Roman Polanski has broken his silence and issued a statement concerning his extradition. It's published in French in a magazine called La Regle du Jeu. The English translation is here. I've uploaded it here.

A hearing will be held Monday on whether to unseal the sworn statement of the former DA on the case, Roger Gunson, now retired. [More...]

Update: Mr. Rubashkin will be sentenced Thursday. Prosecutors are asking for a life sentence but we won't know until tomorrow what the judge decides. Sorry for the error.

There is something seriously wrong with a justice system that imposes a life sentence on a 51 year old non-violent offender. That's what may happen Thursday to Sholom Rubashkin, former CEO of Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Iowa.

Mr. Rubashkin was in charge of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, when immigration agents landed in helicopters to detain nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers. In November, Mr. Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of federal bank fraud in connection with loans to the company.

Prosecutors, citing Mr. Rubashkin’s “blatant lawlessness, utter lack of remorse, his egregious and repeated attempts to obstruct justice,” have asked Judge Linda R. Reade to impose a life sentence.

I have hardly been a supporter of Agriprocessors. In 2008, I wrote I stopped buying their products due to the treatment of immigrant workers. As TChris explained here: [More...]

Update: Cameron ended up at the prison camp at Lewisburg after all.

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When Cameron Douglas was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday, the Court agreed to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that he serve his time at the satellite prison camp at Lewisburg.

A day later, his lawyers wrote the judge and said, oops, BOP doesn't think they can send him to a camp right away. They asked the judge to change his recommendation to the FCI at Ft. Dix so he can continue therapy with the doctor who has been treating his addiction while at MCC and because it's convenient for his family to visit.

The Judge said no dice. He said he gave both sides numerous opportunities to address the issue and the rules don't allow him to change his order, absent a clerical or mathematical error.

The Judgment has been publicly filed. In addition to the five years in prison, followed by five years on supervised release (similar to parole) and 450 hours of community service, Cameron was fined $25,000. and ordered to forfeit $300,0000. as proceeds of his crime. And the specific conditions of his supervised release are really onerous: [More...]

California's Second Appellate District has denied Roman Polanski's petition for writ of mandate. He filed the petition in March, seeking a sentence of time served in his 1977 sex case, based on new evidence of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct contained in previously undisclosed sealed transcripts of improper communications between the Judge and prosecutors. He also sought to have the new transcripts disclosed to the Swiss.

Also today, the court rejected a bid by the victim to dismiss the case.

The order in Polanski's case reads: (obtained from Court docket): [More...]

The trial of 22 year old David Kernell, charged with hacking into Sarah Palin's e-mail account, is underway. Palin will be a witness. Her husband and daughter Bristol may also be witnesses.

Tennessee is heavily Republican and the defense fears Palin will unduly influence the jury. The judge refused to allow the defense to voir dire the jury on wehther they have strong feelings about Palin.

The defense says Kernell had no criminal intent and it was all a prank. He's facing a maximum of 50 years on 4 felony charges. [More...]

Cameron Douglas, son of actor Michael Douglas, was sentenced to five years for selling methamphetamine today.

He was facing a ten year mandatory minimum, but with a motion from the prosecutors to depart due to cooperation in the investigation or prosecution of others, the judge was able to go below it. (The motion is not public, nor are the details of his cooperation. All references to cooperation have been blacked out from the pleadings and letters, with the Court's approval.)

Once the Government files that motion, the court is free to depart as much or as little as it wants, and to take into consideration other factors, such as his addiction, his commitment to changing his life, the pleas of family members, etc.

Without that motion, absent a safety valve, the court's hands would have been tied. Ten years would have been the minimum, even, for example, had there been evidence Cameron Douglas marched into a burning building and rescued a dozen children from perishing.

Mandatory minimum sentencing laws need to be repealed. At a minimum, they should be amended so that judges are free to depart on their own motion, not just on the Government's motion or in the limited circumstances where the safety valve applies. Snitching should not be a prerequisite.

In a 4 to 1 opinion, the Connecticut Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel for the murder of Martha Moxley.

The appeal centered on Skakel's theory that two alternate suspects committed the crime. The court said the evidence doesn't support that claim. The majority opinion is here. There is also a concurring opinion, and a dissenting opinion. [More...]

Cameron Douglas, the 31 year old son of Michael Douglas and his former wife, Diandra Douglas, will be sentenced on April 14 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of crystal meth and more than 5 kilograms of cocaine. The charges carry a ten year mandatory minimum sentence, which the judge can depart from if the Government files a motion stating he has cooperated and provided information that is helpful to the investigation or prosecution of others. (The Judge can also depart or vary from the guidelines, but can't go under the mandatory minimum unless the Government makes the motion.)

Douglas' lawyers have filed a 119 page sentencing memorandum, which includes many letters from his immediate family, family friends and his own friends. There are a lot of redactions. Given the number of sealed documents on the docket, and his lawyers' request for either a sentence of time served or 42 months, it's apparent the Government will be filing a request for a reduction under the 10 year mandatory minimum for his cooperation.

That leaves the guidelines, which the Judge can depart or vary from for any number of reasons. Having read the 119 page memo, the original Complaint and the details of his bond revocation proceedings, here are some thoughts: [More...]

Nine people arrested over the weekend believed to be connected to an extremist Christian Militia have been charged in federal court in Detroit.

Nine members of a Michigan-based Christian militia group have been indicted on sedition and weapons charges in connection with an alleged plot to murder law enforcement officers in hopes of setting off an anti-government uprising.

In court filings unsealed Monday, the Justice Department accused the nine people of planning to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer, then plant improvised explosive devices of a type used by insurgents in Iraq to attack the funeral procession.

The Indictment (available here) was returned on March 23 and unsealed today. According to the Times: [More...]

I thought the militias were in Northern Michigan (which made me think of this Kid Rock song from his Rock and Roll Jesus album), but it appears they are also in Ann Arbor and Southern/Southeastern Michigan. The feds were busy doing raids this weekend.

Seven people were arrested, some on gun charges. One group assumes the target of the militias is American Muslims. [More...]

Last month I wrote about a recent Hmong immigrant in Minnesota serving an eight year sentence for a fatal accident. He may have been wrongfully convicted because of a faulty gas pedal in his Toyota Camry.

Koua Fong Lee was driving home from church with his wife and children when their 1996 Toyota Camry suddenly sped to 90 mph and crashed, killing three people.

The Innocence Project of Minnesota has now joined the case, which the prosecutor has agreed to revisit. Driver error was never proven.

A Facebook page has been created to garner attention to the case and support Mr. Lee's bid for a new trial. Right now it has 1,680 members. Check it out and become a fan, let's see how high we can get the numbers.

Failure to tweet is now a crime on Long Island? This is pretty ridiculous. Here's the story. There's a teen pop star named Justin Bieber. In November, he had an appearance scheduled at a mall on Long Island. The place was mobbed. Police say the crowd got unruly and they told his manager, Scott "Scooter" Braun, to send out a tweet announcing the event was canceled. Police say he took too long.

The prosecutor says it took Braun 1 1/2 hours to send two tweets. Braun said it took seven minutes. Braun faces up to one year in jail if convicted on reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance.

Scooter turned himself in to police Wednesday afternoon and was arrested.

Since when is a booked guest's manager responsible for security? Isn't that the job of the store who booked his appearance, the mall or the police?

So who is Justin Bieber?

Bieber, 16, is a Canadian singer who was discovered on YouTube.

Here's Justin's twitter page. Here's a video of him singing (ok, so he is cute.) He has 1.5 million followers. #Free Scooter Braun is now trending on Twitter.

And on that, I'm calling it a night.