Results matching “first”

The Federalist Society has this podcast by Philadelphia DDA Ron Eisenberg on the April 4 Supreme Court decision in Cullen v. Pinholster.

Ron first discusses the question of considering new evidence, never presented to the state court, in an attempt to show that the state court was "unreasonable."  That issue was decided 7-2 in an unusual line-up.  See also our day-of-decision post here.  But Ron also thinks the decision on the underlying ineffective assistance claim is even more important.  The Court clears up lower court misinterpretations of Williams, Wiggins, and Rompilla, he says, and this is "game changing stuff" if the lower federal courts actually follow it.  (This point was decided 5-4, with the usual line-up.)

Suspects Busted for NYC Synagogue Terror Plot:  CNN reporter Susan Candiotti reports two North African men, one a U.S. citizen, were arrested last night for planning an attack on a Manhattan synagogue.  When the two were arrested, New York City police discovered three or four guns and a hand grenade.  The men were arrested as part of a NYPD undercover sting operation after the potential terror threat had been under radar for several months.  Law enforcement sources say the two were acting on their own.  One suspect has an extensive criminal record involving drugs and other non-terror related crimes involving guns, while the other suspect has only a minor criminal history.  The state is handling the terror case because federal officials declined for reasons unknown. 

D.A. Files Lawsuit Against Former Governor on Behalf of Crime Victims:  San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis filed a lawsuit Wednesday in San Diego's Superior Court to nullify former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to commute the prison sentence of Esteban Nunez, the 22-year-old son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.  Esteban  was one of two men who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and other charges in connection with the 2008 fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Luis Santos on the campus of San Diego State University.  Nunez was initially sentenced to a 16-year prison term before Schwarzenegger commuted his sentence to seven years, saying Nunez should not have received the same sentence as co-defendant Ryan Jett, who was responsible for inflicting the wounds that killed Santos.  Schwarzenegger told Newsweek that his friendship with Fabian Nunez factored into his decision and that he felt good about it.  Dumanis' lawsuit alleges that the governor had a constitutional obligation under the Crime Victims' Bill of Rights to notify the victims and their families of his intent to commute Nunez's sentence and to provide them an opportunity to be heard.  "Historically, the governor was entrusted with this power to represent the conscience of the community and to ensure against miscarriages of justice," Dumanis said. "Not as quote, 'a favor to a friend.'"  Because Schwarzenegger is no longer governor, he is not named as a defendant in the suit, but Gov. Jerry Brown and representatives from other state agencies are named instead.  Dana Littlefield of the San Diego Union Tribune has this story.

Death Row Inmate Wants to End His Appeals and Die:  If 49-year-old death row inmate Gary Haugen gets a judge to sign his death warrant, Oregon could soon hold its first execution in nearly 14 years.  Haugen wrote letters to the state court administrator in the Supreme Court about his wishes to end all appeals and be executed.  Haugen killed a Portland woman 30 years ago, but is on death row for killing another inmate in 2003.  He wrote his reasoning for the request was because of "the lack of any faith in the Oregon judicial system, my disgust, disdain, the arbitrary and vindictive actions of this system, I refuse to barter, I don't negotiate. This is for my peace of mind ... at least respect my will and initiate the process for execution A.S.A.P!"   This Friday, Haugen will ask a Marion County judge to sign his death warrant and if he's successful than he could die by lethal injection about three months from now.  Dan Tilkin of KATU News has this story.

Former San Quentin Warden Appointed to New Role:   Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Time reports the abolitionist nonprofit Death Penalty Focus is expected to announce today its new executive director appointee - former San Quentin Prison Warden Jeanne Woodford, who oversaw four executions during her 30-year career in California corrections.  "I never was in favor of the death penalty, but my experience at San Quentin allowed me to see it from all points of view.  I had a duty to carry out, and I tried to do it with professionalism," said Woodford.  Hat tip to How Appealing for the link.

Fish Tall Tails Could Soon Be Crime in Texas:  It may soon be a crime to tell a tall tale about a fish in Texas, reports Erica Goode of The New York Times.  After unanimously passing the State Senate, a bill arrived on Governor Rick Perry's desk yesterday that makes it a misdemeanor - and in some cases a felony - to misrepresent the size, weight, or provenance of a fish in a fishing tournament.  

Today's Claude Rains Award for Mock Shock goes to AAG Lanny Breuer, who triumphantly announced the conviction of a corporation, Lindsey Manufacturing Co., for paying a bribe to get a contract in Mexico.  Nathan Koppel has this post at WSJ Blog.

Okay, all together now.  We are shocked, shocked, to learn that there is bribery in Mexico.

So why is this a crime against the United States?  Has Congress made it a crime for US companies to do business in countries where bribery is pandemic?  Back to Logic 101, the syllogism goes like this:

1.  It is a US federal crime for a US business to pay a bribe in a foreign country.
2.  In country X, bribery is so pervasive that it is effectively impossible to do business without paying bribes.
Therefore, in country X it is a US federal crime for a US company to do business.

Yes, I guess Congress has made it a US crime to do business in some countries.

Koppel's post notes the "ominous milestone" of convicting the corporation itself, a first.  " 'Lindsey Manufacturing is the first company to be tried and convicted on FCPA violations, but it will not be the last,' said the DOJ's Lanny Breuer."

Why?  Would you arrest someone for littering if he drops his empty Starbucks cup in the middle of the county dump?

On April 29, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided a fairly typical state postconviction capital case in Commonwealth v. Spotz, No. 576 CAP.  Spotz is a spree killer, and he is clearly guilty of multiple homicides.  The majority opinion is 131 pages long, and it slogs through numerous arguments, finding them all without merit.

The remarkable opinion here is the concurrence of Chief Justice Castille.  He is severely critical of the Federal Defender in this case and other capital cases.  There are two themes here.  One is the institutional question of why the Federal Defender is representing clients on state collateral review at all.  The second is a problem with capital appeal/habeas representation culture generally throughout the country, although the Chief Justice's criticism is directed specifically at the Federal Defender.  Many, perhaps most, of the people doing this work have come to believe that it is not only ethically permitted but even required that they spam the courts with a blizzard of paper raising every conceivable claim.

But that is not correct.  As I noted in my recent report to the Connecticut General Assembly,

Murder Appeal Raises Confederate Flag Issue:  Nathan Koppel and Ashby Jones of The Wall Street Journal have this story on a capital murder appeal currently before the Louisiana Supreme Court, in which a convicted murderer is challenging the prejudicial effect of a Confederate flag outside the trial courthouse.  Felton Dorsey, an African American, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 for killing Joe Prock, a white firefighter, during a robbery of Prock's mother's home.  Dorsey's attorneys claim the conviction should be overturned because, among other claims of error, the Confederate flag that has been flown outside the Shreveport courthouse since 1961 was a source of racial discrimination in the case, especially after a prospective black juror was excused after expressing his concerns about it.  The Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office denied in its brief that the prosecution discriminated against Dorsey during jury selection, but did not address arguments related to the flag.

