A Los Angeles jury today convicted former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of Oscar Grant a 22 year old unarmed African American male at the BART station in Oakland in 2009. They found he acted with criminal negligence when he fired a single shot into Oscar Grant's back at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.

Jurors were given four options when the original panel began deliberations Friday. They could have convicted Mehserle, 28, of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, or they could have acquitted him.

The involuntary manslaughter verdict indicates that jurors concluded that Mehserle did not intend to kill the 22-year-old Grant but had been criminally negligent when he drew his gun.

Mehserle testified he thought he reached for his Taser, not his firearm. He was remanded into custody. Oakland prepared for a mob scene following the verdict.

The San Francisco Chronicle says it's the right verdict: "There was no reason to use fatal force on Grant, who was being physically restrained at the time."

Big Brother 12 begins tonight. There's a saboteur this season. (Update: I hope the female sheriff is the first to go. After that, the mensa guy.)I guess most people are watching LeBron make a decision.

The Emmy Award nominations are out (list of major awards here). I'm glad to see that Breaking Bad is up for Best Drama Series, Best Actor (Bryan Cranston) and Best supporting actor (Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman). And I'm really disappointed Mary Louise Parker and others from Weeds didn't get a nod. It should have gotten best comedy over Nurse Jackie. Nurse Jackie isn't funny, it's depressing, and the episodes are repetitious. Edie Falco can only do so much, and she can't carry the whole show.

Damages and the Good Wife picked up a few, and while I like Damages more, I have to say Archie Panjabi for best supporting actress in the Good Wife (the private investigator role) is a much better pick than Rose Byrne in Damages. Juliana Margolies is probably a shoo-in in best actress, particularly since Glenn Close didn't have much of a part this season in Damages, but Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad way deserves to win over Martin Short for Damages.

Jimmy Fallon will be host for the Aug. 29 show.

This is an open thread, all topics (tv related or not) are welcome.

Via Josh Gerstein at Politico: The lawyers who successfully sued the Government over Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance of the defunct Islamic charity al-Haramain and two of its attorneys have filed a request for $2.26 million in legal fees.

The motion is here. The hourly breakdowns by lawyer (I've removed the names but they are in the pleading) for Dec. 2005 through July, 2010, are:

• Lawyer 1: 2,497.6 hours.
• Lawyer 2: 235.1 hours.
• Lawyer 3: 682.2 hours.
• Lawyer 4: 912.7 hours.
• Lawyer 5: 284.6 hours.
• Lawyer 6: 343.5 hours.
• Lawyer 7: 467.2 hours.
• Lawyer 8: 19.7 hours.

This appears to be in addition to the $612k the plaintiffs asked for in damages back in April (available here.) The Court's March, 2010 ruling finding that the government violated FISA when it intercepted communications related to the Al-Haramain charity is here. [More...]

Bump and Update: All ten pleaded guilty. They will be on a plane to Russia, probably by sundown. Their plea agreements are here. I only read the one for Vicky Pelaez. She agreed to forfeit her home, any proceeds from her story and never to return to the U.S. Some reports say some of the children of the ten have already left for Russia.

Back the '70's, here in the Wild West, defense lawyers would try to get prosecutors to agree to what we called "sundown parole" -- let our client plead guilty with no jail, he'll be out of Colorado voluntarily by midnight, never to return. Sometimes it worked.

Sounds like that's the deal in the Russian spy cases -- a guilty plea with immediate sentencing to no prison and instant removal from the U.S. [More...]

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro in Boston has declared the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional in two cases. In one case, he found the statute violates the Tenth Amendment. In the other, he found it violates the equal protection guarantee in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

"The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment. For that reason, the statute is invalid," Tauro wrote in a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

In the second case, (opinion here)he ruled:

As irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest, this court must hold that Section 3 of DOMA as applied to Plaintiffs violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

[More...]

At NRO, Andrew McCarthy writes:

Well whaddya know? It turns out that Rhode Island has long been carrying out the procedures at issue in the Arizona immigration statute: As a matter of routine, RI state police check immigration status at traffic stops whenever there is reasonable suspicion to do so, and they report all illegals to the feds for deportation. [. . .] If, as President Obama and Attorney General Holder claim, there is a federal preemption issue, why hasn’t the administration sued Rhode Island already? After all, Rhode Island is actually enforcing these procedures, while the Arizona law hasn’t even gone into effect yet.

