A Miami jury returned a life sentence against a drug dealer convicted in the murder of a federal informant.

Luis Gonzalez Lauzan, 33, was eligible for the death penalty based on findings that he killed a federal informant and used a gun in a premeditated murder. He was convicted last month in the death of Alexander Texidor, who was shot to death by a hit man in 2002, less than a month after Texidor told authorities about the gunrunning activities of Luis Gonzalez Sr.

The jurors deadlocked, and were told to continue deliberating. They came back with the life verdict 20 minutes later.

The defense said Gonzalez deserved the lesser sentence because the hit man received a life sentence and could have that sentence reduced after testifying against Gonzalez.

Here's a timely article describing the process for amending the Constitution:

The Constitution provides that an amendment can be proposed either by Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures. So far, none of the 27 amendments to the Constitution has been proposed by constitutional convention.

In the case of a congressional vote, after passage in the form of a joint resolution, the archivist of the United States submits the proposed amendment to the states for their consideration. A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution if it is ratified by three-fourths, or 38, of the 50 states.

The Consitution has been amended six times since the 1950's. Here are the last three, from the same article

• The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, to prevent Congress from passing a law giving itself a pay raise before the next election.

• The 26th Amendment, in 1971, which extended the right to vote to citizens as young as 18.

• The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, which set out rules for the transfer of presidential power to the vice president in case the president is unable to fulfill the duties of the office.

The last two amendments that had congressional approval (the Equal Rights Amendment and the D.C. Voting Rights Amendment) failed to pass before the expiration of their respective ratification deadlines.

Bump and Update: Martha will not testify. She will rest her case tomorrow.

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The Martha Stewart trial may wrap up today. Her co-defendant and stock broker, Peter Bacnovic, will not take the stand. We believe Martha won't either. After Bacnovic rests, the Judge will rule on tossing the securities charge. We think it's history.

If the Judge throws out the securities charge, Martha's lawyers are expected to call one witness. The jury would likely get the case this week.

Our money's on Martha.

The first criminal charges have been brought against two detainees at Guantanamo.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, of Sudan, was a paymaster for al Qaeda, and Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, of Yemen, was a propagandist for bin Laden, the government charged in military indictments unsealed at the Pentagon.

The two men are among more than 600 foreign prisoners held at the U.S. Navy's Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba. Both spent time in terrorist training camps and served as bodyguards for bin Laden, according to military charging documents similar to indictments in the civilian court system.

The two will not face the death penalty but could receive life in prison.

In a statement, the Pentagon described al Qosi as a key al Qaeda accountant and weapons smuggler who was "a longtime assistant and associate of bin Laden dating back to the time when bin Laden lived in Sudan." The Pentagon identified al Bahlul as a "key al Qaeda propagandist who produced videos glorifying the murder of Americans to recruit, inspire and motivate other al Qaeda members" to attack Americans, the United States and other countries.

The Pentagon said al Bahlul and al Qosi were charged with willfully and knowingly conspiring with bin Laden and others to commit terrorism and murder, attack civilians and destroy property.

Attorney General Ashcroft gets to decide if Rodi Alvarado receives asylum. Please take just 30 seconds by clicking here and ask Ashcroft to grant Rodi Alvarado asylum. Please share with friends and colleagues. Please forward this action alert on to list-servs and e-mail lists. Please take action one last time for Rodi Alvarado and all women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution.

It's Grey Tuesday today. Received from Norwegianity:

It's time for music fans to stand up and demand change from the music industry's copyright cartel. Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.

DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z's the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z's record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone ("an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time") and the Boston Globe (which called it the "most creatively captivating" album of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.

The 2003 edition of the FBI's Handbook on Forensic Services is now available.

The purpose of the Handbook of Forensic Services is to provide guidance and procedures for safe and efficient methods of collecting, preserving, packaging, and shipping evidence and to describe the forensic examinations performed by the FBI's Laboratory Division and Investigative Technology Division.

Law enforcement can get a free copy by faxing a request. For the rest of us, you can get it through the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) for $50 in hard copy or $35 on cd-rom. Order it here.

This could be good news for the Terry Nichols defense team. The judge has ruled that he may present evidence of a wider conspiracy in the Oklahoma bombing if he can back it up with specific overt acts.

Mr. Nichols is going to be allowed to present his defense," Taylor said, ruling that prosecution motions to prevent Nichols from presenting evidence of other bombing suspects were premature.

