Update: New thread with reports from hearing here.)

Oscar Pistorius will have a bail hearing Tuesday (shortly after midnight tonight ET. ) The controlling law is the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA).

Murder can be a class 5 or 6 offense. Premeditated Murder is a Class 6 offense.

Where an accused is been charged with an "extremely serious" schedule six offence, he may be released only if he produces evidence to satisfy the court that exceptional circumstances exist which, in the interests of justice, permit his release

His lawyers will argue he should be charged with the class 5 murder offense, which would make bail easier to obtain. [More....]

In a piece in Mother Jones, Adam Serwer argues:

[W]hy didn't Obama just say, "no, the president cannot deploy drone strikes against US citizens on American soil"? Because the answer is probably "yes." That may not be as apocalyptically sinister as it sounds.

I disagree that the answer is yes and I disagree that it does not sound apocalyptically sinister. Serwer relies on law professor Steven Vladeck:

Watching TV tonight: Shameless, the Good Wife and the finale of Downton Abbey.

There are new details in the Pistorius murder case.

Adam Lanza is back in the news, PBS's Frontline will run a show on Tuesday, Raising Adam Lanza.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

USA Today has obtained a draft of President Obama's proposed immigration reform bill. It reports there is a path to lawful residency included in the bill, which will take 8 years. During this time, those working towards citizenship will receive a Lawful Prospective Immigrant Visa.

The bill sounds similar to the unsuccessful 2011 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S.1258)and the 2009 and 2007 bills before that. [More...]

The Denver Post has a moving article about Colorado's inmate Hospice program and inmates serving as caregivers.

In a prison where executioners once administered a poison cocktail to condemned men, nurses now feed morphine into the arms of the dying for their comfort. Men convicted of brutal crimes minister to the physical needs of the ill and elderly, and sometimes find redemption in the role of caretaker.

Our elderly prison population, with its increased medical costs, keeps growing exponentially. [More...]

"Child's Pose" has won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Calin Peter Netzer's film is a tale of corruption and guilt in modern Romania. It follows a rich and controlling mother, played by Luminita Gheorghiu, as she bribes witnesses into giving false statements to save her son from jail after he accidentally runs down and kills a boy.

The film sounds like it's more about the unhealthy relationship between the mother and son than about the legal case or corruption. [More...]

The Alabama Criminal Appeals Court has reversed the conviction and death sentence of a Vietnamese immigrant who allegedly killed his four children by throwing them off a bridge, citing the trial court's rejection of a motion to change venue due to pre-trial publicity. The 90 page opinion is here.

"It is clear that publicity surrounding the murders completely saturated the Mobile community in 2008. A great deal of that publicity was prejudicial... Luong was denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. Therefore, we must reverse Luong's convictions and sentence of death and remand this case for a new trial."

The Court also ruled the trial judge erred by refusing to allow the defense to individually question the jurors, who had filled out questionnaires, on what they had heard about the case. [More...]

After hours of debate yesterday, the Democrat- controlled House in Colorado passed four gun control bills on a voice vote:

• House Bill 1224: Limits ammunition magazines to 15 rounds.
• House Bill 1229: Requires universal background checks for gun sales or transfers.
• House Bill 1228: Requires gun customers to pay the costs of their criminal background checks by the Bureau of Investigation.
• House Bill 1226: Outlaws concealed-carry permit holders to pack heat in campus buildings.

The official vote will be Monday. The bills then move to the Senate. [More...]

Alberto Morales, the violent, schizophrenic inmate who escaped from custody in Grapevine, TX while being transported from Florida to Nevada has been shot and killed by police.

Morales... was spotted in a wooded area where he brandished wooden sticks in an effort to elude police. Before he could attack, he was killed by members of the fugitive task force, said Grapevine police Sgt. Robert Eberling.

I've got a busy day at work, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Oscar Pistorius has been charged with premeditated murder in South Africa.

Maureen O'Connor, former mayor of San Diego and widow of the founder of Jack in the Box, gambled over a billion dollars and has been charged in federal court with money laundering. The feds have agreed to a deferred prosecution, very unusual in federal court. She allegedly transferred more than $2 million from her late husband's foundation to her personal account to pay gambling debts, which bankrupted the charity. The money laundering charge includes only one $449,000. transfer. If she pays the charity back the money she took, the case will be dropped and no guilty plea will be required.[More....]

Republicans today filibustered the nomination of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Will it matter?

Both sides still think the former GOP senator from Nebraska will be confirmed, but the filibuster brought stark condemnations from Obama and Senate Democrats, who decried it as an unprecedented partisan move against a nominee to lead the Pentagon.

A cheerful song for the beleaguered, hungry, cruise passengers about to depart the filthy Carnival cruise ship, which just arrived in Mobile, AL. after five days of conditions from hell and being towed by tugboat for a few hundred miles. Passengers say it was like spending 5 days in a porta-potty.

It will take them hours to get off the ship. Some will then have to spend a more few hours on buses traveling to hotels in other cities. [More...]