When we first heard that Laci Peterson's parents went to the Peterson house this afternoon to pick up her belongings, we assumed the D.A. and defense had finally agreed on the terms of such an entry and property removal.

It turns out that's not what happened. Laci's parents broke into the house (the locks had been changed, the burglar alarm went off and police had to come to the house,) walked over all the house and removed what they wanted.

That was foolish of them. And wrong. The police have speculated Laci was killed in the house. The house is a crime scene. No evidence obtained from the house from today on will have any integrity.

We don't know if Laci had a will. If not, she died "intestate" and without living children, everything she owned at the time of her death legally becomes Scott's property. Her parents had no right to any of the property.

In other words, the Rochas well may have jeopardized the case against Scott Peterson. No matter how these parents are hurting, they are not allowed to take the law into their own hands. What they did today was an act of vigilantiism. The District Attorney's office should make this clear to them and the Court should enter orders preventing them from accessing the house again until the case is over.

As Atrios says, "It's both the man's home and a crime scene, on both counts the family has really f**ked up here."

The Feeney Amendment went into effect today, along with the Amber Alert Bill (and the revised RAVE Act.) Federal Judges, from those at the District Court level up through Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist are not happy:

Beginning today, federal judges will have less discretion than ever to craft sentences for criminals, because of a little-debated new law that increases the minimum amount of prison time for several crimes and will dramatically change federal sentencing.

....''It turns me into a bureaucrat, and I do not believe for a moment that the public wants that,'' said Nancy Gertner, a US district judge in Massachusetts who has written and lectured on the existing federal guidelines, which already tightly control the range of sentences judges can hand down.

A parade of critics -- US Supreme Court justices, the American Bar Association, the Judicial Conference of the United States, and several current and former federal prosecutors -- has attacked the bill for taking discretion from trial judges.

Under the new law, Congress has "taken the unprecedented step" of dictating to federal judges what sentences must be imposed. Since 1986, when the U.S. Sentencing Commission was established, that role has belonged to the Commission. (the federal sentencing guidelines went into effect in 1987.)

CNN is reporting:

On TV and on paper, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin G. Hatch pledged to hold hearings into the death of a federal prisoner the government says hanged himself even though the victim's throat was cut and his face bruised and bloodied.

A federal court recently awarded the prisoner's family $1.1 million for intentional infliction of pain for misleading the family about the case.

And Hatch didn't keep his promise to hold hearings. Who else is involved? Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK.)

Full report here:

Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich said Thursday that if elected president, he would issue an executive order legalizing the use of medical marijuana ``as an act of compassion and expression of humanity.''

``If a doctor makes that determination, or the patient asks for it, I think it ought to be permitted,'' Kucinich, who is campaigning in California, said in a telephone interview. ``I've talked to too many people who have had family members suffering from terminal illness who feel it would provide them the most relief from pain and suffering.''

Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to state his support for legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Such use is legal in California and seven other states, but federal law prohibits the use of marijuana for any purpose....

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Nat Hentoff in today's Village Voice:

From what I can find out, Ashcroft's plan may be not to introduce Patriot II as a whole, but rather to slip sections of it into bills dealing with national security. Fortunately, the ACLU's Washington staff and other civil liberties organizations keep a very close watch on bills the Justice Department can use to set more land mines for the Constitution.

But it is important to realize that the more than 100 civil-liberties-zone resolutions around the country include a requirement--sent to each of the federal legislators representing that community--that those members of Congress actively work to repeal laws and combat executive orders that violate the civil liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights. I would also suggest messages of support to those members of Congress who already are demanding of Ashcroft, the FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security Department, and others in the ever expanding web of surveillance that they tell us precisely how they are implementing these expanding threats to individual liberties.

Our understanding is the same as Hentoff's about the probable piecemeal approach Ashcroft may take. We wrote about the likely sneak attack on May 8 in discussing the passage of the Schumer-Kyl bill, S. 113, expanding the definition of terrorist for FISA wiretap purposes to include persons not affiliated with a foreign power (the "lone wolf" provision.)

Could this be the beginning of an attempt to pass the provisions of Patriot Act II piecemeal, thereby avoiding the controversial label "Patriot Act II" ? If another section of PA II gets introduced and passed this way, we foresee a monumental problem. The Schumer-Kyl bill was originally introduced on January 9, the same date on the draft of Patriot Act II. A coincidence?

