Rep. Frederica Wilson introduces resolution honoring Trayvon Martin (it will not produce justice or Counter racism)

TheGrio

A Florida congresswoman on Tuesday introduced a resolution honoring Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen whose slaying a year ago this month stirred national controversy.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, a South Florida Democrat, introduced a resolution “honoring the life of Trayvon Martin, urging the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, and calling on the United States government to address the crisis of racial profiling,” according to a statement from her office.

“Today, Trayvon Martin would have celebrated his 18^th birthday,” the statement read. “We all know the tragic circumstances surrounding his murder: Trayvon was racially profiled, chased, made to fight for his life, and ultimately murdered. Yet we as a nation have yet to take substantive action to stop such a heartbreaking incident from happening again. Enough is enough: We as a nation have buried too many young black boys.  Let’s set Congress on course to address the underlying causes behind the crisis that Trayvon’s death symbolizes.  Let’s take action to stop racial profiling and give our people a chance to succeed.”

George Zimmerman, a white man charged with second degree murder in the case, has pleaded not guilty, and is claiming self-defense. The defense disputes the idea that Zimmerman profiled Martin, who Zimmerman shot to death on the night of February 26, 2012, after a confrontation inside the gated community where Zimmerman lived, and which Martin was visiting with his father. Zimmerman claims Martin attacked him after he stalked him. 

Jesse Jackson Jr. signs plea deal in federal probe, may face prison time

TheGrio

It’s been nearly three months since Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned from Congress, but now NBC News confirms that Jackson has signed papers in a plea deal within the past several days.

Jackson’s case is being handled by the US Attorney’s office in Washington DC. While no public announcement is expected today, those with knowledge of the investigation believe the loose ends now deal with Jackson’s wife, former Alderman Sandi Jackson, and whether or not she is ultimately charged.

Under the terms of the deal Jackson signed, he pleads guilty and his fate – as to jail time – would be in the hands of a federal judge, not yet assigned.  He would repay the government hundreds of thousands of dollars – for items like the $40,000 Rolex watch, travel expenses for a woman he described as a “social acquaintance” and furniture purchased for his home.

Converting campaign contributions for personal use is strictly prohibited by federal law. It opens Jackson up to “not more than 5 years” in prison.

Click here to read more.

Bachmann Keeps Seat On Intelligence Committee Despite Discredited Anti-Muslim Witch Hunt

ThinkProgress

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) will remain a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during the 113th Congress — despite leading a widely discredited anti-Muslim witch hunt against government personnel last year.

According to the committee list released Friday, Bachmann will stay on the powerful committee despite calls from People for the American Way and others for Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) to remove her. Instead, Boehner in his statement making the announcement praised the lawmakers “charged sacred task of supporting that mission by ensuring the intelligence community has the resources and tools it needs to stay ahead of the evolving threats we face, and by conducting effective oversight of the administration.”

Dismay towards Bachmann’s continuing presence on the committee stems from her use of that position to lead a witch-hunt against then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin and other U.S. government personnel. In the letter sent to the State Department, Bachmann suggested that Abedin and others were allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, seeking to infiltrate the U.S. government and affect policy decisions. The charges were clearly false, based mostly on the conspiracy theories of noted Islamophobe Frank Gaffney.

Bachmann’s actions split the Republican Party, with several prominent members — including former Speaker Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton — signing onto her conspiracies. Many other Republicans — including Boehner himself — abandoned Bachmann to her quixotic pursuit of imaginary infiltration. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), then-Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and others joined President Obama and Clinton in condemning Bachmann’s scare tactics.

Joining Bachmann in being renamed to the committee are Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) and Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), who signed onto the original letter sent to State about Abedin. The clearly Islamophobic stances of these committee members makes their position on the committee, with its oversight of the National Security Agency and CIA’s activities, particularly troubling.

Bachmann in particular clearly learned nothing from her experience smearing Abedin. Not only did she stand by the content of her letter to State, as recently as December, but she also compared a letter from a Muslim advocacy group to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. (HT: Faiz Shakir)

What To Be Concerned About As Congress Mulls Targeted Killing Courts

ThinkProgress

I am the law?

