Cheers to the Indiana Supreme Court for this decision. It ought to be the law everywhere:

Criminal investigators can't keep a lawyer waiting at the jailhouse door while his or her client is inside being questioned by police.

That's the unmistakable command given Wednesday by the Indiana Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that a detained person must be told immediately if a lawyer is waiting to see that suspect.

The decision means police officers can't extract a confession from a suspect while his lawyer is waiting at the front desk.

This ruling is a victory for criminal suspects and defense attorneys in Indiana, who say it's not uncommon for police to keep the two separated while investigators try to get the suspect to waive the right to speak with a lawyer.

Death and Justice, released Tuesday, is a new book exposing the corruption and injustice in the application of the death penalty in Oklahoma. The big surprise to us is the book's principal author: Former OJ cop, Mark Fuhrman.

We spoke with Fuhrman for about 20 minutes last night while we were both in the green room at Fox News in New York waiting to go on Hannity and Colmes. We are delighted to report that he is close to being born-again on the topic of the injustice in the death penalty system. He began the project as a death penalty supporter, thinking any mistakes that were made were few and far between and unintentional. He ended up believing the system is so untrustworthy, there should be a national moratorium until it can be determined whether the system can be fixed.

Fuhrman made four trips to Oklahoma while writing the book and interviewed dozens of officials, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Furman said he couldn't believe what these officals told him--and they weren't even ashamed.

Fuhrman said he absolutely believes there are more innocent people on death row in Oklahoma. He was shocked at what he found. In our conversation, he talked a lot about Joyce Gilchrist, the discredited police chemist. 11 people have been executed based on her work. Here's a paragraph from the book about Gilchrist (link below):

In 2001, the same year that the state of Oklahoma was executing inmates at an unprecedented rate, a series of high-court rulings, of ficial investigations, memos, and reports, as well as the usual chorus of outraged defense attorneys, had criticized Gilchrist for lying under oath "enhancing "the value of the evidence in her testimony and mismanaging the OCPD crime lab. Gilchrist had been a forensic chemist for more than twenty years. She had worked on more than fifteen hundred felony cases. Cops and prosecutors loved her; defense attorneys didn't.

"Joyce Gilchrist is a kick-ass expert witness, "Assistant District Attorney Richard Wintory told me. "That's why everybody is out to get her."

"Joyce Gilchrist is the most lyingest, cheatingest bitch on this earth, " said one prominent Oklahoma defense attorney …

Fuhrman told us there's only two options: Either Gilchrist is an incompetent chemist or a corrupt one. Either way, he said, the 1.500 felony cases she worked on are suspect.

You can read an excerpt of Chapter One of Furman's book, Frontier Justice, here.

We are impressed with Fuhrman and the work he did on this book. People change. We've met Fuhrman before and debated him numerous times, sometimes cordially, sometimes not--but we believe he's for real and we hope the book is a huge success--we 're glad to have him on our side on this one. The innocent people on death row in America really need this story told.

Death and Justice:
An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine
by Mark Fuhrman and Stephen Weeks

Just got word of this today --a conference for grass roots activists in October called Grassroots America Defends the Bill of Rights National Conference:

The September 11th tragedy became the pretext for the hastily passed USA PATRIOT Act and a series of federal executive orders, guidelines, and procedural changes, many of which undermine civil liberties without demonstrably enhancing national security. Such sweeping changes have evoked grave concerns among Americans across the political spectrum.

Soon after the Act was passed, individuals and small groups in a few U.S. cities who were concerned about threats to our freedoms began local grassroots organizing that launched a movement to channel apprehension and anger about rollbacks of civil liberties. Today, a nationwide, broad-based movement of local efforts to restore civil liberties guaranteed under the Constitution and Bill of Rights holds the promise of deepening community involvement in civil liberties.

A broad coalition of organizations (see list below) will convene a national organizing conference in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2003. The conference will assemble representatives of independent grassroots groups; coalitions involved in related legal and legislative action; Muslim, Arab, Hispanic, and other constituencies that have been disproportionately affected by the new laws, and others who want to join the growing movement.

The primary goal of the weekend conference is to advance the movement's impact on national policy... [See the site for more details.]

