The 'Prolonged Mental Harm' Files: The Obama administration yesterday released Bush-era legal memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques against CIA-held prisoners, The Recorder reports via law.com. Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit was the author of one of the memos, in 2002, when he was the chief of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. White House officials say CIA employees will not be prosecuted for any violations. But Bybee and other government lawyers, The Recorder reports, got no assurances. The New York Times piece on the memos is here.
Piracy (The Web Variety): The New York Times is reporting that a court today in Sweden found four men guilty of violating copyright law for their roles in running an Internet file-sharing service. The verdict is a big victory for the music and movie industries. The court ordered the four men behind "The Pirate Bay" file-sharing service to pay $3.6 million in damages to leading entertainment companies. Pirate Bay is estimated to have 20 million users.
No Streaming Oral Argument: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit will not allow oral argument in a music downloading suit to be streamed online, The Associated Press reports. The appellate court overturned a previous ruling that allowed online streaming.
Split Death Row Ruling: A death row inmate in Georgia may end up trying to take his case to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in a split decision late Thursday against the defendant, Troy Anthony Davis, according to The Daily Report. Davis is accused of killing a Savannah police officer. Seven of nine trial witnesses have recanted their testimony. Lawyers for Davis say another prosecution witness has confessed to the crime.
On Doctors who Sleep with Patients: A Long Island judge has upheld a $416,500 jury award against a doctor accused of sleeping with a patient he treated for depression, The New York Law Journal reports. The judge, noting the plaintiff's age and experience, said fault should be shared.
The Eleventh Circuit does not disappoint, they continue to demonstrate just how broken "our" legal system is. Determined to execute citizens no matter how flawed the case, seven of nine witnesses recant their testimony and someone else confesses to the crime, but don't muck things up with ridiculous concepts like truth, or beyond a reasonable doubt, or such dubious concepts as rights and responsibilities.
The Eleventh Circuit agrees with the moral majority of SCOTUS and expressed by Clarence Thomas recently at the University of Minnesota, "Today there is much focus on our rights," "Indeed I think there is a proliferation of rights." Nothing trumps the right of the Eleventh Circuit to execute an innocent man, not the truth, not justice, not nothing...let the killings continue.
Posted by: knowdoubt | April 17, 2009 at 09:24 AM