Results matching “first”

Murderer Sentenced to Death: A Nevada man convicted of a 2009 double-murder has been sentenced to death.  David Ferrara of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that 29-year-old Ralph Jeremias was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and robbery after authorities say he shot two men execution-style.  Prosecutors argued that Jeremias killed the two men during a botched robbery attempt. 

Accused Killer Recently Placed on Probation:  A Michigan man is facing murder charges just days after a judge sentenced him to probation for assault with a deadly weapon.  Christopher Behnan of the Lansing State Journal reports that 32-year-old Rahsohn Perry is facing murder and gun charges after authorities say he shot and killed his brother during a heated confrontation late Friday evening.  Perry was sentenced to two years of probation last week after pleading guilty to an assault with a deadly weapon charge from an incident earlier this year. 

In Ohio, unlike certain other states, when they have a problem with their execution method their leaders actually show some leadership and do something about it.  Jackie Borchardt of Northeast Ohio Media Group reports:

State lawmakers will revise Ohio's lethal injection procedure by the end of the year, Statehouse leaders said during a legislative preview event here on Thursday.

House Speaker William Batchelder and Senate President Keith Faber, both Republicans, said concerns about Ohio's two-drug cocktail need to be addressed soon. The two leaders spoke briefly about what they want to accomplish before this legislature ends its work in late December and what might be among the first issues the next General Assembly will tackle in January.

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Yesterday, sentencing reform (that's the gauzy phrase that means letting criminals out earlier) was six feet under.  The reckless, judges-run-wild JSVA was so radical it hadn't even received a vote in SJC; and the SSA, which got a favorable Committee vote (13-5) under the leadership of Chariman Leahy headed straight downhill thereafter. Majority Leader Reid said he would bring it to the floor, but never did.

So says Nate Silver at 538.

Will we have the answer early, late, or very late?

In the latest issue of the New Yorker, Maria Konnikova has a story that asks, is the field of psychology politically biased?  As the popular saying goes, to ask the question is to answer it.  Anyone who has spent any time within the field of psychology knows, if they're being honest, that the answer to that question is an emphatic "yes" all around.  But what is the nature of the bias? 

Over at 538, Nate Silver and crew now calculate that the Republican chances of a Senate majority are over 2 to 1, the first time they have crossed that threshold.  The 538 forecasts have been among the most favorable to the Democrats.  At the WaPo's Monkey Cage, it's 93%.  Looks good for "Goodbye, Chairman Leahy, hello Chairman Grassley."

Update:  Larry Sabato et al. weigh in along the same lines.  "While many races remain close, it's just getting harder and harder to envision a plausible path for the Democrats to retain control of the Senate."  They note a "decent chance" that a runoff election in Louisiana or Georgia may actually provide the magic 51st seat, not the election next Tuesday.

In Colorado, the Quinnipiac Poll has Bob Beauprez up by 5% over incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper.  The 538 folks rate Quinnipiac fairly highly at a B+.  They also calculate a "house effect" of +1%R, so let's say Beauprez is really up 4%.  That is still a shade above the 3.4% confidence interval.  See this post for why I'm particularly interested in this one.

Update 2:  The Denver Post and Survey USA have the Colorado governor's race a dead heat, with the caveat that this is Colorado's first all-mail-in election, so pollsters really have no $%*&^* idea.  Okay, I paraphrased that last part a bit.

Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy have this story in the New York Daily News:

Arrests for minor crimes across the city have skyrocketed over the last three decades, a report conducted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice shows.

"Crime is down to historic lows," John Jay President Jeremy Travis said about the study. "Felony arrests have dropped in half, yet the rate of misdemeanor arrests has tripled."

Yet?  Would anyone say, "Major house fires have dropped sharply in newly constructed housing, yet building codes now require sprinkler systems."

It's speculated that many of the arrests are a product of the broken windows theory to policing, which was first mentioned in 1982.

