Speculation Heats Up About SCOTUS Appointment: David Savage at the Los Angeles Times reports this morning on the emergence of 10th Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch as the presumed front runner for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gorsuch, 49 and a Colorado native, was appointed to the 10th Circuit in 2006 by President George W. Bush and won easy confirmation in the then Democrat-controlled Senate. After earning degrees from Columbia, Harvard Law and Oxford, Gorsuch clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy, before serving in President Bush's Justice Department. According to the Times, an appointment to replace Justice Scalia could be announced as early as next week.
Released Drug Dealer Murdered: A drug dealer whose sentence was commuted last November by President Obama was executed at a federal halfway house in Detroit on Monday. CBS Detroit reports that Damarlon Thomas, a former Saginaw gang member, had served 9 years of a 19 year sentence when he became one of 79 federal drug offenders whose sentences were commuted by the President on November 22, in order to remedy what he called onerous sentencing of non-violent drug offenders. On Monday night, two masked men with automatic weapons entered the Bannum Place halfway house and held roughly two dozen men at gunpoint while Thomas was shot several times.
DNA Links Ex-Con to CA Murder: A suspect has been arrested for the December murder of David Wick, a popular resident of the small Northern California town of Burney. Nathan Solis & John J. Longoria of the Record Searchlight report that habitual criminal Manual Venegas has been arrested for the murder. On December 22, surveillance video recorded a man on a bicycle riding to the Rocky Ledge Shell, where Wicks was working, at the time of the murder. Video shows the suspect entering the store and spraying a flammable liquid on Wicks and setting him on fire, then spraying more liquid on the victim as he was burning. DNA testing of partially burned clothing found nearby, worn by the suspect, linked Venegas to the murder. Venegas' criminal record spans over 20 years with several convictions for crimes considered "low risk" under California law.
Released Drug Dealer Murdered: A drug dealer whose sentence was commuted last November by President Obama was executed at a federal halfway house in Detroit on Monday. CBS Detroit reports that Damarlon Thomas, a former Saginaw gang member, had served 9 years of a 19 year sentence when he became one of 79 federal drug offenders whose sentences were commuted by the President on November 22, in order to remedy what he called onerous sentencing of non-violent drug offenders. On Monday night, two masked men with automatic weapons entered the Bannum Place halfway house and held roughly two dozen men at gunpoint while Thomas was shot several times.
DNA Links Ex-Con to CA Murder: A suspect has been arrested for the December murder of David Wick, a popular resident of the small Northern California town of Burney. Nathan Solis & John J. Longoria of the Record Searchlight report that habitual criminal Manual Venegas has been arrested for the murder. On December 22, surveillance video recorded a man on a bicycle riding to the Rocky Ledge Shell, where Wicks was working, at the time of the murder. Video shows the suspect entering the store and spraying a flammable liquid on Wicks and setting him on fire, then spraying more liquid on the victim as he was burning. DNA testing of partially burned clothing found nearby, worn by the suspect, linked Venegas to the murder. Venegas' criminal record spans over 20 years with several convictions for crimes considered "low risk" under California law.
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