Defense attorney Mark A. Earnest said Nichols' defense team does not plan to offer the names of other conspirators. He said the defense wants to present circumstantial evidence that Timothy McVeigh conspired with others, possibly members of the Aryan Republican Army, a white supremacist group with anti-government views, to bomb the P. Murrah Federal Building. Defense attorneys say the conspiracy was set up to cast blame on Nichols and shield other conspirators.

If Nichols can establish others were involved with McVeigh, the jury might believe he had a lesser role, warranting a life sentence instead of death. The federal jury that convicted him gave him a life sentence. We still don't see how he can get a fair trial anywhere in Oklahoma, particularly in McAlester, a town filled with prison guards and munitions factory workers, but nonetheless, this is a crumb for the defense.

More than 350 potential jurors were sworn in yesterday. Jury selection (voir dire) begins March 1.

The Supreme Court today overturned the Texas death sentence of Delma Banks:

The Supreme Court, acting on a case that has become a cause celebre among capital punishment opponents, overturned the death sentence of a long-serving Texas inmate who claimed prosecutors played dirty and withheld evidence at his trial. The court's action, announced Tuesday, came in the case of a man who came within minutes of execution before the body stepped in last year to stop it.

The high court's 7-2 ruling means Banks can continue to press his appeals in lower courts. Banks maintains he is innocent, and that he was framed by lying witnesses who were bought off by the state.

Banks was able to document how prosecutors kept quiet as key witnesses against Banks lied on the stand, and how the state hid those witnesses' links to police through round after round of appeals, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the high court majority. "When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight," Ginsburg wrote for the high court majority.

Ginsburg was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and Stephen Breyer. Scalia and Thomas would have sent the case back to the lower courts for further findings.

Mr. Banks' efforts to overturn his death sentence were backed by former F.B.I. Director William Sessions and a group of judges, who wrote an amicus brief on his behalf. The case is Banks v. Dretke, 02-8286. All of our coverage is here.

You can read about the malfeasance in the Banks case here. Bob Herbert comments here. The Supreme Court granted cert last April on these three issues.

Open thread on President Bush's announcement that he backs a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Our view: The Constitution is not a rough draft. Leave it alone.

This was written by Adam Stutz in the "What's Hot Off the Press" column of the newsletter of Project Censored, a media research group at Sonoma State University that tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters.

You can view the text of the bills introduced in the House and Senate here. S. 89 is the Universal National Service Act of 2003 (Introduced in Senate). HR 163 was introduced by Rep. Rangel "To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes."

US Preparing for Military Draft in Spring 2005 by Adam Stutz • Wednesday January 28, 2004 at 09:50 AM

The current agenda of the US federal government is to reinstate the draft in order to staff up for a protracted war on "terrorism." Pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills S 89 and HR 163) would time the program so the draft could begin at early as Spring 2005 -- conveniently just after the 2004 presidential election!

Reinstatement of the draft

Dear Friends and Family,

I urge you to read the article below on the current agenda of the federal government to reinstate the draft in order to staff up for a protracted war on "terrorism." Pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills S 89 and HR 163) would time the program so the draft could begin at early as Spring 2005 -- conveniently just after the 2004 presidential election! But the administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed NOW, so our action is needed immediately. Details and links follow.

A Palm Beach grand jury has issued a scathing report of treatment of girls in Florida prisons:

With inadequate and virtually untrained staff and poor state oversight, a 100-bed prison for hard-to-manage delinquent girls became a nightmarish place where girls were injured and sexually abused, a Palm Beach County grand jury wrote Monday in the latest rebuke of Florida's juvenile justice system.

The Florida Institute for Girls, operated for the Department of Juvenile Justice by a private company called Premier Behavioral Solutions, was beset by violence. As staff struggled to cope with the violence, the treatment center became a dismal place where girls frequently were locked in their rooms and denied activities, exercise and even an education. Premier was paid $5 million per year by DJJ to run the treatment center....

The Palm Beach grand jury, which began its investigation of the program four months ago, heard testimony from 39 witnesses, including therapists, staff members, police officers and detainees. Grand jurors also reviewed more than 1,000 pages of records, including incident reports from the prison. The grand jury said the incidents were properly investigated by staff from DJJ, the state Department of Children & Families, and local police. However, the report said neither the private company nor DJJ took the necessary steps to correct the problems the reports identified.