Instapundit took his Constitutional Law class on a field trip to a shooting range:

The students got a chance to shoot a variety of guns, from a .45 automatic to a .357 magnum revolver to an HK MP5 submachinegun, which last was especially popular with a couple of the women. Indeed, the bellicose-women trend was pretty visible in the class. All the students had been shooting before, something you probably wouldn't find in a law school in the Northeast or in California, but the women were notably enthusiastic. (One even knew from experience that Tuesday is "ladies' day" -- free range time -- at Guncraft.) I suppose that in some ways the teaching value would have been higher if some of the students hadn't had any experience with guns. On the other hand, perhaps the legal parts of the lesson would have been eclipsed by the sheer novelty of the experience. And I'm just happy to have had a successful field trip in a class that doesn't lend itself to field trips very well.

Denver criminal defense attorney Lisa Wayne has put together a similar field trip for NACDL lawyers at the annual meeting in Denver this August where the theme is forensics. We think it's a great idea and are looking forward to attending.

Craig Hines details the errors and malfeasance i n Delma Banks, Jr.'s trial in the Houston Chronicle, adding these comments:

It will be a minor historical moment in Texas' bumptious, assembly-line approach to capital punishment, as Banks will be the 300th Texas inmate to die at the hands of the state since executions resumed in 1982. But it will be a major step in the state's determined effort to ignore or wish away monumental problems with capital punishment (not to mention the institutional moral depravity involved), as the Banks case is a primer in prosecutorial misconduct and procedural nightmares.

The Houston Chronicle writes in its editorial today:

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong," wrote Voltaire.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court acts at the last minute, Texas today will execute its 300th convict since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. The problem, in the case of Delma Banks, sentenced to die for the 1980 murder of 16-year-old Richard Wayne Whitehead in Bowie County near Texarkana, is that the government could very well be wrong.

Allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, racial bias and withheld scientific evidence raise serious questions about whether Banks was wrongfully convicted.

In many ways the case is a microcosm for what's wrong with the way the capital punishment system is set up in Texas. Flaws in the system have caused respected groups like the League of Women Voters to join calls for a moratorium on capital punishment until these issues can be resolved.

The Dallas Morning News calls on Texas to implement a moratorium on the death penalty:

Texas, which executes more people than all the states and even most countries, should pause. New evidence of a flawed system and cautions expressed recently by some of those closest to the process make a good case for a moratorium on executions until Texas carefully reviews its death penalty process to assure that it is just.

The editorial also lists people and agencies to contact to make your voice heard. It's time for Texans to speak out--loudly. If Delma Banks, Jr. is killed tonight, there should be a loud and sustained protest--and call to action.

Advocacy for or against the death penalty isn't the point. Time out to fix a broken system is. It's in the interests of all Texans to support such action.Make your voice heard. Tell elected officials to establish an independent commission to review the Texas death penalty, and recommend the Board of Pardons ands suspend executions until the review is completed.

Senate State Affairs Committee Chairman Bill Ratliff (R-Mount Pleasant): 512-463-0101; fax: 512-475-3751; Box 12068, Austin, Texas 78711.

House State Affairs Committee Chairman Ken Marchant (R-Coppell): 512-463-0468; e-mail: ken.marchant@house.state.tx.us; Box 2910, Austin, Texas 78768.

Find a full list of state officials representing the North Texas area by linking to the Voter's Post Office at the bottom of the Opinion page on Dallasnews.com.

Update: The Austin American Statesman Editorial: Hope for a fair trial lies with Supreme Court

San Antonio Express News Editorial: Stop the 300th Execution

Attorney General John Ashcroft unveiled a DNA testing proposal today.

The Bush Administration plans to spend $1 billion on DNA testing over the next five years. But, almost all is going to testing DNA in old cases, to reduce a backlog.

Of the $1 billion, only a paltry $5 million is being earmarked for testing inmates with innocence claims who were convicted before the advent of DNA technology. That's a pittance--and a shame.

When asked about his presidential intentions, Gary Hart said today

"he has not set a timetable for making an announcement and has indicated that the looming war would delay any plans.

The former Colorado senator did say he will launch a modest fund-raising effort to help cover travel expenses and other costs for the next two to three months.

