Results matching “first”

CA Prop 34 Radio Debate: KQED Radio's Michael Krasney hosted a live debate on whether CA should end the death penalty with Proposition 34. Debating was Death Penalty Focus Executive Director Jeanne Woodford and Criminal Justice Legal Foundation Legal Director Kent Scheidegger. The full audio is here.

Detroit Homicide Rates Rising: Huff Post Detroit headlines the murder rate in Detroit has increased by 5.2 percent since the beginning of the year, compared to last year. In a press release, the Detroit Police Department states there had been 263 homicides up to Sunday, with 250 in 2011.

FBI Begins Implementing Facial Recognition Program: Radell Smith of the Examiner reports the FBI launched a facial recognition program called the Next Generation Identification Program (NGI). Image identification was previously done through the FBI's Forensic, Audio, Video, and Image Analysis Unit (FAVIAU). The new $1B program will compare criminal images from a database to those of individuals being tracked in surveillance footage. NGI will be used in, but not limited to, cases of unknown child abductors or to locate suspects in large crowds. Only national criminal FBI database mug shots will be scanned by NGI. The FBI expects the program to be implemented nationwide by 2014.

9th Guantanamo Bay Detainee Dies: The Associated Press reports Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detainee Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif died Saturday. He was the ninth detainee to die since GITMO opened. In 2010, a federal district court judge had ordered Latif freed, but he remained detained until the ruling was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals last year. Latif was one of the first to be detained after GITMO opened in January 2002. Latif was in disciplinary lockup for such acts as a hunger strike, throwing bodily fluids on guards, and his own blood on his volunteer lawyer in 2009. Latif was found Saturday in his cell, unresponsive. The military has performed an autopsy, but the findings have not been released.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, military commissions were set up to deliver swift justice to the profoundly evil perpetrators of the attacks.  Some delays were inevitable, but few thought we would still be waiting for justice 11 years later.

The first priority upon capture of al-Qaeda honchos, of course, was extraction of crucial intelligence.  Through severe but nontorturous methods such as waterboarding, we obtained the information to prevent further attacks and eventually kill the head honcho, Osama bin Laden.  There were further delays from legal challenges, and Congress had to act more than once with legislation on detainees and commissions.

Then in 2009, we were hit with a huge and completely unnecessary delay.  The incoming Obama Administration came up with its disastrous scheme to drop the commissions and try the detainees in civilian court in New York.  Congress pushed back, to its credit, and we were back to the commissions.

Yet the process drags on.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammad is still alive, despite the lack of any question that he committed the crime or that the crime warrants death.  He has been detained so long and already spilled so much that it is highly unlikely he has any useful information left to disclose.

Military commissions are under the control of the commander-in-chief.  Does he put any priority on carrying out justice in these cases?  Not that I can see.

Eric Holder once said of these cases that "failure is not an option."  The Administration has already failed.  Excessive and unnecessary delay of justice is failure.

Howard Mintz has this story in the San Jose Mercury-News:

With California voters readying to consider whether to retain the death penalty, two prominent district attorneys, including San Mateo County's, are mounting a rebel legal campaign to kick-start executions in San Quentin's long-dormant death chamber.

Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley has been heading the charge, moving in recent months to sidestep legal obstacles that have put executions on hold for nearly seven years and secure execution dates for condemned killers Mitchell Sims and Tiequon Cox.

Don Babwin reports for AP:

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) -- Drew Peterson, the former Illinois police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger wife vanished in 2007, was convicted Thursday of murdering a previous wife in a case centered on secondhand hearsay statements from both women.

Peterson, 58, sat stoically looking straight ahead and did not react as the judge announced jurors had found him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Her relatives gasped, then hugged each other as they cried quietly.

Illinois has no death penalty, and Peterson now faces a maximum 60-year prison term when sentenced Nov. 26.

The trial was the first of its kind in Illinois history, with prosecutors building their case largely on hearsay thanks to a new law, dubbed "Drew's Law," tailored to Peterson's case. That hearsay, prosecutors had said, would let his third and fourth wives "speak from their graves" through family and friends to convict Peterson.

Hearsay is any information reported by a witness that is not based on the witness' direct knowledge. Defense attorneys said its use at the trial would be central to their appeal.

Savio's family members were emotional as they left the courtroom. Her sister, Susan Dorman, threw herself into the arms of her husband, Mitch Dorman.

"Finally, finally, finally. ... We finally got that murdering bastard," Savio's brother-in-law, Mitch Dorman, said.

This is one area where the Supreme Court's rewrite of Confrontation Clause jurisprudence in Crawford v. Washington may actually work to the benefit of the prosecution.  It's hard to see the statements in question being "testimonial" within the meaning of Crawford.  If a statement is not "testimonial," its admissibility becomes just a matter of state evidence law.

Jurors in Drew Peterson Trial Begin Deliberations: The Associated Press reports that jurors in the case of Drew Peterson began deliberations Wednesday in Illinois. Peterson pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the death of his third wife in 2004. Her death was initially considered an accident, with no physical evidence collected, until Peterson's fourth wife disappeared in 2007. The case is the first in Ill. without any physical evidence.

Mother of Kidnapped, Murdered Girl Will Attend Execution: The Associated Press reports Tina Curl has raised enough money to attend the execution of her daughter's killer, Donald Moeller, in South Dakota. Moeller was convicted of kidnapping, raping, stabbing, and slashing the throat of Curl's 9-year-old daughter in 1990. The execution is set to take place between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3. Prison officials will decide the exact date and time.

TX Juvenile Rapist Up for Parole: Andrea Watkins and Damali Keith of My Fox Houston News report convicted juvenile rapist Venancio Medellin had a parole hearing Tuesday morning. Medellin confessed to raping a 14-year-old girl when he was 14 and watching 5 others rape, rob, beat and strangle the girl and her 16-year-old best friend to death in a gang initiation in 1993. Among the murderers was his older brother, the infamous Jose Ernesto Medellin, who was executed in 2008.  Medellin has become eligible for parole after serving 19 years of his 40-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child. The father of the 14-year-old victim testified before the Texas Parole Board asking for Medellin to remain in prison. Three of the murderers were executed and two others who were juveniles are serving a life sentence. The parole board will announce their decision when ready.

