Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department have reversed the discriminatory ban of a Gay Pride Event for Justice Department employees.

However, while Human Rights Campaign is praising the decision, it notes that the Department still refuses to endorse the event as it has in the past. Thus, the group says, Ashcroft still is not living up to his promises.

There will be a Race to Execution Symposium October 23-25 at DePaul University Law School in Chicgo. It is free and open to the public but advance registration is advised.

In the last 25 years, the number of people on Death Row in the United States has risen sevenfold. More than half of those individuals are minorities. Racial disparities among inmates on Death Row raise serious questions about the fairness of the American system of capital punishment.

The Race to Execution Symposium at DePaul University College of Law will examine the role that race plays in the administration of the death penalty. This symposium will bring together an influential and diverse group of lawyers, educators, public officials and authors to explore-both pragmatically and academically-the impact of race on the American system of capital punishment and how it ought to be addressed.

The speaker roster is top notch. If you are a member of the media or a professional in the criminal justice system, we hightly recommend the program.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has written a letter to the Senate Judciary Committee opposing the nomination of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

June 11, 2003--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Appeals 'crucial only for Monday-morning quarterbacks'

Comments lead criminal defense bar to oppose nomination of Alabama AG to federal bench

Washington D.C.—The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has voiced its opposition to the nomination of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and ranking Democratic member Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), NACDL President Lawrence Goldman expressed concern that Pryor's stated views on the capital punishment system "bear directly on [his] ability to impartially consider direct and collateral appeals in death penalty cases."

For instance, according to the letter, Pryor, in response to the Judiciary Committee's follow-up questions after his testimony on the Innocence Protection Act, stated that appeals "are crucial only for Monday-morning quarterbacks who try to second-guess things and create issues that are probably not real in the first place."

The letter also cites Pryor's obliviousness to problems with Alabama's death penalty system, where more than one-fifth of defendants lack counsel for collateral review, and his disrespectful remarks directed at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The full text of the letter can be found here under News & Issues very shortly. People for the American Way has an extensive report on Pryor here. Pryor's confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday.

A man hanged in Britain in 1950 has had his conviction quashed. Three London judges ruled the conviction "unsafe" becasue the prosecution had withheld a statement from one of their witnesses that an accomplice who had been tried and acquitted later confessed to committing the murder for which George Kelly was hanged.

The conviction had been obtained solely on circumstantial evidence with no forensic support. Do you really think this hasn't happened here?

The BBC reports on plans for a court and an exectution chamber at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Major-General Geoffrey Miller told the BBC,

...there are also plans to build a permanent prison block for those convicted and sentenced and an execution chamber should any be sentenced to death. "We're getting ready so we won't be starting from scratch," he said.

So far none of the 680 detainees have been charged with a crime. They are all being held as "enemy combatants." Criminal cases are being prepared against ten of them. None have been allowed to see a lawyer or have access to the courts.

Human rights groups have criticised both the makeshift conditions at the prison camp and the lack of rights afforded to the detainees.

A 19 year old college student serving a four weekend sentence for pot was raped by his cellmate last weekend. The cellmate was being held in the jail on prior sexual battery charges.

His cell mate held a ballpoint pen to the teenager's neck at about 9 p.m. Friday and then forced himself on him, [Sheriff] Troiano said. A member of the victim's family reported the incident to authorities on Saturday. Jail detention officers, who check the cells at least once an hour, heard nothing and nothing was reported to them Friday, Troiano said.

"If there was space available, absolutely we would rather keep our weekenders in a pre-designated area," Troiano said. "But because we don't have much space available we have to do with circumstances on hand."

The July/August issue of Atlantic Monthly , due to hit the stands June 24, reports:

As the legal counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales — now the White House counsel, and widely regarded as a likely future Supreme Court nominee—prepared 57 confidential death-penalty memoranda for Bush's review. Never before discussed publicly, the memoranda suggest that Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues in the cases at hand.

....During Bush's 6 years as governor 150 men and 2 women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. Each time a person was sentenced to death, Bush received from his legal counsel a document summarizing the facts of the case, usually on the morning of the day scheduled for the execution, and was then briefed on those facts by his counsel; based on this information Bush allowed the execution to proceed in all cases but one. The first 57 of these summaries were prepared by Gonzales...

Author Alan Berlow obtained the never before published memos, which is permitted under the Texas Public Information Act. He says,

Although the summaries rarely make a recommendation for or against execution, many have a clear prosecutorial bias, and all seem to assume that if an appeals court rejected one or another of a defendant's claims, there is no conceivable rationale for the governor to revisit that claim. This assumption ignores one of the most basic reasons for clemency: the fact that the justice system makes mistakes.

[Edit: The link above now goes directly to the article. This is an excellent piece of reporting. [Thanks to Rev. Mr. George W. Brooks, Director of Advocacy for Kolbe House in Chicago for sending it to us.]

Don't miss New York Times Columnist Bob Herbert's Where Fear Rules the Street about the violence in South Central LA.

It's too bad that the Los Angeles City Council turned down Mayor James Hahn and Police Chief Bill Bratton's request for funds to hire additional officers.

The debate has centered on the allocation of $30 million, which Hahn felt should be used immediately to hire officers. The council majority believed it should go to provide insurance should the economy fail to recover as expected. The council says it will review the possibility of adding officers in January.

How many more kids will have been killed by then? While ordinarily we don't believe that hiring additional cops is an answer to the crime problem (versus spending money on prevention, education and treatment,) LA is a special circumstance. South Central is out of control, the murder rate is phenomenally high, and the conditions there are not safe for anyone.

Scott Peterson's lawyers have subpoenaed Judge Wray Ladine to get information about wiretaps in the case. It seems that the Judge met with a prosecutor and investigator without having a court reporter present to take down what transpired at the conference.

Lead defense attorney Mark Geragos is alleging that the Stanislaus County district attorney's office engaged in "grave prosecutorial misconduct" after authorities intercepted 71 calls between Peterson and McAllister or his investigator.

The defense might seek to have the district attorney's office removed from the case over the wiretap issue, according to documents they filed in court.

The AP is reporting that Martha Stewart "slipped into" the New York FBI office yesterday to have her fingerprints and mug shot taken. She was released "without bail" last week on charges contained in the now famous Indictment against her.

It is very ordinary in our experience to surrender clients before a formal arrest when we know in advance a federal Indictment has been returned against them. We bring them to the U.S. Marshal's Office either right before or after their first court appearance. We don't think Martha got special favors here. Her lawyers have been in contact with prosecutors for over a year--they couldn't reach a deal, hence, the Indictment.

"It's something we have done in the past. It's not unusual," a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said of the discreet way Stewart was processed. The spokesman said similar arrangements have been made before in high-profile cases where officials see little risk of flight. Stewart may travel freely within America and can also make trips overseas if she gives officials 72 hours notice.

Meet Rick Walker, age 47. Mr. Walker has just been released from a California prison after serving 12 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. An auto mechanic,
Walker was convicted of murdering a former girlfriend based upon accomplice testimony. The man police believe is the real culprit is now in custody.

Snitch testimony is inherently unreliable when it is purchased with promises of leniency or freedom. It makes our system morally bankrupt.

On a more positive note, the Santa Clara DA's office, through spokesman Karyn Sinunu, is very apologetic and it appears Mr. Walker may be eligible for compensation.

All wrongfully convicted inmates should be compensated for the time they unjustly serve in prison. Tell Congress to pass the Innocence Protection Act.

ImClone's Sam Waksal was sentenced today to seven years in prison.