''We're not looking for massive amounts of money right now. We'll just play it by ear,'' he said.

Details will be available soon at GaryHartNews.com.

A federal judge ruled today that detainee Jose Padilla can meet with defense lawyers despite government concerns.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey rejected the government's plea to reverse his decision last year allowing lawyers to consult with Jose Padilla, 31, who was designated an enemy combatant by the White House last summer. Before Padilla can see a lawyer for the first time since June, ground rules have to be worked out between the sides and possibly the judge. A hearing was set for the end of the month.

A new study has found that drug treatment works less than prison--and costs less.

The Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison was launched in 1990 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City after the crack cocaine epidemic deluged the court system with cases.

''It makes a phenomenal difference,'' said Joseph Califano, chairman of Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. ''We do not have to throw away the key for a large number of people we thought had no chance.''

The study compared 280 program participants with 130 drug offenders who served prison terms. It found that those in the Brooklyn program were 67 percent less likely to return to prison.

The district attorney dropped all charges against Police Chief Earl Sanders and his top aide Tuesday, saying he couldn't prove they helped orchestrate a cover-up of a street brawl involving off-duty officers.

District Attorney Terence Hallinan said that ''in the interest of justice,'' after reviewing 1,300 pages of evidence, he was dropping obstruction of justice charges against Sanders and Assistant Chief Alex Fagan Sr. Hallinan said he would still prosecute other top officers in the case that has rocked the department and the city,

Josiah Sutton was convicted for rape after a Houston laboratory told the jury that his DNA matched the rapist's. But new testing has confirmed otherwise. He was innocent, and spent 4 1/2 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. His sentence was 25 years.

The Houston lab is turning into one of the biggest scandals in recent years.

The retesting is part of a review of the laboratory that began after a scathing state audit of its work led to a suspension of genetic testing in January. Mr. Sutton's apparent exoneration is the first to result from the review.

Legal experts say the laboratory is the worst in the country, but troubles there are also seen in other crime laboratories. Standards are often lax or nonexistent, technicians are poorly trained and defense lawyers often have no money to hire their own experts. Questions about the work of laboratories and their technicians in Oklahoma City, Montana and Washington State and elsewhere have led to similar reviews. But the possible problems in Houston are much greater. More defendants from Harris County, of which Houston is a part, have been executed than from any other county in the country.

"This is an earthquake," Mr. Sutton's lawyer, Bob Wicoff, said. "The ramifications of this for other cases, for death penalty cases, is staggering. Thousands of cases were prosecuted on the basis of this lab's work."

San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan is reportedly close to a decision to dismiss charges brought against the command chain of the SFPD:

District Attorney Terence Hallinan, in an interview Sunday, explained why, in the final analysis, he might drop the felony obstruction of justice charges against San Francisco's top police brass.

"As I said in my closing statement (to the grand jury), the problem is not whether there was obstruction of justice -- the problem is can I show an agreement (to conspire to obstruct)," said Hallinan.

In other words, the trick is proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the brass conspired in a coverup of that alleged Nov. 20 street assault by three off-duty officers. "I don't have to have a smoking gun, but I have to have circumstantial evidence that's credible," Hallinan said. But "if I don't feel I can get a conviction," Hallinan added, "I can't bring charges ethically or legally."

A decent prosecutor, in our view.

The Texas Board of Pardons ands has refused to stop its two scheduled texecutions this week, inlcuding that of Delma Banks, who is likely innocent and who has the support of former FBi Director General William Sessions, former US Court of Appeals Judges Timothy Lewis and John Gibbons (3rd Circuit) and former US Attorney for Chicago and co-chair of the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment Thomas Sullivan, who have filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court asking it to review Banks's case. The brief, which focuses on critical questions regarding prosecutorial suppression of evidence and ineffective assistance of counsel at Banks' trial, can be read here [PDF].

In Banks's case, the Board said his current lawyers filed his petition 7 days late and therefore it wouldn't even consider it. So because his new lawyers were a week late, the Board won't review whether he is innocent--or whether he was denied effective assistance of counsel at this trial (how ironic) or whether there was prosecutorial misconduct.

