OH Inmate who Survived '09 Execution can be Put to Death: A condemned Ohio killer whose 2009 execution was called off when an execution team failed to find a vein after two hours can be put to death, the state's Supreme Court said Wednesday. Andrew Welsh-Huggins of the AP reports that by a 4-3 vote, the court rejected 59-year-old Romell Broom's arguments that a second attempt at an execution amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy. Justices sided with prosecutors, who had argued that double jeopardy doesn't apply because the lethal drugs were never administered and thus the execution never began. They also ruled that a prior unsuccessful execution doesn't impact the constitutionality of a death sentence. Broom was sentenced to death in 1984 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, who he abducted in Cleveland as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two of her friends. He is currently back on death row awaiting an execution date.
Rifle Found at El Chapo Hideout Tied to Fast and Furious: A .50-caliber rifle found at the hideout where drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera was captured two months ago has been linked to Fast and Furious, a botched sting operation that targeted gun smugglers. Eric Tucker and Alicia A. Caldwell of the AP report that the rifle was one of 19 weapons recovered at El Chapo's Sinaloa hideout in Mexico and the only one found to be associated with Fast and Furious, a failed "gun-walking" operation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed gun-runners to purchase weapons with the intent of tracking them and disrupting gun smuggling operations. As of January, the ATF had recovered 885 firearms purchased during the operation, several of which have been linked to violent crimes, including the gunfight near the border that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010. The rifle found at the hideout was discovered to have been purchased in July 2010 in a straw purchase by a person not on the ATF's radar at the time. It is not known to be associated with any other crime.
Prop. 47 Faces Continued Scrutiny from CA Police: Law enforcement officers in California continue to credit Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that downgraded penalties for a range of crimes for increased crime in communities statewide. Claudia Cowen of Fox News reports that since Prop. 47's implementation, departments across the state have seen increases in theft-related crimes including robbery, burglary and identity theft, and larger cities like Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles have also shown spikes in violent crimes, including robbery and homicide. Backers of the measure continue to defend Prop. 47, citing financial savings and a reduced prison population as indicators of its success, but police officers say that while it may be working to ease the prison population in the state, it is not working to keep communities safe.
Rifle Found at El Chapo Hideout Tied to Fast and Furious: A .50-caliber rifle found at the hideout where drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera was captured two months ago has been linked to Fast and Furious, a botched sting operation that targeted gun smugglers. Eric Tucker and Alicia A. Caldwell of the AP report that the rifle was one of 19 weapons recovered at El Chapo's Sinaloa hideout in Mexico and the only one found to be associated with Fast and Furious, a failed "gun-walking" operation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed gun-runners to purchase weapons with the intent of tracking them and disrupting gun smuggling operations. As of January, the ATF had recovered 885 firearms purchased during the operation, several of which have been linked to violent crimes, including the gunfight near the border that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010. The rifle found at the hideout was discovered to have been purchased in July 2010 in a straw purchase by a person not on the ATF's radar at the time. It is not known to be associated with any other crime.
Prop. 47 Faces Continued Scrutiny from CA Police: Law enforcement officers in California continue to credit Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that downgraded penalties for a range of crimes for increased crime in communities statewide. Claudia Cowen of Fox News reports that since Prop. 47's implementation, departments across the state have seen increases in theft-related crimes including robbery, burglary and identity theft, and larger cities like Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles have also shown spikes in violent crimes, including robbery and homicide. Backers of the measure continue to defend Prop. 47, citing financial savings and a reduced prison population as indicators of its success, but police officers say that while it may be working to ease the prison population in the state, it is not working to keep communities safe.
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