Even though the U.S. is not a party to the International Criminal Court which opens for business July 1, criminal defense lawyers are fighting to ensure defendants before the court are treated fairly. Thus, the formation of the International Criminal Bar this weekend in Montreal. Four members of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers were on hand, and as Past NACDL President Nancy Hollander told the Assembly, defendants before the court "will be people who will be hated, and the lawyers who represent them will be hated. But let it never be said that an accused appeared before the International Criminal Court without a lawyer by his or her side." In attendance were 350 lawyers from 48 countries and 68 international, regional, and national bars and numerous non-governmental organizations from around the world.

The prosecutors in the Moussaoui trial insist in a court filing today that Pentagon jurors can be fair. Moussaoui Prosecutors Oppose Move to Denver. Of course they object. Virginia is one of the most conservative jurisdictions in the country. We've complained before that the Pentagon is only 9 miles from the courthouse. And that the jury pool will be overpopulated with Government personnel. But also consider that Moussaoui is a person of color and the jury pool in Virginia will be predominantly white. Why create reversible error before the trial? Give the man a change of venue. Let's go for justice, not revenge. We recommend Alaska.

Huge News! Supreme Court Overturns Judge-Imposed Death Sentences. Dozens of death verdicts are overturned. This may affect over 150 Cases. It was a 7-2 ruling. Five states, including Colorado, allowed sentencing in death cases to be determined by the Judge instead of the jury that convicted the defendant. The high court confirmed that this violates the defendant's constitutional right to a trial by jury. We're on a roll! Read the Full Opinion Here .

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty gives high praise to today's Supreme Court ruling . A quote: ìThe Supreme Court has recognized that executing mentally retarded people violates the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,î said NCADP Executive Director Steven W. Hawkins. ìThe next step for the court should be to apply the same, exact standard to the execution of youthful offenders.î

Check out the Press Release from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on last week's Supreme Court ruling in Atkins v. Virginia prohibiting the application of the death penalty to mentally retarded persons. President Irwin Schwartz predicts ultimate abolition!

From the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar: (a quote on fiscal reasons not to have a death penalty)

"The cost of the death penalty has been found to be $2.16 million over the cost of a non-death penalty sentence of life imprisonment. On a national basis these figures translate to over $1 billion dollars spent since 1976 on the death penalty.

In Colorado it is estimated that approximately 50 million dollars has been spent in seeking the death penalty against Colorado prisoners in the last 26 years. That amounts to nearly $17 million for each of the two currently valid death sentences and one execution in Colorado."

Stay tuned, more reactions will be coming.

The death penalty could be a significant issue in this year's elections. Take for example, South Carolina, where death penalty opponent Alex Sanders is running against death penalty supporter and ultra-conservative Lindsay Graham. We all remember Graham for his prosecution of President Clinton in the House. Sanders opposes the death penalty for religious reasons. Always has. "I've been saying all of my life that I believe capital punishment is contrary to the will of God. I can't change my position on that." Graham's position: the death penalty is "good public policy." ("The State, Columbia, SC, March 9, 2002, page B! for those of you with Lexis or Nexis).

Sanders and Graham will face off in November over the Senate seat vacated by retiring Strom Thurmond. TalkLeft heartily supports Alex Sanders. This is one race we will be following closely.

On Meet the Press, this morning, Sen. John Kerry responded "absolutely" when Tim Russert asked if he'd favor a moratorium. Kerry also ran off statistics on the 100 death row exonerations and hinted at abolition (versus just a moratorium) as a result of studies.

Very impressive new series "Deadly Distinction" analyzing the Death Penalty, particularly in Texas, began Saturday in the Houston Chronicle. Part 1 is by reporter Mike Tolson and discusses Harris County's role as a pipeline to death row. The four-part series examines why, and explores whether justice is served. The series also notes a new Houston Chronicle opinion poll showing that Harris County residents are less supportive of the death penalty than their fellow Texans.

