by TChris

When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke to high school students yesterday about the importance of protecting constitutional rights, he may have forgotten that freedom of the press is one of those rights.

During Scalia's speech at the high school, U.S. Marshal Melanie Rube demanded that a reporter with The Associated Press erase a tape recording of the justice's remarks. Rube also took a tape recording made by a reporter with the Hattiesburg American.

At an earlier appearance before a college audience, Justice Scalia told television reporters to leave.

Did Justice Scalia have a reason not to want his remarks reported accurately? Perhaps the Justice recalls that he had to recuse himself from the Pledge of Allegiance case after publicly commenting on the lower court decision at a Knights of Columbus rally.

by TChris

Poor police work by the New Orleans Police Department was frequently responsible for the dismissal of criminal charges in Orleans Parish in 2003, according to a report released by the District Attorney's office.

In 57 cases, the charges were tossed because a police officer failed to appear in court. An additional 120 cases ended because there wasn't enough testimony to prove a crime had occurred. Prosecutors tossed another 45 cases, finding them "unsuitable for trial" the report said, without listing reasons.

Another 63 cases were dismissed because judges suppressed evidence or confessions that the police improperly obtained.

by TChris

Courtesy of AlterNet, here's a quick comparison of Condoleezza Rice's testimony to facts of record and to her other statements. A taste:

CLAIM: There was "nothing about the threat of attack in the U.S." in the Presidential Daily Briefing the President received on August 6. [responding to Ben Veniste]

FACT: Rice herself confirmed that "the title [of the PDB] was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.'" [Source: Condoleezza Rice, 4/8/04]

by TChris

Lawyers who represent jailed defendants customarily make sure that their clients are wearing "street clothes," not a jail uniform, when they appear in front of a jury. Allowing the jury to see a defendant in jail garb sends the wrong message: if he's already in jail, he must be guilty.

White supremacist Matt Hale, who has a law degree but isn't licensed to practice, made an odd strategic decision in his own trial: he's going to wear his bright orange jail jumpsuit. Hale is charged with soliciting the murder of a federal judge, and jury selection is underway. Although his trial judge warned him that wearing a jail uniform doesn't make a good impression on potential jurors, Hale chose to disregard that advice. Maybe he thinks he looks good in orange.

by TChris

In time of war, the President should be expected to show support for the men and women serving in the military. Why, then, is the administration trying to block former POW's from using Iraqi assets to collect a judgment that compensates them for the treatment they endured under Saddam Hussein's regime during the 1991 Gulf War?

The seventeen POW's sued Iraq, arguing that they were entitled to compensation for being tortured, starved, and mistreated while being held prisoner. A federal judge agreed, awarding judgment to the POW's of $653 million in compensatory damages and $306 million in punitive damages. But as the POW's tried to collect that judgment from Iraqi assets, the Bush administration stepped in to object.

The Justice Department apparently fears that opening the door to compensation in this case would jeopardize Iraq's ability to rebuild. Stewart Baker, the POW's attorney, disagrees.

by TChris

Yesterday, TalkLeft reported that Melissa Rowland has entered into a plea agreement reducing a murder charge to two counts of child endangerment. Prosecutors based the initial charge on a stillbirth that followed Rowland's decision not to submit to the prompt C-section that her physician recommended.

Although the reduced charges are certainly better than a homicide prosecution, womens' rights advocates continue to call attention to the ramifications of the prosecution's decision to file any charges at all against Rowland. They joined together yesterday to call Rowland "a victim of an overzealous prosecutor, misguided medical personnel, a failed health care system and an abusive jail system."

The women say Rowland had the right to decide if and when she had a Caesarean section, despite the prosecution's contention that Rowland's delay cost the life of her unborn boy.

Activists point out that the decision to prosecute will have a chilling effect on other women who may avoid any prenatal care for fear that the failure to follow a doctor's advice will lead to a criminal charge. In addition,

Pam Udy, vice president of the International Caesarean Awareness Network, said the Rowland case will pressure other expectant mothers into getting C-sections unnecessarily.

