UPDATE Holiday Bombing Attempt: Fox News reports on last week's bombing attempt on a Northwest flight by 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The bomb is reported to have contained a six-inch pack of highly-explosive powder called PETN, weighing 80 grams (less than 3 ounces) and was sewn into his briefs. According to ABC News, a government test with just 50 grams of PETN was able to blow a hole in the side of an airliner. Associated Press writer Michael Tarm reports on what happened after the bombing attempt. After a two-day security clampdown, airline officials told the Associated Press that in-flight restrictions had been eased. Now it was up to captains on each flight to decide individually on security precautions. This led to a confused state of security wherein some flights passengers had to keep their hands visible and were unable to use iPods, on other flights there were no noticeable differences. The Transportation Security Administration did little to explain the rules. And that inconsistency might well have been deliberate: what's confusing to passengers is also confusing to potential terrorists.
Self-Represented Killer's Appeal Rejected: SF Chronicle writer Bob Egelko reports on the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold the death sentence of Keith Desmond Taylor who fired his lawyers and then defended himself in a trial for murdering a woman during a burglary in 1994. A pretrial judge said Taylor lacked the ability to defend himself adequately, but the trial judge said he had to grant the request as long as Taylor was mentally competent and had waived his right to a lawyer. In Taylor's appeal, his court-appointed attorney argued that he should have been found incompetent to represent himself at trial. A psychologist had reported that Taylor had below-average intelligence, an inflated view of his abilities and a history of cocaine use, but none of these factors rendered Taylor incompetent to represent himself. "In California, defendants who are mentally competent to stand trial and voluntarily waive the right to a lawyer are entitled to represent themselves," states Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar. CJLF authored an amicus curiae brief in U.S. Supreme Court case, Indiana v. Edwards, addressing a similar issue.
Self-Represented Killer's Appeal Rejected: SF Chronicle writer Bob Egelko reports on the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold the death sentence of Keith Desmond Taylor who fired his lawyers and then defended himself in a trial for murdering a woman during a burglary in 1994. A pretrial judge said Taylor lacked the ability to defend himself adequately, but the trial judge said he had to grant the request as long as Taylor was mentally competent and had waived his right to a lawyer. In Taylor's appeal, his court-appointed attorney argued that he should have been found incompetent to represent himself at trial. A psychologist had reported that Taylor had below-average intelligence, an inflated view of his abilities and a history of cocaine use, but none of these factors rendered Taylor incompetent to represent himself. "In California, defendants who are mentally competent to stand trial and voluntarily waive the right to a lawyer are entitled to represent themselves," states Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar. CJLF authored an amicus curiae brief in U.S. Supreme Court case, Indiana v. Edwards, addressing a similar issue.
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