2 Judges Do Battle in an Immigration Case �something extraordinary has happened in the case of a 46-year-old man from Trinidad, detained since last summer in a county jail here, whose wife seeks such a visa for him. First an immigration judge here, William Van Wyke, suspended an effort by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deport the man, and pressured officials to act quickly on the visa application. Then, in an even more unusual twist, Judge Van Wyke's decision was overruled by the nation's chief immigration judge, Michael J. Creppy, after what Judge Van Wyke and his supporters call a series of improper contacts between I.N.S. lawyers and Judge Creppy's office. The reversal, and Judge Van Wyke's denunciation of his boss, are the talk of the immigration circuit, whose union of administrative judges has filed a formal protest against Judge Creppy and a top aide, accusing them of unethical behavior. "The actions of the office of the chief immigration judge raise profoundly troubling questions about the integrity of the deportation process and the independence of the chief immigration judge from the I.N.S.," said Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's immigrants' rights project. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/21/national/21JUDG.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

How Do You Consider Someone Spending Decades In Prison, Sentenced to Death, Then Released Minus Years of His Life Proof That the System Is Working?

Death Penalty Falls From Favor as Some Lose Confidence in Its Fairness Some said that what persuaded them was the news that 13 prisoners on death row in Illinois were discovered to be innocent � a revelation that led Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, to declare a statewide moratorium on the death penalty last year. Others said they were troubled by reports that the death penalty may be disproportionately imposed on blacks and Hispanics. "I've slowly been changing my mind about the death penalty," said Fredrica Hicks, a mother of three who works in a Social Security office in Chicago, where the exonerations of prisoners in her state gave her pause. "What would happen if something went wrong and someone accused me of something and there was no way for me to prove my innocence, or evidence was lost and I was sitting on death row? If it has happened to someone else, it could happen to anyone. It could be me." But Charlotte Stout, a retired nurse in Greenfield, Tenn., rebutted that, saying: "To me, that is the system working. If it hadn't been working, the innocent people wouldn't have been released." "Today to be raising questions about capital punishment is to be in the company of the pope, Governor Ryan, the Legislatures of Nebraska and New Hampshire, the columnist George Will, Pat Robertson and William Sessions, the former director of the F.B.I., all of whom have come out in favor of a moratorium, said Mr. Sarat, the author of "When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition" (Princeton University Press, 2001). "Go down to the police department and look at the police blotter and you'll be convinced it's not deterring anything," said Jerry Jones, an election worker in Chicago. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/17/national/17VOIC.html?pagewanted=all