Sirhan Sirhan, who has been incarcerated since 1968 for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, is seeking immediate release or a new trial. The request for a new trial is based on "formidable evidence" asserting his innocence and "horrendous violations" of his rights.

It's really a fascinating story. His lawyers claim (1) there were 2 guns fired, not just Sirhan's, and Sirhan's probably didn't kill Kennedy, (2) there was fraud at the trial when the court allowed prosecutors to introduce a substitute bullet as evidence of the actual bullet removed from Kennedy's neck, and (3) Sirhan was hyno-programmed as a diversionary tactic and thus an involuntary participant:

Sirhan "was an involuntary participant in the crimes being committed because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory implantation techniques which rendered him unable to consciously control his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed," court papers said.

[More...]

Update: Sofitel responds, via The Daily Beast. It says the video celebration lasted only 8 seconds and might have been about sports. It says the guest in 2820 checked out at 11:36 am and Diallo cleaned the room shortly thereafter.

Investigative journalist Edward Epstein provides new details in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the Sofitel hotel maid in the New York Review of Books. Epstein says he had access to the hotel's electronic key swipe records and time-stamped hotel security camera videotapes. He also reviewed cell phone records for a phone used on May 14 by Accor security employee John Sheehan. Accor owns the Sofitel.

The Guardian details Epstein's findings if you don't want to take the time to read his entire report.

[More...]

The picks:

SMU -14 over Rice, Ohio State over Michigan (+300), Texas Tech +14 over Baylor (2 units), Oregon -28 over Oregon State (2 units), Marshall -3 over East Carolina, Mississippi +17 over Mississippi State, Wisconsin -14½ over Penn State (2 units), Missouri -26 over Kansas (2 units), Connecticut 0ver Rutgers (+175), Clemson (+155) over South Carolina, Oklahoma -28½ over Iowa State (2 units) Alabama (-21) over Auburn, Georgia -6 over Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt -1½ over Wake Forest.

Best bet - Stanford -7 over Notre Dame (5 units.)

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

The Superior Court of Lima has set Joran Van der Sloot's trial on charges relating to the death of Stephany Flores for January 6.

The Court rejected the Flores family's request to increase the charges. He will be tried only on charges of qualified murder and simple robbery, carrying a maximum penalty of 30 years.

If convicted and sentenced to 30 years, he is expected to serve about 10 years. He's served 18 months to date. [More...]

Radley Balko has a new feature article at Huffington Post on law enforcment's misplaced priorities in the War on Drugs.

"The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats," said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing. Downing is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of cops and prosecutors who are calling for an end to the drug war.

"When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside," Downing said.

[More...]

A judge in Bali has sentenced the 14 year old Bali Boy caught purchasing $25 of marijuana to two months in prison. With the 7 weeks he has already served since October, he can return to Australia on Dec. 4. (Background here.)

He will not go to notorious Kerobokan prison, but stay in the "immigration facility" he's been held at since his transfer there from the police jail.

...the judge gave the boy's legal team a week to decide whether or not to appeal. That cut-off comes, conveniently, next Friday. The lawyers will wait until the last moment and then inform the court they will not appeal.

The youth will then have two days left to serve in prison but, because it will be the weekend, he won't be moved from the immigration centre where he has stayed with his parents for more than a month. It is understood prosecutors will not appeal the verdict and the boy will fly home next Sunday.

[More...]

You better shop around.

Tell us all the great deals you got today. And anything else that's on your mind. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

More than 2 million inmates are spending Thanksgiving in our nations' jails and prisons. This week there are 216,762 federal inmates. Here's Sheriff Joe Arapaio last year bragging he got the cost of the prisoner's thanksgiving meal down to 8 cents. (Yes, it's his real Twitter account.)

Contrast with the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution where the Warden recruits volunteers from the community to help make the day as pleasant as possible: [More...]

Big Tent Democrat and I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Don't forget to check in with your local radio station to find out what time they will play Alice's Restaurant. It was November 28, 1965 that Arlo was convicted of littering in Stockbridge, MA. You can read the backstory here.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

There was another Republican debate tonight. The hopeful candidates called for more terror laws and extension of the Patriot Act. I didn't watch, did Newt ask for a law sentencing terrorists to life plus cancer?

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty for the remainder of his term. He says he is morally opposed to it. He regrets that two executions took place during his term. Gary Haugen was scheduled to be killed in two weeks.

In addition to Frontline's A Perfect Terrorist (see here), it's performance night on The X-Factor. Simon Cowell says no one has invited him to their home for Thanksgiving yet.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Bump and Update: On Frontline tonight, don't miss A Perfect Terrorist, about former DEA informant David Coleman Headley, aka Daood Giliani, who pleaded guilty in Chicago in exchange for a life sentence for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate the mysterious circumstances behind David Headley’s rise from heroin dealer and U.S. government informant to master plotter of the 2008 attack on Mumbai.

By most accounts except its own, the DEA turned Headley from a drug informant into a terror informant. And failed to notice he had joined the terrorists for real. [More..]

At the airport.

BTW Bronco fans, how about Tebow Time?

Open Thread.