The Expendable Project has released "The Transit Report" with previously unreleased documents and new evidence, about Schapelle Corby, who continues to languish in an Indonesian prison due to a 20 year sentence for importing 4.2 kilos of marijuana into Bali, a charge she has always vehemently denied.

The movie and project, a global effort by Hidden World Research Group and Hidden World Films, was originally scheduled for release six months from now. On September 7, it announced it would start publishing now, because of credible information that Schapelle tried to commit suicide via a drug overdose just before her birthday in July. News reports say she's rapidly deteriorating. [More...]

Update: Judge Walton ruled a re-trial is not barred. The double jeopardy bar is too high. He's angry at the Government, and may seek to have the Government pay Clemons' cost if there's a retrial, but he won't bar a retrial. The judge expects the defense to appeal his ruling. A new trial date has been set for April 17. Great tweeting by TJQuinnESPN.

Judge Walton is ruling now. Via TJQuin@ESPN.com:

Walton: and even if it was intentional, I don't think I can conclude that's sufficient that there is a double jeopardy bar.

And then:

Sounds like he's ready to rule trial may continue, but every sentence contradicts the last. Ups and downs are murder.

...Walton: if there's a retrial, he might see if he can force gov't to pay for #Clemens' wasted time from first trial.

...He's speaking as if he has already ruled: the trial may go on.

[More...]

Michael Jackson would have turned 53 today. Dr. Conrad Murray, facing trial for involuntary manslaughter over Jackson's death was in court today. The Judge rejected his request to introduce evidence concerning Jackson's molestation case. Good decision, Jackson was acquitted and it seems like an attempt to change the subject.

Murray wants to argue Jackson was a long time drug addict. Even if he was, how does that exculpate Dr. Murray, who had been treating Jackson while living in his house, if his actions resulted in Jackson's death? [More...]

Too funny. The half-brother of President Obama's father has been in jail for a week on DUI charges. Authorities aren't sure if he is in the country legally.

Police said that after being booked at the police station, Obama was asked whether he wanted to make a telephone call to arrange for bail. "I think I will call the White House," he stated, according to a police report filed in Framingham District Court.

Police said Obama, who is originally from Kenya and is the half-brother of the president's late father, pleaded not guilty Friday and is being held without bail on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a court document, ICE said Onyango Obama had an earlier deportation or removal order.

Will Obama help him or hang him out to dry? I'd bet the latter. He does have a lawyer at least -- Cleveland immigration attorney Margaret Wong.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has filed a 25 page motion asking the court to dismiss all charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. You can read it here.

“The nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant,” the papers state. “If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.”

DSK's lawyers issued this statement: [More...]

As Dominique Strauss-Kahn's supporters plan his return to France and French politics, and Reuters' reports that officials in France believe Tristane Bannon's charges are unlikely to result in a criminal case, Nafassitou Diallo's lawyers are expected to make a last-ditch effort today or tomorrow for a special prosecutor to take over the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case. It has no chance of succeeding.

Mr. Thompson’s motion will almost certainly fail, legal experts said, because under the law his client has no authority to ask for Mr. Vance’s office to be replaced by a special prosecutor. “It’s what we call an A.O.D.: an act of desperation,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University Law School. “She may benefit from a successful prosecution, but she has no legal interest in the prosecution.”

[More...]

The New York Times reports the lawyer for the accuser in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case got a letter inviting his client to a meeting at the DA's office Monday, one day before the DA will announce in court whether he is dropping charges against DSK.

Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer, predicts charges will be dropped. Why? From the terse tone of the letter, and because:

“If they were not going to dismiss the charges,” Mr. Thompson added on Saturday, “there would be no need to meet with her. They would just go to court the next day to say, ‘We’re going to proceed with the case.’ ”

Then there's this statement in the letter: [More...]

The Government has filed its brief in support of a retrial of baseball giant Roger Clemens (available here.) They say their "inadvertent mistake" of failing to redact their trial exhibit of Congressman Cumming's testimony restating Laura Pettitte's statement about her husband's comments to her about a conversation with Clemens was not done for the purpose of goading the defense to request a mistrial.

