The Public Defender's capital unit in Chicago has requested a judge dismiss a death penalty case because they are out of funds. Without money to retain expert witnesses for their client who has serious mental issues and is facing the death penalty for a double homicide, they can't provide an adequate defense and comply with the Sixth Amendment's requirement of a fair trial.

Cost is becoming as much an argument against the death penalty as wrongful convictions. New Jersey lawmakers cited the financial burden as one reason for their decision to abolish capital punishment in 2007, and other states are wrestling with similar legislation.

Placek's motion is the first of its kind for the public defender's office but probably not the last, said Assistant Public Defender Julie Harmon, the office's capital case coordinator. But she denied it's a new legal tactic to remove the threat of the death penalty for clients.

The office is currently representing 120 clients facing the death penalty: [More...]

What will Iraq be like when the US disengages next year? I predict it will be a mess. But I think it would be a mess if we stayed. Today, a suicide bomber in Mosul killed 5 US soldiers:

Five American soldiers and two members of the Iraqi security forces were killed in a massive suicide truck bombing Friday near the headquarters of the Iraqi national police in the northern city of Mosul, a United States military spokesman said. . . . At least 60 people, many of them residents of the area, were wounded in the Friday attack and a number of homes and businesses were severely damaged . . .

Make no mistake, withdrawal from Iraq by the US will not solves Iraq's problems. But neither will staying in Iraq.

Speaking for me only

Via Glenn Greenwald, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) says:

I am troubled that once again the Obama administration has decided to invoke the state secrets privilege in a case challenging the previous administration’s alleged misconduct. The Obama administration’s action, on top of Congress’s mistaken decision last year to give immunity to the telecommunications companies that allegedly participated in the warrantless wiretapping program, will make it even harder for courts to rule on the legality of that program [the program is still ongoing]. . . . [T]here is an urgent need for legislation to give better guidance to the courts on how to handle assertions of the state secrets privilege. The American people must be able to have confidence that the privilege is not being used to shield government misconduct. That is why I am working with Senators Leahy, Specter, and others to pass the State Secrets Protection Act as soon as possible.

This bit from Paul Kane of the Washington Post has drawn a lot attention:

Paul Kane: . . . We reported what Olympia Snowe said. That’s what she said. That’s what Republicans are saying. I really don’t know what you want of us. We are not opinion writers whose job is to play some sorta gotcha game with lawmakers.

It's an interesting defense. Given the troubled financial straits newspapers are in, it opens up the question - does "reporting" really require reporters? Couldn't the Washington Post just let Kane go, pocket the money and just let newsmakers know that the WaPo will be uncritically publishing their quotes? They can even set up some type of electronic form that will allow the quote to be submitted directly to the paper, formatted automatically and voila! we have tomorrow's newspaper! There's a lot of savings to be had by newspapers with such an approach. If the newspapers don't want to do it, maybe Google can do it and avoid the recent controversies.

Speaking for me only

Chris Bowers argues that Billy Joel got it right about politics - it's a matter of trust. I completely disagree - it is a matter of whether you agree or disagree with the announced policies of the Obama Administration and why. Trust has nothing to do with it. Chris writes:

[F]aith in the bailout plan really isn't a question of analytic and scholastic ability . . It is simply a matter of trust in the people executing the plan.

This is really really really the wrong approach to take on any policy issue. This abdicates the process of actually thinking about an issue and making up your own mind as best you can. Let me give you an example - health care reform. I never have written on the subject in detail because I have never taken the time to form my own opinion on the subject. I never advocated for or against mandates or single payer and the like because I was too lazy or too stupid to take the time to form an opinion on the subject. But whether I "trusted" the advocates of particular positions would certainly not be the decisive criteria of my views on any issue. If your position is guided solely by "who you trust," then there is no thinking being done by you. Some people treat issues this way. I can never accept that approach. Bowers advocates it here. And that is wrong. More . . .

The FDA backed down today, after pleas from hospice workers, and canceled a block on an unapproved liquid morphine that helps the terminally ill.

Bowing to the pleas of hospice experts, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has backed off its intent to remove from the market an unapproved liquid morphine painkiller given to dying patients.

Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told the Associated Press Thursday that the morphine liquid will remain on the market until replaced by an approved version or some other equivalent therapy.

A big thanks to the FDA for being so responsive.

[Throckmorton] told AP, reaction from hospice experts and others "helped us understand" that some patients need the unapproved version.

Dying is bad enough, to die in physical pain is something we can prevent, and should.

A few years back, while researching my second book Snitch I found myself returning to one simple question: why has even modest criminal justice policy reform been so difficult to achieve?

The question was sparked specifically by the notorious 100:1 disparity between sentences for crack and powder cocaine.

This injustice had been decried for more than a decade by drug policy reform advocates to even federal judges. Yet the sentencing disparity between the two forms of essentially the same drug proved incredibly difficult to change. Indeed, since 1995 The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) repeatedly criticized the guidelines for being too harsh and for applying mostly to low-level offenders--yet nothing changed. [More...]

The C.I.A. today announced the closure of overseas CIA prisons for detainees. Private contractors will no longer be involved in interrogating prisoners.

The C.I.A. has never revealed the location of its overseas facilities, but intelligence officials, aviation records and news reports have placed them in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and Jordan, among other countries.

More from CIA Chief Leon Pannetta's statement: [More...]

Justice Scalia, speaking this week to an audience at William Carey University, expressed his familiar views on "judicial activism":

"There are four justices who have sat beside me who believe that the death penalty is now unconstitutional...and they believe it to be unconstitutional because they think it ought to be," he told the WCU audience.

Or maybe they believe the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is unconstitutional. If equal protection of the law means anything, it surely means that convicted defendants should not live or die based on the arbitrary charging decisions made by prosecutors, or the tendency of juries to vote for death when the crime victim is white. [more ...]

The FBI has sent hostage negotiators to try and obtain the release of the U.S. Maersk Alabama captain Richard Phillips being held hostage by Somali pirates. The pirates have sent reinforcements to their comrades.

Captain Phillips selflessly volunteered himself to protect the other crew members. Let's hope for his safe return. [More...]

I'm pleased to read over at Crooks and Liars that Attorney General Eric Holder told Katie Couric in an interview last night that more gun control laws are not on the Administration's front burner.

KATIE COURIC: Did someone tell you to back off?

ERIC HOLDER: No one's told me to back off. I understand the Second Amendment. I respect the Second Amendment.

What makes this even more interesting is that Holder was such a gun crime advocate during the Janet Reno/Bill Clinton days.

NYTimes:

Regulators say all 19 banks undergoing the [stress test] exams will pass them. Indeed, they say this is a test that a bank simply will not fail: if the examiners determine that a bank needs “exceptional assistance,” the government, that is, taxpayers, will provide it.

Does anyone believe anything that comes out of the Geithner Treasury Department at this point? I don't. I like Kevin Drum's reaction -- "I'm having a harder and harder time figuring out what's going on as time goes by. If everything is on the up and up, it doesn't make sense. If there are hidden wheels, though, I'm not sure they make sense either. Just what is Treasury up to?"

Speaking for me only