Results matching “first”

It's being reported that President Obama this morning will name his choice to replace legal giant Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.  Judges Watford from the Ninth Circuit and Merrick Garland and Sri Srinivasan from the DC Circuit are said to be the finalists.  Gone despite all the breathless giddiness are Loretta Lynch, Jane Kelley and District Judge Jackson Brown.  Also no longer anywhere to be seen is the media's one-day darling, Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, now forever consigned to Trivia questions.

The first thing I need to say here is that I am merely a contributor on this blog.  I do not speak for CJLF, which does not endorse or oppose candidates for office.  The opinion voiced here is solely my own.

ISIS Hackers Post MN Cop 'Kill List':  A group of hackers with an allegiance to the Islamic state (ISIS) terrorist group posted a "kill list" on the internet with the names and personal details of 36 Minnesota law enforcement officers.  Kellan Howell of the Washington Times reports that the list was published by the Caliphate Cyber Army on Telegram, an encrypted mobile app, and included full names, home and email addresses, and phone numbers of all 36 policemen.  Last November, a congressional report stated that one in four Americans who have attempted to join ISIS are from Minnesota.

Gunman Intended to Die in MD Attack that Killed Officer:  An autopsy of the Maryland police officer fatally wounded in the line of duty Sunday revealed that he was inadvertently shot by another officer during a shootout with a gunman who ambushed a police station in an "unprovoked attack."  Emily Shapiro of ABC News reports that 28-year-old Prince George's County Officer Jacai Colson, a four-year veteran who would have turned 29 this week, arrived at the police station after a gunman intent on dying at the hands of police began opening fire.  Gunfire was then exchanged between four officers, including Colson, and the 22-year-old shooter Michael DeAndre Ford, who sustained non-life threatening injuries.  Michael Ford and his two brothers, 21-year-old Malik Ford and 18-year-old Elijah Ford, recorded Michael's last will and testament on a cell phone video minutes before heading to the police station with a plan to die by "suicide by cop" and record the incident.  All three brothers are expected to be charged with second degree murder, six counts of attempted first degree murder, nine counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony and additional charges.

3 Officers Wounded, Suspect Killed in Chicago:  A shootout on the West Side of Chicago Monday night left three police officers injured and a suspect dead.  Laura Thoren of ABC 7 reports that the officers, dressed in plain clothes but wearing CPD vests, approached a man and woman in the city's Homan Square neighborhood while conducting a narcotics investigation, at which point the man fled into a courtyard, pulled out a gun and began firing at the pursuing officers.  At least one officer fired back, killing the suspect.  Of the three wounded officers, one was shot in the back, one in the foot and the other in the chest area.  All are expected to survive.  The dispatch audio from the scene can be heard here.

NYC to Improve Violent Conditions in Homeless Shelters:  The prevalence of violent incidents inside New York City's homeless shelters was revealed for the first time in a report released Monday, prompting City Hall to call for plans to have the NYPD retrain Department of Homeless Services officers and ramp up security.  Joe Tacopico of the New York Post reports that in shelters citywide last year, there were 416 reports of domestic violence, 153 assaults that resulted in arrest and 90 reported sexual assaults.  The city's plans are part of a $140 million reform plan that aims to not just combat the safety concerns inside shelters, but also to encourage the homeless to stay in shelters instead of sleeping on the streets.

124 Released Illegals Charged in 135 Homicides:  A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies released Monday reveals that 124 illegal immigrants released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2010 and 2015 were later charged with a total of 135 homicide-related crimes.  Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reports that two of the 124 immigrants had previously been convicted of homicide before being released by ICE and committing another homicide, while the others had amassed 464 total criminal charges ranging from drunken driving to drugs, before being freed from jail and charge with homicide.  The data reaffirms ICE's "dangerous practices," showing that over 156 illegal immigrants with criminal records, averaging 11 crimes a person, were released from ICE custody at least twice.  The names of the criminal aliens included in the report have been redacted by the Judiciary Committee.

Officer Dead in Shooting near MD Police Station:  A Maryland police officer was ambushed and fatally shot outside a police station Sunday afternoon.  Jason Silverstein of the NY Daily News reports that Prince George County Police Officer Jacai Colson, a four-year veteran of the force, was shot and killed in an alleged failed attempt at a filmed suicide by cop involving three brothers, Malik and Michael Ford and a third, unidentified brother, who were all taken into custody.  One of the suspects was shot and wounded after exchanging gunfire with officers but is expected to survive.  The role of each of the brothers is unclear at this point in the investigation and none of them have been formally charged.

