The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

About Time, Fred

You can all stop holding your breath now. Republican Fred Thompson will announce his candidacy for president Sept. 6, according to the Associated Press. The former "Law and Order" star and Tennessee senator will make the long-awaited announcement via webcast on his campaign site.

Man Bites Dog; Texas Commutes Death Penalty

Texas, the quickest on the execution draw of any state in the nation, has passed on killing Kenneth Foster. The death sentence for the 30-year-old man, who drove a getaway car from the scene of a San Antonio murder, was commuted by Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday, hours before Foster’s scheduled death by lethal injection. On Wednesday, the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles had voted overwhelmingly for the commutation.

While applying the death penalty to accomplices to a capital crime is established law in Texas, Perry expressed discomfort with the law and urged the state's legislature to review it.

The governor has not always been so lenient, The New York Times notes. In 2004, Perry refused to concur with the Board of Pardons and Paroles' recommendation that he commute the sentence of Kelsey Patterson, a diagnosed schizophrenic.

Possible Poison Gas at U.N.

So that’s where Iraq was hiding its weapons . . .

CNN is reporting that United Nations archivists unexpectedly found vials allegedly containing a poisonous gas in a U.N. office building in New York today. The workers, from the U.N. chemical weapons agency UNMOVIC, found the vials in weapons inspectors’ files from the 1990s. They say the vials appear to contain samples of the gas phosgene, obtained from an Iraqi chemical weapons plant. A U.N. spokesperson said tests found no toxins in the offices where the vials were found.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, phosgene was used as a choking agent during WWI and caused most of the war’s gas deaths. It becomes poisonous at room temperature, but can be safely stored and transported under appropriate cooling and pressure.

Still sounds like a heck of a workplace liability to me.

Volz Was the Better Snitch

As cooperative defendants go, Will Heaton was good. But Neil Volz outshone him, prosecutors say.

Volz, who was former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney’s chief of staff before Heaton and who later joined Jack Abramoff’s lobbying team in 2002, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 12 for plying his old boss and his staff with meals at swanky restaurants, sporting and concert tickets, and vacations in New Orleans and Lake St. George, N.Y. He has also admitted to violating the one-year ban against lobbying Ney and then concealing the relationship in public disclosure forms.

As with Heaton, the government has filed a memo in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking Judge Ellen Huvelle for a soft sentence – home detention – on account of Volz’s cooperation in the corruption investigation. Huvelle showed Heaton mercy earlier this month, sentencing him to two years’ probation for helping Ney use his office to benefit Abramoff’s clients and accepting thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips on an Abramoff-sponsored trip.

The judge was impressed by Heaton's assistance: He wore a wire during one meeting with Ney, recorded several of his phone conversations with the congressman, and turned over incriminating documents. But the young chief of staff agreed to cooperate only after investigators confronted him with information they’d received from Volz about the trips Ney and Heaton took on Abramoff’s dime, according to the memo.

Volz also provided investigators with a fuller portrait of Ney’s malfeasance (and Abramoff's influence). Soon after he took over the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, Ney called Volz and said he had made it clear to the other members that his “highest priority was Indian housing.” He asked Volz to relay the message to Abramoff so that he could give Ney further instructions, according to the memo.

Later, once Ney realized Volz was cooperating in the investigation, he called and left several “abusive” messages on Volz’s answering machine, which Volz saved and turned over to investigators. Ney is serving a 30-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

“The government would have been able to successfully prosecute Ney without Heaton’s assistance, but not without Volz’s,” wrote prosecutors Mary Butler and Nathaniel Edmonds. “Volz’s information about additional things of value given to Heaton and official action in which Heaton was involved assuredly helped the government persuade Heaton that he should directly cooperate in the government’s investigation.”

The oneupsmanship continues throughout the memo: Volz dredged up photos and invoices from the cigar-and-golf-laced Scotland trip in 2002 and handed over his e-mail correspondence with Abramoff. Prosecutors praised him for his testimony during the trial of former General Services Administration chief of staff David Safavian, who schemed to transfer 50 acres of government land in Silver Spring, Md., to the control of a private school that Abramoff was supporting. (In June 2006, Safavian was convicted of making false statements and obstructing justice.)

Fingerprint Failure

The D.C. Court of Appeals gave the slapdown to D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Retchin this month: The court reversed three firearm convictions because she gave improper instructions to a jury about the lack of fingerprint evidence. Retchin’s jury instructions constituted plain error and “affected the fundamental fairness and integrity of the jury trial,” the unanimous opinion stated.

The case began in 1997, when D.C. police officers found a loaded semi-automatic handgun in plain view on the front seat of a truck driven to a car wash by Anthony Wheeler. But no fingerprints were recovered from the gun, and the evidence in the case “was not overwhelming,” the ruling noted. Maybe the D.C. cops should have called that crew from "CSI." They solve everything.

At trial, Retchin instructed the jury that “the government is under no duty to conduct fingerprint tests,” and “the absence of any fingerprint evidence, standing alone, does not constitute reasonable doubt as to the firearm charges here.” The appeals court found Retchin shouldn’t have given the first instruction, while the second instruction was even more problematic and “impermissibly invaded the jury’s exclusive province to weigh the evidence as a whole against the standard of reasonable doubt.”

