Drug cartels battling for control of the U.S.–Mexico border have made Tijuana their battlefield, and the violence is now going international as ruthless gangs snatch American citizens from their homes in San Diego, Dallas, even Atlanta. It was after midnight on a cold November night. Chris...
The Appeal of Death Row
Why would a California convict opt for a death sentence? With few executions and better living conditions, why not? AS AN ORANGE COUNTY jury debated in 2009 whether the white supremacist Billy Joe Johnson should live or die for murdering a fellow gang member, he asked to be sent to death row. Not because he felt any sudden remorse for the five people he’d killed over the years—“I commit crimes when people piss me off,” he once explained, matter-of-factly—but because Johnson believed he’d have better living conditions, including liberal phone privileges, a bigger cell, and daily human interaction, at San Quentin’s death...
Al-Kidd, Plaintiff i...
Today, the court hears Abdullah al-Kidd’s case against John Ashcroft over the Bush administration’s detention practices Abdullah al-Kidd wasn’t what I expected when I met him on February 14 in a conference room at a legal firm in downtown Los Angeles. Al-Kidd’s...