NYC Mayor Blames Slashing Spike on Gun Control:  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's claim made earlier this month that the explosion in random slashing attacks this year is because criminals can't access firearms is being met with skepticism from law enforcement experts.  Maxim Lott of Fox News reports that many law enforcement experts believe that the increase in slashings, which are occurring on the subway and at tourist attractions, are due to de Blasio's decision to end NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy, in which officers stop people based on suspicion and frisk them for weapons and other illegal items.  As a result, "criminals know they can carry knives like they did back in the 1980s."  A total of 567 random slashing attacks have occurred since the start of the year, about a 20% spike compared to the first three months of 2015.

Yolo Officials Report Continued Problems under Prop 47:  In March 2015, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig told the Board of Supervisors that California's Proposition 47, which reduced certain felonies to misdemeanors, had produced a "revolving door of low-level arrests."  One year later, Reisig again stood before the supervisors and echoed the same sentiments.  Anne Ternus-Bellamy of the David Enterprise reports that last Tuesday, Reisig shared that rates of both violent and property crimes continue to rise throughout the county, and Chief Probation Officer Brent Cardall agrees that "Prop. 47 has not been good."  Cardall revealed that of the 295 active Prop. 47 cases in his department, 40% are in violation, 65 total offenders have never shown up at the Probation Department as ordered, and 52 total have committed new offenses.  A mere eight offenders have graduated from treatment.  Reisig and Cardall believe that there is a lack of "a stick" to sway offenders towards treatment and no incentive to stay in it if they do choose it.

Probably the leading spokesmen for sentencing "reform" are no longer on the Left  -- the Left having shown (in fits and spurts) that it realizes lower sentencing will produce more crime, but believing that Amerika has it coming because of its racist, classist, sexist and otherwise Really Mean ruling class.  The class consists of people like Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions, Tom Cotton, Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Heather MacDonald and anyone else who didn't have a poster of Che Guevara hanging in his or her dorm room. That the victims of increased crime are certain to be disproportionately minorities never seems to register with the Left.  I guess Black Lives Don't Matter that much.

In a letter to the editor in today's WSJ, Jeff McCormack proposes a strategic bargain among the non-Trump candidates.

Update (3/11):  The NYT reports:

A top aide to Senator Marco Rubio on Friday urged his supporters in Ohio to back Gov. John Kasich in that state's primary on Tuesday, giving fresh momentum to efforts to stop Donald J. Trump a day after a debate in which his rivals declined to take a swing at the leading Republican presidential candidate.

Alex Conant, Mr. Rubio's spokesman, made the comments in an interview with CNN. He said that he hoped supporters of Mr. Kasich and of Senator Ted Cruz would support Mr. Rubio in his home state primary in Florida, and that he would suggest Mr. Rubio's backers in Ohio do the same by supporting Mr. Kasich there.

With the Texas execution tonight of multiple killer Coy Westbrook, the United States has executed eight inmates in the first 70 days of 2016.  If it continues at that pace (which could either slacken or accelerate), there will be 41 executions this year.  That is the average annual number for the nine preceding years (although slightly more than in any of the last three).  See this chart.

Phil Helsel reports for NBC:

A former death-row inmate has been charged with keeping a woman captive and sexually assaulting her for months in Colorado, officials said Thursday.

"She's been through hell and back," Mesa County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Henry Stoffel told NBC station KUSA.

Claude Lee Wilkerson, 61, was arrested in February and charged Monday with 10 counts in all, including first-degree kidnapping, false imprisonment, sexual assault and harboring a minor, according to court documents.

But Wilkerson was once sentenced to death for a prior murder.  He never should have hurt anyone again.  How did he get off?  His confession was thrown out, and his conviction was reversed, not because the confession was involuntary in violation of the real Fifth Amendment actually in the Constitution, but only because its taking did not comply with the Miranda rule invented by the Supreme Court out of whole cloth in 1966.

KUSA has this video report on the overturning of the prior conviction.

The rules of law that set criminals free despite solid evidence of guilt tend to be taught in abstract, antiseptic terms in law school.  Most law students go along with their pro-defendant professors and endorse these rules.  I have known students and lawyers to react in horror at the very idea that anyone would challenge Miranda v. Arizona and Mapp v. Ohio.  Many are completely incapable of grasping the distinction between these entirely court-created doctrines and the actual Bill of Rights.

Yet these rules have real, human costs.  They have costs when victims and their families see perpetrators walk.  They have even greater costs when those perpetrators commit new crimes.

