David Westerfield was found guilty of all counts in the San Diego murder of Danielle Van Dam

Death penalty phase begins next Wednesday. Judge is telling the jury not to discuss case with anyone in the meantime.

MSNBC is carrying it live on the internet.

Here is the text of yesterday's Indictment charging ImClone's Waksal with Fraud, Perjury and Obstruction of Justice. From Findlaw.

Terry Nichols is facing trial in Oklahoma for the civilian deaths caused by the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

The federal trial was justly moved from Oklahoma to Denver as one hardly could expect to empanel a fair jury in Oklahoma. Nichols was tried for the killing of 8 federal workers and for the bombing. He had a separate trial from McVeigh. McVeigh proceeded to trial first. McVeigh received the death penalty. Nichols, whose lawyers successfully presented him as an aider and abettor, and who, like Moussaoui, was not present at the time of the bombing, ended up with a life sentence.

Not satisfied with the life sentence, the DA in Oklahoma City had Nichols indicted in state court in Oklahoma. He is charged with killing the non-federal workers and facing the death penalty. His case has been delayed many times.

Today the Judge was supposed to once again set a preliminary hearing. Instead, he imposed another delay.

Seems that the folks in Oklahoma want Nichols tried again, but they don't want to pay for it. His court-appointed lawyer has not been paid in over 11 months, hasn't made a house payment in four months, and his staff has deserted him.

The judge told lawyer Brian Hermanson to take it up with the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the county court fund, and then scheduled an Aug. 23 hearing at which he will decide whether to set a preliminary hearing or not.

Nichols is facing the death penalty in a state court. He is an American citizen. Why is Oklahoma refusing to pay for a lawyer for him?

To re-try Nichols after a federal jury has found him guilty and after he has been sentenced to life without, seems like vengence to us. What is the point? The man will come out of prison in a box either way. Under no scenario will he see freedom again, return to a normal life or be in a position to hurt someone.

Our criminal justice system is not about vengence. Or even retribution. The acceptable purposes in deciding on a sentence are: rehabilitation, punishment and deterrence. Life in prison is tough enough and certainly no picnic. It does not speak well of Oklahoma officials, or of Oklahomans themselves, to countenance such a revengeful re-trial.

Terry Nichols is indigent. He cannot afford a lawyer. If he is facing criminal charges, he must be provided one at the state's expense. If Oklahomans don't want to pay for a defense for Nichols, they have but one option: Stop the quest for revenge and dismiss the case so Nichols can continue serving his life sentence in the ultra-max security prison in Florence, CO. If they aren't willing to do that, then they should pay up--providing adequate lawyers' fees and fees for experts and whatever else Nichols' lawyers need to effectively present a defense.

The Government spent 82 million dollars investigating and prosecuting McVeigh and Nichols in federal court. The defense spent a small percentage of that amount.

Oklahoma will have a big black eye if they try to send this man to the death house without adequately compensating his lawyers. But then they already have one in our view for inisisting on a state re-trial out of a vengeful desire to see Nichols dead.

Salon has a long feature news article today on the Rockefeller drug laws by Michelle Goldberg. See, Noelle Bush gets rehab, the poor and black get hard time.

"There are roughly 21,000 people now serving drug sentences in New York state prisons, constituting about a third of the state's inmate population. Though studies show that most drug users and drug sellers are white, 94 percent of New York's drug inmates are black and Latino."

"Fed up with draconian drug penalties, a coalition led by angry mothers is threatening to overturn some of the country's harshest laws."

The Group is Mothers for the Disappeared. They are making progress, but need more support and have a ways to go, thanks to the opposition from the District Attorneys' Association.

The DA's admit they oppose reform because "the threat of long sentences helps them extract plea bargains and recruit informants. "

The Drug Policy Alliance fears that if the laws aren't changed this November, they won't change at all.

And back to Noelle Bush, "Noelle Bush forges a prescription and goes to rehab," says Teresa Aviles, a 54-year-old Bronx police clerk whose son, Isidro, died of an untreated, undiagnosed illness after serving eight years of a 27-year federal prison term. "If that was my daughter, she would have gotten a mandatory five-year sentence."

Check out the site and help these folks convince the NY legislature to do the right thing.

Sen. Joseph Biden's daughter arrested on obstruction charge in Chicago, sticking up for a pal.

