Sorry to interrupt your Schiavo news, but this warrants mention:

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said jurors who acquitted actor Robert Blake of the murder of his wife are "incredibly stupid" and insisted his office put on a good case.

A juror responds:

"To hear him say we aren't a smart jury is sour grapes," Blake juror Chuck Safko said. "They didn't have a good case. Their case was built around witnesses who weren't truthful."

As legal analyst Laurie Levenson says:

"To criticize the jurors is unprofessional. It is unbelievable.

Trial Update
Thursday March 24

The prosecution may have lost a witness against Michael Jackson. Christopher Carter, one of Michael Jackson's bodyguards, is sitting in jail in Las Vegas, charged with robbing a Jack in the Box at gunpoint in January. Smoking Gun has the Las Vegas arrest warrant affidavit. Carter testified at the grand jury, providing statements the accuser made to him about the use of alchohol at Neverland. But will the prosecution still want to use him? I think its doubtful, unless the prosecution can convince the Judge not to let the jury know about the recent charges or his current residency in the Clark County jail.

In other Jackson news, the Judge has ruled the prosecution cannot introduce sexually explicit heterosexual images from Jackson's computers.

...defense lawyers argued that none of the material was from February and March of 2003, the period during which Jackson is accused of sexually molesting the then-13-year-old boy and that prosecutors could not prove that it was accessed by the singer.

The judge agreed. "The court will grant the defense motion not to allow (the material)," Melville said. "It does appear to be cached material. There's no way of knowing if anyone looked at it or not."

And in still further developments, Jackson attorney Brian Oxman, was taken by ambulance from the courtroom to a hospital.

by TChris

Bobby Fischer, wanted by the U.S. government for engaging in the "unpatriotic" act of playing a chess match in Yugoslavia, may have found a way to avoid prosecution.

After a series of strategic moves worthy of one of his greatest matches, fugitive chess legend Bobby Fischer reached an agreement with Japanese authorities to avoid deportation to the United States on Wednesday. He will instead be released after nine months in prison here and flown to freedom in Iceland as early as Thursday morning, according to sources familiar with the case.

Iceland (described in the linked article as a "chess loving nation") granted Fischer citizenship so that he would have a sanctuary from U.S. prosecution. While Fischer is more than a little daffy and has made some viciously ugly statements, the "crime" of playing chess in a sanctioned country hardly merits prosecution.

Fischer may not have scored a checkmate, as federal authorities are thinking about charging him with tax evasion or some other extraditable offense. Doing so would be a waste of resources. Let Iceland have him; Fischer isn't worth the effort.

Authorities are trying to find a motive for 16 year old Jeff Weise who shot and killed 10 and wounded 7 yesterday at a school on an Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota.

The comparison to Columbine is inevitable, and I've written about that over at 5280. Teresa Nielsen Hayeden at Making Light makes some excellent points, particularly about the parallels to the faux story of Cassie Bernal.

From the first news article above:

Reggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School, said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school’s entrance, killing a guard. Then, in a nearby classroom, he heard the gunman say something to his friend Ryan: “He asked Ryan if he believed in God,” Graves said. “And then he shot him.”

Teresa:

Trial Update
Tuesday March 22

Louise Palanker, a comedian who gave large amounts of money to the accuser and his family a few years ago, took the stand late Monday and resumes her testimony today. I don't see how she helps the prosecution. The police reports of her interviews make the entire family out to be the grifters from Hell. You can read the reports here (scroll down to page 9 and then keep reading.)

Trial Update 2
Monday, March 21

The Prosecution is presenting its "expert" testimony. Dr. Anthony J. Urquiza testified about Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS).

The Judge should give the jury California's Instruction No. 10.64, a cautionary pattern instruction that informs the jury that CSAAS testimony is not to be considered as proof that the molestation claim is true. They are to consider CSAAS evidence only for the limited purpose of showing that the alleged victim's reactions are not inconsistent with molestation.

