Instapundit says no-knock drug raids are dangerous and an example of the Drug War's violation of civil liberties. He's right.

Check out this article in the Baltimore Sun about the decision not to charge Lewis S. Cauthorne, who shot four police officers when they barged into his house, with a crime.

"Investigators concluded detectives did not announce that they were police just before smashing down Cauthorne's door with a battering ram and rushing in to look for drugs."

The authorities believe Cauthorne acted in self-defense. In an interview given the night of the incident, Cauthorne said, "I didn't know you guys were police. I thought I was getting robbed."

The police were required to knock and announce themselves before entering the house. None of the officers suffered serious injuries. "The raid yielded six bags with trace amounts of marijuana, empty vials, a razor with cocaine residue and two scales, documents show."

Nor has Cauthorne been charged with any drug crimes. Nonetheless, he spent six weeks, between the date of the incident on Nov. 19 and January 7 in jail.

Proseuctors in the case of the accused snipers begin their bid for the death penalty against juvenile suspect John Lee Malvo today in a Virginia courtroom.

Today's hearing is signficant for the defense in that it will be their first opportunity to learn some of the evidence the State has against their client--it is expected that about two dozen witnesses will testify for the prosecution, including ballistic experts, and officers and agents who handled various pieces of evidence. It will also give the defense a chance to cross-examine the witnesses, test their memories, and commit them on record to a version of events. Should they testify differently at a later hearing, they could be impeached by the testimony they give today.

From a factual standpoint, "the prosecutors will try to tie Malvo to an Oct. 9 slaying at a Prince William County gas station, as well as the Oct. 14 shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin in Seven Corners, to meet the provisions of one element of Virginia's death penalty law."

The hearing itself is fairly routine. The Judge has to decide if there is probable cause to believe Malvo committed the shooting with which he is charged, and if so, he will order Malvo transferred to adult court. Juvenile courts in Virginia cannot hear murder cases involving a defendant older than 14. Probable cause is a very low standard--kind of like, are there reasonable grounds to believe Malvo committed the crimes?

Virginia is carefully laying the groundwork for it's bid for the death penalty against Malvo. They are crafting arguments under two different provisions of the capital murder statute. The first argument is that Malvo engaged in more than one killing in a three year period. For this theory to succeed, prosecutors have to show that Malvo was the triggerman in each of the named killings. Their second argument falls under Virginia's new and untested terrorism law, which requires the prosecution to prove that the killings were intended to terrorize the community at large. To support this theory, prosecutors are expected to introduce the note Malvo allegedly wrote saying "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time," and a tarot card that was left at the scene of another one of the murders.

Malvo is charged with the killing of Linda Franklin in Fairfax County. John Muhammed is charged with the killing of Dean Meyers in Prince William County. They are not being tried together.

Update on the hearing: Police say Malvo contacted them four times to demand $10 million to stop the killings. Fingerprints on weapons in four shootings linked to Malvo.

Pete Townsend, leader of the band "The Who," has been released on bail. No charges have been filed against him. He was questioned at police headquarters after his arrest today "on suspicion of possession indecent images of children" and released. He is due to appear again at the police station later in January, if the police want to question him further.

Townsend has not shied away from the media.

Townshend, who has said he believes he was abused as a child, acknowledged Saturday he had downloaded child pornography from the Internet but insisted he had done it for research purposes.

"I am not a pedophile. I think pedophilia is appalling," the guitarist, who is married with three children, said in a statement.

Hours before he was arrested he told the Sun newspaper he had worked "tirelessly" to help the abused but had been foolish to wage a one-man battle against child pornography.

British police arrested more than 1,300 in "Operation Ore," Britain's largest child pornography investigation. How did it start?

The probe, which began 10 months ago, was launched after U.S. law enforcement agencies identified about 7,000 British suspects as users of child pornography Web sites.

Update: 12/27/04: Erik Aude arrives home from Pakistan. 12/21: Erik Aude is released from jail.

Original Post:

A 21 year old California actor, Erik Anthony Aude, who had a bit part in "Hey Dude, Where's My Car," has been sentenced to seven years in a Pakistani prison for smuggling opium. He could have been sentenced to death.