TX Murderer to be Executed:  A condemned Texas murderer is set to be executed Wednesday evening for a shooting rampage that left five people dead more than 18 years ago.  The AP reports that 58-year-old Coy Wesbrook is scheduled to die by lethal injection for gunning down his ex-wife, Gloria Coons, her roommate and three men during a party at Coons' apartment in 1997.  Wesbrook testified at his 1998 trial that he "lost it" after Coons humiliated him by having sex with two men while he was there, so he shot all of them with a .36-caliber rifle that he had in his vehicle.  He will be the eighth convicted killer put to death this year nationally and the fourth in the state.  Two more Texas inmates are scheduled to be executed later this month, and another is scheduled in April.

Man Suspected of Killing 5 in MO, KS Captured:  A Mexican national and deportee living in the U.S. illegally and suspected of killing five men in two states was arrested early Wednesday following an intensive manhunt.  Jim Suhr of the AP reports that 40-year-old Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino gunned down his neighbor and three other men his his neighbor's Kansas home on Monday night before fleeing to Missouri, where he killed another man inside his rural home the next morning.  Authorities have not discussed a motive for any of the killings, possible connections between the victims and the shooter or what may have prompted the rampage.  According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Serrano-Vitorino was deported in April 2004 but illegally re-entered the country on an unknown date.  As of Wednesday, Serrano-Vitorino was placed on ICE detainer and facing four charges of first-degree murder in the Kansas killings.

Record Number of Unaccompanied Minors Expected to Flood Border:  The number of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. from Mexico is on track to surpass the record-breaking surge set in 2014, the Senate Homeland Security chairman suggested Tuesday.  Rudy Takala of the Washington Examiner reports that since the fiscal year began, Department of Homeland Security officials have apprehended 23,533 unaccompanied minors trying to cross the border and predict that, if this pace is maintained, the total number for the year will reach approximately 77,000, outpacing the total of 68,541 set during the 2014 crisis.  A Center for Immigration Studies report released earlier this week estimates that there are 15,7 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Prof. Doug Berman, author of Sentencing Law and Policy, today writes a post that (unintentionally, I think) spills the beans on what will happen if, as the SRCA would have it, we start releasing more federal felons earlier.

VA Senate Passes Death Penalty Bill:  A bill passed Monday in the Virginia Senate allows for use of the electric chair in executions when lethal-injection drugs are not available.  Laura Vozzella and Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post report that although the electric chair is already an option that condemned Virginia inmates can choose over lethal injection, the new measure would make it the default execution method if lethal-injection drugs cannot be obtained.  The House of Delegates initially approved the legislation in February, but is set to vote on it again after the Senate amended it to require the director of the Department of Corrections make "substantial efforts" to obtain lethal-injection drugs before using the electric chair.  If the House accepts the Senate version, the legislation will go to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.  There are currently seven people on death row in Virginia but only one scheduled execution, on April 13.

Chicago Man Charged in Boy's Death:  A Chicago gang member is facing a first-degree murder charge in last year's shooting death of a nine-year-old boy, who was targeted and killed due to his father's gang ties.  Don Babwin of the AP reports that 22-year-old Dwight Boone-Doty, 27-year-old Corey Morgan and a third man who is still at large lured fourth-grader Tyshawn Lee into an alley last November by promising him a juice box and then shot him fatally in the head, allegedly as retaliation stemming from gang rivalries.  Boone-Doty, who was paroled last August after serving two years on a five-year sentence in a drug case, is also charged with the October murder of a 19-year-old girl and attempted murder and aggravated battery of a 20-year-old rival gang member.

Suspect Sought in KS Quadruple Murder:  A fugitive suspect believed to be responsible for a quadruple murder Monday night in Kansas is now also being sought in the Tuesday shooting death of a fifth person.  Fox News reports that 36-year-old Pablo Serrano-Vitorino was the neighbor of the four men shot and killed at a Kansas City, Kan., home on Monday and his pickup truck was found abandoned in Missouri on Tuesday near a home of a 49-year-old man who was shot to death.  Serrano-Vitorino was last jailed in June 2015 for domestic battery.

WV Legalizes Concealed Carry without Permit:  In a bipartisan effort to enact permitless gun carry, the West Virginia legislature on Saturday overturned the veto of Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, which will, beginning in June, allow anyone over the age of 21 who can legally possess a firearm to carry it concealed on their person without having to obtain a permit.  Stephen Gutowski of the Free Beacon reports that the law also creates a provisional permitting process for people between the ages of 18 and 20 who were previously excluded from the permitting process altogether.  West Virginia is now the eighth state in the U.S. to adopt the "constitutional carry" permitless structure; most states, at a total of 34, adhere to the "shall-issue" structure, where applicants are issued a permit if they pass a background check and whatever training and identification requirements are set by the state, while far less, just eight states, follow the the most restrictive "may-issue" structure, which sometimes denies permits even if all requirements set out by the state are met.

