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Military
- 
Terrorism
- 
Intelligence
- Torture
- Death
Penalty - Human
Rights - War
Crimes - 
Law
- 
Politics
- "Many
Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill."
... "Included in the bill, passed by Republican majorities in the Senate
yesterday and the House on Wednesday, are unique rules that bar terrorism
suspects from challenging their detention or treatment through traditional
habeas corpus petitions. They allow prosecutors, under certain conditions,
to use evidence collected through hearsay or coercion to seek criminal
convictions." ... "The bill rejects the right to a speedy trial and limits
the traditional right to self-representation by requiring that defendants
accept military defense attorneys. Panels of military officers need not
reach unanimous agreement to win convictions, except in death penalty cases,
and appeals must go through a second military panel before reaching a federal
civilian court." ... "By writing into law for the first time the definition
of an "unlawful enemy combatant," the bill empowers the executive branch
to detain indefinitely anyone it determines to have "purposefully and materially"
supported anti-U.S. hostilities. Only foreign nationals among those detainees
can be tried by the military commissions, as they are known, and sentenced
to decades in jail or put to death." ... "At the same time, the bill immunizes
U.S. officials from prosecution for cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment
of detainees who the military and the CIA captured before the end of last
year. It gives the president a dominant but not exclusive role in setting
the rules for future interrogations of terrorism suspects." ... "But Tom
Malinowski, the Washington office director for Human Rights Watch, said
Bush's motivation is partly to protect his reputation by gaining congressional
endorsement of controversial actions already taken. "He's been accused
of authorizing criminal torture in a way that has hurt America and could
come back to haunt our troops. One of his purposes is to have Congress
stand with him in the dock," Malinowski said." -By
R. Jeffrey Smith -WashingtonPost
Illinois
- Politics
- Capital
Punishment - "Ex-Illinois
governor gets prison sentence." ... "Former Illinois
Gov. [Republican governor] George Ryan, promoted as a Nobel Peace Prize
candidate for his vigorous opposition to capital punishment, was sentenced
to 6-1/2 years in prison on Wednesday for corrupt dealings while in office."
... "The 72-year-old Ryan, his voice cracking, told the court before sentencing:
"I realize ... the people of Illinois have lost faith in their government.
And for that I am very sorry. I let them down."" ... "On April 18, after
a nearly six-month trial, a jury convicted Ryan and friend and lobbyist
Larry Warner on 18 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, fraud and other
offenses involving favoritism and kickbacks for state contracts and property
leases that enriched Ryan and his friends." ... "Ryan's lawyers have already
appealed the verdict and asked for a new trial." (1, 2)
-By Andrew Stern -Reuters
Iraq
- 
US
- Execution
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "Pentagon
Cites Spike In Violence in Iraq: Averting Civil War
Called Main Goal." ... "Rising sectarian bloodshed has pushed violence
in Iraq to its highest level in more than two years, and preventing civil
war is now the most urgent mission of the growing contingent of 140,000
U.S. troops in the country, according to a new Pentagon report released
yesterday." ... "Executions, kidnappings and other sectarian attacks targeting
Iraqi civilians have soared over the past three months, contributing to
a 51 percent rise in casualties among the population and Iraqi security
forces, the report said. More than 3,000 Iraqis are killed or wounded each
month, and by July, 2,000 of the casualties were the result of sectarian
incidents, it showed." ... "The Pentagon report, though consistent with
what news media have reported for months, is significant because it represents
an official acknowledgment of trends that are widely believed to be driving
the country toward full-scale civil war." ... ""It's a pretty sober report
this time," said Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international
security affairs. "The last quarter . . . it's been rough, and the levels
of violence are up and the sectarian quality of the violence is particularly
acute and disturbing," he said at a news briefing." ... ""This is reality
catching up with Rumsfeld and the Pentagon," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military
analyst at the Brookings Institution." -By Ann Scott
Tyson -WashingtonPost
Noteworthy
- 
International
- US
- 
Afghanistan
- Iraq
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Detainee
- Death
Penalty - Human
Rights - Politics
- 
History
- "Detainee
Abuse Charges Feared: Shield Sought From '96 War
Crimes Act." ... "An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress
a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and
troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing
war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts." ... "Senior officials
have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel
involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for
past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations
of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death
penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment."
