Instapundit reports that Sen. Joe Biden is backing off his own legislation, the ill-conceived Rave Act. Smart move, if he intends to run for President (or secure the VP spot.)

Editor and Publisher charges the media is underplaying the death of American troops in Iraq.

According to official military records, the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq since May 2 is actually 85. This includes a staggering number of non-combat deaths. Even if killed in a non-hostile action, these soldiers are no less dead, their families no less aggrieved. And it's safe to say that nearly all of these people would still be alive if they were still back in the States. Nevertheless, the media continues to report the much lower figure of 33 as if those are the only deaths that count.

Check the numbers at Iraq Civilian Casualty Count.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is pushing the federal death penalty on Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico law doesn't allow for the death penalty and the people there are justifiably angry. Elaine Cassell of Civil Liberties Watch has more.

It seems as if Attorney General John Ashcroft never met a constitution he liked. His contempt for the US Constitution is the main theme of this website. But the AG does not favor one constitution over another with his contempt, if Puerto Rico is an example.

The Puerto Rican constitution bans the death penalty. Yet, Ashcroft and his prosecutors are seeking the ultimate punishment against men accused of kidnapping and murder and Puerto Ricans are not happy.

Our coverage of the Puerto Rico case is here and here.

How many Richard Danzigers or Gary Lamars will it take before Congress gets the message? DNA testing protects the innocent and identifies the guilty.

Hearings were held yesterday on the Innocence Protection Act. Peter Neufeld of the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School (co-founded by Neufeld and Barry Scheck) testified, pointing out:

• Passage of the Innocence Protection Act will double the number of prisoners cleared each year by DNA evidence.

• DNA testing varies widely state-to-state, and some prosecutors actively resist efforts to reopen old cases to new science.

• At least 132 Americans, twelve of them on death row, have been exonerated since DNA testing began. Last year, 20 people were exonerated based on DNA.

The Justice Department is resisting the Innocence Protection Act, apparently fearful of a deluge of testing requests. Nonsense. As Neufeld points out,

"...most of the people in prison are guilty ... they know they're guilty and they don't want to go near the DNA test."

For more on the Innocence Protection Act, what it provides, its history and why it's needed, go here. Read this letter from cops and prosecutors supporting the Act. We hope you will contact your elected officials in Congress and tell them to pass the IPA--no innocent person should be kept in jail when available evidence could prove their innocence.

Update: Ed Still of the excellent VoteLaw has more, concluding:

My hypothesis is that Bill Pryor was close-mouthed about his fundraising for [Republican Attorney General's Association] RAGA because it violated state law and his own office's interpretation of that law. Documents I have not seen and skillful cross-examination of Pryor and others may prove the hypothesis.

**************

The Senate was scheduled to vote Thursday on the confirmation of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. It has been delayed again, this time due to Democrats' concerns about his answers to fundraising questions:

Mr. Pryor's nomination was set for a vote today but was postponed after the Democrats raised a new issue that has little to do with his conservative views. They say Mr. Pryor may have been untruthful in answers to the committee about his role in soliciting political donations from tobacco, drug, energy and banking corporations that are often investigated by states and their attorneys general.

Attorneys for a group of Hispanic special agents are accusing U.S. Customs officials of destroying evidence to bolster the government’s position in a pending class-action discrimination lawsuit.

The charges are raised in recent pleadings in the case, which is pending in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The class-action litigation alleges that the government has engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination against its Hispanic Customs agents nationwide.

Westword has a very interesting article about the abuses resulting from the Air Force Academy's Honor Code. If you're short on time, journalist Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence provides this summary.

Illinois Governor Rod Blajnovich will sign legislation calling for the mandatory taping of police interrogations. However, he doubts that reforms alone can fix Illinois's broken death penalty system. We welcome his remarks:

Even though he plans to sign the legislation, and while he reviews a more comprehensive death-penalty overhaul, Blagojevich said he was "not so sure" that a series of reforms "will make me feel comfortable that the death penalty can be implemented in Illinois without being prone to a mistake."

"As someone who supports the death penalty and as someone who would like to see the death penalty back in place in the right kind of cases, putting that aside, under no circumstances could I ever think about [an execution] unless I felt that we had reformed the system in such a way where we're not prone to making the kind of mistakes that were made in the past," Blagojevich said. "And I just don't sense we're anywhere near being at a point where that would be the case."

Blagojevich has previously said he would maintain the moratorium on capital punishment imposed by his predecessor, George Ryan, in 2000. In one of his final acts as governor in January, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 164 people on Death Row, meaning Blagojevich would be unlikely to face a decision on executions anytime soon.

Blagojevich is also concerned about racial profiling. also will sign a law

[he] also said he will sign a measure mandating law-enforcement training on racial profiling and requiring local police to record data in traffic stops so that it can be collected and analyzed to determine whether people are being pulled over based solely on their race....His signature would add Illinois to a list of more than 30 states that have adopted laws or have been ordered by the courts through consent decrees to require special training for police and monitoring of traffic stops.

Also to his credit, Blagojevich intends to sign into law a bill that "would require expunging of arrest records of people later found to be innocent."

The measure also creates a program to provide information to individuals who may be eligible to have their records cleared or sealed. It also provides for the automatic sealing of arrest and misdemeanor conviction records of people who have not had a subsequent conviction within three years.

We hope some other Governors take note and follow Blagojevich's lead.

We were just told that Mark Hurlburt, District Attorney for Eagle County, Colorado, will make an announcement on Kobe Bryant Friday, at 3pm.

Here are what we see as the possible outcomes he might announce: (in no particular order):

• No Charges - He does not believe he can prove Kobe committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

• No Charges - Alleged victim has requested to withdraw her complaint. DA doesn't think he can prove a crime without her testimony.

• No Charges - Investigation has revealed Kobe is innocent of any wrongdoing

• No Charges - He is going to turn it over to a grand jury

• Misdemeanor Offense: Unlawful Sexual Contact and/or or False Imprisonment

• Felony Offense: Sexual Assault (could be coupled with False Imprisonment)

We've heard so many different stories by now, we hesitate to make a prediction. If we had to guess, we'd go with No charges--He does not believe he can prove Kobe committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

The quasi-governmental, anti-drug group CADCA is shilling for the military and seeking more funding for so-called anti-drug programs performed by the National Guard (principally domestic marijuana eradication).

In the effort to reduce drug supply, National Guard personnel are engaged every day in support of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Their specialized training, equipment, and community focus make them a potent ally in the domestic Counterdrug effort.

Activist tip: You can take their information and create and send a 'STOP funding the ineffective and wasteful' National Guard program letter to your elected reprepresentatives and select committee members. The name of the program is the "National Guard Counterdrug Governor’s State Plans Program." [received from NORML]

In conjunction with a show on the Central Park Jogger case, American Justice has an online poll on taping of interrogations. It is awkwardly worded ( in fact there is more reason to tape if a lawyer is NOT present), and there hasn't been a huge response, but 90% of respondents are in favor of taping. Please go there and add your voice.

The videotaping of interrogations recently became law in Illinois. Today's New York Times has this article about it.

No, we're not talking about the past, but the May 28, 2003 death of a 32 year old black man in the "racially divided" town of Belle Glades, Florida. Initially thought to be a suicide by hanging, police are now investigating the death as a possible lynching.