NM Ranchers Outraged with Border Security:  Ranchers in New Mexico's Bootheel near the U.S.-Mexico border are fed up with the lack of security, citing an increase in kidnappings, break-ins and vandalism across Hidalgo County and southeastern Arizona.  Lauren Villagran of the Albuquerque Journal reports that the Bootheel area is frequented by drug traffickers from Mexico. Traveling north to move their drugs, traffickers often take ranch hands hostage, load their vehicles with narcotics, force them to drive hundreds of miles and threaten to harm them if they go to the police.  The Border Patrol's Lordsburg station, in charge of monitoring the Bootheel area, has been significantly understaffed in recent months, down about 50 agents in a location that is budgeted for 284 agents.  Ranchers and other residents are pleading for an increase in agents along the border.

CT Law Would Bar Suspected Sex-Predators From Teaching:  New legislation in Connecticut aims to ban a maneuver called "passing the trash," in which a teacher suspected of or known to have engaged in sexual misconduct with a student is able to receive recommendations and jobs at new schools.  Michelle R. Smith and Susan Haigh of the AP report that in 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office studied 15 cases of K-12 schools that hired or retained teachers with histories of sexual misconduct, finding that 11 of the cases involved people who previously targeted children and six cases discovered that offenders used their new positions to target more children.  Excuses for retaining suspected sex offenders included the high cost of firing a teacher and fear of lawsuits if a positive reference wasn't provided.  The legislation proposed in Connecticut would require schools to contact a teaching candidate's past employers to specifically ask if the applicant was ever investigated, disciplined or asked to resign over abuse or sexual misconduct allegations.  Additionally, a new federal mandate introduced requires states to create policies that make it illegal for schools to help an employee get a new job if they suspect them of abusing children.

FL Gov. Signs New Death Penalty Law:  Two months after capital punishment in Florida was put on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state's system was unconstitutional, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law Monday, which takes effect immediately.  Steve Bousquet of the Miami Herald reports that under HB 7101, juries in capital cases are required to agree unanimously on the aggravating factors that under Florida law qualify a murderer for a death sentence.  It also stipulates that at lest 10 of 12 jurors must agree on a recommendation of death. Previous Florida's law allowed a jury to recommend death by a simple majority vote.  Several death row inmates in the state have filed appeals arguing that their death sentences are invalid because the old law that was in effect when they were sentenced was declared unconstitutional.  Justices will begin considering the first of those cases this week.

The U.S. Supreme Court summarily reversed a Louisiana state court's denial of habeas corpus relief to Michael Wearry, an inmate on that state's death row.

Generally, if one has prevailed in a lower court and wants the U.S. Supreme Court to deny review, arguing that the case is "fact-bound" is a good bet.  The Supreme Court's "reason for being" is to settle broad questions of law on which other courts disagree, not to police case-specific application of settled law to particular fact patterns.

In this case, Wearry claims he actually didn't do it, and he is one of the rare death row inmates with a "colorable claim" to that effect, to use Judge Friendly's famous term.  The specific constitutional violation claimed is that the prosecution failed to disclose exculpatory evidence.  The "application of law to fact" question is whether that evidence is "material," defined "new evidence [that] is sufficient to 'undermine confidence' in the verdict."  (See p. 7 of the slip opinion.)

Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, finds summary disposition "highly inappropriate" and calls for the case to be given full briefing and argument instead.

This is the kind of case that should not have been capital in the first place.  In my opinion, trial prosecutors should not seek the death penalty in any case where the evidence of identity of the perpetrator is such that a jury would have any difficulty at all finding that the proof is beyond a reasonable doubt.  More discretion here would avoid a host of problems, and most prosecutors' offices do, in fact, screen out cases on that basis.

If we really wanted to reduce the incarceration of drug dealers without endangering public safety -- and reduce the massive harm caused by drug abuse at the same time -- the best way to do it would be to convince people, especially young people, not to use drugs.

Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign was widely reviled and ridiculed by the "cool kids" of America's media and academia.  But it worked.  Drug use among America's youngsters took a major plunge.  The abandonment of that effort was one of the worst mistakes of modern history.

Nancy Reagan did far more good for the country than the First Ladies more widely admired in popular culture.  May she rest in peace.

My last entry was titled, "White House Misplays Grassley for a Chump."  It referenced (without linking) a New York Times "news" story saying that the President would put Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley "in an awkward dilemma" should Grassley choose to obstruct the possible Supreme Court nomination of fellow Iowan, long-time criminal defense lawyer, and now Judge, Jane Kelly.

Nevertheless, Mr. Obama has publicly predicted that Republicans, faced with a well-qualified candidate and a constitutional mandate to provide advice and consent, will ultimately relent and allow hearings.

