The desperate need for Jeff Sessions to turn DOJ's Civil Rights Division upside down has never been on more vivid display than in the juxtaposition of the following stories.

Ensure that BPD officers address and in documentation refer to all members of the public, including LGBT individuals, using the names, pronouns, and titles of respect appropriate to the individual's gender identity as expressed or clarified by the individual. Proof of the person's gender identity, such as an identification card, will not be required. 

This story reminds me of an old REO Speedwagon song:

But I know the neighborhood
And talk is cheap when the story is good
And the tales grow taller on down the line

Ian Millhiser, the Justice Editor at ThinkProgress, informs us:

President Trump "is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border," according to the Associated Press.

But AP did not say that.  Notice the placement of the opening quotation mark.

Charges Filed in 11-year-old Girl's Shooting: A 19-year-old male has been arrested and charged with first degree murder in relation to the death of an 11-year-old girl who died from a gunshot wound to the head last weekend in Chicago. According to Stefano Esposito of the Chicago Sun Times, Antwan C. Jones discharged his firearm at a group of people that he "didn't think belonged in the neighborhood." Takiya Holmes, 11, was struck in the head by a stray bullet and passed away this past Tuesday. This one of the three reported shootings involving Chicago children in the past few days.

Washington Abolition Bill Expected to Fall Flat: A bill to abolish the death penalty in the state of Washington received a great deal of public backing this year although house democrats are not hopeful about the bills future. The Seattle Times reports "A House bill on the issue is set for a public hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but it's not scheduled for a committee vote before a deadline Friday requiring most bills to be voted out of committees." This means that it is likely that the bill will die in committee. Washington currently has a moratorium on capital punishment, preventing executions for those on death row. The most recent execution in the state was in 2010.

More Victims from Criminals Left on the Streets:  A 28-year-old California parolee has been arrested for the January 31 abduction of a woman and the burglary of a house a week later.  KESQ ABC Local News reports that habitual felon Franklin James Scott is facing charges or kidnapping with intent to rape and residential burglary.  Scott confronted a woman, took her belongings and was forcing her towards her car when he fled before police arrived. Scott was convicted in 2007 on charges of assault with intent to commit rape, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and sexual battery.  Andrew Holder, 27, who on probation for violating the terms of his earlier probation from a drug case in 2010, is being charged with the murder and robbery of 37-year-old Darryl Curtis according to Stephanie Farr at The Philadelphia Inquirer.  Curtis was found in his home  in Holmesburg with a fatal gunshot wound to the head on January 3.  As reported by Roseanne Tellez at CBS Chicago, the two suspects charged by police for the 2013 shooting of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton both had criminal records and one of them was on probation at the time of the girl's shooting.  In fact, it was discovered that 18-year-old Michael Ward had violated his probation 3 times before the shooting occurred.  One week before she was murdered Pendleton had performed at President Obama's second inauguration.  

Justice Antonin Scalia died a year ago today.

Here is the first lesson to be learned from the debacle noted this morning.

The chief executive of an organization of any size has two kinds of subordinates.  In the military, the commanders of the component units are the "line," while the people in the chief commander's office are the "staff."  Other organizations may use different terminology, but the distinction is always there in one form or another.

Relying too much on the staff and not keeping the line officers in the loop is a major error.  In the very early days of the Trump Administration, some of the important line positions were vacant, and some still are, because of stalling in the Senate.  The Acting Attorney General at the time of the travel restriction executive order was a dyed-in-the-wool leftist holdover from the Obama Administration.  The extent to which the Secretary of Homeland Security was in the loop has been the subject of conflicting reports.

President Trump nominated some solid people to head the government departments, and the confirmations are coming in now, albeit delayed.  He needs to use them and listen to them.  That is not to say he shouldn't listen to his staff also, just not exclusively.

The Ninth Circuit has declined to stay the temporary restraining order issued by Judge Robart in Washington State preventing enforcement of Executive Order 13769, the controversial travel restrictions on nationals of seven countries.

