Several federal death penalty prosecutions have been in the news, just a quick update on some of those proceedings:

• In Kansas City, John P. Street faces federal death penalty charges arising from the killing Douglas C. Weil in 1998. The feds claim the death was to prevent him from cooperating with authorities in a methamphetamine trafficking case. Street, 44, is already serving time in federal prison on drug and weapons charges. [more here]

• In Fargo potential jurors in the trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. are still undergoing the gauntlet of Witherspoon questioning. This article from the Grand Forks Herald gives a good idea of the events there.

• An Article 32 hearing, roughly the military version of grand jury proceeding, is scheduled to begin in Iraq early next month. Five soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are accused of raping and murdering 14-year-old Abeer al-Janabi, killing her family, then burning their house and her body to hide the crime. One of the five is facing charges in civilian court, the rest are looking at General Courts Martial. [more here]

• Here in the northeast federal prosecutors are seeking death against Ronell Wilson for allegedly killing Detectives Rodney J. Andrews and James V. Nemorin during an undercover gun buy. The federal district court has just granted a "Wade hearing" on the admissibility of witness identification of Wilson but has denied various defense motions to suppress evidence and declare the Federal Death Penalty Act unconstitutional. [more here]

• Federal prosecutors have stated they are likely to dismiss their criminal case against convicted serial killer John E. Robinson after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kansas' death penalty law. Robinson is under sentence of death in Kansas. [more here]

• Roughly a month after becoming the first person in Vermont in nearly 50 years to receive a death sentence, Donald Fell has been moved to federal death row in Terra Haute, Ind. [more here]

• Finally, the trial of members of the Aryan Brotherhood arising out of 30 claimed homicides, from press reports, is in the hands of the jury. [more here]