FL Supreme Court Considers Pending Execution:  A condemned Florida murderer is scheduled to be the first person executed in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that its death penalty system is unconstitutional.  Larry Hannan of the Florida Times-Union reports that attorneys for 51-year-old white supremacist Mark James Asay, who is set to be executed on March 17, argue that the execution should be delayed indefinitely until the Florida Legislature amends the law, which was found to be in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution because the judge rather than the jury makes the final decision of whether someone is sentenced to death.  Assistant Attorney General Charmaine Millsaps disagrees, stating that the execution should proceed because the U.S. Supreme Court did not rule one way or another on retroactivity.  Others argue that the decision is "merely procedural" and should not interfere with planned executions.  Asay was sentenced to death in 1987 for murdering a black man and a cross-dressing prostitute he believed was a black woman, but was actually white.  A Supreme Court ruling of his case is expected to be made this week.  Update:  The Florida Supreme Court issued a stay on Asay's execution.

NH Gov. Criticized for Heroin Epidemic Inaction:  The mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire publicly criticized Gov. Maggie Hassan for failing to step up and address the deadly heroin epidemic plaguing the Granite State.  Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon reports that last June Gov. Hassan vetoed a budget that would have significantly boosted drug program spending and two months later, she denied Mayor Gatsas' request to establish a drug court.  Other critics say that Gov. Hassan has stonewalled spending on the issue, failed to appoint a top official to lead the fight and is currently more focused on her Senate campaign than governing her state.  Last month, 60 people overdosed on opioids leading to 14 deaths, making February 2016 the single-deadliest month on record in the state.

House to Vote on Immigration Case:  House Republicans are set to vote in the next few weeks on a resolution that would allow lawmakers to file a brief in the Supreme Court case that will determine if President Obama overstepped his authority with his 2014 executive action on immigration.  Susan Ferrechio of the Washington Examiner reports that the vote could permit the House to file the brief in the United States v. State of Texas case "as an institution on behalf of self government," says Speaker Paul Ryan.  Obama's deferred deportation program is being challenged in the brief by Texas and two dozen other states, arguing that the president "exceeded his constitutional authority" when he went over the heads of Congress to defer deportation of illegal immigrants.

Chicago Homicides Rise as Illegal Gun Seizures Fall:  While the number of gun seizures in Chicago so far this year have dropped compared to the same period in 2015, twice as many homicides have occurred.  Don Babwin of the AP reports that as of the end of February, Chicago's police department seized at least 110 fewer illegal guns than in the same period last year, and recorded 95 homicides and over 400 shootings, far surpassing last year's totals.  Moreover, the high levels of scrutiny towards the city's police department has led to a dramatic drop in the number of street stops and resulted in an overall less aggressive police force. 

Police Officer Shooting Deaths on the Rise in 2016:  Of the 14 total line-of-duty deaths of law enforcement officers recorded in the first two months of 2016, 11 officers were killed by a firearm used against them, while only one of 15 officers' deaths by this time last year were firearm-related.  Andrea Noble of the Washington Times reports that the 11-to-one comparison of 2016 and 2015 in the number of officers fatally shot in the first two months of the year yields a 1000% increase and "implies greater willingness on the part of offenders to go after the cops."  Police associations around the country believe that anti-police rhetoric and the "deliberate campaign to terrorize our nation's law enforcement officers" is having serious consequences.  The National Fraternal Order of Police is reigniting its campaign to expand federal hate crime laws to apply to targeted attacks on police officers.

CO Death Penalty Bill Dies in Committee:  A Colorado bill that would have allowed a second jury to "retry" the aggravation and penalty phases of a death penalty case if the first jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict was postponed indefinitely Monday with a 6-3 vote.  Lance Hernandez of the Denver Channel reports that House Bill 16-1233 was created after James Holmes, who was found guilty on multiple counts of first degree murder for gunning down several people in a movie theater in 2012, skirted the death penalty at his trial because of a single holdout on the jury.  Colorado's death penalty process is unique in that jurors "can substitute their own individual, reasoned moral judgement for any factual or legal findings they previously found," making it a subjective process that one person "shouldn't be allowed to hang up."  The issue could still end up before voters.
 

Border Crossings Surge Dramatically in FY 2016:  The first four months of FY 2016 show significant increases in both Unaccompanied Alien Children and family units when compared to the same period in FY 2015, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report released last Friday.  Bob Price of Breitbart reports that the total number of border crossings of alien minors along the border rose 102%, with an increase of 624% in the Big Bend Sector, 697% in the Yuma Sector, 339% in the El Paso Sector and 100% in the Rio Grande Sector.  Incomplete family units crossing the border spiked as well, totaling an overall 171% jump, with the Big Bend and El Paso increasing in excess of 500% and Yuma showing a 1033% rise.  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who expressed his alarm about the border crisis in September, plans to extend deployment of the Texas National Guard and increase other state law enforcement activities along the border.