AL Requires Prison Visitors Fingerprint Scans: Marty Roney of USA Today reports visitors at Alabama prisons are required to submit fingerprint scans as of August. Alabama is the first state in the country to impose a prison visitor fingerprint requirement policy. The fingerprints are used strictly for visitor identification verification, and are not stored in a database or shared with other enforcement agencies at any level.

TX Prisons Will Block Smuggled Cell Phones: Mike Ward of Statesman News reports TX will begin blocking calls from smuggled cell phones at two prisons later this year. The system will resemble the CA system of managed-access, and will intercept all outgoing calls and put through only previously approved calls. All other calls will be stopped.

Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton has this piece today:

If you're going to argue against the death penalty, then argue against the death penalty....

But to argue against the death penalty by stating it's too expensive for California is intellectually dishonest and disrespectful to the victims of the state's most heinous criminals.

Yet that is what proponents of Proposition 34 are doing. The November ballot initiative seeks to repeal California's death penalty law and allow death row inmates to be resentenced to life without parole.

The same people pushing for Proposition 34 - the American Civil Liberties Union, among others - are the ones primarily responsible for California spending too much on death row prisoners in the first place.

Legal delays caused by the ACLU and others are a big reason why California has executed only 13 people since 1978 at a cost of $4 billion.

And yes, those numbers are obscene - just as it's obscene that California has 729 death row inmates.

But Proposition 34 will fail as an argument about money because 68 percent of Californians support the death penalty, according to a 2011 Field Poll.

But a money argument? Who in California believes it anymore when ballot initiatives claim big savings being one "yes" vote away?

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It's not extremely expensive to house serial killers and child rapists until they die? This is not to mention the horrific stories of people victimized by death row inmates - stories that will be detailed in future columns.

In truth, executions could be sped up if not for the efforts of Proposition 34 proponents.

It would be nice if some of them argued the courage of their convictions before Election Day.

CA Debates Prop 34: Sam Stanton of the Sacramento Bee reports the debate over Proposition 34, which would end the death penalty and resentence death row inmates to life in prison without parole if passed, has increased with the vote approaching. Supporters of Prob 34 argue the death penalty is too expensive. However, opponents to the proposition point out supporters of Prop 34 are responsible for creating the extensive hurdles limiting the carrying out of executions in California. Since 1978, only 13 murderers have been executed. There are currently 729 inmates on death row. The primary reason for this are lawsuits challenging CA's 3-drug protocol. According to Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully, adopting the single-drug protocol would fix the state's death penalty system. CJLF Legal Director Kent Scheidegger noted that 13 of the inmates on death row have exhausted all appeals and could be executed immediately. CA voters will consider Prop 34 in November.

CA Death Penalty Defense Lawyers Drive Up Costs: Kevin Fagan of SF Gate reports since Douglas "Chief" Stankewitz was sentenced to death in CA, the first since 1977, 57 other Death Row inmates have died of natural causes before being executed. Stankewitz was convicted of shooting a young black Fresno woman point blank in the head. Proponents for Prop 34 argue re-sentencing Death Row inmates to life in prison without parole would save the state money. Opponents to Prop 34, including Stankewitz, say that the costs accrued by the state's death penalty process can be reduced.  Defense lawyers in capital cases are said to be making "big bucks", driving up costs by filing decades' worth of appeals in each case.

Matching Jurors in Drew Peterson Case: The Associated Press reports the 12 jurors in the case of Drew Peterson have been coordinating their court outfits the past month. The matching attire has included not only color matching, such as all yellow, black, blue or green, but also business suits and sports jerseys. Peterson has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering his third wife, who was found dead in her bathtub in 2004. Initially, her death was believed to be a suicide, but it was reclassified as a homicide following the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife in 2007, for which he has not been charged. Closing arguments began Tuesday morning.

Mass. Prison System to Provide Inmate Sex-Change: Kari Huus of NBC News reports that U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ordered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections Tuesday to provide sex-change surgery for transgender LWOP inmate Michelle Kosilek, born Robert Kosilek.  Kosilek was convicted of murdering his wife in 1990. Kosilek won a initial lawsuit in 2002 which allowed him to undergo hormone treatments and live as a woman in an all-male prison. Kosilek's gender identity disorder has led to his attempted self castration and two suicide attempts.  Kosilek's lawsuit in 2006 resulted in the judge's ruling that, by failing to provide Kosilek with sex-change surgery, the state prison system had violated his 8th Amendment right to adequate treatment for his serious medical need. The Mass. DOC has not stated whether it would appeal the ruling.

Charles Manson Album Released: Alyssa Newcomb of ABC News reports a vinyl album from convicted mass murderer Charles Manson has sold a couple hundred copies at a Hollywood, CA boutique. The album includes never-before-heard tracks of Manson playing guitar and reciting poetry and spoken word lyrics dating back to the 1980s. It is said to have the sound of raw country or old blues. Manson will not make any profit or receive any royalties from album sales.

From this week's NCJRS accessions list:  Daniel B. Freedman, Determining the Long-Term Risks of Recidivism and Registration Failures Among Sexual Offenders, Federal Probation Volume:76 Issue:1 Dated: June 2012 Pages:14-18:

Abstract:

Recidivism, defined as new convictions in this study, was 28.49 percent. This is within the range of 20 to 40 percent found in many other studies (Hanson and Bussiere, 1998; Hanson and Morton-Bourgon, 2005). The current study found that the sample (191 individuals registered as sexual offenders in North Carolina) were at high risk for recidivism for an extended period; however, the greatest risk is during the first several years of tracking. Age was negatively associated with recidivism, but previous convictions had a positive association with recidivism. Registration failures occurred at a rate of 21.51 percent, which doubled the observations from other research (Duwe and Donnay, 2010); (Levenson et al., 2010). Registration failure increased the likelihood of recidivism by 64 percent. The correlates and predictors of recidivism and registration failures are race (Black and White), age, previous convictions, and offender type (adult victims or child victims). All data came from the North Carolina Department of Corrections, North Carolina Sex Offender Registry, and a county sheriff's department. Bivariate analysis and multivariate statistics were used in the study. Study limitations are noted, and implications are drawn for future research. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 28 references.

