Via Sentencing Law and Policy, there is a new report on children of the incarcerated:

Fifty-three percent of the 1.5 million people held in U.S. prisons by 2007 were the parents of one or more minor children. This percentage translates into more than 1.7 million minor children with an incarcerated parent.

African American children are seven and Latino children two and half times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children. The estimated risk of parental imprisonment for white children by the age of 14 is one in 25, while for black children it is one in four by the same age.

The full report is here. [More...]

Sarah Palin released a videostatement on her Facebook page on the Arizona shootings. In it she used the words "blood libel" and quoted Ronald Reagan (out of context.) Her blood libel reference:

Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them"... "Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

A sample of reactions is here.

I don't really care what Sarah Palin thinks. It's time for the media to stop reporting and analyzing every attempt she makes to insert herself into the national news.

On a brighter note, every time Sarah Palin speaks, she manages to make herself more polarizing and further decreases her chances of getting a sufficient majority of Republican voters to support any future political bid for national office. She is no more electable today than she was in 2008. She will not get her party's nomination for 2012. Why keep feeding her lust for attention?

One of those days.

Open thread.

It's three degrees outside but I am headed out for dinner.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Following the preliminary hearing in the case of Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, an LA judge has ordered him to stand trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors contended the Houston-based cardiologist was on the phone and distracted after administering a powerful anesthetic to Jackson. They also presented evidence the singer was dead by the time Murray summoned help.

Judge Michael Pastor also ordered Conrad's medical license was ordered revoked as a condition of bail.

Circumstances have changed," Pastor said in court this afternoon. "They have changed dramatically. There are extraordinary circumstances that mandate my approving the request of the [California] Medical Board. Overall consideration is the protection of the public. The continued practice by Dr. Murray does pose an imminent danger to the state of California."

[More...]

The parents of Jared Loughner, accused of the Arizona shootings, have released a statement.

There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better. We don’t understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday. We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so sorry for their loss.”

More former friends of Loughner are coming forward, some describing him as extremely paranoid. At times he thought there was a plot to kill him.

Two national polls show a majority of Americans do not believe the tone of political discourse in the country played a role in the shootings.

The Illinois Senate has voted to repeal the state's death penalty. The House voted for the repeal last week, and the bill now goes to the Governor for his signature.

The bill provides that the money in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund will be reallocated to a fund for murder victims’ services and law enforcement.

If signed into law, Illinois would become the 16th state to stop capital punishment and would mark the fewest states with the death penalty since 1978. Since 1976, Illinois has carried out 12 executions. In the same period, 20 inmates have been exonerated from the state’s death row, the second highest number in the United States.

The bill must be signed by Governor Pat Quinn in order to become law. So far, his office is not saying whether he will sign it.

Republican Governor Nathan Deal was sworn into office in Georgia today. Addressing budget issues, he said:

"Presently, one out of every 13 Georgia residents is under some form of correctional control," Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, told state lawmakers during his inaugural address. "It cost about $3 million per day to operate our Department of Corrections. And yet, every day criminals continue to inflict violence on our citizens and an alarming number of perpetrators are juveniles."

From his inaugural speech: [More..]

I haven't written a word about political discourse and Jared Loughner because I don't think political discourse, or even politics, has anything to do with his motive for the Arizona shootings. Nightline attempted to explore some possible motivations last night, and had an interesting discussion on Loughner's obsession with lucid dreaming. (It starts about 3 minutes, 10 seconds into the clip above.)

Lucid dreaming is when a person becomes aware they are dreaming during the dream. Lucid dreamers believe they can manipulate and control the dream -- even change the plot and outcome of the dream. [More...]

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion in a much followed foreclosure case. The opinion is fairly straight forward and, frankly, if there is rule of law in this country, should have been completely predictable. But apparently it has sent shock waves. Consider the simplicity and fairness of the result, as described by Felix Salmon:

[H]omeowner[s] being foreclosed upon will as a matter of course challenge the banks to prove that they own the mortgage in question. If the bank can’t do that, then the foreclosure proceeding will be tossed out of court. This is likely to slow down foreclosures enormously, as banks ensure that all their legal ducks are in a row before they try to foreclose.

(Emphasis supplied.) Salmon muses about the SCOTUS maybe getting involved, which would be ironic, in light of the Twombly and Iqbal decisions, which make it very difficult to even get in the courthouse at all. More . . .

President Obama is going to Tucson tomorrow. Jared Loughner had his first court appearance in federal court in Phoenix. The New York Times has a profile of his attorney, Judy Clarke. (Mine is here.)

Outgoing Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former District Attorney, has granted a pardon to Joe Arridy, executed in 1939, on grounds he likely was innocent. Additional reason: Arridy was mentally disabled, with an IQ of 46.

[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else. In addition, it would be unconstitutional today to impose the death penalty on anyone as intellectually disabled as Arridy.

Arridy spent 18 months on death row, always smiling and always playing with a toy train. He requested just ice cream for his final three meals and stepped into the gas chamber still grinning like a little boy.

[More...]

Former House Speaker Tom DeLay was sentenced today to three years in state prison for his conviction on money laundering charges.

Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money laundering charge but allowed DeLay to accept 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.

The judge granted his request to be freed on bail after he is booked at the county jail. At sentencing, DeLay told the judge he was innocent and the charges were politically motivated.

"I can't be remorseful for something I don't think I did," DeLay said.

The appeal will take months, if not years.