ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest

Activist Unmasks Himself as Federal Informant in G.O.P. Convention Case - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/05informant.html?ref=us When the scheduled federal trial begins this month for two Texas men who were arrested during the Republican National Convention on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, one of the major witnesses against them will be a community activist who acted as a government informant. Brandon Darby, an organizer from Austin, Tex., made the news public himself, announcing in an open letter posted on Dec. 30 on Indymedia.org that he had worked as an informant, most recently at last year’s Republican convention in St. Paul. “The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” wrote Mr. Darby, who gained prominence as a member of Common Ground Relief, a group that helped victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He added, “I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter.” Mr. Darby’s revelations caused shock and indignation in the activist community, with people in various groups and causes accusing him of betrayal.

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Feds: Suspicious packages sent to National Guard bureaus and Reserve facilities in 36 states—chic

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-suspicious-letters,0,6865741.story Federal authorities are reporting that suspicious packages have been sent to National Guard bureaus and reserve facilities in 36 states. A Dec. 16 report from the Department of Homeland Security says the 51 packages include anti-war compact discs, and one package also had a suspicious powder. It said the powder, sent in a package to Utah's National Guard headquarters in Draper, was tested and found not to be toxic, the report said. The FBI is investigating the incidents. Eight U.S. embassies in Europe and more than 40 governors' offices around the United States have received suspicious letters and are also under FBI investigation.

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In Georgia, Push to End Unanimity for Execution - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/us/17death.html?ref=us For three and a half years, prosecutors in Georgia carefully built their argument for sentencing Brian G. Nichols to death for a rash of murders in downtown Atlanta in 2005. With Mr. Nichols admitting to killing four government employees, it seemed like an open-and-shut case in a state where the death penalty remains common. But on Friday, three jurors shocked the legal community here by failing to agree with nine others on a death sentence and therefore, under Georgia law, sparing Mr. Nichols from execution. Without a unanimous sentence from the jury, a judge instead gave him 11 life sentences, plus 485 years in prison without parole. Now, just days after the decision, Georgia legislators have began lining up to introduce bills eliminating the requirement that juries be unanimous for a death sentence. Hard-on-crime lawmakers have long favored easier rules on death sentencing, but the Nichols sentence has given new urgency to their cause.

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DC tightens gun rules again after landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down handgun ban—chic

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-washington-gun-ban,0,205188.story The District of Columbia Council passed more regulations for gun owners Tuesday, months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the city's 32-year-old handgun ban. Among other things, the bill requires gun owners to register their weapons every three years and receive training by a certified firearms instructor. "This bill will be, I think, one of the most progressive registration laws in the country," Council member Phil Mendelson said. The National Rifle Association accused the city of forcing residents to jump through unnecessary hurdles, thereby undermining the intent of the Supreme Court's ruling in June that affirmed the right of Americans to keep guns in the home for self defense.

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Adam Walsh case is closed after 27 years - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-adam17-2008dec17,0,4962413.story Police in Hollywood, Fla., say Ottis Toole, who died in prison in 1996, abducted and killed the 6-year-old boy.

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Pardoned By Bush, But Still In Court - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103495.html In 1985, authorities barged into an Air Force Academy dormitory room and arrested cadet Andrew F. Harley on marijuana and cocaine charges. Harley, who had followed his brother to the academy, was convicted in a court-martial, expelled and sentenced to military confinement. Two weeks ago, Harley, now 43 and living in Falls Church, received lottery-like news: Among a deluge of applicants, he was one of 14 to secure a pardon from President Bush and the only one from the Washington area. The executive action Nov. 24, just before Thanksgiving, amounts to an official statement of forgiveness for the long-ago and relatively minor offense. Harley, who also has been known as Andrew F. Smith, is like a lot of people granted presidential clemency. Most of those benefiting from pardons or commutations are ordinary citizens rather than a disgraced president (Richard M. Nixon), a well-known rapper (John Forté) or a fugitive financier (Marc Rich). And there is no evidence that Harley pulled Washington levers for the pardon. No lawyer advocated his petition. He simply asked three friends to write letters on his behalf. But the pardon is just part of Harley's ongoing drama. Although the 13 others who won the coveted decision that day might be in some state of unadulterated celebration, Harley is contending with a messy legal spat involving an Alexandria businessman, the businessman's estranged wife and their 19-year-old son.

