This is every lawyer's nightmare in a high profile case.

Scott Peterson's lawyers received a call from an unidentified tipster who reported that s/he had been on a bus trip with a potential juror who had made it past the first few rounds of questioning in the case, and that the juror had bragged about getting on the jury, and said that Scott Peterson was "guilty as hell" and that he would "get what's due him."

During questioning by the Judge today, the juror admitted taking the bus trip but denied making the comments. The Judge ordered the unidentified tipster to come to court on May 10 and testify. We're a little curious as to how the Court can enforce the order if no one knows the name of the tipster. On May 11, the juror will report back to court and learn if she is still on the jury.

Outside court, Geragos praised the tipster and said the alleged stealth juror "wasn't the first and won't be the last." "It's extremely distressing to anyone connected to the criminal justice system to think that anyone would lie their way onto a jury in order to execute someone," Geragos said.

The San Francisco Chronicle has more:

People with ulterior motives are called stealth jurors, and their tactics to get onto panels are becoming more pervasive in high-profile cases, according to legal consultants. "We are seeing it more and more," said Rich Matthews of Decision Analysis, a consulting firm in San Francisco. "People have hidden agendas - some moral, others for financial reasons."

Often jurors are offered book and movie deals while serving on big cases. Others are so consumed with meting out their version of justice that they forget to keep an open mind. He said it was rare for a whistle-blower from outside the jury to come forward as the tipster did in this case. The worst part, according to Matthews, is there are no absolute telltale signs to ferreting out these stealth jurors, just vague clues.

Ralph Nader is now giving campaign advice. Today, he advised John Kerry to loosen up:

John Kerry has got to get loose,'' Nader said. "He cannot allow political consultants to put handcuffs on his mind and his imagination. He's got to stop talking Senate-ese and be the old John Kerry I knew 23 years ago.''

Appearing on Crossfire, he denied that his candidacy will take votes from Kerry:

"The Democrats should just stop whining and go to work,'' Nader said. "They should be landsliding Bush.'' .... As for liberals who call him vindictive or egomaniacal, Nader said, "That means they're out of arguments.''

Nader plans to meet and discuss strategy for booting Bush with Kerry and Howard Dean in the next month. The strategy we'd like to see from Nader is one where he drops out of the race and endorses and campaigns for Kerry.

In a strange twist of the child porn laws, a teen in Pittsburgh is charged with child pornography for taking pictures of herself and posting them on the internet. Law Prof Michael Froomkin says:

To me this seems a real case of arresting a victim, the person the rule is designed to protect, and a fairly poor use of prosecutorial discretion. I could vaguely understand it if it were a profit-making business, but this sounds from the admittedly sketchy news report as if it’s more a case of a confused, probably lonely, child who needs counseling (and friends), not a trial and a police record.

It’s true that child porn is an unusually strict liability crime, in which possession alone, without intent or even knowledge, constitutes the offense. It’s also true that police and prosecutors are not always reasonable about some kinds of offenses. Still, this prosecution simply cannot be what the drafters of this statute had in mind.

Common Dreams has the text of the Floor Statement of Sen. Daschle on the Abuse of Government Power. Here's a portion:

There are some things that simply ought not be done – even in politics. Too many people around the President seem not to understand that, and that line has been crossed. When Ambassador Joe Wilson told the truth about the Administration's misleading claims about Iraq, Niger, and uranium, the people around the President didn't respond with facts. Instead, they publicly disclosed that Ambassador Wilson's wife was a deep-cover CIA agent. In doing so, they undermined America's national security and put politics first. They also may well have put the lives of Ambassador Wilson's wife, and her sources, in danger.

When former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill revealed that the White House was thinking about an Iraq War in its first weeks in office, his former colleagues in the Bush Administration ridiculed him from morning to night, and even subjected him to a fruitless federal investigation. When Larry Lindsay, one of President Bush's former top economic advisors, and General Eric Shinseki, the former Army Chief of Staff, spoke honestly about the amount of money and the number of troops the war would demand, they learned the hard way that the White House doesn't tolerate candor.

....Senator McCain, Senator Cleland, Secretary O'Neill, Ambassador Wilson, General Shinseki, Richard Foster, Richard Clarke, Larry Lindsay ... when will the character assassination, retribution, and intimidation end? When will we say enough is enough?

How about now?

The Washington Times reports that John Kerry is a firm foe of the death penalty, and that he is " the first major-party presidential candidate in more than 15 years to take such a strong stand against capital punishment."

