A new report by the National Research Council finds that the methodology used by the FBI to match bullets is flawed. For background on the issue, see our report here.

A panel of government scientific advisers has found that an FBI forensic technique long used to link bullets with assailants is scientifically flawed and potentially misleading to juries, a finding that could affect hundreds of convictions.

The method, which measures the likelihood of a chemical match between bullets found at crime scenes and those in the possession of a defendant, has been used for more than three decades. The Los Angeles Times obtained a draft summary of the report, which is expected to be released by the National Research Council (NRC) in December.

....FBI examiners have often stated or implied in court that a bullet can be traced to a specific manufacturing batch — even to a particular box.....The NRC panel substantially agreed with recent research indicating that bullets from the same source of lead can significantly vary in their chemical makeup, and bullets from different sources — even those manufactured years apart — can share nearly identical amounts of trace elements.

The finding contradicted some prosecutors' depictions of each batch of lead as being unique, like a snowflake or fingerprint. The study suggests the number of "matching" bullets was impossible to determine and could be in the tens of millions or higher — reducing the significance of a match.

As we await the Virginia jury's verdict on whether John Muhammad will be sentenced to life in prison or death, we thought we'd point out this excellent series by investigative journalist Alan Berlow at American Radio Networks called Deadly Decisions about how jurors decide who lives or dies. Using real life cases, the report is divided into in three parts, Juror Responsibility, Juror Confusion and Juror Bias. You can choose to read or listen to the reports.

Alan Berlow provides his thoughts on the project here.

Whether or not one supports the death penalty, we like to assume that when the state is trying to take a person's life, that individual will get a fair trial by a jury. What the Capital Jury Project's research and my own interviews with capital jurors suggest is that this is often not the case.

The Chicago Tribune has a moving and sad series of reports this week under the heading Tossed Out of America. It investigates how America's post-9/11 treatment of Muslims has shattered lives. [link via Patriot Watch.]

On a related note, there is a push to revise how America is tracking foreign visitors.

Police departments are now using palm prints as means of identifying offenders.

All of a person's "friction ridged skin" is distinctively patterned: soles, palms and even the writer's palm, as the outer side of the hand is called. Surveys of law enforcement agencies indicate that at least 30 percent of the prints lifted from crime scenes — from knife hilts, gun grips, steering wheels and window panes — are of palms, not fingers.

30 police agencies around the country now have palm databases.

Beginning next month, the [New York City] department will be able to do computerized matches of the 100,000 palm prints it has already collected. As the database grows, it will become one of the largest of its kind.

Defense lawyers are dubious about the new "science."

Using palm prints for identification concerns some defense lawyers, who point out that the reliability of fingerprint matching has come into question in the courts in recent years, and that there is even less data available on palm prints.

...Some defense lawyers raise the same objections to palm print identifications as they have to fingerprints. "The criminal courtroom is no place to experiment with a scientific method that may incriminate someone," said Steven D. Benjamin, the co-chairman of the forensic evidence committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The FBI says the technique is as reliable as that for fingerprints, and in a few years, they probably will be adding footprints.

Regarding the man who choked on marijuana and died when stopped by police while changing a flat tire...and the woman who died at the Seattle Airport during a similar police encounter, Seattle criminal defense attorney and NORML board member Jeff Steinborn writes the following, in a letter that might be called, Liberty is Always an Unfinished Biz:

What's the excitement all of a sudden about overly "aggressive" cops? Cops beat up an informant? Cops rough up a citizen over a marijuana pipe at the airport and she dies? Cops bully a witness until they get the testimony they want? This is nothing new. I meet several clients every month who, along with their families, have been bullied and physically terrorized while being arrested for marijuana. Often the witnesses against them recant, saying that police forced them to sign false statements accusing the suspect.

In 1963 the Seattle ACLU was working on a project to get civilian review for the police. 40 years later we still don't have it and demonstrably out of control police officers still suffer no consequences unless the unthinkable happens: a fellow officer tells the truth about their misconduct. .

The simple fact is that for a small but readily identifiable minority of police officers, as one prosecuting attorney told me when I complained about a frail pot smoker being roughed up, "that's the way they investigate." Judges, too, turn a deaf ear. Although our constitution requires that the fruits of unlawful police conduct be "suppressed" at trial, the fact that police acted like sadistic gangsters while searching your home will not result in the suppression of the evidence, no matter how extreme the police conduct.

It's a good thing that for this brief moment the daylight is shining on this shadowy corner of law enforcement. Among our otherwise fine law enforcement agencies in this state there is a small but traditionally well-protected group who can only be described as malicious children without adult supervision. This would be a good time for responsible law enforcement officers to join in to help eliminate these abuses. Let's hope this doesn't get buried as it has been for the last 40 years.

Yours very truly,

Jeffrey Steinborn
Board Member,
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
PotBust.com

A new report by the House Committee on Government Reform finds that the F.B.I. Used Killers as Informants:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's policy "must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement" and had "disastrous consequences," the report said.

More than 20 people were killed by F.B.I. informants in Boston starting in 1965, often with the help of F.B.I. agents, it said, but no F.B.I. agent or official has ever been disciplined.