Note the definition of recidivism as new convictions within the 9 year period.  While the author considers that to be a "balanced" approach, it significantly understates the actual reoffense rate.  A new conviction requires not only a new offense but getting caught and proof beyond a reasonable doubt.  The actual number of new offenses is higher, but we don't know how much higher.

What does "previous convictions had a positive association with recidivism" mean in plain English?  The more times he's done it before, the more likely he is to do it again.

One of the most effective speakers at the just-concluded Republican National Convention was former Congressman Artur Davis (formerly D - Ala).  His previous convention speech was in 2008, when he nominated Barack Obama for the presidency.  This year, he asked forgiveness for his error and wowed the audience.  Nothing like that convert zeal.

So do the Democrats have a convert for their convention?  Yes, they do, and stunningly it is Governor Lincoln Chafee (nominally I - RI).  Ted Nesi has this story for WPRI.

Governor Chafee is presently involved in litigation with the Obama Administration, in which Chafee is trying to help murderer Jason Pleau get off with less than he deserves.  Pleau is being prosecuted by the feds, who intend to seek the death penalty.  The basis of Chafee's objection is not that Pleau's crime should not be considered federal (which I have previously noted would be a defensible position), but merely that Chafee disagrees with the policy decision of Congress to permit the sentence of death in cases such as this and the decision of DoJ to seek that penalty in this particular case.  The plea of Deborah Smith, the victim's sister, fell on deaf ears.

Chafee lost the battle in the First Circuit (post here), and the case is presently pending in the Supreme Court as Chafee v. United States, No. 12-223.

Chafee probably won't mention Jason Pleau or Deborah Smith in his speech.  The campaign probably won't explain why it invited a murderer-friendly obstructor of justice.

50-Page Limit for CA Successive Habeas Petitions: Scott Graham of The Recorder reports on the California Supreme Court's ruling Thursday, that all successive capital habeas corpus petitions be limited to 50-pages, spelling out which claims are new, which have been previously raised and rejected, which could have been raised, and which claims a federal court deemed unexhausted. A violation of the page limit may result in financial sanctions, State Bar discipline, or both. There will continue to be no limits on initial habeas petitions. The court found the second state habeas petition filed in In re Reno was an abusive writ, according to Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar for a unanimous court. The 2004 writ was 519 pages long and raised 143 claims, many of which had been raised and rejected in Reno's first petition.

CA Death Row Inmate Attacks 2 Prison Guards: Jason Kandel of NBC Los Angeles News reports San Quentin death row inmate Timothy McGhee allegedly attacked two prison guards with a shank when returning to his cell after a shower Thursday. The guards suffered slash wounds to their head, neck, and arms. McGhee was a former gang leader in LA called Toonerville which had about 200 members. He was previously one of the United States Marshals Service's Top 15 Most Wanted Fugitives, and was arrested in 2003 following a three year international manhunt. In 2009, McGhee was convicted and sentenced to death for killing three people from 1997 and 2001, and attempting to kill one other.  Terri Thornton, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the motive for the attack is unknown.

LA County Utilizes Inmate Screening Software: Jason Song of the Los Angeles Times reports Los Angeles county will begin using a computer software to help the Sheriff's Department decide which jail inmates to let out early. The program, dubbed Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, or COMPAS, places inmates on a 10-point scale to determine their likelihood to reoffend. It considers data compiled from a 137-question survey completed by each inmate. The questions address inmate personalities, emotions, anger management, family history, drug use, and gang activity. The program has already classified 45% of about 3,400 surveyed inmates as low-risk and eligible for electronic monitoring.  Convicts determined to be low-risk would be subject to three additional reviews prior to release. Sheriffs' officials must prove to the Board of Supervisors that the software will not create any new threats to public safety before it can be fully deployed.

Death Sentence for Penn. Torture Killer: The Associated Press reports on a Pennsylvania jury that recommended the death penalty for murderer Melvin Knight, Thursday. Knight pleaded guilty to participating in the kidnap and torture killing of a mentally disabled woman in 2010. Knight and his accomplices bound the victim in his apartment with Christmas lights, cut off her hair, and sexually assaulted and tortured her for two days.  They then forced her to drink a mixture of human waste, bleach, and prescriptions. When she did not die, Knight stabbed the victim, then choked her with the lights. Knight and an accomplice Ricky Smyres wrapped the victim in plastic and dumped her body in a trash can. Another accomplice, Smyres then-girlfriend, Angela Marinucci, was sentenced to life in prison. Amber Meidinger, who has a child with Knight, was also a participant and is awaiting trial and a possible death sentence. Smyres, who did not enter a plea, will be tried in October.

Part of the strategy against the death penalty is to bury the courts in reams of paper containing every conceivable claim, most of which are bull manure.  Today the Justices of the California Supreme Court said unanimously that they are mad as hell and not going to take it any more.  Well, not exactly in those words, but close.  "[I]t is the considered opinion of the court that we face an emergency situation in which the time and effort required to read and evaluate wholly meritless and abusive exhaustion petitions threatens to undermine the proper functioning of this court."  (In re Reno, S124660.)

Wait, don't the ABA Guidelines require that "Post-conviction counsel should seek to litigate all issues, whether or not previously presented, that are arguably meritorious under the standards applicable to high quality capital defense representation, including challenges to any overly restrictive procedural rules"?  Yes, but California's high court told the ABA it doesn't much care what they think, citing the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Bobby v. Van Hook.  "Habeas corpus counsel, like appellate counsel, 'performs properly and competently when he or she exercises discretion and presents only the strongest claims instead of every conceivable claim.' "  The inner quote is from In re Robbins, which in turn relies on the U.S. Supreme Court opinions in Jones v. Barnes and Smith v. Murray.  See CJLF Brief, p. 9.

