Actor Robert Blake will be going home from jail. The Judge in his case, while finding probable cause to make him stand trial for the murder of his wife, also granted him release on a $1.5 million bond with home detention as a condition.

Madelyne Toogood, the mom videotaped beating her young daughter in a parking lot has regained custody of her daughter.

"The judge recognized Ms. Toogood has done a good job with parenting skills," her attorney, Fred Hains, told the South Bend Tribune. Madelyne Toogood underwent court-ordered parenting and anger management counseling.

We're glad to see that in the end, Toogood was treated like every other offender and the Judge refused to make a decision that bowed to the media lynch mob mentality. We're not condoning the behavior, only the result.

Update: The bill to ban partial birth abortions passed. Daily Kos has the numbers and analysis.

Lisa English of RuminateThis brings us up to date on the vote in Congress today on abortion:

The fundamentalist legislators of America - nearly all of them men - will decide today on whether this nation's women will be allowed to end pregnancies, that if carried to term poses a "grievous threat" to the health and life of the mother. The men, all bought and paid for by religious extremism, believe that a woman's life is not nearly as worthy as that of a fetus. We're not talking about the wholesale slaughter of near-term babies. We're talking about a rare situation...where two doctors, unrelated to abortion, come together and agree that the pregnancy should end for medical reason. The extremists, who have no problem executing children and men on death row, have problems terminating pregnancies where the mother's health is in trouble. It's murder, they say. God told them so.

Lisa's right, we are headed down a dangerous path here....go read her whole post.

In today's New York Times, MTV Refuses Antiwar Commercial:

MTV has refused to accept a commercial opposing a war in Iraq, citing a policy against advocacy spots that it says protects the channel from having to run ads from any cash-rich interest group whose cause may be loathsome.

Nonetheless, viewers in New York and Los Angeles will be able to see the rejected spot from Not in Our Name starting today on MTV's "Total Request Live" and "Direct Effect," because its backers did an end-run around the channel by buying time on local cable providers.

A scene from an antiwar ad, directed by Barbara Kopple, who has won two Academy Awards for documentaries. The ad was rejected by MTV.

As other advocates have butted up against similar policies prohibiting advocacy ads at most national television channels, they have increasingly resorted to making local buys. A few minutes of commercial time are reserved each hour for local cable operators or broadcast affiliates.

Guess its up to the Internet to spread the word. Television ads may dry up, democratic candidates may clam up, but we'll all be here. Dissent will go on.

"Victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks can watch closed-circuit coverage of the trial of alleged conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in courthouses in Washington, New York and New Jersey, a federal judge has ruled."

"But U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema rejected a plea by federal prosecutors to set up additional viewing sites in Pennsylvania, California and Massachusetts."

"The decision Tuesday triggered an immediate outcry from victims' families and public officials in Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, killing all 44 people aboard."

Elizabeth Smarth's father said she was definitely brainwashed by her alleged captor.

"Smart, who broke down at times, said the man had held his daughter at knifepoint until August in the mountains directly above their Salt Lake City home. Elizabeth heard rescuers calling her name but could not reply. "It kills me she was there for three months, literally up in the hills (behind our house)," Smart told NBC's "Today" show."

We've been asked to supply an open thread where readers can talk and debate their own topics, be it the war, elections, crime, whatever. Since we've got court most of the day, and won't be posting till later this afternoon, we're going to give it a try.

We only ask that you not list urls without the appropriate coding because they skew the size of the comments box and sometimes the whole site, and not use obscenities because censor software will block us to many law firms and businesses that read us, and it's difficult to reverse. Other than that, TalkLeft is your's today.

Get ready for the Silence of the Dems. Once the war begins, none of the leading candidates or potential candidates will discuss it.

