This case just keeps taking bizarre turns. Today Kim Williams, wife of former Justice of the Peace Eric Williams, confessed to the murders of Mike McClelland, McClelland's spouse, and assistant District Attorney Mark Haase.

Via DallasNews.com:

Kim Williams’ arrest warrant says she confessed to the entire plot, explaining her role and saying her husband was the shooter.

Authorities confirmed the charge and $10 million bail during a brief news conference at the Kaufman County sheriff’s department. Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot dead as he walked to the courthouse on the way to the courthouse on Jan. 31 and Mike and Cynthia McLelland were shot dead over Easter weekend.

Kaufman County Lt. Justin Lewis told the media that family members would be briefed on the investigation this afternoon and that a full news conference would be held Thursday.

“Out of respect for families of the victims during this time we are not answering any questions at this briefing until we are able to brief the families on the events of the last several days,” said Lewis.

The warrant says she “did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, Mark Hasse, by shooting him with a firearm and the said, Kim Renee Williams, on or about the 30th day of March 2013 did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, Michael McLelland, by shooting him with a firearm and further, did then and there, intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, Cynthia McLelland, by shooting her with a firearm.”

“Kim Williams described in detail her role along with that of her husband, Eric Williams, whom she reported to have shot to death Mark Hasse … and Mike and Cynthia McLelland.”

It says that during questioning, “the defendant gave details of both offenses which had not been made public.”

It's mind-boggling to imagine that this couple saw fit to execute three people in cold blood because he was caught lifting computer equipment while acting as a public official, but there it is, in black and white.

The article has more details about Kim Williams, including the couple's struggle with health problems and her conduct during her husband's trial. The full arrest warrant is below the fold.

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Will Eric Holder hold these people accountable? Because at the very least, none of the people who took part in this coverup should still have jobs. Maybe they're infected with the same disease I've seen in cops through the years: "Hey, if this guy didn't do this particular crime, this is payback for all the times we didn't catch him."

To think that a man died to protect their reputation. Just unthinkable:

Justice Department officials have known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people, but prosecutors failed to notify defendants or their attorneys even in many cases they knew were troubled.

Officials started reviewing the cases in the 1990s after reports that sloppy work by examiners at the FBI lab was producing unreliable forensic evidence in court trials. Instead of releasing those findings, they made them available only to the prosecutors in the affected cases, according to documents and interviews with dozens of officials.

Not the defense attorneys, mind you. The prosecutors, who were then supposed to tell the defense. Right.

In addition, the Justice Department reviewed only a limited number of cases and focused on the work of one scientist at the FBI lab, despite warnings that problems were far more widespread and could affect potentially thousands of cases in federal, state and local courts.

As a result, hundreds of defendants nationwide remain in prison or on parole for crimes that might merit exoneration, a retrial or a retesting of evidence using DNA because FBI hair and fiber experts may have misidentified them as suspects.

In one Texas case, Benjamin Herbert Boyle was executed in 1997, more than a year after the Justice Department began its review. Boyle would not have been eligible for the death penalty without the FBI’s flawed work, according to a prosecutor’s memo.

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This is a significant step forward for justice on the tribal reservations, especially the women who are the victims of widespread domestic violence and sexual crimes:

A measure designed to ease stubbornly high rates of violent crime, including rape and sexual assault, within Indian reservations will be signed into law by President Obama on Thursday.

Advocates of the Tribal Law and Order Act, which took three years to put together and passed the Senate last week, say it will ensure that more crimes, including murders and serious assaults, are reported and prosecuted amid worries that many cases go unpunished.

The measure gives tribal courts tougher sentencing powers and sets stricter rules to gather and collect more data on crimes. Special U.S. prosecutors will be appointed to tackle what advocates of the law describe as an epidemic of violence.

The president is due to sign the bill into law during a ceremony at the White House on Thursday afternoon.

Supporters said the current congressional session was the most active in decades in improving conditions for Indian reservations. Earlier this year, Obama signed a law that boosted health-care provisions for Indian communities.

The reservations overall have violent-crime rates of more than twice the national average, according to a congressional investigation.

Indian Country Today has more:

Also, tribes prosecuting individuals for crimes that could land them in jail for more than a year must provide defendants with the same right to a lawyer that they would have in state or federal court.

“The 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act notably did not include a right to counsel even though it is a constitutional (6th Amendment) right that also applies to the states,” said Navajo lawyer Chris Stearns. “My understanding is that this giant exception was made because back then no one thought that tribes would be able to pay for attorneys, or that there were even attorneys around at all on the reservation.”

[...] Whitney Phillips, a spokeswoman for Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., a major champion of the bill in the House, said tribes that don’t have the resources to provide defense counsel or house inmates for longer sentences can continue to operate under the existing one-year sentencing provisions in the Indian Civil Rights Act, which does not require that defense counsel be provided.

“Because the provision is optional, it will not place any additional costs on tribes who choose not to participate in the enhanced sentencing provision,” Phillips said.

Hannah August, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said the law will not cost tribes anything unless they choose to exercise the enhanced sentencing authority it provides.

Of course, that places the cost burden on the tribes, and not all of them can afford it. So they'll be "allowed" to maintain a two-tiered system of justice if they can't pay for the better version -- which, come to think of it, makes them just like the rest of our country!