The court made some changes in the way all habeas petitions after the first will be handled.  The petitioner is strictly limited to 50 pages unless permission is granted to exceed that limit.  (Look for permission to be asked in every case.)  The reason(s) why the claim is not defaulted must be specified in the initial pleading; no waiting for later in the process.  Defense counsel are on notice that sanctions may be imposed for filing frivolous or abusive petitions.

A big part of the problem here is that capital appellate and habeas representation has become the domain of anti-death-penalty crusaders who do not want the system to work.  Recruitment of noncrusaders has been hampered by the admonitions from the ABA et al. that these massive briefs, the writing of which consumes one's whole practice for years, are ethically required.  Now that the court has clarified that they are ethically forbidden, perhaps we can broaden the pool.

The problems in California's death penalty are fixable.  If the Legislature won't act, many of the needed changes can be made judicially.  Today's decision is a step in the right direction.

Update (rev) (8/31):  Scott Graham has this article for The Recorder on law.com.  Reports of this important case are curiously absent from California's general-interest newspapers.

Humans value justice for its own sake.  There is a lot of research showing that people will punish wrongdoers even when they get no personal benefit from doing so, and up to a point even when it costs them to do so.  In this and other aspects of social life, humans are unique among primates.  New research with chimps confirms this.  Monte Morin reports in the LA Times:

Despite being one of the closest living relatives to humans, chimps lack the urge to punish thieves who are caught red-handed, unless they themselves are the victims, according to a study published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a series of experiments involving 13 furry subjects with names like Frodo, Natascha and Ulla, the animals showed no interest in intervening when they observed a fellow chimpanzee purloining grapes and food pellets from a third chimp.

It was only when a chimp had their own treats stolen that they they got angry and took action - in this case, by opening a trapdoor on the miscreant.

Death Penalty for Killer of Fellow Prisoner: Justin Lewis of KATV reports that Charles Moorman received a death sentence in Arkansas Monday. Moorman was convicted of stabbing a fellow inmate to death in the prison laundry room in 2010. Moorman was serving five consecutive life sentences without parole for five previous murders he admitted to. Prosecuting attorney Kyle Hunter said considering Moorman's criminal past and the current incident, the death penalty was appropriate.

CA Death Row Inmate Suicide Under Investigation: Mary Slosson of the Chicago Tribune reports San Quentin death row inmate Kenneth Friedman died in an apparent suicide Sunday. CDCR Spokesman Sam Robinson said Friedman did not have a cell mate, but declined to state how he was found. Friedman was convicted of the abductions and strangulation of two men from their place of work in 2004. No definitive pronouncement as to Friedman's cause of death can be made until the prison receives the coroner's review.

Speed Freak Killer Further Aids Investigators: Fox News headlines Speed Freak Killer Wesley Shermantine was let out of San Quentin Sunday to help investigators locate victims. Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla believes Shermantine is being offered a reward by the FBI per body. Shermantine had previously provided investigators maps which had led to three locations and 10 bodies being found. Padilla believes the area Shermantine and investigators went Sunday contain 4 more wells with victims. According to Shermantine, he and his accomplices killed 72. If more remains are identified from Sunday, Shermantine will be let out of death row again.

21 Detroit Serial Rapists Identified: Abigail Pesta of the Daily Beast reports the logging and testing of 11,303 forgotten   rape kits, led by Detroit prosecutor Kym Worthy, has identified 21 serial rapists from the first 153 which have been tested. Another 38 DNA matches were also identified in CODIS. The rape kits were stumbled upon in 2009. The logging of the kits has proven challenging due to a lack of an accompanying police report. Each kit must not only be tested, but logged. A $1M federal grant will cover testing for about 1,600 of the rape kits found.

4 Soldiers in Anarchist Militia Group Suspected of Double-Murder: Fox News, with the contribution of the Associated Press, has this article about four army soldiers who shot and killed a former-soldier and his girlfriend in the woods last December. The soldiers' motive was to protect their plot to overthrow the U.S. government and assassinate the president. The four were part of an anarchy militia group called Forever Enduring Always Ready, consisting of current and former U.S. military members. F.E.A.R.'s founder and leader invested $87,000 for weaponry and bomb components for attacks. According to prosecutor Isabel Pauley, the group was fully capable and taking action. Authorities still do not know how many members there are. The four face multiple felony charges including felony murder, using a firearm while committing a felony, aggravated assault, and criminal gang activity. One of the soldiers pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity, and other charges. The hearing for the other three is set for Thursday.

Now here is an interesting idea.  The Big Apple government has this press release.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs and Correction Commissioner Dora B. Schriro today announced that the City will award a contract for the nation's first Social Impact Bond, an innovative way to fund promising new programs at no cost to taxpayers. As part of the Young Men's Initiative, this investment will support a new evidence-based program for young adults on Rikers Island. The program - the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) - focuses on personal responsibility education, training and counseling, with the goal of reducing the likelihood of reincarceration. In this new model, private investors fund the intervention through a nonprofit contractor and the government pays the contractor only if the program meets its goals. Goldman Sachs will provide financing, Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide grant support for the effort and MDRC, a leading non-profit, will oversee project implementation.

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An independent evaluation, conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice, will assess the rates of reincarceration and determine the program's effectiveness over time. If the program does not meet its targets for reducing reincarceration, the City pays nothing. For Goldman Sachs to break even on its original investment, the program will need to reduce reincarceration by 10%.

I am deeply skeptical of the claims of "evidence-based" rehabilitation practices, because I know how easy it is for interested parties to produce "evidence" that is complete hogwash.  I also know how the amount of scrutiny that any research receives is strongly influenced by its Political Correctness quotient:  intense and hostile for research with conservative implications and vastly more lax for research with liberal implications.  But if Goldman Sachs' own money is on the line, they will surely examine the evidence of program effectiveness meticulously, and PC quotient be damned.

One flaw I see here is having the Vera Institute do the results evaluation.  That organization has a strong ideological interest in seeing rehabilitation programs declared "effective." A less interested evaluator would have been a better choice.

