Raw Story has the details of the bill Democrats plan to introduce that will cause a committee to be formed to investigate claims of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo and in Iraq and Afghanistan. The article has the text of Rep. Henry Waxman's press release, with a list of sponsors. Is your Representative on there? If not, give them a call and thell them you'd like them to sign on as a co-sponsor of this legislation when it's introduced.

"No More Tulias: The Law Enforcement Evidentiary Standards Improvement Act of 2005," is being introduced by Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee (D-TX) and cosponsored by John Conyers (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Donald Payne (D-NJ), and Ed Towns (D-NY).

The bill is named after the drug task force scandal in Tulia, Tex in 1999 during which 15 percent of the town’s African American population was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison based on the uncorroborated testimony of a federally funded undercover officer with a record of racial impropriety.

The Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing Tuesday on expanding the Patriot Act. The vote will be Thursday, during a secret hearing. The ACLU outlines the provisions of the bill under consideration:

The bill would grant so-called "administrative subpoena" authority to the FBI, letting the bureau write and approve its own search orders for any tangible thing it deems relevant to an intelligence investigation without approval. This power would let agents seize personal records from medical facilities, libraries, hotels, gun dealers, banks and any other business, without having to appear before a judge, and without any evidence that the people whose records are swept in are involved in any criminal activity.

Here is Rep. Diana DeGette's press release which I just received by e-mail:

Behind the near-unanimous support of Democrats, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, authored by U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO). The legislation will expand the number of embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federal research funding through the National Institutes of Health by removing the arbitrary August 9, 2001 date and impose strict ethical controls on the research. The bill passed by a vote of 238 to 194.

"Today, a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives took a critical step to helping extend or save the lives of potentially millions of Americans. By passing legislation, we are moving to reassert America's ethical and scientific leadership on embryonic stem cell research," said Rep. DeGette.

Bump and Update: The House passed the Stem Cell Research bill, over objections by Tom DeLay, Bush and the radical right fringe. Congratulations, Diana DeGette!

Is DeLay a little out to lunch, or what?

Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the embryonic research bill would force taxpayers to finance "the dismemberment of living, distinct human beings."

Bump and Update: The House is voting today on the bill. Here what Bush's chose for his photo op:

At the White House, Bush appeared with children who were "adopted" by their parents as frozen embryos leftover from fertility treatments.

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Original Post

The Texas House will consider S. 60 this week, already passed the state Senate, to change Texas law so that juries would have the option of sentencing capital defendants to life without the possibility of parole. Currently, the only options for Texas juries in capital cases are death and life with parole after 40 years.

Life without parole is an option in every state except Texas and New Mexico. Houston County D.A. Chuck Rosenthal opposes the bill. The disadvantage of the bill is that it does away with the life with parole option in all cases. Particularly in juvenile cases, this should remain an option. However, TalkLeft supports the bill because jurors may be more likely to vote against death if they know the killer will never leave prison.

As we reported here, a recent report by the NAACP Legal Defense fund shows that death sentences continue to decline and are at the lowest level since 1976 - even in Texas. Except for Rosenthal's Harris County (Houston):

One place where the climate may have changed little, if at all, is Harris County. Local prosecutors and juries sent 10 men to death row in 2004 (two more than in 2003 and four more than in 2002), more than any state, save California and the rest of Texas. It remains the nation's capital of capital punishment. (emphasis supplied.)

Our prior post on the Texas bill is here. Editorials supporting the bill are here and here. If you really want to know what reforms are needed in Texas, check out the recent report by Texas Defender Services, Minimizing Risk: Blueprint for Death Penalty Reform in Texas. (pdf) The recommended reforms are on page 127 (of the pdf document, p. 145 of the report.)

Bad news travels fast. Rep. James Sensenbrenner's proposed new drug bill, which reads like a parody but unfortunately isn't, with its provisions providing for two year jail terms for college kids who don't snitch on a transaction within 24 hours of observing or learning of it-- and five years for passing a joint to a person who has recently been released from drug treatment--is even news in Australia. From a Jack Marx column in the Sydney Morning Herald:

In case you haven’t noticed, the war on drugs is accelerating. In America, a controversial bill - H.R. 1528, Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005 – gets a hearing again this week. The bill is troublesome for a number of reasons, which you can read about here and here and here. But the most alarming aspect of H.R. 1528 is that it provides for a two year jail sentence for anyone who observes or come across information about drug distribution near learning institutions – that’s universities and colleges, too - and does not report it to authorities within 24 hours and provide full assistance investigating, apprehending, and prosecuting those involved. This is an interesting proposition, because if it were enacted in Australia, almost everybody I know would be going to jail, and those who remained outside wouldn’t be worth knowing.