Condoleeza Rice testifies before the 9/11 panel today. Here is the text of her opening remarks. If you're short on time, here are excerpts. The AP report is here. Neal Pollack is blogging it. We'll be in court today, so here's an open thread to discuss it.

If you're a blogger, you may want to consider adding blogads to your site. Business reporter David Ranii has this article in today's Charlotte Observer, which begins with a quote from us. And check out our new ad offering "George W. You're Fired" t-shirts.

If you're an advertiser, Right Wing News just compiled a list of the top 29 political blogs on the web, using a combination of Technorati, Truth Laid Bair, Blogstreet and Daypop. The top five, no surprises here, are Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, Eschaton (Atrios), Talking Points and Daily Kos. TalkLeft is very proud to be number 15.

Arianna Huffington gushes about blogs today in Salon, and has started her own. Welcome, Arianna.

Simply put, blogs are the greatest breakthrough in popular journalism since Tom Paine broke onto the scene.

Money talks in death penalty defense. Check out the record of the well-funded Philadelphia defender's office: In eleven years, not one client has been sentenced to death.

Lawyers say the Defender Association of Philadelphia's track record — in a city that annually ranks near the top in use of the death penalty — is proof that when it comes to capital punishment, the difference between life and death for a convicted killer can be a matter of dollars and cents. With 215 attorneys on staff, the Defenders Association is equipped with resources usually available only to prosecutors. Every capital murder client gets two lawyers and a private investigator. A team of psychologists and ``mitigation experts'' hunt for evidence that might sway jurors against a death sentence.

Why all the criticism of the German court's decision to release Mounir el Motassadeq on bail? Many of the articles we've seen make it sound like he was convicted of participating in the 9/11 attacks, sentenced to 15 years and released after 2 1/2--when, if you read the small print, he was convicted of participating in the 9/11 attacks, sentenced to fifteen years, and then his conviction was overturned because the U.S. denied access to a potentially exculpatory witness. If his conviction was overturned, it's like it never happened. The 15 year sentence is void, as if it was never imposed. Now he stands charged with, but not convicted of accessory to commit murder,so the Court released him on bail pending trial, with orders to stay in Hamburg and report to the police department twice a week. That's appropriate.

An appeals court last month threw out el Motassadeq's conviction and ordered a retrial starting June 16, saying he was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to his friend Ramzi Binalshibh - a Yemeni captured in Pakistan on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

....El Motassadeq, 30, has acknowledged training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan and being close friends with Hamburg-based suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. But he has denied knowing of the plot to attack the United States....[Prosecutors] say the former electrical engineering student used his power of attorney over al-Shehhi's bank account to pay rent, tuition and utility bills, allowing the plotters to keep up the appearance of being normal students in Germany. He also signed Atta's will. El Motassadeq explained both as things he simply did for friends.

Sounds to us like a defensible case. We agree with his lawyer that the U.S. should open its files and allow the defense access to the witnesses and related reports.

New York is one of the places where a push is on to give legal immigrants who aren't citizens the right to vote.

Supporters say it is not an outlandish proposition. They point out that even without citizenship, legal immigrants pay taxes, send their children to public schools and serve in the military. Noncitizens in many states were allowed to vote in local, state and even Congressional elections as recently as the 1920's.

In the last decade, five towns in Maryland have allowed noncitizens, even illegal immigrants, to vote in local elections. Campaigns for immigrant voting rights are under way in several cities, including Hartford; Cambridge, Mass.; and Washington.

New York has one million legal immigrants who are not citizens. If they got to vote, they would make up one-fifth of New York's voting population.

by TChris

A report by the Congressional Research Service questions whether the FBI can "transform itself into an effective domestic intelligence agency geared to preventing terrorism." Its authors fear that the FBI will be slow to change from a reactive law enforcement agency to a proactive domestic intelligence service that can stop terrorists before they strike.

One of five suggested solutions (none of which are endorsed) by the report: the creation of "a new stand-alone domestic intelligence service." Sounds suspiciously like a new federal agency dedicated to spying on Americans. Let's hope that enough of our elected representatives remember the bad old days of J. Edgar Hoover to stop that idea before it gains any traction.