Kerry supports the death penalty only for foreign terrorists. Before 9/11, he opposed the death penalty for all, because it is unfairly applied.

This year's White House race pits two extremes on this issue against one another. Mr. Bush's home state of Texas has executed more murderers than any other state, while Mr. Kerry's Massachusetts is among only 12 states that still bans the death penalty....When Students Against the Death Penalty rated the nine candidates seeking the Democratic nomination last fall, it gave only Mr. Kerry and Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich perfect scores.

The International Court of Justicein the Hague will issue its decision Wednesday in the case of 51 Mexican nationals on death row in the U.S. The case is Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America). The suit concerns the U.S.’s failure to comply with the Vienna Convention’s guarantee of allowing foreign nationals access to consular officials prior to interrogation. From one of our earlier posts on the case:

The government of Mexico, in a direct challenge to the Bush administration, asked the International Court of Justice today to block the executions of 51 Mexicans on death row in the United States. The court, the highest tribunal of the United Nations, sits in The Hague. It has no enforcement powers. But if it issues an injunction, the United States must choose whether to respect or defy its judgment.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is the country's oldest, biggest and most diverse civil and human rights group. It has more than 180 member organizations. The group has sent a letter to CBS charging that Mike Wallace's '60 Minutes' interview with Bush recess appointee Charles Pickering was distorted in its coverage of those opposing his nomination:

Far from a balanced piece of journalism, Mr. Wallace's segment unfairly distorted arguments put forth by Pickering's opponents; failed to accurately convey the range of serious concerns that many Americans have with this nomination; and chose to highlight only those aspects of Pickering's record supporting his thesis that opposition to Pickering's confirmation is thin and that the criticism is exaggerated," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference, in a letter to Don Hewitt. The Leadership Conference.... and more than 84 national, state and local organizations opposed Pickering's confirmation, saying his record as a district court judge and as a state senator shows his hostility to civil and constitutional rights.

"Most significantly," Henderson said, "the 60 Minutes piece, rather than discussing the arguments of proponents and detractors forthrightly, instead set up a straw-man — the notion that opposition to Pickering is rooted in charges that he is a racist. ... It is not, in fact, any part of the real debate over this confirmation. The real question is whether Pickering's record warrants elevation to the Fifth Circuit."

Since Pickering is a recess appointee, unless confirmed by the Senate, he will have to leave his seat on the 5th Circuit next January. [link via How Appealing.]

In other judiciary news, Senator Tom Daschle has vowed to block all Bush judicial nominees unless he promises not to make any more recess appointments.

From John Wesley Hall at Fourth Amendment.com:

The Supreme Court held today that the border exception does not require reasonable suspicion for a gas tank search. The reasonable suspicion standard for searches of the person was imported by the 9th Cir. into overly intrusive vehicle searches, and the Supremes declined to extend the rule that far. The fact of a delay at the border of 1-2 hours is not
unreasonable and "to be expected." United States v. Flores-Montano, 2004
WL 609791 (U.S. 2004).

In the overall scheme of things, this will not have much effect because customs officers do not have the time to search every car, and they will usually have reasonable suspicion before they do an overly intense search of the car. We lost, but I don't think that this is a big deal.

John is the author of the text book, Search and Seizure (3d. Edition), published by Lexis.

Arthur of Light of Reason expounds today on Bush's attempt to eviscerate the time-honored writ of Habeas Corpus, and what that means for America.

The Bush administration believes habeas corpus is a luxury the United States cannot afford in its war on terror. The profound and immensely disturbing importance of these developments appears to be unappreciated by the great majority of Americans.

Please join us in wishing a speedy recovery to Stuart Buck, lawyer and author of The Buck Stops Here. Stuart has been hospitalized with a sudden stroke. He is 29 years old and was perfectly healthy. His wife has posted some info at his blog, and it looks like he is going to be ok.

George Hunsinger, who teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary, writes about Occupational Hazards: Iraq One Year Later for Antiwar.com:

Adequate words are lacking to describe the mendacity of the current administration and the folly of its "preemptive" war. Judged by just-war standards, it has waged war on Iraq without just cause, without legitimate authority, without right intention, without due regard for civilians, and without reasonable chance of success. It is hubris that will come to grief, one that threatens to engulf the entire world.

In an about face for the White House, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will be allowed to testify in public under oath before the commission investigating the failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The official said the decision is conditioned on the Bush administration receiving assurances in writing from the commission that such a step does not set a precedent, said the official speaking on condition of anonymity. It appeared the administration already had such assurances verbally in private and is confident it will get them in writing.