Could it be because — as we’ve discussed here before — the Supreme Court in Muehler v. Mena has already held that police do not need any reason (not probable cause, not reasonable suspicion) to ask a person about his immigration status?

As to why the Justice Department has not sued Rhode Island, I can not say, but whether such procedures violate the 4th Amendment has nothing to do with the preemption issue. It does raise an important point however, one that was stated by the NYTimes in an editorial today:

The spy swap deal seems to be moving along quickly. In Russia, Igor Sutyagin, a former military analyst jailed for spying for the CIA, has already agreed, according to his mother and lawyer. They said Sutyagin, who has already been moved from his Siberian prison to Moscow, had to sign a confession (he's always maintained his innocence) and will be flown from Moscow to Vienna to London. Great Britain has agreed to take him in. On Tuesday, the Russians gave him a passport.

Some of the lawyers for those held in the U.S. have confirmed their clients have been offered a swap deal to return to Russia. What happens to Vicky Peleaz, an American citizen from Peru? I can't imagine she'd want to go to Russia.

Ms. Pelaez's attorney, John M. Rodriguez, said the Russian government called his office Tuesday and asked whether he thought his client would be open to the possible swap. He said he told the Russian government that he didn't believe his client would be open to that. A U.S. official familiar with the matter said Ms. Pelaez would likely have to face a court trial if she didn't agree to be part of the proposed swap.

[More...]

Lebron James has a one hour special on ESPN tonight to announce his decision on where he will be playing for the next 5 or 6 years. This spectacle will cap one of the most absurd processes ever seen.

A man seemingly obsessed with his "brand," LeBron James has bungled this about as badly as could be done. "The Decision" was a terrible, terrible idea. And if it culminates, as many are now reporting, with LeBron abandoning Cleveland and joining the Miami Globetrotters (where Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh already reside), James will become one of the most reviled sports figures in the United States. In short, James and his new team would be the figures everyone will root against. And not in a New York Yankee sort of way.

If he does this, LeBron will have done something I would not have thought possible - he would have made Kobe Bryant the most popular figure in the NBA. And if the Lakers beat the Miami Globetrotters next year, Kobe Bryant becomes a folk hero.

The Rand Corporation has released a new report finding legalization of marijuana in California could drop prices as low as $38.00 per ounce.

Researchers associated with the Rand Corp.'s Drug Policy Research Center said Wednesday that not much is certain about the potential impact of Proposition 19 except that the price of California's choicest weed could plunge more than 80%, down from $300 to $450 per ounce to about $38.

"That's a significant drop," said Beau Kilmer, co-director of the center. "We're very clear about the fact that the price will go down."

The implications: [More...]

In 1996, Dale Helmig was convicted of killing his mother Norma and dumping her body in the Osage River. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2005, Dale's habeas petition was granted (opinion here), only to be later reversed by the 8th Circuit which reinstated his murder conviction.

Hearings are underway this week in Missouri to determine whether Dale finally will get a new trial. Yesterday, the trooper testified his testimony at the original trial was inaccurate. Other claims to be heard this week: Whether the prosecutor Kenny Hulshof, who later became a U.S. Congressman, withheld evidence from Helmig's attorneys and presented false testimony. The hearing continues today.

Whether Dale is factually innocent and the victim of a wrongful conviction, caused by a combination of a biased and sloppy police investigation, a politically over-zealous prosecutor and an ineffective defense attorney, has been the subject of numerous documentaries and television shows. Since I spent weeks filming the first documentary, I have a strong interest in the case and strong opinions. [More...]

TalkLeft has been going down intermittently all day. We're working on it and will probably re-boot the server shortly, so if you get an error message, check back. Hopefully we'll get it resolved soon. If not, I'll post at our backup site here.

In other news, Manuel Noriega has been sentenced to 7 years in France.

The U.S. has added new defendants and charges to the Najibullah Zazi New York terror case. The DOJ press release is here.

President Obama has scored his first guilty plea at a Guantanamo military commission hearing.Sudanese-born Ibrahim al-Qos, bin Laden's former cook and driver, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Sentencing will be in August.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome. Our apologies for the site problems.

The Indictment in the Russian spy case was unsealed today. (I haven't seen a copy and it's not yet on PACER>) Several media outlets are reporting a spy swap is in the works. The five defendants from VA and Boston have been ordered to be brought to New York. The Government has decided to appeal the Magistrate Judge's decision to release Vicky Pelaez on bail. Her hearing today has been canceled.

According to the New York Post, Pelaez and her husband aren't interested in a swap deal.