Two freed Afgan prisoners are claiming torture by U.S. interrogators at Bagram Air Base in Afganistan. This is the same base where two prisoners whose deaths were labeled homicides, were found to have been beaten before dying.

As he shivered, naked in his cell, two men threw a bucket of ice cold water on him. "I couldn't say anything," Saif-ur Rahman said two weeks after his release from U.S. detention in Afghanistan. "I was so frightened. I didn't know what they would do next."

Rahman's account and that of another recently freed Afghan gave a rare first-hand look into interrogation of prisoners held by the United States in the war against terrorism. Human rights groups have criticized U.S. interrogation methods as abusive. ...

In separate interviews, two prisoners, Rahman and Qayyum, offered similar accounts of their time at Bagram's detention centre. They complained of sleep-deprivation, of being forced to stand for long periods of time, of humiliating taunts from women soldiers, screaming abuses at them through closed doors.

Rahman spoke slowly, explaining with gestures. Sometimes he would stop, look away seemingly embarrassed to talk about his nakedness, about how he was forced to lie spread eagle on the dirt floor while his interrogators placed a chair on either hand and on his feet.

For 20 straight days Rahman was handcuffed. At meal time his hands were tied but the constraints more relaxed. Qayyum said he was held in a large hall with about 100 prisoners, 10 people to a cubicle cordoned off from other similar cubicles by sheets of mesh. He was held for two months and five days and throughout that time was forbidden to talk to his cellmates.

U.S. Military Spokesman Roger King acknowledged some and disputed other allegations by the two men.

A new Justice Department report criticizes the Miami Police for its policies on use of force and choice of weapons.

The report is part of an investigation the Justice Department began into alleged police misconduct against minorities in the Miami area last yea, resulting from accusations of racism and police brutality.

Here is Miami Police Chief John Timmony's response to the report

Addressing the U.S. Department of Justice's critical findings of some Miami police policies and practices, Miami Chief John Timoney said today that he will make necessary changes after he finishes his own review of the agency. ''We have been looking at the entire department,'' Timoney said. ``Our review is even more extensive and exhaustive than the one they are doing.''

You can read the entire Justice Department report here. A Miami Herald intensive report, Fatal Fire, Flawed Justice, is accessible here.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) has written a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft regarding the federal death penalty. Here is the first part of it:

March 14, 2003

The Honorable John D. Ashcroft
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
10th Street & Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Ashcroft,

I write to inquire about the decision-making process for determining whether to seek the death penalty in federal capital-eligible cases.

I am concerned about the fairness of the decision-making process, after reading recent news reports that indicate you have overridden the recommendation of local federal prosecutors in at least 28 federal death-eligible cases. You appear to be pursuing consistency in the application of the federal death penalty nationwide by seeking it more aggressively in jurisdictions where federal prosecutors have infrequently requested authorization from the Attorney General to seek the death penalty. In other words, you seem intent on making the federal system replicative of states that aggressively pursue the death
penalty * states like Texas, which next week is scheduled to execute its 300th inmate in the modern death penalty era.

I am concerned that your apparent determination to increase death penalty prosecutions, including sometimes overriding decisions of local prosecutors, increases the risk that the federal government could execute an innocent person. Former federal prosecutors have said that "they need to take every last precaution to avoid the risk of condemning an innocent person to death." See "In Brooklyn Murder Case, Doubts on Identification," New York Times, Feb. 12, 2003. While you and I may disagree on the fundamental question of whether the federal government should be authorized to use capital punishment, I hope that we can agree that the Constitution and the integrity of our criminal justice system require the fair administration of the death penalty and that only the guilty are convicted....

Feingold then calls upon Ashcroft to provide information about his decisions. The list of requested items is too long to print here, but if we (or you) find an online copy of the letter, or a similar one written by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy on February 7, 2003, we'll post it here.

A federal judge last week refused to prohibit the U.S. government from potentially prosecuting two women with painful medical conditions whose doctors said marijuana is their only medical hope of alleviating their pain.

In the first case of its kind, the two California medical marijuana users sued Attorney General John Ashcroft, seeking a court order allowing them to smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without threat or fear of federal prosecution. U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins expressed sympathy for the women but said federal law required him to rule against them."

After oral arguments in the case,

defense attorneys were impressed by the Judge's evident grasp of their arguments, his willingness to grapple with the fundamental issues, and his thorough familiarity with all of the legal precedents in the case. "This was the most thorough hearing of medical marijuana given by any court," said defense attorney David Michael, a veteran of numerous medical marijuana cases.

Among the issues debated was the 9th Amendment and

- Whether the right to use medical marijuana for relief of pain and suffering was protected as a fundamental liberty interest by the Ninth amendment and substantive due process. [Randy] Barnett, a leading Ninth Amendment scholar, argued that what was at issue was the right of control one's own body, and that no right could be more fundamental.

The Judge also considered whether the federal Controlled Substance Act violated the 10th Amendment. You can access the briefs and opinion in the case, Raiche v. Ashcroft, here.

We highly recommend reading the opinion for its exposition on the 9th and 10th Amendments, particularly with respect to drug cases.

"Politics" was how Tampa computer science professor Sami Al- Arian summed up the motivation behind the phone book- sized indictment statement levelled against him by United States Attorney-General John Ashcroft." Has Ashcroft made Al-Arian "guilty until proven innocent?" His associates think so.

The five defendants in the Central Park Jogger Rape Case who were cleared after serving their sentences held a press conference to announce they will sue New York City seeking $50 million each as damages.

"At issue in the lawsuits will be whether the men were falsely accused or coerced into making confessions, said Michael Warren, who represents three of the cleared defendants."

For all of our prior coverage of the case in one place, go here.

Sometimes justice prevails after all. We reported recently on the brutality charges leveled against Ernesto Velasco, former head of the Cook County jail in Chicago and since appointed by new Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to head up the state's Department of Corrections.

Velasco resigned Friday. During his tenure at the Cook County jail in 1999, "guards allegedly beat dozens of inmates following a gang-related stabbing and conspired to cover up the rampage."

Our detailed coverage is here and here.

"Actor Robert Blake posted $1.5 million bail and was released from jail Friday to await trial on charges of murdering his wife. "Give me a cigarette," Blake, 69, said to his defense investigator as he stepped out of the downtown jail. He took a drag before briefly commenting to a crush of reporters and photographers."

"I never thought I'd make 11 months in a cement box," he said....

Under a new law effective March 17, physicians in the Netherlands will be able to prescribe medical marijuana and pharmacies will dispense it to patients as they do other prescription medications. This will make the Netherlands the first country to treat marijuana in the same manner it treats other prescription drugs.

For more, visit the Marijuana Policy Project and NORML.

The Justice Department is considering a compromise in the Moussaoui case concerning defense access to Ramzi Binalshibh.

First, the comment at issue:

"The trio performed a live show in London on Monday (March 10th) night, and Natalie Maines (news) told the crowd, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

The Dixie Chicks' Response:

"We've been overseas for several weeks and have been reading and following the news accounts of our government's position," the group explains. "The anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding. While we support our troops, there is nothing more frightening than the notion of going to war with Iraq and the prospect of all the innocent lives that will be lost." Maines also says, "I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view."

We're satisfied. In fact, we agree with them. Although we would point out that we don't think the European attitude is Anti-American as much as Anti-Bush and Rumsfeld.

Is That Legal has a long and informative post about prior Congressional attempts to subpoena federal Judge's sentencing records. Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee said it was considering subpoenaing such records for the Chief Judge from Minnesota, James Rosenbaum.

Rosenbaum's lawyer called the threat unprecedented, but Eric Muller says that's not so.