Jeralyn Merritt

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Ethan Brown, Author of "Snitch: Informants, Cooperators & the Corruption of Justice"

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive....Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is on the ropes after repeated denials that he recommended parole for Arkansas rapist Wayne Dumond....He's caught in a Willie Horton trap, and it's a web of his own making.

Finally, a little relief is at hand for the vastly disparate and draconian crack cocaine sentences meted out by federal courts. New federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses went into effect today. Starting today, many offenders sentenced in federal court for crack will receive a sentence about 16 months less than they would have yesterday. By way of background, through mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the Feds have punished crack crimes far

.A mistrial was declared in Dallas yesterday in the Government's "flagship" terrorism financing prosecution of a Muslim charity. With 197 counts to choose from and after two months of trial and 19 days of deliberation, there were no convictions on any of the counts for the five alleged leaders of the organization.The case, involving the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its backers, is the

A federal judge in New York today struck a fatal blow to the Patriot Act provision authorizing national security letters. The ACLU, which brought the lawsuit, reports:The law has permitted the FBI to issue NSLs demanding private information about people within the United States without court approval, and to gag those who receive NSLs from discussing them.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, the Yearly Kos Scooter Libby Live-Blogging Panel will soon be in session.If you are attending Yearly Kos in Chicago, it's time to mark your calendars for opening day, August 2. You won't want to miss your esteemed hostess Christy Hardin-Smith and indispensable FDL contributor Marcy Wheeler of The Next Hurrah provide their behind-the-scenes look at live-blogging the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of I.

The Scooter Libby question of the day is whether the Court can make Libby serve two years on supervised release as President Bush directed in his Executive Clemency Order, now that his prison sentence has been commuted. (For background, see Sentencing Law and Policy, Scotus Blog, Christy and TalkLeft.)As we wait for Judge Walton's decision on whether supervised release only can be imposed on defendants who have completed a prison sentence,