Court Appearances by Camera Saving Big:  Pretrial video court appearances in criminal cases are more proving more convenient for defendants and are saving the states up to $30 million in transportation costs, reports Colleen Long of the AP.  A typical system includes a webcam or video camera in a detention center that allows a defendant to "appear" via a secure internet connection.  The practice has gathered support so far from judges and civil liberties groups, though some attorneys have expressed concerns with the idea of video appearances during trials.  "The technology is really exploding.  It's gotten much cheaper and easier to run, and states are reporting a huge range of savings," said Jim McMillan of the National Center for State Courts, which recently studied the use of video in U.S. courts.

California to Expand Familial DNA Testing:  California Attorney General Kamala Harris has increased the state budget to double the number of familial DNA searches, reports Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times.  The state first began using the technique in 2008 in a limited category of cases, but application may expand after its early success, including the identification and arrest of the alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer.  California, Virginia, and Colorado are currently the only states that allow familial searching.

Michigan Lawmaker Calls for Revised Inmate DNA Law:  The AP reports Michigan state Senator Mike Kowall (R) is supporting revision of the state's inmate DNA collection law that he drafted ten years ago.  Prison officials and the state Attorney General's Office believe that under the current law, they are only allowed to collect a sample just before the inmate is released.  Kowall claims inmate DNA collection should not be so limited, and prosecutors around Michigan were shocked and frustrated to learn of the prisons' practices.  The law doesn't affect most prisoners because counties generally take DNA samples before convicts are sent to prison, but about 6,000 current prisoners who are refusing to provide samples were in prison before counties began such a practice.

The title above, minus the question mark, is the title of a book by Byron Johnson.  The WSJ has this review by James Q. Wilson, one of America's foremost thinkers about crime (and author of Thinking About Crime).  "This book has two messages. First, religion reduces crime. Second, look what happens to scholars who say this is true."

Wilson reviews that the familiar shortcomings of the quasi-experimental studies that attempt to prove the first proposition -- "selection bias" and all that.  The fact that graduates of a program do better than nonvolunteers and dropouts does not and cannot definitively answer the question of whether the program works because they may very well have been the more motivated subgroup who would have done better anyway.  The kinds of controlled studies that we do to determine if a drug is safe and effective, for example, can't be done in this area.

The second point is a sad commentary on the state of Political Correctness in contemporary American academia.  Not new, but still sad.

Victor Davis Hanson is merciless, and mercilessly on the money, in contrasting candidate Obama with President Obama.  Back then, the George Bush approach to fighting terrorism was a stain on America's values.  How times do change:

Senator Obama opposed tribunals, renditions, Guantanamo, preventive detention, Predator-drone attacks, the Iraq War, wiretaps, and intercepts -- before President Obama either continued or expanded nearly all of them, in addition to embracing targeted assassinations, new body scanning and patdowns at airports, and a third preemptive war against an oil-exporting Arab Muslim nation -- this one including NATO efforts to kill the Qaddafi family. The only thing more surreal than Barack Obama's radical transformation is the sudden approval of it by the once hysterical Left. In Animal Farm and 1984 fashion, the world we knew in 2006 has simply been airbrushed away.

George Geraghty elaborates:

The interrogations of KSM (which included waterboarding) and the interrogation of Hassan Ghul (held in "black site" prisons) were key to identifying the courier; the president then authorized military action in a foreign country without going to the United Nations or informing the host government; the military action was unilateral, and we did not consult with our allies; Congress was not informed of the military action; and it increasingly appears that no serious effort was made to treat Osama bin Laden as a criminal [literally shoot and ask questions later]. The monitoring of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's phone call was a result of an extensive global wiretapping system. Furthermore, as Charles Krauthammer notes, the helicopters used in the raid came from Bagram and Jalalabad; if we had withdrawn from Afghanistan on the antiwar Left's timetable, we would have had no bases from which to launch this operation.

President Obama has been in office long enough for the mask to slip a few times.  In domestic policy, the face turns out to belong to Herbert Marcuse.  But in fighting the war on terror, it belongs, amazingly enough, to George W. Bush.

The Supreme Court of New Zealand, that is.  How Appealing points us to today's decision in Morse v. The Police.  Valerie Morse was charged with disorderly conduct for burning a New Zealand flag during Anzac Day celebrations in 2007 as a protest against that country's participation in the war in Afghanistan.  The judges deliver their opinions seriatim, discussing such things as the meaning of "offensive" in the disorderly conduct statute and the need to give the statute an interpretation consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act of 1990.

However, not a single judge thought it was necessary to discuss the foreign decisions of Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) or United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).  That is correct.  The US Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution has no bearing on the legal question under consideration.  There is some discussion of Australian cases interpreting a very similar statute adopted at nearly the same time.  Under those circumstances, there is a reasonable inference they were intended to have similar meaning.
 

DNA Solves Cold-Case in 1984 Killing:  San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jaxon Van Derbeken reports a San Francisco jury convicted 62-year-old parolee Dwight Culton of first-degree murder on Wednesday in the 1984 killing of Joan Baldwin, whom prosecutors say was attacked while sleeping overnight at the auto-painting shop where she worked.  Culton left a fingerprint and blood at the crime scene, which ultimately linked him in 2006 in a DNA cold-case hit.  The guilty verdict came despite a glitch in the case involving a key witness, the crime scene technician who collected evidence at the time and was at the center of a scandal last year that caused hundreds of cases to be dismissed.  In the end, the jury was much more concerned with the physical evidence that was discovered at the scene, which ultimately led to Culton's conviction.  District Attorney George Gascon expressed satisfaction with the verdict, "This a very disturbing case, very unsettling. You had a murderer walking free for years," he said. "This will bring some closure for the family who has been waiting for justice since 1984."

"Marijuana Grannies" Caught With 800 Plants:  Authorities say Aleen Lam, 72, and Virginia Chan Pon, 65, of San Bruno, California, were arrested last Friday after neighbors reported a burglary and responding officers discovered nearly 800 marijuana plants growing throughout the home.  Police also found an electrical bypass that allowed the women to steal the electricity needed to maintain their grow.  Both Lam and Pon pleaded not guilty and each are being held on $100,000 bail.  The AP has this story.