... "In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions
apply to the treatment of detainees in the terrorism fight, Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about
the need for such "protections," according to someone who heard his remarks
last week." ... "Gonzales told the lawmakers that a shield is needed for
actions taken by U.S. personnel under a 2002 presidential order, which
the Supreme Court declared illegal, and under Justice Department legal
opinions that have been withdrawn under fire, the source said." ... "Since
the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, hundreds of
service members deployed to Iraq have been accused by the Army of mistreating
detainees, and at least 35 detainees have died in military or CIA custody,
according to a tally kept by Human Rights First. The military has asserted
these were all aberrant acts by troops ignoring their orders." ... "Defense
attorneys for many of those accused of involvement have alleged that their
clients were pursuing policies of rough treatment set by officials in Washington.
That claim is amplified in a 53-page Human Rights Watch report this week
that quoted interrogators at three bases in Iraq as saying that abuse was
part of regular, authorized procedures. But this argument has yet to gain
traction in a military court, where U.S. policy requires that active-duty
service members be tried for any maltreatment." (1, 2)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Julie Tate
and Madonna Lebling -WashingtonPost
Secret
- US
- 
Philippines
- 
Dick
Cheney
- Leandro
Aragoncillo
- 
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Politics
- 
New
Jersey - Death
Penalty - "Ex-VP
aide, FBI analyst admits spying: Former Marine pleads
guilty to taking part in Philippine coup plot." ... "A former [Republican
Dick Cheney] vice presidential military aide and FBI analyst pleaded guilty
Thursday to supplying documents to unnamed individuals in the Philippines
on how to orchestrate a coup attempt against Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo." ... "In a federal court hearing in Newark, New Jersey,
Leandro Aragoncillo entered into a plea agreement that would keep the death
penalty off the table for him." ... "Aragoncillo, a former U.S. Marine,
acknowledged to prosecutors that he supplied top secret U.S. defense information
-- which he wasn't authorized to obtain -- to officials in the Philippines."
-By Julian Cummings -CNN
Afghanistan
- Religion
- Law
- Politics
- US
- Military
- "Death
could await Christian convert." ... "In the days
of the Taliban, those promoting Christianity in Afghanistan could be arrested
and those converting from Islam could be tortured and publicly executed."
... "That was supposed to change after U.S.-led forces ousted the oppressive,
fundamentalist regime, but the case of 41-year-old Abdul Rahman has many
Western nations wondering if Afghanistan is regressing." ... "Rahman, a
father of two, was arrested last week and is now awaiting trial for rejecting
Islam. He told local police, whom he approached on an unrelated matter,
that he had converted to Christianity. Reports say he was carrying a Bible
at the time." ... ""They want to sentence me to death, and I accept it,"
Rahman told reporters last week, "but I am not a deserter and not an infidel.""
... "The Afghan constitution, which is based on Sharia, or Islamic law,
says that apostates can receive the death penalty." ... "Rahman's case
illustrates a split over the interpretation of the Afghan constitution,
which calls for religious freedom while stating that Muslims who reject
Islam can be executed." -Contributed to by Elise Labott
-CNN
Government
- 
Flying
- Transportation
- Terrorism
- 
Law
Enforcement - Execution
- "Judge
Calls Halt to Penalty Phase of Terror Trial." ...
