DNA analysis finds huge rate of wrong convictions in Virginia.

The Washington Institute for Public and International Affairs Research has analyzed the DNA from a sample of men convicted of sexual assault from 1973–1987 and found that somewhere between 8–15% of them were wrongly convicted (depending on how you count). This should result in some serious soul-searching about how the Virginia justice system works. →

Miami created a park to create a legal reason to banish homeless sex offenders.

Miami-Dade County, famously, has established laws that prohibit sex offenders from being within half a mile of a park, school, day care, or any place where children could hypothetically gather. In reality, that made it impossible for the city’s sex offenders to live anywhere at all, other than camping under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. (Until …

Records about those pardoned Mississippi killers have gone missing.

Earlier this month, in the last few days of his term, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour pardoned five men, including four convicted murderers, who worked in his mansion. The AP FOIAed the records about their pardons and—darnedest thing—there aren’t any. The attorney general says that they’re nowhere to be found. This is headed to court in …

Links for December 19th

New York Times: Nearly a Third of Americans Are Arrested by 23, Study Says30.2% of us have been arrested for something more serious than a minor traffic violation. (I say "us," but I haven't been arrested.) As Sen. Webb points out, either Americans are the most evil people on the planet, or something is fundamentally …

Links for October 3rd

Bloomberg: Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran SalesThe Koch Brothers have secretly, criminally sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, an enemy of the United States with whom it is unquestionably illegal to do business. This is no aberration for these bastards—they're out for a buck, and they don't care how they …

Links for September 5th

New York Times: Inmate Visits Now Carry Added Cost in ArizonaWant to visit inmates in Arizona prisons? That'll cost you $25. And it could be a couple of months before your application is approved. It would be difficult to list all of the reasons why this is an awful, awful idea. New York Times: Obama …

Links for July 8th

Wikipedia: The National RoadOne of the first highways in the country was the aptly named "National Road," running from Cumberland, Maryland to south-central Illinois, the road was to continue clear to Missouri, but the project ran out of cash. Construction of the 620-mile road ran from 1811–1838, having been authorized five years prior by President …