Texas Executes First Inmate With Its New Three-Drug Cocktail:  On Tuesday, Texas executed a man convicted of raping and strangling a woman in 2001.  Cary Kerr, 46, was the state's first inmate to be put to death using the new three-drug cocktail.  Kerr's reaction to the chemical was similar to past reactions of 466 inmates that were executed in Texas since 1982 under the previous drug combination.  Kerr was pronounced dead nine minutes after the drugs were inserted into his arms.  The three-drug chemical cocktail in his lethal injection consisted of the sedative pentobarbital instead of sodium thiopental, a drug that is no longer available.  Pentobarbital was used successfully in executions in Oklahoma and Ohio and survived legal challenges in those states.  Kerr's attorneys did not challenge the drug switch.  Instead, a late appeal rejected by the US Supreme Court focused on a claim that one of Kerr's previous lawyers had failed him during appeals of his conviction and death sentence.  Kerr is third Texas prisoner to be executed this year.  AP writer Michael Graczyk has this story.

Manufacturing Defect Might Let Drunk Drivers Walk Free:  Authorities revealed yesterday that a manufacturing defect in a breathalyzer used by San Jose and Palo Alto police to arrest 865 people for drunk driving could let some of the suspects off the hook.  The Alco-Sensor V breathalyzer might have shown incorrect readings because of a manufacturer's error that can cause condensation to build in the tube.  Although the results of a field test breathalyzer are not generally used as evidence in court, they are critical in some cases.  The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said it would undertake a month-long review process to determine how many cases it would drop as a result of the defect.  Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News has this story.

Texas Bill Could Allow Life Sentence for Fatal Dog Attacks:  The AP reports that under a bill authored by Texas Rep. Chuck Hopson (R), dog owners could face life in prison if their dog kills a child under the age of 18 or an adult older than 65.  The bill was approved by the house 123-7 and now moves to the Senate.

Dumb Criminals of the Day:  WSYR-TV (NY) reports an accidental pocket dial to 911 foiled the criminal plans of three men, after the dispatcher was able to listen to the details of their scheme through the open phone line and direct police to their location.  All three men were arrested and have been charged with possession of stolen property. 

Detainee Interrogations: Key to Killing Osama bin Laden:  Cully Stimson has this post at The Heritage Foundation's blog about the critical role detainee interrogation played in locating Osama bin Laden.

Federal Court Upholds Death Sentence: The Associated Press reports the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of Michael Selsor for the shooting death of a convenience store clerk during a 1975 robbery in Tulsa. Selsor was convicted twice for the killing, in 1976 and 1998. After being sentenced to death in 1976, Selsor's sentence was modified to life in prison with the possibility of parole after Oklahoma's death penalty statue was declared unconstitutional. Then in 1996, the appellate court threw out Selsor's murder conviction as well as two other related convictions after ruling that the convictions were invalid because two public defenders were required to represent Selsor and his co-defendant at a joint trial. Selsor was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death after a retrial in 1998.

Iowa Deadlocked on Bill That Addresses Parole for Juveniles: William Petroski of the Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Senate and House can't agree on how to address a Supreme Court decision from last year holding that juveniles sentenced to life in prison for crimes other than murder must be given a "meaningful opportunity to obtain release." Iowa lawmakers can't agree on how long affected inmates should stay in prison before before they are eligible for review by the Iowa Board of Parole. If no action is taken, affected cases will be reviewed annually. Cheryl Dittmer, whose daughter was killed by gang members in 1993, sat in the Senate balcony on Monday. Six teenagers were convicted in connection with the death of her daughter, two of which were given life sentences for first-degree kidnapping and could be freed someday as a result of the Supreme Court ruling. Dittmer said that if the two inmates are granted annual parole reviews, she could be revictimized once a year. In a written statement to lawmakers, Dittmer said "I implore you as a mother to please act." Dittmer also wants lawmakers to pass legislation which would make juveniles convicted of Class A and some Class B felonies ineligible for parole.

California Won't Resume Executions This Year: Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times reports that any attempts to resume executions by California corrections officials have been put off at least until next year, according to court documents. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation requested to delay the review of newly revised lethal-injection protocols until at least January. This request follows the decision of San Quentin warden Michael Martel to replace and assemble a new execution team and Governor Jerry Brown's decision last week to abandon plans for building a new death row facility at San Quentin State Prison. These steps have many speculating about the future of new executions being sought. There are currently 713 condemned inmates on California's death row.

Murderer Attacks DA After Guilty Sentence: Nolan Clay of NewsOK reports that Emanuel D. Mitchell attacked Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater shortly after the prosecutor's penalty phase closing argument. Prater was punched in the face and the two men fell through the swinging gate into the spectator's section. Jurors found Mitchell guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old accomplice during the robbery of an Oklahoma City pharmacy. Though jurors witnessed the assault filmed by security cameras, deliberations were allowed to continue.

ACLU Files Suit Against Utah's Immigration Law: Billy Hesterman of the Daily Herald (UT) reports that the ACLU of Utah has filed a class action lawsuit against Utah's recently passed House Bill 497, which allows law enforcement officials to verify immigration status for people detained for class B or C misdemeanors and requires officials to verify immigration status for people arrested for a class A misdemeanor or a felony. Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the bill along with multiple other immigration bills, set to go into effect May 10.

Feinstein Pushes for Ban on Prison Cell Phones: Jack Dolan of the Los Angeles Times reports U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein is lobbying for the revival of a bill that would make it illegal to smuggle cell phones into California prisons. Currently it is a violation for prisoners to possess cell phones, but not a crime. The bill at the state level would resemble the bill Feinstein sponsored that made possession of a cell phone by an inmate in a federal prison punishable by up to an additional year and a $5,000 fine. The bill was put on hold by legislators who feared it would cost too much to enforce. Feinstein is now calling for the resurrection of the bill, saying that prison gangs are able to operate while incarcerated, directing drug deals and killings, through the use of cell phones. Nearly 11,000 smuggled cell phones were discovered in California prisons last year.  

The Supreme Court today in Bobby v. Mitts reversed the Sixth Circuit and rejected an Ohio death row inmate's challenge to "virtually the same" penalty phase jury instructions considered and upheld last term in Smith v. Spisak, 558 U.S. __ (2010).
               

Referring to the instructions as "acquittal-first," the Court of Appeals stated that they impermissibly required the jury to first decide whether to "acquit" Mitts of the death penalty before considering "mercy and some form of life imprisonment." . . . The Court of Appeals concluded that [these instructions] unconstitutionally "deprived the jury of a meaningful opportunity to consider" a life sentence [in violation of Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625 (1980)].

The Supreme Court, in a per curiam decision, disagreed.

The instructions here are surely not invalid under our decision in Beck.  The concern addressed in Beck was "the risk of an unwarranted conviction" created when the jury is forced to choose between finding the defendant guilty of a capital offense and declaring him innocent of any wrongdoing.

The question here, however, concerns the penalty phase, not the guilt phase, and we have already concluded that the logic of Beck is not directly applicable to penalty phase proceedings.

