The San Francisco Chronicle has an editorial today on the recent giveaway of medical marijuana by officials in Santa Cruz. It strongly supports medical marijuana and says the DEA is fighting the wrong war and should give it up.

Calvin Burdine is the inmate on Death Row in Texas who had his state conviction reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals because his lawyer slept through the trial.

Then, the lawyer who had worked for fifteen years to reverse his conviction was disqualified from re-trying the case because Harris County, Texas hasn't certified him as a capital defense lawyer.

So a new lawyer was appointed. Now the trial judge is trying to force the new lawyer to be ready for trial in this 20 year old capital case 96 days after she was appointed.

The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association says the time constraint is unheard of and impossible to meet. No one could be ready to try the case in that short of period of time.

"In an open letter of protest to local judges circulated Wednesday, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association said that no attorney can provide a satisfactory defense in a capital murder case with just 96 days of preparation."

" 'This is especially true where the case is almost 20 years old, where there are voluminous records and materials to digest and research, and where the attorney who represented Mr. Burdine for the last 15 years has not been permitted to remain as (his) court-appointed counsel,' the letter states."

"Signed by more than 40 local defense lawyers, the letter asserts that Burdine's case would be the quickest capital case to go to trial in Harris County history."

As one local lawyer said, "It's very ironic that the case that got the Harris County capital murder system its worst publicity and most embarrassment is now on this fast track to the same sort of justice. It should be just the opposite."

The ACLU has filed suit against the Judge, both for not allowing Burdine his choice of counsel and for rushing the trial date.

The chief administrative judge for Harris County has said "nobody has proved to him that a proper defense cannot be prepared in three months, even though he does not remember hearing of a capital case going to trial in such a short span."

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Texas has executed 281 inmates, more than triple the number of Virginia, which ranks second. In 2002, Texas has accounted for half of all the executions in the country.

Harris County is a pipeline to death row. If it were a state, it would rank third in the country for the number of executions, behind only Texas and Virginia. Harris County has more people on death row than 31 of the 38 states that have the death penalty.

As the Houston Chronicle reported in a special series of articles on the death penalty last year, "In Harris County, the difference between life and death often has little to do with the moral weight of the crime. It has everything to do with how easy a death sentence is to secure."

Calvin Burdine deserves a fair trial. He's waited 20 years for one. The Judge can wait a little longer than 96 days to ensure he gets one. The State of Texas owes him that. Burdine is getting a raw deal and Harris County is going to get another black eye.

Michael Skakel, convicted of murdering Martha Moxley when they were both 15 has filed his appeal.

He has raised more than 25 grounds for appeal, the first of which argues his case should not have been transferred from juvenile court to adult court for trial. He also argues the case should have been dismissed before trial because there was a five year statute of limitations on murder in 1975. There are numerous allegations of errors by the Court in admitting evidence and against the prosecution for withholding evidence and otherwise impermissibly prejudicing Skakel during trial.

You can read the appeal document outlining all 25+ issues here.

If you missed our prior post on what went wrong for Skakel at the trial, you can read it here.

The Washington Post outlines the factual defense of the six men from the Buffalo area charged with providing material support to Al Qaeda:

"Bin Laden allegedly visited the camp during their training and delivered a speech lacerating the United States and Israel. Several of the defendants cut short their visit to the camp after bin Laden's speech."

"And that, in essence, forms the defendants' defense. Relatives and their attorneys say that religious leaders duped the men into coming to Pakistan, and then funneled them into the al Qaeda camps."

"The defendants' friends and families have noted that the men left the camps before they completed the training, and that the men returned to the United States in June 2001, months ahead of schedule."

This is a good reminder of why we shouldn't make our minds up before hearing from both sides.

There was no ruling today on whether the six men from the Buffalo area charged with providing material assistance to Al Qaeda will be be released on bond or detained pending trial. The hearing will continue tomorrow.

The Government presented its evidence today:

"Investigators have said that evidence indicated the suspects were at the al Qaeda training camp of al Farooq, near Kandahar, at the same time as John Walker Lindh, a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan as a Taliban fighter."

"While in Kandahar, the six allegedly were lectured on holy war, prayers and the use of suicide as a weapon. Investigators also allege that the six were trained at the camp to use assault rifles, handguns and long range rifles and that bin Laden visited the camp and they heard him give an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel speech."

"The FBI has said that it had no information the men were planning any attacks in the United States."

The burden is on the prosecution to establish that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the men at future proceedings or the safety of other persons in the community. 18 U.S.C. Section 3142 (e), (f).

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that captured Al Qaeda suspect Binalshibh is a likely candidate for the first miltary tribunal trial.

"Experts said that in the Bush administration's view Binalshibh is the ideal type to be tried by tribunal because of his potential value as an intelligence source and the government's desire to subject him to lawyer-free interrogation. They said complications arising from other prosecutions influence the matter too."

It's complicated though, because Moussaoui's lawyers want to call Binalshibh as a witness in his trial--they think it could affect the life or death decision the jury will have to make if it convicts Moussoui.

The Bush administration of course wants Binalshibh held incommunicado--and that could create "an unprecedented clash for the American justice system."

Others "believe trying Binalshibh in a civil court would ensure a fair trial and help America's image abroad." We agree.

"Justice Department officials would not comment publicly Tuesday on whether they would push to try Binalshibh before a traditional jury, though others indicated privately that the debate within the administration was already settled in favor of a tribunal."

Intelligence officials certainly are pressing to keep Binalshibh away from the federal court system so they can subject him "to whatever kind of interrogation they see fit without giving him the right to a lawyer or other legal protections."

Binalshibh is a crucial witness for Moussaoui. The Indictment against Moussaoui alleges that it was Binalshibh who wired money to the hijackers and to Moussaoui for flight lessons. We think the Courts would agree.

Which brings us back to where we were a few days ago, what if the Government has to choose between Moussaoui and Binalshibh? Binalshibh seems to be far more critical to the Government in terms of his being able to supply information about the attacks. Moussaoui has been nothing but a thorn in the Government's side since his case started.

Maybe a compromise could be worked out where the Government drops the death penalty request against Moussaoui if Moussaoui pleads and agrees to a life sentence thereby avoiding the need to call Binalshibh at all.

Whatever happens, it should occur publicly. The Government should not be allowed to hide behind a veil of secrecy in this case as it has with Padilla and Hamdi and the other detainees.

Both the Attorney General and the Governor of Illinois have the last name Ryan. The AG is Jim Ryan and the Governor is George Ryan.

This is important today because AG Jim Ryan is suing Gov. George Ryan in an effort to block clemency hearings for 157 inmates on death row.

Gov. Ryan, who instituted the much needed moratorium on captial punishment in Illinois, is leaving office in January and plans to grant clemency to those still on death row because none of the 85 reforms recommended by the Illinios Commission on Capital Punishment have been instituted.

By now it is no secret that the death penalty system is broken. And that if an innocent person has not already been executed in this country, it is only a matter of time until that occurs. Illinois has one of the worst records: Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the Innocence Project reports that in Illinois "twelve people had been executed and thirteen freed from death row after their innocence was proven, five of them due to postconviction DNA testing" by the time Governor Ryan issued his death penalty moratorium two years ago.

So why is AG Jim Ryan trying to stop Gov. George Ryan from holding clemency hearings? We'd call it a political move. He's trailing badly in the polls in his battle with Democrat Rod Blagojevich to replace George Ryan as Governor.

It's not that AG Jim Ryan opposes the moratorium. He can't. In fact, he is one of the reasons it happened.

"Indeed, Jim Ryan's own personal involvement in one of the most controversial death penalty cases, that of Rolando Cruz, has left him open to criticism for being slow to fix the system. He headed the DuPage County state's attorney's office when Cruz was convicted for participating in the murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. Cruz was later acquitted at a third trial amid charges that police and prosecutors fabricated evidence."