I don't think I've ever seen a bill as destructive as Rep. Sensenbrenner's new drug bill, H.R. 1528, the "The Safe Access to Drug Treatment & Child Protection Act of 2005." You think America's prison population is too high at 2 million? Get ready for 15 million.

The bill may be up for another hearing this week. It's time to act. As TChris wrote a few weeks ago, it's time to Just Say No to Sensenbrenner. An excellent bill summary is here.

You may remember this as the bill that provides for a five year mandatory minimum sentence for passing a joint to someone who's been through a drug treatment program. That's nothing. Read about what else this doozy of a bill will do. Like the "snitch or go to jail" provisions. If you are a college professor or student, you should be very afraid.

Georgetown Law Professor David Cole, whom I consider to be a supreme expert on the Patriot Act and civil liberites, has a new article in the Nation, informing us that the worst parts of the Patriot Act are not scheduled to expire, and thus, those of us who have been expecting some impressive reforms will be disappointed.

But if Patriot Act opponents are expecting great things, they will be disappointed. Many of the worst provisions of the act are not even up for discussion. The disputes regarding the few provisions that are actually in play often concern only marginal details, while skirting more fundamental issues. And the whole debate is largely a diversion, because the worst civil liberties abuses since 9/11 have been achieved without reliance on the Patriot Act, as they are based on executive initiatives that Congress has no will to challenge.

Provided by Drug Policy Alliance:

H.R. 1528, Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005, is one of the worse drug war bills that Congress has ever considered.

Among other things, HR 1528:

--Virtually eliminates the ability of federal judges to give sentences below the minimum sentence recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, essentially creating a mandatory minimum sentence for every federal offense (including both drug and non-drug offenses).

--Expands the federal “three strikes and you’re out” law to include new offenses, including mandating life imprisonment (with no possibility of parole) for anyone convicted a third time under the RAVE Act.

--Mandates a 10-year minimum sentence for anyone 21 or older that gives marijuana or others drugs to someone under 18 (i.e. a 21 year old college students gives a joint to his 17-year old brother). A second offense would be life in prison.

--Expands what is considered to be a “drug-free” school zone to include almost any place in an urban area, and increases penalties for selling or distributing drugs in that area. (The result will be enhanced penalties for people in inner cities, while people in rural and suburban areas get less time for the same offense).

--Mandates a 5-year minimum sentence for any person that commits a drug trafficking offense near the presence of a person under 18 or in a place where such person resides for any period of time. The sentence is 10 years if they are parent. (I.e. a mother that sells her neighbor a joint will get a 10-year minimum sentence, even if her kids were at school at the time).

--Creates a new offense for persons who witness or learn about certain drug offenses that fail to report the drug offender to the police within 24 hours or fail to provide full assistance to the police in tracking and prosecuting the offender. Offenses that would get someone a 2-year minimum sentence, including failing to report a neighbor that is storing or selling drugs when that neighbor has kids, failing to report anyone that gives a joint to someone under the age of 21, and failing to report a college student that is selling marijuana on a college campus.

--Mandates a 5-year minimum sentence for any person that offers, solicits, encourages, or induces a person enrolled in drug treatment, or previously enrolled in drug treatment, to purchase, possess or receive drugs.

The full text of H.R. 1528 can be viewed by going here , entering “HR1528” in the search box.

The Real ID Act is now law. President Bush signed the $82 billion Iraq spending bill today. In addition to the military spending, and $656 million in aid to Indian Ocean countries hurt by the earthquake and tsunamis.

It also prevents states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, stiffens asylum laws and provides money to finish a long-stalled fence on the border between California and Mexico.

The ACLU has issued this statement, praising the anti-torture amendment but sharply critical of the immigration provisions.

Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette is co-sponsor of H.R. 810 the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, that would expand federal government oversight of stem cell research. She issued this press release today (received by e-mail.)

"I appreciate the hard work by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and the Republican Main Street Partnership to help pass the Castle-DeGette stem cell bill. This just reinforces the fact that embryonic stem cell research is backed by a wide and deep coalition of pro-choice and pro-life Republicans and Democrats," said Rep. DeGette. "In my eight years in Congress, the only other legislation that received such broad and bipartisan support was the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform plan. Today, similar support appears to be building in Congress for stem cells."