Should the United States have courts that authorize the targeted killing of Americans? At yesterday’s hearing, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) suggested so yesterday, worrying that the President being “the prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner is very contrary to laws and traditions of this country.” A court that would approve warrants to kill Americans, King argued, “would be some check on the activities of the executive.” CIA Director Nominee John Brennan said King’s idea was “certainly worthy of discussion,” and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) suggested she and other lawmakers “may explore setting up a special court system to regulate strikes.” New York Times columnist David Brooks made a similar suggestion in his column today, arguing for an “independent judicial panel to review the kill lists.”

But specialized courts are unlikely to provide effective constraints on the President’s power, and there is a real concern that creating a legal system explicitly designed to authorize targeted killings raises troubling questions for a democratic society.

The United States has some experience with specialized national security courts. King suggested modelling the targeted killing courts on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) system, designed to approve warrants for wiretapping foreigners suspected of espionage. But FISA courts don’t appear to present much of a challenge to a power-hungry executive. In 2011, FISA courts approved every request for wiretapping permission — all 1,506 of them. Lest you think this was a fluke, only two out of 1,329 were denied in 2009. Since FISA courts operate in secret, there’s virtually no public accountability.

Targeted killing courts would likely be as permissive as FISA courts. National security law expert Robert Chesney “wouldn’t bet” on such courts “detect[ing] and reject[ing] weak evidentiary arguments for targeting particular persons” because “[j]udges famously tend to defer to the executive branch when it comes to factual judgments on matters of military or national-security significance…[e]specially when the stakes are as high as they will be represented to be in such cases.” There’s not much reason, then, to believe new courts for targeted killing would a bit more adversarial than their FISA equivalents.

This permissiveness could potentially expand the targeted killing power well beyond Congress’ original intent — a point made clear by comparison to the Bush torture regime. David Luban, a lawyer and philosopher at Georgetown University, argued against legally enshrined torture on the ground that the practice would necessarily spread throughout the United States government. Abu Ghraib, for Luban, was a direct consequence of Guantanamo Bay and the Bush legal memos authorizing it: legal torture is never a one-off, containable thing. The more torture is built into the legal system, the more a “torture culture” becomes the norm.

Arguing against Alan Dershowitz, who defended special “torture courts” to authorize it in extreme cases, Luban pointed to the way torture already had shaped the legal system:

Alan Dershowitz has argued that judges, not torturers, should oversee the permission to torture, which in his view must be regulated by warrants. The irony is that Jay S. Bybee, who signed the Justice Department’s highly permissive torture memo, is now a federal judge. Politicians pick judges, and if the politicians accept torture, the judges will as well. Once we create a torture culture, only the naive would suppose that judges will provide a safeguard. Judges do not fight their culture—they reflect it.

The applicability to any new targeted killing courts idea is obvious. Once the targeted killing of Americans becomes an accepted, institutionalized part of the legal system, it could be seen as increasingly legitimate — and hence increasingly more likely to be used in a wider number of cases than we’d want. While there’s no guarantee this would happen, it’s certainly a risk, and one that needs to be considered as the Senate debate on this topic moves forward.

How the GOP (White Party) Would Make Undocumented Immigrants America’s Next Permanent Underclass

ThinkProgress

Conservatives in the House of Representatives are rejecting the growing bipartisan consensus for permitting undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship. Instead, one prominent negotiatior, Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), suggested a legal status “compromise” that would keep 11 million immigrants in a probationary grey area for an indefinite period of time, unable to participate in the full rights of citizenship. As the Washington Post warned, this so-called compromise would establish “a permanent underclass of workers.”

Creating a second class of Americans is not only unsustainable, but also damages the so-called American dream of equality and justice for all — a point proven each time the US has used the law to exclude a group in its history.

Civil Rights Coalition Files Lawsuit to Block Alabama from "Black Listing" Immigrants

ACLU

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A coalition of civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit today to block a portion of Alabama's anti-immigrant law requiring state officials to publicly post an online list of immigrants who may be undocumented.

The lawsuit was filed in federal district court on behalf of four Latino immigrants in Montgomery County who were arrested for allegedly fishing without a license – a misdemeanor offense. The law does not give immigrants any way to dispute their inclusion in the database.