"An angry federal judge delayed the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
on Monday and said she was considering ending the prosecution's bid to
have him executed after the disclosure that a government lawyer had improperly
coached some witnesses." ... "Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said she had just
learned from prosecutors that a lawyer for the Transportation Security
Administration gave portions of last week's trial proceedings to seven
witnesses who have yet to testify. In e-mail messages, the lawyer also
seemed to tell some of the witnesses how they should testify to bolster
the prosecution's argument that Mr. Moussaoui bore some responsibility
for the deaths caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ... ""In all my
years on the bench, I've never seen a more egregious violation of the rule
about witnesses," Judge Brinkema said before sending the jury home for
two days. She said that the actions of the government lawyer, identified
in court papers as Carla J. Martin, would make it "very difficult for this
case to go forward."" -By Neil A. Lewis
-NYTimes
New-Jersey
- Law
- Politics
- "N.J.
lawmakers vote to suspend executions: Task force
to study fairness and cost of capital punishment." ... "New Jersey lawmakers
voted Monday to suspend executions while a task force studies the fairness
and costs of imposing the death penalty." ... "Under the measure, a 13-member
commission would have until November to report on whether the death penalty
is fairly imposed and whether alternatives would ensure public safety and
address the needs of victims' families." -CNN
Opinion
- Samuel
Alito
- Government
- Abortion
- 
Education
- Religious
- Executions
- Military
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "How
Alito would shift high court on key issues: His confirmation
hearings begin in the Senate Monday." ... "Where O'Connor rejected restrictions
on abortion, Alito is likely to uphold them, legal analysts say. Where
O'Connor voted to uphold an affirmative action plan at the University of
Michigan Law School, Alito is more likely to vote with conservatives who
viewed it as an impermissible quota system. He is likely to vote to uphold
the kind of public displays of the Ten Commandments O'Connor voted last
summer to strike down, analysts say." ... "In death penalty cases he is
expected to side with conservatives who reject the "evolving standard of
decency" test embraced by O'Connor, which has made it more difficult for
states to carry out executions. He also will be more likely than O'Connor
to let stand death sentences despite claims that defense lawyers weren't
effective enough. And even though O'Connor is viewed as a reliable vote
in states' rights cases, Alito is expected to be an even stronger champion."
... "One looming question about Alito is how he might vote in cases challenging
President Bush's unilateral assertion of powers as commander in chief to
wage the war on terror." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor
US
- World
- Iraq
- Death
Penalty - 
UN
- "Rice
Scolds Holdouts on Iraq Trial: Nations not aiding
the Hussein proceedings are ducking duty to law and human rights, she says."
... "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sharply criticized other nations
Tuesday for failing to provide support for the trial of Saddam Hussein,
saying that the world community's "effective boycott of Saddam's trial
is only harming the Iraqi people."" ... "U.S. officials have differed with
many other governments almost from the outset of the war on how to conduct
trials of Hussein and top aides. The U.S. and its Iraqi allies wanted the
trials to be overseen by national authorities in Iraq, whereas officials
with the U.N. and from many other countries favored hybrid proceedings
with a larger international component." ... "Officials of other governments,
including many in Europe, have said they would avoid a proceeding they
feared could be seen as an American-run show trial. They also have been
put off by the possible death penalty, which is legal in Iraq and the United
States but banned in much of the world." -By Paul
Richter with contributions by Richard Boudreaux
-LAtimes
California
- Los
Angeles - History
- Politics
- "Stanley
Tookie Williams executed: Crips gang co-founder put
to death for 4 murders." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams -- the cofounder
of the violent Crips street gang who became an anti-gang crusader while
on death-row -- died by lethal injection early Tuesday for the 1979 killings
of four people in two Los Angles [California] robberies." ... "Williams'
case set off intense debates over the death penalty and redemption, with
celebrities, activists and anti-death penalty advocates saying his initiatives
and anti-gang message from behind bars had proven his life was worth saving.
He had even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize
in Literature by an array of college professors, a Swiss lawmaker and others."