That wins the Well, Duh! Award for the day.  Speculated?

Thomas Reppetto, a NYPD historian, said "broken windows" was "designed for a different era," when drug dealers controlled neighborhoods and violent crime was rampant.

It is indeed a different era, and "broken windows" policing is a major part of why.

Kent wrote this post about how the Washington Post (WaPo) published a blatantly biased story about this week's Gallup poll  --  the one that shows continuing overwhelming public support for the death penalty.

When onetime White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky broke her silence with a major speech this week, one subject brought her nearly to tears.

Lewinsky's voice cracked as she recalled the moment in January 1998 when she was first confronted by FBI agents and lawyers working for Kenneth W. Starr's Office of Independent Counsel, who threatened her and her mother with criminal prosecution if she did not agree to wear a wire against President Bill Clinton.

Lewinsky, now 41, has long felt that she was mistreated by authorities in the 12-hour marathon session, which began as an ambush at the food court at the Pentagon City mall and then moved to a hotel room at the mall's adjoining Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Sounds  pretty bad, right?  I mean, this behavior has to be a gross violation of Ms. Lewinsky's constitutional rights.

Well, ummmmm.......

Convicted Sex Offender Accused of Rape: Authorities in Texas have arrested a convicted sex offender who is accused of raping two young girls and infecting them with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.  Mike Glenn of the Houston Chronicle reports that 33-year-old David Wilson is believed to have sexually assaulted his niece, who was just under 2-years-old at the time, and his ex-girlfriend's 14-year-old daughter.  Wilson was sentenced to four years in prison in 2004 after being found guilty of sexually assaulting another 14-year-old girl, he is currently being held in county jail without bond.

Parolee Charged in Cold Case Killing: An Illinois parolee with a lengthy criminal past has been charged with first-degree murder for a 2002 cold case killing.  Fox Chicago reports that 40-year-old Steven Podkulski was paroled on Wednesday after serving just five years of a 10-year sentence for a burglary conviction, police arrested him for the murder immediately after he was released from custody.  Podkulski is currently in county jail facing one count of first-degree murder and is being held on a $3 million bond.

Convicted Felon Shoots at CA Police Officer: A California man is behind bars and facing a possible life sentence after shooting at a police officer earlier this week.  Andrea Castillo of the Fresno Bee reports that 34-year-old Patrick Hall, who already has two prior felony 'strikes' against him, fired his gun while the officer held onto the barrel during an arrest attempt, the officer was taken to the hospital and is recovering after sustaining a severe burn to the palm of his hand.  If convicted, this will be Hall's third felony strike and he will face a possible life sentence.

Nobody is perfect, and even the nation's highest courts sometimes make mistakes in their opinions.  When the California Supreme Court makes a mistake and needs to modify an opinion, it issues a modification order like this.

Not so at the U.S. Supreme Court.  Opinions come out in four forms.  There is the bench opinion used to announce the decision live in court.  That one has a shorter life span than a fruit fly.  Almost immediately we get the slip opinion.  That one is posted on the Court's website, and it is the one we link to on this blog for same-day commentary. 

After the slip opinion, unofficial versions are printed by the West Publishing Company (S.Ct.) and Lexis Law Publishing (L.Ed.2d), but the Court is not involved in these.

The slip opinion remains the official opinion until publication of the preliminary print, currently running about four years after the opinion date.  Why so long?  Beats me.  After another year or so we get the bound volume, which will be the final, official word on the shelf of the law library forevermore.  The BVs are also available in PDF form on Court's website, with the caveat that the dead-tree version and not the digital one is official, if there is any difference.

Sometimes there are changes between these versions, but there is generally not a public announcement.  Adam Liptak reports at the NYT:

The defense bar is hopping mad about the denial of cert in the Jones case.  There, the Court declined to hear a challenge to the use of acquitted conduct in fashioning the sentence.  Kent discussed it here, and I did here.

