Results matching “first”

In a couple of weeks or so, the Senate will return and unveil a bill for sentencing "reform," the liberal and libertarian code for "mass sentencing reduction."  As has recently become clear, "reformers" by no means intend to stop with their fabled "low-level, non-violent" offender, although he is their poster child.  As they have now made plain  --  taking a pre-victory victory lap  --  they seek the mass release of violent criminals.  As so often in Washington, DC, this flies in the face of the ugly, everyday reality "reformers" would see at their doorstep if they cared to look.

Early Releases Common Under Prop 47:  Proposition 47, California's voter-approved initiative passed in November that downgrades certain felonies to misdemeanors, is concerning law enforcement and other county officials in San Diego County, which saw prison sentences automatically lowered for 5,000 convicted felons after its passage.  Salvador Rivera of Fox 5 San Diego reports that San Diego County Chief Deputy District Attorney David Greenberg emphasizes that not only is the policy failing to help communities and keep crime down, it also falls short of helping deter defendants from future criminal behavior, since they no longer face felony probation and, thus, have no incentive to participate in programs.  Greenberg offered an example of one man in the county who robbed a business four hours after being released from jail, which was the first of five total times since his release.  However, he avoided prison time because, as per Prop. 47, the stolen merchandise was valued at less than $950.

CA Probation Chief wants to Arm Officers:  Plumas County acting probation chief wants to arm his officers due to the implications of prison realignment, or AB 109, which has created a larger and more dangerous population of probationers, many of which require more intensive supervision.  Dan McDonald of Plumas County News reports that acting probation chief Clint Armitage says the probationers coming out of prison "are more sophisticated that just local people" and believes that the situation would be best approached proactively since probationer officers are now required to do field work in many of these cases.  Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood said  "Having armed probationer officers will hold people accountable in meaningful ways - especially in the world we live in now with criminal justice realignment."  Armitage has requested $300,000 from the county's $515,000 AB 109 allotment through the Community Corrections Partnership to pay for it.  The decision to provide probation officers with firearms is ultimately up to the Board of Supervisors.

Infamous 'San Quentin 6' Inmate Murdered:  A member of the infamous 'San Quentin 6,' an inmate who was involved in a bloody 1971 escape attempt that left six people dead, has been killed by another inmate.  The AP reports that 71-year-old Hugo Pinell's murder sparked a riot on the exercise yard of a California's Folsom Prison east of Sacramento Wednesday, which involved approximately 70 inmates, 11 of whom had to be treated for stab wounds at outside hospitals.  Over four decades ago, Pinell slit the throats of San Quentin prison guards while attempting to escape, leading to the deaths of three guards, two inmate trustees and the escape ringleader.  Initially sentenced to life in prison for a 1965 rape charge, Pinell received a second life sentence for killing a correctional officer at a prison in Soledad and yet another life sentence for the assault of the two officers in the San Quentin escape.  CDCR spokeswoman Dana Simas says that Pinell "was definitely the target."

5 Killed, 7 Injured in One Violent Boston Night:  A spurt of violence Wednesday night and early Thursday morning around the Boston area left five people dead and several others injured.  Jan Ransom and Laura Crimaldi of the Boston Globe report that all of the victims were shot and detectives believe that the shootings were not random, though the motive is still being investigated.  The suspect or suspects are still at large, and officials plan to distribute fliers in the area in an effort to obtain information from any witness.

More Arrests Amid Ferguson Chaos:  As of Monday night in Ferguson, Missouri, the fourth consecutive night of demonstrations marking the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death, at least 23 people were arrested after peaceful protests spiraled into chaos following Sunday evening gunfire.  Fox News reports that by Monday evening, after St. Louis County Executive Steven Stenger declared a state of emergency, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the sight of last year's protests, marching, chanting, beating drums and carrying signs.  Water bottles and other debris were thrown at officers by some demonstrators, and at least nine were accused of resisting or interfering with an arrest.  About 144 protesters were arrested around the St. Louis area as of Monday, however, there were no injuries or property damage.

Obama Admin. Launches Campaign to Deter Immigration:  Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, backed by the Obama administration, kicked off its "Know the Facts" awareness campaign in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in an effort to discourage people from immigrating to the U.S. illegally.  Carolina May of Breitbart reports that last year, more than 68,400 family units and more than 68,541 unaccompanied minors surged at the U.S. southern border, under the impression that lax immigration laws would prevent deportations, and that "permisos," or free passes, were plentiful.  Although this year's numbers show a drop in immigrants from Central American, a late July ruling calling for an end to detention of illegal immigrant family units could hinder the campaign, by "incentivizing adults to bring children with them on their dangerous journey as a means to avoid detention and gain access to the interior of the U.S."

"Yes means Yes" Policy Under Fire:  Judges in California, Tennessee and Virginia are saying "no" to the "yes means yes" standard of affirmative consent for date rape, on the grounds that it violates the due process rights of the accused.  Cody Derespina of Fox News reports that under the standard - which has been adopted by several college campuses nationwide - the accused has to prove he obtained consent, even if neither party remembers, forcing him to prove his own innocence, rather than be proven guilty.  The standard came in response to lawsuits brought against colleges by individuals found guilty of sexual misconduct who were not provided with adequate due process.  In one case, the accused was unable to cross-examine his accuser and other witnesses.  A student at another school was found guilty because he couldn't prove he obtained verbal consent.  John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School, says that while not every element of protection for the accused must be provided in every case, a "minimal amount of procedural protection," such as the right to cross-examine witnesses, is required in all cases.