As bad as insanity defenses usually are, the "too drunk to form intent" excuse belongs in a lower pit of judicial hell.  For noncapital cases, at least, some states have abolished this defense altogether, and one such statute was upheld (with a little help from yours truly) in Montana v. Egelhoff, 518 U.S. 37 (1996).  Experts who testify for this defense seem to misunderstand how rudimentary the mental states of intent and premeditation really are.  Some of them seem to think these are very high cognitive levels, such that only philosophers can commit first-degree murder.  If a squirrel buries a nut, he does it on purpose and not by accident.  That is intent.  He intends to dig it up later and eat it.  That is premeditation.  How impaired does a homo sapiens have to be before his cognitive ability falls below the capacity to form such rudimentary thoughts?  A human who is too drunk, stoned, or whatever to form intent is probably passed out on the floor and unable to commit the actus reus.

In mental defense cases, the defendant's mind is part of the crime scene.*  The prosecution has to be able to inspect it, i.e., conduct its own mental examination.  In Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981), the Supreme Court said that use of a psychological examination ordered by the court in a case where the defendant was not raising a mental defense violates the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.  Then in Buchanan v. Kentucky, 483 U.S. 402 (1987), the Court said the prosecution could conduct and use such an examination when the defendant does raise a mental defense.

Where the mental defense is not the affirmative defense of "not guilty by reason of insanity" but instead the "too intoxicated to form intent" [or premeditation] defense, does the case come under Smith or Buchanan?  Seems pretty obvious to me that Buchanan governs.  The distinction between an affirmative defense and negating an element of the offense is irrelevant here.  The defendant is claiming that an abnormality in his brain negates his guilt in a case where the objective circumstances would otherwise establish it, and the need for examination of his "crime scene" mind is the same in either case.  Whether that abnormality is the result of permanent disease or temporary substance-induced buzz makes no difference.

The Kansas Supreme Court didn't see it that way Friday in State v. Cheever, No. 99,988. 

Maureen Hayden reports for CNHI from Indianapolis:

A closer look at low-level offenders in Indiana prisons reveal few of them are first-time criminals. A yet-to-be released study of state prison inmates convicted of class D felonies - the lowest felony level in Indiana - shows they had an average of five prior criminal convictions.

The study also shows that of those first-time offenders who did go to prison on a class D felony conviction, nearly 80 percent of them did so for committing a violent crime such as battery or domestic violence.

The study upends the premise that drove the sentencing reform effort that failed in the last legislative session: That is, that prosecutors and judges were crowding state prisons with low-risk, first-time offenders.

"It shows we aren't sending beginners to prison," said David Powell, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council.

DAs and judges around the country have known this the whole time.  A sentence to state prison requires a felony offense, and it generally requires both that the DA ask for a prison sentence and that the judge determine that such a sentence is appropriate.  Mandatory minimums of state prison sentences are not common in state sentencing laws.  Yet the soft-on-crime crowd has been curiously successful in creating a false public impression that we are packing off large numbers of people to state prison for minor offenses such as possessing marijuana for personal use.  A large part of this success has been due to the fact that much of the funding for studies comes from lavishly endowed foundations that have been captured by the left wing, spending the money on causes that would have horrified their founders.

Henry K. Lee reports in the SF Chronicle:

A state prison inmate already serving a life term for murder has been sentenced again to life after admitting he killed a man and a woman just 12 days apart in Alameda nearly 16 years ago.

Eugene Albert Protsman, 57, was sentenced Monday by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carrie Panetta after he pleaded no contest to the first-degree murders of Manuel Garcia, 59, and Diane Ely, 54, authorities said.

Panetta sentenced Protsman - who also admitted to the special circumstance of committing multiple murders - to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence identical to one he is serving for killing a woman with a hammer in San Diego County.

The story doesn't say why the DA agreed to a sentence that is effectively no punishment at all.  Perhaps it was the excessive expense and needlessly long delays in carrying out capital punishment in California.  A 57-year-old man sentenced to death is unlikely to be executed before he dies of natural causes in California.  In Virginia, where 6 years from sentence to execution is normal, Protsman could have been punished for the additional murders.

TX Inmate Set For Execution: The Associated Press reports that John Balentine's clemency petition was rejected 7-0 by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole Monday, following the denial of his appeal Friday by a 3-judge-panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Balentine was convicted of the fatal 1998 shootings of 3 minors, one 17 and two 15 years old, as they slept because of a feud between he and the 17-year-old victim. Balentine is set to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening.

DOJ Denies Dugard Misconduct Claim: Demian Bulwa of SF Gate reports that the Justice Department filed argument in U.S. District Court which denies that DOJ attorneys were guilty of misconduct claimed by Jaycee Dugard.  In a federal lawsuit, Dugard  claims that DOJ attorneys told a U.S. Parole Commissioner she could not testify in court as Dugard's sole expert witness. The DOJ argues that the Commissioner is a direct witness, who had released Garrido from prison once in 1993, during the time Dugard was held in the Garridos' backyard compound.  Getty claimed she never agreed to be an expert witness. Dugard's attorneys filed a counter claim noting that Getty had sent them an e-mail saying she agreed to being paid $300/hour to testify as an 'expert consultant.'

Convicted Arsonist Faces Death Penalty: Lori Fowler of the Daily Bulletin reports that San Bernardino prosecutors asked the jury Monday to impose the death penalty in the case of the Old Fire arsonist Rickie Lee Fowler, convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and two counts of arson. Five residents died of heart attacks resulting from the evacuation and destruction from the 2003 fire. Fowler has a criminal history including burglary, robbery, beating his pregnant ex-girlfriend and raping another ex, whose child he threatened to rape, and harassment of fellow inmates and guards while in custody.  Fowler was convicted "of repeatedly raping and torturing his cellmate at West Valley Detention Center" in 2009. Fowler's attorney has waived his opening statement until Aug. 29. 

Senate Bill 9, which would effectively abolish life without parole for anyone who commits his murder a day short of his 18th birthday, passed the California Assembly today.  This article in the Sacramento Bee describes the bill as allowing "some offenders to petition for a resentencing hearing if they were minors when they committed a murder that landed them in prison with no chance of parole."  In reality, though, the criteria are so open-ended that only a small number of categorically excluded murderers will not be able to qualify.

