Keith Henson is back in jail.

Henson was just thrown back in jail. As best as I can make out from the limited information currently available, Henson and his lawyers were scheduled for a hearing at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, May 8th. They were apparently unaware that warrants had recently been signed by the Governors of California and Arizona, and after the hearing, Henson was handed over to the Yavapai County Sheriff Department for incarceration until a hearing on Wednesday May 9th at 9 a.m. (A note received this afternoon — May 9th — from Henson’s wife, Arel Lucas, says that he will remain in the lockup at least until Monday, May 13th. She invites people to write to him at: Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, Howard Keith Henson, 255 E. Gurley St. Prescott, AZ 86301. She also reminds you that the prison authorities read the letters before passing them on.)

I wrote about him here — He is the target of Scientology’s bully tactics. Interesting that the Governator and Az’s Gov signed the warrants. More interesting that notice wasn’t served. I’m not sure of all the details, but there are many links to other sites with more on the post linked to at the top.

Julie Amero’s sentencing has been pushed back again, this time to May 18th. There’s no explanation for the delay at all; in fact, if it hadn’t come up on my Google Alert I wouldn’t have had a clue. It was supposed to have been this Thursday.

The paranoid part of me wonders if the delays are to push the case past the spotlight so that there isn’t another uproar when it finally happens. The optimist in me wonders if there’s progress being made to reverse this travesty of justice before the justice train completely derails in Connecticut.

If I find anything that indicates why another delay is sought, I’ll post it here.

I’m still puzzling over this provision in the software license for the new del.icio.us plugin for Firefox:

b. YOU MAY NOT:

(iv) use the Delicious Software to operate nuclear facilities, life support, or other mission critical application where human life or property may be at stake. You understand that the Delicious Software is not designed for such purposes and that its failure in such cases could lead to death, personal injury, or severe property or environmental damage for which Delicious is not responsible.

Bookmark a page, cause a meltdown, go to jail? Yikes.

(Update info via Techcrunch)

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, license agreement, firefox, plug-in

(warning: political opinion and/or commentary follows)

I’ve written about Josh Wolf a couple of times here trying to bring attention to the absurdity of his situation.  Wolf has the unique distinction of being jailed for eight months for refusing to turn over his videotapes of a San Francisco street protest.  In his own words:

When I was subpoenaed in February of last year, I was not only ordered to provide my unedited footage, but to also submit to testimony and examination before the secretive grand jury. Although I feel that my unpublished material should be shielded from government demands, it was the testimony which I found to be the more egregious assault on my right and ethics as both a journalist and a citizen.

Reading between the lines, I believe that the intent was to force Wolf to identify the protesters by name in order to provide the next lead to unraveling this little group of anarchists.

Wolf has published his unedited video.  I have watched it.  You should watch it, too.  While I don’t agree with everything this group did or stood for, I respect their passion and also the fact that they initially complied with police requests to get out of the street.  Unfortunately, as things escalated, so did they.  There are some images that I will have difficulty forgetting — particularly the army of policemen armed in full riot gear marching behind this ragtag group. (Note: This is not a child-safe video)

Click To Play

Watch it for yourself.  Post your reactions in the comments if you like.  And if you agree that jailing Wolf for eight months in a Federal prison was an overreaction and overreaching abuse of power, consider making a donation to his defense fund.  If you have difficulty loading from here, try the link on his blog.  I suggest you stay away from the comments unless you enjoy mindless flaming — evidently Matt Drudge linked this from his site so there are lots of crazed Drudge Report flamers on there.

I suspect the US Attorney in Wolf’s neck of the woods is a ‘loyal Bushie’, since he wasn’t on the firing hit list of US Attorneys. And here I thought it was all about voting rights.

Technorati Tags: Josh Wolf, anarchy, protest, legal, civil rights, vblogging, US Attorney

Hartford Courant reporter Rick Green:   Julie Amero’s sentencing has been delayed, this time at the request of the prosecutors.

No reason for the delay was filed with the clerk at Norwich Superior Court. State’s Attorney Michael Regan, who is now involved in the case, declined to comment. Amero’s lawyers also did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

I hope this means that there is some behind-the-scenes work taking place to show the prosecutors the error of their ways.

Technorati Tags: Rick Green, Hartford Courant

Journalist Rick Green wrote an excellent feature article for the Hartford Courant yesterday. He walks the reader through events outlined in court testimony in narrative form in a fair and balanced way. The most interesting and newsy part is at the end, where he writes:

But Kane, Smith and others connected to the case have been deluged - and widely ridiculed - by computer security experts who say critical evidence was not considered and officials are now searching for ways to avoid Thursday’s sentencing. The state’s attorney’s office in Norwich is reconsidering its aggressive prosecution of Amero, sources close to the case say.

Smith, whose persuasive arguments convinced the jury of Amero’s guilt, would say only that before next Thursday, things “could very well change.”

To Kane, Smith and others: There is a way to avoid Thursday’s sentencing. Simply go into court and tell the judge that you were wrong. Tell the judge that you’ve received new information that proves Amero innocent and request that the verdict be vacated. Do the right thing.

