The feds became the sixth jurisdiction to file charges against alleged snipers Muhammed and Malvo today as tensions rose over who will prosecute.

The text of the Federal complaint against the alleged snipers as well as the Maryland, Virginia and Alabama charges are available in one place on Findlaw, here.

Because the two are in federal custody, it will be Attorney General Ashcroft who makes the final decision. His aides said he is still studying the matter, trying to figure out where Muhammed faces the greatest likelihood of the death penalty. Malvo is not eligible for the federal death penalty because he is only 17.

The federal complaint alleges the pair were plotting the sniper attacks for months. Meanwhile, Maryland prosecutors accused the feds of "grandstanding."

Maryland is further upset because an FBI agent and a Maryland detective allegedly had gotten Muhammed to talk to them about the root of his anger when they were told to stop the interrogation due to the feds filing charges. Malvo still isn't talking.

Ex-Sony Pictures Entertainment boss Peter Guber has been selected as a member of Winona Ryder's Jury. Sony oversaw production of three of her movies.

Ryder is charged with grand theft, burglary and vandalism, arising from her arrest for allegedly shoplifting approximately $6,000.00 in merchandise from the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills. She pleaded innocent and on Friday, the jury of six men and six women were selected. A programming development executive for an entertainment company and the husband of a Disney Co. executive are also on the jury. Neither the prosecution nor the defense exercised one of their challenges to them.

Ryder's attorney is Mark Geragos. Geragos did a great job for Susan McDougal (Whitewater case) and also represents Gary Condit. The trial is taking place in Beverly Hills. The judge told the jury they may not shop at or visit Saks until the trial is over.

Noelle Bush was released from jail Saturday and returned to the court-ordered treatment center.

Jeremy Morse, the Inglewood (Los Angeles) police officer who was captured on videotape "slamming a handcuffed teenager against a car last summer" has had his internal review hearing , and on October 14, was dismissed from the department. Morse has also been charged by grand jury indictment.

Some of our prior coverage is here , here and here.

Jeb Bush and his wife Columba finally visited their daughter Noelle in jail.

"Gov. Jeb Bush and wife Columba, in Orlando for Tuesday's gubernatorial debate, visited their daughter, Noelle, at the Orange County Jail. The Bushes spent about 15 minutes with Noelle, 25, who was ordered to spend 10 days in jail last week by an Orange County Circuit judge for violating the terms of her drug-treatment program by possessing crack cocaine. She has been undergoing treatment at the Center for Drug-Free Living."

Is Noelle getting special treatment in jail? You bet, but it's harsher, not more privileged treatment:

"Noelle Bush is being held in protective custody, separate from the general population. Officials said that is the policy for high-profile inmates.The 8-by-9-foot cell includes a metal bed, mattress, sink, battery-operated TV and commode."

It's too bad her father didn't get to see her "protective custody" cell. Or have to spend even four hours alone in it--with the door locked. That might have impressed upon him the absurdity of putting non-violent drug offenders in jail.

Treatment does work, but rarely the first time. Relapses are the norm. We once put a psychologist treating cocaine dependent persons on the stand in a probation revocation proceeding for a client with a dirty ua. We asked her how many cocaine users she had counseled in long term treatment programs. She said 500. We asked how many of them relapsed during the course of the program. She said 500.

(Link to article found on Thinking It Through.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission will be recommending civil fraud charges against Martha Stewart.

"SEC investigators have notified Martha Stewart that they plan to recommend civil securities fraud charges against her in connection with her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. shares, according to media reports Monday."

While the penalty would involve a fine and not jail, there is no assurance prosecutors won't bring criminal charges against her either now or later. If both criminal and civil charges are filed against her, it will be trickier for her lawyers to develop a defense, as they will need to negotiate and/or defend against the civil charges without saying or admitting anything that could be used against her criminally. A global settlement of the civil charges and any potential criminal charges, whereby both are settled at the same time, may be her lawyers' strategy.

Typically, the SEC first sends a "Wells Notice" to the target of the investigation, informing them of their right to appear before the Commission and explain their actions. These notices usually are followed by the filing of civil charges.

Stewart's control over her companies faces an uncertain future as well. If convicted of the civil charges, the SEC might ban her from acting as an officer or director of a publicly traded company.

Two people have been taken into custody "following a police raid on a gas station in suburban Richmond, and they are "being questioned in regards to the sniper shootings" that have terrorized Washington, Hanover County Sheriff V. Stuart Cook said today."

Neither of the two have been charged with a crime as of this posting.

Update: They had nothing to do with the sniper attacks. From ABC News,

"However, late this afternoon it appeared authorities did not believe the men were linked to the note or the sniper shootings. The men — one a Mexican and the other a Guatemalan — were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. An INS spokesman told ABCNEWS both men are illegal aliens, and would be deported. The Henrico County, Va., Police Department said in a subsequent statement that no charges would be filed against the men."

A hearing is scheduled for today in the Central Park Jogger case. The five youths convicted of rape in the case are seeking to have their convictions overturned.

DA Morganthau's office is expected to ask for more time to investigate the claim of Matias Reyes who recently confessed to the crime and said he acted alone. DNA tests on the jogger's sock link to Reyes but no DNA or forensic evidence links to the five youths who allege their confessions were coerced.

How much more time does the DA need? At this point we think it can only be another delaying tactic. So do the fifty supporters of the five men who gathered last night in protest of the DA's request.

United States Representative Charles B. Rangel was one of those who attended last night. He "drew cheers when he described perceived abuses in law enforcement. "In this community," he said, "we're just as afraid of the police as we are of criminals on the street."

