The judge presiding over the Terry Nichols death penalty case has granted Nichols' change of venue request ruling that Nichols cannot receive a fair trial in Oklahoma City.

The trial will be moved to another Oklahoma county. The Judge will announce which county on Monday.

Nichols' lawyers had requested a three year abatement so that the prejudicial pre-trial publicity could die down, or alternatively, that the trial be moved outside Oklahoma. The judge denied both requests, saying he had faith in the jury system and that he lacked authority to move the trial outside Oklahoma.

One glimmer of hope: The Judge said he will dismiss the charges if twelve impartial jurors cannot be found during jury selection. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 1, 2004.

Another drug raid gone bad may have some severe consequences for the town of Bethlehem, PA. In a wrongful death case set for trial next week, the plaintiffs are seeking $1 billion in damages.

The civil trial is set to begin more than six years after Bethlehem police killed 21-year-old John Hirko Jr. during a drug raid of his South Side Bethlehem home at 629 Christian St.

bq. The plaintiffs say an 11-man special operations team recklessly attacked the home April 23, 1997, and left Hirko's body to burn in a fire after Hirko was shot 11 times in the back. The home went up in flames after police tossed a "flash-bang" concussion grenade into the living room.

"There was a conspiracy to assault this property in a fashion that was totally improper, and the conspiracy also is how they covered it up afterward," said John P. Karoly Jr., the plaintiffs' attorney.

Hirko's fiancée, Kristin Fodi, barely escaped by jumping out a second-floor window after police refused to assist her, Karoly said. The suit seeks $905 million in damages for Fodi, Hirko's parents and property owner Tuan Hoang. Karoly said he would settle for $20 million.

Walter in Denver has more details and justly concludes:

Hopefully cases like this will cause police departments around the nation to carefully consider the way they conduct drug raids. The potential for innocents to be hurt is very high, and police departments should be held accountable.

We taxpayers should be very concerned that ultimately we will be paying for any screw-ups by our drug warriors.

South Dakota Congressman Bill Janklow has been charged with second degree manslaughter , a felony carrying a maximum ten year sentence, arising from his recent car accident in which a motorcyclist was killed.

One life ended, one life forever tarnished. Both were avoidable. How sad.

Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence has been following the Air Force Academy rape scandal for over six months, writing about it for Salon, Slate and others. With the news today that a report shows that 12% of the female cadets have reported being raped, Cullen says as horrible as that is, it's really only one of three scandals. The second scandal:

Send your daughter--or yourself--to another university, and your chances for rape are probably even worse. Much worse.

The third scandal? The press has known about scandal #2 and not reported it.

The least-necessary scandal: The press knew about this all through the Air Force Academy scandal all spring. They focused on the horror of dozens of women reporting sexual assault (last I checked the number was up to 56 reported over ten years, including sexual harassment). We should be so lucky that it is only 56. That's a BS number and the press knows it. The number across the country is in the millions.

Dave says:

Watch the press on this story. Watch them fixate on the Air Force Academy, ignoring Harvard, Princeton and everywhere else. Just watch.

More news regarding the Massachussetts prison system's handling of defrocked Priest John Geoghan:

The protective custody prison unit where defrocked priest John J. Geoghan was sent for committing nonviolent offenses four months before being slain was designed for inmates with records of extremely aggressive behavior, according to a written summary of a correction officials' meeting last year.

....Lawyers who represented Geoghan in prison said yesterday that they pushed hard for his transfer out of MCI-Concord -- but only because he was desperate to escape harassment by prison guards and fellow inmates, which the lawyers said included people urinating and defecating on Geoghan's bed, fouling his food, and verbally taunting him, sometimes after guards intentionally left his cell door open.

The Houston Chronicle reports that indicted former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan, Jr. is negotiating a plea bargain and cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.

Glisan, one of the highest ranking Enron officials before he was fired for his involvement in a side-deal, is charged with two dozen counts of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. His charges are part of a 109-count indictment against Glisan, former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and former Enron executive Dan Boyle.

"When Glisan flips, this could be a bloodbath," said one lawyer familiar with the Enron investigation. Glisan was installed as Enron treasurer in 2000 and was known as a protege of both Fastow and ex-CEO Jeff Skilling.

The Enron case appears to be heating up. More indictments are expected to be handed down regarding a "side deal" by Enron concerning a Nigerian barge. A superseding Indictment is expected on the portion of the case regarding Enron's broadband internet business, although that could just involve a fine-tuning of the charges rather than the addition of new defendants.

Murdered priest John Geoghan's conviction for child molesting will be vacated. Under Massachussetts law, if a defendant dies while appealing his conviction, the conviction is voided.

Thus, it will now be erroneous to refer to the late defrocked Priest as a convicted child molester.

Quick afternoon update, we've got to get back to work:

Fabio Ochoa, convicted Colombian former cartel leader, was sentenced to 30 years today. Roy Black, his attorney, says the sentence violates the terms of his earlier extradition agreement which stated 12 years was the maximum sentence for a violation.

It shows the bad faith of the U.S. government," said defense attorney Roy Black. "The U.S. government, despite its arrogance in refusing to follow international agreements, must be held responsible for making promises to the government of Colombia."