Immigration Files of Boston Bomber Released:  Homeland Security has released the immigration documents of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the men who, along with his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, set off explosives at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in April 2013, killing three people and injuring over 260.  Suman Varandani of the IB Times reports that the immigration documents contained 206 pages of files on Tamerlan and his friend Ibragim Todashev, showing the two as "ethnic Chechens from Russia, struggling with unemployment and poverty while trying to make a future in the U.S."  However, Tamerlan had expressed interest in his application to change his name to that of an early Islamic scholar, and also disclosed a 2009 arrest for assaulting a former girlfriend and that he had recently traveled overseas, which authorities said should have raised concerns among U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials.  USCIS stated that they found no errors in the processing of the two men.  Tamerlan was killed in a gun battle with police after the 2013 bombings, and Todashev was killed a month later in Florida by an FBI agent.  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death last year after being found guilty on all charges against him for his role in the bombings.

NH Senate May Suspend the Death Penalty:  The New Hampshire Senate is to vote on a bill this week that would "suspend" the use of the death penalty without repealing it.  The AP reports that the bill states that capital punishment in the New Hampshire would be suspended until "methods exist to ensure that the [it] cannot be imposed on an innocent person."  The last execution in the state was in 1939, and it currently has only one death row inmate, Michael Addison, who was convicted of killing a police officer in 2006.  The bill will be voted on in a Senate session of Thursday, and its outcome is expected to be determined by one or two votes.

In the ground war against the heroin epidemic, Kentucky goes on offense.  Note the lopsided vote:

Chicago Homicides Keep Breaking Records:  Thus far in 2016, homicides and shootings in Chicago have doubled and more than doubled, respectively, over the same period last year.  Alexandra Chachkevitch and Megan Crepeau of the Chicago Tribune report that over the weekend, four people were killed, with two more killed Monday morning, and a total of 32 people were shot.  The youngest victim was a three-year-old boy who was shot in the leg by a stray bullet fired in a gang fight, but fortunately he survived.  Since the first of the year, the city has recorded 95 homicides, compared to 47 last year, and 420 shooting incidents, compared to 193.

Supervised Injection Facility Proposed:  The mayor of an upstate New York city has proposed a plan to open up a supervised injection facility that would permit addicts to shoot up heroin and other opioids on government property under the supervision of medical professionals.  Cory Derespina of Fox News reports that Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick believes the plan will keep addicts safe and allow them to be directed to addiction services, though opponents find the proposal "tantamount to encouraging drug use" and note that there are bound to be several legal obstacles ahead of obtaining approval.  Although drugs would not be sold at the facility, they would be openly carried and used there with staff assisting in use of them, putting them "in the crosshairs of the federal government" and opening themselves up to liability in the event of an overdose or injury.  There is only one supervised injection facility operating in North America, in Vancouver, Canada.

Man Released by Prop. 47 Indicted for Attempted Murder:  A man released under California's Proposition 47, which reduced some felonies to misdemeanors, was indicted Thursday on felony charges for shooting at police officers during a vehicle chase in November.  William Bigelow of Breitbart reports that 28-year-old Jimmy Hoang Truong received two felony drug convictions in 2012 and 2013, resulting in a 16-month jail sentence in Sept. 2013.  However, in Dec. 2014, his felonies were termed misdemeanors under Prop. 47 and he was released.  Four months later, in April 2015, he was arrested for carrying a switchblade and for possessing a controlled substance in separate incidents, though both actions only triggered misdemeanors charges and he faced no jail time.  Truong, a low-level offender under California law, could receive a life sentence for the November 2015 attack, which includes three felony counts of attempted murder on a peace officer. 

Barry Latzer, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the City University of New York, has an op-ed with the above title in the WSJ.  The full article is well worth reading for anyone who cares about this issue.  Here is the first paragraph:

It has become a boogeyman in public discourse: "mass incarceration." Both left and right, from Hillary Clinton to Rand Paul, agree that it must be ended. But a close examination of the data shows that U.S. imprisonment has been driven largely by violent crime--and thus significantly reducing incarceration may be impossible.

One small disagreement.  I wouldn't say it is impossible.  We can significantly reduce incarceration if we are willing to pay for that reduction in the blood of innocent people.  Too many of our leaders seem to be willing to do exactly that, especially in California.

Nearly 5% of TX Prison Population are Illegals:  A report released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) reveals that illegal immigrants represent 4.6% of the state prison population, with standing requests that they be turned over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) once their sentences are served.  Nicole Cobler of the Texas Tribune reports that as of December 2015, the TDCJ recorded 9,158 Texas prisoners as being under ICE detainers, 6,698 of whom were in the U.S. illegally.  The most common crime for inmates with ICE detainers is sexual assault against a child, with 69% of those offenders in the country illegally, and the second most common is homicide.  Additionally, there are 12 illegal immigrants on death row.

Execution Date Set for OH Murderer:  Despite Ohio's continued struggle to obtain the proper lethal injection drugs, the state Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision Friday, set an execution date for a man who murdered a disabled woman in 2004.  Jim Provance of the Toledo Blade reports that James P. Frazier is set to be executed on Oct. 17, 2019, joining 24 other Ohio murderers in line for execution, the first of which is set to be carried out in Jan. 2017 once Gov. John Kasich's current death penalty moratorium expires.  Ohio's last execution was of Dennis McGuire in Jan. 2014, who reportedly struggled for 26 minutes after being administered a drug combo that was later abandoned.  The state has attempted to revert to pentobarbital or sodium thiopental as single drugs, but manufacturers have refused to make them available for executions.  Frazier is on death row for the murder of Mary Stevenson, a woman who had cerebral palsy when she was strangled and had her throat slit during a robbery.

Teen Runs Over FL Deputy:  A 15-year-old boy deliberately drove into a Florida deputy on Friday as she approached the vehicle he was in to take him into custody on an outstanding warrant.  Mike Schneider of the AP reports that Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Mary Pearce, who has been with the agency for over two decades, suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries to her head, back, hand and foot after the teen ran into her with his vehicle, throwing her onto the hood and then to the pavement before speeding off.  The teen, who has a previous arrest for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, now faces an attempted murder charge on a law enforcement officer.  He is still at large.

Mark Sherman has this article for AP. 

Is eight enough?

The Supreme Court has managed to function effectively at less than its full nine-member strength for two extended periods in the past 50 years. The question now is whether the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in the middle of the court term and a polarizing presidential campaign will make it harder for the justices to get their work done.

One paragraph in the article needs correction, though.

The most notable of the deferred cases may have been challenges to the death penalty, according to Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong's book "The Brethren." Harry Blackmun joined the court in May 1970, after the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected President Richard Nixon's first two choices. It was another two years, after the retirements of two more justices, before the court took up the issue and struck down every state death penalty statute.

It was, in fact, two weeks, not two years, "before the court took up the issue."

NJ Town Advising Illegals How to Skirt ICE:  Following the arrest of two illegal immigrants in a New Jersey town on Thursday, one of whom had a drunken driving conviction, town officials began publishing handouts in English and Spanish providing tips to help illegal immigrants skirt U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.  Cory Derespina of Fox News reports that in the handouts published by Princeton officials, who say the goal of them is to "better inform illegal immigrants of their rights" and protect them from "unfortunate" arrests, encourage illegals to "remain silent" and "have a plan" if they are deportable.  Alvin Phillips, an ICE spokesman, said the town's efforts won't impede the agency's duties, adding that ICE arrests "are in keeping with the laws and homeland security priorities," and not unfortunate.

U.S. Restricts Visa-Free Travel from 3 More Countries:  Under a new regulatory interpretation of a January law implemented in the wake of last year's terrorist attacks in Paris, travelers who have spent time in Libya, Somalia and Yemen over the last five years are barred from traveling to the U.S. without a visa.  Travelers from Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria are already under this restriction.  Susan Crabtree of the Washington Examiner reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement Thursday regarding the new restrictions on the U.S Visa Waiver Program, which permits travelers from 38 (mostly European) countries to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa.  DHS stated that in continuing the "focus on the threat of foreign fighters," the restrictions apply specifically to individuals who have traveled to one of the seven "countries of concern" since March 1, 2011, and that travelers from those countries may still apply for a visa using the regular immigration process.

GA Murderer Executed:  A former Navy crewman was executed Wednesday evening in Georgia for the April 1992 murder of a fellow sailor that he carried out with an accomplice.  The AP reports that 45-year-old Travis Hittson's request for clemency was denied by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday, and a Butts County judge, the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court also declined to halt the execution.  Hittson was convicted of murdering Conway Utterbeck with shipmate Edward Vollmer, who claimed that Utterbeck was planning to kill them both and they had to "get him" first.  Utterbeck was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and shot with a sawed-off shotgun before his body was dismembered and discarded in areas of Georgia and Florida.  Vollmer reached a plea deal in the case and is currently serving a life sentence.  Hittson was the second person executed in Georgia this year.

WaPo Associate Editorial Page Editor Jo-Ann Armao has an unusual suggestion for Supreme Court nominee.