Aude's mother said he was "duped by a man he met at a Burbank gym into thinking he was importing leather goods." She called the sentence as good as a death sentence.

Pakistan is not a member of the Prisoner Transfer Treaty Program so Aude can't even do his time in a U.S. jail. Ouch.

[link via The Guardroom]

(Source: Adapted from DUI Gulag.com)

Our blogosphere friend Damn Foreigner sent us this article, MADD: Premier Should Resign and it has us seeing red. In our opinion, MADD has moved into dangerous territory and needs to be reigned in. Or, since that's unlikely, ridiculed.

MADD is calling for the resignation of British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell. Why? Because a few days ago, Campbell, in Hawaii on vacation, was pulled over by police as he was returning from dinner with friends and charged with alcohol impaired driving. Campbell does not intend to contest the charge and issued an apology after his arrest.

Why should MADD call for the resignation of a public official who committed a minor transgression in his personal life, on his own time and in another country? Who made them the arbiter of personal conduct by a public official? Sure, they have a right to call for whatever they want, but in oppposition, we should be making fun of them, not debating them. Arguing won't do any good--they are out of control. We believe their true agenda is prohibition, on moral grounds. They are far outside the field people associate them with--safety on the public highways.

According to DUI Gulag, here is a brief history of MADD and what they've become:

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded by a group of California women in 1980 after a 13 year old girl was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The driver was a chronic alcoholic who also happened to be a chronic drunk driver. The MADD founders were outraged by what they perceived to be a lenient sentence handed down by the California judge as part of a plea bargain in the criminal case that arose from the fatal accident. Since that time MADD has developed into one of the largest and most powerful political action/advocacy organizations in the U.S.

MADD’s activities were originally geared towards legitimate educational and victim support oriented functions. MADD’s political focus was geared towards removing chronic/alcoholic drunk drivers from the nation’s highways. Responsible social drinkers who drove home after a wedding or after good conversation with friends at the neighborhood pub were not targets of MADD’s efforts. To the extent that MADD has worked to support victims and to educate the public about legitimate chronic alcoholic/drunk driving issues it should be commended. Unfortunately, in recent years the national MADD organization and most of it’s local chapters have been taken over by ultra-conservative, anti-alcohol extremists who have adopted a political agenda that threatens the second coming of Prohibition.

Instead of focusing on ways to remove the chronic/alcoholic drunk driver from our highways, MADD’s primary focus is upon "drivers who have had something to drink.....

MADD’s modus operandi is to use generalizations, misstatements, scapegoating, distortions of the truth and victimization propaganda to force the federal and state governments to pass increasingly irrational and draconian DUI laws. MADD seeks to clone itself onto local governments (in much the same manner as did the National Socialist Party in Germany during the years following World War I ) by entering into government/private sector "partnerships"; by having it’s propaganda displayed in government buildings; by having it’s logo attached to government vehicles and police uniforms; by giving awards and political support to judges and other public officials who are either afraid of, or who support, their agenda; and by working to require citizens who have been criminalized for DUI to attend mandatory MADD propaganda seminars as a condition of probation.

If MADD’s political agenda is ever fulfilled, no person in the U.S. will be able to drive home after drinking a couple of beers at a ball game or after enjoying wine with a meal at a restaurant without violating the law, risking arrest and being subjected to unlimited civil liability. If MADD’s attempts to criminalize low BAC drivers really saved lives it would be one thing. However, all available valid government data indicates that it does not. Even the principal founder of MADD has left the organization, citing a lack of focus on the real public safety issue, that of getting high BAC chronic/alcoholic drunk drivers off the road.

For information about MADD's tax-exempt status, go here.

Update: The ridiculing has begun, in the Comics. [link via the Drezner blog]

Update #2: Nathan Newman disagrees with us. Here's our reply to him--

"Sorry, Nathan but on this one we respectfully disagree--the man was on vacation, in another country, driving home from dinner with friends. No accident, no one hurt. You'd have a point if his drunk driving arrest occurred after a business lunch or on the way to a government meeting. But in vacation on Hawaii?

