Brian Linse at Aint No Bad Dude says "At this point, I'm ready to trim the field down to Dean, Edwards, and Kerry." Us too, although we'd like to see Wesley Clark attach himself to one of the three above as a VP candidate--or jump in the race himself.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty speaks out on Thursday's Supreme Court ruling overturning a death sentence.

"Former Death Row inmate Aaron Patterson, who was pardoned by Gov. George Ryan in January, filed a federal lawsuit seeking $30 million Thursday alleging he was tortured by Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors covered it up. Patterson alleged he was tortured or threatened by former Cmdr. Jon Burge and officers he commanded as they investigated the 1986 murders of Vincent and Rafaela Sanchez in their South Chicago home."

Patterson is the second of the pardoned inmates to sue.

"This lawsuit is a road map for people who want to understand the police scandal and torture" that has occurred for the last 30 years."

On the Supreme Court's decision in Wiggins v. Smith , we recommend the analysis in Friday's Washington Post .

Yesterday's decision adds new specificity to the court's standards for attorney performance, signaling lower courts and state governments that the justices intend to keep a closer watch on the right to counsel. It also gives new legal ammunition to hundreds of death row inmates. In particular, the court referred to the American Bar Association's demanding guidelines for capital counsel performance as "well-defined norms."

Also take a look at Slate columnist and lawyer Dahlia Lathwick's piece on the death penalty and other cases decided Thursday, in which she notes that the opinions are decidedly liberal for a conservative court. An example:

Then we have Wiggins v. Smith, where, by a 7-2 vote, the same court that would ordinarily uphold any death penalty conviction—even if defense counsel had been hopped up on crack and dressed up as Cookie Monster—actually accepts an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. This court, which has blindly sided with the prosecution in the last few ineffective assistance of counsel cases, seems to have figured out (finally!) how shockingly bad/young/ inexperienced/overburdened some court- appointed defense counsel can really be.

In the same piece, Walter Dellinger writes that "the number of progressive results is close to stunning."

• The method of funding of Legal Services for the poor by "taking" the interest on lawyers trust accounts is upheld against a property rights challenge.
• The Family Medical Leave Act is upheld as applied to the states, in spite of strong case law on state sovereignty.
• Justice Powell's lone opinion in Bakke sustaining the use of race for diversity becomes the opinion of the court.
• A capital case is overturned because of ineffective assistance of counsel.
• The retroactive extension of the time for bringing sex abuse charges is held unconstitutional.
• Bowers v. Hardwick is overruled.

As an aside, no retirements were announced, except for that of the Supreme Court Librarian.

A Mexican Judge has determined that sufficient evidence exists against our favorite bounty hunter, Duane "Dog" Chapman, and his brother and his son, to make them stand trial in Mexico on charges of unlawful detention and deprivation of freedom. The sentence, if convicted, could be anywhere from probation to four years.

TV Producer Jeff Sells and actor Boris Krutonog, who were with Dog when he grabbed Luster, were ordered released and should be home tomorrow.

Dog held a press conference in Mexico today, saying he was glad he caught Luster but sorry he had gone about it the wrong way. He also thanked the Mexican authorities for treating him with respect.

Fox's Rita Cosby said on The Factor tonight that a plea deal had been in the works whereby Dog, his brother and his son would get a six month suspended sentence--but after that was worked out the case got re-assigned to a new judge and now it's up in the air. Negotiotions have been going on nonstop, Cosby said.

The reason for the new judge is that now that probable cause has been found, the case is being moved to Guadalajara, which if we remember correctly, is the capital of the state of Jalisco, in which Puerta Vallarta is also located. Guadalajara is not on the ocean, and is 215 miles from Puerto Vallarta.

We predict Dog will be home shortly. Luster, meanwhile, is in solitary.

An explanation of Mexican extradition policy is here. The reason the feds were able to get Luster back to the U.S. so quickly is that he was deported, rather than extradited. Luster entered the country with a false name, which was a deportable offense. To extradite Luster, the feds would have had to comply with the lengthy extradition process under the 1980 Treaty with Mexico, and it would have taken much longer.

Update: We're scheduled to discuss Dog's situation on Court TV's Catherine Crier's show around 5:30 ET Friday. A reporter in Puerto Vallarta will also be on.

Thinking of going to London or France? Get ready. They may be looking at your underpants.

Presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich has introduced a bill to abolish the federal death penalty. It is H. R. 2574, and you can read the text of it on Thomas, the Federal Legislation Server, by typing its number in the search box. Here's the gist:

PROHIBITION ON IMPOSITION OF DEATH SENTENCE.

