Here are some Bills of interest to us that have been recently introduced in Congress

S 402 (Feingold, D-WI), to abolish the death penalty under federal law, to Judiciary. S2457, CR 2/13/03.

S 407 (DeWine, R-OH), to provide loan forgiveness for attorneys who represent low-income families or individuals involved in the family or domestic relations court systems, to Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. S2457, CR 2/13/03.

S 399 (Campbell, R-CO), to authorize grants for the establishment of quasi-judicial campus drug courts at colleges and universities modeled after state drug court programs, to Judiciary. S2457, CR 2/13/03.

S 390 (Levin, D-MI), to provide retroactive effect to a sentencing safety valve provision, to Judiciary. S2456, CR 2/13/03.

Sex offenders as young as 12 can be ordered to register as ``sexual predators'' for the rest of their lives, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled.

The Ilinois legislature should revise this law. Juvenile offenders can be rehabilitated. As one of the dissenting judges said,"''The Legislature surely did not intend consequences so inconsistent with reason, logic and common sense."

You can read the opinion here.

More opposition to Patriot Act II, this time coming from the Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial.

"Patriot Act II" offers everything an aspiring autocrat might wish for: It would expand government's spying power and curb judicial checks -- permitting 15-day wiretaps without court approval in a "time of emergency." It would expand aw-enforcers' power to secretly arrest and indefinitely detain anyone thought to be linked to a suspected terror group. It would tighten the Freedom of Information Act to keep the public from discovering whom the government has arrested and why.

Most troubling, perhaps, is a provision that would strip American citizenship from anyone who supports political groups of which the executive branch disapproves. That could mean expatriation for any citizen who makes a contribution to a charity that the Justice Department decides is subversive -- even if the gift was otherwise legal and made in good faith.

We need to keep spreading the word about this rights-abusive bill so that when the Bush Administration tries to sneak it past Congress, they'll be ready to spot it, understand the issues and resoundingly reject it.

"Federal prosecutors inflated their success in terrorism-related convictions last year by wrongly classifying almost half of them, the General Accounting Office has found."

"Over all, 132 of 288 convictions reported as international or domestic terrorism or terrorism-related hoaxes were found by investigators to have been wrongly classified as such for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the accounting office, the investigative arm of Congress, found...."

"The accounting office said the inaccuracies hampered Congress's "ability to accurately assess terrorism-related performance outcomes of the U.S. criminal justice system," information that would be crucial to such Congressional endeavors as approving the department's budget requests"

Update: You can access the full report here.

We've never been to St. Petersberg, Florida, but they sure do seem to have some enlightened citizens there. Check out these Friday letters to the editor on capital punishment.

Letters to the Editors
Bush should fix errors revealed in Holton case

Re: Private attorneys will speed justice in capital cases, letter, Feb. 18.

In his letter in the St. Petersburg Times, Gov. Jeb Bush "rebuts" assertions that Rudolph Holton was exonerated. The governor's implication, of course, is the tired refrain we hear every time someone is freed after being unconstitutionally convicted: Another inmate has just gotten off on a technicality.

Apparently the governor wishes us to retreat from the primary principle upon which our justice system was founded: innocent until proven guilty. If the governor believed in this principle -- and was committed to it and to actual justice rather than paying it lip service -- he would display the integrity demanded by the high position he holds and admit that unconscionable errors were made in Holton's case, and have been in others. He would then act vigorously to prevent such occurrences in the future.

The bottom line is that if the state has insufficient evidence to convict Rudolph Holton, then he is presumptively no more guilty of murder than is Gov. Bush. As someone who knows Mr. Holton, and (though not assigned to his case) is acquainted with the facts of the case, I can tell you that in addition to being innocent in accordance with the principles and ethics this country was founded upon, Rudy is actually, totally, factually innocent.

The governor's response has been to "consider" proposing an investigation into why it took 16 years for crucial evidence to be located and for recanted testimony to be produced. The real question is: Why did the state withhold crucial evidence from the defense and present perjured testimony in the first place? If the answer is that the state thought that it had the right man, our justice system is in serious trouble. If it is something else, we should all be very worried.

The fact that the governor is either unfamiliar with the details of Rudy's case (and chooses to speak authoritatively anyway), or intentionally misrepresents them by implying Rudy "got off," shows that his real priorities lie elsewhere. In his letter, the governor states, "Justice is denied to everyone when cases are mired in our courts for decades." True. But why does that invariably lead to executing people faster, rather than fixing problems that allow people like Rudy to end up on death row in the first place? And why do we never hear the governor remarking on the horrible injustice of an innocent man spending 16 years on death row? Is the injustice greater when an innocent man is freed after 16 years of being "mired in our courts," or if the wrong man is executed in five years -- as Rudy surely would have been under the governor's "streamlined" justice system?

Can private attorneys adequately defend the more than 375 people on Florida's death row? This is a question for honest, open debate, something impossible when the highest officer in our state cannot acknowledge crucial realities to the people of Florida, who rely on him for integrity, concern and forthrightness.
-- Marc Levi, investigator, Capital Collateral Counsel, Northern Region, Tallahassee (I write this as a citizen of Florida and not a spokesperson for CCC-NR.)

Here is some of the Dateline transcript of its interview with Ed Rosenthal, considered a "hero" by the jurors who convicted him--jurors who are very angry that they didn't hear all the evidence in the case. Dateline reports, "Over the years “Dateline” has interviewed many juries, but what these jurors had to say was truly remarkable."

In California, Rosenthal is garnering strong support from a group not generally associated with publicly taking a strong critical stand on drug laws. Don't miss Marijuana Mitzvah .

The Los Angeles City Council voted 9 to 4 today to approve a resolution opposing unilateral war in Iraq

"Elected leaders of the nation's second-largest city on Friday approved a resolution opposing a unilateral war against Iraq and urging the Bush administration to exhaust all diplomatic options before committing military forces."

The City Council voted 9-4 for the resolution after backers gave impassioned speeches that were cheered by hundreds of peace activists who packed the council chamber. Mayor James Hahn signed the resolution, making it the city's official position on Iraq.

"I hope people understand we're not a bunch of crazy politicians trying to dictate federal policy," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who voted for the resolution. "We are echoing the sentiments of people who are hurting. Where do we begin to matter in the priority of our federal dollars?"

What's so bad about Attorney General John Ashcroft ? This Baltimore Sun editorial today, calling for his retirement from Government, lays it out as clear, concisely and convincingly as anything we've read to date. Please, read the whole thing. Here's some:

PLENTY OF John Ashcroft's former Senate colleagues had misgivings when George W. Bush nominated him to be attorney general.

They knew him to be more ideological than intellectual, more judgmental than judicious, and altogether more small-minded than what might be hoped for in a candidate for the top domestic Cabinet post.

Yet Mr. Ashcroft has not merely lived up to his colleagues' expectations during his first two years in office, he has wildly exceeded them, as documented in a recent profile by The Sun's Michael Hill.

He is the nation's chief law enforcement officer, but seems intent on bending both the law and the Constitution to his will.

He has run roughshod over his own federal prosecutors, directing them to seek the death penalty in specific cases rather than use their own discretion.

He has ignored his promise not to impose his religious views on others by seeking to overturn the assisted suicide law in Oregon and by prosecuting Californians who participate in a state program authorizing the medical use of marijuana.

Worst of all, he has taken advantage of the fearful American climate in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks to chip mightily away at American freedoms.

He bullied Congress into passing the so-called USA Patriot Act, which makes it easier to wiretap conversations and track Internet activity of private citizens and to detain potential suspects or witnesses.

Congress balked at another Ashcroft program that encouraged Americans to spy on one another. But now he's coming back asking for the power to make secret arrests, strip citizenship from those with certain political associations and further invade the privacy of Americans.

He all but charges treason against those who raise civil liberty concerns. Such critics give "ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends" and "erode our national unity and diminish our resolve," Mr. Ashcroft said. He contended that complaints about his heavy-handed investigative methods are designed to "scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty."