Don't you think MADD would do much better to go after the FBI agent in Florida who killed two brothers in 1999 driving very drunk and on the wrong side of the road--last week he just got 90 days for the drunk driving arrests, being acquitted of manslaughter. He's even out on appeal bond, after serving one day in jail.

We think that's where MADD belongs and should stay - not calling for the resignation of a vacationing politician.

"Defense attorneys for sniper suspect John Lee Malvo asked a judge Thursday to bar the public and the press from a preliminary hearing Tuesday that will outline some of the evidence against him. A Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge will hear arguments on the motion Friday afternoon. "

Unfortunately, we doubt the defense will prevail. But, the additional negative publicity may help Malvo in a future change of venue motion--which we think should be granted. Judge Matsch wrote an excellent opinion on the topic when he granted a motion by McVeigh and Nichols to move their trial outside of Oklahoma. [We say "trial" as opposed to "trials" because at the time he granted the motion, the two cases had not been severed yet for trial.] You can read the opinion here.

It may be tougher for Malvo and Muhammed to get a change of venue because the case is in state court, as opposed to federal court-- but the Judge should at least move their trials to a county in Virginia where the citizens were less directly affected by the attacks. Putting aside the issue of the effect of pre-trial publicity on the prospective jurors, there is also the issue that a large number, if not all, of the citizens of the Virginia counties where the two are charged felt personally victimized by attacks. A crime victim can't sit on the jury of the man accused of perpetrating the crime against her. At least in any other case that would be true.

How much do you believe in coincidences? We'd say not enough to believe these two sets of arrests are not connected.

1. Three Texas inmates serving long sentences (two for capital murder) have been charged with plotting in 2001 to kill federal court Judge Richard P. Matsch--the Judge who presided over the McVeigh and Nichols trials in the Oklahoma City Bombing case. One of the inmates is charged with soliciting the other two.

2. Matt Hale, the leader of a White Supremacist organization, was arrested in Chicago Wednesday on charges that between Nov. 29 and Dec. 17, he tried to get someone to kill U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow. No details are available about who he allegedly tried to enlist.

Likewise, few details are available about the plot to kill Judge Matsch. We have practiced before Judge Matsch our entire career--rarely have we encountered a Judge who is as determined to provide a fair trial to the defense. He doesn't suffer fools and he sounds off equally at the Government and the Defense. We've served on several committees at his request, and have a tremendous amount of respect for him. We are shocked and angry at the allegations. But we are also keeping in mind that charges are not evidence, and it would be wrong to presume that those charged are guilty.

Judge Matsch was the Chief Judge of the District of Colorado until just a few years ago, when age laws required him to leave that position. He continued to preside over trials as a district court judge, working every day nothwithstanding that he was waiting for a liver transplant (not due to any alchohol related condition.) He got the transplant, returned to work, and just recently took senior status.

In 1987, Judge Matsch presided over another high-profile case with white supremacist defendants--one that involved the murder of Denver radio host Alan Berg. The defendants were convicted. One of them, David Lane, was sentenced to 150 years.

We have no information to connect the cases of Hale and the Texas inmates. Nor are we implying a connection between either of these two cases and the Alan Berg case, but like we said, we don't much believe in coincidences--particularly when law enforcement swoops down in different parts of the country in the same day and charges unrelated people with similar crimes. On the other hand, we could just be a little paranoid.

High praise to Roger Diamond, lawyer for Max Factor heir Andrew Luster who disappeared in the middle of his rape trial. Diamond tried to halt the trial, the judge said no, and Diamond is now trying the case in abstentia.

Diamond said on Wednesday that "he would vigorously defend his missing client in court" while police continued searching for him.

"Attorney Roger John Diamond failed to have Luster's trial halted until the 39-year-old millionaire surfaced so must proceed with an empty chair in the Ventura, California courtroom where his client once sat."

"Ever since Monday I've been doing the best I can to defend the case," Diamond told Reuters in an interview. "It would be helpful to have the defendant's input but I'm still going to do a good job for him. I'm fighting as hard as I can."