Spike in Violence, Officer-Involved Shootings in San Jose:  A murderer free on parole and suspected in a violent stabbing was shot by police, and a suicidal man took his own life during a confrontation with another officer, marking San Jose, California's second and third officer-involved shootings in just over a week.  Robert Salonga and Mark Gomez of the San Jose Mercury News reports that the city's police department recently increased its presence amid a spike in violence, with the city experiencing 10 homicides in the past six weeks compared to a total of eight in the first six months of 2014.  So far this year, there have been six officer-involved shootings versus five such shootings in all of 2014.  Although the San Jose Police Department is not particularly surprised with the uptick in violence, Assistant Chief Eddie Garcia says "What strikes us is suspects increasingly confronting our officers.  That's alarming."

Charges Filed in Death of CA Woman:  Murder, torture and rape charges have been filed in the death of a woman from Santa Maria, California, who died after being brutally attacked in her home by two men, one of whom was in the country illegally.  Keith Carls of KEYT reports that 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis was sleeping in her home on July 24 when 29-year-old Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez and 20-year-old Jose Villagomez broke into her home and sexually assaulted, strangled and repeatedly struck her in the head with a hammer.  Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martinez expressed frustration over the arrest of Martinez Ramirez for possession of methamphetamine two weeks before the murder, in which officers had to simply cite him due to state policies such as AB 109 and Prop. 47.  "From Washington DC to Sacramento there's a blood trail leading to the bedroom of Marilyn Pharis," he added.  

CA Agrees to Pay for Transgender Inmate's Sex Reassignment:  California has agreed to pay for a transgender inmate's sex reassignment operation after reaching a settlement in a federal lawsuit, making it the first state in the nation to agree to do so.  Paige St. John of the LA Times reports that the state decided that inmate Shiloh Quine, who entered the prison system in 1980 as Rodney, "suffers severe gender dysmorphia that can be treated only by physically conforming her body to her psychological gender" and medical doctors and mental health experts that reviewed her case "determined that this surgery in medically necessary" for the convicted murderer.  Kent Scheidegger, Legal Director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, says that although a court settlement does not set a legal precedent, "those requests are bound to eventually force another legal challenge."  The cost of Quine's operation ranges from $15,000 to $25,000.  There are nearly 400 transgender inmates receiving hormonal treatment in the state.

Former NE Prosecutor Was Told Not to Pursue Executions:  The former top death penalty prosecutor for Nebraska, who handled the state's death penalty cases for over three decades and retired one year ago, said he was told four years ago not to pursue steps to alter the state's lethal injections protocol, which would have allowed the state to have a legal means to carry out executions.  Paul Hammel of the World-Herald Bureau reports that J. Kirk Brown, considered credible by many criminal justice officials, says that in the last three to four years that the was in the Attorney General's office, "there was a decision that we aren't going to push the death penalty anymore."  Brown believes that the order originated with the Governor's Officer under former Gov. Dave Heineman.  In a December 2014 interview with then-Attorney General Jon Bruning, who told Nebraska Educational Television that he wished the state had made an effort to change their lethal injection protocol or adopt alternatives.  Current Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson, both vocal death penalty proponents, are supporting the petition which would allow the state's voters to decide the fate of capital punishment.

Peaceful Vigil in Ferguson Escalates to Violence:  Peaceful vigils scheduled to take place in Ferguson, Missouri yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown escalated into a scene that mirrored last year's violence in the St. Louis suburb, resulting in looting, bricks thrown at police officers, two officers pepper sprayed and gunfire, with a total of three people shot.  Debbie M. Lord of AL reports that protests began in the days leading up to the anniversary of Brown's death, though they remained peaceful and resulted in no arrests until Sunday.  One of the three men shot on Sunday night was a man said to be in his 20s who "unleashed a remarkable amount of gunfire against officers and others."  Residents, business owners and event organizers have said that Monday will be a day of civil disobedience.

Illegal Alien Crime Accounts for 30% of Murders in Many States:  Between 2008 and 2014, illegal immigrants accounted for 38 percent of all murder convictions in California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and New York despite accounting for just 5.6 percent of the total population in those states, according to a report compiled by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Tom Tancredo of Breibart reports that the 38 percent figure represents 7,085 murders out of the total of 18,643.  In Texas alone, 35 percent of all murder convictions were for illegal immigrants, which equates to approximately 472 murders each year from 2004 to 2008.  Tancredo argues that a lack of transparency in the media, which oftentimes refuses to even use the term "illegal immigrant," has contributed to a collective ignorance and naivety in the U.S. regarding illegal immigration.

A recent Washington Post article discussed the upcoming Ninth Circuit hearing on a federal district court decision that invalidated California's death penalty scheme.  The gist of the district court's decision was that delay had grown to the point that, by the time the prisoner was executed   --  if he ever was  --  the execution has lost most or all of its penological value, was thus arbitrary and, for any practical purpose, pointless.

Illegal Held in Rape/Murder was on Probation:  One of the two men charged in last month's home invasion, rape and fatal bludgeoning of a 64-year-old California woman was an illegal immigrant out on probation.  Paul Gonzalez of the Santa Barbara News-Press reports that 29-year-old Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez, charged along with his 20-year-old accomplice Jose Fernando Villagomez, attacked Marilyn Pharis on the morning of July 24 in her Santa Maria home, beating her with a hammer and sexually assaulting her.  Ramirez was out on probation for committing battery in 2014 while in possession of methamphetamine.  Both offense are considered "low level" crimes under Realighment.  This year, he was charged twice for violating probation, once for possessing a concealed knife, and the other for drugs, but under Realignment he was allowed to enter a substance abuse program in lieu of jail.  Villagomez also has a history of battery, drug possession and probation violations, and was similarly diverted to a substance abuse program.  They are due in court on August 13.

Nashville Theater Attacker Had Mental Issues:  The suspect who entered a movie theater in Nashville on Wednesday with pepper spray, an airsoft pellet gun, an ax and a fake bomb in his backpack was a homeless man with a history of psychological issues.  The AP reports that 29-year-old Vincente David Montano, who was killed by police when they mistook his gun for a real weapon, had been committed for psychiatric treatment at least four times, twice in 2004 and twice in 2007, and was arrested in 2004 for assault and resisting arrest.  Montano entered a near-empty theater on midday Wednesday where only seven others were present and began spraying them with pepper spray.  He was fatally shot by police officers, who arrived quickly, when he fired his pellet gun, which looked and sounded like an authentic firearm.  One man received a superficial cut on his shoulder from the ax, but no one else was seriously injured or killed.

Shreveport Police Officer Shot and Killed:  A police officer in Shreveport, Louisiana was shot multiple times while responding to a call of a suspicious person in a neighborhood around 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday.  The killer is still at large.  Melissa Chan and Jason Silverstein of the NY Daily News report that 27-year-old Grover Cannon is wanted in connection for the murder of 29-year-old Officer Thomas LaValley, a four-year veteran of the Shreveport Police Department who graduated at the top of his class.  Cannon is also a suspect in a shooting that took place last month.  LaValley was dispatched to the neighborhood after receiving a call from a person reporting that an armed man was threatening a family member inside a home, and was met with a barrage of bullets when he arrived.  LaValley is the first Shreveport officer to be fatally shot since 2010, and Police Chief Willie Shaw vows to "scour the earth" until Cannon is found.

Extra Million Alien Work Permits Issued Annually:  More than 7.4 million work permits have been issued to foreign nationals from 2009 to 2014 by the Obama administration, which exceeds the approximately one million lawful permanent residents and 700,000 foreign guest workers admitted to the U.S. each year.  Caroline May of Breitbart reports that work authorizations are being issued to some categories of immigrants that Congress never intended to work in the U.S., such as immigrants granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protective Status (TPS), spouses of guest workers, various types of foreign students, immigrants granted voluntary departures, as well as parolees, asylees and refugees.  Additionally, over 113,800 individuals with final orders of deportation were also granted work permits in the six-year period.  Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies says that "the Obama administration has been abusing what should be considered a very limited authority to issue work permits."

This blog is about crime and not politics, but the next presidential election will have a huge effect on the direction of the Supreme Court and therefore on criminal law, so we have to pay attention to it.

This last July saw a "Blue Moon," i.e., two full moons in a month.

Suspect Identified in Fatal Shooting of Memphis Police Officer:  A man under supervised release stemming from a bank robbery conviction, for which he simply paid a fine and was diverted to mental health treatment on July 7, is now wanted for first-degree murder less than a month later in the fatal shooting of a police officer during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee.  Fox News reports that 33-year-old Officer Sean Bolton, a former Marine who served in Iraq, approached in illegally parked ed a car on the street Saturday night and interrupted an illegal drug transaction.  A passenger, 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, confronted the officer and shot him multiple times.  The driver of the vehicle turned himself in to the authorities on Sunday and was released without charges.  Bolton is the third Memphis officer to be fatally shot in a little over four years, "just another reminder of how dangerous the job is."  

NYPD Commissioner:  We Can't Repeat the 1970s:  NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton says that new trends in growing violence in the city "must be put in check before it's too late."  Lisa Evers of Fox 5 reports that murders in New York City have risen 10 percent, and Bratton believes it's due to a toxic marriage of criminal empowerment and a hesitant police force that feels like they are under public attack.  Over the weekend, nine people were shot and wounded at a barbecue in East New York, and a 20-year-old girl was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in a children's playground.  "We need to get this right, we can't repeat the 1970s again," urged Bratton.

Gov. Brown Allows Parole for 2^nd Chowchilla Kidnapper:  One of the three men who kidnapped 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver at gunpoint in Chowchilla, California in 1976, holding them for ransom in an underground quarry for 16 hours, will  paroled in a few days.  Henry K. Lee of SF Gate reports that 63-year-old James Shoenfeld was found eligible for parole in April after a panel of the state Board of Parole Hearings reviewed his case.  Several victims testified before the board, nine of whom argued against Shoenfeld's release. Governor Jerry Brown had the option to block parole but chose not to do so.  Of the other two kidnappers, Richard Shoenfeld, James' younger brother, was paroled in 2012 and the third, Fred Woods, has his next hearing scheduled in the fall.

Fatal Shooting Outside MS Courthouse:  A defendant waiting in a courtyard outside a criminal courthouse in Canton, Mississippi was fatally shot Monday morning, and the suspect is currently in custody.  The AP reports that the victim, Kendrick Armond Brown, was shot once in the chest as he sat with his attorney awaiting his expected court appearance on drug charges.  Prosecutors expected Brown to reject a plea offer in his case and opt for a trial.  Law enforcement officials are searching for a motive for the shooting, as Brown was not a witness or a suspect in other current criminal cases.

Miguel Bustillo reports for the WSJ that Texas AG Ken Paxton has been indicted by a county grand jury.  However, the fact that this case was instigated by the same group that brought the preposterous charge that former Governor Rick Perry committed a crime by vetoing a bill makes the whole matter suspect.  See prior post on that case.

The allegation is violation of disclosure and registration requirements for people selling securities, prior to Mr. Paxton becoming Attorney General.

The group calls itself Texans for Public Justice.  First the case went to District Attorney of Travis County, who said she had no jurisdiction and referred the case to Collin County.  The DA there, a friend of Mr. Paxton's, recused himself.  Two defense lawyers were appointed as special prosecutors.

The Texas Legislature may want to look at the state's special prosecutor system.  People who have not been elected and who are not responsible to any elected executive officer should not be exercising the executive authority of the state.  There needs to be a better way to deal with recusals.

664,607 Illegals Granted Amnesty:  Under the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program that went into effect in 2012, 664,607 illegal immigrants have been granted amnesty, many of whom have connections to fraud, terrorism and gangs, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency.  Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports that the USCIS is also producing 144,275 employment documents each month, and applicants for permanent residence have risen from 3,000 per month to 7,500.  Of the 664,607 applications approved as of March, at least 49 had gang ties, six had a possible link to terrorism and 3,959 had indicators of fraud.

CA Teen Charged as Adult in Killing of 8-year-old Neighbor:  A 15-year-old Santa Cruz boy is being charged as an adult for the kidnapping, rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl at a community artist complex where they both lived.  The AP reports that according to a charging document, Adrian Jerry Gonzalez lured Madyson Middleton into his family's apartment, tied her up, sexually assaulted, killed her and dumped her body in a recycling bin, where it was discovered Monday evening.  Authorities haven't been able to determine a motive yet for why Gonzalez, who could spend the rest of his life in prison, killed the "alternately shy and gregarious" girl.

Baltimore Monthly Homicide Count Reaching Historic High for Second Time:  For the second time this year, Baltimore's homicide count is reaching a historic high.  The AP reports that as of Wednesday night, a total of 46 people were murdered in the month of July.  The month of May had 46 homicides as well, which made it the deadliest month on record since August 1990.  Baltimore has seen 186 homicides in 2015, a nearly 60 percent increase over the same time last year.

TX Judge Declares State's Online Solicitation Law Unconstitutional:  The Texas law prohibiting the use of the internet or any other electronic communication to arrange a meeting with a minor for sexual relations was declared unconstitutional Wednesday afternoon by a district court judge, who ruled that the law is a violation of the First Amendment.  Bob Price of Breitbart reports that Judge Kelly W. Case's 9^th District Court ruling derived from Texas v. Paquette and "could have a devastating effect on prosecutions of online sexual predators if allowed to stand."  In that case, defendant Daniel Paquette, charged with using email to solicit a minor for sex, argued that the law infringed on the right to freedom of speech on the grounds that many internet users engage in the sexual fantasy 'ageplay,' "where one or more participants in a sexual-oriented conversation falsely represent themselves to be underage children."  The defendant's motion for dismissal was granted by Judge Case, and the indictment was thrown out.  Montgomery County 1^st Assistant District Attorney Phil Grant will appeal the ruling to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jails More Dangerous Under AB 109:  Because of AB 109, also known as realignment, California jails are more dangerous and a greater challenge to manage than they were before, according to James Ramos, chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors; John McMahon, San Bernardino County Sheriff; and Greg Devereaux, San Bernardino County CEO, in this piece on the SB Sun.  Since AB 109 took effect in 2011, they have seen inmate-on-staff assaults in local jails more than double from 21 in 2010 to 49 in 2014, while inmate-on-inmate assaults nearly doubled from 364 to 630.  Additionally, medical costs in all aspects - prescriptions, monthly doctor visits, off-site clinic referrals, hospital admissions and treatment for diseases - have soared due to increased demand from inmates serving longer sentences, putting a heavy financial burden on county taxpayers.  The three authors note that this is not a unique issue to San Bernardino County; the same is true for nearly all of the California's 58 counties because "the state has essentially transformed [our jails] into prisons."