But he's the one who is truly scary.... Now it's time to retire Mr. Ashcroft from government, as Missouri voters intended.

We're over at Altercation today, subbing for Eric Alterman, who's off promoting his book, What Liberal Media?

We're also in Cancun, for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' spring meeting, with a dial-up modem and expensive internet access, so posting will be sporadic through the weekend. The newsfeed is taking a respite for a few days, but Cursor , Buzzflash, Hamster and Common Dreams will keep you up to date.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will present its Champion of Justice award to Mexican President Vicente Fox at a ceremony tomorrow during its annual Spring Meeting, being held this year in Cancun, Mexico. Subsecretary for Human Rights and Democracy Mariclaire Acosta will travel to Cancun to accept the award on Fox's behalf.

Sandra Babcock, an NACDL member who serves as chief counsel for the Mexican government in cases seeking to convince the United States to honor international due process rights in death penalty cases, said Fox deserves the award. "President Fox has done more than any other world leader to promote respect for international law in the imposition of the death penalty. His most impressive achievement of all was undoubtedly his decision to take the cases of all 51 Mexican nationals on death row to the International Court of Justice."

Lawrence Goldman, president of NACDL, will present the award. The ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. local time at the Melia Cancun Beach & Spa Resort, the site of the NACDL conference and seminar. Speakers at the seminar, which continues through Saturday morning, include Todd Foster, who represented Steven and Marlene Aisenberg in criminal and civil cases related to the disappearance of their daughter, and Louis Sirkin, lead counsel in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, decided last term by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Previous recipients of the Champion of Justice award include death penalty activists Bianca Jagger and Sister Helen Prejean, U.S. Representatives Barney Frank and John D. Conyers, Jr., and journalists Molly Ivins, Bob Herbert, and Maurice Possley.

Thanks to NACDL Media Director Dan Dodson for the news.

A Palestinian college professor previously accused of having terrorist ties was arrested in Florda this morning by federal agents. Others were arrested in Chicago and overseas.

"Television reports showed Sami Al-Arian being led in handcuffs to FBI headquarters in Tampa after the arrest. His indictment is sealed until a court hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon."

"It's all about politics," Al-Arian told reporters as agents A Palestinian college professor previously accused of having terrorist ties was arrested early Thursday by federal agents. He was one of several people arrested here, in Chicago and overseas, the FBI said."

The Government will hold a press conference this afternoon.

Gary Hart again defends his "anti-dual loyalty" comment" against critics.

Former Colorado senator Gary Hart insists he never meant to impugn the patriotism of any particular ethnic group of Americans --especially Jews --when he said in a speech last week that certain Americans can't separate their "loyalties to their original homelands" from their loyalty to America.

Insisting that his overall thesis was sound, Hart added, "Would anyone want to defend the negative?"

Hart said he "threw out a handfulof names" — he cited Irish Americans and Cuban Americans — in response to a question by ABC News at his Stanford speech, but he characterized that response as a "throwaway." He declined to elaborate on those examples, saying his foreign policy speech was not meant to be prescriptive, but only a "framework," a "statement of principles."

Asked whether he had any policy prescriptions regarding Israel, Hart said no. "Anyone who is familiar with my senatorial record," he added, "knows I took an active role in the Middle East and was a strong advocate for a free, strong, independent Israel across the board."

In our opinion, it's time to put this one to rest. The critics' concerns are groundless. Hart provided some more criticism of Bush's war plans in the Forward interview:

Hart had harsh words for current American policy toward Iraq, telling the Forward that "some senior American officials are on record as advocating" a plan for a long-term military presence in the nation that amounts to "an imperial design." "The president should account to the American people more clearly who will go with us, what military force we will use, how much it will cost... and how many American and Iraqi casualties there will be," Hart said. "On a desk in the Pentagon there are casualty estimates. The president is obligated to share those. The worst thing that could happen is that public support will erode, which is what happened in Vietnam."