Tipsters Take the Cash

In a city where many witnesses won’t speak up because they fear retaliation or don’t trust the police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department reward fund offers something extra for stepping forward. Anonymous tipsters have received more than $300,000 in rewards over the past two years, says Lt. Robert Glover, who helps administer the fund.

“We hope somebody is motivated to do the right thing by being a good citizen,” he says. “We realize some people are motivated by other means.”

The fund offers rewards of up to $25,000 for tips leading to an arrest and conviction in a murder case and up to $10,000 for carjackings and robberies involving serious injury to the victim. Monies for the fund come from assets seized in forfeiture proceedings against convicted criminals. But tipsters may end up waiting years to collect any cash. Detectives don’t make reward recommendations until after a conviction because a tipster may be testifying in the case. Glover says that process preserves the integrity of the case and eliminates any appearance that a tipster is being paid to testify.

Even after the reward is given, a tipster’s identity is never revealed and remains confidential in police records under an exception to the D.C. Freedom of Information Act, Glover says.

An independent group called Crime Solvers also offers rewards of up to $1,000 for tips leading to an arrest and indictment in some unsolved crimes. But if you want the big money, the State Department will pay up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Rove the Architect

While White House staffers have been busy plastic-wrapping his car, the Los Angeles Times offers a different send-off for the president’s top adviser, Karl Rove, who will leave the administration at the end of the week.

Staff writer Christopher Hawthorne reflects on Rove’s many nicknames, such as “Boy Genius” and “Bush’s Brain.” But it’s Rove’s most common moniker-“The Architect”- that interests Hawthorne most.

He writes: “The architect label suggests precision, strategic savvy and the ability to consider a project from a certain analytical remove—to see the whole chessboard at a glance. It describes the person who sketches out a complex plan but never the one who executes it.”

Hawthorne offers an interesting analysis of the architect metaphor, even suggesting that actual architects wish they could be a bit “more Rovian.”

Fetching Big Money Because of Vick

It seems there is a silver lining (albeit of dog slobber) surrounding the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal.

A Missouri woman auctioned off 22 Vick football cards on eBay, but only after her dogs had chewed them up and drooled on them. Bidding ended Wednesday, with the tattered cards fetching $7,400 to be donated to the Humane Society, the Associated Press reported.

Thanks to the efforts of the 6-year-old Weimaraner, Monte, and the Great Dane puppy, Roxie, the cards were the most expensive Vick items on the eBay auction block. Other paraphernalia, including autographed jerseys and top condition rookie cards, were selling for far less.

The Humane Society of the United States says it has seen a jump in donations since the former star quarterback was indicted on federal dogfighting charges.

Morning Wrap

Virginia Tech Report: The panel charged with investigating the Virginia Tech massacre released its report on the shootings yesterday, which said that campus officials and police could have saved lives if their response had been to cancel class and alert the student body after the first killings. The report does state, however, that a lockdown of the campus would probably have been ineffective.

Hurricane Katrina: President Bush traveled to New Orleans for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, giving speeches and dining with “notables” along the way. But the president has been criticized for inadequate recovery efforts despite the allocation of billions of dollars and nearly as many promises. Two years later, a third of the city’s residents still haven’t returned and storm damage is still readily apparent.

Surprise, Surprise: The Post reports this morning that a draft of a Government Accountability Office report finds that Iraq has failed to meet the vast majority of the 18 political and military benchmarks set by Congress. And, of course, the draft contradicts the White House’s rosier sentiments.

Medical Loans: Ahh, the pleasant state of America’s health care system. According to this piece in the NYT, credit companies and insurance providers are offering no-interest financing to consumers who want procedures that aren’t covered by health insurance. Some think, however, that the trend will spread into basic medical services as rising costs force more people to pay for health care on their own.

Picture Perfect: Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is taking his portrait as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee very seriously, according to the Post. In a letter to Federal Election Commission, his campaign attorney estimates that the likeness will cost around $64,500. But no worries, Rangel isn’t bringing Diego Velazquez back from the dead or anything. The extra cost comes not only from the size of the painting, but also from “important details and a custom frame.”

"Jena 6"

Today, school officials at Jena High School banned students from wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Free the Jena 6.” Jena 6 is the term coined to describe the six black high-school students in Jena, La., who were charged last December with attempted second-degree murder for allegedly assaulting a white student who taunted them with racial slurs. Civil rights leaders, radio personalities, and organizations like the National Association of Black Journalists want to bolster awareness about this troubling case, which they say has received little play in the media.

The white student in the fight reportedly suffered a concussion but was not hospitalized. Prior to the fight, three white students had been suspended for hanging three nooses from a tree in the school courtyard. The earlier incident was not reported to the police.

School officials had the tree demolished last month, according to the Shreveport Times.

In late June, one of the six black students was convicted on a reduced charge of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. He faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison. The five other defendants are awaiting trial on attempted murder and conspiracy charges.

The charges sparked outrage in the black community and drew attention from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is monitoring the cases. The Rev. Al Sharpton has also voiced his concern, saying the charges indicate a different standard of justice for blacks and whites.

"The court's decision in the ‘Jena 6’ case has the potential to be ground-breaking and shift attitudes about race and justice in the United States," said Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, in a released statement. "It is critical that news organizations cover this court proceeding with the same dedication and persistence that is given to stories such as the upcoming presidential elections and the recent trouble surrounding the Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Vick."