Those of you who don't regularly read The Washington Times may have missed the launch of a four-month series of the "Funky Winkerbean" comic (it started Labor Day and runs until Christmas) focusing on capital punishment. It raises a range of issues including ineffective assistance of counsel, jail house snitches, mistaken eye-witness identification, clemency, and more.

The comic, syndicated by King Features, runs in four hundred papers nationally. Those who can't find it locally can read it on a two-week delay on their web page, here.

From the press release:

"FUNKY WINKERBEAN" ADDRESSES THE ISSUE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

National Syndicated Comic Strip Sheds a Personal Light on the Death Penalty

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 38 states and the federal government have capital statutes. Beginning on Monday, September 1, the controversial subject of capital punishment will be explored in more than 400 newspapers nationwide - not in the news section, but on the comics pages. The nationally syndicated comic strip Funky Winkerbean, created by cartoonist Tom Batiuk, will introduce a gripping four-month storyline, entitled "The Danny Madison Casebook," examining the complex personal issues behind a death penalty case.

From this afternoon's edition of Congressional Quarterly (subscription only):

SENATE PANEL BACKS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ON VICTIMS' RIGHTS

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved today a proposal to amend the Constitution to specify certain rights for crime victims. The committee voted 10-8 to approve the bill, capping a markup that stretched over a series of meetings in recent months. The panel began marking up the measure (S J Res 1) before the August recess, but struggled to keep a working quorum. The resolution will not see Senate floor action for at least two months, if at all. The proposed amendment, sponsored by Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would give victims or their representatives the right to be heard at public release, plea sentencing and other proceedings. It also would require judicial officials to consider victims' safety when deciding the fate of defendants.

If it goes to a full senate vote, it may be close. 66 votes (2/3) are needed to pass a constitutional amendment. The ACLU's Senate tally indicates 35 are opposed or likely opposed and 51 are in favor or likely in favor. Senate floor action before recess is unlikely because of the busy fall agenda. In the House, there likley will be a subcommittee hearing this fall.

Contact your elected officials now and oppose this amendment. It's the wrong answer to victim's rights. Here's more.

[Thanks again to Kyle O'Dowd, Legislative Director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) for the update.]

We just returned home to Denver and the first news we see is good news--Bush judicial nominee Miguel Estrada has withdrawn his name from consideration for a federal judgeship on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Democrat's filibuster worked. Estrada came up for a vote six times and each time the Republicans failed to get the necessary 60 votes.

From People for the American Way's (PFAW) press release:

Estrada’s withdrawal highlights the importance of continued Senate scrutiny of President Bush’s judicial nominations.

Estrada had been blocked by a courageous Democratic filibuster based on his troubling right-wing record and his refusal, and the refusal of the Bush administration, to answer many legitimate questions about his record and judicial philosophy.

We continue to urge the Bush administration to engage in bipartisan consultation, cooperation, and compromise in naming judges to these important courts. Unfortunately, the administration’s most recent nominees to the very same DC appeals court – Brett Kavanaugh and Janice Rogers Brown – reflect a rejection of that path. The administration continues to pursue a strategy of confrontation and resist any meaningful bipartisan dialogue on judges.

Gen. Wesley Clark has announced he's a Democrat-- many analysts take this as a sign he's inching closer to entering the race for the Democratic nomination for President.

Clark spoke at NYU. Among the comments we found inspiring:

"I fought for the right of people to disagree. I fought for the right of people to protest. I fought for the right of people to question the president, and not just to question, you know, what did he eat today and how far did he run."

"I fought for the right of privacy," he went on. "I fought for freedom from government intrusion of our personal lives. I fought for the belief that every American is a human being who is worthy of respect and who should be treated fairly and equally, regardless of race, religion, creed, sexual orientation or any other discriminating factor."

We think Wesley Clark belongs on the Democratic ticket--either as presidential nominee or as VP to whoever gets the nomination. We hope he's been meeting with Dean and Kerry in recent weeks.

Stay tuned, we think an announcement will be made within the next ten days or so.

Ted Barlow has joined the group blog, Crooked Timber, and has this lengthy post debunking the Bustamante and MEChA story. Thanks to Matt Yglesias for the link. Matt, by the way, has started his new job at American Prospect and can be found blogging at Tapped. He will continue his blog with items that would not fit in there. Good luck with the new job, Matt.