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New Rule Expands DNA Collection to All People Arrested - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103337.html Immigration and civil liberties groups condemned a new U.S. government policy to collect DNA samples from all noncitizens detained by authorities and all people arrested for federal crimes. The new Justice Department rule, published Wednesday and effective Jan. 9, dramatically expands a federal law enforcement database of genetic identifiers, which is now limited to storing information about convicted criminals and arrestees from 13 states. Congress authorized the expansion in 2005, citing the power of DNA as a tool in crime solving and prevention. The FBI created its National DNA Index System in 1994 to store profiles of people convicted of serious violent crimes, such as rape and murder, but the system has been expanded repeatedly, first to include all convicted felons, then misdemeanants and state arrestees. The data bank contained more than 6.2 million samples as of August, and officials estimate that 61,000 cases have been solved or assisted using DNA.

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Two charged with murder after black man dragged to death in troubled Paris, Texas—chicagotribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-081212-paris-witt,0,3694385.story A grand jury in the racially-troubled northeast Texas town of Paris returned first-degree murder indictments Thursday against two white men accused in the September dragging death of a black man, and the prosecutor in the case said he is investigating whether to add hate-crime charges. Shannon Finley and Charles Ryan Crostley, both 27, face up to life in prison if convicted of charges that they murdered 24-year-old Brandon McClelland by running him over and dragging him beneath a pickup truck after the three went on a late-night beer run. Finley was also indicted for evidence tampering for allegedly attempting to wash McClelland's blood from the undercarriage of the vehicle, while Crostley was indicted for allegedly retaliating against a witness in the case, authorities said. Both men remain in jail, unable to post bond. McClelland's mutilated and partially-dismembered body was found lying in the middle of a remote county highway on Sept. 16, and local police initially dismissed the case as an ordinary hit-and-run.

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Group Urges Obama to Create National Security Officer to Address Online Dangers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121001860.html Online safety advocates are urging President-elect Barack Obama to put more resources toward protecting children from crime, harassment and predators on the Web. In a report to be released today, the Family Online Safety Institute, a Washington nonprofit organization, is urging the new administration to appoint a national safety officer to serve under the chief technology officer, a position Obama has promised to create. The group is also asking for $100 million a year to fund education and research, an annual White House summit on safety issues, as well as the creation of a national council to coordinate efforts among federal agencies and advocacy and industry groups. "We need to react more swiftly to the challenges new technology brings," said the institute's chief executive, Stephen Balkam. "We see a lot of activity in the industry and some agencies, but I don't see overall coordination we can work off of." Protecting children and teens from the new dangers presented by the proliferation of social networks, blogs, instant messaging and cellphones is seen as a growing challenge. Officials cite incidents such as the case of the Missouri woman convicted last month for computer fraud for her involvement in creating a fake MySpace page to trick 13-year-old Megan Meiers, who later committed suicide.

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Justices Question Withholding Of Evidence in Capital Case - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/09/AR2008120902743.html The Supreme Court's oral arguments in Cone v. Bell yesterday began with exasperation, Justice Antonin Scalia incredulous that lawyers were at it again on behalf of a brutal murderer who the court twice has said could be put to death. "How long has this case been going on?" Scalia asked the lawyer for Gary Bradford Cone, who bludgeoned 93-year-old Shipley Todd and his 79-year-old wife, Cleopatra, at their home in Memphis in the summer of 1980. The judge asked: "And you want to go back down again" for more hearings? But the arguments ended an hour later with a different emotion -- indignation -- as several justices angrily questioned why Tennessee prosecutors had withheld evidence that supported Cone's only defense: that he had committed the crimes during an amphetamine psychosis. "If this was a case of just an honest mistake, it would be one thing," said Justice John Paul Stevens, adding that he worried about the "ethics of the profession."