California already complies with Miller v. Alabama.  There is no mandatory LWOP for juveniles.  In all cases, the judge has discretion to impose life with parole rather than life without parole for a juvenile convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances.  The following passage from the story indicates the kind of dishonest arguments made for this bill:

Nearly one of every two California youth convicted of murder did not actually kill the victim but were lookouts or were participating in another felony, such as robbery, when the homicide took place, according to Yee.

Note it says "convicted of murder" not "sentenced to life without parole."  The former is irrelevant and the latter would be false.  But a lot of people don't get the distinction.

The bill now goes back to the Senate, where its passage is nearly certain, and then to Gov. Brown, who rarely misses an opportunity to go softer on thugs.

Southern California County Sees High Re-offending Rate: Ann M. Simmons of the LA Times reports that of the approximately 300 non-violent and non-serious post-release supervised parolees of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department in Lancaster, CA, about 200 have been re-arrested since October. Lancaster deputies are working with several parolee compliance teams, and since last October have conducted 315 compliance checks and 68 address verifications, which resulted in 182 arrests and the seizure of 13 firearms, according to a written statement by Lancaster Deputy Michael Rust, who also states many of the offenders had been arrested multiple times for new crimes or charges. A recent report by the Sheriff's Department showed Lancaster's violent crimes have gone up 16% in the first six months of 2012 compared to the same period last year and homicides have doubled from 4 to 8.

Criminal Immigrants Free to Re-offend: William La Jeunesse of Fox News reports there are thousands of criminal immigrants currently in the U.S. who have remained in the country due to their home counties refusing to take them back, free to re-offend. Under a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, U.S. immigration officials are only permitted to hold anyone convicted of a crime who is in the country illegally for six months after being incarcerated, even in cases of murder. When a home country refuses to take the criminal alien back, the U.S. must release them. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, taking the lead to change this law, became aware of the issue after instances of particularly horrific crimes were committed by immigrants who were not deported. Poe is trying to pass a law which would withhold visas for countries which do not take back their criminal immigrants.

NY Unveils Crime-Fighting App: CBS New York headlines New York State Senator Eric Adams announced the smart phone application Brooklyn Quality of Life which will allow anyone with an iPhone, Android, or tablet to report crime and dangerous conditions. The app will allow the sending of photos, audio, and video to retired detectives which staff the application. Information will then be forwarded to the police in an attempt to maintain user anonymity.

In the California initiative process, proponents and opponents have wide latitude in the arguments they make in the voter pamphlet.  If they go too far over over the top, though, judicial intervention is available.

Yesterday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley issued a tentative ruling on a challenge to the ballot arguments in favor of Proposition 34 to repeal the death penalty:

The Court agrees with Petitioners that the challenged statements regarding the "redirection" of "savings" are false and misleading in that they imply the $100 million in appropriations are being funded from "savings" generated through elimination of the death penalty. The $100 million are appropriations from the General Fund that are unrelated to any "savings" that may (or may not) be achieved by Proposition 34.

At a hearing today, Judge Frawley confirmed the tentative ruling.

The judge labeled other arguments "hyperbole," which in practice means they are not so far over the top as to warrant judicial intervention.

I've been fighting the pervasively dishonest anti-death-penalty movement for over a quarter century now.  I've caught them in lies many times.  This is the first time we have had an actual court judgment to that effect, though.

Sacramento Sees Recent Crime Rise: Kim Minugh and Phillip Reese of the Sacramento Bee report new law enforcement statistics show Sacramento is seeing an increase in crime over the last six months, specifically violent crimes, property crimes, car thefts, assaults, and rape. Homicide is the only crime without a significant increase, while assault and rape have shown the biggest spike. Sacramento had seen a significant drop in crime from 2006-2011; 40% in violent crime and 30% in property crime. However, in the first 6 months of 2012, Sacramento reported a 7% increase in both violent and property crimes. "Deputy Jason Ramos, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department, said a few factors could be contributing to the six-month spike, including the state's realignment plan moving state offenders to the county level, which has put more pressure on local resources."

Rate of CA Realignment Declining: Paige St. John of the Los Angeles Times reports the number of low-level offenders being realigned from prisons to jails is decreasing. A recent census from the CDCR shows 134,152 inmates within the CA prison system were realigned as of July, and 26,600 total. However, since implementing AB 109, the rate of reducing the state prison population went from 4,000 per month in October to about 1,000 in July. The California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) found, in a report by the CPOC, that there are about 15,000 new inmates in local jails which would have gone to prison, not account for the change in the CA prison population. The BSCC is awaiting a similar study by CA sheriffs.

Jury Recommends Death Penalty for FL Rapist, Murderer: Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel reports the jury in the case of William Roger Davis, convicted of kidnapping, raping, and killing a 19-year-old girl from her work at a FL car lot, recommended Wednesday Davis receive the death penalty. The previous News Scan mention can be found here.

There is much huffing and puffing about Texas's planned execution of Marvin Wilson.  The AP story begins:

A Texas death row inmate scheduled to die later Tuesday for the killing of a police informant 20 years ago is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court agrees with his attorneys that he's too mentally impaired to qualify for execution.

Marvin Wilson, 54, was found to have a 61 IQ on a 2004 test, putting him below the generally accepted minimum competency standard of 70, his attorneys contend in an appeal before the justices.

You have to get halfway down the story, to a quote from AAG Ed Marshall, before you find any doubt expressed that Wilson is, in fact, retarded.  And how about that 61 IQ test?  Here is an excerpt from the USCA5 opinion:

Five I.Q. scores are reflected in those reports.  The first I.Q. test, the Lorge-Thorndike, was administered by Wilson's school when he was approximately 13 years old.  Wilson's full-scale score on this test was 73.  At age 29, Wilson was given an I.Q. test by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and scored 75.  In April 2006, when Wilson was 46 and during the post-conviction proceedings, Wilson scored 61 on the WAIS III I.Q. test.  On further testing by the defense, Wilson scored 75 on the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices and 79 on the TONI-II I.Q. tests.  A score of 70 or below supports a finding of mental retardation.

