A judge today allowed prosecutors to add two more counts of murder to the 160 counts pending against Terry Nichols, for the death of two fetuses. We hope abortion rights supporters jump all over this as it's surely another sign of the attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade.

A state judge who ordered Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols to stand trial on 160 murder charges added two new murder counts Wednesday for unborn babies whose mothers died in the blast.

These fetuses were 26 - 28 and 32 weeks old, respectively.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decided last year that fetuses are viable at the gestation of 24 weeks and that their unnatural deaths can be charged as first-degree murder.

This is judicial activism at work. If you care about this issue, urge the Democrats in the Senate to keep filibustering. Otherwise, the right to choose is in danger of becoming a relic of the past.

Reporters learned today that their phone conversations with Scott Peterson, accused of killing his pregnant wife Laci Peterson, were tapped between January 10 and Feb. 4. They don't like it. We empathize with them but also welcome their being exposed to the unsettling, violative feeling, that comes with having a private conversation taped via Big Brother.

The tap was on Scott Peterson's phone, so anyone who had a conversation using that telephone line for that period was taped.

The Prosecutor said they were using the wiretap as an investigatory tool, hoping for a confession. We doubt they got one. They did intercept calls between Scott and his lawyer, which they said they "minimized" (stopped recording and listening) once they knew it was a legal call. That should have been right away--as soon as they heard, "Scott, this is Kirk). Or as soon as the call was connected to Kirk McAllister, his then lawyer, if Scott initiated the call. Time will tell if they really minimized the calls the way they were supposed to.

One point: wiretapping in an extremely intrusive measure. Wiretap orders are not supposed to be granted unless the proseuctors satisfy a neutral judge that other investigative techniques have been tried and failed or are unlikely to succeed. Wiretaps are used frequently in drug cases because they allow police to identify buyers and sources of the suspected drug dealer target. We will watch closely to see what probable cause the police had to bug Scott's phone, why they believed incriminating evidence would be revealed in his conversations on that phone line, and why good old fashioned physical surveillance combined with their 8 search warrants weren't enough. This sounds like a fishing expedition to us.

We also doubt Scott confessed on the phone--if he had, we suspect we would have seen an arrest a lot sooner.

Viet Dinh, the chief architect of the USA Patriot Act, the legislation that greatly expanded law enforcement agencies' powers to track terrorists, submitted his resignation to the White House, administration officials said. He plans to return to teaching at Georgetown University's law school. Check out PatriotWatch for details.

And don't miss Rumsfeld Rankles in which lawyers, particularly Neal Sonnett of Miami, blasts the plans for military tribunals for, among other things, its gag order effect. Some of our thoughts are here and and all our posts on military tribunals are here.

We are still in New York doing graduation festivities, apartment furnishing and other family related stuff. We have to leave now to do some Court TV (1 to 3 pm EST). Tonight is an NYU block party on E. 4th Street, and then we're going to a play directed by Woody Allen. So posting will still be sporadic, not to mention our hotel room has a 28.8 modem (and the business center wants $10 per half hour for high speed.) Blogging via dialup modem is just too time consuming to make it worthwhile. So bear with us a few more days, and check out the great sites on the right.

Cato Institute has a new report on the co-opting of the grand jury system by prosecutors for use as a way around -- instead of a safeguard to protect -- the civil liberties of criminal suspects. [Link via Randy Balko of the Agitator]

For more on this issue, and the need for reform, click here.

Florida Governor Jeb Bushs orders that a guardian be appointed for a fetus. Abortion rights advocates are angry.

The American Civil Liberties Union, along with the National Organization for Women and Center for Reproductive Rights, filed a brief Tuesday asking a court to deny the governor's request. The brief claims such a judgment would go against precedent that a fetus is not a person.

``He ought to be ashamed of himself,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of ACLU of Florida. ``That he would personally step in and take responsibility to coerce a developmentally disabled rape victim to carry a pregnancy to term.'' Bush's decision overrules child welfare officials who said such an appointment would be illegal.

Zacarias Moussaoui's standby counsel wrote in a brief that Moussaoui was not part of Al Qaeda's 9/11 plans--rather he intended to participate in an offensive after 9/11 --in another country. A hearing will be held June 3 on Moussaoui's motion to interview Ramzi Binalshibh unless a compromise is worked out beforehand.

If the hearing happens, the appeals panel said attorneys could argue in public about whether the appeals court has jurisdiction in this pretrial stage; whether the executive branch's powers necessitate reversal of the lower court's decision in favor of access; and whether a defendant's normal right to potentially favorable information applies to an enemy combatant held overseas.

Stay tuned.

An Oklahoma judge today decided that probable cause exists to try Terry Nichols on 160 counts of murder in state court in Oklahoma.

Nichols is serving a life sentence without as a result of a federal trial on charges of conspiring to kill 8 federal officers in the OKC bombing. Our view: The state prosecution is a waste of time and recources and serves no purpose other than satisfaction of the victims' misguided desire for vengence.

Oklahoma is facing a $678 million budget shortfall. Teachers are being laid off, health care is in crisis mode. It has cost the state over 2 million to defend Nichols in state court to this point. No surprise that the the prosecution costs have not been released. But here's a guidepost: The feds spent $82 million investigating and prosecuting McVeigh. The defense spent $15 million ot defend him.

Re-trying Nichols will waste scarce state resources. This prosecution is an exercise in vengence, pure and simple. Some of the victims agree.

"We have teachers being laid off right and left. Our health care system is in shambles. And we're going to try someone who's going to spend the rest of his life in prison," said Jim Denny, whose two children were injured in the bombing.

All we can say is we hope journalists stay on top of the costs of this prosecution--we don't want one penny of our federal tax dollars going towards the state prosecution. In 1996, a federal judge removed the federal case from Oklahoma to Denver because Nichols couldn't get a fair trial in Oklahoma. Nothing has changed. The arrogance of a few local politicians deciding that Oklahoma's honor demands the ultimate penalty, regardless of a federal jury deciding otherwise, is deplorable.

A death verdict against Terry Nichols in Oklahoma state court carries no credibility in our view. Let's recognize it for what it really is--an attempt to commit state-sanctioned murder. Shame on Oklahoma and its district attorneys. Maybe if they used the money earmarked for prosecuting Nichols for disaster relief to repair damage from recent tornados, our precious federal dollars wouldn't have to go be directed there.

"On June 2, if the FCC, the Corporate Media and the Bush Cabal have their way, American newspapers, tv, broadband, cable and radio will begin consolidating onto the balance sheets of a handful of major corporations like FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS. Whatever is left of media democracy and diversity of voice will be lost to those who promote commercialized interests and corporate think."

"Congress and the FCC should stop media deregulation and work to make the media diverse, competitive, balanced, and fair."

Stop them by supporting Moveon.org’s STOP THE FCC campaign by clicking here." [Link via Lisa English at Ruminate This.] Skippy also is on top of the issue and has these action links.

In Chicago, prostitute-activists are urging social services over arrests.

Whatever their childhood aspirations, each of the women -- ranging in age from their late twenties to their early fifties -- ended up selling their bodies to strangers for money. They sometimes were beaten and cheated by customers, served time in jail and were run out of neighborhoods by residents who said the women's behavior destroyed property values.

Now, in face-to-face meetings set up by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the women have begun telling their hard-knocks life stories to those same neighbors who once shooed them away. Their goal is to get society to focus less on criminal prosecution and more on solving the underlying problems that lead women such as them -- and some men, too -- to the streets in the first place: sexual abuse, drug dependency, poor job skills and low self-esteem.

We agree with providing social services instead of jail time. In fact, we think prostititution should be decriminalized altogether.

A bill introduced in Texas to release Tulia drug bust prisoners pending a ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals , which could take months, is advancing. Two special prosecutors working on the cases are backing it. The bill was introduced by Houston Sen. John Whitmire who said,""I want these folks out is the bottom line, like yesterday."

It's a travel day for us, so we won't be posting again until late tonight. In the meantime, check out our weekend additions, as well as the great sites on the right and our newsfeed on the left.

Justice Antonin Scalia spoke at a conference in Alaska Friday. When asked about the Patriot Act, he responded,

Scalia said the more irresponsible and violent a society becomes, the more citizens' freedoms will be restricted. He said that U.S. citizens tend to interpret the Constitution as giving them more power than the document provides.

The shape of things to come?