Bill Richardson is hoping the near-celebrity status of the three Democratic frontrunners will keep them from exuding the same folksy charm and handshakes he’s using to connect with New Hampshire voters.
Joseph Rosenbloom
Joseph Rosenbloom is a freelance writer based in Newton, Mass.
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Impeachment, Vermont Style
A. Jeffry Taylor is a 62-year-old lawyer and Democratic activist in Rutland, Vermont. As a young lawyer in the Los Angeles office of the Justice Department, he prosecuted antitrust cases during the Watergate era. The corruption he witnessed firsthand within the Nixon administration (a high-ranking Justice official once told him not to pursue a case, […]
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The New Anti-War Protesters
SANDWICH, N.H. — By the end of last week, Maggie Porter’s brick collection totaled 1,099 — and counting. The bricks are meant to depict the coffins that the United States has been transporting to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware since the Iraq War began. Each brick is wrapped in a miniature American flag and […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Unique Brutality of Texas
Gathering dust in Texas Governor Rick Perry’s inbox is a clemency petition from Joe Lee Guy, a death-row inmate. The petition declares that “the integrity of Guy’s capital trial was severely compromised.” Considering how horrendously the wheels of Texas justice turned for Guy, the petition’s claim seems, if anything, understated. In 1994, Guy was sentenced […]
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The Shawshank Succession
In the mid-1990s, when then-Gov. Angus King unveiled an ambitious prison-construction plan, the proposal had nothing to do with any “lock-’em-up” agenda. Maine had one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country, a tradition of moderation on law-and-order issues, and no intention of changing either one. The centerpiece of King’s plan was a $65 […]
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Victims in the Heartland
Shelbyville, Tenn., is an archetypal American working-class community of 16,000 people. Located 53 miles south of Nashville, it has one high school, one movie theater, six pawnbrokers and no parking meters. Its greatest claim to fame is the Tennessee Walking Horse, a smooth-gaited breed developed and tirelessly promoted locally. But far more visible are the […]
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Power Bar
The plaintiffs in John Doe v. President George W. Bush had their day in court — actually, 50 minutes — this past Monday. That’s how long oral argument lasted in U.S. District Court in Boston in a case that raised the question of whether Congress must formally declare war before Bush can lawfully attack Iraq. […]
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No Death-Penalty Doubts at Justice
In a time of growing doubt about whether the death penalty is being administered fairly and accurately, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is hewing to a policy of full speed ahead in implementing it. “He’s the anti-Ryan,” says David Bruck, a federal capital-defense lawyer in Columbia, S.C., contrasting Ashcroft with former Gov. George Ryan (R-Ill.), […]