... "Before Williams went to the execution chamber, the stepmother of one
of the men Williams was convicted of killing said she felt "justice is
going to be done tonight."" ... "[...] Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic
nun and a prominent death penalty opponent, compared the death penalty
to "gang justice."" ... ""Gang justice is, if you kill a member of our
gang, we kill you -- and don't tell me anything about how you changed your
life or what you're going to do," she said. "You kill, and we kill you.
And that's what the United States of America is doing with this."" -With
contributions by Ted Rowlands, Kareen Wynter, and Bill Mears
-CNN
California
- Los
Angeles - Law
- History
- "Gov.
Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Crips Co-Founder."
... "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he would not grant
clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams, whose bid to avoid being put to death
shortly after midnight tonight has gained wide attention." ... "Governor
Schwarzenegger's decision not to halt Mr. Williams' execution by injection
at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday is his third rejection of a petition for a stay of
execution or clemency since he took office in 2003. Clemency has not been
granted to a death row inmate in California since 1967." ... "Mr. Williams,
51, is the co-founder of the Crips gang of Los Angeles and has been on
death row since 1981, following his conviction for murdering four people
in 1979." -By Sarah Kershaw and Shadi Rahimi .NYTimes
Death
Penalty
- Law
- California
- Illinois
- "Putting
Tookie in Context." ... "While I have opposed the
death penalty as long as I have been aware of it, the media attention generated
by the Tookie Williams case has left me with more ambivalence than outrage,
raising issues for me about the death penalty, the so-called criminal justice
system, gang violence, and the peculiar manner by which Black leaders set
priorities." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams is just one of the 3,415 people
on death row in the United States, just one of nearly 650 on death row
in California. More than 40 percent of those awaiting execution are
African American, even though we are less than 13 percent of the nation's
population." ... "The death penalty isn't fair – too many death row inmates
have been unrepresented or inadequately represented. Too many have been
convicted on faulty circumstantial or eyewitness evidence. Too many
mistakes have been uncovered after conviction, so many that the state of
Illinois has suspended executions indefinitely." -By
Julianne Malveaux -BET.com
US
- 
North
Carolina - Legal
- History
- World
- "N.
Carolina carries out 1,000th execution." ... "Double
murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United
States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to
death by lethal injection on Friday." ... "Boyd, who was 57, died at 2:15
a.m. (0715 GMT) at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh,
spokeswoman Pamela Walker of the Department of Corrections said." ... "Boyd,
a Vietnam war veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, was sentenced to
death for the murder in 1988 of his wife and father-in-law committed in
front of two of his children." ... "His execution drew world attention
because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death
penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Andy Sullivan -Reuters
Virginia
- Execution
- Law
- Politics
- North
Carolina - 
South
Carolina - "UPDATE
1-Virginia governor stops milestone U.S. execution."
... "Virginia Gov. Mark Warner halted the execution of a convicted murderer
who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States
since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a spokesman
said on Tuesday." ... "Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty
in 1976 and executions resumed in 1977, 999 people have been executed in
the United States. North Carolina and South Carolina have scheduled executions
later in the week." -By Andy Sullivan
-Reuters
Texas
- 
Louisiana
- Death
Penalty - "US
death row escapee recaptured: Police in the United
States have recaptured a convicted murderer, three days after he walked
out of jail." ... "Death row inmate Charles Victor Thompson fooled at least
four prison employees to flee a Texas prison." ... "He was captured on
Sunday while using a public telephone in Shreveport in the neighbouring
state of Louisiana."-BBC
/News
Samuel
Alito
- Political
- Abortion
- 
Privacy
- 
Worker
- Capital
Punishment - Law
- "Partisan
divide already forming over Alito pick." ... "Ironically,
[Harriet] Miers — who had no judicial legacy — leaves a political precedent
that could haunt Republican supporters of Alito in the coming weeks." ...
"Conservatives had argued during the nomination of Supreme Court Chief
Justice John Roberts earlier this year that it was inappropriate to probe
how a nominee might come down on issues such