Etienne speculated that some justices may have felt the facts of the Jones case were "too good" to be a vehicle for making a broad pronouncement on the issue. She explained that Jones involved a judge ignoring an actual acquittal by a jury, whereas a more common scenario is a judge basing an enhanced sentence on conduct that may or may not have been charged or was not part of a plea agreement. Ruling on a case involving an actual acquittal might leave the broader issue unresolved.

Attorney General Holder was asked in a CNN interview what his biggest regret was looking back at his tenure in office.  John Hinderaker has this take on it:

Holder was asked by the interviewer, what was your biggest failure as Attorney General? He had so many to choose from! Politicizing the Justice Department, Fast and Furious, stonewalling the House of Representatives, allowing the legalization of marijuana contrary to federal law, failure to enforce the immigration laws, and lots more. But naturally, Holder didn't mention any of those failures.

Accused Murderer Faces Death Penalty in Two States: An Illinois man who sparked a two-state manhunt last month will now face death penalty trials in both Ohio and Kentucky for his crimes.  Jill Drury of WDTN News reports that 41-year-old Terry Froman is accused of murdering a teenager in Kentucky and then kidnapping the boy's mother and driving her to Ohio, where he shot and killed her as well.  Froman will face murder charges in Kentucky first, then face kidnapping and murder charges in Ohio, he is being held on $1 million bond.

Convicted Sex Offender Identified as Murder Suspect: An Indiana man is behind bars and facing murder charges after confessing to killing at least seven women.  CBS Chicago reports that 43-year-old Darren Vann, who is a registered sex offender in Texas, allegedly told police that the murders date back to as many as 20 years ago, and so far, all of his victims appear to be women.  Vann claims to have victims in other states as well, but is only choosing to discuss his Indiana victims because the state has the death penalty and he wants to be executed for his crimes.

Parole Denied for Convicted Cop Killer: One of the men convicted of murdering a Massachusetts police chief will remain behind bars after being denied parole for the second time since being convicted two decades ago.  Scott J. Croteau of The Telegram reports that 42-year-old Kenneth B. Padgett, along with two co-defendants, were breaking into homes and stole a vehicle on the morning of February 1, 1994, when the officer pursued them one of the men fired several rounds piercing his lung and heart, leaving him for dead.  Since being incarcerated, Croteau has had several disciplinary issues and involved himself in a white supremacist gang.  His next parole hearing will be in a few years.

The Attorney General has directed that appeal waivers in plea agreements should no longer require that defendants waive the right to raise ineffective assistance of counsel claims.  The story is covered here on SL&P, and the Deputy Attorney General's memo is here. 

Rapist/ Murderer Released from Prison: An Oregon man convicted of raping and murdering a high school classmate more than two decades ago has been released from custody.  Emily E. Smith of The Oregonian reports that Conrad Engweiler, who was 15-years-old at the time of the killing, was convicted of raping and strangling Erin Tonna Reynolds to death in 1990, he was originally sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 30 years but that sentence was eventually reduced after several parole hearings.  Engweiler will be required to register as a sex offender and will be supervised for a minimum of three years.

Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty Against Accused Killers: Prosecutors in Georgia intend to seek death sentences for a pair of men accused of kidnapping and murdering a young couple in August 2014.  Steve Visser of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the two men are accused of kidnapping a man and his pregnant wife for ransom.  The couple was later found shot to death just miles away from their home.  One of the suspects, 40-year-old Cleveland Gay, was released on parole earlier this year after serving nearly 22 years of a life sentence he received in 1992 for murdering two people when he was 15-years-old.

Murderer Sentenced to Life: A Washington man convicted of murdering two people and nearly killing a third has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole.  KOMO News reports that 39-year-old Aaron Livingston agreed to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the beating death of his girlfriend and a man he suspected she was having and affair with.  After the murders, Livingston tried to kill a 60-year-old family friend by strangling her with an electrical cord. 

Ex Con Charged With Murder: A repeat felon has been arrested and charged with killing a Northern California man and then shooting the man's mother earlier this year.  KTVU News reports that 34-year-old Demond Spikes shot the man in the abdomen and the head before turning the gun on his mother and shooting her through a sliding glass door.  If convicted, Spikes faces a possible life sentence since he already has two prior felony convictions and this would become his third strike.

Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Accused Killer: Prosecutors in Kansas have announced their plans to seek the death penalty for a man accused of murdering his adoptive parents.  Tim Potter of the Wichita Eagle reports that 19-year-old Anthony Bluml began resenting his parents after he was kicked out of the home for smoking marijuana.  Police believe he killed his parents in order to gain access to the couple's life insurance.  Bluml is just one of four defendants charged in the murder.  His biological mother also participated in the killings and has also been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Realignment Offender Linked  to Car Theft Ring: A California man currently on Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS) for a vehicle theft conviction has been arrested yet again for stealing more vehicles and knowingly receiving stolen property.  Allison Gatlin of The Californian reports that 45-year-old Gary Dean had been arrested at least six times between 2006 and 2011 on a variety of charges.  IN 2011 he was arrested after leading police on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle.  He was released on PRCS after serving time behind bars.  Dean is currently being held in county jail on a number of charges including vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, and possession of stolen vehicles.

Murderer Sentenced to Nine Life Terms: A California judge has sentenced the leader of a notorious Mexican drug trafficking gang to nine life terms without the possibility of parole after being found guilty on multiple counts of murder and kidnapping.  KUSI News reports that 35-year-old Juan Estrada Gonzalez was sentenced to 29 years in prison in Mexico in 2003, but he escaped and came to the United States, where prosecutors say he murdered six people between 2004 and 2007.  Estrada Gonzalez's co-defendant was also sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

NJ High Court Upholds Attempted Murder Conviction: The New Jersey Supreme Court has upheld the attempted murder conviction for a man found guilty of shooting a police officer in 2012.  WMUR News reports that Myles Webster was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison for shooting the officer multiple times at close range, leaving him critically injured.  Webster appealed his conviction based claiming that he was wrongly identified by the officer and witnesses interviewed at the scene of the crime.     

Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty Against Florida Man: Prosecutors in Florida will seek the death penalty for a man charged with the of killing his girlfriend's one-year-old son.  The Tampa Bay Times reports that 24-year-old Austin Hamilton allegedly beat the young boy repeatedly with a belt before dropping him on his head, resulting in his death.  Hamilton admitted to police that he 'lost control' while changing the boy's diaper and hit him multiple times with a belt, but has pled not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges.

UC Irvine Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky's new book attacking the Supreme Court has caused Volokh Conspirator Orin Kerr to "wonder[] if he was just criticizing the Supreme Court for not agreeing with his policy preferences."

Orin has this Q-and-A with Dean Chemerinsky in which Chemerinsky attempts to answer that question "no," but even the left-leaning commenters on the post mostly agree that he ends up demonstrating that the answer is "yes."

Among the cases to which cert was denied today was a very big sentencing case, Jones v. US, No. 13-10026.  The basic issue was whether a sentencing judge could take account of "acquitted conduct."  The DC Circuit, in conformity with others, said yes, and the Supremes allowed its judgment to stand.

In almost every debate about policy, someone asserts confidently that "studies show" whatever supports their position.  However, what "studies show" is not necessarily so.  Occasionally on this blog we highlight why the neat little bottom line result that makes the newspaper may not be true.  Sometimes, the reason involves inherent difficulties in studying a particular area, fully disclosed by the researcher, but deemed too complicated for a newspaper article.  Sometimes it is simple sloppiness on the part of the researcher.  In the worst case, it represents intentional manipulation by an agenda-driven researcher intent on producing "evidence" for a predetermined position.

Eugene Volokh has this comment at VC on a study that purports to show that Supreme Court Justices are more likely to vote for protection of a speaker in First Amendment cases if they are ideologically aligned with that speaker.

Before studiers can crunch numbers, they have to reduce real-world realities to simple numbers.  This is called coding and there is a lot of opportunity for either error or distortion in this process.

Convicted Murderer Beats Mother to Death: A New Jersey man is in custody and charged with beating his mother to death just days after he was released from serving a 30-year prison sentence for murder.  The Associated Press reports that 45-year-old Steven Pratt allegedly beat his mother to death Sunday morning after his family threw a welcome-home party for him celebrating his release from prison.  In 1984, Pratt was convicted of murdering his next-door neighbor when he was 15-years-old and sentenced to 30 years in prison after being tried as an adult, he is once again facing first-degree murder charges and is being held on $1 million bail.

OK Attorney General Seeks to Delay Upcoming Executions: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed a notice seeking to delay three of the state's upcoming executions.  The Associated Press reports that the attorney general has announced that the state needs more time to obtain execution drugs and time to train staff on new execution protocols.  Oklahoma put all executions on hold after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett earlier this year.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oklahoma-executions-delayed-attorney-general-article-1.1972508

Convicted Killer Sentenced to 160 Years in Prison: A Chicago man has been sentenced to 160 years in prison after being found guilty of stabbing to death a 14-year-old girl nearly three years ago during a botched home robbery.  ABC News reports that 41-year-old John Wilson Jr., an ex-con, stole the young girl's cellphone after killing her and taunted her mother by sending text messages from her phone.  Wilson was given the maximum sentence for the killing, as the state of Illinois does not have the death penalty.

When the President traded five high-value Taliban commanders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in patent violation of United States law, we were told that there would be, in good time, a full investigation into the circumstances under which Bergdahl left his unit and wound up with the enemy.  But a full investigation would take weeks, perhaps months.  In the meantime, the first priority was to see to Sgt. Bergdahl's health.  There would be, so we were assured, an accounting later whether Bergdahl was, as many in his unit charged, a shirker and a deserter.

I [may have] overestimated the President's willingness to act directly and take responsibility for letting Bergdahl off the hook.  It now appears more likely that, while I was correct in saying there isn't going to be any honest investigation, there may not be any pardon as such, either.  Why should there be? Why should there be, that is, when the President can just believe  --  not unintelligently  -- that, if dragged out for long enough, the whole thing will disappear into the fog of even more prominent scandals?

Monday is Columbus Day, a government holiday, so the orders list from today's conference will be issued Tuesday.  Today the Court issued a single order lifting a stay in one of the same-sex marriage cases, presumably from the conference though not on the list.  Cert Pool has the list.  SCOTUSblog has its list of Petitions to Watch.  More on that after the break.

Tuesday's arguments feature an "original jurisdiction" case, one of the few that the Constitution allows to be filed directly in SCOTUS, not appealed from a lower court.  Yep, states suing each other over rivers again.  Also a case about state regulators and antitrust.

Wednesday's calendar has a civil case about appellate courts reviewing district court factual findings.  That might have something of interest for those who do federal habeas cases, which are technically civil.

The case most relevant to this blog, also Wednesday, is Jennings v. Stephens.  It has to do with the procedural requirements for a habeas petitioner who prevails on one issue but loses on the others, and who wants the court of appeals to review the others when the state appeals on the one it lost.  Does he need to cross-appeal?  Does he need a certificate of appealability? 

If he needs a COA for rejected claims, how finely do we parse the claims?  If the petitioner says his lawyer was ineffective for reasons A, B, and C, and the district court says A and B were fine but C was ineffective, does he need a COA for A and B?

CJLF has filed one of its very few briefs disagreeing, in part, with the prosecution.  We take the position (disagreeing with the petitioner) that he does indeed need a COA for rejected claims, but we also believe (disagreeing with the state) that ineffective assistance is one claim for each phase of the trial.

