For the dumb law of the week, we go to Iowa, where the state legislature has been trying to pass a bill to reduce the prison population. Instead, they passed a bill raising the penalties for powder cocaine to more closely resemble those for crack cocaine. The result: There will be an increase in Iowa's jail population.

Under the new law, the penalties for powder will be raised so that crack penalties will only be 10 times the penalty for powder, instead of the current ratio of 100:1.

Only in the 'Twilight Zone,' which is the Legislature, could a bill start with the concept of trying to do something with sentencing reform . . . and end up with a bill that will increase our prison population," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Des Moines Democrat and former assistant attorney general.

Crack Cocaine penalties are absurdly high. They should come down to match penalties for powder, not the otherway around. We call this the "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" bill.

The FBI ran over Dr. Steven Hatfill's foot Saturday during their around the clock surveillance of him in connection with the Anthrax investigation. Here's the stunner: Hatfill got a ticket for "walking to create hazard."

According to Hatfill's spokesperson,

Hatfill and his girlfriend were driving to the Georgetown section of Washington while being followed by several vehicles. A green sport utility vehicle was following especially closely, Clawson said.

Shortly before 4:30 p.m., Hatfill's car pulled into a parking spot on the street and Hatfill got out with a camera to take photos of those trailing him. Hatfill told officers the driver of the green SUV "had been recording his movements all day when he decided to take a picture back," according to the police report.

The driver of the green SUV then drove off, striking Hatfill, the reports said. Hatfill did not seek hospital treatment and refused attention from paramedics at the scene. Washington police issued the ticket to Hatfill for walking in the street while attempting to take the photo.

[link via Instapundit.]

What do the wrongfully convicted get in Florida after being exonerated? Would you believe $100.00 and a bus ticket?

Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee petitioned the state 19 times over two decades seeking compensation for the dozen years they lost as innocent men in prison, nine sitting on Death Row. Each time, conservative Republicans and old-South Democrats slapped them down.

When the men finally got their money, $500,000 apiece, Pitts was so frustrated that he didn't show up at the obligatory ceremony with lawmakers to mark the event. Inmates who are exonerated by DNA testing, cleared by prosecutors, released by judges, even pardoned by the governor are not automatically entitled to compensation under Florida law for their years of wrongful imprisonment -- as they are in more than a dozen other states.

When the wrongly convicted walk out of prison in Florida, they get $100 and a one-way bus ticket. This kind of treatment should no longer be tolerated. Particularly in Florida with its high rate of exonerations.

No such law exists in Florida, a state with some of the most notorious cases of wrongful conviction. Vindicated men and women are left with two sobering options: Persuade a lawmaker to file a bill seeking compensation in the conservative state Legislature, or file a civil lawsuit seeking damages.

'It shouldn't be that every time someone is exonerated, we should have to go and make a personal plea before a state legislature,'' said Morrison of the Innocence Project. ``We have a moral obligation to help them. It should be a law.''

The states, of course, won't be passing such bills any time soon with their budget crises. It's another reason we need to pass a federal Innocence Protection Act--hopefully it will have a provision for the "government to mandate that federal Department of Justice money be withheld from any state that doesn't have a system on the books compensating the wrongfully convicted."

Word reaches us that Amber Frey, the woman with whom Scott Peterson had an affair and who went on national television after Laci's disappearance to announce that she did not know Scott was married, has retained counsel--High-profile women's rights attorney Gloria Allred, who also has been a frequent commentator on the case.

We wonder why Amber needs an attorney. It may be that she just wants a lawyer to be her public spokesperson. We've watched Amber's s father on tv sticking up for her, and while he is heartfelt in his comments, he's still her father. Mr. Frey also has said Amber doesn't want to talk to the media herself

Amber should have someone watching out for her interests in the media fest other than a relative. If that's the reason for her needing an attorney, she couldn't have made a better choice than Gloria Allred.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the Guantanamo detainees challenging their confinement. The Court let stand a lower court decision holding that the parties that brought the suit on behalf of the detainees, a coalition of lawyers, professors and clergy, lacked standing.

The lawsuit claimed the detainees have been held without due process, have not been told the charges against them and have no access to lawyers. It said their captivity violated the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention.

A federal judge in Los Angeles and the California-based appeals court had dismissed the lawsuit. The appeals court ruled the coalition failed to show any relationship with the detainees.

You can read more about the case and the initial ruling here. The full text of the lower court decision is available here.

