in the San Fernando Valley on May 12, 2003, because she had testified against his brother in another case. Catalan insisted he and his 6-year-old daughter were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers lose to the Atlanta Braves, 11-4, minutes before Puebla was killed about 20 miles north of the stadium.

He said he had ticket stubs from the game and testimony from his family as to his whereabouts the night Puebla was killed. But police still believed he was responsible, saying they had a witness who placed Catalan at the scene of the slaying. Catalan said he asked to take a lie detector test, but was refused.

Remember in February when Drudge tried to break a scoop that John Kerry had attempted to bed an intern? It fizzled. Now the intern, Alexandra Polier, speaks out in a feature article in New York Magazine:

Falsely accused of having an affair with John Kerry, the “intern” sifts through the mud and the people who threw it.

NewsChannel Eight in DC is reporting that former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry will announce Wednesday he is returning to politics--and will seek a seat on the D.C. Council:

Barry reportedly called current Ward Eight Councilmember Sandy Allen to tell her of his plans to oppose her for the Democratic Council nomination in September. The former four-term D.C. Mayor who left office in January, 1999 has worked as an investment consultant specializing in municipal bonds in recent years. Barry sought and won the Ward Eight seat after serving time in prison for a cocaine possession charge a 12 years ago. He used that seat to return to the mayor's office for a fourth term in 1995. Barry made a brief attempt to return to city council in 2002, but suspended the effort because of personal problems.

The Washington Post has this report. Links via BrownWatch.

Wonkette rules DC....the LA Times has the latest profile on the D.C. blogger who's hotter than hot. We read her every day and you should too.

Why did this man die while in custody in Georgia? His family is asking for an investigation--they say it's a David and Goliath situation:

All Yanga Williams knows is her Fred with the easy smile and accommodating “sure, baby” attitude is gone. She doesn’t know why, and she can’t begin to tell their four children that daddy isn’t coming back. Grieving family members are left with many unanswered questions about the death of 31-year-old Frederick Jerome Williams. He died Thursday morning after struggling with authorities at the Gwinnett County Detention Center.

Williams was removed from life support when doctors at Gwinnett Medical Center determined he was brain dead, according to Williams’ family members. “He was just the kind of person that worshiped me and the kids,” Yanga said Thursday. “No matter what I did, no matter what I presented him with he was very supportive. It was always, ‘sure, baby.’”

by TChris

TalkLeft opposes efforts to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts. Here's one reason, from a USA Today editorial entitled "Let Death Penalty Die":

Laurence Adams ...who was sentenced to die in the electric chair in 1974 for the murder of a Boston subway worker, was freed on May 20 after a judge overturned his conviction based on new evidence that cast doubt on his guilt. Adams escaped execution because Massachusetts had abolished capital punishment soon after he was sentenced. His near-death experience exposes capital punishment's fundamental flaw: the risk of killing an innocent person.

The procedural safeguards proposed in Massachussetts (a "no doubt" standard of proof, separate juries for sentencing, requiring scientific corroboration of witness accusations, providing skilled counsel with adequate defense resources) would help correct some of the flaws that threaten the execution of the innocent, and states that insist on a death penalty should give them a close look. As welcome as these safeguards would be, the editorial reminds us that no procedure can assure perfection, and that nothing short of perfection should justify the state's decision to end a life.

There's an important e-mail camaign going on that needs your help. It's sponsored by the North Carolina Moratorium Coaliton. They are asking North Carolinians to e-mail their tate representatives to support a bill that would establish a 2 year moratorium on the death penalty while a comprehensive study is undertaken.

Under the current death penalty law, at least six innocent people have been wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder. You can read four of their stories here.

For Every Six People Executed In North Carolina, One Innocent Person Has Been Removed From Death Row.

North Carolina needs a moratorium. If you're from North Carolina, go over and send an e-mail. Innocent lives may be at stake.

"Dirty Bomb" Suspect and Bush administration-labeled "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla is now talking, according to recently unclassified military documents. The documents say Padilla admitted training at an al-Qaeda camp and having dealings with al-Qaeda members:

Additionally, the Defense Department summary of Padilla's activities claim Padilla admitted that he was "first tasked with an operation to blow up apartment buildings in the United States with natural gas by [Mohammed] Atef," alleged to be Osama bin Laden's second in command.

Under pressure to explain its indefinite detention of a U.S. citizen as an "enemy combatant," the Justice Department outlined Padilla's alleged al Qaeda training in Afghanistan and contacts with the most senior members of the terrorist network, his travel back into the United States and preparations to rent apartments and set off explosives.

So why didn't the Government charge Padilla with a crime instead of holding him in a military brig without access to counsel for more than two years? Here's what Padilla's lawyer has to say: