Suspect John Muhammed in the sniper case did not fare well in court today. The Judge ruled that prosecutors don't necessarily have to prove who fired at the victim to get the death penalty.

A judge in the sniper shootings case said Thursday prosecutors will not necessarily have to prove that John Allen Muhammad fired the shot that killed a Maryland man for Muhammad to get the death penalty. Prince William County Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. also ruled that prosecutors do not have to disclose to defense attorneys their theory about whether Muhammad or fellow sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo fired the shot. Prosecutors agreed to provide only the barest of the additional information sought by defense attorneys.

Muhammed's lawyers say Malvo was the triggerman and want to argue that is a defense to the death penalty charge based on multiple homicides.

The triggerman issue is an important one. Muhammad, like Malvo, is charged with capital murder under two distinct sections of Virginia law. One section, a new anti-terrorism statute passed after Sept. 11, allows the death penalty even if Muhammad didn't pull the trigger. But that law is untested, and some legal scholars have questioned its constitutionality. The other death-penalty provision relates to multiple murders. While the constitutionality of that law is generally unquestioned, it typically allows only the triggerman to receive the death penalty. Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert has said, however, that it is possible for Muhammad to get the death penalty under that section of law even if he didn't pull the trigger.

The judge also ruled against Muhammed in his quest to determine who leaked damaging information about Malvo's post-arrest statements to the Washington Post.

Millette also sided with the Post in quashing subpoenas to police and four reporters who have broken stories in the investigation. Prosecutors filed a motion Wednesday opposing efforts by Muhammad's lawyers asking a judge to investigate the source of leaks by police to the Post. And lawyers for the Post filed a motion seeking to quash subpoenas issued to four of the reporters who have used leaked material in their reporting -- Tom Jackman, Josh White, Maria Glod and Sari Horwitz.

29 states have fetal homicide laws, like the one Scott Peterson is charged with violating. Here's a chart of the laws, courtesy of the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

The Laci Peterson case in California has brought renewed attention to the question of the application of homicide statutes to a fetus. California penal law defines murder as “the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.”

In a subsequent 1994 decision in People v Davis, the California Supreme Court held that a fetus that has “progressed beyond the embryonic state of seven to eight weeks” can be considered a victim under the statute.

California is one of 29 states in which at least one section of the state’s homicide statute includes a fetus as a victim at some point in gestation.... State homicide statutes often cover several different crimes, ranging from capital murder to manslaughter to vehicular homicide. The laws often require different levels of intent for these different crimes and additionally, may have different requirements concerning knowledge of pregnancy. Within most homicide statutes, however, the point in pregnancy at which a fetus is considered a victim does not vary from one crime to another.

[link via Paper Chase]

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has established a color-coded Privacy Threat Index to track the growing threat to privacy resulting from increased government surveillance.

Modeled after the Government's Homeland Security Threat Index, EPIC assesses the current level as Elevated (Yellow) --even though the Homeland Security index has reduced it's terror alert.

Chisum Lee reports in the Village Voice on what it will mean for us when the privacy alert index reaches "red."

If the nation were actually to reach red alert status, odds are the "Privacy Threat Index" color chart at epic.org would be wiped from the virtual world. Red means the government controls everything, the lives of Americans online and off.

...."Red is somewhere between Gattaca"—the science fiction movie in which the state uses genetics to dictate people's lives—"and George Orwell's 1984," said EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg. "Red means Big Brother's in charge."

....The critical point has to be the re-establishment of political freedoms as crisis subsides," he said. Yet the administration has indicated that "the war on terror is a war without end," he said, which threatens an equally ominous endlessness to government practices that impinge on people's privacy. Beneath the gimmick of colors, those practices raise serious questions about when government intrusiveness begins to exceed justifiable national security purposes and inappropriately invade private lives.

We recommend you put the privacy threat index on your sites. Epic provides an easy one line code to insert. As to Chisum Lee, read the whole column--information about the Government's plan to increase use of "biometric identifiers" is just one reason.

The Dallas Morning News opines that the stay of Delma Banks' texecution this week by the Supreme Court warrants a moratorium on the death penalty. The paper also provides this online guide to staying texecutions.

New Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich "said Wednesday he won't lift a moratorium on executions imposed by his predecessor "anytime soon"--and perhaps not at all during his current term."

Amnesty International issued a press release today calling for a halt to executions based on its new report evidencing discrimination in its application.

The death penalty in the United States of America remains an act of racial injustice as well as an inherently cruel and degrading punishment, Amnesty International said today as it issued a new report on the continuing role of race in capital cases in the USA."

While President Bush claimed Texas never executed an innocent man, consider this top story from today's Houston Chronicle:

Attorneys for a death row inmate believe problems at the Houston Police Department crime lab may be the reason their client never received evidence that could have cleared him before trial.

Kudos to Nevada criminal defense attorney Kenneth McKenna for convincing a jury in Reno, Nevada to return a life verdict and reject the death penalty after convicting his client of killing a police officer.

The beleaguered San Francisco Police Department is back in the news today with the release of a report showing the Department has routinely hindered investigations of citizen complaints against police:

San Francisco's independent police watchdog agency issued a blistering report Wednesday charging that the Police Department routinely impedes investigations into citizen complaints of serious officer misconduct. Some of the cases involve the deaths of suspects in custody and shootings by police.

Say hello to new bloggers:

Winds of Change, a Canadian libertarian blog dedicated to "Liberty. Discovery. Humanity. Victory." Check out their interview with Canadian police officer, John A. Gayder. He has started a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Colorado Sheriff John Masters (of San Miguel County, which includes Telluride,) an elected Libertarian Sheriff since 1980, is a prominent member.

The war on drugs is classic proof that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is a noble idea to not want people to ruin their lives through drug abuse. Unfortunately, the way society continues to go about achieving that aim via the WOD is not working. In fact it is making things worse. Almost everything we hate about drugs is a result of them being illegal.

We've added Winds of Change to our "Best of the Other Side" blogroll on the right.

Idols of the Marketplace--found via Hessiod at Counterspin.

Liberal Law Blawg Just Opinions promising a "mix of political, legal, and social commentary....from the liberal perspective. "

The U.S. has acknowledged that three teens, ages 13 to 15, are detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The Government says they did not know the youths were teens until after a medical examination.

Could the youths be the sons of Khalid Mohommad, who were seized in Pakistan following a raid? The ones the U.S. first denied, and then admitted, removing from Pakistan and flying to a secret location in the U.S. where they could be interrogated about their father? Reportedly, Mohammad's sons were only 7 and 9 just a few months ago--so we sure hope it's not them. This Guardian article, however, reports "Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman... would not say how old the youngest prisoner is. Then again, today's Guardian article has Lt. Johnson saying they are 13 to 15. Sounds like some dissemination may be at hand.

Whoever the three teens are, officials confirm they are being interrogated. "There is no automatic assumption they will be released because of their age." Human Rights groups are outraged.

That the US sees nothing wrong with holding children at Guantanamo and interrogating them is a shocking indicator of how cavalier the Bush administration has become about respecting human rights," said an Amnesty International spokesman, Alistair Hodgett.

Amnesty International issued a press release Wednesday calling for the immediate release of the children.

"The detention of children in these circumstances is particularly repugnant and flouts basic principles for the protection of children under international law."

In other Camp X-Ray news, 20 detainees are being housed in a special unit due to repeated suicide attempts. The U.S. says many were mentally ill before being captured. The Guardian reports there have been 25 suicide attempts.

Wednesday we wrote about another federal terrorism case unraveling in Detroit.

Another of Ashcroft's terror cases bites the dust. Omar Shishani, held in Detroit for nine months on terror charges related to his possession of $12 million in counterfeit checks, pleaded guilty to counterfeit security charges Tuesday while all terror-related charges were dropped.

Today there is a new development regarding Shishani: He is going to be a witness for the defense in the ongoing Detroit terror trial of the four men accused of operating a sleeer cell. Shishani is expected to discredit the Government's star witness.

While in jail, Shishani was incarcerated with Youssef Hmimssa, a convicted credit card thief, who has provided the most damning testimony thus far against Karim Koubriti, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, Ahmed Hannan and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi.

Hmimssa had testified earlier in the trial that the four men are Muslim extremists who were trying to buy Stinger missiles and planning attacks in the United States and abroad that might have included shooting down airplanes and driving truck bombs into stadiums.

But Shishani's attorney, Corbett Edge O'Meara, said his client shared adjoining cells with Hmimssa in February and March and began to talk about the terror trial. Shishani asked Hmimssa if the defendants subscribed to a radical branch of Islam that advocates killing those who don't conform to it.

" 'I don't know,' " O'Meara said Hmimssa told his client. " 'I just want revenge for them ruining my life.' "

Prosecutors have assured Shishani, who entered his own guilty plea yesterday, that he won't get a stiffer sentence if he testifies for the defense in the terror trial.

Media Horse is back from vacation and jumps right into the Senator Santorum debacle, with a link to the full transcript of the interview and some choice excerpts. We like this one.

SANTORUM: In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality...

...?

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

SANTORUM: And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately.

Several bloggers, of diverse political persuasions, have some excellent criticism of Santorum--among them, Atrios, Daily Kos, Jim Capozzola, Glenn Reynolds on his MSNBC blog, Arthur Silber of Light of Reason, even Andrew Sullivan.

Among the politicos, Howard Dean blasts Santorum on his blog calling him "unfit for a leadership position" in the U.S. Senate.

Former Congressman Bob Barr is dropping out of the race to return to Congress. The reason: He no longer has "the fire in his belly." We'd love to hear the real reason.

Matthew McAllester, the Newsday reporter who along with cameraman Moses Saman and Photographer Molly Bingham, were held in an Iraqi prison for a week, has written an eight chapter description of the ordeal.

"I just needed to share the rising horror I was trying to control, knowing that we were in the depths of a prison known for years to human rights groups as a center of torture and execution. It was part of this feeling of silent togetherness that the five of us would foster over the next days, a feeling that I suspect we will always have."

We've read his earlier, abridged accounts and were impressed with the detail and his ability to recall and recount. We suggest you give this much longer version a read as well. [link via Jim Romanesko]

Have you heard of Free the State Project? It's a group that wants to create a Libertarian utopia in one state.

A movement called the Free State Project has registered some 3,100 people who would help choose a "candidate" state and move there in hopes of canceling laws against drugs, prostitution, guns and other individual liberties, while privatizing current state functions such as schools. "Rather than change the whole nation it makes sense for all of us to gather in one place," said Elizabeth McKinstry, 33, of Hillsdale, Mich., the project's vice president.

Ten states are under consideration, all with under 1.5 million residents. Their goal is to get 20,000 people to sign up and move to that state. That's the number they say is needed to be in a politically influential position.

States under consideration are: Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware and Vermont. The project is the brainchild of Jason Sorens, 26, a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale University. 3,100 people have signed up so far. When they get 5,000 members, which they expect to happen by the end of the year, the group will vote on the state and members will have five years to move there.

Is this a new take on Woodstock Nation? We can remember an idea circulating shortly after that event that if 500,000 of the nation's hippies moved to Wyoming, they could take over the state. (Back then, word was that Wyoming only had 500,000 residents.) Idealistic and improbable? Sure. But it was also fun to contemplate.

Then there was the movie "Wild in the Streets," about a movement to stop anyone over 30 from holding office. We suspect these ideas come and go, but in these days of the internet, word spreads so fast and among so many that Free the State likely will entice enough people to sign up. Check out their website, it's quite well done and they obviously mean business. We wish them good luck.