Meanwhile, Nancy Willard has updated her report (PDF) on the Amero case to reflect the court transcripts and testimony published by the Norwich Bulletin.

Finally, commenter lilaw is calling for anyone who can to show up at the courthouse on March 29th in support of Julie Amero.

Most of mainstream America gets its information from television and the print media. And that media publicizes the news that sells commercial airtime or print advertisements. Let’s provide them with something to publicize. At least, let’s let Norwich know that we are watching. (I think that peaceful protest and freedom of assembly and association are still permitted there.) Let’s let Julie know that we support her. I do not live in Connecticut. It will take me at least three hours to get there, but I will be in Norwich on Julie’s sentencing date, now scheduled for March 29, 2007. Please get up from your computer and join me. You computer geeks (a term I use with respect) who are far more blog-savvy than I, please get the word out. While I would like to be in the courtroom to observe the proceedings on March 29th, nothing would please me more than to find that the place is so crowded with Julie’s supporters that I can’t get in. By the way, I am not some left-wing radical. I am now a moderate, middle-aged part of mainstream America. I am outraged. I am also an attorney. I am alarmed. And ashamed.

I wish I could be there with you, lilaw. It’s just on the wrong coast for me to make it. But I’m there in spirit and with full-tilt blogging mode turned on. If any of you are on the east coast and can join lilaw to stand for what’s right (assuming that there isn’t some sort of resolution that brings this to an end to Julie’s benefit), please do.

Here’s an aside to Stowe Boyd: The links in this post prove that local newspapers are NOT dead, cannot die, and should not be allowed to die. Mathew Ingram said it best: The news is not dying. I do, however, agree with Robert Scoble about America’s fixation with celebrity non-news, which should be permitted to die a graceless and rapid death.

On the other hand, having Rumsfeld as a guest editor for the LA Times would have been a travesty. Glad to see that one nipped in the bud before it blossomed.

Technorati Tags: hartford courant, newspapers, local news, journalism

Andrew Kantor notes that the Norwich Bulletin appears to be removing content related to Julie Amero. I’ve been able to get to every article I’ve linked to here, so I’m not sure what they may have removed or sent to archives, but I did notice that their search results only yield 2 articles and there is no archives link that I can see — if there’s one on the page, it’s buried.

When this story began to spread and real experts started showing how wrong he was, Norwich Bulletin education beat reporter Dan Axelrod removed his horrendous blog entry comparing anyone who blamed the school district or anyone other than Amero the same as blaming a rape victim. That entry was incredibly ignorant, arrogant, and beyond the pale, but it was his opinion. The only problem is that since he is paid to actually REPORT the news for the newspaper, he’s not supposed to form an opinion without at least investigating the facts, which he obviously never did.

If Kantor is right and content is being removed (particularly editorials written by the newspaper that support the guilty verdict), the Norwich Bulletin is not worthy of being considered a reliable or primary source for anything. Norwich citizens, beware.

Frank Krasicki has some interesting analysis posted of the students’ testimony, including the testimony that the sites were all pornographic, which they were not. Interesting and detailed analysis and reading.

Julie Amero’s sentencing is in 12 days. Experts are working hard on her behalf, and have called for the State Attorney General to intervene. According to Gideon, there’s not much chance of the judge intervening to acquit her, so it will have to go to appeals. It’s really abhorent to me that she has to live with this veil of conviction over her head for so long. There should be a better way to right obvious wrongs.

Technorati Tags: Andrew Kantor, Norwich Bulletin, law, justice, journalism

Andrew Kantor says the case against Julie Amero needs to be deleted.

After reading the full transcript, Kantor makes the case for why this case should be dropped (and an immediate and profuse apology made to Amero, in my opinion). He hits hard on the so-called experts who testified in the case and has demos to prove them wrong. I loved this comment about Mark Lounsbury’s claim that he would unmask ‘the truth’ after sentencing by providing ’source code’:

It’s fake geek-speak designed to impress those who think it means something, and it’s evidence that Lounsbury doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Meanwhile, over on Julie Amero’s blog, her husband Wes has posted an email he received from a 23-year old supporter:

I don’t want thanks for this, there’s no amount of thanks that will make up for the fact that this nation, it’s government, it’s “justice system” and the vast majority of it’s people are so far behind the learning curve that innocent people are being hurt, innocent lives destroyed, and innocent productive members of society are threatened with removal from that society while true criminals continue to terrorize the populace. My “consumerist dollars” are yours this pay period. My consumerist dollars are also no longer for this country. I have friends and family in Canada, and I’ve become so disgusted with this nation over your case that I will be saving up until I can leave.

This nation is no longer the democracy it fought so hard to try to become. As such, this citizen is ashamed because someone who holds the highest position a human can hold, the same position that is the most undervalued and under-respected profession in this country, has been treated like a criminal by people who aren’t worthy enough to be called one of her students. Your treatment is the direct result of catering to the lowest common denominator.

Do any legal eagles out there know if the judge could reverse the verdict at sentencing, or does it have to go to appeal for that to happen?

Technorati Tags: law, justice, technology