Good for you, Roger, and even better for your client.

From the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web, which linked to us today, causing our hits to soar.

"When a drug dealer murders a family by burning down its house, who's responsible? According to lawyer Johnnie Cochran of O.J. Simpson fame, it's the city of Baltimore, because, the Baltimore Sun reports, "the anti-drug 'Baltimore Believe' campaign encouraged residents to speak out against dealers."

The case involves alleged retaliation by a drug dealer against someone who ratted. "Part of the claim will focus on the "Believe" campaign, which encourages residents to take back their city from drug dealers in a number of ways, including reporting dealers to police."

And if a citizen listens to the city's campaign on the evils of drugs and burns down the house of a drug dealer, thinking he is being a righteous part of the war on drugs, and the fire kills the drug dealer's family, the city would be equally liable, right?

Either way, our money's on Johnnie.

Alan Drazek, a former political aide to Illinois Governor George Ryan, pleaded guilty to tax fraud today in a plea deal, a component of which is that he will testify against Gov. Ryan's former Chief of Staff Scott Fawell and Ryan's campaign committee, whose trial on charges they used "state employees and tax money to wage political campaigns going back to 1991" begins this week.

"Drazek is expected to get a reduced sentence of less than 10 months in return for his cooperation. A sentencing date wasn't immediately set."

"Ryan, a Republican leaving office Jan. 13, has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing, although recent court papers said he knew of the destruction of documents to keep them out of the hands of federal agents."

Why do we put so much trust in cooperating individuals whose testimony is purchased with promises of leniency, a commodity far more precious than money?

Michael Skakel, convicted of the murder of Martha Moxley and denied bail pending appeal is in a maximum security prison in Connecticut. Ms. Moxley was killed when Skakel was 15. Skakel is now 45 or so--he has not been involved with other criminal activity, has been clean and sober for fifteen or more years, and stuck around knowing he was going to be charged and then appeared every day for his trial.

His father, Rushton Skakel, the brother of Ethel Kennedy, died on Friday. Many prisons allow inmates furloughs to attend family funerals. Particularly if the inmate is willing to pay the cost of transportation and perhaps overtime for the police/marshalls who accompany them. Usually the inmate is handcuffed during the funeral service.

The Connecticut authorites have refused Michael permission to attend his father's funeral. Why? Skakel does not present a danger to the community and is not a flight risk. Other prisoners get to go, so why not him? According to the
spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Corrections, it's because he's serving his sentence in a maximum security prison and applications for funeral furloughs are only allowed to be made by those in minimum security prisons.

Sounds quite unfair to us. But then, we thought his trial was unfair.

Jury selection is going slowly in the trial of 11 Miami police officers charged with planting guns, manipulating evidence, or covering up crimes by others. Essentially, the officers are accused of "shooting suspects, then planting guns and concocting evidence to cover up wrongdoing."

Jury selection began this morning. The star witnesses against the 11 are two former cops who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the Government in exchange for leniency in their own cases.

"The case involved the city's worst police scandal since the 1980s, when the ''Miami River Cops'' stole cocaine from drug traffickers and sold the drug themselves. More than 100 officers were arrested, fired, or disciplined in that case. ''The history of Miami has been characterized by ugly police-community relations,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. ''There is a loss of confidence, if not outright hostility, by the minority community because of the great number of shootings of typically unarmed black young men.''

The trial is expected to last three to five months. This brings back memories of the Ramparts police scandal in Los Angeles, which resulted the overturning of more than 100 guilty verdicts. Interesting too, that Miami just got a new police chief, John Timoney, who vied against Bill Bratton for the LA police chief job's several months ago. Bratton got the job in LA, and now Timoney has been selected for Miami. Both have quite a job ahead of them in terms of rooting out the corruption and boosting officer morale. Timoney and Bratton used to work together, and Bratton was instrumental in getting Timony his last police job as chief in Philadelphia. We think the two have different styles and we'll be curious to see which city, if either, is successful at reducing the big three: police misconduct , crime and low officer morale.