Let's hear it for Arcata, California. The Northern California town, not content to voice its disapproval of the Patriot Act, has gone further and made it a crime to comply with the Act.

Starting this month, a new city ordinance would impose a fine of $57 on any city department head who voluntarily complies with investigations or arrests under the aegis of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism bill passed after Sept. 11.

The town knows its ordinance is "mostly symbolic" since federal law takes precedence over state law. It doesn't care.

Home to about 16,000 and nearly 300 miles up the coast from San Francisco, Arcata made waves in the early 1990s as the first city with a Green Party majority. Greens now hold two of five seats on the council, which recently issued a proclamation against war in Iraq.

Bob Herbert on Jayson Blair in Truth, Lies and Subtext:

The idea that blacks can get away with the journalistic equivalent of murder at The Times because they are black is preposterous. There's a real shortage of black reporters, editors and columnists at The Times. But the few who are here are doing fine and serious work day in and day out and don't deserve to be stigmatized by people who can see them only through the prism of a stereotype.

The problem with American newsrooms is too little diversity, not too much. Blacks have always faced discrimination and maddening double standards in the newsroom, and they continue to do so. So do women, Latinos and many other groups that are not part of the traditional newsroom in-crowd.

So let's be real. Discrimination in the newsroom --in hiring, in the quality of assignments and in promotions -- is a much more pervasive problem than Jayson Blair's aberrant behavior. A black reporter told me angrily last week, "After hundreds of years in America, we are still on probation."

Racial profiling by Alabama state troopers is now formally banned.

The policy, unveiled last week, prohibits troopers from stopping motorists based solely on ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, age or cultural group and mandates annual training.

"This policy clearly states that such actions will not be tolerated," Public Safety Director Mike Coppage said.

There's a new drug in town, one recently approved by the FDA. It is buprenorphine hydrochloride and officials in San Francisco are hoping it will become the "drug of choice" for heroin addicts. It sounds promising.

Buprenorphine hydrochloride is an opiate, but one that is milder than heroin. It is an alternative to methadone. The best part is that users don't have to go to a clinic to get it--treatment will be available in "the privacy of a physician's office in their own neighborhood."

Interestingly, it is not being pushed as a cure for heroin addiction.

Comedian Lenny Bruce has been dead a long time. Contributing to his early demise were his troubles with the law. He was convicted of misdemeanor obscenity charges arising from language he used in his stand-up comic acts.

There will be a news conference in New York this Tuesday at which it will be announced that performance artists and First Amendment scholars are forming a petition drive to ask Governor Pataki to grant Bruce a posthumous pardon.

At the time of his death, some of Bruce's friends mourned him as a suicide victim driven to desperation while trying to appeal the guilty verdict. After he was sentenced to four months on Rikers Island, a jail term he had not yet begun to serve, Bruce grew distrustful of the law and lawyers and insisted on representing himself.

We are finally headed home today after a full week in Manhattan attending graduation events and turning over our last spare dollar to Bed Bath and Beyond, Office Depot and Bloomingdales to furnish the graduate's new apartment--we'll be especially glad to return to high speed internet access so we can resume posting at our normal rate--in the meantime, check out Supreme Court Shuffle, with its comprehensive speculation on likely Supreme Court Justice retirees and replacements.

On the injustice front, Tennessee is scheduled to execute Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman on June 18, notwithstanding the consensus of opinion that he was denied effective assistance of counsel. Law Professor William McClain eloquently writes:

James Bovard takes on Ashcroft and the Patriot Acts I and II in Surveillance State--published in the May 19 issue of American Conservative. Bovard is the author of the upcoming Terrorism & Tyranny: How Bush's Crusade is Sabotaging Freedom, Justice, and Peace.

Welcome to America under the Patriot Act. One person claims to “smell something,” and the feds can round up everyone’s records. From books you check out to credit card purchases, money transfers to medications, your activities are now subject to federal surveillance. Uncle Sam now has a blank check to search and pry—all in the name of security.

Three months after 9/11, Ashcroft announced, “To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this, your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and ... give ammunition to American’s enemies.” Ashcroft is wrong to portray any criticism of Bush administration civil liberties policies as aiding and abetting terrorism. America is overdue for a searching examination of the powers the Bush administration has seized and the powers it is seeking.

Why is it that so many Conservatives seem to get it while the Democrats remain catatonic when it comes to the loss of our liberties? [link via Buzzflash]