Lea Fastow, wife of indicted Enron exec Andrew Fastow, appeared in court for sentencing today. She had a deal with prosecutors, not binding on the judge, for a five to ten month sentence, with five months in jail and five on house arrest. The Judge said no dice, he wanted to give her 10 to 16 months. She exercised her right under the plea agreement to withdraw her plea, and now must go to trial.

Her lawyer says it's back to the drawing board. Andrew Fastow's deal with the feds to cooperate against others in exchange for ten years won't be affected by his wife's decision.

"The government pointed out if she hadn't been Lea Fastow, she probably wouldn't even have been charged," he said. "This is not a case about Enron. She had no part in the fall." DeGuerin suggested that perhaps the judge had something to prove: "that you can't bind Judge Hittner to a sentence."

The sentencing memo filed by Mrs. Fastow's lawyers yesterday is here.

by TChris

In an effort to strike back after four American private security guards were killed in Falluja last week, American and Iraqi security forces yesterday "began to push inward in search of rebels and suspects connected to the killing." The effort is unlikely to win support among the Iraqi people, however, in light of reports that a U.S. helicopter fired three missles into a mosque as worshipers gathered for afternoon prayers.

Witnesses say that more than 40 people were killed in the attack.

by TChris

A priest in Ohio has been placed on probation for two years after pleading guilty to growing marijuana in his church residence. Rev. Richard Arko told the court he was cultivating the 35 plants for medical use, and says he prays for the day that Ohio recognizes the benefits of marijuana.

Although probation would be the norm for a first offense in Ohio, prosecutors asked for a prison sentence, arguing that a priest should be held to a higher standard than others. Fortunately, Judge Patricia Cosgrove declined to make an example of Rev. Arko, citing letters she received from parishoners attesting to Rev. Arko's positive contributions to their lives.

The marijuana plants were discovered after an informant purchased marijuana from a man who was living in the parish house. After Rev. Arko's arrest, the informant, Andrew Smith, claimed that Rev. Arko has been sexually assaulting him since he was 15. However, Smith is accused of stealing credit cards and checks from Rev. Arko and the parish, rendering his belated abuse claims suspect.

Amnesty International has just released the results of its study of world executions for 2003. The top three: China, the U.S., and Iran. Together with country #4, Vietnam, they account for 84% of all executions.

Amnesty International's figures also showed that 77 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes by the end of 2003....This year's figures show that as the majority of countries follow an abolitionist path, others choose to remain on the wrong side of the justice divide", Amnesty International said. "Countries retaining the death penalty because of its supposed power as a unique deterrent to crime are flying in the face of scientific studies that fail to establish any such effect."

Amnesty further reports:

The Justice Department is waging a war on porn and Instapundit blames John Ashcroft:

I blame John Ashcroft. No, really, this time I mean it. And if the Administration thinks that this is a good use of their "computer forensics" experts, then they must have decided that terrorists aren't a threat any more. This is so ham-handed and sure to blow up in the Administration's face, making them look like stooges for the religious right while accomplishing nothing, that one almost suspects a Democratic mole in their ranks.

Here's what it's all about:

32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains.

More here. And one of Glenn's readers wrote in:

I voted for Bush and donated to his campaign and have been looking for reasons to support his reelection. But when I saw your post, I snapped. I just made a small donation to the Kerry campaign...and, living in Massachusetts, I have no reason to be thrilled about Kerry.

Keep it up, Mr. Ashcroft, you just might cost Bush the election all by yourself.

Last One Speaks has the latest in the DEA's war against patients in pain:

If you're Richard Paey, a 45-year-old father of three who sits in a wheelchair, debilitated by multiple sclerosis and chronic pain from botched back surgery, you will receive a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence for forging prescriptions to treat your pain.

The St. Petersburg Times, in an editorial, says:

This is an abuse of our criminal justice resources. Paey is not a man who belongs in prison. What he and other pain patients need is a health care system that will respond to their affliction. (Paey now has a morphine pump in his back to dull the pain. His wife says, ironically, it provides him with more narcotics than he was getting from the Percocet, which is 98.5 percent Tylenol.)

Back to Last One Speaks for the last word:

I think the agency has outlived any usefulness it may have ever had, but that aside, it's clearly long past time for the DEA to get out of the business of harassing and imprisoning the chronically ill citizens of this country and their caregivers.

Ralph Nader told a crowd of college students Tuesday that Bush should be impeached.

