Jose Padilla DVD lost

Uh-oh.

Hat-tip Discourse.net

Judge Shelby Highsmith to retire

Judge Shelby Highsmith has announced that he will be retiring at the end of the year (the original post said March, but we've been informed that it's actually the end of the year and Judge Highsmith will go off of the criminal wheel at the end of March). We'll miss him.

Judge Highsmith was admitted to the bar in 1958. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, after attending Georgia Military College and the University of Kansas. The Judge was the senior partner of Highsmith, Strauss, Glatzer & Deutsch, P.A., from 1975 - 1991 and before that served as a Circuit Judge in Dade County from 1970 - 1975. He served in the United States Army as Captain from 1949 - 1955. He was appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by Bush I, and he's been a Senior Judge since 2002.

We've always liked that Judge Highsmith looked at each particular person before him and tried to judge that person, as opposed to doing simple math to determine a guideline sentence. He also knew how to try a case, coming from a busy trial practice. Best wishes in retirement.

About that firing range...

The firing range for the Marshals is often cited as one of the cool features of the new courthouse. Apparently not so cool... From today's USA Today (Hat tip to FOB, that's Friend of Blog):

A U.S. Marshals Service official misspent $4.3 million meant for courthouse security and witness protection to pay for fitness centers and firing ranges at federal buildings, a Justice Department investigation found.

The Office of Management and Budget repeatedly told David Barnes not to use construction money on exercise and training facilities, citing agency policy and appropriations laws that restricted the money for improved prisoner security, the report said.

Barnes, who oversees courthouse space for the agency, concealed the spending from his superiors and directed $2.6 million in construction money for fitness centers and firing ranges at 20 federal courthouses from 2000 to 2005, according to a copy of the 41-page report obtained by USA TODAY.

The agency has not acted on the report, which it received last April.

Barnes also used nearly $900,000 budgeted for witness protection to build a firing range in the Miami federal courthouse, and he used nearly $400,000 in construction money to hire fitness center staff and clerical workers at the Marshals Service headquarters, where Barnes works, the investigation found. Some workers were friends or relatives of Barnes and his subordinates and were unqualified for the jobs, the report said.

Barnes' lawyer, Charles Printz, said his client had the authority to spend construction money on firing ranges and fitness centers. Printz said the investigation was spurred by disgruntled employees and he expected his client to be cleared.

Here's the breakdown of bad spending from one of USA Today's cool charts. Miami's in first place!!

REPORT: MONEY MISSPENT
According to a Justice Department report, $3,028,847 was misspent from fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2005 on building and renovating fitness rooms and firing ranges in 20 federal courthouses. (*) The locations and the amount:
Courthouse
Misspent

Miami
$881,500

Tallahassee, Fla.
$385,852

Fort Worth
$361,285

Seattle
$298,414

Phoenix
$226,345

Charleston, S.C.
$137,059

Charleston, W.Va.
$125,000

Buffalo
$105,802

San Diego
$80,158

Cheyenne, Wyo.
$60,000

San Francisco
$59,638

Hattiesburg, Miss.
$57,375

St. Louis
$50,000

Grand Rapids, Mich.
$46,835

Sioux City, Iowa
$46,322

Greenville, Miss.
$38,881

Elkins, W.Va.
$35,000

Oxford, Miss.
$22,950

Fairbanks, Alaska
$9,375

Syracuse, N.Y.
$1,056

Total
$3,028,847

* - In addition, more than $800,000 was spent maintaining and staffing some of these and other facilities.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General

"The government’s arguments at the hearing sounded ridiculous and shameful."

That was the New York Times editorial in today's paper regarding the Jose Padilla competency hearing. Here's the conclusion:

Prosecutors said Mr. Padilla always seemed fine to his jailers, but it was his jailers who did things like standing on his bare feet with boots so they could shackle him. The brig psychologist testified that he had spoken to Mr. Padilla only twice, once when he was first detained, and two years later — through a slit in his cell door.

When a psychologist testified for the defense that Mr. Padilla was “an anxiety-ridden, broken individual,” the prosecution said her tests were invalid — because the jailers had kept Mr. Padilla handcuffed throughout.

We will probably never know if Mr. Padilla was a would-be terrorist. So far, this trial has been a reminder of how Mr. Bush’s policy on prisoners has compromised the judicial process. And it has confirmed the world’s suspicions of the United States’ stooping to the very behavior it once stood against.

Obviously there has been a ton of press on Judge Marcia Cooke's ruling yesterday saying Jose Padilla is competent. I'm not going to link to all of that here.

I'd bet that Padilla is actually happy that his lawyers lost the competency motion. I'm sure he did not want to go to a BOP mental hospital so that he could be made competent. To me, that sounds like torture -- just on a smaller scale. And I'm sure there were mixed feelings by the government about the ruling.

The Judge is still going to hear the motion to dismiss for outrageous government conduct. That is where things will get interesting.

Padilla competent

Judge Cooke ruled today that Jose Padilla is competent to stand trial after a 4 day hearing on the issue. She said that the decision regarding the defense's motion to dismiss for outrageous conduct is for another day. More to follow when I come up for air. Sorry.