TalkLeft Top News

The City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance allowing medical marijuana to be grown and used without a prescription.

Votes are near in the Senate on proposed amendments to the Constitution that could make desecrating the U.S. flag illegal and put limits on contributions to political campaigns. The Supreme Court has said both are forms of free speech protected by the Constitution's First Amendment.

A federal appeals court judge said Monday the Giuliani administration's ''relentless onslaught of First Amendment litigation'' has put the courts in danger of having to perform crucial government functions.

On Tuesday, March 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral arugment in a hate crimes case. The issue is whether the sentencing provisions of a hate crimes statute, which provide for an extended prison sentence, are subject to the jury determination and the reasonable-doubt standard requirements.

A day after violence marred the funeral for the victim of a police shooting, criticism of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and the city's Police Department intensified yesterday.

A Senate panel has endorsed legislation aimed at ending some of the abuses of the federal power to seize the cars, boats, houses and other property linked to crime.

As the Mayor attacks the character of an unarmed father killed by police in the Garment District, many liberal Democrats are beginning to harbor serious doubts about the pact they have made with the former prosecutor.

A judge today temporarily halted plans by Tennessee to execute its first inmate in 40 years and fall in line with the rest of the South, where more people are executed than anywhere else in the nation.

Though two-thirds of Americans still support the death penalty, public backing has declined in the past few years. And that shift may present unexpected complications for Republican George W. Bush in this fall's presidential election. As the tough-on-crime governor of Texas, Bush has seen 124 prisoners executed during his tenure, the highest total of any state during that time.

Aircraft circled, tanks rumbled and combat-garbed shooters fired off rounds at a Texas military base Sunday in a high-stakes field test to resolve whether federal agents shot at the Branch Davidians in the waning moments of the 1993 Waco standoff.

With DNA solving crime after crime, some states are extending or dropping the statute of limitations on prosecuting rape and other violent offenses in case a genetic match that can prove who did it turns up decades later. Defense lawyers warn that dropping those limits would give prosecutors too strong a hand.

The government's credibility will be put to the test this weekend when critical portions of the 1993 assault at Waco are re-enacted at a military base with tanks, a helicopter and camouflaged gunmen.

Nearly four years after the office of independent counsel began investigating how the White House acquired some 900 confidential F.B.I. files, many of them of prominent Republicans, the current head of the office, Robert W. Ray, officially reported today that no criminal wrongdoing was involved.

A state judge in New Orleans has removed six teenage boys from a juvenile prison after finding they had been brutalized by guards, kept in solitary confinement for months for no reason and deprived of shoes, blankets, education and medical care. The prison is run by the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, the world's largest for-profit prison operator. The judge said the company had treated the youths no better than animals.

The Georgia Senate on Wednesday approved replacing electrocution with lethal injection as the state's execution method. Georgia, Alabama and Nebraska are the only states that rely exclusively on electrocution to carry out the death penalty.

Average sentences for federal drug offenders declined during the 1990s, a private research study reported Sunday, as Congress, judges and prosecutors took opportunities to soften the nation's tough drug sentences for certain types of defendants.

Several thousand people marched through Paris on Saturday to press for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther on death row in Pennsylvania for the 1981 shooting of a police officer.

Recent studies showing that three times as many people died last year as a result of physician mistakes as by gunshot have Americans split over whether there is a greater need for laws disciplining negligent doctors or careless gun owners, finds a recent Zogby poll.

Despite a veto threat from the governor, members of the state House in New Hampshire have voted to abolish the death penalty. Supporters of the bill argued the death penalty system was inherently unfair and that life in prison is a more just punishment.

Police Chief Bernard Parks has rejected calls to track the race of motorists pulled over for traffic stops, saying a survey of possible racial profiling is less important than actual prosecution of officers who engage in the illegal practice.

Gov. George Ryan on Thursday launched a new commission on capital punishment that will study Illinois' death penalty system and recommend reforms. Ryan said that shows the system badly needs repair. He said the moratorium on executions he imposed in January will remain in place until he is convinced that the system is working.

The American Civil Liberties Union roundly criticized a draft White House report addressing means of combatting unlawful conduct on the Internet in a letter released on Wednesday.

Teen-age criminals will face tougher prosecutions and stiffer penalties under a voter-approved ballot initiative that calls for the most significant overhaul of California's juvenile justice system since it was created a century ago.

A coalition of 49 civil rights groups added its voice Saturday to the growing chorus of people calling for an independent review of the widening Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday called for Congress to hold hearings on racial profiling among police, in the judicial system and in expulsion policies in schools.

Guards at 10 state prisons tested positive for drugs at a higher rate last year than inmates tested at the same prisons, figures released Friday show.

A look at cities around the nation suggests that large reductions in crime can be achieved in places that rely less on the confrontational law enforcement measures New York has used, like the stopping and searching of thousands of people for guns by the Street Crime Unit, four of whose officers were acquitted in the killing of Amadou Diallo.

The Clinton administration is asking Congress for broad new powers to fight money laundering, including the authority to ban financial transactions between offshore financial havens and U.S. banks and brokerage firms.

A majority of the public across the country supports capital punishment. But there is an intensifying national debate over the issue of justice, focusing on the quality of the legal representation provided to poor people accused of capital crimes. At its sharpest, it is a question of whether some innocent people are on death row only because their state does not provide the resources for an adequate or competent public defender system.

Two French politicians on Tuesday sent letters to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, pleading for clemency for a prison inmate on the day before his execution.

Congressman Ray LaHood (R-IL) and Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA) will be introducing the House companion bill to Sen. Leahy's Innocence Protection Act. Governor George Ryan (IL) will be attending and talking about the importance of reforming the process in general.

