TCCA Business as Usual

Thanks due to my dependable and creditable sources, here is this link to more cruel and [un]usual stuff from the Lone Star State. This is the frontrunner in the race to the bottom of the barrel touching the quality of legal representation due from an [appointed] lawyer--indeed a macaca could have done better--tax payers should be outraged. Then again, perhaps the average citizen of Texas only expects that the accused will be tried in this fashion:

Wilkinson's writ appeared to copy Acker's letters from death row so that, instead of citing legal cases, the writ echoes Acker's unintelligible arguments, flawed grammar and even his complaint that he was about to run out of paper.

"It's yet another example of the court of criminal appeals turning a blind eye to clearly incompetent representation," Andrea Keilen, with the Texas Defenders Service, said of Wednesday's ruling.

"What they could easily have done was order the trial court to appoint another lawyer." Martin Braddy, the district attorney for Hopkins County, said that while Wilkinson's legal brief could have been better, it raised all the appropriate issues that needed the court's attention.

TCCA AND MEDELLIN; TERRORIST PROSECUTION ACT

HOW IT IS DONE IN TEXAS: CCA Update 11/15/06 - Ex Parte Medellin:
Texas Gives Middle Finger to World
This story is big. Very, very, very, very, very, very big. By the way, I couldn't help going with The Onion-esque title for this post, SAYS WRETCHED OF THE EARTH.

“I take a backseat to no one when it comes to protecting this country from terrorists,” Sen. Dodd said. “But there is a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this. It’s clear the people who perpetrated these horrendous crimes against our country and our people have no moral compass and deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But in taking away their legal rights, the rights first codified in our country’s Constitution, we’re taking away our own moral compass, as well.”

The Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act:
-Restores Habeas Corpus protections to detainees
-Narrows the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to individuals who directly participate in hostilities against the United States who are not lawful combatants
-Bars information gained through coercion from being introduced as evidence in trials
-Empowers military judges to exclude hearsay evidence the deem to be unreliable
-Authorizes the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to review decisions by the Military commissions
-Limits the authority of the President to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions and makes that authority subject to congressional and judicial oversight
-Provides for expedited judicial review of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 to determine the constitutionally of its provisions
Thank you talkleft

INMATES ON MYSPACE: IS THE FIRST AMENDMENT MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE?

Wired has an interesting comment on the death row inmates posting diary entries on Myspace. How dangerous is that? So they are supposed to shut up and die, but for 25 years?

Bush Wiretapping Program Violates Federal Laws and the Constitution, Says ACLU
-- The ACLU issued press release that begins, "The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan today urged a federal appeals court to uphold a lower court ruling declaring the government's warrantless National Security Agency wiretapping program illegal, calling the government's assertion of unchecked spying powers 'radical' and a threat to American democracy."
-- Brief for Appellees filed in the NSA wiretapping appeal, pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, is available by clicking here. Thanks Howard Bashman

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), that State's highest court in criminal cases, holds that President Bush was powerless to force the Texas judiciary to disregard its rules of procedural default to consider on the merits a Mexican death row inmate's Article 36 Vienna Convention claim. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today issued its ruling in Ex Parte Jose Ernesto Medellin. Access the lead opinion at this link, while the concurring opinions can be accessed here, here, here, and here. For more click this, at SCOTUSblog.

When George Will writes, he's news. His column in the Washington Post, found here, is about the recent Belmontes decision. Kent Scheidegger reactions are here at Crime & Consequences. Brian Tamanaha has thoughtful ruminations on jury instructions in the wake of Belmontes here at Balkinization. Thanks SCOTUSblog.

WHEN IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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