We all but decided the question presented here in Spisak itself. . . The same conclusion applies here.

Question:  How did we get the intelligence that made possible the raid that killed Osama?

Fake answer:  By whimpering, "Why do they hate us?"

Real answer:  By extracting information that, left to their own devices, captured al Qaeda operatives would never have divulged.  Fortunately, under President Bush, they were not left to their own devices.

John Hinderaker makes the point on Powerline:

More information is coming out about how American intelligence identified and tracked down the al Qaeda courier who led to Osama bin Laden. It appears that the CIA's interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libi provided the information that began the chain the culminated in bin Laden's death yesterday:

Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden's most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed's successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.

KSM and Libi are two of the three al Qaeda leaders who were waterboarded. Published accounts indicate that waterboarding was key to getting valuable information from them. Our intelligence on al Qaeda and other terrorists groups is of course much better than it was in 2001, but it is still possible that in the future we may capture a terrorist who has information that we have an imminent need to extract. Should that happen, it is unfortunate that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques, which can best be viewed as humane alternatives to torture, have been taken off the table.

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1st Texas Execution with New Drug Set for Tuesday:  Michael Graczyk of the AP reports Cary Kerr is scheduled to be the first Texas inmate executed with pentobarbital.  Another Texas inmate had been scheduled to die last month using the new drug, but the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the execution.  Kerr was sentenced to death for the murder of 43-year-old Pamela Horton, whom a jury concluded he raped, beat, and strangled to death before dumping her body on a street north of Fort Worth.

Former Judge Urges Death Penalty Repeal:  CBS San Francisco has this story on a challenge to California's death penalty from an unlikely source - retired Judge Donald McCartin, aka "The Hanging Judge of Orange County," who sent nine men to death row between 1978 and 1993.  Angry that he will likely die before any of these death row inmates are executed, McCartin last month urged Governor Jerry Brown to repeal the death penalty, arguing that the state has spent "millions of tax dollars in this meaningless and ultimately fruitless pursuit of death."  Criminal Justice Legal Foundation president Michael Rushford counters in the article that much of these costs are a result of unnecessary delays caused by anti-death penalty advocates and that a more efficient system focusing "on guilt and not on procedural issues and not on technicalities" is possible.

Original Texas Prison Gang Remains Deadly Force:  Dane Schiller of the Houston Chronicle has this article on the continued strength of Texas's original prison gang, the Texas Syndicate.  With thousands of members behind bars and even more on the street, the gang works as a subcontractor for the Mexican drug cartel and is reportedly responsible for at least 50 murders and countless other violent crimes over the past ten years.  The Texas Syndicate was the first prison gang in the state to adopt the Italian mobster traditions of strict rules and discipline, and firmly adheres to its main rule that once a member joins, the gang is more important than family, God, or anything else.  "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he had only Ten Commandments.  These folks have 22.  Violate any of them and you're subject to death," said federal prosecutor Robert Wells Jr.

It is now the evening of Law Day, Pacific Time, a day on which the ABA chose to showcase the importance of lawyers representing unpopular causes.  Yet as of today we have not heard a peep from the ABA condemning the boycott of King & Spalding for defending the Defense of Marriage Act or the abrupt dropping of representation by that firm in response.  See my prior posts here and here and Bill's here.  I returned to their site today and could find nothing.

The importance of this, and the reason I bring it up on blog that is about criminal law and takes no position on DOMA, is what it says about the ABA.  The ABA's pronouncements on the duties of lawyers are sometimes treated by courts as if they were law.  The Supreme Court fell into this trap in Wiggins v. Smith and Rompilla v. Beard, but it backed off somewhat in Bobby v. Van Hook.

So let's do a little thought experiment.  Suppose a victims' rights group called for a boycott of the blue chip firms that take on representation of murderers, some big companies responded, and some of the firms announced they were dropping the cases.  How fast and how furious would the ABA's response be?  They would immediately and vigorously (and correctly) denounce the action, saying that no matter how repugnant the clients and their crimes may be, the duty of lawyers to represent even the most unpopular of causes must prevail.

So why do we hear nothing today?  First, the organization that called for the boycott is a Politically Correct sacred cow.  Second, and most importantly, at the ABA Political Correctness trumps principle.  Today's deafening silence confirms this.

That is the most important point to keep in mind whenever the ABA says anything about the death penalty.  Nothing is more politically correct than obstructing the operation of the death penalty with the ultimate goal of bringing it down.  The ABA's claim to take no position on the death penalty itself is hogwash.  They are full-bore opposed, and their claims of what is required of defense counsel are made for the purposes of (1) overturning as many judgments for supposedly ineffective assistance as they possibly can, (2) convincing the people that they cannot afford justice.

The Supreme Court in Van Hook has taken the first step toward disestablishing the ABA Standards as having any official standing.  Let us hope that they continue in this direction, toward the end that those standards will be recognized as the statement of an advocate for one side, entitled to little or no weight.

It is sometimes said that, since the United States successfully deterred the Soviet Union with the threat of nuclear annihilation in retaliation for an attack, we can do the same to avert mass murder by al Qaeda terrorists.  Hence no need for an aggressive, forward-looking strategy to defeat them.

This overlooks the fact that the Soviet Union had a fixed address and al Qaeda doesn't.  More importantly, it overlooks the fact that the Soviet Union was an imperialist state, while al Qaeda is, apparently to a significant degree, a radical and primitive religious movement bent on death to "infidels," defined as non-Muslims.  As more than one al Qaeda adherent has said, they embrace death and martyrdom.  This makes deterrence a mite problematic.

I have been more than a little skeptical that these people really embrace death, having noticed, among other things, that many of their suicide/murder bombers are teenaged or mentally challenged people at the lowest rung of the organization.  But the following article from the Telegraph gives me pause.  Maybe they really are out of their minds.  If so, deterrence  --  typically one of the central objectives of criminal punishment  --  is not going to work.  They will have to be destroyed.  

Trucker With 10 Tons of Marijuana Sentenced to 21 Years: Greg Moran of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Carlos Cunningham was sentenced to 21 years and 8 months in prison for hauling almost 19,400 pounds of marijuana in November. Cunningham was stopped at a Southern California checkpoint and agents found the drugs in the back of the rig he was driving. Agents searched the warehouse in Otay Mesa where they had tracked Cunningham from and found a tunnel that ran beneath the border to Tijuana. Authorities seized 16 tons of marijuana from inside the tunnel. A second tunnel was found in Otay Mesa a few weeks after the first, and authorities say they ultimately seized close to 100,000 pounds of marijuana. Ten people have been arrested and are being prosecuted in connection with both tunnels. U.S District Judge Larry Burns stated today during sentencing, "this is a sit-up-and-take-notice amount of narcotics, even in a district where we have become jaded by very large amounts."

Florida Records Lowest Crime Rate in 40 Years: Juan Ortega of the Sun Sentinel (FL) reports Florida officials announced today the number of major crimes reported in the state has fallen below rates recorded four decades ago. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Governor Rick Scott both attest the numbers to the dedication of public safety by law enforcement officers. Governor Scott also noted that six officers have already been killed in the line of duty this year.

Convicted Rapist Turns Down Heart Transplant: The Associated Press reports that Kenneth Pike, an inmate in a New York state prison serving an 18 to 40 year sentence for raping a 12-year-old female relative in 1996, has turned down a heart transplant after the story of his transplant evaluation sparked debate over inmates receiving organ transplants at taxpayer's expense. Pike's procedure could have cost up to $800,000. A relative says Pike recently had a triple bypass and would likely die without the heart transplant.   

Here is one of those pieces that is more remarkable for who says it than for what is said:

Add sensible safety laws to the list of things that California can no longer afford.

Forty-three other states and the federal government have laws forbidding the possession of cell phones in prisons. These other states have decided that the risks of allowing inmates to use cell phones - and occasionally to set up other crimes on the outside - outweighs the costs of punishment. In California, even though prison officials confiscate thousands of phones from inmates every year, the Legislature isn't sure we can afford to make phone smuggling or possession illegal.

*                        *                     *

The bill makes perfect sense, but it's being held in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The reason? Cost - the Department of finance estimates that the bill could create thousands of dollars in additional costs per inmate.

We understand that the state is broke. But we have to find a way to outlaw a dangerous practice that has been addressed by nearly every other state.

That all makes perfect sense, right?  It appears on a page that rarely makes sense in the criminal justice field, the main editorial page of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Yes, SF Chron, our state government is seemingly too broke to perform the function that people created government for in the first place -- ensuring public safety.  We are not too broke for high-speed rail boondoggles.  We are not too broke to restrict sources of energy, drive business out of the state, and thereby further erode the tax base.  We are not too broke to pay University of California administrators stratospheric compensation.  We are not too broke to subsidize major league sports teams.  We are not too broke for California taxpayers to provide a UC Death Penalty Clinic that represents murderers in Alabama.

We are only too broke to perform the number one function of state government.

Any Help is Better Than No Help:  CNN writer Amanda Watts reports inmates at California's San Quentin helped rescue two boaters who had fallen and drifted from their boat in the San Francisco Bay early Wednesday.  Prison staffers and ten fire department inmates went into the water around 1 a.m. and rescued the man.  San Rafael Fire Department personnel arrived soon after and helped rescue the female.  A staff member and several prison inmates performed CPR and other life-saving measures on the male, who was later pronounced dead.  The woman was treated at a hospital and released shortly thereafter.  Prison spokesman Lt. Sam Robinson said the inmates in the prison's fire department are trained paramedics who were not convicted of violent or sexual offenses.  This was the first water rescue the inmates had ever responded to.  "Ninety-nine percent of what they do happens inside the facility," Robinson said.

"Military to Pursue First Capital Prosecution Against Terror Suspect":  Military prosecutors have recommended the death penalty for the accused mastermind behind the deadly bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.  After the announcement was made Wednesday, the 46-year-old Saudi native Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri s now closer to trial before a military commission.  This could very well be the first death penalty trial in the reconfigured military trial system.   Intelligence sources have said Al-Nashiri led al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf before he was captured by the U.S. in 2002.  Al-Nashiri is charged with heading the attack on the USS Cole that ultimately killed 17 sailors and left 47 others injured.  The final decision about whether the death penalty will be pursued is up to retired Vice Adm. Bruce McDonald.  The last military execution was in 1961, involving a U.S. Army private who was convicted of rape and attempted murder of an Austrian girl.  CNN has this story.

Lawyers Urge Supreme Court to Extend Graham v. Florida Decision:  Almost a year ago, the Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole violated the Eighth Amendment, but only for crimes that didn't involve murder.  That decision affected around 130 prisoners convicted of crimes such as rape, armed robbery, and kidnapping.  Lawyers are now petitioning new cases to the Supreme Court involving other prisoners who were 14 when they were committed their murders, urging the justices to extend last year's decision Graham v. Florida to all 13-and 14-year-old offenders.  It should not be long until the justices decide to address the questions posed in the petitions.  If the Graham decision were to be extended to all juvenile offenders, about 2,500 prisoners would be affected.  Our own Kent Scheidegger disagrees with the Graham decision and "extending it to homicides would be wrong squared."  "Sharp cutoffs by age, where a person's legal status changes suddenly on some birthday, are only a crude approximation of correct policy," he added.  New York Times reporters Adam Liptak and Lisa Faye Petak have this story.

Indiana Supreme Court Hears Argument on Convict Voting:  Charles Wilson of the AP reports the Indiana Supreme Court heard argument today in a case challenging the scope of a state law stripping the voting rights of those in jail.  The Indiana constitution allows voting rights to be taken away for convictions of "infamous crimes."  A South Bend man, whose voter registration was canceled after he was sent to jail for misdemeanor battery, claims his crime shouldn't count.  Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher says "infamous crimes" should mean whatever legislators want it to mean.

Psychiatric Hospitals Continue to Discharge Patients Leaving Police and Society to Deal With the Mentally Ill:  Like many officers across the country, Fairfax County police officer Leanna Wilson has ended up on the front line of the American public mental health system, doing a job she didn't sign up for.  As mental health resources shrink due to the financially strapped local and state governments cutting community-based mental health programs, police officers are forced to deal with serious mentally ill patients.  Volatile and sometimes deadly confrontations between the mentally ill and the police are becoming more frequent as psychiatric hospitals continue to discharge large numbers of patients.  In response, police departments throughout the United States have implemented "crisis intervention" training to provide officers with more than just an hour or two of mental health training.  During the training, officers are taught the importance of listening to those in crisis.  During a recent encounter with a suicidal man, Wilson spent over an hour attempting to calm him down and change his mind.  In her 12 years on the job, 36-year-old Wilson had encountered suicidal people, but had never confronted anyone on the verge of carrying out the threat.  As one Virginia officer put it, "This is not our job."  Henri E. Cauvin of the Washington Post has this story.

High-Tech Device Allows Michigan Officers to Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops:  The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device capable of extracting information from the cell phones of drivers stopped for traffic violations.  The U.S. Department of Justice tested the CelleBrite UFED product used by Michigan police and found that the device can grab all the photos and videos off of an iPhone in less than two minutes.  "Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities.  "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."  The device is capable of working with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat any password protections.  The ACLU is in uproar and is concerned that these electronic capabilities bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.  The Newspaper.com has this story.

Inmate Sues State Over Sex-Change Operation:  Lyralisa Stevens, who was born male but lives as a female, is serving 50 years to life in a California prison for killing a woman with a shotgun over a simple clothing dispute.  Since her incarceration in 2003, prison officials have been providing Stevens with her female hormones, but now she is asking the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco to require the state to pay for a sex-change operation.  Stevens and her expert witness say that in order to be protected from rape and abuse by other male inmates, surgery is medically necessary, so she can be transferred to a women's prison.  If the court were to rule in Stevens' favor, it would make California the first place in the country required to provide reassignment surgery for an inmate.  Providing a transgendered inmate with hormonal treatments cost $1,000 a year per inmate.  Sex-change operations could cost anywhere between $15,000 to $50,000.  "A prison is not required by law to give a prisoner medical care that is as good as he would receive if he were a free person, let alone an affluent free person," attorney Steven J. Bechtold, who represents the receiver, wrote in the state's response to Stevens' petition for the operation.  Jack Dolan of the Los Angeles Times has this story. 

Schwarzenegger Says Controversial Commutation Was to Help a Friend:  Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted he was helping a friend when he commuted the sentence of Esteban Nunez, who pleaded guilty to the 2008 stabbing death of a San Diego college student, reports Don Thompson of the AP.  Schwarzenegger's decision to reduce of Esteban's sentence from 16 years to seven drew criticism from prosecutors and the victim's family, especially in light of the fact that Estaban is the son of former Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez.  In a Newsweek interview published this week, Schwarzenegger said he felt good about his decision and that he acted because of his "working relationship" with Fabian, also stating "Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend."  Schwarzenegger has admitted to the victim's family that he failed to notify them before commuting Esteban's sentence, in violation of California law.

Two British Men Fatally Shot in Florida as Part of "Gang Initiation":  Paul Thompson and Nick Britten of The Telegraph (UK) report that James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, from Britain were fatally shot in Florida early Saturday morning.  16-year-old Shawn Tyson, who was freed by a judge last week despite being arrested in connection with an armed robbery, is charged with the murders.  Authorities claim Cooper and Kouzaris were at a bar when they accepted a ride home from a stranger.  Instead of being driven home, they were driven to Newton, Sarasota, an area which is known for gang activity and drug dealing.  Cooper and Kouzaris were found dead after they were confronted by a gang of masked men.  Police are saying Tyson will be charged as an adult.

Repeal of Death Penalty Has Consequences:  Steve Huntley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes Governor Pat Quinn's decision to abolish the death penalty in Illinois has claimed its first victim.  Jitka Vesel, 36, was stalked and murdered by her Canadian ex-boyfriend Dmitry Smirnov, 20. According to DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin, a videotaped interrogation by police showed Smirnov saying,"he had researched whether Illinois still had the death penalty and had researched it as recently as the morning of the murder."  Smirnov and Vesel met on an internet dating site and he moved to the Chicago area before returning to Canada after their relationship ended.  Smirnov continued to harass Vesel and returned to the United States two weeks ago.  He bought a handgun in Seattle and glued a GPS device to Vesel's car before tracking her down and shooting her.  Opponents of capital punishment claim among other things that it is not a deterrent for crime, but Vesel's murder may prove otherwise.  "Certainly in this case I think there was a considerable thought about potential penalties before he decided to act," said Berlin.  See Bill Otis's previous post here.

Court Rules Man is Sane Enough to Drop Appeals and Be Executed:  Eric Connor of Greenville Online (SC) reports that Jeffrey Motts, 35, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 6th after the Supreme Court found him to be competent enough to waive his appeals.  Motts had asked the South Carolina Supreme Court to dismiss his appellate attorneys and allow him to represent himself because he wanted to die for his crime.  Motts was already serving life in prison for binding and shooting two elderly victims in 1995 when he strangled his cellmate Charles Martin in 2005.  During his trial he asked for his life to be spared because he didn't want his family to have to live with his execution.  Shortly after his conviction, however, he began writing the state Supreme Court, seeking to drop all his remaining appeals because he believes he deserves to die. 

NY Lawmakers Propose Domestic Violence Offender Registry: Your News Now (NY) staff report that New York state lawmakers have proposed a bill to create a registry for domestic violence offenders. If the legislation is passed, anyone convicted of domestic violence would be listed on a statewide database, similar to the registry of sex offenders. The offender's basic personal information, employment information, and address would be made available on the registry. Bronx Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson stated, "this is about information and this is about education."

Texas Bill Would Allow Testimony About Prior Conduct in Sexual Assault Cases: Patricia Kilday and Brian Rogers of the Houston Chronicle report  that the Texas Senate has tentatively approved a bill that would allow juries to hear testimony about similar allegations against a defendant in sexual assault cases, even if the similar incident did not result in criminal charges or a conviction. Before the testimony could be introduced, a judge would have to hear the evidence outside the presence of the jury and deem it relevant. A final vote on the bill is expected to take place in the coming days, and a companion bill is pending in a House committee. 

The lone opinion from the US Supreme Court today is a civil case, Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy v. Stewart, No. 09-529.

We consider whether Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123 (1908), allows a federal court to hear a lawsuit for prospective relief against state officials brought by another agency of the same State.

Answer: yes (6-2, Kagan recused).

VOPA is an office set up to advocate for the disabled, but this could easily happen with a criminal defense agency with an overly broad view of its mission.  So Young and the Eleventh Amendment aren't going to kill such a suit.

Justice Kennedy, concurring joined by Justice Thomas, tells us that state law, not federal law, is the way to stop the absurdity of the state suing itself:

First, and most important, state law must authorize an agency or official to sue another arm of the State. If States do not wish to see their internal conflicts aired in federal court, they need not empower their officers or agencies to sue one another in a federal forum. And if state officers are not by state law empowered to sue, they may invoke federal jurisdiction only in their personal capacities. 

Second, to the extent there is some doubt under state law as to an officer's or agency's power to sue, or any other state-law issue that may be dispositive, federal courts should abstain under Railroad Comm'n of Tex. v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496 (1941).

This opinion should have a bit more clout than most concurrences, as Justices Kennedy and Thomas are necessary votes for the majority.  Had they joined the dissent, it would have been a 4-4 affirmance by an equally divided court.

Every once in a while, a petitioner comes to the Supreme Court with a tale of outrageous injustice that cries out for relief, but none is available under current law.  Then when the Court learns the truth about the facts of the case the difficult question of law vanishes.  Almost 20 years ago, we had the cause celebre of Leonel Herrera, the man those barbarians in Texas were going to execute despite compelling proof of his innocence.  The inconvenient truth was that Herrera was guilty as sin.  More recently, we have had the Troy Davis case along similar lines.

Now we have the Kiyemba case, innocent people being held indefinitely by our cruel government in Gitmo.  One small problem -- our government has offered to place them in a suitable country, and they haven't accepted the offer.  Justice Breyer's statement today follows the jump.

Serial Killer Seeks New Trial:  J.M. Lawrence of The Boston Globe reports U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf is investigating whether jurors who recommended death for a serial killer lied on their jury questionnaires.  In 2003, a Massachusetts federal jury recommended a sentence of death for Gary Lee Sampson, convicted of killing three men during a 2001 criminal rampage.  Judge Wolf summoned three of the jurors last November to testify in closed court about their juror questionnaires, according to court documents released on Friday.  Among a few discrepancies discovered, one juror admitted to omitting prior driving violations, and another to failing to disclose that her boyfriend was a university police officer.  Federal prosecutors claim these discrepancies do not amount to juror bias warranting reversal of Sampson's sentence.

New Police Task Force Solves Cold Case:  Katherine Krueger of The Badger Herald (WI) reports a cold case has been cracked by Madison Police Department's new task force, the Cold Case Review Team (CCRT).  Founded in 2010 and funded in part by a Department of Justice grant, the CCRT assess the "solvability" of cold cases using a number of factors.  After the CCRT determined a high level of solvability in the case of Dorothy Paige, found stabbed to death in her home nearly two decades ago, an investigation led to the first degree murder charge of a previous suspect in the case.  "This is critical in terms of bringing justice to victims," says Madison Police Department Chief Noble Wray.  "Not only do we have a new manner to approach cold cases, families at home can know it's not just a lottery of waiting for new tips in an investigation."

Duke Accuser Charged With Murder:  The woman who falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players with rape was charged today with murdering her boyfriend, reports Mike Baker of the AP.  Crystal Mangum is charged with the stabbing death of Reginald Daye, who died in a hospital earlier this month nearly two weeks after the attack.

Massachusetts Attorney General Reacts to Court Ruling:  In response to a ruling from the state's high court (see previous post here), Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley today called for an update to the state's wiretapping law.  The current wording of the statute permits wiretapping only in connection with investigation of organized crime, but Coakley says the "whole face of crime has changed totally" and that wiretapping is also needed to combat "disorganized crime," such as street gangs and shoplifting rings.    John R. Ellement of The Boston Globe has this story.

Monday morning, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Tapia v. United States.  The question is whether a federal district court may increase a defendant's prison sentence (but still peg it within the Guidelines and statutory maximum) in order to allow the defendant to participate in a Bureau of Prisons drug rehab program.

The question seems to me to be close on the merits; the governing statutes are not written in airtight language. 

There are three pretty interesting sidelights to the case:  First, DOJ reversed its litigating position as the case travelled from the Ninth Circuit to the SCOTUS; second, the case may measure how far the Court will go in continuing the post-Booker trend of restoring the power of district courts over sentencing; and third, after stripping away the tussle over statutory language, the real dispute seems to me to center around the only-in-America question of how best to deliver social services to criminals.

From the City Journal:

Drive behind the Geffen Contemporary, an art museum in downtown Los Angeles, and you will notice that it has painted over the graffiti scrawled on its back wall. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be surprising; the Geffen's neighbors also maintain constant vigilance against graffiti vandalism. But beginning in April, the Geffen--a satellite of L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art--will host what MOCA proudly bills as America's first major museum survey of "street art," a euphemism for graffiti. Graffiti, it turns out, is something that MOCA celebrates only on other people's property, not on its own.

Two events occurred yesterday with a curious connection.  The first installment of the movie version of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged opened in theaters. Ilya Somin at VC has this post with links to varying reviews.  Meanwhile, in New York, the US Attorney has obtained indictments and restraining orders against the three largest online poker sites.  Larry Neumeister and Oskar Garcia of AP have this story.

The biggest villain in Rand's novel is not the bureaucrats but rather the crony capitalist (and brother of the heroine) who exploits government regulation to frustrate business rivals.

And who is crowing the loudest over the poker shutdown?  A bible-thumping moralist railing against the evils of gambling?  Guess again.

Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive of the American Gaming Association, the commercial casino industry's main trade group, said the prosecution shows a "clear need to strengthen laws to address illegal online gambling in the U.S."

He added: "Tough law enforcement is the key to making such a system work, and the AGA supports strong enforcement against illegal online gambling activity in this country. But illegal activity - and the risk of consumer fraud, money laundering and underage gambling - will continue until the U.S. passes laws ensuring that only licensed, taxed and highly regulated companies can operate in the U.S. market."

That's right.  It is casinos who don't want competition who are most anxious to see the online sites outlawed.

Differing Opinions About Pew Prison Study: Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media has this piece responding to the Pew Prison Study, opining that a lot of media coverage, as well as the study itself, have minimized the positive effects of prison expansion - namely a decrease in crime rates.

Long Island Serial Killer Used Victim's Cell Phone to Make Taunting Phone Calls to Victim's Family: Christina Boyle of the NY Daily News reports the serial killer wanted for several murders of Long Island prostitutes used victim Melissa Barthelemy's cell phone to call her younger sister at least seven times. During the final phone call, the man confessed to killing 29-year-old Barthelemy. Barthelemy's 16-year-old sister Amanda said the alleged killer used "taunting and angry words." The man allowed Amanda to ask a few questions during the calls, which has given investigators some clues into the mindset of the presumed serial killer they are desperately hunting. Since police first discovered four bodies in December, the death toll in Suffolk County is now up to ten.

Juvenile Murderer Wants 1985 Conviction Reconsidered: Casey Grove of the Anchorage Daily News reports Winona Fletcher is asking the Alaska courts to reconsider her 25-year-old murder convictions, claiming she never had a fair shot of being tried as a juvenile. Fletcher pleaded guilty at the age of 15 to three counts of murder for killing three elderly people in their home in 1985. She was charged as an adult, after a two-week hearing on her juvenile status and a judge concluded she could not be rehabilitated in the juvenile justice system. Her attorney now claims modern research about juvenile brain development wasn't available at the time. The victims' friends and family were present at a court hearing yesterday, and say the ongoing litigation forces them to relive the day of the killings.

Georgia Governor Set to Sign Bill That Targets Illegal Immigration: Gustavo Valdes of CNN reports that the Georgia legislature last night passed an anti-illegal immigration bill that, in the words of its author Rep. Matt Ramsey (R), addresses issues forced on the state by the federal government's inaction. In 2006 the Georgia state legislature passed a law requiring public employers and government contractors to input the names of people they hire into federal database E-Verify to check their resident status. This new bill requires private employers with more than 11 workers to use the federal database. Provisions of the bill also include allowing law enforcement officers to ask about immigration status when questioning suspects during some criminal investigations and prison sentences for people who used fake documents to get jobs. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal plans to sign the bill into law.

Sex Offenders Online: Related to a story in yesterday's news scan, Camille Mann of CBS News has this report about John Burgess, a convicted sex offender given a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to the involuntary manslaughter of San Diego State University student Donna Jou, whom he met online in 2007. Burgess told authorities Jou died in his home after using drugs, where he panicked and dumped her body in the ocean. Burgess is being transferred to county custody for one year after serving two years in prison.

Two South Dakota Inmates Kill Prison Guard for Uniform in Attempt to Escape:  AP writer Dirk Lammers reports two South Dakota inmates attacked correctional officer Ronald Johnson, 63, wrapped his head in plastic shrink wrap and left him to die before using his uniform to sneak past security in a failed escape attempt Tuesday.  Eric Robert and Rodney Berget, both 48, are charged with first-degree and felony murder.  Robert is currently serving an 80-year sentence for a kidnapping conviction and Berget is serving life sentences for attempted murder and kidnapping.  Berget had two previous attempts to escape the penitentiary, one in 1984 and the other in 1987.  Robert was dressed in Johnson's uniform while pushing a cart with boxes in which Berget was hiding.  One officer became suspicious of Robert when he failed to show his electronic ID card.  Robert immediately began kicking and beating the officer and Berget jumped out of the box to join.  Fellow officers arrived and both inmates were apprehended and taken to a jail in Sioux Falls.  Johnson worked at the penitentiary for more than 23 years.  He was a father of two and grandfather of six.  Tuesday was his birthday.

States on Search for Execution Drug:  John Schwartz of The New York Times has this article on the efforts of death penalty states to find the increasingly hard-to-get drug sodium thiopental.  Faced with shortages of the execution drug, several states have looked to international manufacturers or borrowed supplies of the drug from other states.  These alternative methods have triggered new legal challenges and scrutiny from the federal government.  CJLF Legal Director Kent Scheidegger is quoted in the article, stating the recent challenges "seem to be accelerating the switch to pentobarbital," which is more readily available.

"Woman Sues Online Dating Site Over Alleged Sexual Assault":  A Los Angeles entertainment executive says she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on Match.com and has filed a lawsuit demanding the dating website start screening its members for sexual predators.  The woman admits things went well on their first date but claims that after the second date, he allegedly followed her home and sexually assaulted her.  The woman later learned online that her assailant had been convicted of several counts of sexual battery.  "This horrific ordeal completely blindsided me because I had considered myself savvy about online dating safety," the woman said in a statement released through her attorney last week. "Things quickly turned into a nightmare, beyond my control."  The woman is asking Match.com to check members' names against public sex offender registries.  Charges against Match.com are pending.  The Los Angeles Times has this story.

California Law Enforcement Organizations Cave in for More Money:  California's major law enforcement organizations and the Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca rallied Wednesday in support of Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to extend tax increases to pay for a new law that shifts responsibility for thousands of criminals from the state to local governments.  Baca, whose county accounts for 30 percent of state prison inmates, said local law enforcement can do a better and cheaper job of punishing and rehabilitating offenders than the state as long as the proper funding is given to the jails and education programs.  Once angered by Gov. Brown's plan, several law enforcement organizations are now allying with Brown after learning $5.9 billion will fund the realignment.  Assemblyman Jim Nielsen predicts the realignment will overwhelm courts, jails, and rehabilitative programs, eventually leading to early releases and minimal punishments.  "That puts it way over the top, when you are going to compromise the personal safety of our families and you are going to compromise justice," Nielsen said.  AP writer Don Thompson has this story.

Inmate Set to be Released Today Gets Nailed for Cold Case Murder/Rape:  Richard Stanley Sandoval, 57, of Santa Ana was scheduled to be released today after serving a prison sentence for a 1985 rape conviction until authorities arrested him yesterday in connection with the 1984 murder and rape of an 84-year-old Southern California woman.  Prosecutors say recent DNA testing linked Sandoval the 1984 killing and rape.  Sandoval will be arraigned Thursday in Orange County Superior Court.  The San Francisco Chronicle has this story.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy for Pittsburgh Felons:  On Tuesday, Pittsburgh City Councilman Ricky Burgess introduced legislation that would rid the question "Have you ever been convicted of any felony of the law?" from city job applications.  According to Burgess, the legislation is not meant to hide one's criminal record but to encourage a conversation between the employer and the applicant about the circumstances of any conviction.  He also says the legislation would not overrule state law prohibiting public safety employees, such as police officers and firefighters, from having a felony record.  Burgess is hopeful that similar legislation spreads to other communities and businesses in Western Pennsylvania.  The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has this story.

Pew Study Shows High Recidivism Rates and a Failure in Rehabilitative Programs:  AP writer Greg Bluestein reports on a study by the Pew Center on the recidivism rates of 41 states.  The study concluded that more than 40 percent of ex-cons commit crimes within three years of their release and are ultimately sent back to prison.  This is only a marginal improvement in the nation's recidivism rate, even though spending on corrections departments has increased to roughly $52 billion annually from around $30 billion a decade ago.  The recidivism rates show a failure in the programs and policies designed to deter re-offenders.  Adam Gelb of the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project says lawmakers should consider alternative sentences for nonviolent offenders.  However, the president of the National District Attorneys Association is skeptical of alternative sentencing and believes legislatures should not abandon tough-on-crime policies.  New Hampshire prosecutor Jim Reams said alternative sentencing strategies "only save money in the short-term."  "The assumption is that these are all choir boys at the prison and if we let them out, all will be well. And it doesn't work that way," Reams said. "We're getting exactly what we deserve when we do this -- we're getting more crime."  The study found that if the 41 states could cut their recidivism rates by 10 percent, they could save a combined $635 million in one year.  That is a big "if," for the reasons Reams noted.

Peculiarities in Victims' Names May Link Killer to California and New York Cold Cases:  Authorities have finally arrested a Reno man they believe murdered four women from 1977 to 1994 in Northern California.  But the alliteration in the victims' names has investigators suspicious of whether Joseph Naso, 77, is responsible for other killings whose similarities seem too bizarre to be just a coincidence.  New York state police are investigating whether there's a connection between Naso and the deaths of three young girls in the Rochester area in the early 1970s.  Like the four women whose bodies were found in Northern California, the three girls found in Rochester also had matching initials for their first and last names.  In a more peculiar similarity, one of the victims found in Northern California had the exact same name as one of the victims in Rochester.  Naso once lived in Rochester, New York and traveled between there and the West in the early 1970s as a professional photographer.  Authorities have found no other evidence linking Naso to the Rochester murders, and a DNA sample taken from one of the Rochester victims did not match Naso.  Still, New York authorities say Naso remains a suspect.  Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian plans to seek the death penalty against Naso, who's scheduled for arraignment today on four counts of murder with special circumstances.  AP writers Jason Dearen and Scott Sonner have this story.