The McGill Report has a moving tribute to Washington Post editor Michael Kelly who was killed in Iraq in a humvee accident last night. Kelly is the first journalist killed in the war.

Michael Kelly’s death is one of those moments where you simply stop, your jaw hangs open, tears fall out of your eyes, you feel a rush of existential rage, maybe you look up to the skies, and all you can think to ask is “Why him?" Jesus, the guy was good. A beautiful writer. A thinker. A journalist of ideas and yet also a journalist with eyes, and a heart, and political passion. I loved him best because he stood outside the conventional categories and it bothered him not a bit. His loyalty was to the ideas that he wrote about and not to any categories of left or right; or to beltway friendships or political alliances. The beneficiaries were his readers. His dispatches from Iraq were models of analytical reporting mixed with sensory details that let readers know at every moment that this is a war … policies have human consequences … like death …

You can read Kelly's last dispatch from Iraq here. Washington Post Coverage is here.

Bump and Update: Law Professor Jeff Cooper provides an excellent, detailed and unbiased explanation of the Feeney Amendment, and concludes it represents an injustice that deserves Congressional rejection.

Update 2: The Washington Post editorial opposing the Amendment is here. The American Bar Association joins the call for defeat of the Feeney Amendment. You can read their letter here.

On April 3, the Federal Judicial Conference sent Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) a strongly-worded letter opposing the Feeney Amendment. You can read the letter here.

Lawyers are encouraged to bring this letter to the attention of their local federal judges and, if the relationship permits, suggest that the judges contact, first and foremost, Senator Hatch and, secondly, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

A comprehensive set of materials on the Amendment, including sample letters, has been published on the NACDL website here, accessible here.

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FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) joins NACDL (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) and other organizations in calling for defeat of the Feeney Amendment to the Amber Alert bill passed by the House last week.

This legislation, referred to as the Feeney Amendment, constitutes an extraordinary transfer of power to federal prosecutors, dramatic changes to the laws and procedures that govern sentencing and a drastic encroachment on the independence of the federal judiciary. It places virtually all sentencing discretion in the hands of federal prosecutors. The amendment was attached to child abduction legislation at the last minute in an effort to avoid a debate of its merits and a discussion of its flaws. No input from the Sentencing Commission, the bar or federal judges was sought.

Here's what will happen if the Amendment passes:

Within two weeks, news of the arrest and detention of American Maher (Mike) Hawash, despite the lack of criminal charges against him, has spread from a sympathetic website, " Free Mike Hawash" to the New York Times.

For the last two weeks, Maher Hawash, a 38-year-old software engineer and American citizen who was from the West Bank and grew up in Kuwait, has been held in a federal prison here, though he has not been charged with a crime or brought before a judge. Relatives and friends of Mr. Hawash, who works for the Intel Corporation and is married to a native Oregonian, say he has no idea why he was arrested by a federal terrorism task force when he arrived for work at the Intel parking lot in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb. The family home was raided at dawn on the same day..."

Hawash has not been interrogated and is being kept in solitary confinement. The FBI only will say that Hawash is being held as a "material witness" in an ongoing terrorism investigation.

As a material witness, he is being held to compel testimony. But supporters say he has not been told anything about what the government may want from him.

"Our friend has fallen into some kind of `Alice in Wonderland' meets Franz Kafka," said Steven McGeady, the former Intel executive, who started a legal defense fund and a Web site for Mr. Hawash.

"You hear about this happening in other countries and to immigrants and then to American citizens," Mr. McGeady went on. "And finally you hear about it happening to someone you know. It's scary."

As with Jose Padilla and Yser Hamdi, the Bush Administration and Attorney General Ashcroft in particular once again are abusing the legal system in the name of the war on terror. In Hawash's case, the government's action is more deplorable, because Hawash is not suspected of committing a crime--the government just wants his testimony. And they have yet to meet with him and tell him what they want to know from him.

"The government doesn't have and should not have the power to arrest and detain someone without charging them," said Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants Rights Project. "If this kind of thing is permitted, then any United States citizen can be swept off the street and locked up without being charged."

Relatives of Hawash believe, as we speculated last week, that his arrest is connected to the case of the six people charged in Portland with providing aid to terrorists.

Hawash emigrated to America in 1984 and became a U.S. citizen in 1988. He graduated from the University of Texas. He has worked for Intel since 1992. He is being held at the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon.

FCI Sheridan
P.O. Box 8000
Sheridan, Oregon 97378-9601
503-843-4442
Fax: 503-843-3408

Update: Yale Law Professor and Blogger Jack Balkan has more on the use and abuse of the material witness statute.

Update 2: Here's more from Wired News. And this from CNN.

The Washington Post has the details about "Mohammed," the Iraqi lawyer who risked his and his family's life to save Private Jessica Lynch, whom he had seen being beaten in the Iraqi hospital.

At one point the Iraqis were going to amputate her damaged leg, and he convinced the Iraqi doctor not to do it. He also assured Private Lynch she would be fine, and walked six miles looking for marines. Then, amidst bombs falling around the city, the marines sent him back to the hospital to gather more information.

"Mohammed," his wife and daughter have been sent to a refugee center in the southern port city of Umm Qasr. Read the whole article, it really provides a glimpse into the human side of war.

