An Arsonist Turns to Stalking. Today on sfgate.com Gene Johnson, from Associated Press, writes that Allen Parmelee is spending the remainder of his 24-year sentence digging up information on the judges, lawyers and police officers that put him behind bars. Under Washington’s state Public Records Act, anyone has the right to petition records that are public. However, King County Prosecutor, Dan Satterberg is not only trying to deny him access to the records, but have a judge bar him for petitioning any more records.
Parmelee was convicted at his second trial for first-degree arson. His first trial ended in a mistrial because Parmelee had personal information about the jurors. Since his conviction, Parmelee has been gathering more information such as schedules, pay, photos and even addresses about deputies and other criminal justice officials.

Death Penalty: Tom Fahey writes on unionleader.com that Senator Joseph Kenney, R-Wakefield, sponsored SB 344 to expand New Hampshire's death penalty. Current law allows a death penalty for murder during a rape or kidnapping, killing a police officer or judge, murder for hire, a murder during a drug deal or by someone already serving life without parole. Kenney wants to expand the law to apply to multiple murders and attempted multiple killings.
Michel Woodbury shot and killed three men in a robbery July 2007. Jennifer Walker Blake, sister of one of the victims, supports the bill because under current law, her brother's killer cannot be sentenced to death. She says “Victims were murdered because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

No Guns for the Mentally Ill. According to the Psychiatric News, the federal government may fund the tracking of those who have been to a psychiatric hospital to prevent them from purchasing guns. The sponsor of the new law Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) has also been the victim of the mentally ill gunman who killed her husband on a commute train 14 years ago. Advocates believe that the new law could have prevented the 32 deaths last year at Virginia Tech if it was passed sooner. However, the bill will not require background checks at private sales and at gun shows. In the article, Paul Appelbaum, M.D, chair of the APA states that people with mental illness only contribute to 3-5 percent of gun crimes. Also, mental health advocates are concerned about the privacy rights of patients. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendment Act of 2007 is also related to the new gun law.

PornoCop: The Ninth Circuit today denied rehearing in the case of Dible v. City of Chandler, No. 05-16577. The court held that the city of Chandler, Arizona can decide that operating a hard-core pornographic web site is incompatible with being a police officer.

The public expects officers to behave with a high level of propriety, and, unsurprisingly, is outraged when they do not do so. The law and their own safety demands that they be given a degree of respect, and the sleazy activities of Ronald and Megan Dible could not help but undermine that respect. Nor is this mere speculation. Almost as soon as Ronald Dible’s indecent public activities became widely known, officers in the department began suffering denigration from members of the public, and potential recruits questioned officers about the Dibles’ website.