Man Wearing GPS Device Arrested on Drug Charges: A Massachusetts man on federal probation for drug possession and distribution has been arrested again for drug sales despite having a GPS monitoring device attached to his ankle.  George Graham of The Republican reports that 26-year-old David Faust was arrested Thursday afternoon for selling cocaine, OxyContin, and marijuana throughout the city of Springfield, Massachusetts.  Faust has a lengthy criminal past and has been arrested on multiple occasions for drug possession and sales.

DNA Links Man to Cold Case Murder: A Texas man is behind bars and facing murder charges after a DNA sample linked him to a 2008 cold case killing.  Shaley Sanders of KCBD News reports that 43-year-old Billy Lumbaugh Jr. is the man believed to be responsible for killing a Lubbock woman in 2008 and dumping her body in a field.  In addition to the murder charge, Lumbaugh was also linked to an unsolved rape and an unsolved kidnapping and robbery. 

Kansas Man Faces Possible Death Sentence: A Kansas man faces a possible death sentence if he is found guilty in the brutal murders of a mother and her three young children.  Jeff Lehr of CNHR News reports that 23-year-old David C. Bennett Jr. allegedly broke into the woman's home and sexually assaulted her in the middle of the night.  He returned hours later and strangled the woman and her three young children to death.  Bennett is currently being held in county jail on charges of first-degree murder and rape.

Curt Hulse reports at NYT's First Draft:

The White House is moving more quickly than anticipated to select a new attorney general and is poised to announce President Obama's choice before the Nov. 4 election, with Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez emerging as a leading candidate.

Many on Capitol Hill expected the president to wait until after the election to avoid making the nominee a campaign issue for embattled Democratic Senate candidates. But people familiar with the administration's planning now say an announcement could come in the next few weeks.

No final decision has been made, they said, but Mr. Perez, 53, a former Justice Department civil rights official and the son of Dominican immigrants, is at the top of the list. His nomination would be applauded by many Hispanic leaders. And he has a compelling personal story, having worked as a trash collector to help put himself through Brown University.

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Mr. Perez was opposed for the labor post by Republicans, who branded him an ideologue who selectively enforced civil rights laws. But Democrats could push the nomination through in a lame-duck session on a simple majority vote.

Well, maybe we need trash collection experience given all the garbage we have gotten from Mr. Holder, but I seriously doubt Mr. Perez is the man for the job.  For those who thought the next AG would have to be an improvement, maybe not.

My first job after high school was shoveling sand into sandbags at the White Sands Missile Range.  Maybe I should apply, given all the sandbagging Mr. Holder has done in response to congressional investigations.

Brent Kendall reports in the WSJ on developments in voter ID cases.

Voter identification laws suffered setbacks in two states on Thursday, with the U.S. Supreme Court blocking Wisconsin from imposing its voter-identification measure during the midterm elections and a federal judge in Texas striking down that state's ID law.

The Supreme Court's action in Wisconsin marked its third recent intervention in a high-profile election case, and the first before the high court in which advocates for minority voters prevailed.

The justices in the two other cases allowed Ohio to cut back on early voting and cleared North Carolina to impose new, tighter voting rules.

The high court in each case effectively put the brakes on lower court rulings that would have prompted late changes in election procedures in the run-up to the Nov. 4 day.

Meanwhile, a U.S. District Judge in Texas said that state's voter ID law amounted to an "unconstitutional poll tax," an outcome the state said it would immediately appeal.

The unfortunate thing about this "avoid late changes" approach is that the timing of an order rather than its merit may determine whether it is in effect for the election.  If the Fifth Circuit follows the same pattern, it will stay the District Court's order.  It won't matter that much in Texas, where the most important races aren't close.  But the Wisconsin governor's race is a tossup, and if the final tally is close enough, the deceased vote could tip the balance.

