We'll see what Doug Berman has to say about this.

I guess this is an example of the the public being made safer by the release required by the Supreme Court. Thanks Kennedy.

And this link contains a picture of the victim:

http://www.modbee.com/news/local/crime/article189968749.html

Probation instead of incarceration for serious, violent crime is a mistake,
and so is parole.

I have spoken with several parole attorneys who tell me that virtually no one --
short of "Son of Sam" -- is denied parole in NY (or the killer of John Lennon).

I have dealt with one convicted murderer who has violated parole 13 times.
No kidding.

One wonders how many murders are committed by parolees whom a judge,
jury, or the criminal himself, decided on a sentence which would
have prevented the death of the innocent (had it been fulfilled).

e.g.:
CENTRAL NY CRIME
Man charged with murder of Salina man who was found dead in Liverpool
Posted Dec 19, 6:50 PM | http://www.syracuse.com/crime/

LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- Sheriff's deputies have arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly stabbing a man to death and then moving his body in mid-November.

The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday it had brought 2nd-degree murder charges against Jacob Stanton, 24 ...

Stanton is currently on parole for robbery. Seeber said Stanton is accused of stabbing Giarrusso with a knife and then moving his body.

I would say this is a sad story, federalist, that reinforces my fear that government officials can often do a lousy job dealing with a violent offender with a history of mental illness.

From the press report, this murderer had (at least) two violent priors as well as, according to his mother, "a history of violence and aggression" and a "history of mental illness" and "has been admitted to mental hospitals on 'more than a handful of occasions'." I would hope that this history would have enabled prosecutors and judges to have means and methods to secure his incapacitation before he committed this awful crime. But apparently not, and I sincerely would like to know which of various recent Cal sentencing reforms may have precluded his incapacitation after his September offense of "battery with serious injuries."

Plata was driven by extreme overcrowding in CA prisons was leading to weekly avoidable prison deaths and other problems of constitutional dimension. CA could have built more prisons in response, but it opted for various sentencing reforms. Blame Gov Brown and the legislature and the voters, not the Justices, for how they decided to respond to the enforcement of constitutional rights and implementation of the provisions of the PLRA.

Some prior charts put up in this space by Kent has suggested to me that California has to some degree reallocated more of its scarce prison beds to the most dangerous of offenders. It is a shame that it did not make a bed available for this Santos before his carnage. I sure hope they now have a bed for him for quite some time.