(a) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person may be sentenced to death or put to death on or after the date of enactment of this Act for any violation of Federal law.(b) PERSONS SENTENCED BEFORE DATE OF ENACTMENT- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person sentenced to death before the date of enactment of this Act for any violation of Federal law shall serve a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Co-sponsors of the bill include:

From Phoenix criminal defense attorney Nicholas Hentoff:

The Lawrence v. Texas decision on gay sex has important implications for Federal privacy challenges to enforcement of Federal laws to prosecute medical marijuana users.

bq. The majority in Lawrence cited the "emerging awareness that liberty gives substantial protection to adult persons in deciding how to conduct their private lives in matters pertaining to sex."

bq. The same rationale can be applied to medical mariuana and makes the state by state fight to pass medical marijuana laws all the more important in blocking Ashcroft from subverting the State's rights to regulate medical marijuana use by their citizens. [ reprinted with permission.]

Hmmm.....the possibilities seem endless. Prostitution in the privacy of one's hotel room?

Update: A commenter just pointed out the court stressed the decision was applicable to non-commercial sex. Ok, that's today. But we can still see the rationale being applied to prostitution in the future. If the sex act occurs in the privacy of one's rented quarters, whose business is it if a gold bracelet or currency is the quid pro quo?

Update: The link to Mr. Hentoff's website now works. Our error, sorry.

Chante Mallard, who hit a man while driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, who was impaled in her windshield and left to die, was found guilty of murder today by a Texas jury, which deliberated under one hour. The jury will now consider what her sentence should be. In Texas, juries can determine sentences. Think of it as the punishment phase of a capital case, where after finding guilt, a second trial begins to determine if the defendant should live or die. Only in this case, the jury will be deciding between life in prison or a lesser term of years.

We've read and heard a lot of criticism of the defense team in the past day--suggestions that they should have put Mallard on the witness stand in the guilt phase or called more witnesses. (The defense called one witness, an expert, and then rested.) We disagree. The defense, correctly believing that the facts of the case were so ugly that their client would undoubtedly be convicted, has saved her testimony and their witnesses for the punishment phase.

The jury can sentence Mallard to between 2 and 10 years for the evidence tampering charge she pleaded guilty to last week. It can sentence her up to life on the murder charge. We think the defense will put on some strong mitigation evidence and persuade the jurors not to give this young woman life in prison.

We're scheduled to debate the trial issues and defense strategy with Marcia Clark on Hannity and Colmes around 9:30 EST tonight.

G.I. Killed, 8 Injured in One of Three Attacks in Iraq

There's been a similar headline every day for weeks--maybe months. Have we all just become so accustomed to news of death that we don't bother to protest? Daily Kos has been providing outstanding coverage of the post-war deaths of our troops--his latest is here. We hope you'll go over there and read and then get mad. Read Skippy on the subject too.

Today, Arkansas, tomorrow the country?

Troopers' Flashflights Have a Nose for Alcohol

The next time an Arkansas state trooper stops a vehicle and points a flashlight inside, he may be doing more than illuminating the interior. He could be testing the air inside for proof that the driver has been drinking alcohol, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

The motorist would not even know it, which is causing some civil liberties advocates to question whether the practice violates the constitutional right against "unreasonable searches." Now 118 of the 320 state troopers are carrying "The Sniffer" flashlight, which conceals a "passive alcohol sensor" and alerts officers to alcohol in the air inside a vehicle. A row of tiny lights on the device will glow green, yellow or red depending on the amount alcohol detected. Officers can use that information as probable cause to conduct more field sobriety tests and make arrests.

Troopers have been carrying the $683 illuminators — paid for with a federal grant — for almost three months. At least a couple dozen arrests have been made after The Sniffer picked up traces of alcohol. The law enforcement agency is among hundreds in more than 40 states that use the technology, said Jarel Kelsey of PAS Systems International of Fredericksburg, Va., which markets the flashlights.

We've known in the U.S. for a long time that dog alerts on money are meaningless because almost all currency contains traces of cocaine.

Now, a new study by German scientists has revealed that cocaine is found on nearly all euro notes.

Prof Fritz Sögel and a team from the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg studied 700 euro notes from across the euro zone between January 2002 - the month the notes were launched - and last August.

Three per cent were found to be contaminated with an average of 0.4 microgrammes of cocaine particles, just days after the euro's launch, and this figure soared to 90 per cent in seven months.

The most highly contaminated notes, in the first study of its kind on euro notes, originated from Spain.