by TChris

One member of the Bush administration, at least, is capable of admitting the possibility of error. It's taken Colin Powell a year to say it, but he now acknowledges that he may have been wrong when he told the United Nations in February 2003 that two trailers in Iraq were used for weapons of mass destruction.

by TChris

Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards is challenging his conviction of extorting payoffs for casino riverboat licenses. He contends that the federal judge presiding in his case, Frank J. Polozola, was too batty to be on the bench. To prove his contention, Edwards wants to introduce evidence from a lawsuit that Judge Polozola brought in state court arising out of a traffic accident. Edwards contends that Judge Polozola admitted in his accident suit that he was impaired by his use of Oxy Contin during a time frame that includes Edwards' trial.

In the accident case, filed in 1998, Judge Polozola, 62, sought compensation for a "serious physical injury" that caused him mental anguish and "impairment of function." In the trial in 2000, Mr. Edwards's lawyers wrote in filings, the judge engaged in "erratic, even paranoid" behavior. The accident case was settled in 2001, and testimony from the judge, his psychiatrist and his psychologist was sealed.

Edwards wants to unseal that evidence, but federal prosecutors asked Judge Polozola to assume control of the state court case to avoid "irreparable injury to a national interest." Perhaps feeling that his own reputation was the "national interest" at stake, Judge Polozola granted the request only twenty minutes after it was made, ordering the evidence in his own case transferred to federal court and sealed.

The action disturbs experts in legal ethics.

by TChris

Dennis Kozlowski narrowly escaped conviction when, after hearing evidence for six months, his jury was discharged and a mistrial declared. While the media focused on the ill-fated trial of the former Tyco CEO and his co-defendant, The New York Times reports that other white collar prosecutions are in the works, and that some have already been more successful.

Last week, Jamie Olis, a former midlevel executive at Dynegy, a Houston energy company, was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for his role in accounting fraud at the company. The sentence was one of the most severe imposed in a white-collar fraud case, prosecutors and defense lawyers said.

The judge who sentenced Olis explains his reasoning here.

Prosecutors are also pursuing executives at other publicly traded companies, including Computer Associates, a software maker, and the McKesson Corporation, a pharmaceutical wholesaler. Despite the mistrial in the Tyco case and a mistrial last year in the prosecution of investment banker Frank Quattrone, New York criminal defense lawyer Ira Sorkin says that corporate fraud cases can be easy for the government to win.

The evidence in white collar cases tends to be dull, and jurors could not have been happy that the Tyco trial took six months. Prosecutors should learn a lesson from the Tyco trial: jettison weak charges, focus on the things you know you can prove, and get to the point as quickly as you can.

by TChris

An Amish Canadian who married an American citizen would like to live with his wife in the United States. His wife petitioned the government for his permanent residency, but there's a hitch: the Immigration and Naturalization Service told the couple they would have to submit their photographs to the government.

The man and his wife are Old Order Amish. They believe the Bible's prohibition of graven images applies to photographs, so they can't allow the INS to take their pictures. The INS response: no photos, no residency. The INS denied the petition. The man and his wife -- identifying themselves as John and Jane Doe -- are suing.

"Similar objections — and requests for religious exemptions — to photograph requirements routinely have been honored in the past. ... Jane Doe's petition would have been approved but for her refusal on religious grounds to submit a photograph of herself," the lawsuit alleges.

The suit asks the court to hold that the rule requiring photographs to be submitted with a residency petition is unconstitutional as applied to the Amish, and to allow John Doe to return to the United States as a permanent resident. A hearing on John Doe's removal is set for April 21, but his attorney is asking that the removal proceeding be stayed until his lawsuit is decided.

by TChris

Kevin Cooper, whose execution was stayed just hours before his life was to end, is arguing that new tests should be conducted on the blood and hair evidence used to convict him of murdering four people in 1985.

Defense lawyers say testing on blood evidence could reveal the presence of a chemical that would indicate the blood was planted by investigators. Cooper's blood was found inside the [victims'] home and on a T-shirt that also contained the victim's blood. The shirt was found outside a bar several miles from the victims' home.

The defense also wants scientific testing on hairs found in the hands of some of the victims. The hairs aren't Cooper's, and the defense contends that they might belong to other, multiple killers.

The district judge scheduled a hearing in June to hear evidence about footprints found in the home of the murdered family.

This is Thomas Lee Goldstein then:

This is him now:

Mr. Goldstein was freed from prison today after serving 24 years for a murder he did not commit. The cause of his wrongful conviction: an unreliable jailhouse snitch and an eyewitness, both of whom subsequently recanted.

In recent years, five federal judges all agreed that Goldstein's constitutional rights had been violated by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office....

Goldstein, who has always maintained his innocence — and reiterated it today — looked numb as his 24 years in custody came to an end after a two-minute hearing. His defense lawyers, Dale Rubin and Charles Lindner, briefly embraced him as Goldstein, dressed in an orange jail jump suit, left the courtroom.....Reached by phone in Kansas, Goldstein's 78-year-old mother Geri was jubilant.

