No 3d Strike for Cheese: Hudson Sangree reports
in the Sacramento Bee, "Yolo County prosecutors are dropping their bid
for a life sentence for a man who put cheese down his pants at a
Woodland market. A new psychological evaluation convinced prosecutors
that Robert Preston Ferguson's most recent convictions for petty theft
did not warrant a life sentence under the state's three-strikes law,
said Jonathan Raven, Yolo County's assistant chief deputy district
attorney." SL&P previously had this post on the case.
Nebraska Lethal Injection Rules: Martha Stoddard reports for the Omaha World-Herald, "Starting Monday, Nebraska will again have an approved method of executing people on death row.That's when rules and regulations for carrying out lethal injections will go into effect.The regulations carry out a law passed last year changing the state's method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection." As usual, opponents threaten to bog down the process with "years of litigation" at the same time they are saying the death penalty costs too much.
"Right to Free Speech Collides With Fight Against Terror": New York Times writer Adam Liptak reports on Ralph D. Fertig's challenge to a law that pits First Amendment freedoms against the government's efforts to combat terrorism. Fertig, a 79-year-old lawyer, says he would like to help a militant Kurdish group in Turkey find peaceful ways to achieve its goals. But he fears prosecution under a law banning even benign assistance to groups said to engage in terrorism. The case represents the court's first encounter with the free speech and association rights of American citizens in the context of terrorism since the Sept. 11th attacks, and is the first chance to test the constitutionality of a provision of the USA Patriot Act. Opponents of the law, which bans providing "material support" to terrorist organizations, say it violates American values. The government defends the law, under which it has secured many of its terrorism convictions in the last decade, as an important tool that takes account of the slippery nature of the nation's modern enemy. The law takes a comprehensive approach to its ban on aid to terrorist groups, prohibiting not only providing cash, weapons and the like but also four more ambiguous sorts of help - "training, personnel, expert advice or assistance, and service." Fertig, in an interview at his Los Angeles home stated, "My mission would be to work with them on peaceful resolutions of their conflicts, to try to convince them to use nonviolent means of protest on the model of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King." The Supreme Court will hear arguments on February 23rd.
Prisoners Become Bigger Players in Census: Associted Press writer Hope Yen reports on a change in federal policy governing how prisoners are to be counted in Census. Prison populations have historically been included in national headcounts, but now Census officials will make data on inmate populations available to states earlier than in the past. This change will allow states to decide whether to count inmates for purposes of redistricting, a move that could reshape the political map. The federal government relies on the Census not only to learn about Americans and their lives but also to parcel out federal dollars, as well as determine the number of US House seats representing each state.
Nebraska Lethal Injection Rules: Martha Stoddard reports for the Omaha World-Herald, "Starting Monday, Nebraska will again have an approved method of executing people on death row.That's when rules and regulations for carrying out lethal injections will go into effect.The regulations carry out a law passed last year changing the state's method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection." As usual, opponents threaten to bog down the process with "years of litigation" at the same time they are saying the death penalty costs too much.
"Right to Free Speech Collides With Fight Against Terror": New York Times writer Adam Liptak reports on Ralph D. Fertig's challenge to a law that pits First Amendment freedoms against the government's efforts to combat terrorism. Fertig, a 79-year-old lawyer, says he would like to help a militant Kurdish group in Turkey find peaceful ways to achieve its goals. But he fears prosecution under a law banning even benign assistance to groups said to engage in terrorism. The case represents the court's first encounter with the free speech and association rights of American citizens in the context of terrorism since the Sept. 11th attacks, and is the first chance to test the constitutionality of a provision of the USA Patriot Act. Opponents of the law, which bans providing "material support" to terrorist organizations, say it violates American values. The government defends the law, under which it has secured many of its terrorism convictions in the last decade, as an important tool that takes account of the slippery nature of the nation's modern enemy. The law takes a comprehensive approach to its ban on aid to terrorist groups, prohibiting not only providing cash, weapons and the like but also four more ambiguous sorts of help - "training, personnel, expert advice or assistance, and service." Fertig, in an interview at his Los Angeles home stated, "My mission would be to work with them on peaceful resolutions of their conflicts, to try to convince them to use nonviolent means of protest on the model of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King." The Supreme Court will hear arguments on February 23rd.
Prisoners Become Bigger Players in Census: Associted Press writer Hope Yen reports on a change in federal policy governing how prisoners are to be counted in Census. Prison populations have historically been included in national headcounts, but now Census officials will make data on inmate populations available to states earlier than in the past. This change will allow states to decide whether to count inmates for purposes of redistricting, a move that could reshape the political map. The federal government relies on the Census not only to learn about Americans and their lives but also to parcel out federal dollars, as well as determine the number of US House seats representing each state.
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