Justin Cox, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, pointed out that the "black list" — which has also been called the "scarlet letter" provision — was controversial when it was pushed through by one Alabama legislator. "Sen. Scott Beason should never have been allowed to hijack the state legislature with his anti-immigrant agenda. This law violates privacy laws and basic constitutional rights, as well as conflicts with fundamental American values of fairness and equality. Instead of moving forward with a mean-spirited law that is doomed to fail, Alabama should join the rest of the country and focus on common-sense reforms that benefit citizens and immigrants alike."

Kristi Graunke, staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said: "This part of Alabama's anti-immigrant law represents an unfortunate effort to bully and intimidate immigrants into leaving Alabama. It is designed to permanently brand, humiliate and otherwise make life difficult for immigrants regardless of status. It conflicts with federal privacy requirements and burdens the already cash-strapped state court system. Sadly, laws like this show that Alabama has yet to turn away from the devastation its anti-immigrant laws have caused."

Nora Preciado, staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said: "While the rest of the country focuses on how best to make Americans at heart become Americans on paper, Alabama continues to tread down a discriminatory, anti-immigrant path. This lawsuit proves once again that Alabama's policies aren't just unconstitutional, but also out of touch with the political mainstream."

The latest attack on immigrants in Alabama is part of HB 658, a package of revisions to the state's notorious anti-immigrant law, HB 56. HB 658 effectively doubled-down on the draconian nature of the original law, enacted in 2011. Section 5 of HB 658 requires the state to compile and post on a public website the names and other information clearly identifying certain immigrants when they are detained on any state charge, no matter how minor, and appear in state court. The plaintiffs in this case and even those charged with minor traffic violations would fall within this requirement and be unconstitutionally added to the "black list."

Section 5 requires the posting of private information that the federal government has declared confidential and not subject to public disclosure. Moreover, once a person is named on the list, the law provides no means to remove their name or change their information if the listing is inaccurate, the person obtains permission to live in the United States, or even becomes a citizen.

The Alabama Administrative Office of Courts is charged with compiling the list. All individuals falling into a new and vague category of immigration status created by the law are added to the list, even if their cases are later dismissed. The law also provides no notice to people that their names and information will be listed online.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit has already blocked key provisions of Alabama's original law — the most extreme in the nation — after finding that it conflicted with federal immigration law. The revision mandating the "black list" also violates federal law, and encourages discrimination by targeting immigrants.

For a copy of the complaint: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/doe-v-hobson-complaint

Imagining a Drone-Proof City

TheAtlanticCities

"Architecture against drones is not just a science-fiction scenario but a contemporary imperative," writes Asher J. Kohn.

Kohn, an American law student and editor of The Tuqay, a website covering "Central Asia and its hinterlands," has recently put forth a theoretical proposal for a city built to passively shield its residents against this ultramodern tool of warfare -- a drone-deflecting city. He created it for a class he was auditing in extreme architecture, and it has since been picked up for discussion by several websites.

Kohn’s envisioned drone-proof community, which he calls “Shura City,” is a thought experiment, a provocation (shura, Arabic for consultation, is a word associated with group decision-making in the Islamic world). It’s a self-contained environment with elaborate architectural devices designed to thwart robotic predators overhead. Minarets, along with the wind-catching cooling towers called badgirs, would obstruct the flight path of the drones. A latticed roof, extending over the entire community, would create shade patterns to make visual target identification difficult. A fully climate-controlled environment would confuse heat-seeking detection systems. He has not included any anti-aircraft weapons in this scenario.

Shura City’s design looks like a sci-fi riff on Middle Eastern building traditions. Yet the circumstances Kohn is responding to are no futuristic construct. The drone war is a very real fact of today, coming under increasing international scrutiny. Just this week, NBC News released a U.S. Justice Department white paper it had obtained detailing the government’s legal justification for the use of lethal force against U.S. citizens abroad who are suspected of being top Al Qaeda agents – attacks that in practice are almost always carried out by drones.

And of course, U.S. drones don’t just target U.S. citizens. Hundreds of drone attacks have been executed in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia since the practice began under the Bush Administration in 2002. These forays have proliferated under President Obama’s tenure. The United Nations is just now launching an investigation into the practice of targeted killing by drone strike and other means, but critics say it won’t go far enough.

Reports on the number of people killed vary widely, because the drone war has been shrouded in secrecy. But the independent Bureau for Investigative Journalism in the United Kingdom estimates numbers as high as 3,461 in Pakistan, 1,112 in Yemen, and 170 in Somalia — including hundreds of civilians, many of them children.