3/27/2000...Urgent! Congress Voting on Flag Desecration Constitutional Amendment This Week!

To Learn More and See How You Can Help

Sample Letter to Send Your Senator

Protect Our Freedoms - Don't Let Them Treat Our Constitution as a Rough Draft!

Richard Troberman, Esq., Co-Chair, Forfeiture Abuse Task Force, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Submits his Analysis of the Forfeiture Reform Bill, S. 1931, Passed by the Senate Judiciary on March 23, 2000

The Innocence Protection Act, recently introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), to ensure that wrongfully convicted persons have an opportunity to establish their innocence through DNA testing

While S. 1931 is not as ideal as H.R. 1658 -- the Senate Judiciary Committee did pass a compromise bill on March 23, 2000. The bill has several important reforms and only a few negatives. Full details will be posted as soon as they are available. It is widely believed that S. 1931 is now likely to become law.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right! Read the text of the Amendment to the Controlled Substances Act that passed along with the Bankruptcy Reform Act. Instead of reducing the penalties for crack, the Amendment increases the penalties for powder cocaine, making offenses involving more than 50 grams of powder cocaine subject to a five year mandatory prison sentence. The bill will now go Conference. Write or E-mail your representatives in Congress and demand they oppose this draconian, ill-advised, political grandstanding measure.

In their overkill against the underclass many cops have become gangsters and drug dealers themselves. It is time for a moral and political assessment of this quagmire in our cities. The fetishism of the market combined with the death of big government, as pronounced by President Clinton, leaves incarceration the emerging centerpiece of domestic crime policy. But there is an alternative to the garrison state for the poor. It would consist of greater community empowerment in both policing and investment decisions, with a particular focus on rescuing, educating and training at-risk youth. It would mean a major federal commitment of resources to the inner cities, already ruled out by neoliberal Democrats ...

If the Senate truly respected the Constitution it is sworn to uphold, it would not be trifling with the Bill of Rights and its precious guarantee of freedom of speech. Yet that is exactly what the Senate is doing as it considers the so-called flag desecration amendment -- a mischievous addition to the Constitution that would weaken the right of free expression by allowing federal laws banning physical desecration of the flag.

In two words, not well.... Scrap the mandatory sentencing laws. "There's simply no public policy purpose being served by mandatory minimums, and it has nothing to do with my bottom-line question: How do you reduce the crime and suffering associated with both drug use and drug prohibition?"

There is no evidence that Mayor Guiliani can rein in his compulsive hostility and begin the critical work of bridging the chasm between his administration and black New Yorkers. Mr. Giuliani is widely despised by blacks in this town, and that seems to be fine with him.

Gov. George Pataki wants to tap the potential of DNA evidence to help solve crimes, and his instinct is surely right. But Mr. Pataki's two new legislative proposals are so broad as to warrant concern. The Legislature needs to proceed with caution.

It is hard to see why a state, before putting someone to death, would be unwilling to demonstrate a jury verdict's consistency with all of the evidence. Indeed, this is precisely the type of case in which the state should have no choice. Under a bill being pushed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), states would be obligated in such circumstances to allow post-conviction DNA testing. Such a law would not merely offer a layer of protection to innocent people but would increase public confidence in the convictions of guilty people.

Vermonters should be proud that they are leading the way toward a society that values stable gay relationships. The Vermont House of Representatives approved landmark legislation this week that will give gays and lesbians the right to seek legal recognition of their partnerships.

It is so much more politically and diplomatically expedient to stick it to the banking sector that plays a secondary role in the wealth recycling business than to expose the true source of the problem. The first thing to do is decriminalize major addictive drugs. The second thing to do is to slap a heavy tax on the drugs themselves but make them available by medical prescription.

Our rejection of a preventive approach creates a paradox in that we are forced to surrender more and more of our liberty to increasingly powerful police operations, like the street-crimes unit in New York, and draconian laws we pass in order to guarantee safety.

TalkLeft Commentary

California State Assemblyman Scott Baugh has foolishly and irresponsibly attempted to punish Benetton for its "We on Death Row" campaign by calling for a statewide boycott of Benetton products. "We are outraged that a state official wants to suppress free speech and intimidate a company that is speaking out on a global human rights issue," said NACDL President William B. Moffitt. NACDL is renewing its call for European businesses not to invest in California and other states that permit capital punishment.

The best we can do for victims is to decrease their numbers. Adding numerous procedural layers to our criminal justice system will not reduce the number of victims, nor will diverting scarce criminal justice resources into unnecessary and endless procedural sparring. It would be a pyrrhic victory indeed for the incumbent Congress and president to gain themselves a little extra advantage in one election cycle at the cost of immense, permanent damage to our precious Constitution.

How would Presidential candidate George Bush, Jr. fare under an experienced criminal defense lawyer's cross-examination about possible past cocaine usage?

It's the most revolutionary document in American history. Therefore a perfect place to begin a revolution in publishing. Ten unique pieces of digital content (eMatter) on the Bill of Rights today. Called American Perspectives, they are yours to instantly download, print and read. Free from MightyWords.com.

The gay movement often portrays homosexuals as helpless victims. Here's an alternative: Arm them.

Zealots are polarizing the debate over how to stop violent crime -- and whether firearms can help.

A Maine sheriff wants the Legislature to let authorities dole out confiscated pot to people who need medicinal marijuana.

Barry Scheck and Jim Dwyer talk about the Innocence Project, which has helped overturn eight wrongful convictions of death-row inmates.

A death row inmate in Tennessee could be the last to die in Ol' Sparky, unless new evidence can get him a retrial.

Reads like a novel but much scarier because it's all true. A page-turner! Read a Chapter Excerpt

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