The Mississippi Supreme Court Thursday upheld the manslaughter convictions of former Ku Klux Klan organizer Edgar Ray Killen. Killen, now 82, was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2005, receiving one 20-year sentence for each of the 3 young men who were killed in 1964 after assisting African-Americans in registering to vote. Killen appealed his sentence on a number of grounds, including prejudice in the 41-year pre-indictment delay resulting in, among other things, faded witness memories. The court rejected any contention of actual prejudice from the delay, citing the fact that Killen's own witnesses had testified live about the events of 1964, and none claimed problems with faded memories.

The court further rejected Killen's argument that the delay was intentionally used to gain a tactical advantage. Killen claimed in his brief that the political climate in Mississippi in the 1960s would have made a conviction back then far less likely. The court expressed surprise that Killen would even attempt to claim present prejudice stemming from the fact that he was not tried by a white-prejudiced jury.

The court issued the injunction after it found that Baisden had promoted a plan which encourages and assists customers to create corporations into which they allegedly had their incomes deposited for the primary purpose of decreasing their tax liability.

Several of Baisden's customers are physicians and nurse anesthetists from North Platte, Neb., many of whom have not filed past-due tax returns. According to Baisden's plan, the customers created real estate and forestry corporations, but almost all of the income reported by the corporations was derived from the customers' income from their jobs in the medical profession. Baisden reported deductions for the corporations for customers' lawn care expenses, expenses related to their personal residences, car expenses, and for one customer, the purchase cost and storage fees for an airplane. Baisden also prepared tax returns in California which characterized wages as rent, which is not subject to self-employment or employment taxes.

The court found that Baisden prepared tax returns that identified customers as investors when they were actually physicians or nurses and claimed business deductions for non-deductible personal expenses of customers or for which he and his customers did not provide supporting documentation. The tax returns he prepared also failed to report a reasonable compensation to owners of such corporations and otherwise mischaracterized their income. Finally, the court found that Baisden engaged in misconduct related to his representation of customers by falsely advising them not to comply with IRS document and meeting requests, filing meritless requests to delay civil audits, advising clients to make insufficient estimated tax payments, and advising customers not to file lawfully due returns.  More information about this case is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv06670.htm.

USDOJ

Russia denounces the use of double standards in the human rights sphere, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko told reporters on Thursday.

Moscow "proceeds from the necessity to de-politicize the human rights sphere.... It is absolutely inadmissible to use human rights as an instrument of political pressure or for squaring accounts," Yakovenko was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

"Russia is opposed to the attempts by certain countries and groups of countries and nongovernmental organizations to impose on the international community their own approaches in the human rights sphere under the pretense of universal standards," he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. State Department report on human rights and democracy in the world is politicized in nature..

"The section of the document dealing with Russia applies a whole arsenal of simple logical methods -- exaggeration, selection of facts to support conclusions formulated in advance, the substitution of notions, arbitrary interpretation of facts and some others to convince the U.S. and international public that Russia urgently needs democratization," the statement said.

A special panel of the Japanese House of Representatives Thursday approved a bill authorizing a national referendum on revisions to the country's pacifist constitution. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initiated the bill, hoping it would become law before the current parliamentary session adjourns on June 23. Opposition Social Democrats voiced strong dissent in the panel discussions, even scuffling with ruling party members. The bill will be taken up on Friday before the full House, which has a conservative majority; if passed, it will then be presented to the House of Councillors. Each house requires a two-thirds approval.

The proposed revisions are particularly focused on Article 9, which has been interpreted to bar Japan from maintaining military forces and from using force in international conflicts except in self-defense. Some fear the article may potentially hinder Japan's ability to respond to crises. A poll released last week by the daily Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper showed that only 46 percent of Japanese now want to amend Japan's constitution, a drop of 9 percentage points since 2006.

"This is the most Byzantine accounting system I've ever seen," Adler said. "I am mystified."

The contempt threat Monday came six weeks after the diocese sought bankruptcy protection amid lawsuits by more than 140 people who accuse priests of sexual abuse.

Adler had cited a March 29 letter sent by a diocese parish organization to pastors urging them to get new taxpayer identification numbers and transfer funds to new accounts.

The judge had said any post-bankruptcy transfers between the diocese and parishes outside of normal cash operations violate laws against shifting the diocese's assets while the bankruptcy case is pending - rules designed to protect assets that may eventually be used to compensate clergy sexual abuse victims.

She said any transfers require court approval.

In a sternly worded order, Adler had said attorneys Susan Boswell, Jeffry Davis and Victor Vilaplana appear to have "conspired with parishes" to create new bank accounts separate from the diocese.

On Wednesday, Adler grilled attorneys representing the diocese and the parish organization, as well as two pastors who had sent letters the judge said misrepresented her comments during an earlier hearing.

Boswell apologized and said she had misinterpreted the judge's comments at a March 1 hearing concerning how the parishes should go about protecting their cash flow through the bankruptcy process.

"We are not dealing with a commercial enterprise - we are dealing with a church," said Boswell. "What it does is give money to the parishes. This is not a nefarious function."

Boswell agreed to file amended statements with the court reflecting parish accounts operating under the diocese's taxpayer identification number and to cooperate with an independent audit.

Attorneys for the alleged victims have repeatedly accused the church of trying to hide assets to reduce the overall sum available for potential settlements. They estimate that a fair settlement would total about $200 million.

In March, the diocese proposed a $95 million settlement schedule for victims that would offer plaintiffs anywhere from $10,000 to $800,000.

San Diego was the fifth U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy. The other dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy protection are Davenport, Iowa; Portland, Ore.; Spokane, Wash.; and Tucson, Ariz. Tucson has emerged from bankruptcy protection, while proposed settlements are awaiting final approval in Portland and Spokane.

The vote capped 20 hours of often passionate debate, with proponents focusing on the cells' potential to help treat a wide range of diseases and opponents decrying the fact that human embryos must be destroyed to retrieve them.

With the House having passed a similar bill in January, the two chambers are now set to hammer out compromise wording and send the legislation to Bush. But the White House Tuesday set the stage fora new Bush veto, saying it was unthinkable that public tax dollars should be used to destroy human embryos.

Bush used his power of veto for the first time in his presidency to slap down a similar text passed in Congress last year, when it was then controlled by his Republican party.

However, proponents are relishing the fact that they will have the opportunity to rebuke the president by overriding that veto this time.

Although the House majority favoring the legislation is 15 votes larger this year than that in 2005, it is still dozens short of the two-thirds needed for an override.

In that case, Bush's veto pen will prevail and the situation will revert to what it has been since Aug. 9, 2001, when Bush, in his first major televised address to the nation, declared that federal funds could only be used to study stem cells derived from embryos already destroyed by that date.

Dorsey & Whitney is headquartered in Minneapolis, and has offices in other cities, including Des Moines, where Vilsack will work. He had a law practice in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where Vilsack was mayor and a state senator before becoming governor.