John Muhammad, the older of the two suspects charged in the Virginia sniper cases, lost his bid to have the judge dismiss the death penalty charge against him in the Manassas, Virginia case.

Muhammad had argued that he wasn't the shooter and under Virginia law, he wasn't eligible for the death penalty. The Judge said it's too soon to know what the evidence is in the case and that throwing the count out at this point would be premature.

This is curious:

Shapiro said defense lawyers already have a good idea of the evidence in the Meyers shooting, and there is no evidence that Muhammad pulled the trigger or that he participated in the killing to the degree that it would warrant a death sentence.

''With all due respect, he doesn't know what all the evidence is,'' [DA}Conway said.

Why not? Doesn't Virginia have discovery rules that require the DA to turn over investigative reports to the defense well before trial? How can Muhammad prepare for trial without notice of the evidence against him? Trial by ambush is not due process.

More leaks in the Laci Peterson murder case, this time of one page of the autopsy report stating that plastic tape was found around the neck of the Petersons' unborn child.

The DA is now moving to unseal the entire report. We agree with the request, it's better to have the whole report out in the open.

Most experts are speculating that this information is helpful to the defense, because it tends to suggest that the baby was killed separately from the mother. While some people are able to envision Scott Peterson killing his wife, no one reasonably thinks he would intentionally murder the son as well.

We caution that it's too early to draw any conclusions because none of us have enough information. It could be the tape was debris in the water that found its way to the baby's neck--there is no information that the tape was found as a noose around its neck. The tears in the shoulder could be stab wounds--or they could be cuts resulting from encounters with rocks or other sharp objects in the water.

At TalkLeft and in real life, we always side with the presumption of innocence. We have yet to hear of any physical evidence linking Scott Peterson to a deliberate, premeditated killing of his wife and child. Peterson insists he didn't do it. A cad, a cheater, yes. A murderer? We're not buying that.

The case keeps growing in the media with no sign of abating. We'll be debating the newest developments on the O'Reilly Factor tonight, Fox News Channel, 8pm and 11 pm, EST.

Update: ABC News is reporting that they have seen the entire autopsy report and the coroner's photos and the baby's umbilical cord was not attached to the baby's body. "According to the autopsy, the skin of the child was not decomposed at all, though the right side of his body was mutilated, and the placenta and umbilical cord were not found with the body." Up until today, all other news reports we've seen since the bodies were recovered state the opposite: that the umbilical cord was attached to the baby. Several news outlets today reported the autopsy report shows the baby was attached to a 1/2-centimeter section of his umbilical cord. (See also, here.) It's just one more reason not to judge a case based on media reports.

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By a final vote of 56 to 3, the Illinois Senate passed a sweeping death penalty reform bill. The bill was passed last week by the Illinois House with a 117-0 vote. The bill now goes to Governor Rod Blagojevich for his signature.

The measure proposes refining the capital justice system at nearly every point from investigation to post-conviction legal wrangling, with a multitude of changes meant to prevent execution of the innocent.

Here are some of the provisions of the bill:

It would change police procedures regarding disclosure of their investigative field notes, set up a system to get rid of police officers who lie and create pretrial hearings to help determine the credibility of jailhouse informants.

In addition, the proposal would create a presumption that anyone with an IQ lower than 75 is mentally retarded and not eligible for the death penalty.

The law would reduce the number of situations that qualify a convicted murderer for the death penalty and would create a pilot project for certain police lineup procedures to make them more fair. The law also would require police to inform witnesses that the person administering a lineup doesn't know which person in it is the suspect and that the person who committed the crime may not be in the lineup.

Another condition, called the "fundamental justice" provision, would empower the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn a death sentence if justices thought it was not called for in a particular case. The high court would not be required to jump through the legal hoop of finding a procedural error to justify throwing out the death penalty, which it must do now.

Governor Blagojevich has not committed to signing the legislation. He says it sounds like something he will support, "But I haven't studied it. I haven't looked at it." We're fairly confident the Governor will sign the bill. Days after being elected in November, he announced he would retain the death penalty moratorium instituted under former Governor George Ryan, at least until the legislature addressed the problems pointed out by Illinois Death Penalty Commission.

For more on why this legislation is so sorely needed, we recommend Thomas Sullivan's article, Think Now, Execute Later. Sullivan served on the Illiniois Commission.

Madison Hobley is one of the four inmates pardoned by former Illinois Governor George Ryan before he left office. Hobley spent 16 years in prison for arson and murder, 13 of them on death row.

Hobley has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Chicago police, alleging that they tortured and framed him.

...detectives were accused of beating Hobley and placing a plastic bag over his head to cut off his air supply in an unsuccessful effort to get him to confess.

Hobley alleges detectives manufactured a confession, though he said he never confessed, planted a gas can at the scene and lied at Hobley's trial.

The prosecutors said Hobley wanted to kill his wife and son so he could be with a girlfriend. But the case had been marked by problems. The Chicago police detective who said Hobley confessed to him later testified he threw away his notes when he spilled coffee on them and they got wet and torn.

An arson investigator's initial report indicated the fire started on the ground level of the building. The alleged confession had Hobley saying he started the fire outside his third-floor apartment. Then, at the trial, the detective said the fire could have started anywhere. In addition, one key witness has recanted, and the Tribune found police reports suggesting another key witness was given help by police.

The Commander of the South Side police precinct, Jon Burge, has since been fired--for the torture of another inmate.

Burge was fired by the Chicago Police Board in 1993 for his role in the torture of Andrew Wilson, who was being questioned in the murders of two police officers. Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death, but his conviction was overturned.

Jacob Sullem writes about the passage of Joe Biden's re-named Rave Act in When Holding a Party Is a Crime:

The act prohibits "knowingly opening, maintaining, managing, controlling, renting, leasing, making available for use, or profiting from any place for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing or using any controlled substance." Given this broad language, anyone who organizes or rents space for an event where drug use takes place could face criminal charges. Not only is the law unlikely to keep people from using Ecstasy, it could magnify the drug's dangers by pushing raves further underground and discouraging voluntary efforts to protect users from serious harm.

The most significant short-term risk associated with MDMA is its impairment of the body's ability to regulate temperature. Overheating is a special concern at raves, where people may dance vigorously in crowded, poorly ventilated spaces for hours at a time.

For years volunteer groups like DanceSafe have been passing out fliers at raves and night clubs with advice on how to avoid dangerous overheating-- drink water, take frequent breaks, abstain from alcohol (which compounds dehydration). Event sponsors have helped by providing bottles of water and ventilated "chill out" rooms, measures intended not to encourage drug use but to reduce drug-related harm.

Under the new law such sensible precautions could be seen as evidence that the host or owner knew guests would be using drugs, exposing him to $250,000 or more in civil penalties, a criminal fine of up to $500,000, and a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

[link via Balloon-Juice]

"A national coalition of more than 100,000 celebrities, civil rights leaders, activists and members of Congress will converge on City Hall in New York City next week on Wednesday, June 4, to argue for the repeal of the state's Rockefeller Drug Laws, which are regarded as the most punitive drug laws in the nation."

Under the laws, defendants face mandatory minimum sentences of up to 15 years in prison for the possession and sale of even minor amounts of drugs.

"Our leaders in Albany have talked about reform for years while thousands of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders remain in jail without good reason," [Andrew] Cuomo said. "At a time when we need to focus our limited resources on educating our children, caring for those who are sick, and punishing those who present true threats to our safety, we must reject these inhumane and wasteful laws."

We couldn't agree more. For our coverage of the Rockefeller drug laws, go here.

Received from NORML today:

Pot Compound Effective In Alzheimer's Treatment, Study Says

Baltimore, MD: A synthetic version of the marijuana compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) appears to reduce agitation and stimulate weight gain in patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to clinical trial data presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society.

Nine patients suffering from Alzheimer's-related dementia participated in the trial. Treatment with up to 10 mg of synthetic THC for one month resulted in significantly reduced agitation in six patients, and all patients gained weight. Prior to the treatment, all patients had experienced weight loss due to anorexia. Weight loss, a common symptom associated with Alzheimer's disease, is a predictive factor of mortality.

No adverse side effects to the THC treatment were reported.

A previous trial of 12 Alzheimer patients in 1997 also found that THC significantly decreased negative feelings and induced weight gain. A 1999 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that between 5 and 10 percent of patients prescribed Marinol (synthetic THC) use it to treat symptoms of Alzheimer's.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500.