MS Officer Shot, Charges Filed:  Following the weekend shooting of a Mississippi police officer, charges were filed Monday against the teenage suspect.  Fox News reports that 19-year-old Johnny Robinson Jr. was charged with attempted murder and one count of armed robbery in the shooting of Clarksdale Cpl. Derrick Couch, who remains in the hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his brain.  The shooting occurred Saturday night, about four blocks away from a convenience store that Robinson robbed with another man, though police don't believe the other man was involved in Couch's shooting.  Robinson was also charged with an October robbery of the same store.  Couch, a pastor and father of five, has been a police officer for more than six years.

Trial Begins for CA Serial Killer:  Three decades after a Los Angeles serial killer's first victim was found dead in an alley, and nearly six years after his arrest, the man known as the "Grim Sleeper" is finally going to trial.  KTLA reports that 63-year-old Lonnie David Franklin Jr. faces 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the deaths of women ranging in age from 15 to 35, who he murdered over a span of 30 years.  Franklin was linked to the killings with physical evidence, including saliva collected from the victims' bodies and ballistic matches.  He has pleaded not guilty.  Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

TX Murderer to be Executed:  A condemned Texas murderer, who faced a re-sentencing trial and was involved in an unsuccessful escape attempt during his 24 years on death row, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night.  Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune reports that 43-year-old Gustavo Julian Garcia was sentenced to death in 1992 for the December 1990 fatal shooting of liquor store clerk Craig Turski during a robbery in Plano.  Years after his first sentence was handed down, he was granted a new sentencing trial after then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn found that the testimony made by a psychologist in Garcia's original sentencing trial was improper, but he was sentenced to death a second time in 2001.  His latest appeal and request for a stay have been denied.  He will be the third inmate executed this year in Texas, and the sixth in the nation.

One might think that, in deciding whom to nominate to the Supreme Court, the President  --  any President  --  would first consider such things as learning in the law, demonstrated devotion to the Constitution, intellectual heft, fair-mindedness, willingness to listen (one of the key and under-rated qualities of judging), modesty, non-partisanship (as, say, between the defense and the prosecution) and breadth of experience.

The main point of nominating a woman, Daniel, is political: Dems always want and need women, especially young women, to be motivated to come out and vote for them. This is one big reason why we often hear "war on women" talk around election time. If Obama nominates a woman, every female Dem plays up claims of gender bias if/when the male-dominated GOP Prez candidates and GOP-male-dominated Senate seeks to prevent even a vote. In addition, at least a few of the six female GOP senators are considered relatively moderate and may feel particular disinclination to vote against an impressive female nominee.

Another possible benefit of a female appointment would be to free up a future Prez not to be quite so concerned about gender issues when replacing Justice Ginsburg in coming years. But this seems a much less significant concern than the short-term political one.

A perfect example of the wrong way to think of the Supreme Court comes to us from President Obama's former White House Counsel.  Kathleen Hennessey and Mark Sherman report for AP:

"The Supreme Court has not reflected where the American people have been on issues," said Gregory Craig, who served as White House counsel early in Obama's first term. "This is the first opportunity in many, many years to bring the court more in line with the American people."

In this way of thinking, the Supreme Court is nothing but a third house of the legislative branch.  It's job is to take the pulse of current public opinion and be "in line" with current views, declaring as a constitutional mandate whatever that current view is.

That is not how it is supposed to work.  Fundamental rules are written into the Constitution when they are agreed by a strong national consensus to be so fundamental as to place them beyond the short-term reach of ordinary legislation.  They can be changed when (and legitimately only when) a strong enough consensus to the contrary has formed to clear the high hurdle for a constitutional amendment under Article V.

The New York Post today printed an op-ed that pinpoints as well as I have seen Justice Scalia's most important legacy to the law.

[H]is most...enduring contribution was to re-establish the view that the Constitution is a form of law -- that its meaning, like that of other legal texts, is knowable, that understanding its meaning starts with reading what it says, and that it's the job of judges to read it, figure it out and follow it.

Back when Justice Scalia first joined the high court, law school professors and justices almost uniformly believed no person of even ordinary intelligence could hold such a naïve view. Rather, they proclaimed that the Constitution's meaning was largely indeterminate, that the justices themselves created its meaning.

Justice Scalia changed this dramatically. When one of the nation's most powerful intellects, and one of the greatest writers to ever sit on the Supreme Court, took the view that the Constitution was a law, when he made arguments based on the Constitution's original meaning -- and when he demolished arguments based on other considerations -- the impact was huge.

It changed the entire legal conversation.

The beat goes on for sentencing "reform," which, for the umpteenth time, actually means sentencing reduction and early release for hard drug traffickers.