Former Lousiana Governor Edwin Edwards is appealing his conviction and ten year sentence. Among the grounds: the Judge may have been impaired by oxycontin.

From the Law.com newswire:

A judge's prescription for painkillers has provided fuel for an appeal by counsel for former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola's use of OxyContin for back pain may have hampered his decision-making during pretrial motions, argues defense attorney Mike Small. The defense is also alleging juror bias as well as undisclosed financial incentives for a chief witness for the prosecution. Edwards is serving a 10-year sentence for extorting payments for riverboat casino licenses ...

Say hello to TomPaine.com's new blog on Iraq and national security issues: The Dreyfuss Report. It is written by veteran investigative reporter Bob Dreyfuss, and will provide the story behind the headlines and the "Bush administration antics performed in the name of homeland security."

What a welcome site!

Bush and Gov. Arnold may not like it, but San Francisco will continue to marry same-sex couples--many are coming in from all over the world. If you've been wondering how to get a license, the details are here.

The San Francisco Chronicle approves:

But it's plain that the policy rushed out by Mayor Gavin Newsom taps into the heartfelt urge by same-sex couples to claim the same rights and recognition as heterosexuals. Newsom should be commended for taking a high- risk stand for equality, which has turned City Hall into the eye of a political storm.

.... It should reassure Americans who are uneasy about same-sex marriage to see the joy and love in the eyes of so many applicants. Some of these unions will last a lifetime, others will fail -- compatibility and commitment are not determined by sexual orientation. Neither should the concept of equal protection under the law. Old or young, single or with extended families, these couples crave -- and deserve -- the respect and rights accorded to others in this society.

....All couples, gay or straight, should enjoy the same rights, including marriage.

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Meet Dudley Hiibel:

Meet Dudley Hiibel. He's a 59 year old cowboy who owns a small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada. He lives a simple life, but he's his own man. You probably never would have heard of Dudley Hiibel if it weren't for his belief in the U.S. Constitution.

One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for refusing to show ID on demand. And it's all on video.

On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show "the papers" whenever a cop demands them.

A new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll shows that both Kerry and Edwards would beat Bush:

Democrat John Kerry holds his largest lead yet over President Bush in a head-to-head match-up among likely voters, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll concludes, and rival John Edwards also holds a double-digit lead over the president.

The poll, taken Feb. 16-17, indicates that if the election were held today, Kerry would be chosen by 55% of likely voters, compared to 43% for Bush. In the last polling, Feb. 6-8, Bush held a 49-48 advantage.

Edwards, Kerry's sole remaining major rival for the Democratic nomination, holds a 54%-44% advantage, the poll indicates. The question has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The former CEO of Enron, Jeffrey Skilling, was indicted today by a Texas federal grand jury. Skilling is expected to surrender tomorrow. He is the highest-ranked Enron executive to date to be indicted.

Skilling did not invoke his 5th Amendment privilege when subpoenaed to testify before Congress. He testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Feb. 7, 2002. Here's a snippet:

When I left on Aug. 14, I believed the financial reports accurately reflected the condition of the company . . . I absolutely, unequivocally thought the company was in good shape." "I cannot for the life of me see how we could go from where the company was then to bankruptcy in such a short time."

"It is my belief that Enron's failure was due to a classic 'run on the bank,' a liquidity crisis spurred by a lack of confidence in the company. At the time of Enron's collapse, the company was solvent and highly profitable -- but apparently not liquid enough. "

Will Ken Lay be next?

Just what we need--a more intrusive alcohol test. But that's what's coming down the pike. A new test is being developed that will detect drinking over months:

Tests which can show how much someone has drunk in previous weeks and months and not just in the past few days are being developed, it was reported today. The new research is likely to benefit not only doctors but police investigating a crime and could attract the interest of employers and insurance companies.

The tests could let a GP know if someone is a light or heavy drinker and tell investigators if a driver or worker involved in an accident was drunk at the time, even if they were not tested until days later, reported the New Scientist magazine.