Pearl Jam played in Denver last night and the Rocky Mountain News reports that some weren't thrilled by their anti-Bush display:

Incensed fans walked out of Pearl Jam's concert Tuesday after lead singer Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush on a microphone stand, then slammed it to the stage. Most of Vedder's antiwar remarks earlier in the Pepsi Center show were greeted with mixed cheers and scattered boos. But dozens of angry fans walked out during the encore because of the macabre display with the Bush mask, which he wore for the song Bushleaguer, a Bush- taunting song from the band's latest album, Riot Act.

We're on our way to the Pepsi Center shortly to see Bon Jovi and the Goo Goo Dolls. We're not expecting any political displays from either group, but if we're wrong, we'll report back here later tonight. Update: Vedder expressed his support for the troops during the concert.

"Just to clarify . . . we support the troops," Vedder said to cheers. "Our problem is certainly not with anybody over there doing something that not too many of us would do right now, not for these reasons. "So to the families and those people who know those folks and are related to those folks and are married to those folks, we send our support. We're just confused on how wanting to bring them back safely all of a sudden becomes nonsupport. We love them, we support them. They're not the ones who make the foreign policy. . . . Let's hope for the best and speak our opinions."

Atrios notes the unhappy fans didn't leave until the encore

Update: Bon Jovi was outstanding. Non-stop energy from start to finish--over 2 hours. Goo Goo Dolls were terrific too. Great show. Only one war mention--Bon Jovi introduced a song they wrote for "the men and women over there," and said, "We're there, let's get it over with." Tons of patriotic cheers when he mentioned the men and women over there.

Update: Hessiod comments on the other side of the Pearl Jam story.

This just in from NORML :

COURT SAYS MOM'S USE OF POT NOT REASON TO REMOVE KIDS

Akron, OH- Smoking marijuana daily does not make a woman an unfit parent and her four children should not have been removed by a county agency, an appeals court has ruled.

Teresa Scott is a single working mother who paid her rent and provided loving care to her children, her lawyer said, but when she admitted she smoked marijuana, the Summit County Children Services Board removed the children in August 2001. The agency's decision was upheld in the county's Juvenile Court.

The 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals overruled that decision, 2-1, on Monday.

"While this court certainly does not condone a parent's use of an illegal substance or abuse of a legal substance, parents have a fundamental right to raise their children," said appeals Judges Donna Carr and William Batchelder.

"Without some evidence that Teresa's supervision of her children or the environment of her children has been affected in some negative way by her use of marijuana, there is not clear and convincing evidence" the children should be removed.

Senator and Presidential contender John F. Kerry had some welcome harsh words for the Bush Administration yesterday:

Kerry said yesterday that President Bush committed a ''breach of trust'' in the eyes of many United Nations members by going to war with Iraq, creating a diplomatic chasm that will not be bridged as long as Bush remains in office. ''What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States,'' Kerry said in a speech at the Peterborough Town Library.

But the best is yet to come--

Taking aim at Attorney General John D. Ashcroft at one point, the senator added: ''One of the reasons why I am running for president of the United States is that I look forward with pleasure and zeal for the opportunity to appoint an attorney general of the United States who believes and reads and abides by the Constitution.''

The FBI has a new Counterterrorism website. The site has details about the 9/11 hijackers, the Anthrax investigation, and contains descriptions of the State Department's 35 designated foreign terrorist organizations. [link via Paper Chase.]

It also has the Bureau's reports on terrorism in the U.S. Here are the links for law enforcement counter-terrorism training and jobs.

Thinking of going to law school? US News and World Report's 2004 ranking of the nation's law schools is hot off the press and available free here. [link via Paper Chase]

We are probably on careers today because we are excited for fellow blogger Matt Yglesias who is graduating from Harvard and just landed a job at Tapped's parent company, American Prospect.

Update: Arizona will let the 27 death sentences stand.

The Arizona Supreme Court will review 27 death sentences and decide if re-sentencing is required following last year's Supreme Court decision that juries, not judges, must decide aggravating facts supporting the death penalty.

Arizona has already re-written its capital punishment law. The 27 cases under review involve those in which aggravating factors were found by a judge and not a jury. Prosecutors allege this is "harmless error."

After spending 19 years in prison for 3 rapes, DNA evidence has proven Dennis Maher factually innocent of the crimes. He left jail today.

A man who spent 19 years in prison after three rape victims identified him as their attacker was freed Thursday based on new DNA evidence, but said he doesn't blame the women whose testimony helped put him behind bars.

Dennis Maher, 42, said he had a message for the women after prosecutors dropped the charges at a hearing at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge: "What happened to you really happened, and I hold no grudges against you."

Maher, a former paratrooper and mechanic in the U.S. Army, said he blamed Lowell police and his former attorney, now deceased, but was too overwhelmed by his newfound freedom to feel any anger about his years of incarceration.

"It's a big change," Maher said during a press conference at the Boston office of his attorneys. "I expected to die in prison ... and now I'm out."

Maher is the 127th inmate to be exonerated and freed through DNA testing. You can read about his case and how he came to be wrongfully convicted here.

There are two Gary Hart meetups tonight, one in Hollywood, CA where Sen. Hart will be present, and one here in Denver at Pablos, 630 E. 6th Ave., Denver, at 8:00 p.m. Details here. This is the first meetup for Hart, all are welcome.

While Sen. Hart has not yet decided whether to run for President (he is now "testing the waters" with speeches around the country,) at least one of his close friends thinks he will run:

FROM THE HART. In private conversations, Gary Hart “sounds pretty certain” he’ll run for President, according to his longtime New Hampshire friend Dan Calegari.