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The Politics of the Federal Bench - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/07/AR2008120702703.html The federal judiciary is on the verge of a major shift when President-elect Barack Obama's nominees take control of several of the nation's most important appellate courts, legal scholars and political activists say. With the Supreme Court's conservative direction unlikely to change anytime soon, it is the lower courts -- which dispense almost all federal justice -- where Obama can assert his greatest influence.

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Ideological Warfare Rages on Federal Appeals Courts Dominated by Republican Appointees - washingtonp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/07/AR2008120702876.html Although the impact of Bush's judicial appointments is most often noticed at the Supreme Court, it has played out much more frequently and more importantly here and in the nation's 12 other appellate courts, where his appointees and their liberal counterparts are waging often-bitter ideological battles. After Bush's eight years in office, Republican-appointed majorities firmly control the outcomes in 10 of these courts, compared with seven after President Bill Clinton's tenure. They also now share equal representation with Democratic appointees on two additional courts.

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Michigan medical marijuana law goes into effect, but officials expect confusion, legal issues—chi

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-medical-marijuana,0,4222424.story Medical marijuana became legal in Michigan on Thursday, but smoking a joint could still get patients arrested because the regulations needed to protect them won't be ready for months. The law approved by voters in November allows patients with cancer, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma and other diseases to use marijuana to relieve their symptoms on a doctor's recommendation. Qualifying patients can register with the state and receive ID cards allowing them to legally acquire, possess, grow, transport and use a limited amount — no more than 2.5 ounces and 12 plants — of marijuana. They also can designate a primary caregiver to receive similar protection. But those cards won't be issued until the Department of Community Health introduces guidelines addressing how applications will be handled, what fees will be charged and other issues. The rules must be finalized by April 4.

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Report Links State Gun Laws To Rates of Slayings, Trafficking - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403333.html States with lax gun laws had higher rates of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police officers, and sales of weapons that were used in crimes in other states, according to a study underwritten by a group of more than 300 U.S. mayors. The report, which was obtained by The Washington Post, found that 10 states, including Virginia, supplied 57 percent of the guns that were recovered in crimes in other states in 2007. The 38-page report is based on an analysis of annual crime-gun data compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The analysis tracks guns used in crimes back to the retailers that first sold them. Virginia ranked sixth last year as a supplier of out-of-state crime guns per 100,000 inhabitants. West Virginia topped the list, according to the study by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition headed by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D). Maryland ranked 28th.

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3 charged in boy’s death at Massachusetts gun expo - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-boyshot5-2008dec05,0,3969142.story Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi at a gun fair. The Westfield Sportsman's Club in western Massachusetts, where the gun expo was held, also was charged. Dist. Atty. William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy, even though an ad for the Oct. 26 expo promised that certified instructors would oversee shooters. Christopher was firing at a pumpkin when he lost control of the 9mm micro-submachine gun because of the recoil.

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Court May Decide What Size Award Violates Rights - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120303376.html In civics books, and sometimes even in real life, the Supreme Court speaks and everybody falls in line, like it or not. The vote counting stops in Florida, and George W. Bush becomes president. No matter what the president or Congress say, terrorism detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, receive constitutional rights. But sometimes the decisions of the high court are not followed, and the power of justices to force state courts to respond to their orders becomes the issue -- as happened yesterday in Philip Morris USA v. Williams. The case, in which an Oregon jury awarded nearly $80 million in punitive damages against Philip Morris, made its third appearance at the Supreme Court after bouncing back and forth through the judicial system for nearly a decade. Even though the justices have strongly implied that the award was too large and twice sent the case back west, their Oregon counterparts have consistently found reasons to leave it just the way it is. After the Oregon Supreme Court declined to change its decision for a second time, lawyers for the cigarette maker petitioned the high court to "vindicate" its authority. But something funny happened at the showdown: Several justices said that maybe the Oregon courts were not being obstreperous, after all. Justice David H. Souter defended the Oregon courts but also wondered about others who might not act in good faith.