The trial court is supposed to give this instruction whenever CSAAS evidence is presented by the prosecution. Here's what it says (available on lexis.com)

Trial Update
March 21

Why isn't this trial being delayed? If the defendant were anyone other than Michael Jackson, the jury would be sent home for a few days. Illness of a trial participant is not that uncommon. In a trial expected to last six months, where court adjourns at 2:30 p.m. every day, surely the Judge can make some adjustments on humanitarian grounds. Or do you have to be in a persistent vegetative state before a Court supplies relief?

The new mob case, involving two former police detectives charged with conducting multiple hits for the mob, is shaping up to have the stuff of a real prime-time drama. Prime-time players are their celebrity lawyers, Ed Hayes and Bruce Cutler.

For the Defense: In addition to being top lawyers, Hayes and Cutler are good friends and down-to-earth street fighters.

• Ed Hayes: Represents Stephen Caracappa. Lawyer turned book agent (brought out Bill Bratton book) and Court TV anchor (shared Friday "Closing Arguments" hosting with Rikki Klieman), was executor of Andy Warhol estate; played himself in the movie "Goodfellas", a celebrity criminal and media lawyer who represents Robert DeNiro, and was the inspiration for a defense lawyer in the Tom Wolfe novel, "Bonfire of Vanities."

• Bruce Cutler: Represents Louis Eppolito. Former lawyer for John Gotti, and numerous others. Epitome of the word "mouthpiece." Profile here.

Key Snitch: Burton Kaplan, A 71 year old former heroin smuggler and garmental, doing a federal sentence that will keep him in prison for life. Think, Hyman Roth in Godfather II. He was stand-up, until he got to prison.

Late Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Martha Stewart can be resentenced because the guidelines are only advisory, not binding, since the Booker and FanFan cases.

Martha's lawyers may seek to end her period of house arrest, asking that she be allowed to do community service or probation instead. The Judge can re-impose the same sentence or a different one.

The ruling is a routine one that has been granted by the appeals court in all cases in which the defendant was sentenced before January 1, 2005, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. [hat tip Sentencing Law and Policy.]

Here's a wrap-up of Thursday's trial testimony.

Friday was motions day. The Judge denied a defense request for a mistrial because a former housekeeper mentioned the 1993 accuser's name on the stand.

The defense will be allowed to attack the current accuser's credibility by exploring a false accusation that he made against comedian George Lopez. Tha accuser claimed Lopez stole $300 from him and demanded the comedian return the money.

The Judge also set a hearing on March 28 to decide whether the testimony of the 1993 accuser will be allowed into evidence against Jackson. The prosecution is also seeking to admit accusations from other accusers around that time.

Here are the pertinent California Evidence Rules:

Atlanta police admit a number of heavy duty mistakes in the search for alleged courthouse shooter Brian Nichols.

How the suspect was able to slip out of an area that was swarming with police and clogged with traffic is a question that has puzzled observers and embarrassed law enforcement for the past week.

Valuable time and resources were lost because police were searching the roads most of the day for a green Honda allegedly stolen by the suspect during his escape, Pennington admitted. The car was found late that night in the very garage from where it had been taken. The garage had not been searched.

Understatement of the year:

"We should have gone through the entire building," Pennington said at a news conference in Atlanta on Friday.

In addition,

Bump and Update: Former Governor John Rowland got a kiss from the Judge today at his sentencing. The Judge sentenced him to 1 year and 1 day , which means it's a ten month (and change) sentence. Federal good time is 54 days a year, and kicks in after a year is served. Many judges will give the defendant a one year sentence (instead of a year and a day) so that he or she has to serve the whole year.

Rowland's plea agreement had his lawyers calculating the sentence at 15 to 21 months. The Government asked for 37 to 46 months, saying he lied to a probation officer and tried to hide a retirement account. The Judge agreed with the defense that the account was not hidden. The Judge also recommended the institution Rowland asked for in Massachussetts.

Judge Dorsey said he believed the sentence was in keeping with federal guidelines, and that he took into consideration Rowland's record of public service. Dorsey, 73, who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, summed up Rowland's crime before delivering the sentence.

Update: Peter G. points out in comments that if you add the four months of house arrest to the ten months (and change) in jail, you almost get the 15 months which was the bottom of the guideline range in the plea agreement.