12 Jan 2010: Today's Democracy Now!

Federal Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Landmark Apartheid Reparations Case
A landmark case against several international corporations accused of aiding South Africa’s apartheid regime is underway. The companies include Daimler AG, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and IBM. They are accused in a class-action lawsuit of complicity in human rights abuses during the years they did business in apartheid South Africa. The suit was filed several years ago by black victims of white minority rule. Their lawyers are seeking up to $400 billion in compensation. [includes rush transcript]

Prosecutors Target Northwestern Journalism Students Working on Exonerating Wrongfully Convicted Prisoners
Prosecutors in Chicago are targeting a group of Northwestern University journalism students who have helped exonerate eleven wrongfully convicted prisoners, including five on death row. Cook County prosecutors have subpoenaed Northwestern and the Medill Innocence Project to hand over student grades, grading criteria, class syllabi, expense reports and email messages. Prosecutors are focusing on the students who conducted a three-year investigation into Anthony McKinney, who was convicted of fatally shooting a security guard in 1978. A judge is now reviewing McKinney’s case. [includes rush transcript]

Despite a US Supreme Court Ban, Texas Continues to Send Mentally Retarded Criminals to Death Row
A 2002 Supreme Court ruling allowed states to set their own definitions of mental retardation to decide who meets the criteria for execution. Instead of adopting the Supreme Court’s accepted clinical standards for mental retardation, Texas has granted heavy leeway to psychologist evaluations. Now one psychologist, George Denkowski, is facing scrutiny over methods that critics say unfairly send mentally retarded prisoners to death row. For more, we go to a report from Renée Feltz for the Texas Observer. [includes rush transcript]

Raj Patel on “The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy”
Author and activist Raj Patel joins us to discuss his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. “We’ve come to believe that the only way we can value things is by sticking them in a market,” Patel says. “The trouble is, as we’ve seen through this recession, that markets are a tremendously bad way of valuing things, tremendously fickle.” [includes rush transcript]

Headlines

Iranian Nuclear Physicist Assassinated in Tehran
Yemeni Cleric Warns Against “Foreign Occupation”
White House Considers New Tax on Large Banks
Federal Reserve Refuses to Release Details about Bailed-Out Banks
Federal Trial on Same-Sex Marriage Ban Begins in California
Six Foreign Troops Die in Afghanistan
Suicide Rate for Veterans Jumps 26 Percent
European Doctor: Big Pharma Exaggerated Threat of Swine Flu
Trial of Killer of Abortion Provider George Tiller Set to Begin
NJ Lawmakers OK Medical Marijuana Bill
Fox News Hires Sarah Palin
Single-Payer Activists Call Democrats to Allow C-SPAN to Air Healthcare Negotiations
Hunger Strikers Call for Closure of Guantanamo