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.

Here's more from the New York Times on the Government's seizure of websites in connection Operation Pipedreams, and the arrest of internet drug paraphernalia sellers across the country a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, after the federal government shut down 11 Web sites that trafficked in drug paraphernalia like bongs, roach clips and cocaine spoons, the Internet addresses didn't simply disappear from cyberspace. Instead, visitors to sites like PipesForYou.com and aheadcase.com are likely to be routed to a message hosted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. "The Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained," the message reads in part. The words are superimposed on an American flag. ....Web surfers heading to some of these sites will not be told that the domain name "cannot be found," as they would if the name was wiped off the Internet. Instead, they could end up on a D.E.A. server, where they'll see the message and the flag. That's raising concerns among some experts in Internet and civil-liberties law. Shutting down a Web site is nothing new. Commandeering the Web address is another thing altogether. Is the electronic flag announcement a cautionary message to visitors that they are being tracked?

This is a new frontier for the Government that will be challenged strenously in the courts. Civil libertarians, such as Marc Rotenberg of EPIC say,

ONCE the government takes control of a domain, Mr. Rotenberg explained, it has the ability to record personal information from all the visitors to the site. "It becomes like electronic flypaper," he said. "It can effectively continue to operate the business to attempt to entrap others in the future."

So is it an acceptable investigatory technique as the Government will claim, or a violation of the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights, as will be argued by defense lawyers? We say the latter. The U.S. Attorney misses the point by miles. She says,

"If you had someone who's walking down the street and looking in the window of a drug paraphernalia store at bongs, a police officer could stand on the corner taking pictures of everyone looking in the window," she said. "You'd have the same concerns."

The two situations are hardly similar. Internet users do not intend the public to know their personal identifying information electronically transmitted by their computers whether they want it to be or not. This is not just a screen name or email address that's being conveyed. That would be like photographing their face. This is like photographing them in their underwear. Thanks to Connecticut defense attorney Todd Bussert for the link]

We're shocked that this hasn't gotten more coverage. We are outraged. The CIA has acknowledged that last September, the seven and nine year old sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, arrested last week and alleged to be a "mastermind" of the 9/11 attacks, were seized by Pakistani authorites, and that this weekend, the kids were turned over to the CIA and then flown to America so that the young boys could be interrogated in an undisclosed location about their father's activities and used to get their father to talk.

Yousef al-Khalid, 9, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, 7, were taken into custody in Pakistan in September when intelligence officers raided an apartment in Karachi where their father had been hiding.

He fled just hours before the raid, but his two young sons, along with another senior al Qaeda member, were found cowering behind a clothes closet in the apartment.

The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities, but this weekend they were flown to America, where they will be questioned about their father.

CIA interrogators confirmed last night that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities.... [Mohammed] has been told that his sons are being held and is being encouraged to divulge future attacks against the West and talk about the location of Osama bin Laden, officials said.

"His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him."

First, let's translate. The operative and missing word from that last sentence is "safe." As in what Mohammed is really being told is that something awful will befall his sons if he doesn't cooperate. Legal? Probably. It's also morally bankrupt. But let's leave the father out of this for the moment. Our concern is the kids.

Isn't this kidnapping? How about a human rights violation? What kind of precedent does this set? Seven and nine years old -- has this Administration lost its mind?

We didn't realize that enemy combatant status was hereditary. A lawyer and a guardian ad litem should be appointed for these kids immediately. The kids should be returned home without delay to whatever family they have left. This is taking "sins of the father" to an unprecedented and unconscionable level.

Bump and Update:

Erdogan won the election. In a television interview today, he says he is not in a hurry for a re-vote and that the U.S. is to blame for the outcome of the last vote.

Erdogan said he wants assurances Turkey will be protected in a post-war Iraq. One of his aides said he doubts a vote will occur before March 19, two days after the U.S. deadline, unless the U.S. acts quickly to provide the assurances Turkey is seeking.

In the interview, Erdogan blamed the United States for rushing him to go to parliament last week before he had gathered enough support, and for alienating the Turkish public with statements that cast their resistance to the U.S. deployment as a bargaining ploy for more economic aid. Now, he said, the Bush administration would have to wait for these bad feelings to ease.

"I shouldn't give a definite date right now, but the U.S. has to take certain steps," he said. "As long as these steps are not taken, it is difficult for us to soften this climate in Turkey."

Erdogan named two issues he wanted the Bush administration to address. He asked for stronger guarantees that ethnic Turkmens in Iraq -- a population of 2 million to 3 million that Turkey says traces its roots to the same ancestors as the Turkish people -- would be fairly represented in a postwar Iraqi government. And he asked the United States to clarify what role Turkey would have in shaping Iraq's future, an apparent reference to Turkish concerns that an independent Kurdish state could be established in northern Iraq.

The Turkish government believes that a Kurdish state would encourage Turkey's own Kurdish population to make similar demands for autonomy, and perhaps lead to a renewal of the fighting between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish military that battered the nation for much of the past two decades.

"We talk about a political approach, so what will Turkey's role be in the end? If Turkey will not have any role, why is it sharing such a risk? This is not clear. It has to be clarified," Erdogan said.

Original Post--3/9/03 9:00 am The polls are closed in Turkey and counting of the votes has begun. It is expected that Recep Tayyip Erdogan will become the Turkish Prime Minister.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been the main power behind the scenes since his Islamic-rooted party formed a government after November elections, but he was barred from political office until a recent constitutional change. Erdogan is running for a seat in parliament in the southeastern province of Siirt. If he wins, he is expected to replace Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and form a new Cabinet within days - possibly removing ministers who have opposed the U.S. deployment."

Our prior post on Turkey and what our Turkish-American friends have told us is here.

Bob Herbert writes about Delma Banks, a likely innocent man about to be texecuted in Countdown to Execution No. 300

The war trumps all other issues, so insufficient attention will be paid to the planned demise of Delma Banks Jr., a 43-year-old man who is scheduled in about 48 hours to become the 300th person executed in Texas since the resumption of capital punishment in 1982.

Mr. Banks, a man with no prior criminal record, is most likely innocent of the charge that put him on death row. Fearing a tragic miscarriage of justice, three former federal judges (including William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I.) have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block Wednesday's execution.

So far, no one seems to be listening.
"The prosecutors in this case concealed important impeachment material from the defense," said Mr. Sessions and the other former judges, John J. Gibbons and Timothy K. Lewis, in an extraordinary friend-of-the court brief.

We need to make time for Mr. Banks. As Herbert concludes,

Prosecutorial misconduct. Racial bias. Drug-addicted informants. "This is one-stop shopping for what's wrong with the administration of the death penalty," said George Kendall, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who is handling Mr. Banks's appeal. If, despite all that is known about this case, the authorities walk Mr. Banks into the execution chamber on Wednesday, and strap him to a gurney, and inject the lethal poison into his veins, we will be taking another Texas-sized step away from a reasonably fair and just society, and back toward the state-sanctioned barbarism we should be trying to flee.