Update:  Text of the order and dissent follows the break.

Florida Teen Sentenced to Life in Prison: A Florida teen convicted of murdering two people during a carjacking attempt in 2011 has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.  NBC Miami reports that 19-year-old Eric Ellington told authorities that he shot one of his victims 11 times at point blank range because he "didn't look scared enough" when Ellington demanded that he get out of his vehicle.  Ellington's two accomplices at the time of the killings have also been charged with first-degree murder and are awaiting sentencing.

Man Extradited in Decades-Old Cold Case: A California man has been extradited to Kentucky in order to face charges in the murder of a 20-month-old baby more than 40 years ago.  Matthew Glowicki of The Courier-Journal reports that 65-year-old Lawrence Beck brought his girlfriend's son to the hospital in December of 1971 claiming that the child was unresponsive due to illness.  Doctors were unable to revive the boy and quickly determined that he exhibited signs of severe abuse.  Due to limited forensic technology, police were unable to make an arrest.  Police now believe they have enough forensic evidence to convict Beck of murder.  He is currently being held in a Kentucky county jail on $500,000 bond.

Alabama Man Convicted in Triple Homicide: An Alabama killer now faces a possible death sentence after being found guilty of murdering three men at a party in 2012.  CBS News reports that 24-year-old Desmonte Leonard was convicted on several counts of murder and attempted murder.  At a party in Auburn in June 2012 Leonard fired his gun nine times into a crowd leaving three men dead and three others wounded.  Leonard faces a minimum sentence of life without parole.

High Court Rejects Death Penalty Appeal: The United States Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Texas man convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1997.  Lou Antonelli of the Daily Tribune reports that Robert Charles Ladd was sentenced to death in 1997 after being found guilty of brutally raping and murdering a woman before setting her home on fire.  The victim's family is hopeful that since the appeal was denied, an execution date will be set in the near future.

Illegal Immigrant Responsible for Hit and Run: Police in North Carolina revealed that the man responsible for running over two young children last week and then fleeing the scene was an illegal immigrant with an active deportation warrant.  Lisa Boykin Batts of The Wilson Times reports that a county judge raised Marcos Santiaga Bautista's bond from $30,000 to more than $1 million after realizing he was a fugitive.  In addition to the felony hit and run charge, Bautista has also been charged with several other crimes including failure to register a motor vehicle and displaying fictitious registration.

Execution Date set for Convicted Killer: Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has signed a December 2 execution date for convicted murderer Michael Ballard.  Tom Shortell of The Express-Times reports that Ballard pled guilty to murdering four people in a brutal knife attack in 2010.  If the execution is carried out as planned, this will be the first execution carried out in the state of Pennsylvania since 1999.

It's not a good sign when most of your argument before the U.S. Supreme Court is taken up with being grilled by the Justices on whether you have asked the right question, without all that much discussion of whether you have the right answer.  That happened today in the argument of Jeff Fisher for the petitioner in Heien v. North Carolina, No. 13-604.  The transcript is here.

Questions and potential questions in this case include:

1.  Is it legal to drive in North Carolina with only one of the two originally installed brake lights working?

2.  If so, does a police officer's stop of a vehicle in the reasonable belief it is not (there being no published decision to the contrary and the statute being ambiguous at most) violate the Fourth Amendment and the parallel provision of the North Carolina Constitution?

3.  If so, is suppression of the resulting evidence (drugs in the car) required?

Suppose someone who is angry at you says he is going to hunt you down and kill you.  Suppose further that all of the circumstances of the statement are consistent with him really meaning it.  If the police go and arrest him for making criminal threats, and he says "oh, I was just kidding," is that a defense?  If the jury believes him, or if the prosecution is unable to disprove the claim beyond a reasonable doubt, does he walk?  Does the First Amendment require this result?  That is the issue before the United States Supreme Court in Elonis v. United States, No. 13-983.