The jury in the corruption trial of Former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who commuted the death sentences of all of the state's death row inmates because so many had been wrongfully convicted, sent a note to the Judge today saying they were having difficulty reaching a verdict. The judge didn't give them a dynamite instruction, but instead told them to "treat each other with dignity and respect." She also warned them not to deliberate in smaller groups.

The Judge said the jurors are having personal problems. If you haven't been following the case,

The charges allege that as secretary of state and later as governor from 1999 to Ryan steered big-money state leases and contracts to Warner and other insiders and was rewarded with free vacations and gifts. Ryan and Warner maintain they did nothing illegal.

by TChris

Debra Lafave was placed on probation in Hillsborough County, Florida for having sex with a minor student. As a condition of probation, she must serve three years of home confinement. That wasn't good enough for Judge Hale Stancil, who rejected a proposed agreement to have Lafave serve essentially the same penalty in a separate prosecution in Marion County, where Lafave allegedly had sexual contact with the same boy in an SUV. The deal, Judge Stancil said, "shocks the conscience of this court."

The agreement was proposed in large part because the minor doesn't want to testify in this well-publicized case. A psychiatrist told the judge that testifying would be harmful for the child, but the judge apparently thought the need to punish Lafave more harshly outweighed any harm that might be inflicted on the child if the case proceeded to trial. Today the prosecutor in Marion County decided to dismiss the charge.

Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway, in explaining the decision to drop the charges, said: "The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not."

The Connecticut Supreme Court has denied Michael Skakel's petition to rehear its January decision affirming his conviction. His lawyer says she will take the case to the Supreme Court. Skakel, the nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was 15 years old in 1975 when Martha Moxley was murdered. The crime went unsolved for more than 20 years and suspicion had always focused on his brother Tommy. After Dominick Dunne and Mark Fuhrman re-ignited interest in the case through their books, suspicion shifted to Skakel and in 2000, he was charged with murder. He was convicted at trial and sentenced to 20 years to life.

The unsolved murder of Emmett Till in 1955 was a huge impetus in the civil rights movement. In 2004, the Justice Department reopened the case "after a documentary filmmaker claimed to have found investigative errors and concluded that some people involved in the crime were still alive." [In 2005, the FBI exhumed Emmett Till's body.] The final report is now in. There will be no federal prosecution.

FBI agent John G. Raucci said in a statement that the five-year statute of limitations on federal civil rights violations had expired. The FBI's report was sent to District Attorney Joyce L. Chiles, who will decide if any state charges can be filed. Chiles did not return a call seeking comment.

How many of you would guess, without more information or having read the title of this post, that these four men are now on trial for their lives?

Four leaders of a highly organized white supremacist prison gang went on trial Tuesday on charges they orchestrated the slayings or attempted slayings of more than 30 inmates during three decades of violence at some of the nation's toughest penitentiaries.

Forty members of the Aryan Brotherhood are charged with gang activity at six federal prisons stretching from California to Illinois and four California state prisons. Sixteen of the defendants could face the death penalty in one of the largest capital punishment cases ever filed in U.S. history.

The public's revulsion of these men may or may not be justified, as the evidence at trial will dictate. But it is exactly cases like these that compel us to acknowledge that everyone is entitled to the best defense possible and to the presumption of innocence, and that if these rights are not accorded to those we consider the lowest among us, they may not be there for us or our loved ones when we need them.

by TChris

Dan Froomkin points to an interesting contrast between the president's response to Claude Allen's arrest (he's "disappointed, shocked and outraged" if the theft allegations are true) and his response to Scooter Libby's indictment (sorrow that poor Scooter had to resign).

Fortune favored John Gotti, Jr. for a second time today. The jury deadlocked in his racketeering trial and a mistrial was declared:

The mistrial came after jurors sent out a note that further deliberations would be fruitless. "We are completely DEADLOCKED," the note said. "More time will not change the views in this room." The jury apparently could not agree on Gotti's claims that he quit the Gambino organized crime family before July 22, 1999, meaning the five-year statute of limitations would have expired on racketeering charges.

by TChris

Two Border Patrol agents were convicted of a variety of crimes after they shot at a suspect who fled from a traffic stop. Agent Jose Alonso Compean fired several shots at the suspect but Agent Ignacio Ramos had better aim. His single shot struck the suspect in the buttocks. Campean picked up his spent shells and neither agent reported the incident.

A jury convicted the agents of assault, weapons offenses, obstruction of justice and a civil rights offense. They'll be sentenced in June, but here's the kicker:

Border Patrol officials will decide Thursday whether the two agents will be fired.

by TChris

New policy for officers of the Utah State Patrol: keep the keys to the evidence locker away from your chlidren.

Three 17-year-old St. George boys, one the son of a Utah Highway Patrol trooper, have been arrested for investigation into the thefts of more than 23 pounds of marijuana from the UHP's evidence locker in Cedar City.

Iron County authorities are unsure how many criminal cases may have been compromised by the thefts. Only some of the marijuana has been recovered.

Dutch teen Joran van der Sloot finally decided to publicly answer missing woman Natalie Holloway's mother, who has had more face time on tv than anyone in recent memory, and more often than not uses it to to denigrate him and accuse him of lying or having something to do with her daughter's Aruba disappearance. The networks, eager to cater to the public's lust for missing white woman stories, have been only too eager to go along. [For the best interviews with Joran, see last week's with Greta, available here and here and here.]

Joran, who is in college in Amsterdam (after for all intents and purposes being run out of the country by the negative media blitz against him), came to New York a few weeks ago to go on tv and defend himself in the court of public opinion. He may have wished he stayed in Amsterdam. While in New York, the Holloways had him and his father served with a civil lawsuit (text here, html) with claims of injuring a minor, false imprisonment and interfering with custodial relations.

So now, Joran has lawyered up -- with my good pal and New York heavyweight defense lawyer Joe Tacopina.

It's show time for Andrew Fastow next week in Enron. The former CFO will take the stand to testify against Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling and earn his sentence reduction.

Defense attorneys Michael Ramsey and Daniel Petrocelli have made it clear that they intend to prove that Fastow's illegal conduct was the only wrongdoing within the company -- and was done without the knowledge of Lay or Skilling. That should make for some aggressive questioning once the defense begins their cross examination.

Fastow's plea agreement is here. It calls for a ten year sentence (after cooperation) and no further reductions after sentencing. It also called for him to begin serving his sentence when his wife Lea was released from serving her one year stint (but he's still free and the judge has granted numerous motions for him to travel, according to the court docket.) As I wrote here, it was a strict plea agreement:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Like an episode of "The Shield" or "Training Day", both set in Los Angeles, 19 former police officers have been charged with robbing drug houses while acting as police officers according to AP this morning.