[MORE]

At least 54 countries helped CIA to kidnap, detain and torture post 9/11

Blacklisted news

The full extent of the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme has been laid bare with the publication of a report showing there is evidence that more than a quarter of the world's governments covertly offered support.

Virginia Moves Closer to Creating an “Alternative Currency”

Libertyblitzkrieg

There seems to be something in the air in the state of Virginia these days.  First, we heard that Charlottesville, Va., became the first city to formally pass an anti-drone resolution, and now we discover the proposal to study an alternative to the dollar has passed the State House with a two-to-one majority.  It’s really interesting that all of this is happening in a state with such proximity to our very own national cancer, Washington D.C.  From the Washington Post:

The idea that Virginia should consider issuing its own money was dismissed as just another quixotic quest by one of the most conservative members of the state legislature when Marshall introduced it three years ago. But it has since gained traction not only in Virginia, but also in states across the country as Americans have grown increasingly suspicious of the institutions entrusted with safeguarding the economy.

Is Chapelle Talking about the Illuminati?

Russell Simmons says the Illuminati Doesn’t Exist

BlackListedNews

Following up on the scandalous Illuminati hand symbol by Beyonce during her Superbowl show, TMZ catches up with entertainment and fashion mogul Russell Simmons in what looks like an underground parking lot:

Mega-rich, ultra-successful record producer Russell Simmons says there’s ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY no such thing as the Illuminati … which is EXACTLY what someone in the Illuminati would say!!!!

Refinement of White Supremacy: Philadelphia Courts Begin Using Computer Forecasts to Predict Future Criminal Behavior, Determine Jail Time

BlackListedNews

Judges in the Philadelphia court system are now taking advantage of powerful new computer models to help determine how much jail time an offender should get.

Computers have been forecasting weather and economic trends for years, but applying algorithms to human behavior is relatively new.

“This all comes about because of new developments in statistics and computer science that are available to us that really weren’t five or ten years ago,” says University of Pennsylvania professor Richard Berk, a pioneer in the field.

His forecasts, which use an algorithm to predict whether someone will offend again, have been used by city probation and parole officers for about three years, to decide how much supervision a defendant needs.

Black History Fact: There has never been a single instance of a Black police officer shooting or killing an unarmed white person

Black History Fact In the history of modern law enforcement there has never been a single instance of a Black police officer shooting or killing an unarmed white person.[MORE]

In fact, according to Roger Aber, until now no Black police officer has ever shot or killed a white police officer [MORE])  

US assassination drone attack kills 9 in NW Pakistan

CitizensforLegitGov

Nine people are killed after a US assassination drone pounded a village on the border of North and South Waziristan tribal regions in Pakistan's northwest. Missiles fired from the US drones on Friday leveled a compound in the village, some 50 kilometers south of Miranshah, a major town in North Waziristan. "Six drones were hovering in the sky at the time of the attack. One drone fired two missiles at a house," a Miranshah security official said.

Mayor grounds Seattle police drone program

AP

Seattle's mayor on Thursday ordered the police department to abandon its plan to use drones after residents and privacy advocates protested. Mayor Mike McGinn said the department will not use two small drones it obtained through a federal grant. The unmanned aerial vehicles will be returned to the vendor, he said.

"Today I spoke with Seattle Police Chief John Diaz, and we agreed that it was time to end the unmanned aerial vehicle program, so that SPD can focus its resources on public safety and the community building work that is the department's priority," the mayor said in a brief statement.

The decision comes as the debate over drones heats up across the country. Lawmakers in at least 11 states are looking at plans to restrict the use of drones over their skies amid concerns the vehicles could be exploited to spy on Americans.

The Seattle Police Department previously said it would use drones to provide an overhead view of large crime scenes, serious accidents, disasters, and search and rescue operations. It had conducted demonstrations of the drones to show the public their capabilities. 

The program drew strong criticism from residents Wednesday at a meeting of the City Council, which was considering an ordinance giving police the authority to use drones.

The proposed measure would have allowed the use of drones for data collection but barred police from using them over "open-air assembly of people" or for general surveillance. The drones would have carried no weapons, but the proposal would have allowed police to use face-recognition software in them.