"When you plunge our country into war on a platform of fabrications and deceptions, and you bring back thousands of American soldiers who are sick, injured or dead, and that war is unconstitutionally authorized to begin with, Mr. Bush's behavior qualifies for the high crimes and misdemeanor impeachment clause of the Constitution," the 2000 Green Party presidential nominee said to applause from about 200 students at Columbia College Chicago.

Nader said President Clinton was impeached for "far less of an offense." "Lying under oath is not a trivial offense, but it cannot compare with deceiving the American people night after night after night on national television, staging untruths and rejecting the advice of his advisers," he said.

He's right. But it's not going to happen. On the other hand, Nader still has the ability to influence youth. We wish he would use it to get out the vote for John Kerry and boot Bush at the polls in November, rather than promoting a pipe dream.

Ruth Jordan, the now famous Juror No. 4 in the Tyco trial, says she did not flash the "ok" sign in court and she would have voted to acquit on all counts. Her statement contradicts other jurors who have spoken out and said she agreed to find the defendants guilty a few two counts. Ms. Jordan, in an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes II tonight, describes the letter she received that led to the declaration of the mistrial:

She had read a letter she received in the mail from a stranger criticizing her supposed unwillingness to consider the possibility of the defendants' guilt. She recounted that the typewritten note — which she said was "disturbing," but "wasn't threatening" — stated that "Dennis and Mark are huge criminals, and how could I have failed to see that or something like that." The note, she said, asserted that "it was very sad that I had brought disgrace on my family and it would be there for generations." The letter, like an anonymous telephone call the previous weekend, had come after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post broke with journalistic convention and published her name in their accounts of the jury turmoil.

Like some of the other jurors, Ms. Jordan also criticized the prosecutors for dwelling on the defendants' lavish life styles:

Bush visited south Mississippi late last year to campaign for Republican candidate for Governor Haley Barbour. Promises were made to the City of Gulfport that the costs of the visit to the city for extra police protection and security would be repaid. Now many months later, neither Barbour nor Bush will pay the bill. The Republican Mayor and City Council do not want to force the issue but the local taxpayers are out some $20k. [hat tip to Oliver D.]

Mark Kleiman has just published a new report on drug dealing, drug control, and terrorism. He says one thing his report did not address is:

whether the links between drugs and terror constitute a sufficient reason for making cocaine a licit commodity on more or less the same terms as alcohol.

Here's a portion of what his answer would be:

There is no doubt that cocaine dealing contributes to terrorism in Colombia, and that it does so only because it is illicit. Whatever contribution cocaine dealing makes to the terrorist threat domestically is similarly tied to its illicit status. Therefore, if terrorism were the only thing we cared about, we probably ought to legalize cocaine.

He adds that, because of the drug's severe abuse potential, the world might be worse-off if it were legalized,

But if a convincing case were made that cocaine trafficking was, or could become, a significant source of funding to terrorist groups threatening the United States, that judgment might have to be revised.

Whether it takes legalization or decriminalization, we'd sure like to see our clients be offered treatment instead of a felony conviction.

Update: Pete at Drug War Rant takes serious issue with Mark's contention that we would be worse off if we legalized cocaine.

Update: 12 Marines were killed today.

****************
Original Post

The war that keeps on killing.

Including casualties Monday and Tuesday, at least 18 American Marines and soldiers and 99 Iraqis have been killed since Sunday. In the same period, a Salvadoran soldier and one from Ukraine also were killed.

In a series of U.S. television interviews Tuesday, L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached a June 30 handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis.

Nonetheless, Bremer says, June 30 is the date and Bush is sticking to it.

Kobe Bryant's lawyers have responded to his accuser's and the prosecution's request to set a trial date. They point out what is obvious to us, that Kobe's life also is being ruined by the criminal case against him.

"The accuser's false accusation of rape has exacted a personal and professional toll on Mr. Bryant that is as incalculable as it is indescribable. No one looks forward to this case being over more than Mr. Bryant," his attorneys Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon said in a court filing. Bryant could have entered his not guilty plea when he first appeared in court, but he has been proceeding in accordance with court policy, his lawyers said. "Kobe Bryant requests that this court accept his not guilty plea and set a trial date consistent with the Fifth Judicial District's policy and this court's schedule," the defense said.

Kobe's lawyers point out that the delay is not attributable to Kobe:

Instead, the defense blamed delays on disputes over evidence testing and handing over of evidence so the defense could conduct independent testing on the accuser's underwear. The defense maintains that prosecutors have not turned over evidence that could point to Bryant's innocence as prosecutors in the United States are required to do.

Kobe's lawyers dispute the accuser's mother's contention that her daughter "was forced to quit school and was being followed by the media and the defense."

The defense said such statements were incorrect or misleading and "calculated to create public sympathy."