Justice is not blind
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black remarked in a famous decision, Griffin v. Illinois (1956), “There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.” Black’s statement can be viewed as a central argument in two uniquely different books on the American criminal justice system: “No Equal Justice,” by David Cole, law professor at George Washington University and a legal analyst for The Nation magazine, and “Courtroom 302,” by Steve Bogira, longtime writer and staff member of The Reader, a Chicago newsweekly. Cole offers an overview of the system, and Bogira relates the daily happenings in an urban criminal courtroom.
National campaign to end AIDS launched
CHICAGO — The Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA) kicked off its nationwide movement on this city’s Magnificent Mile Oct. 1. Two hundred protesters emphasized the need to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act, which expired Sept. 30. The CARE Act provides federal funds for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment for people with AIDS and HIV.
Hurricanes and hummingbirds
Houston reader Pat Burnham forwarded us the letter she sent out to friends after a weekend with Hurricane Rita.
DeLay, Frist to wed
Embattled Republicans seek legal protection as gay married couple In what some skeptics saw as a calculated move to protect themselves from impending prosecution and ethics probes, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and former Speaker of the House Tom DeLay announced today that they were engaged to be married.
A Tale of Two Bankruptcies
Airlines flying high, but new bankruptcy law threatens Katrina victims with endless debt A federal bankruptcy court judge on Sept. 15 approved Delta Air Lines’ request to borrow $2.05 billion from its creditors in a move that will help the carrier maintain operations following its bankruptcy filing earlier this week.
World Notes
Australia: Unions fight gov’t workplace proposals; Haiti: Protest charging of former prime minister; Honduras: Investigate training of U.S. security personnel; Sudan: Crisis escalates
Six-party talks on Korea make progress
The fourth round of six-party talks to resolve the Korean nuclear issue came to an agreement Sept. 19 after weeks of stalemate, mainly because the U.S. budged. Some see this as evidence that a hobbled Bush administration has been weakened internationally.
Puerto Ricans condemn FBI killing
Anger was felt across the island nation of Puerto Rico after the news spread that FBI agents had shot and killed independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Ojeda, head of the underground Puerto Rican group Ejercito Popular Boricua-Macheteros, was shot Sept. 23 in a raid on his home.
U.S. challenges decision to retry Cuban 5 case
The top federal prosecutor in Miami, R. Alexander Acosta, announced Sept. 29 that the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was being asked to reconsider a recent decision by a three-judge panel of that court reversing the convictions of the “Cuban Five.”
Texas judge rules against Posada extradition
“It’s bad enough when the world knows that we’re rendering suspected Islamic terrorists to countries that routinely use terror,” said an unnamed State Department official to a reporter on Sept. 26. “But here we have someone who we know is a terrorist, and it’s clear that we’re actively protecting him from facing justice. We have zero credibility.”