The police department had purchased two Draganflyer X6 vehicles, which have a width of 36 inches, length of 33.5 inches and stand just under a foot. The drones are capable of flying indoors and outdoors and carry a camera, according to the company website.

The department had not yet begun using the drones but received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

One of the program's key adversaries was the Washington chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued the drones were obtained without any public input or discussion.

"We applaud the mayor's action," spokesman Doug Honig said Thursday. "Drones would have given the police unprecedented abilities to engage in surveillance and intrude on the privacy of people in Seattle ... and there was a never a strong case made that Seattle needed them for public safety."

Moving forward, the ACLU would like to see the Legislature adopt "very tight restrictions" on law-enforcement drones statewide, Honig said.

Opposition to the use of drones in the U.S. has come from opposite sides of the political spectrum, including civil liberties advocates and those worried over government intrusion.

On Monday, the Charlottesville City Council in Virginia passed a resolution imposing a two-year moratorium on the use of drones within city limits. The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group behind the city's effort, said Charlottesville is the first city in the country to limit the use of drones by police. 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security drones do enter Washington airspace occasionally, patrolling the Canadian border east of the Cascade mountains. The two 10,000-pound Predator-B unmanned aircraft are based in North Dakota.

Meanwhile, CIA Director-designate John Brennan strongly defended anti-terror attacks by unmanned drones abroad Thursday under questioning at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Brennan said drone strikes are used only against targets planning to carry out attacks against the United States, never as retribution for an earlier one.

Racist LAPD will reopen its investigation (investigate itself to check for racism) into the 2007 episode that led to the firing of Dorner

NY Times

The Los Angeles Police Department will reopen its investigation into the 2007 episode that led to the firing of Christopher J. Dorner, the former police officer who is wanted in three killings, department officials said Saturday night.

Mr. Dorner pledged revenge against Los Angeles police officers in a manifesto he posted online, in which he also claimed that racism in the department had led to his dismissal. He is wanted in connection with the killing of a former police captain’s daughter and her fiancé last Sunday and the shooting death of a Riverside, Calif., police officer on Thursday morning.

“I am aware of the ghosts of the L.A.P.D.’s past, and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner’s allegations of racism within the department,” Chief Charlie Beck said in a written statement.

“Therefore, I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner’s allegations regarding his termination,” he said. “I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their Police Department is transparent and fair in all the things we do.”

The killings and Mr. Dorner’s online manifesto have reopened old wounds for some black residents here, even as they condemned the violence. For decades, the Los Angeles Police Department was known nationwide for racism and corruption. And memories are still fresh of the riots in 1992 that followed the beating of a black man, Rodney King, by white police officers. The beating was caught on videotape and broadcast around the country.

In explaining why he chose to reopen Mr. Dorner’s case, Chief Beck acknowledged his department’s difficult history.

“The Los Angeles Police Department has made tremendous strides in gaining the trust and confidence of the people we serve,” he said in his statement, and he conceded that “Dorner’s actions may cause a pause in our increasingly positive relationship with the community.”

Mr. Dorner, who joined the Police Department in 2005, was fired in 2008 for giving false statements, after he accused his training officer of kicking a suspect. He sued the department for wrongful termination, and lost at trial and again on appeal.

The decision to review Mr. Dorner’s termination marks a reversal from the tone Chief Beck struck just two days ago, when he was asked about Mr. Dorner’s accusations of racism at a news conference.

“You’re talking about a homicide suspect who has committed atrocious crimes,” he said. “If you want to give any attribution to his ramblings on the Internet, go right ahead. But I do not.”

Asked about Mr. Dorner’s efforts to clear his name, Chief Beck said, point blank, “It’s not going to happen.”

Justice in sight for Chicago police torture victim?

FinalCall

Darrell Cannon, his legal team and supporters wore smiles and were cautiously optimistic after oral arguments presented before the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals at the Dirksen Federal Building downtown.

At issue was whether Mr. Cannon, after being brutally tortured by Chicago cops into confessing to a crime he did not commit and serving 24 years in prison, is due a fair monetary settlement for his pain, anguish and stolen years.

Mr. Cannon is just one of dozens of known victims brutalized into false confessions by rogue Chicago police officers under the watch of former police commander Jon Burge. Mr. Burge and his band of officers known as “The Midnight Crew” beat and tortured Black men and women during a reign of terror that lasted over three decades. Mr. Burge, who retired from the police department, is now in jail for perjury related to the torture allegations.

Jon Burge

Mr. Cannon’s lead attorney, Flint Taylor in presenting strong, almost irrefutable arguments to the three appellate court judges sought to have a previous district court ruling blocking any additional settlement sought by his client overturned. Early on Mr. Cannon agreed to a paltry payment as part of a settlement before the Burge torture controversy exploded with numerous victims named, released from prison and granted substantial compensation.

“Before it was known that there was this scandal, that there was this conspiracy to torture and to cover it up, Mr. Cannon took a $3,000 settlement for all of his claims. The city was arguing well he was stuck with that amount of money because he signed the settlement agreement in 1988,” Atty. Taylor of The People’s Law Office, told The Final Call after the Jan. 22 hearing.

“Our argument was that because of all the racially motivated conspiracy to torture and to cover it up only came to light after Mr. Cannon took his settlement; that he should be allowed to proceed with a new case. Now that he’s been released from prison after 24 years in the penitentiary and that was our argument,” added Atty. Taylor.

In 1983, Mr. Cannon was taken to a remote location by Chicago police where a shotgun was jammed into his mouth, splitting his lip and the trigger pulled repeatedly in efforts to simulate his execution. Mr. Cannon said officers also tried to hang him by his hands as they were cuffed behind his back. An electric cattle prod was used to shock his genitals.

There are at least 20 more Black men, still in prison who said they too are victims of coerced confessions by The Midnight Crew.

The family of Eddie Peltier, a police officer whom Richard LaFuente was convicted of killing in 1983, believes he is innocent

NYTimes

Richard LaFuente has had plenty of opportunities to leave federal prison and go back to Plainview, Tex. All he had to do was confess to a murder on the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, for which he was convicted in 1986, and show a little remorse.

The first time he refused was at a 1994 court hearing. “I can’t show remorse,” he told his lawyer. “I won’t ask forgiveness for something I didn’t do.” He went back to his cell. For the next 17 years, at six parole hearings (the latest in June 2011), Mr. LaFuente refused to confess and show remorse, and each time he was sent back to his cell.

Julie Jonas has had plenty of opportunities to walk away from Mr. LaFuente’s case. Ms. Jonas is the managing attorney for the Innocence Project of Minnesota, which has been working on behalf of Mr. LaFuente. She has represented Mr. LaFuente, 54, since 2004, along with hundreds of other prisoners who have claimed they were innocent. Mr. LaFuente, she said, is different.

“I don’t think I have met one who would turn down a deal to get out of prison after eight years in a federal penitentiary, much less one who would continue to deny his guilt even though it meant his parole would be denied after serving 25 years in prison,” Ms. Jonas said. “The system keeps asking him to apologize for something he did not do, and his conscience won’t let him do that.”

Lawyers who work for innocence projects are a particular breed of optimist, and Ms. Jonas has tried a number of ways to get relief for her client. Her latest effort is a second petition for executive clemency, which she will be able to file on Nov. 19, one year after the first (which was filed in 2008) was denied. Clemency, in the form of a commutation of sentence, is extremely difficult to obtain. President Obama has granted one in four years in office. (George W. Bush granted 11 and Bill Clinton 61.)

Ms. Jonas plans to emphasize that Mr. LaFuente, who is half Mexican-American, half Sioux, has been a model prisoner with no disciplinary infractions. He is a father and grandfather. He has a job and a home waiting for him. “He’s worthy,” Ms. Jonas said. “Beside all that, he’s innocent.”

Mr. LaFuente was 25 in the summer of 1983 when he and his brother-in-law, John Perez, left Plainview to visit relatives on the Devils Lake reservation. During that time, a former police officer named Eddie Peltier was found dead on a rural highway, apparently the victim of a hit and run.

In 1985, Mr. LaFuente and Mr. Perez, who had returned to Texas, as well as nine local American Indians, were arrested in Officer Peltier’s murder after four witnesses said they had seen a mob beat him at a party. One swore she had seen Mr. LaFuente, with Mr. Perez’s help, run the officer over with his El Camino. There was no physical evidence, and every defendant but one had an alibi. Nonetheless, all 11 were found guilty. The two Texans were given the longest sentences: 20 years for Mr. Perez and life for Mr. LaFuente.