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FBI Agent Faces Charges in Pellicano Case - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120301265.html A longtime FBI agent has been accused of accessing bureau computers to help high-profile Los Angeles private investigator Anthony Pellicano in his recent federal trial on wiretapping and racketeering charges, according to charging documents and law enforcement officials familiar with the case. Mark T. Rossini, 47, who lives in New York, was charged Monday in U.S. District Court here with five misdemeanor counts of illegally accessing computers at the bureau's headquarters between January and July 2007. Officials say he was searching for reports dealing with Pellicano. The charges come in what's known as a "criminal information," which can be filed only with a defendant's consent and generally signals a plea deal is near. Rossini is scheduled to appear at a hearing on Monday. Rossini's status at the bureau could not be determined. His lawyer did not return a phone call seeking comment.

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A Pragmatic Pair Chosen to Confront Terrorism Threat - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120102892.html In nominating former federal prosecutors to lead the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, President-elect Barack Obama yesterday selected two Democrats with sterling law-and-order credentials but less experience in detecting threats and gathering intelligence in the age of international terrorism. Eric H. Holder Jr., the candidate to lead the Justice Department, served as the law enforcement agency's second in command during the waning years of the Clinton administration, overseeing pursuits of violent crime, drug cartels and public corruption offenses. Janet Napolitano, who will run the sprawling Homeland Security bureaucracy, has served since 2003 as governor of Arizona, a border state at the forefront of the nation's immigration debate. Yet neither nominee boasts much direct experience with the most significant and pressing counterterrorism matters that will cross their desks if they are confirmed by the Senate and take office after the January inauguration. Among them: how to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and assess the danger of detainees; how to reorient a domestic wiretapping program once branded as unlawful even by some Bush administration insiders; whether to expend scarce resources prosecuting the intelligence officers and lawyers who developed the framework for policies that Democrats have roundly criticized; and how to prioritize and allocate resources toward the top domestic threats.

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Indictment dropped against Dick Cheney - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney2-2008dec02,0,3609222.story A judge dismissed indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales on Monday and chastised the southern Texas prosecutor who brought the case. Three of the eight indictments returned Nov. 17 targeted private prison operator the GEO Group, state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., Cheney and Gonzales as part of an investigation into prisoner abuse at privately run federal prisons in the county. The indictment against Cheney alleged that his personal investment in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies, made him culpable in alleged prisoner abuse. Gonzales was accused of using his position to stop an investigation into abuses at a federal detention center.

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Supreme Court Won’t Debate Use of Heart-Wrenching Videos in Criminal Trials - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802454.html The images are those of any childhood: a toddler wearing a snowsuit; a young boy fishing with his dad, a teenager mugging for the camera with his friends. Green Day's modern prom-night classic "Time of Your Life" plays in the background. But Jesse Heller never made it to prom. He was killed by a drunk driver in 2006. Still, the video memorializing his life has a special resonance for the family of the Minnesota teen. When prosecutors asked to show it in court, his parents quickly agreed. Testifying, they felt, was just too hard. "Everybody had tears in their eyes, even the security guards," Jesse's mother, Dawn Heller, said of the DVD that helped secure a 22-year prison term for the man who broadsided her son's truck at a stop sign -- on Mother's Day. "I believe it had an impact." That is just the point. Fueled by technology and a powerful victims' rights movement, "victim impact videos" are becoming staples in criminal trials nationwide. The increasingly sophisticated multimedia presentations depict victims from cradle to grave, often with soft music in the background, tugging on the heartstrings of jurors. Defense lawyers say the videos are highly prejudicial and have sought to have them banned. But the Supreme Court this month declined to hear challenges to two such videos, including one of Sara Weir, a dark-eyed 19-year-old who was raped and murdered in 1993. The video contains more than 90 photos of Weir and is set to the haunting tones of Enya.

