August 2019 Archives

Amy Marcus reports in the WSJ on the use of the popular DNA tests and online genealogy databases to solve crimes. With a crime-scene sample known to be from the perpetrator, it is sometimes possible to find relatives, focusing the investigation. The best known success of this technique was the capture of the Golden State Killer here in Sacramento, California. Solving that crime brought enormous relief to many people who had been so sadistically victimized by this monster.

Residents of the District of Columbia deserve protection from the most violent criminals and to be confident those offenders receive prison sentences commensurate with the gravity of their crimes. A bill pending in the D.C. Council would undermine that expectation and subject residents to unwarranted risks from convicted murderers, rapists and child sex abusers.

The legislation would directly benefit the most serious and violent criminals -- specifically, those who killed, raped or committed sexual abuse before reaching age 25 -- by making them eligible for release, or a reduced sentence, while still in their 30s.

It's important to be clear about the implication of the pending legislation, sponsored by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6): Under the bill, if the gunmen who massacred innocent people in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, this month had instead committed their crimes in the District -- and had both survived -- one would be eligible for release or reduced sentence at age 36, at a judge's discretion; the other at age 39.

Jeffrey Epstein died by hanging himself, according to an autopsy released Friday, capping days of speculation about how the disgraced financier died in his jail cell.

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In a brief statement, Barbara Sampson, the chief medical examiner in New York City, said Mr. Epstein's cause of death was suicide by hanging. She didn't elaborate further, saying she reached her determination after "careful review of all investigative information."

West was sentenced to death for the 1986 stabbing deaths of Wanda Romines, 51, and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila Romines, in their East Tennessee home. He also was convicted of raping Sheila.

Investigators say the women had been tortured in front of one another before they died.

When liberals worry about losing a major Supreme Court case, they usually make appeals to the Court's "legitimacy." This is intended to attract Chief Justice John Roberts by suggesting that a conservative outcome would damage the institution's reputation. The ritual is disingenuous but usually subtle.

Five Democratic Senators have had it with subtle. In a remarkable and threatening amicus brief, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mazie Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Richard Durbin and Kirsten Gillibrand all but tell the Justices that they'll retaliate politically if the Court doesn't do what they say in a Second Amendment case.

"The Supreme Court is not well," they tell the Justices in what is really an enemy-of-the-Court brief. "Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be 'restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.'" By "restructured," they mean packed with new Justices by a Democratic President and Senate after they kill the filibuster.

The claim is not merely false. It is one of the most destructive lies in recent history. For a candidate to repeat it is beyond inexcusable.

This Administration will not tolerate violence against police, and we will do all we can to protect the safety of law enforcement officers.  I will share with you one proposal that we will be advancing after Labor Day.  We will be proposing legislation providing that in cases of mass murder, or in cases of murder of a law enforcement officer, there will be a timetable for judicial proceedings that will allow imposition of any death sentence without undue delay.  Punishment must be swift and certain.

I am elated that speeding up the needlessly and grotesquely protracted proceedings in capital cases is getting the personal attention of the Attorney General. However, the chances of getting death penalty fast track legislation through Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives are essentially nil, so why don't we see what we can do with existing law?

In fact, the for­mula for re­sponding to Amer­i­ca's white su­premacist ter­ror­ism emergency is quite clear--in part be­cause of our hard-won ex­pe­ri­ence fight­ing ji­hadists from al Qaeda and its spawn, Is­lamic State. We must swiftly and care­fully ap­ply the best prac­tices of the two decades since Sept. 11, 2001, to counter this decade's do­mes­tic ter­ror­ist threat--by pass­ing new laws, in­creas­ing re­sources and en­hanc­ing in­ves­tiga­tive ca­pa­bil­ities.