Democrats have a brand-new dilemma over the looming Iraq invasion: What should they say -- especially the half-dozen or so camped out in Iowa right now, crusading for the '04 presidential nomination -- once war breaks out?
Even some antiwar Democrats are insisting they won't criticize the Bush administration once the fighting begins. Massachussetts Sen. John Kerry, who has staked out a complex pro-disarming Saddam, anti-unilateral-war approach to the mess, says he'll hit the mute button immediately. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a more unequivocal war critic than Kerry, also suggests he'll clam up once the shooting starts. War critics like former Sen. Gary Hart and Florida Sen. Bob Graham may postpone official announcements of their candidacies if war begins, as expected, in the next couple of weeks. Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun, who are not given much chance of winning the nomination, have had the courage to tell reporters that they'll stick with their antiwar message come war.

Gary Hart has been clear the past two weeks that while he may decide to run for President, he won't decide until after the war, he won't criticize the war while its going on, and that because politics and war don't mix, he won't announce a candidacy until after the war.

We just heard a long live interview with Hart on Boulder's KBCO radio station and he repeated this. Hart has been very busy this week. Yesterday he gave a speech at the Denver Forum and signed books. This morning he was on the radio at 8:00 am. He's speaking tonight at the University of Colorado in Boulder. If you're in the area, come listen to him. It may be the last chance you get to hear his welcome views on war before he too clams up. Details here.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has initiated a new disciplinary policy for the city's police force. It has the approval of the Police Commission, the Mayor, city residents and the cops on the force. Bratton said it boils down to this:

"If you are right, we will back you up. If you make a mistake, we will retrain you. If you are corrupt, we will jail you."

Under the new policy, station captains, rather than the Internal Affairs Bureau, will handle "procedural errors or other nondisciplinary complaints." A fact-finding system will be implemented to resolve minor complaints between residents and officers. There will be "alternative conflict resolution groups in which non- and minor-discipline cases can be resolved in sessions with the officer and the complainer, Bratton said."

The cops quoted in the article are clearly relieved. We're glad to see city residents, top brass and street cops LA warming to Bratton and trusting him. We've always said, if anyone could turn that corrupt and demoralized police department around, it would be Bill Bratton. Too bad they can't clone him to do the same for San Francisco.

The Supreme Court has granted a last-minute indefinite stay to Delma Banks, just minutes before his scheduled execution tonight, which would have been Texas' 300th execution since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated.

Jim Marcus, a lawyer with the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit law firm that represents indigent defendants, said Banks' case is typical of the problems with death penalty appeals. Finding additional evidence in a case is only part of the challenge; the bulk of an appellate lawyer's time is spent trying to persuade a court to look at it, Marcus said.

"You spend 80 percent of your time asking, `Can we please get to the merits?' " Marcus said.

The Board of Pardons ands did not consider Banks' clemency petition because his attorneys filed it Feb. 24, two weeks before the execution date but a week past the deadline.

The Court's order indicated the justices were undecided about the case and wanted time to consider whether to take it on.

South Knox Bubba got dismissed from jury duty in a crack cocaine case where the defendant, an African-American, allegedly sold to an undercover agent. SK notes the only other African-American in the room was the prosecutor--and that on voir dire he volunteered his criticism of the war on drugs and was promptly booted off.

A note to prospective jurors: If you say you think drugs should be legal or decriminalized or are a victimless crime, you will never get on the jury. Defense lawyers need people like you on juries. You have to tell the truth, but think a few minutes how you phrase it so you can stay on.

SK links to a certain alleged violent offender at the bottom of the post, commenting that it's hard to be against the death penalty sometimes. It shouldn't be--life without the possibility of is a death penalty--and the defendant suffers for many more years.

This is amazing. After nine months. And the death in jail of the handyman who was arrested on a violation because he was a suspect in the case--but obviously not the one who kidnapped her:

SALT LAKE CITY (March 12) - Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nearly eight months ago, was found alive Wednesday during a traffic stop in suburban Salt Lake City, police said.

''Miracles do exist,'' said the girl's uncle, Tom Smart.

The girl was found in the car of a drifter who was pulled over in a traffic stop Wednesday afternoon, Sandy police spokeswoman Michelle Burnette said.