Russell Birnbaum, the foreman of the Charles Schwarz jury that deadlocked two weeks ago on the most serious charges against former NY cop Charles Scwarz relating to the attack on Abner Louima explains their impasse in Diary of a Juor in this week's New York Observer.

According to Birnbaum, the jurors were 11/1 for conviction on all counts but one woman juror was a holdout from the beginning and wouldn't listen to reason. She was also anti-semitic and had her own agenda, Birnbaum says.

Very little about these jurors was made public, and the jurors themselves did not each other's names. This is the first published account of their deliberations which lasted six days before their deadlock.

The U.S. Attorneys' office has announced plans to try Schwarz for a 4th time. Some are saying it's time for Ron Fischetti, Schwarz's lawyer, to cop a plea. Maybe learning this jury was 11 to 1 for conviction will advance that cause.

598 American survivors of brutal World War II Japanese prison camps in the Philippines have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the U.S. government of intentionally sacrificing them in 1941 to give the United States justification to enter the war. They are represented by Northwestern University Law Professor Anthony D'Amato.

Cathy Young in today's Boston Globe discusses the danger of assuming someone is guilty of a heinous crime before they have had their day in court. Even in the case of Alejandro Avila who is accused of the brutal murder of 5 year old Samantha Runion in California.

Under the now repealed federal Independent Counsel statute, subjects of grand jury investigations who end up not being indicted can apply to recover their attorneys' fees from the Government. It was only a matter of time until the Clintons decided to take advantage of this law. Clintons Ask Millions from U.S. in Whitewater Legal Fees

The Clintons by agreement cannot seek reimbursement for the Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones matters, but are free to do so for Whitewater.

Whether or not they need the money is not the issue to us. They deserve it because they were unjustly scandalized by the Whitewater investigation. We say unjust because it was never proven that they committed any violations of law in connection with Whitewater. They were targets of the radical right. They were victimized by Ken Starr and his minions. Ken Starr wasted five years and tens of millions of dollars on this investigation, tarnished the Clintons' reputations and caused them to go into debt for $10 million of legal fees. The Government is responsible for Starr's misjudgments and now it must pay the piper.

Ronald Regan and George Bush got reimbursed for their legal fees when they were subjects of independent counsel investigations that failed to result in indictments against them.

What's good for the goose....

Too bad Susan McDougal and Webster Hubbell also can't recover their attorneys' fees.

The Rittenhouse Review praises the decision to send Alfred Taubman to jail. We respect Rittenhouse and think their blog is one of the best. But we respectfully disagree on this one.

How is it not inhumane to put any 78 year old non-violent offender in ill health in jail? What if this was your father?

Particularly for a financial crime. Why would home detention not be punitive enough for the man? It is very confining and would deprive him of the privileges in his life he has so taken for granted. He's going to pay 7.5 million which will undoubtedly cover the losses he's caused (and if not, he'll have to pay restitution on those).

As Rittenhouse points out, his snitch cohort and underling got home detention and she's relatively young and in good health. Why praise a sentence that is the result of a system that rewards ratting over everything else.

She sang for her supper to save her own hide, just like Sammy Gravano and countless others, by providing purchased testimony, testimony that is purchased with promises of freedom instead of money. To most people, freedom is a commodity far more precious than money. And it gives a powerful incentive to lie.

Talk about forensic power--the country's three most famous forensic experts in homicides have joined forces to determine who killed Chandra Levy.

That's right, Henry Lee, Michael Baden and Cyril Wecht.

Billy Martin, Levy Family lawyer made the announcement today. The trio examined Levy's remains at the District of Columbia medical examiner's office, and went to Rock Creek Park where the remains were found May 22.

Florida Governor and Presidential brother Jeb Bush's 24 year old daughter got 3 days in jail for noncompliance with a drug treatment plan. With no way to spin it, he sent an email to the media to tell them. Among his comments, "Unfortunately, this happens to many individuals even as they continue their journey to full recovery."

Why is it that politicians only recognize truths such as relapse is common during drug treatment when it happens to someone in their families or small circle of friends? Otherwise, they seem quite content to brand drug offenders as criminals and jail them when they fail to live up to the terms of their probation or or drug treatment plan.

Hopefully, this will open some eyes and lead to more rational and humane treatment of drug users.