In the Sniper case, the Judge ruled the prosecution must turn over exculpatory statements in witness interviews but refused to hold a hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty.

Bioterror expert Dr. Steven Hatfill, long the subject of the federal anthrax probe, has sued Attorney General John Ashcroft and other officials for " ...trampling his constitutional rights and using him as a scapegoat for their failure to make an arrest in the case."

Saving the best for last, Ashcroft On Tour and Unplugged:

– Like an aging rock star promoting a new album, John Ashcroft hit the road for a summer tour last week. Armed with a repertoire that includes such timeless hits as "We Are Safer" and "Our Liberties Are More Secure" the attorney general set out on a four-week 18-city jaunt that will take him from the heartland to the East Coast.

[thanks to Patriot Watch for the link]

Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, has granted pardons to 35 defendants caught up in the bogus Tulia, Texas drug sting. Perry said discredited undercover cop Tom Coleman was a big factor in his decision.

Jeff Blackburn, a lawyer in Amarillo who represents many of the people pardoned yesterday, said indiscriminate spending in the war on drugs was to blame for the debacle in Tulia. He was especially critical of the Texas Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, a federally financed consortium of 26 Texas counties based in Amarillo.

"The government agency that caused the Tulia fiasco was the task force," Mr. Blackburn said. "They were the group that hired Coleman. They were that group that allegedly supervised Coleman. We believe it was this group that encouraged him to make the largest number of cases using whatever methods he chose. The more productive he appeared to be, the more funding money they could get."

The pardons will allow those receiving them to sue for damages. Most have settled with local officials for $250,000, but they remain free to sue the task force that employed Coleman.

Coleman is white. 39 of the 46 defendants were black. Here are some details about Coleman and his conduct:

The comments to our post on the granting of parole to former member of the Weather Underground Kathy Boudin show strong feelings. We wish some of those objecting to her parole would think more about what it is like to spend 25 years in prison for a crime, and remember that she also was deprived of raising her son, Chesa, now a Rhodes scholar:

Chesa Boudin. When he was 14 months old, his mother and father were sent to a maximum-security prison in New York State and, 21 years later, they remain there. He was born with epilepsy and dyslexia. He was unable to read until the third grade, and was marked as a "problem child" from an early age because of frequent temper tantrums. He has the sort of unenviable personal history out of which bad guys and life’s losers are made.

So where is Mr. Boudin today? Last month, he joined 31 other Americans to accept a Rhodes Scholarship, the country’s most prestigious academic honor, and will be heading to Oxford University to deepen his study of international development—an interest he developed as a Phi Beta Kappa at Yale. As The New York Times reported, his parents are barred from receiving phone calls or e-mail in prison, and so would only learn of their son’s accomplishment in the newspapers.

Bump and Update: Kathy Boudin was granted parole today! She should be out by October, as soon as her parole plans are finalized. We love when the system works.

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Kathy Boudin, now age 60, has served more than 20 years in prison for her role in the shooting of a Brinks security guard in New York in 1981. She will have her second parole hearing this week.

Two Nyack police officers and a security guard were murdered during the $1.6 million robbery of an armored car on Oct. 20, 1981, by a group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries. The robbery was at the Nanuet Mall, and the police officers were shot to death at a subsequent roadblock in Nyack.

Boudin pleaded guilty in 1984 to first-degree robbery and second-degree murder in the killing of Brinks guard Peter Paige. She was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in a court-approved agreement with Rockland prosecutors.

Boudin's supporters say "she played a minor role in the robbery, didn't shoot anyone, is rehabilitated and is no longer a threat to society." Also, in setting the sentence, the Judge noted that he expected her to be paroled.

For the parole system to have any meaning, Boudin should be paroled. Otherwise, the executive branch which decides parole is usurping the authority of the legislative branch which sets statutory parole eligibility dates and the judicial branch, which imposes sentences relying upon the statutory structure.

Here's how you can help. Read the letter written by Kathy and use the form to send your own letter to the Parole Board.

The Judge in the Scott Peterson case today issued this order prohibiting television coverage of his preliminary hearing. We think it's the correct decision. Hearsay is allowed at preliminary hearings, which is not allowed at trial. Evidence is admitted at prelims that later may be determined to have been illegally obtained or to be irrelevant and therefore barred from the trial. Once the public and potential jury pool has heard the inadmissible evidence, how do can you unring the bell? In our view, the unfair prejudice to the defendant outweighs any right of the public to view the proceeding in their living rooms.

Here's a news article on the ruling. We find it interesting that only the prosecution objected to the cameras. Mark Geragos, Peterson's media savvy attorney, had asked for the prelim to be closed to the media and public. But once the judge ruled against him on that motion, he said he didn't object to televising the hearing, because it would provide a more accurate depiction than second hand news reports. He has a point, which is one of the reasons we always say, the defendant's postion should be the guiding light in deciding whether to admit cameras in the courtroom. Trials should not be televised to the general public over a defendant's objections. The Sixth Amendment guarantee of a fair trial applies to the accused. Particularly in a death case, that right should trump any first amendment right of the public to watch the proceedings at home.