While we are still in New York City, we thought we'd pass along this article we saw in the New York Post: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that three New York jails have been serving vermin along with food to its 6,000 prisoners:

Three of the biggest jails on Rikers Island served up vermin-contaminated food to inmates, the New York federal appeals court ruled yesterday.
The three-judge panel found food sanitation to be "constitutionally inadequate" at the Anna M. Kross Center, the George Motchan Detention Center and the Adolescent Reception and Detention Center.

The record is replete with evidence of high levels of vermin activity in the food-storage and service areas," the judges said. Nearly 6,000 prisoners are housed at the three pretrial facilities.

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We are on a last-minute, unexpected assignment in Manhattan, after having spent the morning in court in Colorado, afternoon on a plane and evening at dinner with our son. So, posting will be light until we get back on Thursday.

The plane ride ended unusually. After landing, the pilot came on to tell us that we wouldn't be deplaning for a while as the police were coming on board to "meet someone." Sure enough, some uniformed cops accompanied by someone who looked to us like a federal agent came on board and headed into the coach section. (We had snagged a last minute upgrade to first.) A young man, early 20's, dark hair, dressed more like a student than a terror suspect, strode up the aisle and left with the police. The pilot then said the first class section could deplane but those on coach had to stay on board a little longer. As we deplaned, there were lots more uniformed police lining the jetway.

We never did find out why the young man was arrested. The flight attendant told us that it was not a surrender-- that the young man did not know he was going to be arrested before the plane landed. We asked a policeman on the way out if the young man had a lawyer, but he just laughed.

We can't help but wonder whether the arrest was the product of the Government's new passenger screening program --and if so, what is in the program that would cause the police to board a plane to publicly remove a passenger that way. It was creepy.

P.S. There were 150 emails waiting when we logged on tonight. The hotel's high speed connection is down, so it's unlikely we will read most of them before tomorrow evening. If you sent a submission or comment, and we haven't responded as quickly as usual, please understand.

Following a 2002 Supreme Court decision that ruled only juries, not judges, can decide to sentence a defendant to death, the 9th Circuit Tuesday invalidatead the death sentences of upwards of 100 inmates in California, Montana and Arizona, by finding the Supreme Court's decision applied retroactively to those on death row when the case was decided.

In an 8-3 vote, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said all condemned inmates sentenced by a judge should have their sentences commuted to life in prison.

...."By deciding that judges are not constitutionally permitted to decide whether defendants are eligible for the death penalty, the Supreme Court altered the fundamental bedrock principles applicable to capital murder trials," Circuit Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote for the court.

Defense attorneys hailed the verdict.

Oliver at Liquid List has this to say about the decision:

Add this ruling to the Pledge decision, the Citizens For Better Forestry decision, the Lo v. Ashcroft decision, and many other recent rulings, and you have a court that actually cares about civil rights, the Constitution, the environment, and other ideals that some call progressive or liberal, but I deign to call simply American.

Update: The Christian Science Monitor reports that 3,500 remain on death row....after the 100 plus 9th Circuit reprieves.

Another drug raid gone bad may have some severe consequences for the town of Bethlehem, PA. In a wrongful death case set for trial next week, the plaintiffs are seeking $1 billion in damages.

The civil trial is set to begin more than six years after Bethlehem police killed 21-year-old John Hirko Jr. during a drug raid of his South Side Bethlehem home at 629 Christian St.

bq. The plaintiffs say an 11-man special operations team recklessly attacked the home April 23, 1997, and left Hirko's body to burn in a fire after Hirko was shot 11 times in the back. The home went up in flames after police tossed a "flash-bang" concussion grenade into the living room.

"There was a conspiracy to assault this property in a fashion that was totally improper, and the conspiracy also is how they covered it up afterward," said John P. Karoly Jr., the plaintiffs' attorney.

Hirko's fiancée, Kristin Fodi, barely escaped by jumping out a second-floor window after police refused to assist her, Karoly said. The suit seeks $905 million in damages for Fodi, Hirko's parents and property owner Tuan Hoang. Karoly said he would settle for $20 million.

Walter in Denver has more details and justly concludes:

Hopefully cases like this will cause police departments around the nation to carefully consider the way they conduct drug raids. The potential for innocents to be hurt is very high, and police departments should be held accountable.

We taxpayers should be very concerned that ultimately we will be paying for any screw-ups by our drug warriors.