We haven't heard much about the new accuser of Michael Jackson. Here's what Fox News reporter Trace Gallagher said last night on On the Record with Greta:

Now, we can tell you Roger Friedman from foxnews.com is now reporting that the alleged victim, the 12 or 13-year-old boy, was a cancer victim and that one of his last wishes was to go and meet Michael Jackson. Jackson brought him here in Neverland ranch. He felt bad for the boy, paid medical bills, bought the family a car, maybe a house.

In subsequent time, the boy got better, went back to school, and his classmates began teasing him about the relationship with Michael Jackson. His mother, says Friedman, felt bad about the taunting. She contacted a lawyer. The lawyer told her to take the boy to a psychiatrist. And the boy apparently told the psychiatrist about the abuse, and that doctor then went to authorities. Authorities began the investigation. Jackson got wind of it, and apparently, according to Friedman, tried to send this family, all of them, to South America.

[Transcript, Lexis.com]

Update: Mark Geragos has been representing Michael Jackson in this probe since February. The kid reportedly told the therapist he was high on sleeping pills and/or alcohol at the time Michael allegedly took advantage of him.

Amnesty International protesters demonstrate Thursday in London against conditions for prisoners at the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As expected, about 100,000 marched against Bush in London today. The pictures are here. [link via Counterspin, who also links to video of the toppling of the Bush Statue]

Protesters pull down an effigy of President Bush in London's Trafalgar Square on Thursday.

Does President Bush really think that re-naming an unconstitutional and unfair procedure will make it palatable to the American people? Apparently. He and Prime Minister Blair gave a press conference today which included questions and answers about the Guantanamo detainees. No longer are they "enemy combatants." Now they are "illegal non-combatants."

From the White House transcript:

Q What do you say to those people, both those who support what your two governments have done since September 11th, and those who oppose it, that, in fact, the treatment of the captives in Guantanamo Bay actually belies all your talk of freedom, justice and tolerance? And on a specific point, in view of the comments from the Secretary of State and from Charles Kennedy and Michael Howard, is there on the minority of British nationals held captive an explicit offer from the United States to repatriate them? And, if that depends on a request from you, Prime Minister, are you prepared to make it now?

Just received this from NORML:

As the 2003 Congressional legislative session comes to a close, Rep. Mark
Souder, one of the most ardent drug warriors in Congress, intends to introduce legislation to drastically increase penalties for certain marijuana offenses. The bill also enacts new draconian penalties that could sentence compassionate Americans that grow and provide medical marijuana to decades in federal prison.

The "Drug Sentencing Reform Act" would tie the hands of judges by making it harder for them to grant sentences below federal sentencing guidelines when
special circumstances call for it. This will mean longer sentences for non-violent marijuana offenses, with taxpayers like you picking up the cost!

Further, the bill calls for new draconian penalties for growing, distributing, and providing 'high-potency' marijuana to others. This means that someone caught with a bag of high grade marijuana would actually face a stiffer sentence than someone with an equal amount of shwag! The potency provision will be especially damaging to medical marijuana patients and providers who rely on higher potency marijuana to alleviate their suffering from AIDS, cancer, and other maladies.

If this wasn't bad enough, Souder's proposed bill mandates that most people
on parole, probation, or supervised release be subjected to random drug testing, even when their original offense is non-drug related. If enacted, thousands of non-violent Americans could be sent to prison for years for smoking marijuana in the privacy of their own home and then failing a drug test.

We know that Rep. Souder wants to introduce this bill within the next couple of weeks, and that he is currently seeking co sponsorship from other Representatives. Please take five minutes to send your member of Congress a letter asking them to oppose this dangerous legislation by visiting here.

Michael Jackson surrendered today on an arrest warrant citing child molestation charges. He will be booked and released on a $3 million bail. The surrender was arranged by his attorney Mark Geragos, who also represents Scott Peterson.

According to the DA, molestation means:

"arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions or sexual desires of" the offender or a child under age 14. Each charge carries a penalty of three to eight years in prison.

Jackson adamantly maintains his innocence. DA Tom Sneddon says there's nothing personal in his pursuit of Jackson. From his continual comments on Jackson from 1994 to the present, particularly the September 1995 Vanity Fair article and those referenced here, we don't buy it. He's about to reach retirement--....what a nice cap to his career a conviction against Jackson would bring.

We think Michael Jackson is a little odd, but we are very suspicious of the charges in this case.

Update: Here is the statement released by Jackson today.

Another prohibition related death....Man chokes to death trying to hide bag of pot from the cops:

FORT WORTH, Texas - A man changing a flat tire choked to death on a bag of marijuana he had stuffed down his throat in an apparent attempt to hide it
from police who stopped to help him, authorities said. Nickolas Sandoval, 24, died Wednesday.

Officers were unaware at first Sandoval had drugs when they spotted him on
the highway in Corinth, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Worth, said Corinth
police Cpl. Frank Lott. "Officers went from 'Oh, hey, here is someone with a flat tire' to 'Hey, this guy is choking,'" Lott told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Sandoval, of Ponder, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Cause of death:
"asphyxiation due to aspiration of plastic bag," according to a spokeswoman
for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. Sandoval was convicted at least three times of marijuana possession, and pleaded guilty two years ago to a drunken-driving charge.

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