Thomas Coleman, the Tulia, Texas cop largely responsible for the convictions and accusations against one-tenth of the African-American residents of that town in a drug case has been indicted for perjury.

Jeff Blackburn, a lawyer in Amarillo who has represented several of the defendants, said of Mr. Coleman's indictment: "Swisher County is now busy trying to make it seem like they're fine, upstanding people who respect the law. This still doesn't change the fact that there are people in prison out there chopping cotton in the sun because of Tom Coleman." Thirteen of those arrested are still in prison, and only one of the 38 convictions has previously been thrown out. The 37 others will remain unless the appeals court, known for a conservative voting history, decides to overturn them.

Coleman's indictment is related to his alleged lying about events connected to his having been previously charged with stealing county gasoline in a hearing ordered by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals concerning the Tulia convictions.

"This is about perjury, not about $70 worth of stolen gasoline or racism," Roderique S. Hobson Jr. of Lubbock, the special prosecutor who obtained the indictment, said in an interview. "This basically undermines the confidence of the convictions in this sweep."

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

t a c i t u s is back--go over and read--for his war blogging posts!

In yet another grab for power and blow to justice, Attorney General John Ashcroft has issued a legal opinion declaring that most illegal immigrants can be jailed indefinitely without bond when national security risks exist.

The opinion means such aliens will not be released on bond while their cases are being decided by immigration judges if the government can show national security issues are involved. "Such national security considerations clearly constitute a reasonable foundation for the exercise of my discretion to deny release on bond," Ashcroft said in the 19-page opinion, which was signed last Friday.

The opinion was written at the request of the Homeland Security Department which now oversees immigration matters. The case involved the continued detention of one of the 216 Haitain immigrants on a boat that ran amuck in Miami last October, who had jumped into the bay and reached U.S. land. 100 of the immigrants had been granted bond, and Ashcroft's decision likely will affect them as well, according to immigration law experts. The National Coalition for Haitian Rights will appeal the decision.

Dina Paul Parks, the New York-based coalition's executive director, said the decision further erodes immigrants' legal rights. "If you were lucky enough to get a sympathetic judge you could potentially get released on bond. Now even that prospect is taken away," she said.

Ashcroft's opinion applies to all immigrants except Cubans, who if they reach shore, are allowed to remain here. [thanks to Linkmeister for emailing the article to us.]

Update: The text of the opinon is here.

The federal judge presiding over the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui ruled in his favor Thursday on the issue of whether he can read the Government's alternative proposal to allowing him to conduct live interviews of captured Al Qaeda members who might provide testimony favorable to his defense.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui is entitled to see a top secret government plan for giving him access to information from a senior al-Qaida captive.

The government attempted to submit the material to the court and keep it from Moussaoui for the time being. Classified as "Top Secret/Codeword," the information was provided as a substitute for allowing Moussaoui to interview the prisoner, Ramzi Binalshibh, via video hookup.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who ordered the hookup in January, said Moussaoui must see the substitute proposal now.

Either this is a very fair judge, or a slick attempt to create justification for the Government's dismissal of the federal case against Moussaoui in favor of a military tribunal.

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.