There's more to the story. Notwithstanding the findings of five federal judges, the LA District Attorney's office refused to free Goldstein and recharged him with the murder after the conviction was set aside:

In a new special report, the Guardian charges that the Pentagon is stretched so thin it has begun sending unfit soldiers back to Iraq:

The report begins with allegations we've read before:

The Guardian has uncovered more than a dozen instances in which ill or injured soldiers were sent to war by a US military whose resources have been stretched near to breaking point by the simultaneous fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In its investigation, the Guardian learned of soldiers who were deployed with almost wilful disregard to their medical histories, and with the most cursory physical examinations. Soldiers went to war with chronic illnesses such as coronary disease, mental illness, arthritis, diabetes and the nervous condition, Tourette's syndrome, or after undergoing recent surgery.

What's new to us is the allegation that the Pentagon is sending soldiers who have returned from Iraq, injured and traumatized, back to Iraq:

[Jason Gunn] came within inches of death last November 15, when the Humvee he was driving hit a roadside bomb, killing his sergeant. The entire left side of Gunn's body was splattered with shrapnel, his elbow was shattered and, as he lay in the US military hospital bed in Germany, he was tortured by nightmares. Late on March 23, Gunn told his mother, Pat, that his commanders were putting pressure on him to return to Iraq, but there was no way he was getting on that plane. A few hours later, he was airborne. This week, Gunn's distraught mother, who is herself a navy veteran, received a first official response to her demands to know why a soldier, who was being treated by military doctors for combat stress, was sent back to the war.

The note, which acknowledged Gunn suffered post-traumatic stress, said: "After discussion of his case it was determined ... this may be in his best interest mentally to overcome his fear by facing it. Therefore, he has been cleared for redeployment."

Apparently, Gunn is not an isolated instance:

Via Buzzflash, a new CBS poll has Bush dropping in the handling of terrorism department.

The latest CBS News poll, conducted Tuesday through Thursday, shows declines in the president's approval ratings in a number of policy areas, but especially changes in the evaluation of the president's handling of terrorism.....The president receives a 49 percent approval rating overall; his approval ratings on the economy, foreign policy, and Iraq are lower – and the lowest approval ratings he has received in these policy areas.

Six in ten Americans are following the hearings closely; 56 percent say the administration is cooperating with the panel. But what the administration is saying does not receives high marks: 59 percent say it is hiding something it knew before Sept. 11, and 11 percent even say it is lying. Only one in four think the administration is telling the entire truth.

Why do people make up crimes? Police now say Wisconsin college student Audrey Seiler fabricated her story about being abducted at knifepoint. The police now have evidence showing "she researched places to hide and bought rope and duct tape to make it look like an abduction.

But this is not just an attention-seeking, victimless caper. Seiler aided in the drawing of a composite sketch of the man she claimed kidnapped her.

The sketch shows a clean-shaven white man with a long chin in a stocking cap. A caption on the sketch describes the man as in his late 20s to early 30s, stocky and about 5 feet 10.

What would have happened if the police had been less dilgent in Seiler's case? What if her sketch had resulted in an arrest and she then identified the man as her kidnapper? He would have been charged, and quite possibly, wrongfully convicted.

Police have not yet determined whether Seiler will be charged with a crime.

In a win for privacy rights of medical marijuana patients, a Los Angeles appellate court has ruled a doctor does not have to comply with a subpoena seeking production of his patient records.

The Medical Board of California must present more than “speculations, unsupported suspicions, and conclusory statements” to justify subpoenaing patient records from a doctor suspected of indiscriminately prescribing marijuana, this district’s Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. Justice Laurence D. Rubin of Div. Eight said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs erred in ordering Dr. David Louis Bearman to comply with an administrative subpoena seeking records of his treatment of a patient identified by the court only as “Nathan.” The board sought the records after park rangers found marijuana and smoking pipes in Nathan’s possession at the Lake Piru Recreation Area. Nathan presented Bearman’s letter stating he was medically certified to use marijuana to control his migraine headaches.

When Nathan wouldn't produce his own records, the medical board tried to get them from his doctor. The Court held:

“When the Medical Board seeks judicial enforcement of a subpoena for a physician’s medical records, it cannot delve into an area of reasonably expected privacy simply because it wants assurance the law is not violated or a doctor is not negligent in treatment of his or her patient.”

We got this by email so we don't know whom to credit, but it made us laugh so we're reprinting it:

TEXAS HILLBILLIES (sung to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies)

Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But it didn't really matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people go to get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.

Say hello to Oliver Willis' latest creation--a weblog about the Apprentice, which we must admit, has us hooked as well.

Welcome back from hiatus to MyDD, also known as political whiz Jerome Armstrong, who in real life, is business partners with Daily Kos.

Update: Tapped got a great bloglift, go check them out.