Of general interest, I think:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/125449.html"But in the ensuing months, the government's case unraveled, exposing
some unsettling truths about the way jailhouse informants are used in
America's courtrooms. In December 2006, all charges against the family
were dismissed. The federal judge who presided over the trial was so
upset about what happened in his courtroom that he has since taken the
rare step of speaking out about it publicly.
The legal fiasco was partly attributable to familiar themes of racism and overly aggressive prosecution. But the Colomb story is mostly about the war on drugs. It shows how the
absurd incentives created by the unaccountable use of shady drug
informants by police and prosecutors can quickly make innocent people
look very guilty."
Laurie
--
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953