The New Scientist article is here. Among the uses it predicts for the new tests:

Doctors are likely to be the first to employ some or all of the new tests, to monitor patients with alcohol problems. But they are also likely to attract the interest of employers, insurance companies and forensic scientists. Airlines could, for instance, identify pilots who are heavy drinkers by testing their hair. A urine test might allow police to prove many hours or even days after an accident that someone had been drinking.

From a Press Release issued by Change the Climate, the ACLU, Marijuana Policy Project and other drug reform groups:

The nation’s major drug policy reform groups today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for censoring the speech of those critical of the government’s “War on Drugs.”

....The lawsuit responds to an amendment buried in the 2004 federal spending bill that cuts off more than $3 billion in federal funding from local transit authorities that accept advertisements critical of current marijuana laws and other drug laws. With at least $85 million at stake, the Washington Metro last week rejected an advertisement submitted by a coalition of drug policy reform groups that criticizes marijuana laws for wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and imprisoning non-violent offenders.

The rejected advertisement sponsored by the ACLU, Change the Climate, the Drug Policy Alliance, and the Marijuana Policy Project shows a group of ordinary people standing behind prison bars under the headline, “Marijuana Laws Waste Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Lock Up Non-Violent Americans.” The same groups that sought to run the advertisement filed today’s lawsuit.

A year ago, we reported unfavorably on brain fingerprinting, a new technology trying to make its way into the criminal justice system. It's in the news again as its foremost proponent argues it shows a man about to be executed may be innocent:

The technique, called "brain fingerprinting", has already been tested by the FBI and has now become part of the key evidence to overturn the murder conviction of Jimmy Ray Slaughter who is facing execution in Oklahoma.

Brain Fingerprinting, developed by Dr Larry Farwell, chief scientist and founder of Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, is a method of reading the brain's involuntary electrical activity in response to a subject being shown certain images relating to a crime.....it simply detects scientifically if that information is stored in the brain," says Dr Farwell.

"It doesn't depend upon the subjective interpretation of the person conducting the test. The computer monitors the information and comes up with information present or information absent." .... brain fingerprinting doesn't have anything to do with the emotions, whether a person is sweating or not; it simply detects scientifically if that information is stored in the brain

Dr. Farwell tested Jimmy Ray Slaughter a few days ago in the Oklahoma prison where he awaits execution next week:

This just in from North Carolina--a death row inmate who won a new trial has been acquitted by a jury and freed.

A prisoner taken off death row after a judge ruled prosecutors withheld key evidence in his murder trial was found not guilty Wednesday in a second trial.Alan Gell, 28, has spent a decade behind bars in the 1995 murder of retired truck driver Allen Ray Jenkins, who was shot twice during a robbery. After the verdict, Gell hugged his attorneys and his mother wept in the courtroom.

He was immediately allowed to go free. When asked what he was going to do, he responded: "Go home, where I should have been years ago."....Asked whether he harbors hard feelings against the state, Gell replied, "No comment. As you all know, there was some misconduct."

But prosecutors in Gell's original trial withheld from defense lawyers a secretly taped phone call in which Morris, who was then 15 years old, did not answer when her boyfriend asked her twice whether Gell killed Jenkins. She also told her boyfriend she had to "make up a story" about Jenkins' death. Also withheld by prosecutors were statements from more than a dozen witnesses who said they saw Jenkins alive after April 3. Gell was either out of state or in jail on a car-theft charge from April 4 until after Jenkins' body was found April 14.

CrimeLynx, which hosts the TalkLeft Newsfeed, is moving to a new server today. Until the changeover is complete, the newsfeed may not appear and TalkLeft may load a little slower. Thanks for your patience.

Howard Dean fought valiantly and brought a new era to grass roots politics. He's going to withdraw from the presidential race today, after his third place showing in Wisconsin. We wish him well.

Howard Dean will end his campaign for the presidential nomination and launch a new "campaign for change" within the Democratic Party to keep his issues alive and his supporters organized, a key campaign aide said Wednesday.

The former Vermont governor, who went winless in 17 caucuses and primaries after falling from leading contender early in the year, does not intend to endorse either John Kerry or John Edwards, the aide said on condition of anonymity. Dean has been impressed with Edwards and suggested on the campaign trail that he would make a better nominee, but Dean has decided to stay out of the Kerry-Edwards contest, the aide said.