The Ninth is, of course, correct that due process protections apply to legal permanent residents (i.e., "green card" holders).  Yet even though the Administration has said it won't apply the limitations to permanent residents, it held that such application was not moot.

When a convicted felon is not allowed to possess a firearm, what knowledge must be established to prove a violation?  The California Supreme Court addressed that issue today in the context of probation violations in People v. Hall, S227193.  U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has dissented in favor of the defendant on a related issue.

In the California case, drug dealer LaQuincy Hall was given probation upon the condition, among others, that he "may not own, possess or have in [his] custody or control any handgun, rifle, shotgun or any firearm whatsoever or any weapon that can be concealed on [his] person."

Although he made no objection in the trial court, Hall claimed on appeal that the condition needed to be modified to prohibit only "knowing" possession.

Given the relevant case law, the firearms condition is properly construed as prohibiting defendant from knowingly owning, possessing, or having in his custody or control any handgun, rifle, shotgun, firearm, or any weapon that can be concealed on his person....  Because no change to the substance of either condition would be wrought by adding the word "knowingly," we decline defendant's invitation to modify those conditions simply to make explicit what the law already makes implicit.  A trial court, however, remains free to specify the requisite mens rea explicitly when imposing a condition of probation.

...is less than three minutes and to the point.  My take-away is this:  Wishful thinking is out, hard thinking is in. Endless, mushy conferences are out, targeted action is in. We have a serious problem with rising crime, and we will use the full forces of the Department to deal with it.

Bill Would Split 9th Circuit:  Legislation to divide jurisdiction of the nation's largest federal appellate circuit has been introduced in both houses of Congress this year.  Barnini Chakraborty of Fox News reports that the Senate bill, introduced by Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain would leave Oregon, California, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in the 9th Circuit, and put Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and Alaska in a new 12th Circuit.  A House bill introduced by Rep. Andy Briggs and four other Arizona Republicans would leave Washington in the 9th Circuit.  The current circuit presides over 20%  of the U.S. population and 40% of the nation's land mass.  Because of its size, according to Senator Flake, it can take the court 15 months to hand down a decision. 

Baltimore Looking For Answers:  With over a killing a day in Baltimore so far this year, the city's mayor announced "We've got a crime problem in our city."  The city suffered a record 344 murders in 2015 and another spike in violent crime over the first six months of last year, according recent FBI statistics.   Luke Broadwater & Allison Knezevich of the Baltimore Sun report that while the Mayor has authorized the hiring of an additional 100 police officers to patrol the city, some believe that restoring pro-active policing will be necessary to reduce the violence.  John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer, noted that a Justice Department report on policing in Baltimore released last Summer contained nothing about preventing crime.  He believes that officers need to be allowed to "confront criminals again.  What's been harmful is the idea the police shouldn't enforce quality-of-life issues." 

Repeat Felons Preying on Women:  Sacramento police arrested parolee David Hamilton Tuesday, for the burglary and rape of a 48-year-old mother of two.  Bill Lindelof of the Sacramento Bee reports  that Hamilton entered the victim's home through a window and raped her in her bed at knifepoint.  The victim was able to text a relative to call 911.  Police arrived just as Hamilton was entering the bedroom of one of the children and arrested him.  In another story, LIndeof reports that habitual felon Jerry West was convicted Tuesday for sexual assaults, robberies, kidnapping and carjackings involving four women in August and September of 2015.  West, who had two priors for carjacking, was nonetheless armed and back on the streets to commit these new crimes.  Under California's groundbreaking alternative sentencing policies 66% of the state's largest cities had increased violent crime last year, according to the FBI's Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2016.     

Sen. Sessions' farewell speech to the Senate, and his appreciation of his new responsibilities, is here.

Sentencing Law and Policy has this entry up today:  "New report details stability of California crime rates during period of huge sentencing reform."  

• The statewide urban crime rate stabilized from 2010 to 2016, after decades of decline.

Urban crime rates in California declined precipitously through the 1990s and 2000s (See Appendix A).  Since 2010, crime in California has stabilized, hovering near historically low levels. Comparing the first six months of 2016 to the first six months of 2010, total crime rates experienced no net change, while property crime declined by 1 percent and violent crime increased by 3 percent.

