A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that search warrants are not necessary when monitoring a suspect’s computer use to the extent of determining e-mail addresses and viewed web pages. The Ninth Circuit stressed that computer users “should know they lose privacy protections with e-mail and Web site addresses when they are communicated to the company whose equipment carries the messages.” More on this story by Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle is here. The opinion in United States v. Forrester is here.

AEDPA Constitutionality: Also in the Ninth Circuit, the argument that the "deference" standard of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is unconstitutional was rejected yet again in Crater v. Galaza.

Rolando Ruiz shot and killed 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez in 1992 in Texas. Ruiz was hired to kill Rodriguez by her own husband and brother-in-law, in hopes of collecting a quarter-million dollars in life insurance on her. Michael Graczyk of AP reports that the execution is scheduled for tomorrow. Ruiz was arrested on a tip received after Ms. Rodriguez's employer, San Antonio-based insurance company USAA, posted a reward. In his appeal for clemency, Ruiz claimed that the jurors at his trial were not able to fully consider his "abuse excuse" evidence. The Texas AG news release dated last Tuesday has more details on the crime and penalty phase.

SCOTUS Stats: Ben Winograd has some statistics on criminal and related cases in the Supreme Court term just ended at SCOTUSblog.

Only in LA: Police are searching for Chewbacca on charges of sexually assaulting Marilyn Monroe in front of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Actually, they were both impersonators. The LA Daily News has this story.

Page the Ents: A man robbed the Citizens Bank in Manchester, NH Saturday while disguised as a tree. "He really went out on a limb," Sgt. Ernie Goodno is quoted saying in this AP story. James Coldwell was arrested for the crime the next day.