Violent Crime Up in Sacramento:  A spike of assaults and robberies has brought violent crime in Sacramento, CA to a 25 percent increase this year, though it "doesn't necessarily point to a yearlong trend."  Richard Change of the Sacramento Bee reports that aggravated assaults and robberies have both risen by 23 percent, rapes have increased by 59 percent and homicides jumped 27 percent in the first five months of 2015.  Former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness believes that the AB 109 prison realignment program and Prop 47 are the cause of the city's growth in crime.

SC Continues to Fight for Drug Supply:  South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley publicly stated that the 21-year-old man who shot dead nine churchgoers during a Bible study at a historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina "absolutely" should be put to death, though the state continues to struggle to secure one of the drugs needed for lethal injection.  Seanna Adcox of the AP reports that the state's supply expired in 2013 and is not permitted to purchase any more, according to Corrections Director Bryan Stirling.  The state currently has 44 inmates on death row and carried out its last execution in 2011.  The church shooter, Dylann Roof, is due back in court in October.  His execution order is still years away.

Manhunt for Escaped Killers Heats Up:  The manhunt for escaped New York murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat has energized after their DNA was reportedly found in a burglarized cabin 20 miles west of the Clinton Correctional Facility from where they escaped.  Law enforcement has neither confirmed nor denied the new information while the investigation is still active.  Matthew Diebel of USA Today reports that law enforcement has encouraged the public to be vigilant and on high alert for the two suspects, but to remain extremely cautious.  The two inmates used power tools to break out of the maximum-security prison near the Canadian border on June 6 and have been at large ever since.

Five States Have No Hate Crime Laws:  In the wake of the tragic shooting last week in which a white man shot and killed nine black parishioners inside of Charleston's historic Emanuel AME Church, the state is unable to pursue hate crime charges against defendant Dylann Roof because there is no such law on the books.  Rudy Williams of Local Memphis reports that South Carolina is one of just five states that have no hate crime laws, along with Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan and Wyoming.  .