The Washington Post covers the case today as well, recapping the lack of trustworthy evidence and reporting recent statements of jurors:

"Police had interrogated the teenagers, keeping them in custody at a Central Park precinct for more than 20 hours before turning on the cameras for their confessions. The confession of one youth was written by a detective, in classic police jargon, and handed to him to sign. Aside from the videotapes, there was precious little forensic evidence. Neither blood nor semen matched that of the teenagers."

"Before the trial, the state court administrator departed from state policy of choosing judges by lottery and assigned a judge renowned for handing down tough sentences."

"The jury fought bitterly over the verdict in the first of two trials in 1990. One juror told the Daily News last week that he was no longer sure of their guilt.
The juror said his doubts began last winter when Reyes, a convicted rapist and murderer, stepped forward and said he committed the rape. "I was," Reyes said, "a monster." "A lot of us were bamboozled by the prosecution," said Bill Perkins, a city council member who lives at Schomburg Plaza and has fought to overturn the convictions. "There were dehumanizing descriptions and fraudulent confessions, and it made a community very cynical."

We won't be surprised if the DA gets his continuance, but we hope it's a short one. And check out Tom over at JustOneMinute who has been following the new developments in the case extensively.

Update: As expected, the hearing was continued and prosecutors were given until December 5 to finish their investigation.

A suspicious white rental truck was taken into police custoday today "after a cleaning crew at a car rental agency near Dulles International Airport found a shell casing inside. ....Authorities took the truck to an undisclosed location to search for fibers and other physical evidence. The casing was taken to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms laboratory in Rockville for testing. Those results were expected today, police said....a white box truck was seen at several of the shootings in Montgomery County on Oct. 2, the day the sniper's string began."

Via a heads-up e-mail from Jim Capozzola at Rittenhouse Review, the Judge in the Florida case of the two teenage boys convicted of killing their father has overturned their convictions.

"The brothers were facing prison terms of 20 years to life under state sentencing guidelines because they were tried as adults rather than juveniles. They were convicted of arson and second-degree murder without a weapon."

"The six-member jury concluded an adult co-defendant, Ricky Chavis, wielded the weapon but that the boys were accomplices by letting him in the house. Jury forewoman Lynne Schwarz said at a courthouse rally for the boys prior to the hearing that she never thought the jury's verdict would result in prison time for the boys."

A second jury acquitted Ricky Chavis, but the verdict in his case was sealed and the boys' jury weren't told about it.

Reverand Thomas Masters, speaking at the courthouse rally, "said Florida leads the nation in prosecuting children as adults, most for nonviolent crimes."

"We cannot see what we are doing to our kids in this state is a total embarrassment to our nation, and especially our president, the honorable President George W. Bush, who said we must never, never leave any child behind," Masters said. "That includes Alex and Derek King."

We'll update tonight or tomorrow when we learn why the Judge overturned the verdict. If you find out first, please post it in a comment here.

A judge today ordered Noelle Bush jailed for ten days for having a controlled substance, allegedly crack cocaine, in her shoe while in a treatment program. She was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

This is her second drug related sentence this year. Hopefully it will push her father, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, into recognizing that treatment rather than prison is the appropriate response for drug users.

"UPDATE from Atrios:

"Just wanted to add what shouldn't be necessary from some bleeding heart liberal like me, but inevitably is. Like most of my ilk I favor treatment over punishment. Noelle obviously has a serious drug probably and should receive treatment. It does sound like the kind of treatment she's getting - when the rehab repeatedly looks the other way - isn't going to help, but that aside she has a disease which needs treatment not punishment. Her father has overseen budget cuts in drug treatment funds and been a strong supporter for prison time for addicts."

"I feel for Noelle, but I also feel for the numerous people Jeb has condemned to decades in prison for their diseases."

As part of its reporting of the Washington area sniper attacks, The Washington Post today explains why faulty eyewitness reports are not unusual. We spoke with one of the Post reporters this morning and some of our comments are included in the article.

"Criminal trial lawyers, former police officers and psychologists were disappointed but not that surprised yesterday when witness accounts from the latest serial sniper shooting -- thought to be the best descriptions yet -- turned out to be conflicting and imprecise."

"Up to 50 percent of the time, eyewitnesses are wrong," said Jeralyn Merritt, a Denver defense attorney and a member of a federal task force that studied problems with the reliability of eyewitness testimony. "They're not lying; they're mistaken."

"She cited a 1996 U.S. Department of Justice report that examined the cases of 28 people convicted of sexual assaults and murders who were released after post-conviction DNA tests proved they could not have committed the crimes. In 24 of the cases, eyewitnesses identified the defendant at trial as the assailant. The 28 inmates served a collective 197 years in prison before being exonerated."

"Hearing other witnesses talking about the event, reading about it in the newspaper or viewing accounts on TV can adversely affect the accuracy of memory or skew observations, Merritt and other legal experts warned."

You can read the 1996 study, Convicted By Juries, Exonerated by Science, here.

The task force we served on was the National Institute of Justice's Technical Working Group on Eyewitness Evidence which produced the 1999 publication, Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcment, available here. The National Institute of Justice is the research arm of the Department of Justice, and the task force included police, psychological researchers, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

For more on how memory works and problems with eyewitness evidence in non-legalese, you can read our article What If This Happened to Your Spouse or Child: Wrongful Convictions and Eyewitness Evidence, published by Martindale-Hubbell and Lawyers.Com.

We also highly recommend the websites of Professors Gary Wells and Elizabeth Loftus, the leading national experts in the field.