As if Abu Ghraib isn't bad enough, military officials have confirmed that the army is investigating reports of soldier assaults and thefts against Iraqi civilians not being held in detention centers:

The Army is investigating reports of assaults against Iraqi civilians and thefts of their money and jewelry by U.S. troops during patrols, raids and house searches, defense officials said on Monday.

The probe by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, suggests that a major scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans goes beyond detention centers into the homes and streets of the troubled country.
"There are a number of criminal investigations by the Army into allegations of assault, theft and other issues that extend beyond the investigations into activities at detention facilities," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Newsweek reports Martha Stewart has a plan to limit her jail time:

Convicted domestic diva Martha Stewart is planning to try to shorten her time in jail by offering to serve part or all of her sentence helping underprivileged women start businesses, according to a story in the June 7 edition of Newsweek due to go on sale on newsstands Monday.

Stewart recently approached the Women's Venture Fund, a new York nonprofit group, offering to work 20 hours a week teaching low income and minority women to become entrepreneurs according to the report which cited the venture's President Maria Otero.

We hope it works.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, (NACDL) through its President, E.E. "Bo" Edwards, has issued this statement in response to the death of Sam Dash. (TalkLeft's tribute is here. )

Samuel Dash, 79, a founder of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the association’s second president (1959), died Saturday, May 29, in Washington, DC, after a long illness. Sam Dash and a handful of concerned colleagues founded our association in 1958 “to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime.” Despite health problems, he remained an active member of NACDL until his death Saturday. At a symposium on the 40th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright last year at Georgetown University Law Center, Sam observed that as a district attorney in Philadelphia in the 1950s, he learned what it was like to be a competent lawyer presenting a well-organized case against a poor defendant represented only by himself, who did not know courtroom procedure and often did not even understand the charges against him. He stated:

by TChris

It's unfortunate that Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico learned the wrong lesson from the arrest of Chief District Judge W. John Brennan for possession of cocaine. Judge Brennan may also be charged with driving under the influence. He was stopped after turning into a parking lot to avoid a sobriety checkpoint on a Saturday morning, and was described as appearing "highly intoxicated." A passenger in his car was arrested for having cocaine in her purse.

Although Richardson considers Judge Brennan and his passenger to be his friends and says he is saddened by their arrest, his political response is predictable: more of the same.

"This incident will only redouble my efforts to deal with the DWI and drug scourges in our state in the next legislative session," Richardson said.

Richardson says Judge Brennan's case shows how pervasive drug use is, and vows to deal with the problem even more aggressively. In other words, still harsher penalties. Does Richardson think Judge Brennan, who presides over criminal cases, doesn't know the penalties for DWI or for cocaine possession? Does he think Judge Brennan wouldn't have committed these crimes if the penalties were even more extreme than they are?

The punishment model doesn't work. If it did, Judge Brennan -- who knew the risks as well as anyone and who had more to lose than most -- wouldn't have been getting high on a Saturday morning. The real lesson is that "more of the same" is not a solution. If a judge who sentences people for the same acts the judge is committing isn't deterred by the threat of punishment, why should we blindly assume that even harsher penalties will deter? People with substance abuse problems need help, not punishment -- whether they're judges, talk radio hosts, or kids on the street.

Netlaw Tools, an internet service providing tools and tips for lawyers, has named TalkLeft as the MVP site of the month for May. A big thanks to Netlaw Tools blogger Jerry Lawson for selecting it.

TalkLeft is the Netlawtools MVP Site for May. Developed by Denver-based criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt, TalkLeft is intended for the public, journalists covering crime-based news and politics, policy makers and the criminal defense community. It is an exceptional example of how one person can use the Internet to make a difference. Other features of the site are the unique newsfeed, updated several times a day with crime-related news and commentary, and the comprehensive list of links to major progressive political and media sites. The Netlawtools site has an archive of previous MVP picks.

We're very honored.

This week's news has been filled with articles attacking the reliability of fingerprint testing as an exact identification science. TChris outlined the issue here, including pointing out Law Professor Jennifer Mnooking's articles here and here.

Here's a few more, out today:

• Can Prints Lie? Yes, Man Finds to His Dismay, by Benjamin Weiser, NYTimes

• The Wrong Man, Newsweek. Freed and cleared Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield speaks out

Say hello to MoveLeft Media, a new blog by Eric Jaffa. We especially like the photos and other graphics. The articles are good too, check out this one reporting that the simulated acts at Abu Ghraib weren't just simulated, some were real and forced.

Also say hello to War and Piece, by journalist Laura Rozen who reports on national security and foreign policy issues.

by TChris

Archibald Cox died yesterday at the age of 92. His tenacious pursuit of Richard Nixon's political crimes resulted in the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," a mass firing widely credited as the turning point in the public's willingness to tolerate Nixon's presidency.

Mr. Cox, a highly respected authority on constitutional and labor law who had taught at Harvard and Boston universities, also served President Kennedy as US solicitor general. To a generation of Americans, however, Mr. Cox, with his crew-cut hair, bushy eyebrows, and a lanky swinging gait became a symbol of the rule of law versus the personality of the presidency.

John Moe evaluates Kerry's top 20 potential veep picks with pros and cons and a lot of humor tossed in. [link via Hit and Run.]

Don't miss Jane Mayer's article, The Manipulator, in the New Yorker. By chronicling Chalabi and his supporters throughout the years, Mayer demonstrates how Ahmed Chalabi manipulated the Bush Administration.

Between 1992 and the raid on Chalabi’s home, the U.S. government funnelled more than a hundred million dollars to the Iraqi National Congress. The current Bush Administration gave Chalabi’s group at least thirty-nine million dollars. Exactly what the I.N.C. provided in exchange for these sums has yet to be fully explained..... Vincent Cannistraro, a former C.I.A. counter-terrorism specialist who now consults for the government, told me, “With Chalabi, we paid to fool ourselves. It’s horrible. In other times, it might be funny. But a lot of people are dead as a result of this. It’s reprehensible.”

Mayer delves into the role of Francis Brooke, Chalabi's "unofficial lobbyist in Washington" and the Rendon Group:

Brooke, who is a devout Christian, has brought an evangelical ardor to the cause of defeating Saddam. “I do have a religious motivation for doing what I do,” Brooke said. “I see Iraq as our neighbor. And the Bible says, When your neighbor is in a ditch, God means for you to help him.”

Legendary lawyer, law professor and civil rights advocate Sam Dash has died. He was 79.

Samuel Dash, 79, the chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee whose televised interrogation into the secret audiotaping system at the White House ultimately led to President Richard M. Nixon's resignation, died of multiple organ failure May 29 at Washington Hospital Center.

....Mr. Dash's 53-year legal career touched some of the most important moments in American, and sometimes world, politics. He dramatically resigned in 1998 after four years as the ethics counselor to independent prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr, charging that Starr became an "aggressive advocate" of impeaching President Clinton. He said Starr exceeded the independent counsel's mandate, which was part of a statute that he helped draft.

Who's running John Kerry's internet campaign? None other than 34 year old Zack Exley, who back in 1999, started the anti-Bush website, GWBush.com. The LA Times profiles him today.

Exley's unlikely rise from union organizer and small-time software programmer to top campaign operative mirrors the rapidly expanding role of the Internet in politics. More valuable than decades of slogging in the trenches of the major parties is a few years' experience out in the free-form world of the Web — a realm where the tools of the trade evolve every week and a joke can grab more attention than a thousand position papers.