After dropping massively for twenty years due in large part to more and more aggressive policing and greater use of incarceration, crime rates are no longer falling.  Instead, in its period of "reform," in which those policies have been left behind, California has thrown away six years of progress against crime, and is now back to 2010 levels  --  with the momentum of change in exactly the wrong direction.

Once upon a time, when American education was run by people with sense, it was understood that learning to be a good citizen was part of education, along with academics and phys ed.  An environment with fair rules that are fairly administered and where breaking them has adverse consequences develops in children a healthy respect for the norms of behavior and for the rights of others.

Katherine Kersten describes in the City Journal the disastrous effect of St. Paul school giving control of school discipline to ideologues who believed that "disparate impact" in school discipline was the result of teachers' biases and that dramatically reducing standards of behavior and frequency of discipline was the solution.  In fact, it produced anarchy.

St. Paul's experience makes clear that discipline policies rooted in racial-equity ideology lead to disaster. This shouldn't be surprising, considering that the ideology's two major premises are seriously flawed. The first premise holds that disparities in school-discipline rates are a product of teachers' racial bias; the second maintains that teachers' unjustified and discriminatory targeting of black students gives rise to the school-to-prison pipeline.

There must be something in the water in Ohio.  

Wondering why the Senate leadership has not held the confirmation vote for Jeff Sessions as Attorney General yet?  Ted Barrett and Tom LoBianco at CNN suggest an answer.

The nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education has been scheduled for tomorrow.  Two Republican Senators have bailed.  If the vote is 50-50, Vice President Pence will cast the tie-breaking vote, the first such Veep vote on a cabinet nominee in history.

If that vote came in the gap between Senator Sessions resigning from the Senate to take the helm at DoJ and Gov. Bentley's naming of a successor, Ms. DeVos's nomination would go down 50-49.

Mayor Declares Prospect Park Sanctuary: The mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, Mohamed Khairullah, has signed an executive order to declare Prospect Park a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. According to Fausto Giovanny Pinto at NJ.Com, the order was signed last Friday and allows for equal protection for all borough citizens regardless of immigration status. Ken Carson at the Observer reports that the order states; "No department, committee, agency, commission, officer or employee of the Borough of Prospect Park shall use any Borough funds or resources to assist in the enforcement of Federal Immigration Law." This move comes just one week after President Trump's executive orders on immigration.

Miami Police Officer Shot: A Miami police officer was shot Saturday while responding to reports of an armed suspect wearing a mask. Monique O. Madan at the Miami Herald reports that a Miami resident called the police at about 11:30 pm Friday night, reporting that a man wearing a mask was outside her home brandishing a firearm. When the police arrived, a K-9 officer and his dog began the search and found the suspect in an uninhabited house nearby. Upon discovery, the suspect opened fire on the officer, hitting him at least once. The officer is recovering currently from non-life-threatening wounds. The suspect was found dead in the house early Saturday morning.  It is not clear whether he committed suicide or died from return fire.

Chicago Draws Federal Attention: The ATF may be weighing the possibility of assigning an increased number of personnel to Chicago in the midst of the ever growing problem of violent crime within the city. Andrew Blake at the Washington Times reports  that the bureau could be planning to send as many as 20 agents to the Windy City to "beef up" the federal enforcement presence in hopes of curtailing the violent crime surge present there. Plans have yet to be finalized as to what action the ATF will take.

Paroled Sex Offender at it Again: A man is facing charges of sexual abuse after being discovered in the room of a 16-year-old girl and its not his first offense. Emily Sinovic at KOIN 6 News reports Themba Kelley was arrested on July 26 after another incident in his lengthy history of crimes. Kelley's rap sheet includes 5 felonies, 9 misdemeanors and multiple parole violations. This most recent offense took place only 3 weeks after he was released on parole. One of the fathers of Kelley's past victims says that he is angry with the system for allowing this man back in to society over and over.

I do not yet have a link to the full recording of yesterday's teleforum debate about the impact of the recent elections on the future of the death penalty.  In the interim, I want to post what I wrote out for my opening statement.

President Trump tweeted this morning, "I have made my decision on who I will nominate for The United States Supreme Court. It will be announced live on Tuesday at 8:00 P.M. (W.H.)"

Over the weekend, the WSJ had an editorial titled Trump's Supreme Choices, noting, correctly, that attacks on Judge William Pryor from the right flank are unwarranted.  Judge Pryor properly followed binding Supreme Court precedent in a transgender case.  Earlier, as Attorney General, he properly enforced the law against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments shenanigans.   "Since when do conservatives want AGs and judges who disdain the law in order to get the policy result they like?"  A few do, unfortunately, but far fewer than on the other side of the aisle.  The WSJ also notes that Judge Neil Gorsuch would also be a solid pick.

Adam Liptak has an article in the NYT titled "How a Trump Supreme Court Pick Could (or Could Not) Sway Cases."

When the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 was enacted, the "fast track" under Chapter 154 was thought to be among the primary reforms.  In essence, states which provided qualified and adequately funded counsel for their state collateral reviews in capital cases (which is not constitutionally required) were promised an expedited trip through federal habeas corpus.

Many obstacles have prevented the implementation of this chapter as originally conceived.  First, the original chapter had a hostile reception in the courts, as the courts which would be subject to its deadlines misconstrued it to avoid applying it.  In 2006, Congress amended the law to abrogate some specific misinterpretations and to take the decision of whether a state qualified away from the conflicted habeas courts and give it to the U.S. Attorney General with review by the D.C. Circuit.  The AG was further charged with adopting regulations to implement the statute.

As noted in the News Scan today, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Merz in Ohio issued this decision preliminarily enjoining the use of the present Ohio protocol, which is similar to the one upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Glossip v. Gross in 2015.  The parties stipulated that the Magistrate Judge rather than the District Judge could make rulings such as this in this case.

How can a district court come to a different result than the Supreme Court?  The Supreme Court decision had two independent bases.  One part was an affirmance of the district court decision in that case based on the evidence before that court.  A different court with a different evidentiary record might come to a different conclusion.

The other part of the Supreme Court decision, though, is not so easily avoided.  Glossip says on page 13 of the slip opinion:

The preliminary injunction posture of the present case thus requires petitioners to establish a likelihood that they can establish both that Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain and that the risk is substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives.

That requirement should have completely shut down method-of-execution litigation as a means of delaying executions.  After all, no state today intentionally uses a method of execution that is substantially more painful than available alternatives.  The "Catch-22" strategy of claiming that a state's lethal injection protocol has an unreasonable risk of severe pain in comparison to an alternative and then pressuring drug companies to cut off the alternative should have ended with Glossip.

But Judge Merz doesn't get it.

Trump Follows Through on  Immigration Promises: President Donald Trump is set today to make good on his promise to order the construction of a wall along the border or Mexico to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S.  David E. Sanger at the New York Times reports that the wall is the first in a list of actions that the President intends to take to address the issue of illegal immigration and to improve national security.  According to Julia Edwards Ainsley from Reuters, the President is also expected to sign executive orders to put a temporary ban on refugees from most countries and suspend visas for citizens of Syria as well as six other Middle Eastern and African countries.

Teen Crime in D.C. is Rising: A troubling number of suspects between the ages of 12 and 17 have been arrested for violent crimes in the nation's capital over the last few months. According to Paul Wagner at Fox News, since October, D.C. police officers have charged 69 juvenile offenders with the crime of robbery alone, three of these suspects were only twelve years of age. Colbert King at the Washington Post gives an in-depth look into the growing problem of crime committed by adolescents in the city.

More Shootings in Chicago: Since yesterday morning, another life has been lost in a shooting on the streets of Chicago and 6 more people were injured.   As reported by the Chicago Tribune, multiple shootings have taken place in the last twenty-four hours in Chicago.  This seems to be a continuance of the trend of gun violence in the "gun controlled" Windy City.  During the fist three weeks of 2017 there have been nearly 250 shootings and 37 murders in Chicago according to Jessica D'Onofrio at ABC News.