Mother Jones points out today that we also have to keep working to stop execution of the mentally ill.

The jury has been selected in the retrial of Ex NY Cop (and partner of Justin Volpe) Charles Schwarz for violating Abner Louima's civil rights and obstructing justice when he allegedly restrained Abner Louima during Louima's brutal assault in the precinct house bathrooom during which Volpe sodomized Louima with a broomstick. Schwarz was inititally convicted of the civil rights violation by a jury at the end of a trial in which Volpe plead guilty mid-way through. He got a new lawyer, went on trial again for obstruction of justice, testified on his own behalf, and was convicted. Both convictions were reversed. The first conviction was reversed because his lawyer had a conflict of interest.

What has Abner Louima been up to in the five years since his assault? He has moved to Florida to start a new life. Jim Dwyer, co-author with Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of "Actual Innocence," takes a roadtrip to the Florida "Boomlands" to visit Louima and reports in today's New York Times Magazine, "For nearly five full years, the same players have been working over the same moment in time and space, fingering at the event until its meaning has all but rubbed away, like the lost language of weathered gravestones. There is no mystery, of course, about what happened to Abner Louima; the mystery is what happened to those cops."

20 states now have laws permitting execution of the mentally retarded while 18 states outlaw it. Better yet, 12 states don't have the death penalty at all. Death Penalty Statistics in U.S.

Yesterday's Supreme Court decision in Atkins is a major plus, but there is still a long way to go. Watch out for op-ed pieces today claiming that that the Supreme Court abolished executing juveniles....the Court abolished executing anyone while they are still a juvenile, but it has not abolished executing adults who were juveniles at the time of their crime. Important distinction. Here are the statistics on state allowing execution of juvenile offenders.

Prosecutors are already worried about a flood of appeals. They should be!

Big news for today: The Supreme Court just banned executing the mentally retarded! Associated Press report. The case is Atkins v. Virginia. Here is the text of the Court's opinion.

As the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said in a press release today: The next step for the court should be to apply the same, exact standard to the execution of youthful offenders."

The hearing on the Innocence Protection Act went well. Proponents say they are about 60% towards the passage point, which could still come later this year. For more, here's Barry Scheck's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Check out Eric Alterman's column in the July 1 issue of the Nation. It is called Affirmative Action Reaction, but that's not what it's about in the traditional sense. It is a funny, witty and castigating indictment of conservative pundits--Ms. Coulter in particular gets her due, followed by the rest of the blond brat pack (excepting one: Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick, whose new name I forget, she got married, changed her name and moved to NY).

Eric also has a weblog called Eric Alterman's Altercation on msnbc which we like because it mixes politics and music--like Rolling Stone used to do in the old days when Hunter T. was around.

The conspiracy theorists and right-wing websites are abuzz with the physical similarities between U.S. Citizen and military detainee Padilla and John Doe 2 who witnesses at the Ryder Truck rental facility in Junction City, KS identified back in 1995 as the companion of Timothy McVeigh. Witnesses also put John Doe 2 at the Dreamland motel (answering the door to accept a delivery of chinese food) and in Kingman, AZ. The Goverment lobbied hard for the proposition that John Doe 2 didn't exist--that the witnesses confused him with the associate of another truck renter the day before. Here are the pictures, the resemblence is quite striking, we think the matter needs to be investigated into a bit more. For starters, was Padilla in jail or out and about in April, 1995?

John Doe 2 (left) and Padilla (right)

Checks on the Death Penalty (washingtonpost.com)
Death Penalty Reform in the Spotlight (new york times)

Hearings today on Innocence Protection Act in Congress. Favorable editorials all over, including those above.

The Judge in the San Francisco dog-mauling case threw out the murder conviction against Marjorie Knoller.

Good. Now California is back to never having gotten away with convicting a dog owner for murder instead of manslaughter based upon a killing committed by his or her dog. The judge had the good sense to recognize that it wasn't like she knew her dog was going to kill someone that day.