There are five tests, four of which show Wilson is not retarded.  The one outlier is the one that gets prominent mention in the AP story.

Bob Egelko has this story in the SF Chron on the motion of the Los Angeles DA to force the adoption of the single-drug method of executions in place of the three-drug method which has been preliminarily enjoined by a federal district court.  Last winter, I concluded we could not rely on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to aggressively pursue lifting the stay, outlined an alternative legal strategy, and urged the DAs to pursue it.  Los Angeles picked up the challenge first and filed motions for the trial court to order adoption of a protocol and set execution dates for Mitchell Sims and Tiequon Cox.  San Mateo County has a similar motion pending in the case of Robert Fairbank.

LA DDA Michele Hanisee is quoted in the story.  She smells a rat in the state executive branch.

"In my opinion, the top-down marching orders are to drag things out as slowly as possible," the prosecutor said. When state officials assigned to carry out sentences "refuse to perform their duties," she said, a judge can require them to do so by ordering one-drug executions - an order that federal courts have upheld in other states.

The story also quotes two "experts" on the propriety of a judge ordering the switch:

By law, "the power to implement sentences is delegated to the (state) CDCR," said Robert Weisberg, founder and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. "I don't think a judge can choose a type of execution if that particular choice hasn't been ratified by the state."

Allowing a prosecutor and a single judge to override prison officials' choices on execution methods would "turn the structure of state government upside down," said Franklin Zimring of UC Berkeley.

Nonsense.  There is nothing "upside down" about a court ordering an executive officer to take an action if the officer's choice is contrary to the law.  CDCR does have considerable discretion in this matter, but an agency's discretion does not extend to disabling itself from carrying out its duties to execute the law.  There are 13 cases where all reviews of the sentence have been completing and nothing remains but to execute, and CDCR has needlessly allowed itself to be enjoined from carrying out its duty.

FL Prison Escapee Suspect in 4 Killings: Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times reports Larry D. Hubbard, who escaped from a Florida prison in 1977, is suspected of killing four California women while on the run. Hubbard's DNA was linked to the 4 cases in which he would choke and bind, strangle, and dump women naked in a field. Police had previously collected DNA in the cases, but without more sophisticated technology, were not able to tie the DNA to Hubbard who was arrested by Ontario police on an outstanding Florida escape warrant in May 2007, and died following an attempted suicide after he was returned to Florida

'Speed Freak Killer' Stops Helping Police: Scott Smith of McClatchy Newspapers reports meth-fueled serial killer Wesley Shermantine wrote on Thursday he will no longer be leaving death row to help locate more of his victims. Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla promised Shermantine $33,000 in exchange for information locating his various dump sites of victims, though sending more than $2000 so far in cash and merchandise. Shermantine intends to hold out on all further information until Padilla pays up more of what he promised, namely a new television and candy bars. Stockton Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani met with Shermantine Sunday, who told her he would only cooperate with certain agencies, investigators from the Reno Police Department, but not others, including the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office and FBI agents from Sacramento. Galgiani has asked CDCR Secretary Matt Cate act on an emergency bill she wrote which would empower prison officials to take a guarded Shermantine from the prison to recover more dump sites. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill July 17, 2012.

CA Supreme Court Affirms Death Sentence: Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times reports the California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Enrique Parra Duenas, rejecting his appeal of his conviction of fatally shooting Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Deputy Michael Hoenig in 1997 during an attempted stop while Duenas was on a bicycle.

NY Crime Surge After Drop In Stop-And-Frisk Rate: Rebecca Harshbarger and David Seifman of the New York Post report major crimes in New York has spiked more than 12% since a drop in the NYPD's stop-and-frisks rate. Between Jan. 1 and Mar. 31, police stopped 203,500 people and recovered 881 guns. However, between Apr. 1 to Jun. 30, stops went down to 13,934 and 732 guns were recovered. During that three months, violent crimes increased by 3081; from 24,751 to 27,832, respectively. The NYCLU has been attempting to dismantle NY policing tactics. NY Mayor Bloomberg stated, "if the NYCLU is allowed to determine policing strategies in our city, many more children will grow up fatherless and many more children will not grow up at all."

NY DNA Databank Expansion: The North County Gazette reports New York State's DNA Database requires anyone convicted of a Penal Law felony or misdemeanor as of Aug. 1 provide a DNA sample via a sample taken from within the cheek with a swab, as well as allowing DNA comparisons before trial and after a guilty plea. This law is not retroactive, and does not apply to first-time misdemeanor offenders found guilty of low-level marijuana possession. New samples will also be compared to the more than 40,000 samples from unsolved cases in the database. The Forensic Investigation Center in Albany will be able to process 10,000 samples each month without creating a backlog.

International Child Porn Network Uncovered: Denise Lavoie of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports agents of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency's Homeland Security Investigations unit in Boston, led by agent Bruce Foucart, have arrested 43 man over the past 2 years, and identified more than 140 young victims. The network and online chats consist of thousands of child pornography images, some displaying rape, as well as conversation, from sexual, to abduction, murder and cannibalism of babies and toddlers. Information has been sent to Interpol.

AZ Inmate Faces Execution: Michael Kiefer of the Republic reports Daniel Cook will face the death penalty in Arizona on Wednesday. Cook was convicted of torturing, sodomizing, and strangling two co-workers during an alcohol and methamphetamine binge in 1987. His roommate and accomplice, John Matzke, confessed the murders to the police, implicating Cook. Matzke entered a plea deal and received 20 years in prison in exchange providing his testimony against Cook. He was released from prison July 2007. 

Rep. John Conyers of Detroit first won his seat in 1965 and has had clear sailing ever since.  Maybe not this time.  A contested primary will be held next Tuesday in Conyers' newly reconfigured district.  Michigan lost one seat in the last census, and the Republican legislature re-drew the district to include portions of Detroit's suburbs.