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the Mexican drug lord who evaded U.S. authorities for years and built a billion-dollar narcotics empire, is expected to make his first appearance in a U.S. courtroom on Friday.

Mr. Guzmán, who successfully escaped twice from maximum-security prisons in Mexico, was extradited to the U.S. late Thursday. His arrival came as a surprise to many, even to U.S. officials, who said Friday that they didn't know he was coming until the day of the extradition.

*                *                *

The White House website was switched over in a flash about an hour ago.  The techies were ready.  Naturally, I went to the law enforcement page first.  Here is the last paragraph:

It is the first duty of government to keep the innocent safe, and President Donald Trump will fight for the safety of every American, and especially those Americans who have not known safe neighborhoods for a very long time.

I like that "first duty" line.  I have been saying similar things for a long time.  I also like the recognition that it is people of modest means who suffer most from crime.  I've said that a lot also.  The well-heeled can wax eloquently about giving thugs fourth chances from the safety of their safe neighborhoods, gated communities, and sophisticated security systems.  Regular folks need to take a more practical view of human nature.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General next Tuesday.

Suspected Cop Killer to Represent Himself:   The man arrested for murdering an Orlando police officer last week appeared in court yesterday, announcing that he intended to represent himself.  Mike Arroyo of Fox News reports that during the hearing Markeith Loyd cursed at the judge as he made the announcement.  He also accused the police of making up the charges against him.  Loyd was wanted for the December murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend when Police Lieutenant Debra Clayton spotted him at a Walmart parking lot. When she tried to confront Loyd he allegedly shot and killed her.  During the manhunt for Loyd, another officer died in a motorcycle accident.  Loyd appeared in court with a bandaged face, due to injuries he suffered during his arrest. 

Virginia Murderer Executed:  An habitual felon convicted of the 2006 murders of a Richmond family was executed by lethal injection Wednesday.  The Associated Press reports that  while driving around looking for a home to rob, Ricky Gray and his nephew spotted an open door at the home of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey on News Year's Day.  The pair forced the couple and their two daughters, aged 9 and 4, into the basement, slit their throats and bashed their heads with a hammer.  The murderers then stole a computer, a wedding rings and a basket of cookies before setting the house on fire.  Gray also admitted to the murders of a 21-year-old woman, her mother and stepfather, days after the Harvey killings.    

Sex Offender Caught at Border:  A illegal alien convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a minor in 2007 was caught trying to cross the border at Del Rio, Texas, according to a U.S. Border Patrol press release.  After agents detained Youy Alexander Garcia-Chavez, 37, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, they discovered that he had served eight years in prison for sexually assaulting a child in Houston and had been deported.  He now faces 20 years as an ex-felon attempting to re-enter the country.  Over the first three weeks of 2017, Del Rio agents have apprehended eight previously deported sex offenders.  

The FBI issued this press release yesterday on its Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report.

All of the offenses in the violent crime category--murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape (revised definition), rape (legacy definition), aggravated assault, and robbery--showed increases when data from the first six months of 2016 were compared with data from the first six months of 2015. The number of aggravated assaults increased 6.5 percent, murders increased 5.2 percent, rapes (legacy definition) increased 4.4 percent, rapes (revised definition) rose 3.5 percent, and robbery offenses were up 3.2 percent.

*             *             *

In the property crime category, offenses dropped 0.6 percent. Burglaries were down 3.4 percent, and larceny-thefts declined 0.8 percent. However, motor vehicle thefts increased 6.6 percent.

We at CJLF will be looking at the data more closely and will report what we find on this blog.

2016 Deadliest Year for Suicide Attacks:  A study by the Institute for National Security Studies indicates that more people were killed in suicide attacks last year than in any year on record.  Vonat Friling of FoxNews reports that 5,650 were killed in such attacks worldwide and in 70% of the cases the Islamic State was responsible.  While most of the attacks were in Iran and Syria, several very deadly Isis inspired attacks also occurred in Western Europe and the United States.  The study also found an increase in attacks carried out by women.  

