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.

Now that the Democratic race effectively is down to two choices, bloggers are picking sides: Daily Kos and The Agonist are going for John Edwards.

If you find some more bloggers making endorsements, please post them in the comments. We're still undecided between Edwards and Kerry.

The Pentagon has refused requests of three human rights groups to attend the upcoming military tribunal trials at Guantanamo. The reason given was "limited courtroom seating and other logistical issues.”

In a letter sent last week to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Amnesty International, Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) and Human Rights Watch protested their exclusion from the proceedings and urged the U.S. government to rethink its position.

Despite the Bush administration's promise that the commissions would be open to the public, the Pentagon has refused to grant any of these organizations permission to attend the proceedings. Over the last month, the Department of Defense has responded to written requests from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, with a brief statement that it intended only to provide seating for select members of the press and for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

We're still reading all the post-mortem reviews of last night's Sex and the City finale, which we loved--and just came across The Sex and the City Quiz--supposedly it will tell you which of the four women you most take after.

Our score: 30% Samantha; 30% Miranda; 30% Carrie; 10% Charlotte.

[for male readers, no need to leave a snarky comment, just go on to the next post.]

At least every few months, we write that Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul has outdone herself with another outstanding piece of writing. She's done it again, this time on understanding the spiral of poverty, please go read.

Speaking of poverty, please, if you can, go and give some aid to Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review. He writes a fabulous blog and he's nearly homeless.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear two deportation cases today, both of which involve the issue of deportation after conviction for a crime.

In the first case, the court will decide whether a person can be deported to a country (Somalia, in this case) without an agreement by the other country to accept the person back. In the second case, the court will decide if driving under the influence is a crime of violence when someone is injured as a result.

Here are the details:

The Pentagon today announced it had opened a criminal probe of Halliburton:

The investigation was focused on Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq, which has become a lightning rod of Democratic criticism during this presidential election year.

"The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the Inspector General's office is investigating allegations on the part of KBR of fraud, including the potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Baghdad by a KBR subcontractor," said a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Vice President Dick Cheney ran the company from 1995 to 2000.

Aside from military auditors' questions, the U.S. Treasury, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are all looking into a range of issues, from whether the company paid kickbacks in Nigeria to whether it broke U.S. laws by dealing with Iran via a foreign subsidiary.

The company has consistently said all its dealings have been in line with U.S. laws and has strongly denied wrongdoing, except in the case of one or two former employees who it said may have paid $6.3 million in kickbacks to a Kuwaiti subcontractor. Two former Halliburton employees told Democratic lawmakers earlier this month the vice president's old company "routinely overcharged" for work it did for the U.S. military.

If you're in the Denver area tomorrow.....

You are cordially invited to join your Rocky Mountain Progressive Network for a special news conference tomorrow, February 24th, in Denver. The following notice was just sent to over 400 state and national media outlets:

WHO: Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman, Reverand Bill Kirton and the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network

WHAT: Press Conference on the Federal Marriage Amendment, Fidelity & Colorado's Elected Officials

WHEN: TOMORROW / TUESDAY, February 24, 2004, 1:15 p.m.

WHERE: State Capitol Press Room, 3rd Floor of State Capitol, Denver, Colorado

CONTACT: RMPN, 303-991-1900 or info@rmpn.org

Meet Windman, a new comic strip hero, who has superpowers and uses them to fight the death penalty. We can't wait to get our hands on a copy of the comic book:

The comic book world has a new superhero whose focus isn't fighting crime, but fighting the death penalty. Like some other comic book heroes, Windman has superpowers. He can fly, pass through solid objects and move heavy objects without lifting a finger. Rather than helping damsels in distress or saving Earth from an extraterrestrial threat, Windman uses his powers to aid inmates on death row.

Windman, which was produced by the Western Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, is the brainchild of Independence resident Bob Myers. Jose Tello drew the book and Joshua Bourland did layout. Myers said he wanted the book to be a detective story, but one that communicates the idea that the death penalty is misguided.

The cover of the comic book's first issue shows a woman crying out, "Windman! Come back! We've found the missing witness!" Below her, two death row inmates say, "Can anyone hear me? I'm innocent!" and "I'm giving up my life so a prosecutor can brag he's tough on crime." Windman flies overhead, his speech bubble reading, "I've barely got time to stop the execution!"