Mr. Johnson has had to deal with questions about a conviction for armed robbery 20 years ago, for which he served a brief prison sentence. He said the episode is part of a story of redemption. The Detroit Free Press, in an editorial reluctantly endorsing Mr. Conyers, said, "The sheer visuals of tossing Conyers, a civil rights legend, aside for a convicted felon would be close to indefensible."

Holmes' University Psychiatrist Reported Alarming Behavior: Jeremy P. Meyer and Allison Sherry of the Denver Post report psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton, seeing Colorado shooter James Eagan Holmes before the massacre, notified members of the University of Colorado Denver Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment (BETA) team of alarming behavior displayed by Holmes sometime within the first ten days of June, 2012. The BETA team provides faculty, staff, and students a resource when "confronted with people they believe are threatening, disruptive or otherwise problematic," but does not include the campus police. Due to Holmes leaving the University, no further action was taken.

CA Triple-Murderer Gets Death Penalty: Paul T. Rosynsky of the Oakland Tribune reports that after only one day of deliberation, Oakland jurors sentenced David Mills to death for a triple-murder.  In 2005 Mills was supposed to return a gun he borrowed to four friends waiting in a car.  He instead walked up to the vehicle began shooting, killing three of the four.  A woman, though badly injured, survived to identify Mills as the shooter. Mills was a habitual criminal who dropped out of elementary school to sell drugs and previously plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter after the witnesses against him refused to testify.

CA County Awarded Additional $20M to Build Jail: Marga K. Cooley of the Santa Ynez Valley News reports the CA Board of State and Community Corrections awarded Northern Santa Barbara County $20M more to build a new 138,385-square-foot jail to house the increasing number of inmates being transferred to the county due to realignment. The extra $20M, increasing the award to the $80M cap for medium-sized counties, will allow for the jail to have 376 beds rather than 304.

Man Believed to be Dead to Face Death Penalty: Holbrook Mohr of the Associated Press reports federal prosecutors have charged Thomas Sanders, who was declared dead in 1994,  with killing his girlfriend and her 12-year-old daughter outside of Law Vegas over Labor Day weekend, 2010.  Sanders allegedly stopped in the desert to let his girlfriend shoot his rifle, then shot the woman in front of her daughter.  He drove the horrified 12-year-old girl to a wooded area in Louisiana where she survived multiple gunshot wounds before Sanders finally cut her throat. Sanders was presumed dead seven years after leaving his family in Mississippi.  He remained undetected despite traveling and multiple arrests. Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Death Penalty Upheld in CA School Shooting: Paul Elias of the Associated Press reports the CA Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Eric Houston, a high school drop out, convicted of killing a teacher and 3 students, and injuring 10 others in a May 1, 1992 rampage through the halls of the Yuba County high school he had attended. Houston went into the school armed with a 12-gauge shotgun in hand and a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle on his back. After the initial onslaught, he rounded up about 80 students in an upstairs classroom and held them hostage for about 8 hours, releasing several through negotiations, and finally surrendered at 10 p.m.

A few days ago, I put up an entry about the (frankly) crazed prosecution of a marine biologist, a case begun, and now in its seventh year, because a member of her crew whistled at a whale.  The point I was making was that the sprawl of criminal law, while justifiably viewed with growing concern by many conservatives and others ordinarily sympathetic to the prosecution point of view, masks an even more pernicious problem  --  replacing law with ideology.  The particular ideology now elbowing law out of the way is Political Correctness.  I thought this was wonderfully illustrated by the unhinged version of environmentalism on display in the whale whistling case, and by the even more unhinged version of seething feminism and race-based bullying on display in the Duke lacrosse scandal of a few years ago.

9th Circuit to Reconsider Decision on CA DNA Law: Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times reports the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday voted to reconsider a split decision by a three-judge panel in February upholding a California law that requires police to take DNA samples from people arrested for felonies, regardless of whether they are convicted or not. An 11-judge panel will now consider the case. California voters approved Proposition 69, which called for collecting DNA from felony arrestees, by a wide margin in 2004. The state immediately faced litigation arguing that the practice violated people's constitutional rights by subjecting them to unreasonable searches and seizures after California began collecting DNA from those arrested for felonies in 2009. California Attorney General Kamala Harris has said collecting DNA from arrestees has solved thousands of crimes.

Butte County Struggles With Early Releases:  Katy Sweeny of the Chico Enterprise-Record reports Butte County Undersheriff Kory Honea said Wednesday the county's jail has had to release more inmates to reduce crowding and make space for high-risk offenders since realignment took effect. "It's been difficult, no doubt about that," Honea said. "Every day has been a challenge to make sure we're not exceeding the cap on the jail and making sure those who are the most dangerous are in jail." Lt. Jennifer Gonzales said criminals know what charges will keep them out of prison and now jail, so they are more likely to risk committing the offense.

Oklahoma Triple-Murderer Makes Another Attempt to Stop Execution: Tim Talley of the Associated Press reports Oklahoma death row inmate Michael Hooper's lawyer filed a motion on Tuesday seeking an emergency hearing to stay Hooper's August 14 execution. Hooper was sentenced to death for the 1993 killings of his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend and her two children, ages 5 and 3. Each victim was shot twice in the head and buried in a shallow grave in a field. Attorney Jim Drummond wants a federal judge to require the state to have a backup dose of pentobarbital available in case the original dose is not successful. Pentobarbital is the first drug administered as part of the state's three-drug lethal injection procedure. Earlier this month, Drummond filed a lawsuit against the state on behalf of Hooper after officials said they only had one dose of pentobarbital left. Oklahoma has since obtained 20 more doses. This most recent complaint also questions whether those new doses were manufactured for human or veterinary use, and whether the state's execution procedure is constitutional since other states have begun using a single fast-acting barbiturates. As of Wednesday afternoon, no emergency hearing had been set.

What's the most awful thing about the Aurora mass murders?  Choose one:

Dear Mass Murderers:

Proposition 34 is coming up on the ballot in California this November. It looks like it has a reasonable chance of passing, and that we will succeed in removing the barbaric death penalty from California. Could you guys hold off in carrying out anymore grizzly mass murders? We don't need to galvanize the other side.

Thank you.