"The Cruz case was one that spurred George Ryan to declare a moratorium on executions in 2000."

Gov. Ryan is doing the right thing by ordering that sentences for those currently on death row in Illinois be converted to life sentences without the possibility of. Jim Ryan's lawsuit is merely a desperate power play to stay politically alive.

We agree totally with Rittenhouse and Atrios on this one: Support Bill McBride for Governor of Florida and send Jeb Bush packing. Give Until It Hurts!

Federal Judge Nancy Edmonds in Detroit has ruled that the government violated the constitutional rights of a Lebanese man arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks by subjecting him to secret detention and deportation hearings.

The Judge opined, "It is well established that aliens subject to deportation are entitled to due process protections afforded by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.... Courts have found that an open hearing is fundamental to guarantee a fair hearing."

Judge Edmonds gave the Government ten days to either agree to open hearings or release the man.

It is likely the case will go to the Supreme Court since Judge Edmonds opinion (Sixth Circuit) is opposite that of the Third Circuit.

The outcome will impact hundreds of foreign men of Arab and Muslim background who have been detained since the September 11 attacks.

The Buffalo News today reports that relatives and lawyers of those arrested on terror charges insist the men were duped.

"Relatives of the Lackawanna men accused of forming a terrorist sleeper cell say the young men never intended to train with al-Qaida forces and think they were strung along by those who recruited them for religious studies in Pakistan."

"Defense lawyers, who stop short of admitting their clients trained at the al-Farooq camp in Afghanistan, said the young men left friends and family in Lackawanna in the spring and summer of 2001 for religious studies, not military training. Or at least intended to. "

Bail hearings are scheduled for later today.

Two other men are being sought. One, Kamal Derwish, 29 is believed to be the leader of the alleged cell and is now the subject of a world-wide manhunt.

Our good pal Skippy the Bush Kangeroo takes us to the Buffalo News report that it was President Bush who ordered the arrests of the five alleged members of the Lackawanna purported "sleeper cell" with suspected ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Skippy also has this to say in response to our "Buffalo Eight" post yesterday:

"it looks more and more to me like another dirty bomb case: the govt. needed some good publicity in their 'war on terror,' so they found somebody who talked to somebody who knew somebody who said something that made somebody think somehthing about somebody who might want to blow something up...if they got all the explosives and and the motivation and knew how to do it and nothing was on tv that day..."

"in other words, children, we have entered winston smith's world of thought crimes."

"when the buffalo 5 (as they were when first arrested) were taken into custody, and the next day, the press release said no guns were found, they weren't actually planning anything, i said to myself, it's just another attempt to distract us from the fact that we don't have jobs and there's a huge deficit and both osama bin laden and ken lay are still free men."

The Marijuana Policy Project reports that the medical marijuana initiative will be on the D.C. ballot this November .

"The District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE) today notified proponents of Initiative 63, the medical marijuana initiative, that the initiative would appear on the November general election ballot. The written notice from BOEE wraps up an arduous, 14-month battle that included several lawsuits and hundreds of wrongfully invalidated signatures."

"Initiative 63 would protect from arrest seriously ill people who use marijuana under the advice of their physicians. In July 2001, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), a D.C.-based non-profit advocacy group, filed with the BOEE a request to circulate petitions for the initiative. The BOEE denied that request in December 2001, because the so-called "Barr Amendment," a rider to the D.C. Appropriations bill named after its sponsor, U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), prevented the city from spending any money to process the initiative."

"MPP then filed suit against the federal and District governments in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, on the grounds that the Barr Amendment was an unconstitutional abridgment of political speech. On March 28, 2002, federal judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled in favor of MPP."

After that there were more challenges and more lawsuits.

"We faced incredible odds to put this initiative on the November ballot," said Robert Kampia, MPP's executive director. "Because a vast majority of voters approved a similar initiative in 1998, we never imagined that this campaign would turn into a journey reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey. The real winners, though, are the seriously ill people who will now have legal access to medical marijuana."