Soon, though, details began to emerge that conflicted with court testimony. Stories about the party and the fight turned out to be fabrications. Two witnesses recanted and said they had been threatened by James Yankton, a police officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. By 1989, the convictions of nine of the defendants had been overturned for insufficient evidence. Mr. Perez was paroled in 1999. Only Mr. LaFuente remains in prison, steadfastly maintaining his innocence.

Twice a federal court has ruled that Mr. LaFuente should be given a new trial because the first one was unfair; both decisions were overruled. The victim’s own mother, brother and sister have told parole officials that they believe Mr. LaFuente is innocent. “I have never worked on a case where the victim’s family was certain the wrong man was in prison,” Ms. Jonas said.

Hollywood has taken notice. This year the story came to the attention of Todd Trotter, a Los Angeles television writer and documentary filmmaker. He began tracking down police and F.B.I. files and found a recording of a woman who claimed she had witnessed Mr. Peltier’s murder. The closer Mr. Trotter looked, the more Mr. LaFuente’s story seemed to be a classic tale of wrongful conviction.

Mr. Trotter talked with two dozen people involved in the case, asking them to agree to be interviewed on camera. He was granted permission to use the Robbie Robertson song “Coyote Dance” in the promotional video. He came up with a title, “Incident at Devils Lake.” All he needed was money to start filming. So in September he started a campaign at Kickstarter.com to raise start-up financing for the documentary. If he is successful — he is aiming for $50,000 in pledges by Wednesday — he hopes to start production early next year.

Mr. Trotter has had some fund-raising help from an unlikely source: the victim’s sister, Andrea Peltier. Nearly every day since Oct. 19, Andrea has stood outside the Devils Lake Walmart, holding a large sign bearing the word “fund-raising” and photos of her brother and Mr. LaFuente. She asks shoppers to donate to the film, and has collected more than $1,000.

“I stand out here no matter how cold it is,” Ms. Peltier said by cellphone. “I want justice for my brother. It’s been too long. Eddie’s spirit won’t be able to cross over until the right ones are caught. And I want to get Richard out of prison. He didn’t do it. He had nothing to do with it.”

Palast: The Koch Brothers, Hugo Chavez and the XL Pipeline

GregPalast.com

I’ve been tracking a tube of black putrid ooze, a toxic viper slowly slithering 2000 miles across the belly of America, swallowing all water aquifers, politicians and reason in its path.

The XL Keystone Pipeline.

As Nagini, the murderous snake in the Harry Potter tales, had its master Voldemort, I figured the Keystone XL Pipeline much also have its own dark lords.

I smelled Koch. 

David and Charles Koch are each worth $20 billion--and they’re quite certain that’s not enough.  And so they need the XL Keystone Pipeline.

The XL Keystone will take Canadian tar-sands oil, the filthiest crude on the planet and suck it down to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. Alberta’s oil-glop reserve, if it can get to the US market, will warm the planet by nearly .4°C all by itself.

Why in the world would America pistol-whip Mother Nature to bring oil to Texas? I mean, it’s just plain weird to suck heavy tar oil out of Canada, drag it across the entire middle of the USA to import it into the oil-exporting Lone Star State. 

Here’s where a little lesson in oil chemistry comes in.  You can’t just throw any old crude oil into an oil refinery.  These giant filth factories are actually quite sensitive.  The refineries of the Texas Gulf Coast are optimized for heavy crude.

It would cost billions of dollars to rebuild the giant Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refinery, owned by Koch Industries, to use the less-polluting Texas oil drilled nearby.

The Kochs need heavy crude. But the Brothers Koch have a problem.  Heavy crude is controlled by a heavy dude – President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

In case you haven’t heard, the US Department of Energy now says Venezuela, not Saudi Arabia, has the world’s largest petroleum reserve--including the overwhelming majority of the planet’s heavy crude.

And Chavez is not giving it away.  “We are no longer an oil colony, Mr. Palast,” Chavez told me in one of our meet-ups in Caracas. 

He wasn’t kidding.  Venezuela’s export price now averages around $100 a barrel.