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Supreme Court Won’t Debate Use of Heart-Wrenching Videos in Criminal Trials - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802454.html The images are those of any childhood: a toddler wearing a snowsuit; a young boy fishing with his dad, a teenager mugging for the camera with his friends. Green Day's modern prom-night classic "Time of Your Life" plays in the background. But Jesse Heller never made it to prom. He was killed by a drunk driver in 2006. Still, the video memorializing his life has a special resonance for the family of the Minnesota teen. When prosecutors asked to show it in court, his parents quickly agreed. Testifying, they felt, was just too hard. "Everybody had tears in their eyes, even the security guards," Jesse's mother, Dawn Heller, said of the DVD that helped secure a 22-year prison term for the man who broadsided her son's truck at a stop sign -- on Mother's Day. "I believe it had an impact."

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Round of Pardons From Bush Includes No Household Names - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112401982.html Breaking a logjam of hundreds of pent-up clemency requests, President Bush yesterday granted pardons to 14 people and shortened the prison terms of two others. The majority of the felons who won leniency from Bush yesterday are far from household names. Andrew F. Harley of Falls Church was pardoned for wrongful use and distribution of marijuana and cocaine after a court-martial by the Air Force Academy in 1985 caused him to forfeit his pay and prompted his dismissal from the service. Leslie O. Collier of Charleston, Mo., had been convicted of unauthorized use of a registered pesticide. Obie G. Helton of Rossville, Ga., was pardoned after conviction on charges of acquiring food stamps without proper permission and sentenced to two years' probation in 1983. Several other offenders who won leniency yesterday were convicted of run-of-the-mill white-collar crimes such as bank embezzlement, tax evasion or accounting violations. Pardons give their recipients greater leeway to find jobs, live in public housing and vote, among other privileges. Over seven years in office, Bush has been reluctant to use his near-absolute authority under the U.S. Constitution, awarding only 157 pardons and six commutations before yesterday.

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Salim Ahmed Hamdan to leave Guantanamo - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hamdan25-2008nov25,0,6837733.story Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's onetime driver and the first of only two terrorism suspects convicted at Guantanamo Bay, is being transferred from the offshore prison to his Yemeni homeland, a government lawyer familiar with the case said Monday. Hamdan, who is about 40, was found guilty of material support for terrorism by a six-member military jury in August. He was acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiracy and sentenced to just five months longer than the five-plus years he had served, mostly in maximum security isolation, at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The disclosure that Hamdan was already off the base or would be within hours signaled that the Bush administration had conceded its effort to severely punish the $200-a-month Al Qaeda driver had failed.

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Former Bin Laden Driver Hamdan to Leave Guantanamo Bay for Yemen - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112403159.html The U.S. military has decided to transfer Osama bin Laden's former driver from custody at Guantanamo Bay to his home in Yemen, ending the seven-year saga of a man the Bush administration considered a dangerous terrorist but whom a military jury found to be a low-level aide. Salim Ahmed Hamdan is expected to arrive within 48 hours in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where he will serve out the rest of his military commission sentence, which is set to expire Dec. 27, two government officials said. The Pentagon's decision to send Hamdan home narrowly avoids what could have been a sticky diplomatic situation, as Bush administration officials had long contended they could hold Hamdan indefinitely. It also prevents President-elect Barack Obama from having to decide Hamdan's fate early in his term. Obama has said he wants to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

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Ex-Leaders of Charity Convicted in Terror Financing Trial - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112402589.html A federal jury in Dallas convicted five men with ties to a prominent Muslim charity of scores of criminal charges yesterday, handing the U.S. government a significant victory in its largest terrorism financing trial. The verdicts against former leaders of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once ranked as the country's largest Muslim charitable organization, came only hours after a federal appeals court panel in New York upheld criminal convictions of three men accused of helping plot deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Together, the developments strengthened the Justice Department's power to choke the sources of funding that help fuel terrorist schemes -- and to use warrantless electronic surveillance to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens suspected of engaging in international conspiracies.

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