Functional Ambivalent does the math and concludes we, the taxpayers, spent $400 million on late President's Ronald Reagan's funeral.

Beautiful ceremony. Spectacular setting. We just don't understand why America thinks Ronald Reagan was so deserving of it. He was a conservative who was not a friend of civil libertarians or minorities or the citizen accused. We feel sorry for Nancy Reagan, but enough is enough. Reagan was not a hero to many Americans. He's an ex-President who suffered cruelly from a terrible disease. Respect, yes. Deification, no. And we resent Bush and his family's attempt to capitalize on his family's obvious grief. Now, it's over. Let's move on.

Michael Isakoff of Newsweek writes of the impending Jose Padilla decision in the Supreme Court:

Justice Department lawyers, fearing a crushing defeat before the U.S. Supreme Court in the next few weeks, are scrambling to develop a conventional criminal case against “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla that would charge him with providing “material support” to Al Qaeda, NEWSWEEK has learned.

We fear another move. We fear Bush may amend his executive Order that says military tribunals apply only to non-citizens. If he does, then the Government could move Jose Padilla to Guantanamo and try him in a military tribunal proceeding, without any federal court protections.

This is what we need to be guarding against.

So much for family values. Rush and wife number 3 are getting a divorce. [link via Atrios}

Update: Terry Nichols' jury is deadlocked and he will be spared the death penalty. Our congrats go to Nichols' outstanding defense team, which included NACDL Vice President, Barbara Bergman.

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Original post:

After 17 hours of deliberations, the Terry Nichols' jury told the judge they are divided on whether he should get the death penalty. They are continuing to deliberate, but the foreman said some jurors have some "deeply held beliefs." If there is no unanimity, Nichols' will get a life sentence.

The AP is reporting that John McCain has personally told John Kerry that he would not accept the vice-presidential slot on the Democratic ticket if it were offered to him. We're glad. we want John Edwards. Or at least a true Democrat.

There will be an organized protest on at 11:00 am on Monday, June 14 across the street from Governor Pataki's New York City office. 633 3rd Ave., between 40th and 41st Streets. Here's why, as contained in a e-mail we received from NNIRR:

On May 25, in a collaboration that has stunned families and advocates, 500 officers from New York’s Division of Parole and the federal immigration office have tag teamed to round up over 100 New York immigrants – most of whom are Black and Latino and many of whom had green cards. Some parole officers called parolees and former parolees, asking them to report for visits that were not routine. When they dutifully showed up, they were shackled by immigration agents and shipped to jails hundreds of miles away. The detainees’ families, immigrant rights and criminal justice organizations are outraged that a New York State agency would use their authority to entrap these immigrants, who had been complying with the terms of their parole. They are gathering to demand that the Division of Parole stop the secretive collaboration with immigration, and that government agencies explain how parolees were targeted for this latest round up.

As a result:

The Washington Post has statements from dog handlers at Abu Ghraib. The handlers say they were ordered to use unmuzzled dogs to scare the prisoners.

U.S. intelligence personnel ordered military dog handlers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to use unmuzzled dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees during interrogations late last year, a plan approved by the highest-ranking military intelligence officer at the facility, according to sworn statements the handlers provided to military investigators.

A military intelligence interrogator also told investigators that two dog handlers at Abu Ghraib were "having a contest" to see how many detainees they could make involuntarily urinate out of fear of the dogs, according to the previously undisclosed statements obtained by The Washington Post.

Human rights groups charge such use of the dogs violate the Geneva Conventions and our own prohibitions against torture:

Sad news, music legend Ray Charles has died at 73.

Over at Tapped, Charles Pierce has the wittiest piece on former President Ronald Reagan.

Herewith Inspired By The Wellstone Elegy: November 2, 2002, by Peggy Noonan, Journalist, Author and Aquatic Mammal Divine.)

We're in Washington, for reasons unrelated to Mr. Reagan. A big thanks to TChris for filling in for us today. We're at an executive officers' retreat for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. We'll be posting mostly mornings and evenings until we return to Denver Sunday.

by TChris

Remember Sean Baker, the soldier at Guantanamo who was brutally beaten while playing the role of a detainee during a training exercise? The Army had been claiming that his medical discharge was unrelated to the traumatic brain injury he sustained while the trainees were learning how to abuse prisoners. Now the Army admits that the discharge was "partly" related to that injury.

Is there any part of the executive branch of government that ever tells the truth the first time?

by TChris

In a resounding rejection of the government's ambitious use of the Patriot Act against a computer science student who helped maintain websites that the government claimed were used to recruit terrorists, a jury has acquitted Sami Omar Al-Hussayen of charges that he provided expert assistance to terrorists.

Al-Hussayen ... was acquitted on all three terrorism counts, as well as one count of making a false statement and two counts of visa fraud. Jurors could not reach verdicts on three more false statement counts and five additional visa fraud counts, and a mistrial was declared on those charges.

TalkLeft's background on this misguided prosecution is collected here. Kudos to Hussayen's attorneys for protecting not only their client, but liberty and freedom of speech, as well.

by TChris

Officer Bryan Conroy has been charged with manslaughter for shooting an unarmed African immigrant, Ousmane Zongo, to death. Conroy was guarding a locker full of counterfeit compact discs inside the Chelsea Mini-Storage when he saw Zongo.

Zongo, who did not speak English, had no criminal record and was not involved with the counterfeit ring, got scared and tried to flee, police said. Conroy pursued him and in a scuffle fired four shots at close range.

Conroy, who was in plain clothes, says he pulled his gun on an unarmed man to identify himself as a police officer. Pulling out a badge would have been more effective and less threatening. According to Conroy, Zongo thought Conroy was trying to rob him, so Zongo lunged for the gun. Conroy says he had no choice but to shoot Conroy. Four times.

Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, predictably complained that the grand jury made a "mistake." If it made a mistake, it was in indicting Conroy for the less serious offense of manslaughter rather than second degree murder, the charge reportedly pursued by the district attorney's office.

As TalkLeft reported yesterday, a 12-year-old who lacks the maturity to exercise sound judgment is facing a life sentence for murder. In this case, a police officer whose failure to exercise sound judgment resulted in a needless death might get probation. Does this make sense to anyone?

by TChris

People who reserve their cell phones for calls from the office and family, and who prefer that clients and sales reps call the business line, may be unhappy if their cell phone numbers are published in a directory. Think you have the choice to opt out of publication? Read your contract.

[S]ome cell phone companies have wording in their lengthy service contracts stating that you agree to release your number for any eventual directory. ... A spokeswoman for Verizon, for instance, the nation's largest carrier, said the company opposes the directory because of privacy concerns and is altering contracts to reflect that.

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association is coordinating the electronic directory with cellular service providers. It claims your number will remain private if you want it to be, but that might not be what your contract says. It may be time to pull out your reading glasses and check the fine print.

by TChris

It's time to change three-strikes laws, and voters know it.

According to a new poll released Thursday, 76 percent of likely voters said they were inclined to support a November ballot initiative that would soften the three-strikes law that Californians overwhelmingly passed a decade ago. Just 14 percent of respondents were opposed, the Field Poll reported.

The initiative would require that the third strike be a violent felony, so that petty theft or drug possession wouldn't trigger a 25 year minimum sentence. It's a good start -- incremental improvement is better than none at all -- but true justice requires that judges tailor sentences to the offender in light of the facts of the case. Any three-strikes law, as any other law that requires a mandatory minimum sentence, prevents a judge from showing mercy and compassion when it is due. A better reform would be abolition of three-strikes sentencing altogether.