It's hardly news by now that I oppose the proposed mass sentencing reduction  --  for both garden-variety drug dealers and classic violent criminals  --  that goes under the deliberately vague name of sentencing "reform."

Illegal Immigrant Freed by Feds Suspected of Murder:  An illegal immigrant, released earlier this month by Ohio sheriff's deputies after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents instructed them not to hold him, is now suspected of murdering one woman, wounding another and attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl.  Edmund DeMarche of Fox News reports that Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti says he doesn't understand how federal authorities could have ordered the release of 35-year-old Juan Emmanuel Razo on July 7, considering he had no green card, birth certificate or driver's license to verify his identity.  At the time, Border Protection officials informed local deputies that Razo was an illegal immigrant from Mexico, but would not pick him up for deportation because he hadn't committed a crime at that point.  Razo is being held on $10 million bond.  His public defender entered a not guilty pleaTuesday, despite Razo's confession.

Rumored Threats of Gang Violence Spread on Social Media:  A rumored competition spreading on social media under the hashtag #100Days100Nights has South Los Angeles residents afraid to step outside.  The objective is to pit gangs against each other to see who can murder 100 people first.  Amy Powell of ABC 7 reports that the hashtag started appearing online over the weekend while police responded to several shootings in the area resulting in a tactical alert.  LAPD Assistant Chief George Villegas says that the post has spread in circular, word-of-mouth manner that creates a challenge for law enforcement to identify any one particular gang or gang member as the original poster.  LAPD officials have increased patrols throughout the South Los Angeles area in case the threats are carried out.

MS-13 Recruiting Newly Arrived Migrant Children in NY:  Latin street gangs, chiefly MS-13, are seeking more than 3,000 new recruits, targeting Central American migrant children under the age of 18 who have recently settled in the Long Island, New York area, according to authorities in Nassau and Suffolk counties.  Fox News Latino reports that departments across Long Island have been closely monitoring other Latin American gangs such as the Latin Kings, Netas and Surenos, but MS-13, with as many as 10,000 members in 46 states, is the most concerning.  Like most immigrant organized crime groups, MS-13 starts by targeting their own community, and the vulnerability and susceptibility of the young migrants from Central and South America gives the notorious and ruthless gang the advantage to expand.

CA Teen Arrested After Body of Missing Girl Found:  A 15-year-old male neighbor was arrested after authorities discovered the remains of who they believe to be an 8-year-old Santa Cruz girl that disappeared on Sunday.  Fox News reports that Madyson Middleton was last seen on Sunday riding her scooter around the Tannery Arts Center, an artist community and housing center where she lived with her mother.  The suspected teen, who lives at the complex with his family, is described by neighbors as "polite and well-liked," and his relationship with Madyson is not yet clear.  The housing center is located in a busy area populated by businesses, and a major construction project is going on nearby.

Prison Worker Pleads Guilty to Aiding Escapees:  The former prison employee accused of helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximum security prison in upstate New York last month plead guilty to the charges on Tuesday.  Emily Shapiro of ABC News reports that 51-year-old Joyce Mitchell allegedly provided tools to two inmates serving life sentences, Richard Matt and David Sweat, by concealing them in hamburger meat.  A three-week manhunt, which began on June 6, ended with Matt fatally shot and Sweat shot and apprehended with non-fatal injuries.  Mitchell pleaded guilty to first-degree promoting criminal contraband and fourth-degree criminal facilitation, facing a sentence of 2 ½ to seven years.  She will be sentenced on September 28.  David Sweat's case for first-degree escape will go to a grand jury early next month.

Attacks by Homeless Increase in NYC:  Two recent violent attacks perpetrated by homeless persons in New York City have prompted City Hall and NYPD to urgently address homelessness in the city.  Arthur Chi'en of Fox 5 reports that one of the attacks involved a 72-year-old architect, who was stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors by a homeless woman while waiting on a street corner; the other victim was a tourist leaving his hotel, who was clubbed in the face by a homeless man.  The NYPD plans to put one-third of its officers through intensive training over the next year to deal with the homeless problem, but Police Commissioner Bratton says that handling this generally non-criminal crisis will be difficult because "we can't arrest out way out of this problem."

Man Killed by WV Escort Possible Serial Killer:  A man who was shot and killed by a West Virginia escort after he attacked and attempted to strangle her is being eyed as a possible serial murderer in three states.  Cristina Corbin of Fox News reports that 45-year-old Neal Falls knocked on the door of a Charleston, West Virginia prostitute on July 18, asked her "live or die?" when she answered, and attempted to assault her.  She shot and killed him with his handgun that he put down during the altercation.  Upon inspection of his vehicle after the crime, authorities say they discovered an arsenal of items that aroused suspicion that he could be responsible for the killings of sex workers in Nevada, Illinois and Ohio.  Falls has no known criminal history.  The FBI is assisting in the multi-state probe.

U.S. Spent Nearly 2 Billion Jailing Criminal Aliens:  A new study of state and federal data reveals that in fiscal year 2014, American taxpayers paid approximately $1.87 billion to incarcerate illegal immigrants, almost all of which was shouldered by the states.  Joel Gehrke of the National Review reports that 92 percent, or $1.71 billion, came from the states, while the other eight percent was paid for by federal-government reimbursements administered through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).  However, SCAAP's funds have declined in recent years, leading many state and local jurisdictions to opt out of the program, which causes the cost of holding inmates to rise.  This financial burden is also "exacerbated by policies designed to defy federal immigration status."

California's capital punishment opponents have a problem.  Despite about a thousand capital judgments in the post-Gregg era (beginning with the passage of the Deukmejian bill in 1977), they don't have a single substantiated case of an actually innocent person receiving that sentence.  So they have to make some up.

SF Chrontrarian Debra Saunders has this column on the CNN series Death Row Stories and its episode on Kevin Cooper.  First, she notes a prior episode of the series.

Last year, CNN's "Death Row Stories" ran an episode about a California woman convicted of first-degree murder, then freed when a federal judge overturned the verdict because prosecutors withheld evidence. I had a few issues with the episode, in part because Gloria Killian was not tried for capital murder and never spent a minute on Death Row. I wrote at the time, CNN should rename the series, narrated by capital-punishment opponent Susan Sarandon, "Death Row Propaganda."

On to Cooper:

When the tests finally were done, DNA nailed Cooper to the crime scene, where he claimed never to have been. In 2004, [defense investigator Paul] Ingels told me, "It proves, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Kevin Cooper was involved in the murders."

When Cooper's lawyers devised this elaborate story about officials framing Cooper by manipulating DNA, forensics expert Dr. Edward T. Blake objected because he relies on those tests to exonerate innocent convicts. When I asked Blake if Cooper is guilty, Blake answered, "Yeah, he's guilty, as determined by the trial and the failure of a very extensive post-conviction investigation to prove otherwise." Blake also had worked for Cooper's defense team.

I've covered a lot of crime stories. I've never had two people who worked for the defense tell me an inmate is guilty.

Saunders has more on the case in a blog post.

Court: Prop 47 Applies Equally to Minors:  A three-judge panel of the California State District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that Proposition 47, the November 2014 voter-approved initiative that reduced some low-level felonies to misdemeanors, applies equally to juvenile offenders as well as adults.  Kristina Davis of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the ruling, in the case of one San Diego County teen convicted of commercial burglary in 2013, sets a new precedent for more than 100 other minors in the county, who can now petition to have their previous qualifying convictions reclassified as misdemeanors.  The teen in this case has also requested to have his DNA expunged from the state database since DNA collection does not apply to misdemeanors.  The District Attorney's office has yet to announce if it will appeal the ruling.  

Another Bloody Weekend in Baltimore:  Baltimore saw 15 shootings, three of them fatal, and at least one stabbing between Friday evening and Monday morning, culminating in yet another violent weekend in the struggling city.  Colin Campbell and Sean Welsh of the Baltimore Sun report that seven of the shootings occurred between 10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday.  Police are still seeking information related to all of this weekend's incidences.

Youngest Juveniles Ever Charged As Adults for 1st-Degree Murder to be Released:  The youngest Americans ever to face adult charges for first-degree murder are set to be released from prison in two weeks, sixteen years after their crime.  Fox News reports that Curtis and Catherine Jones, Florida siblings who were 12 and 13 when they killed their father's girlfriend, claiming that she did nothing to protect them from sexual abuse by a male relative.  They had initially planned to kill the male relative as well as their father.  They pleaded to second-degree murder in 1999 and received 18-year sentences.  They will both be on probation for the rest of their lives.

Body Count on the Rise in St. Louis:  The homicide rate in St. Louis, Missouri is on track to reach its highest level in 20 years, putting increased pressure on Mayor Francis Slay, who won control of the police department two years ago in order to hold it more accountable, to take action.  Nicholas J.C. Pistor of St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that murders have already surpassed 100 this year, 60 percent higher than the same time last year, thrusting Slay into "unfamiliar territory."  However, most of the pressure to fix the homicide problem will fall on Police Chief Sam Dotson, who unveiled a crime-fighting partnership Monday, involving 50 police officers from St. Louis and St. Louis County that will work with federal agents to reduce the bloodshed, focusing on violent offenders and drug traffickers.

Gang Crime Down in Dallas:  Police officials in Dallas, Texas say that gang-related crime is down in the city despite recent, high-profile violence, but gang experts are not convinced that the trend is permanent.  Tristan Hallman of the Dallas News reports that gang expert Greg Knox of the National Gang Crime Research Center says that federal authorities have managed to weaken the centralized hierarchy of gangs, making them more of a neighborhood clique rather than a regional or national power, but cautions that "their networks still exist."  Another expert, Pastor Omar Jahwar, a former gang member who now participates in gang intervention, says that gangs of today lack leadership and understanding of gangs' histories and "rules of the game," leading to reckless, reactive violence.  

Chicago Bloodshed Continues:  Reeling in violence along with several other major cities across the nation, Chicago ended its weekend with seven dead and 35 wounded from shooting incidents.  Peter Nickeas and Megan Crepeau of the Chicago Tribune report that the weekend's close has brought this year's total homicides in the city to 263 and total gunshot victims to 1,532.  Both homicides and non-fatal shootings have increased over the previous years in the city.

When I saw this in my paper this morning, I thought at first that it was an Onion story mistakenly picked up as real.

Last Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of the murders of two toddlers, Michael and Alex Smith, by their mother, Susan Smith.  Ms. Smith was having an affair and hoped to run off with a man who didn't want to be burdened with kids  --  who can, after all, be quite a load at that age.  She dealt with this by strapping them in seat belts in her car, which she then rolled into a lake.  

Devlin Barrett reports for the WSJ:

The Obama administration is preparing to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard from prison, according to U.S. officials, some of whom hope the move will smooth relations with Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal.

Such a decision would end a decadeslong fight over Mr. Pollard, who was arrested on charges of spying for Israel in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison. The case has long been a source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, which has argued that a life sentence for spying on behalf of a close U.S. partner is too harsh. Israel has for years sought Mr. Pollard's early release, only to be rejected by the U.S.

Now, some U.S. officials are pushing for Mr. Pollard's release in a matter of weeks. Others expect it could take months, possibly until his parole consideration date in November.

Such a deal for Israel.  First we sign the most toothless agreement since Neville Chamberlain came back from Munich in 1938 waving a document and claiming "peace in our time," an agreement that practically guarantees that a country determined to wipe Israel off the map will acquire nuclear weapons.  But not to worry, we will make it up by releasing one spy.

A:  So awful  --  because so radically pro-criminal  --  that even the Obama administration can't bite down on it.

The Obama administration objects to key provisions in a bipartisan criminal justice bill in the House that has picked up support from both the tough-on-crime end of the Republican Party and advocates of overhauling federal prison sentencing guidelines, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The bill's sponsors say the Safe, Accountable, Fair, Effective Justice Reinvestment Act of 2015 -- or SAFE Act -- takes the best ideas from state criminal justice efforts in recent years and applies them to the federal system, but Obama administration officials have told supporters of the bill they don't like several of its provisions, including a key one that would essentially create a federal version of the drug court programs an increasing number of states use to divert low-level, first-time drug offenders away from prison and into probation.

The Supreme Court established the basic framework of capital sentencing in the mid-1970s and then tinkered with it for some years thereafter.  Under this framework, a state cannot make all murderers eligible to even be considered for the death penalty.  There must be some additional factor beyond the basic requirements of murder.  It has to be a reasonably objective one.  "Especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel" won't do.

The methods vary by state.  Texas defined a higher degree of murder called "capital murder."  Most states have a designated list of "aggravating circumstances."  California calls its list "special circumstances" because we just have to be different.

In some states the plus factors are found concurrently with guilt.  In others they are decided along with the decision on penalty.  Colorado apparently "trifurcates" its capital trials, sandwiching an "aggravating factor" phase between the guilt and penalty phases.  (California does that with the prior murder circumstance only.  All the rest are decided concurrently with guilt.)

Are the following factors true in the case of the Aurora shooting?

• Intentionally killing a child under the age of 12.

• Killing more than two people during the same criminal act

• Creating a grave risk of death to people other than the 12 victims.

• Committing the murders in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner.

• Ambushing the victims.

The jury did not find the first one, apparently not satisfied on the specific intent requirement.  What's that fourth one?  Hopefully the jury got a "narrowing" instruction to define that more precisely.

Jordan Steffen and John Ingold have this story in the Denver Post.  Maria LaGanga has this story in the LA Times.

Guest post by Ian Sonego:

The en banc Seventh Circuit has ruled 6-5 that a federal prisoner under a death sentence may circumvent the prohibition upon successive collateral attacks in 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h), which is similar to 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)[limiting successive habeas petitions filed by state prisoners in federal courts], by filing a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the district where he is incarcerated instead of the district where he was convicted and sentenced. Webster v. Daniels, 784 F.3d 1123 (7th Cir. May 1, 2015)(en banc)(No. 14-1049).

Federal prisoners under death sentences are incarcerated in the federal prison in the State of Indiana, which is within the Seventh Circuit.

Judge Alex Kozinski has a preface to the current issue of Georgetown Law Review that has been the subject of much discussion.  Eugene Volokh has reproduced it, minus the footnotes, in a series of posts at the Volokh Conspiracy.  The first one is here.  Volokh describes Kozinski as a "conservative" in the title of the initial post and a "libertarianish conservative" in the text, but lately he has been more libertarian than conservative, at least in criminal law.

Reading the brief segment on habeas corpus, and specifically on the "deference" standard of 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (in this post on VC), I thought of our old friend the elephant in the living room.  That is the huge problem that everyone knows about and no one wants to talk about, so they talk about other things.

Here is the Volokh version (sans footnotes) in the indented block quotes with interlaced comments by your humble blogger.  AEDPA refers to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

Prior to AEDPA taking effect in 1996, the federal courts provided a final safeguard for the relatively rare but compelling cases where the state courts had allowed a miscarriage of justice to occur.

Cases where the federal courts prevented a miscarriage of justice were rare.  But what about the cases where the federal courts caused a miscarriage of justice?  That is the elephant in the living room.  Are you going to address that?  Are you even going to mention it?

Rod Blagojevich, former governor of the state where about as many former governors are felons as not, won a partial reversal from the Seventh Circuit today.  From United States v. Blagojevich, USCA 7, No. 11-3853:

Blagojevich now asks us to hold that the evidence is insufficient to convict him on any count. The argument is frivolous. The evidence, much of it from Blagojevich's own mouth, is overwhelming. To the extent there are factual disputes, the jury was entitled to credit the prosecution's evidence and to find that Blagojevich acted with the knowledge required for conviction.

But a problem in the way the instructions told the jury to consider the evidence requires us to vacate the convictions on counts that concern Blagojevich's proposal to appoint Valerie Jarrett to the Senate in exchange for an appointment to the Cabinet. A jury could have found that Blagojevich asked the President‑elect for a private‑sector job, or for funds that he could control, but the instructions permitted the jury to convict even if it found that his only request of Sen. Obama was for a position in the Cabinet. The instructions treated all proposals alike. We conclude, however, that they are legally different: a proposal to trade one public act for another, a form of logrolling, is fundamentally unlike the swap of an official act for a private payment.

Because the instructions do not enable us to be sure that the jury found that Blagojevich offered to trade the appointment for a private salary after leaving the Governorship, these convictions cannot stand. Compare Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 (1957), and United States v. Rivera Borrero, 771 F.3d 973 (7th Cir. 2014), with Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46 (1991). (Perhaps because the jury deadlocked at the first trial, the United States does not seriously contend that any error was harmless; a one‑line statement in the brief differs from an argument. Cf. Hedgpeth v. Pulido, 555 U.S. 57, 60-62 (2008) (an error of this kind is not "structural").)

The father of Katherine Steinle testified a few minutes ago before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  His prepared statement follows the break. The Committee's hearing page is here.

Criminal justice, sentencing, and police behavior  --  especially behavior toward African Americans  -- have become contentious issues.  As one would expect, they have shown up in the race for each party's Presidential nomination.  They have opened a window on (1) what treatment is given speakers with opposing viewpoints, and (2) what, in some circles, is considered an "opposing viewpoint."

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley apologized on Saturday for saying "All lives matter" while discussing police violence against African-Americans with liberal demonstrators.

Several dozen demonstrators interrupted the former Maryland governor while he was speaking here at the Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of liberal activists, demanding that he address criminal justice and police brutality. When they shouted, "Black lives matter!" a rallying cry of protests that broke out after several black Americans were killed at the hands of police in recent months, O'Malley responded: "Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter."

The demonstrators, who were mostly black, responded by booing him and shouting him down. 

Continuing with the term summary (part 1 was yesterday), here are the federal criminal law cases, the prisoner rights cases, and a trio of summary error corrections.


Federal Criminal Law

Yates v. United States, February 25, 2015, 5-4 on the judgment, 4-1-4 on reasoning.  The Sarbanes-Oxley law, enacted to address financial fraud, prohibits among other things destroying a "tangible object" to obstruct an investigation.  Does that cover throwing fish overboard to obstruct a charge of a size limit violation?  No.  Justice Ginsburg wrote the plurality opinion, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Breyer, and Justice Sotomayor.  Justice Alito wrote a concurrence, and cast the deciding vote on the judgment, with a different path to the same result.  Justice Kagan, joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas dissented from the Court's departure from what she sees as the plain language of the statute.

Henderson v. United States, May 18, 2015, 9-0.  If, in the course of a criminal case, the government gains control of the defendant's guns and upon conviction he can no longer possess them, can he direct their transfer to someone else?  Yes, so long as steps are taken to insure the transferee is not a straw man.  Justice Kagan wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court.

Here is the first part of my two-part wrapup of the criminal cases in the Supreme Court term from October 2014 to July 2015.

The Big Cases

Ohio v. Clark, June 18, 2015, 9-0 on the judgment, two dissenting votes on the main issue and one hard to classify vote.

The question is whether a statement of a very young child to a teacher regarding who abused him is "testimonial" and therefore subject to exclusion under the Confrontation Clause, and whether it makes a different that the teacher is a mandatory reporter under the state's child abuse reporting statute.  This opinion goes a very long way toward cutting back the expansive definition of "testimonial" statements - and therefore the range of evidence excluded by the Confrontation Clause - that had been stated in Davis v. Washington (2006).  Although the Court does not categorically shield all statements to anyone other than law enforcement officers from exclusion under Crawford, we can see that such exclusion is going to be very much the exception and not the rule.  State-law hearsay rules will now be the primary authority for whether such statements are admitted. 

Justice Alito wrote the opinion.  Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Ginsburg, would preserve Davis in its original breadth, though they agree that it is not so broad as to cover this child's statements.  Justice Thomas continues to go his own way, focusing on the formality of the statements, a criterion obviously lacking here.

This case will likely have the largest impact of any of the term.  It is a huge win for prosecuting violent crime generally and domestic violence in particular.  The fact that only two Justices voted for a broad definition of "testimonial" statements is particularly striking.  CJLF's brief is here.

There are two central themes in the President's Criminals-Are-Cool week-long campaign:  That the criminal justice system is "broken," and that the way to fix it is through softer sentencing and earlier release for convicted felons, mostly including (so far) dealers in hard drugs.