Manhunt Continues for Florida Cop Killer:  Hundreds of officers are searching for Markeith Loyd, the suspect in the December 13 murder of his pregnant girlfriend and wounding of her brother, and the January 9 murder of Orlando Police Sergent Debra Clayton, when she confronted him in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Rene Stuzman and Stephanie Allen of the Orlando Sentinel report that  Loyd was a habitual felon who had served 10 years in prison for the non-violent, low level offense of drug dealing.  Shortly after shooting Sgt. Clayton, Loyd was spotted at an apartment complex parking lot where he fired at a deputy, then carjacked a vehicle and fled.  Several schools in the area were on lockdown until police confirmed that Loyd was no longer nearby.

CA Murder Gets Sex Reassignment Surgery:  A 57 year-old transgender serving a life term in prison for murder has recently received sex reassignment surgery in a San Francisco hospital at taxpayer's expense.  The Associated Press reports that Shiloh Heavenly Quine is the first U.S. inmate to receive a state-funded procedure of this kind.  Quine will be transferred to a women's prison after recovery from the surgery which was estimated to cost $100,000.  In 1980 the then-named Rodney Quine kidnapped, robbed and shot to death 33-year-old Shahid Ali Baig, the father of three, in downtown Los Angeles.  When asked about the surgery for her father's murderer,  daughter Farida told reporters "my dad begged for his life.  It just makes me dizzy and sick . I'm helping to pay for his surgery; I live in California. It's kind of a slap in the face."

Or Justice Sykes or Justice Pryor or Justice Gorsuch, etc.

Murderers have a field day.

Military May Execute Murderer Soon:  A federal judge has lifted the stay of execution for an Army cook convicted of rape and murder in 1988.  Ryan Browne of CNN reports that Ronald Gray was sentenced to death by a military court for raping and murdering two women.  He had pleaded guilty in civilian court to two other killings and five rapes.  With the stay lifted, an execution date for Gray may be set within the next 30 days.  If Gray's sentence is carried out, it would be the first military execution since 1961. 

Over 800,000 Illegals Get CA Driver's LIcenses:   Tatiana Sanchez of the San Jose Mercury News reports that in the two years since Governor Jerry Brown signed a law (AB 60) allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses 806,000 have been issued.  Supporters of this law argue that people in the country illegally have learned to drive more safely while obtaining licenses and that they can now drive without fearing the police.  Some fear that under the incoming Trump Administration, the information made available to law enforcement through the licensing process may be used to deport illegals.  This is unlikely because, according to the California DMV, the information law enforcement agencies can obtain  -- such as name, gender/description, address, date of birth and driver license number -- doesn't indicate a person's immigration status or whether they received licenses under AB60.

Maryland Cop Shot:  Fox News reports that a Maryland sheriff's deputy was severely wounded in a shootout this morning.  Deputy Warren Hogan had transported a female from headquarters to her home to pick up clothing after a domestic violence incident, when a yet unidentified man fired on him with a shotgun.  The injured deputy returned fire, fatally wounding the shooter.  The deputy was life-flighted to a hospital in critical condition.  

 

Every day, I count my blessings that Jeff Sessions, the Senate's leading battler against "criminal justice reform," will be our next Attorney General.  But when I read today's Washington Post story, I counted them with extra vigor.

When pro-criminal groups thought (or fooled themselves into thinking) that they had a chance for federal sentencing "reform," what they said they envisioned was sentencing reduction for "low level, non-violent" offenders.  If you've read that phrase once, you've read it a million times.  

The [Center's] report also recommends a reduction in sentences for major crimes that account for a majority of the prison population -- aggravated assault, murder, nonviolent weapons offenses, robbery, serious burglary and serious drug trafficking. (Under such a system, the typical inmate convicted of, say, robbery would serve 3.1 years, as opposed to 4.2.)  If these reforms were retroactively applied, the authors estimate, more than 200,000 people serving time for these crimes would be eligible for release.

Under a saner system, the report says, nearly 40 percent of the country's inmate population could be released from prison without jeopardizing public safety.