The National Coalition Against the Death Penalty says,

The conviction and death-sentencing of Delma Banks Jr. by the state of Texas violates three U.S. Supreme Court rulings and constitutes the most severe form of constitutional error and gross injustice, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said today. On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Banks' appeal on a six to three vote.
Banks was convicted and sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Richard Whitehead of Texarkana after prosecutors struck all black prospective jurors from the jury pool and withheld critical exculpatory evidence from the defense.

"It is most unusual for a conviction and death sentence to stand when it violates not one, not two but three U.S. Supreme Court rulings," said Steven W. Hawkins, NCADP executive director. "But that is precisely what has happened in Delma's case. His conviction violates the high court's decisions in Batson, Brady and Strickland."

The Brady ruling requires prosecutors to reveal potentially exculpatory evidence. In Banks' case, prosecutors knowingly allowed key witnesses to perjure themselves at trial, withheld evidence from the jury that would have discredited key witnesses and then argued to the jury that it should believe witnesses they knew were lying.

The Batson ruling bans prosecutors from striking prospective jurors on the basis of race. In Banks' case, prosecutors excluded all African American jurors from the jury pool and he was convicted and death-sentenced by an all-white jury. Banks is African American.

The Strickland ruling addresses the issue of competency of legal counsel. A federal judge characterized the performance of Banks' trial attorney as "dismal" and reversed his sentence. That decision itself was reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a track record of not seriously considering the claims of people on death row.

Hawkins said if courts fail to intervene to prevent Banks' execution, Gov Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons ands must do so. "This case represents an unusual convergence," Hawkins said. "It is a convergence of everything that is wrong with the death penalty. When prosecutors misbehave and when defense counsel is incompetent, the reward should not be an execution by the state."

Well, we now know the Texas Board of Pardons ands won't intervene. Mr. Banks execution is set for Weds.

Sen. Gary Hart will be on Larry King Live tonight, CNN, 9pm EST

On Thursday, March 13, Senator Hart will lead a discussion with university students in Boulder, Colorado on the pending war with Iraq.

For the Senator's latest thoughts on Iraq, see yesterday's op-ed in The Washington Post:

And don't forget tonight's CNN appearance:

"Our current government offers military action, spending, immediate consumption, and individual autonomy. Instead, I propose international diplomacy, savings, long-term investment and the common good."

-closing remarks, Gary Hart, University of California, Los Angeles, March 4, 2003

For more Gary Hart news, visit his website.

From a Professor at the University of Idaho regarding last week's pre-dawm visa raid by 120 armed FBI agents at the University of Idaho:

Well, yesterday was an exciting day in my small town. The FBI flew in 120 agents, fully armed in riot gear, on two C-17 military aircraft (I think -- they were BIG planes) to Moscow Idaho (population 17,000 +/-) to arrest one Saudi graduate student for visa fraud. The raid went down in University of Idaho student housing at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, terrorizing not only the suspect's family (he lived in student housing with his wife and three elementary school age children) but also the families of neighboring students who were awakened by the shouting and lights and were required to remain in their homes until after 8:30 a.m.

At least 20 other students who had the misfortune to either know the suspect or to have some minor immigration irregularities were also subjected to substantial, surprise interrogations (4+ hours) although none were detained or arrested yesterday. Now, however, a witch hunt for additional unamed suspects who supposedly helped the guy who was arrested is on.

The INS and FBI are working together using gestapo tactics to question the students -- threatening their immigration status (and hence their education) if they don't answer questions which are really aimed at the criminal investigation. They have also threatened their partners and spouses with perjury charges if they don't talk.

I spent yesterday working with our immigration clinic director and local criminal defense attorneys to organize legal representation for the students who are being swept into the hunt for co-conspiritors. We have reached out to our entire area (40 -mile radius) to find enough attorneys. Now I'm working on getting resources and support to them.

The Saudi government is providing financial support. Reading about this stuff is one thing. Having it in your backyard is another. The international students at the University of Idaho are terrorized and scared.

Rrelated links:

DOJ

More

USA Today

Thanks to Peter Goldberger, Esq., appellate whiz, of Ardmore, PA for the information.