They also claim they thought the trial was going well. As support, they include a blog post and a news article. I wonder if either author was in the courtroom for the trial.

Not explained: Why the prosecutor didn't stop the playing of the tape the minute he realized Laura Pettitte's statement was on it. All the Government says is, well, the defense didn't either. Considering the judge had just ruled days before Laura Pettitte's statements were inadmissible, the prosecutor should have stopped it immediately, knowing he was introducing banned material.

Also not addressed: The defense claim that they had repeatedly asked for the revised tape exhibits and the Government kept putting it off. [More...]

Baseball giant Roger Clemens has filed his motion with the Court asking for the charges against him to be dismissed permanently, and to prevent the Government, on double jeopardy grounds, from re-trying him after his mistrial a few weeks ago.

Clemens' lawyers argue the case fits squarely within the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Kennedy, which holds a retrial is banned if the Government deliberately provoked the mistrial because it thought it wasn't doing well and wanted a do-over. They write:

[T]he best evidence of the Government’s intent was provided in real time on July 14, 2011. In the heat of the moment when the misconduct was raised in court, the Government did not suggest, much less offer any evidence to support a suggestion, that the prosecutor’s misconduct was unintentional. Nor did the Government rebut the reasonable inference that the misconduct was intended to provoke a mistrial. Instead, the explanation that the Government provided—that the Government’s conduct was somehow excused because the defense did not immediately object—is entirely consistent with a finding that the prosecutors intended to “goad” the defense into asking the Court to start the trial over from scratch.

[More...]

Excellent statement by William Taylor and Ben Brafman in response to the outrageous interviews the accuser's lawyer in the Dominque Strauss-Kahn case has drummed up for her. (The Newsweek interview took place over three hours in her lawyer's office.)

Ms. Diallo is the first accuser in history to conduct a media campaign to persuade a prosecutor to pursue charges against a person from whom she wants money. Her lawyers and public relations consultants have orchestrated an unprecedented number of media events and rallies to bring pressure on the prosecutors in this case after she had to admit her extraordinary efforts to mislead them. Her lawyers know that her claim for money suffers a fatal blow when the criminal charges are dismissed, as they must be.

This conduct by lawyers is unprofessional and it violates fundamental rules of professional conduct for lawyers. Its obvious purpose is to inflame public opinion against a defendant in a pending criminal case. The fact is, however, that the number of rallies, press conferences, and media events they have orchestrated is exceeded only by the number of lies and misstatements she has made to law enforcement, friends, medical professionals and reporters. It is time for this unseemly circus to stop.

As I said in the earlier post, a motion to restrict the accuser and her lawyers' extra-judicial comments is needed immediately. And the District Attorney should seriously consider dropping the charges altogether after this blatant attempt to poison the potential jury pool. [More..]

Update: Newsweek has an interview The Maid's Tale, with the DSK accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.

Time for a gag order immediately in the Dominque Strauss-Kahn case. The hotel maid accusing him is going public, embarking on a media tour, starting with ABC News: GMA on Monday and Nightline on Tuesday.

In an exclusive television interview, ABC News' Robin Roberts speaks with the hotel employee who alleges she was sexually assaulted by former International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

For the first time viewers will hear, in her own words, her version of the events that allegedly took place at the Sofitel Hotel in New York in May. ...The interview airs on Tuesday, July 26 on "Nightline."

ABC shows a picture of the accuser, but still doesn't mention her name? How absurd. I hope Ben Brafman is spending today drafting a Motion to Ban Extra-Judicial Comments by Trial Participants. This case needs an order like the one entered in the Kobe Bryant case: [More...]

Sometimes even a great cross-examination of a fraudster-snitch can't save your client.

James Margulies was convicted yesterday in a $100 million securities fraud case. Manhattan DA Cy Vance promptly showed up with a statement (will it help rehabilitate sagging image?) [More...]: