Results matching “first”

And now, for something completely different.

We have seen a long line, in state after state, of death penalty study groups stacked with and controlled by the anti-DP crowd.  In California, for example, the commission's first act was to hire one of the most strident anti-DP partisans in the state to be its executive director.  The result was a predictably worthless report.

When I spoke to the National Conference of State Legislatures last summer, an opponent from New Hampshire told me their commission actually had a majority of supporters.  I was skeptical of that, as opponents often put forward faux supporters to create an illusion of balance.

Today we have news reports that the New Hampshire Commission has voted 12-10 to retain the death penalty but not expand it.  Maddie Hanna has this story in the Concord Monitor.

Unfortunately, as of this writing the report itself is not on the Commission's web site, and I am reluctant to say much without reading the actual report.

I agree with the proposition that most states have set their death penalty eligibility criteria too wide, relying on the discretion of prosecutors and juries to narrow the scope.  New Hampshire, however, has gone to the opposite extreme and legality excluded cases that cry out for the death penalty.  A careful, sober expansion should be considered by the Legislature next year.

Just as importantly, nearly all states need procedural reforms so that penalty phase claims are examined and finally resolved expeditiously, with repeated reviews reserved only for claims which would undermine confidence in the guilt verdict.

Last Minute Appeals in Scheduled Tennessee Execution:  Attorneys for Tennessee death row inmate Stephen Michael West are seeking a stay for tomorrow's scheduled execution, attacking the state's three-drug protocol as unconstitutional.  In response to a state chancellor's ruling last week, Tennessee added additional precautions to ensure the inmate is unconscious after the first drug is administered, requiring the warden to brush a hand over the inmate's eyelashes and gently shake the inmate.  Though the Tennessee Supreme Court approved the modified plans, West's attorneys today appealed to both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit, arguing "[d]efendants waited until the eve of Thanksgiving holidays to spring a new protocol on the court and Mr. West with nothing to demonstrate its constitutionality."  West was sentenced to death for the 1986 stabbing deaths of a woman and her teen daughter.  Lucas L. Johnson II of the AP has this story.

Big Time Mexican Drug Gang Leader Captured:  Elisabeth Malkin of The New York Times reports on this weekend's arrest of Arturo Gallegos Catrellon, through whom one Mexican official claims "all the instructions for the murders committed in Cuidad Juaraz pass."  Gallegos admitted to ordering 80 percent of the killings in the border city in the past 15 months, including 15 people at a party in January and the wife of another drug gang leader.  More than 2,000 people have been killed in Juraez this year as a result of cartel violence.

Justice Stevens on the Death Penalty:  In an essay on a book comparing the American and European approaches to the death penalty, retired Justice John Paul Stevens offers his opinion on the current state of capital punishment.  Adam Liptak of The New York Times opines the essay is a step towards "forging a new model of what to expect from Supreme Court justices after they leave the bench, one that includes high-profile interviews and provocative speeches."

The U.S. Supreme Court decided to review three civil cases today.  The orders list is here.  Lyle Denniston describes the cases at SCOTUSblog.  No criminal cases were granted other than "vacated, and the case is remanded to ... for further consideration in light of ... " orders.  Among the criminal cases on SCOTUSblog's petitions to watch list, the relisted cases are all missing and presumed relisted again, and the first-time cases were all denied.

In Gamache v. California, No. 10-5196, a capital case, the Court decided without dissent not to review the decision of the California Supreme Court, 48 Cal. 4th 347.  However, Justice Sotomayor wrote a statement giving Cal. Supreme a C- on its opinion for not being clear enough on the standard it applied for harmless error review.  Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan joined the statement.

Now some courthouses are getting the full-body scanners that are so controversial at airports, reports P. Solomon Banda for AP.

There are two important differences between courthouses and airports relevant here.  First, courthouses aren't nearly as vulnerable as airplanes.  No one is going to kill thousands of people by bringing a box cutter knife into a courthouse.

Second, people can choose not to fly.  You can't choose not to enter the courthouse.  If you are summoned as a juror or witness, you have to go.  If you are a litigant, you don't have a practical alternative.  (Defaulting on a $1M complaint is an alternative, but not a practical one.)

As expected (prior post here) AG Holder has rescinded the already long-delayed regulations to implement the certification procedure by which states that provide qualified counsel on state habeas are supposed to get expedited review of their cases in federal habeas.

This "fast track" program is set up by Chapter 154 of title 28, United States Code, §§2261-2266.  Section 2265(b) provides, "The Attorney General shall promulgate regulations to implement the certification procedure under subsection (a)."  The AG is given no authority to promulgate regulations governing the substantive criteria for qualification.  Congress has reserved that authority to itself, providing in paragraph (a)(3), "There are no requirements for certification or for application of this chapter other than those expressly stated in this chapter."

Today's notice of rescission of the regulations states, in response to CJLF's objections, "it makes little sense to retain that process in the absence of substantive certification criteria."  No, it makes no sense to write substantive criteria into regulations when Congress has expressly provided that the D.C. Circuit's review of certification decisions will be de novo, with no deference to what DoJ decides.  The statutory criteria, as the D.C. Circuit or ultimately the Supreme Court construe them, are all that matter.

Memo to incoming House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith: Bring Mr. Holder before the Committee to explain himself as one of the first items of business in the 112th Congress.

And put a line in DoJ's appropriation bill that the previously promulgated regulations are reinstated effective immediately.

Arrest in Boston Slayings:  John M. Guilfoil of The Boston Globe reports on an arrest in "one of the worst multiple homicides in Boston's history," which left four people, including a two-year-old boy, shot to death on a street in September.  Dwane Moore, who was released from custody earlier this year after serving time for manslaughter, is charged with four counts of murder and numerous other supporting counts.  Milton J. Valencia and John R. Ellement, also of The Globe, have this story on what authorities say happened on the night of this drug robbery gone bad.

Jury Recommends Death Sentence in Alabama Murder Case:  After deliberating for an hour and a half, an Alabama jury yesterday recommended a death sentence for convicted murderer Ryan Gerald Russell.  Russell was convicted of killing his 11-year-old cousin Katherine Gillespie in 2008, after her body was found stuffed head first in a trashcan in Russell's SUV.  An autopsy report showed she died from a contact gunshot wound to the head.  Russell's defense team claimed the shooting was accidental.  Katie Hurst and Samantha Hurst of the Shelby County Reporter (AL) have this story.

Queens Sniper Convicted:  Matthew Colletta was convicted of one count of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder stemming from his summer 2006 shooting spree, reports Christina Carrega of the New York Post.  For six and a half hours, Colletta went through Queens targeting red cars and people wearing red clothing.  He defended his behavior to authorities by claiming the Bloods gang (whose members wear red) had threatened him.

DC GPS Ruling Stands:  In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit declined to revisit their previous ruling that police must obtain a warrant before tracking a vehicle with GPS.  A three-judge panel of justices determined this summer that GPS tracking absent a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment because a "reasonable person does not expect anyone to monitor and retain a record every time he drives his car, including his origin, route, destination, and each place he stops and how long he stays there."  Jim McElhatton of The Washington Times has this article.

Kent makes the point that there are better ways to protest TSA's grope-your-kid spectacle, and I agree.  My suggestion is that, instead of uselessly and perversely delaying your fellow travelers, demand that the new Congress subpoena Big Sis for a groping of what it pleases her to call her mind.

I was an Assistant US Attorney for a long time.  I believe in unapologetic enforcement of the law, and certainly enforcement against those who want to blow airplanes out of the sky has to be the first order of business.  I am also aware that normal Fourth Amendment standards, which call for the amount of government intrusion to be matched by the level and specificity of individualized suspicion, cannot apply in the airport context.  Some generalized surrender of personal privacy is unavoidable, given the dangers we face.  But this Administration has taken it both too far and in the wrong direction.  It's foolish and misdirected to think that Obama's reckless government can be called to account by holding up innocent travelers in the grope-your-kid line, but a calling to account is imperative nonetheless.

We know who the bombers are because we have a lot of experience.  They're jihadist Muslim men in their 20's and 30's.  I'm sorry if it's politcally incorrect thus to "profile" them, but that is in fact who they are and it's past time to act on this knowledge rather than pretending we don't have it.

What's happening now parades under the title of the suddenly-popular-with-liberals "national security," but I seriously doubt that's what's going on.  More likely, in my view, is that this gross and quasi-sexual public humiliation of your teenager is a reflection of the view that government controls citizens rather than the other way around.  You have to ask whether this is less Big Sis than Big Brother, trying to turn us into a nation of sheep:  Accept some government operative's hands all over you, or your daughter, or your son for that matter, or face the mailed fist.  It's absolutely no coincidence that this is the same government that from now on plans to make life-or-death medical decisions for you, your wishes be damned.

This is not the America I grew up with or care to live in.  Don't add to the burdens of your fellow travelers.  But when Thanksgiving is over, demand that a new and hopefully more sober Congress put on public display the real motives of those who want to start degrading you by stripping you (as it were) of your privacy, but aim to end by stripping you of your freedom.

Your kid is not an object to be played with by The State and neither are you.  This is the lesson our new Congress will need to teach our President.   

 

Child Molester Arrested Hour After Release:  Andrew Dalton of the AP reports on the arrest of Lawrence Brown, picked up an hour after being released from a California prison, where he served roughly half of a 49-year sentence for the kidnap and rape of two young girls in 1983.  Prior to Brown's release, the Orange County District Attorney's Office sought to have him civilly committed as a Sexually Violent Predator, but were unable to do so because the Department of Mental Health failed to submit the required paperwork.  After local officials warned the public of his upcoming release, a woman came forward claiming she recognized Brown as the man who raped her as a child in the late 1970s.  Brown was released, but rearrested almost immediately for violating conditions of his parole. 

Federal Judge to Plead Guilty to Some Charges:  U.S. District Judge Jack Camp is scheduled to plead guilty tomorrow to some charges, reports Greg Bluestein of the AP.  Camp faces gun and drug charges after was arrested last month for attempting to buy cocaine in a sting involving a stripper and an undercover police officer.  (See previous post here.)  Two firearms were also found in Camp's vehicle.

Massachusetts High Court Reverses Two Murder Convictions Today:  The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts today reversed murder convictions in two separate cases, reports The Boston Globe.  In one case, the court reversed the second-degree murder conviction of Margaret Earle for the death of her 21-month-old daughter, who died from blunt force trauma to her abdomen and likely suffered excruciating pain over a period of several hours, finding Earle's failure to seek immediate medical attention for the toddler was insufficient to support a murder verdict.  The court also reversed the first-degree murder conviction of Jerome McNulty, accused of stabbing to death his girlfriend, after finding his confession inadmissible under state law because the police waited too long (14 minutes) to tell him his attorney was trying to contact him. 

Governor Strickland to Review 1,200 Clemency Requests: Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said he hopes to make decisions on the 1,200 applications for clemency already submitted for his consideration before leaving office in January.  During his term as governor, Strickland has commuted the sentences of five death row inmates (including one earlier this week, noted here, and others noted here and here), and presided over 17 carried out executions (noted by Doug Berman of SL&P here).  Laura Bischoff of the Dayton Daily News has this story.

ACLU Sues Michigan Over Juvenile Lifer Laws:  The ACLU sued the state of Michigan today on behalf of nine juveniles convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  The suit alleges that a state juvenile sentencing law, which requires 14-year-olds charged with certain felonies to be tried as adults and if convicted, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.  The ACLU said Michigan has 350 such inmates, the second highest number of such offenders in the U.S.  The lawsuit is asking U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara to declare Michigan's law unconstitutional, even for juvenile murderers.  The Detroit Free Press has this story.

Indiana Lawmakers Urged to Discuss Death Penalty Costs:  Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller attended a University of Notre Dame event Monday to discuss with lawyers and law students the costs of capital punishment in the state.  He did not present specific solutions to alleviate costs or for a moratorium on the death penalty, but rather pushed for a "candid conversation" about death penalty expenses, including costs at the trial and appellate levels.  Economics professor Anne Morrison Piehl of Rutgers University suggested at the event that Indiana develop stricter limitations on reimbursement for trial expenses, such as limiting the number or type of expert witnesses or reducing their fees, or develop audit procedures after the fact.  Read the Journal Gazette's article here.

First Death Sentence Under Japanese "Lay Judge System":  The first death sentence was handed down earlier this week under the Japanese lay judge system, in which a panel of professional and citizen judges examine a crime to determine the appropriate sentence, reports The Yomiui Shimbun.  Receiving the death sentence is double murder Hiroyuki Ikeda, who killed one of his victims by decapitation with an electric saw.  In making its ruling, the panel considered Ikeda's motive of personal gain, the "relentless and brutal" nature of the crimes, and consideration of the victims' families.  While the ruling also noted Ikeda's expressed remorse, the panel concluded this merely managed to recover his humanity.

Supreme Court Issues First Signed Decision of the Term:  The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday issued its first signed decision of the term in Abbott v. United States, a unanimous decision authored by Justice Ginsberg (Justice Kagen did not participate).  At issue in the case is the interpretation of a federal sentencing law that imposes a five-year minimum for the use of guns in connection with drug sales.  Rejecting arguments from two convicted drug dealers, the court determined that the law imposes a five-year minimum sentence on top of , not instead of, most other sentences.  Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this story.

Longest-Serving Texas Death Row Inmate Dies:  Richard Abshire of The Dallas Morning News reports that 55-year-old Ronald Curtis Chambers, an inmate on Texas's death row for nearly 35 years, died yesterday after collapsing in his cell.  In 1975, Chambers and a cohort abducted two college students from a Dallas nightclub and shot them.  Chambers and his accomplice turned back to the scene after hearing one of the victims cry out, and continued to beat and choke the victims.  One of the victims died.  Jurors sentenced Chambers to death in 1975, 1985, and 1992, but the sentences were all overturned, including most recently by the Fifth Circuit in 2007.

Supreme Court Recusals:  Adam Liprak of The New York Times has this piece on the mysterious recusal practice of the Supreme Court.  The topic is especially relevant this term, as the bench's newest member, Justice Kagen, has been absent for 10 of 25 arguments heard this term.  The grounds for Kagen's recusals are largely self-evident given her previous position as solicitor general.  But others are less clear, since the court uses stock language without accompanying reasons to indicate a justice's recusal.

Justice Breyer on Facebook:  AP writer Eric Schelzig reports on comments made today by Justice Breyer at Vanderbilt University regarding Facebook and the recent film "The Social Network."  Breyer stated that although he "couldn't even understand" the movie, the court should consider things like social networking sites when interpreting the Constitution.

Charles Andrew Fowler, a.k.a. "Man," is a murdering thug who thoroughly deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison or perhaps be executed.  Whether he should be punished by the federal government, rather than the state, is a closer question now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

California Gang Member Sentenced to Death:  A Kings County judge sentenced Pedro Cortez Valles to death earlier this week for the 2004 murder of a rival gang member, reports the AP.  Valles was convicted of first-degree murder in March, with a special circumstance of a having a prior murder conviction four years earlier. 

Victims' Family Sues Over Killer's Early Release:  The Boston Herald reports that relatives of a Washington couple brutally murdered in 2007 filed a civil rights lawsuit this week against Massachusetts law enforcement officials.  Daniel Tavares Jr. was released early while serving a sentence for killing his mother based on an improper credit of 698 days of statutory good time.  The complaint alleges that at the time of the 2007 Washington murders, an outstanding warrant authorized Tavares's arrest in New England but that Massachusetts officials knew he had fled to Washington.  The family members claim that by releasing Taveres early and failing to arrest him in Washington before the murders, Massachusetts officials are to blame for the couple's slayings.  

Wedding Limo Carjacked:   45-year-old Joseph Ghella of Boston is facing charges of carjacking and larceny of a motor vehicle after he carjacked a limo during a wedding ceremony.  Last weekend, Ghella ordered the bridesmaids out of the limo in front of the church and took off with the vehicle.  The women proceeded calmly down the aisle and did not tell anyone about the incident until after the ceremony concluded.  The Boston Globe has this story. 

Life Sentence in New Hampshire Machete Murder:  A New Hampshire judge today sentenced 19-year-old Steven Spader to life in prison, reports The Nashua Telegraph (NH).  After only two hours of deliberating, a jury convicted Spader earlier today of first-degree murder and several other felonies.  New Hampshire Union Leader writer Kathryn Marchocki reports that on an early 2009 morning, Spader and a co-conspirator broke into the home of Kimberly Cates, brutally killed the 42 year-old nurse with a machete, and seriously injured her 11-year-old daughter Jaime.  Jaime survived the attack by pretending to be dead.  While handing down the life sentence, presiding Judge Gillian L. Abramson addressed Spader:  "I could go on for days and days about the depth of your depravity.  Suffice it to say you belong in a cage."

Another 120 Years for Tennessee Mass Murderer:  Lawrence Buser of the The Commercial Appeal (TN) reports a Tennessee judge today handed down an additional 120-year sentence to Jessie Dotson, convicted and sentenced to death for the 2008 murders of six people.  (See previous post here.)  The additional years added today were for Dotson's convictions for attempted murder of three of his nieces and nephews, ages two months, five years, and nine years, whom be tried to kill using boards and knives.

Child Predator Sentenced for Fourth Sexual Conviction:  A New Jersey child predator was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in federal prison after receiving his fourth conviction since 2002 involving the sexual abuse of young children.  John Desper's criminal history includes convictions in 2003 for possession of child pornography and solicitation of a minor, as well as a 2007 conviction for sending letters to a woman suggesting she prepare children in her care for sexual activity upon his release from prison.  Five months after his release, Desper made plans with another woman to photograph her undressed daughters for money - this time finding himself in an undercover sting with a Pennsylvania detective.  John Barna of the Gloucester County Times has this story.

Here is coverage of the continuing ballot count in the California Attorney General race:  Don Thompson for AP; Marisa Lagos in the SF Chron; Phil Willon in the LA Times.  Lagos quotes the consultants for both campaigns:

Everyone involved in the races is trying to spin it their way. On Wednesday, Harris' camp held a conference call where campaign manager Ace Smith expressed "confidence that we are going to win this race." In typical fashion, Smith was, um, anything but understated:

"We are, I think, witnessing history -- one of the most interesting upsets of political convention in California political history," he said. "You can clearly tell that in early returns we were down -- but we came roaring back...I believe we won on election day by about 3 percentage points based on our modeling -- that's critical because there are still absentee ballots to be counted, and those in the queue, generally speaking, reflect election day results."

Cooley consultant Kevin Spillane, meanwhile, sent out a memo late Thursday noting that Cooley carried 40 out of the state's 58 counties and saying that the "significance of that number is that there are more ballots to be tabulated in counties carried by Steve Cooley rather than in those counties carried by Kamala Harris." Spillane also stressed that Cooley was the top vote-getter among all Republicans on the statewide ticket (those other candidates, as we noted earlier, had a pretty dismal showing).

With apologies to Shakespeare, the first thing we should do is kill all the campaign consultants.  Both are wildly wrong.

If the uncounted ballots reflect election day results, then Harris didn't win by anywhere near 3 points.  It is a fractional-point race any way you slice it.  Also, early returns being more conservative than the final tally is not remotely an upset of convention.  It is the usual pattern.

Number of counties is irrelevant when counties vary widely in size.  Democrat-leaning Los Angeles is the 500-pound gorilla of California, but Republican-leaning San Diego and Orange are 300-pound gorillas.  Tiny Modoc County only matters if the gorillas cancel each other (which they might).

As of 8:53 Saturday morning, the Secretary of State is showing Cooley 22,817 votes ahead.  The unprocessed ballot report, updated 5:00 p.m. Friday, says there were 2,342,664 unprocessed ballots at that time.

Update to Update: The margin as of 9:14 11:51 a.m. Monday is 44,508 19,189 for Cooley.  The unprocessed ballot report has not been updated.  San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Ventura Counties updating in the most recent reports.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation earlier this week released its 2010 Adult Institutions Outcome Evaluation Report.  Some interesting findings:

• 67.5% of felons released in 2005-06 returned to prison within three years

• Inmates committed for property crimes have the highest overall, three-year recidivism rate (71.9%)

• Recidivism rates are highest for inmates who serve 19 to 24 months (71.5%)

• Race/ethnicity appears to be related to recidivism rates for inmates released for the first time, but not for those who previously failed while on parole

The SF Chronicle has this story on the study.

Tom Whitehead reports in the London Telegraph:

The first long term study of its kind shows that 74 per cent of criminals will commit at least one crime within nine years of being released from jail or serving a community sentence, Ministry of Justice figures show.

The figures show the true challenge facing Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, to meet his promise to bring about a "rehabilitation revolution".

Actually, the Ministry's figures don't and can't show how many crimes they commit, but only how many they are caught committing.  The one thing we know for sure is that the number committed is higher than the number caught.

Crispin Blunt, the Justice Minister, said: "Today's statistics show we need a more intelligent approach to sentencing that targets the root causes of crime and reoffending, so making our communities safer and better places to live."

Great name for a Justice Minister, although the term "root causes" is like fingernails on a blackboard to me.  It is a usually a prelude to excuse-making that ignores personal responsibility and tries to blame everything on society.  But wait.

"Reoffending rates among short sentence prisoners remain unacceptably high. We will address this failure in the system by making prisons into places of hard work which prepare offenders more effectively for the outside world."

Hard work!  Finally, an official who understands that work is the prison program we need most.  Too bad he's across the pond.

From the oral argument in the violent video game case, Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Assn:

JUSTICE ALITO: Well, I think what Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games.

          (Laughter.)

JUSTICE ALITO: Did he enjoy them?

Later, more seriously:

I think that I shall never see
A burglar alarm as lovely as a tree

Yuck.  My apologies to Joyce Kilmer and Ogden Nash. That really stunk.

Anyhow, Forest Service researchers Geoffrey Donovan and Jeffrey Prestemon have been looking into the relationship between trees and crime.  The Forest Service has this press release with the results.  The release glosses over the correlation-causation problem, as is all too typical.

Publication is forthcoming in Environment & Behavior, and Sage has generously made the full text available for free.

If you are looking for state government results, the National Conference of State Legislatures has some handy pages:
      Legislature Party Control Switch
      Legislature Party Control
      Party Control of State Government (Governor and Both Houses)
      State Governor

The "switch" page shows that 11 states have changed to Republican control of both houses, while Iowa has changed to divided.  North Carolina and Alabama are in Republican control for the first time since Reconstruction.  Memo to NC Republicans:  Bill Number 1 should be to repeal the Death Penalty Racial Quota Act.

In New England, Republicans were considered an endangered species recently, but they are now in control of both houses of the Maine and New Hampshire Legislatures.

The "control" page is showing New York, Washington, and Oregon as undecided. Danny Hakim reports in the NYT, "Based on the results through 11 a.m., the Senate would be split 31-31, but that includes the three races that remain undecided, leaving the ultimate outcome uncertain."

Voting by dead people generally involves a crime.  How about voting for dead people?  Generally not.  How about when the official supposedly in charge of clean elections sends out an official-looking mailer urging people to vote for the dead (right around Halloween, BTW)?

Voters in the Long Beach area of Los Angeles County received this mailer recently.  In large, all-caps print it says "IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE."  The fine print is not legible on this scanned image.  Torey Van Oot reports in the SacBee that it is "a disclosure that it was paid for by the Democratic Party."  The text of the letter says,

You have a right to know how the tragedy of Senator Jenny Oropeza's illness impacts your Election Day choice.

Jenny Oropeza's name is on the ballot. You have the right to vote for her.

If you do, and she wins, there will be a Special Election called. You will then be able to thoughtfully consider who will represent you in the Senate for the next four years.

Debra Bowen
Secretary of State

Senator Oropeza is not "ill."  She is deceased.  Okay, put that down to a euphemism.  This is still a misleading mailer, dummied up to look like official business at first blush and only disclosed as a partisan piece in the fine print.  Is it a crime?  An election law expert I consulted thinks so.  Will it be prosecuted?  Probably not.

Kidnapping Trial Finally Begins: Seven years after his arrest, the trial of the man charged with the kidnap and sexual abuse of 14 year-old Elizabeth Smart began today.  AP reporter Jennifer Dobner has this story on the first day of proceedings, which were devoted to jury selection.  The defendant, Brian Mitchell was removed from the courtroom after he sat singing hymns for the first half hour.  Mitchell was led to a another room and allowed to watch the jury selection via video.  While Mitchell's legal team said it will seek an insanity defense, the District Judge who will preside over his trial found him competent to stand trial earlier this year.  Mitchell is accused of abducting Smart from her bedroom in June of 2002 and forcing the girl to become his polygamous wife. 

Support for Pot Measure Dwindling:  In the final day of the campaign, the California Field Poll reports that public support for Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana for personal use, is fading.  SF Chronicle staff writer Erin Aliday reports that the recent poll found that 49% of respondents oppose the measure while 42% support it.  Over the Summer, polls have reported that public opinion on the measure has shifted continuously.  Last September 49% of respondents indicated that they supported it.  Prop. 19 proponents suggest that polling voters about marijuana is difficult because respondents my be reluctant to tell the questioner about their support.  They might also have been too stoned to remember the question.  

Administration Cuts Deal on Terrorist Sentence:  Although a military jury at Guantanimo Bay has sentenced Canadian born terrorist Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison for the murder of an American commando in Afghanistan, in reality the terrorist will soon be transferred to his home country to serve less than a fifth of that sentence.  Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, was killed by a grenade hurled by Khadr during a firefight in 2002.  Khadr was 15 at the  time.  He was found nearly dead, after a later battle and treated by U.S. forces prior to his transfer to Guantanamo Bay.  A story by Miami Herald writer Carol Rosenberg reports that Khadr plead guilty to the murder and other war crimes in exchange for the sentencing arrangement.  The seven officer sentencing jury was unaware last Sunday that the Obama Administration had already cut a deal for Khadr to serve no more than eight years for the murder, most of it in Canada.   Former Army Sgt., Layne Morris, who lost an eye in the firefight that resulted in Khadr's capture was dissatisfied with the sentence which he said put the terrorist "on frankly the fast-track to freedom."

The New York Times fancies itself as the nation's premiere newspaper, and in some ways it is.  Its editorial page, though, is among the worst of any major paper.  It is not just that the positions are monotonically "politically correct."  That is true of many, perhaps most, major papers in the country.  The problem is the assertions of fact made to support their opinions.  These assertions vary from misleading to outright wrong.

The NYT has this editorial in reaction to the Landrigan execution, noted here. The NYT is, of course, against the death penalty. No news there. But now they denounce "the particular barbarism of this form of execution," i.e., lethal injection, and this statement immediately follows a quote from Justice Stevens.  Of the methods that have been used in this country, this one is exceptionally bad relative to the others?  What utter nonsense.

In reality, lethal injection was adopted precisely because it is less painful than the methods previously used.  In 1992, the very same Justice Stevens urged the adoption of this method. "The unnecessary cruelty of [the gas chamber] convinced Arizona's Attorney General that that State should abandon execution by gas in favor of execution by lethal injection.  His conclusion coincides with that of numerous medical, legal, and ethical experts." Gomez v. United States District Court, 503 U.S. 653 (1992) (dissenting opinion).  Richard Ruelas in the Arizona Republic reports the history of the adoption of lethal injection in reaction to the Harding execution.

Justice Kagan's First Vote:  The LA Times reports on Justice Elena Kagan's first vote as a Supreme Court justice -  a dissenting vote in Tuesday's decision to lift the stay of execution of Arizona inmate Jeffrey Landigan (read Kent's post here).  Joining Justice Kagan in the dissent were Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor.

Spray-On DNA:  Selectmark Security Systems, a U.K.-based company, has developed a "DNA security system" that offers companies a potential deterrent to would-be criminals.  Through the system, a business targeted by thieves can install a device near its entrance with a warning sign nearby.  Ideally, the sign's reference to "DNA" will scare criminals away but if not, the person is doused with an odorless and sticky spray.  The spray illuminates under a UV light for weeks, linking the person to the crime scene.  The system is currently used in the U.K., the Netherlands, and Germany.  The Toronto Star has this story.  

Thanks, But We Don't Need the Snakes:   The AP reports John Joseph Maillet pleaded guilty in federal court last month to production of child pornography for coercing a young girl to pose with 41 venomous snakes.  He originally forfeited computer equipment and the snakes to the government, but a judge yesterday approved the DOJ's request to drop the reptiles from the list of seized property.  Maillet will be sentenced in December.  

Judge Denies Blagojevich's Motion to Nullify Conviction:  The AP reports a federal judge in Chicago today denied former Governor Rod Blagojevich's motion to deny his August conviction.  The judge rejected the argument that Blagojevich's conviction was due in part to prosecutorial misconduct, noting that defendants often make such claims in the absence of a colorable legal or factual challenge.  Blogojevich faces up to five years in prison.

Tourette's Syndrome Defense:  Jennifer Mee, a 19-year-old once famous for her five-week bout of hiccups, was charged last weekend with the first-degree murder of Shannon Griffin.  Her lawyer now claims he might present a Tourette's syndrome defense, citing hiccups as a symptom of the condition.  The AP has this story.

Federal Judge Enjoins Massachusetts "Anti-Sexting" Law:  A federal district judge in Massachusetts today granted a preliminary injunction of a new state law aimed at protecting children from online predators, reports the AP.  Earlier this year, the state's high court ruled that the law outlawing dissemination of harmful materials to minors did not cover electronic communications such as text messages or emails.  The state legislature passed a new law to fill in these gaps.  The ACLU and several other groups challenged the amendments, claiming their broad language included material on the internet that adults have a right to view, even if harmful to minors.  Judge Rya Zobel agreed, finding that the new law "without question" violates the First Amendment   

Update 2: The Ninth Circuit's order denying the State's appeal of the TRO is here.
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Update: Paul Davenport has this update for AP on the State's appeal.

The Ninth's denial of leave to file a second habeas petition is here.  They call it an "SOS order," for "second or successive," an interesting term I had not heard before.
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On Saturday, USDC Judge Roslyn Silver ordered the State of Arizona to disclose its source for the sodium thiopental to be used to execute repeat murderer Jeffrey Landrigan. See prior posts here and here.  Michael Kiefer has this story in the Arizona Republic.  The disclosure order is here.  Today, the Arizona Republic reports that Judge Silver has stayed the execution in order to litigate this extremely tenuous (to put in mildly) claim.

Is there a solution to all this last-minute federal court litigation in capital cases?  Yes, there is.  In 28 U.S.C. §2262(c), Congress has provided that once the first federal habeas proceeding is completed "no Federal court thereafter shall have the authority to enter a stay of execution in the case, unless the court of appeals approves the filing of a second or successive [habeas] application under section 2244(b)," which has very tight standards for such an approval.

To qualify for this bar, the state must (1) have a mechanism for appointing counsel in state postconviction proceedings; (2) have standards of qualification for appointment; (3) provide reasonable litigation expenses; and (4) apply for certification that it has done (1), (2), and (3) to the U.S. Attorney General, with de novo review of his decision by the D.C. Circuit.

Many states with capital punishment already have (1), (2), and (3), but none have pursued (4).  Get off the stick and apply, state attorneys general.

Alexis Levinson reports in the Daily Caller, "According to two witnesses, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took fellow Justice Elena Kagan out for a lesson in skeet shooting at his shooting club in Virginia last week."

Skeet, for those who don't know, are little clay frisbees.  A machine flings them, and you shoot them on the fly with a shotgun.  Or at least you try.  When you get a solid hit, there is nothing left but dust.  My first real job was as a "trap boy" at a skeet shooting range. Coincidentally, it was not far from the one noted in the story, and not far from where Gen. Jackson stood "like a stone wall."

Is Justice Kagan really interested in taking this up as a hobby?  I doubt it.  More likely she wanted to get a taste of it to better understand the people who are into it.  That is quite commendable, IMHO.

I've written before about the infamous dropped-down-the-well case of the Black Panther "poll watchers"  --  said poll watching assisted by billy clubs. 

Comes now the Washington Post, all but alone among the liberal media, to do some investigatve reporting,

I quote below an excerpt from the Post story by Jerry Markon and Krissah Thompson (emphasis added):

 

Before the New Black Panther controversy, another case had inflamed those passions. Ike Brown, an African American political boss in rural Mississippi, was accused by the Justice Department in 2005 of discriminating against the county's white minority. It was the first time the 1965 Voting Rights Act was used against minorities and to protect whites.

Coates and Adams [two career attorneys] later told the civil rights commission [against the Department's orders] that the decision to bring the Brown case caused bitter divisions in the voting section and opposition from civil rights groups.

Three Justice Department lawyers, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation from their supervisors, described the same tensions, among career lawyers as well as political appointees. Employees who worked on the Brown case were harassed by colleagues, they said, and some department lawyers anonymously went on legal blogs "absolutely tearing apart anybody who was involved in that case," said one lawyer.

"There are career people who feel strongly that it is not the voting section's job to protect white voters," the lawyer said. "The environment is that you better toe the line of traditional civil rights ideas or you better keep quiet about it, because you will not advance, you will not receive awards and you will be ostracized."

 

We now have a Justice Department whose own lawyers fear retaliation if they seek equal treatment for all races.  This is what Eric Holder has brought us.

Canadian Air Force Officer Sentenced:  Canadian Air Force Col. Russell Williams received two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole for 25 years, after pleading guilty earlier this week to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault, and 82 counts of breaking-and-entering.  (The Belleville Intelligencer, the local paper in the city where Russell's court proceedings took place, discusses the disturbing details of the crimes here.)  Although Russell expressed remorse for his three-year crime spree, the sentencing judge referred to him as a "sadosexual serial killer," whose "fall from grace has been swift and sure."  One military official stated the military community has been "deeply shaken" by Russell's secret life of crime.  Read more from AP and The Toronto Star.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Tonight:  AP writer Juan A. Lozano reports that Texas is set to execute death row inmate Larry Wooten for murdering an elderly couple in 1996.  Wooten beat and stabbed 80-year-old Grady Alexander and 86-year-old Bessie Alexander, slit their throats and nearly severed their heads.  Wooten maintains his innocence, but DNA evidence strongly linked him to the crime scene.  He will be the 17th inmate executed in Texas this year.

California Death Sentence Upheld:  The California Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of Robert Bacon, convicted of raping and murdering Deborah Sammons in 1995.  Three months after being released from prison for killing an Arizona man, Bacon beat Sammons to death after her estranged husband said he wanted her "out of the picture."  Bacon's claims on appeal included a Miranda violation and challenges to the jury instructions used at trial.  The SF Chronicle has this story.    

California Lawyer Questions DNA Collection from Cigarette Butt:  A California appeals court heard argument yesterday on whether DNA testing of a discarded cigarette butt without a warrant violates the discarder's Fourth Amendment rights, reports The Sacramento Bee.  In 2006, police collected a cigarette butt tossed by Rolando Gallego, whom they suspected of stabbing to death Leticia Estores in 1991.  DNA from the cigarette matched a crime scene sample and Gallego was convicted of second-degree murder.  On appeal, he argued DNA testing of a discarded cigarette butt is distinguishable from rummaging through garbage left on the curb (which police can do without a warrant) because most people don't have access to genetic testing.  The state countered that Gallago had no expectation of privacy in the discarded cigarette, and that other courts have upheld such investigatory tactics. 

NPR announced late Wednesday that it has fired longtime journalist Juan Williams for a comment he made on the Fox News program the O'Reilly Factor.  A story in today's Washington Post by Debbi Wilgoren and Paul Farhi quotes Williams saying "....when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried.  I get nervous."  According to NPR that statement was "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."  Let me get this straight; many Muslim leaders have told the world on countless occasions that Islam is at war with America i.e., the "Great Satan"; jihadist groups are funded by Muslim nations; for two decades male Muslims of Middle Eastern descent have been exploding bombs or engaged in suicide missions murdering thousands of innocent people in America and Western Europe but, you're a bigot if you get nervous when you see fellow air passengers who are identifying themselves as Muslims.  William Kristol puts this blind stupidity in perspective this morning on WeeklyStandard.com.     

James Barron reports in the NYT that the Second Circuit has denied rehearing en banc in the federal death penalty case of Ronell Wilson, alias Rated R.

The defendant, Ronell Wilson, was convicted in 2006 of shooting the undercover detectives, James V. Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews, after he climbed into the back seat of their car outside a housing project. Detective Nemorin was running a weapons sting operation and had brought Detective Andrews along for backup.

Mr. Wilson, now 28, was known by the street name Rated R. He and another gang member climbed into the back seat of the detectives' police-issued Nissan Altima. As they drove down a dead-end street, Mr. Wilson fired .44-caliber bullets into each detective's skull. It was not clear at Mr. Wilson's trial whether he knew the two were police officers.

The four dissenting judges -- led by Debra A. Livingston, who was on the three-judge panel in June and dissented in part from its ruling -- called the facts of the case "heartbreaking." She noted that Mr. Wilson murdered the first officer without warning and killed the second "even as the young officer, a father of three, pleaded for his life."