October 2019 Archives

We conclude that the 2006 amendment to § 10102(a)(6) confirms that the Attorney General and the Assistant AG through delegation have the authority to impose special conditions on all grants and determine priority purposes for formula grants, as those terms are properly circumscribed. The notice and access conditions are not special conditions placed on grants to grantees that exhibit certain risk factors or have idiosyncratic issues that must be addressed individually. Nor are they among the statutorily recognized purposes of a Byrne JAG award as set out in § 10152(a). Therefore, DOJ lacked statutory authority to impose them under §10102(a)(6).

Jury Gives Death Penalty to Hollywood Ripper:  An article in Courthouse News Service reports that multiple murderer, Michael Garguilo, known as the Hollywood Ripper, has received the death penalty from a unanimous jury.  Under California law the sentencing jury reaches a verdict, rather than making a recommendation, regarding whether a capital murderer should receive a death sentence or life without the possibility of parole.  Technically, the judge announces the sentence after the jury reaches its verdict, but it is extremely rare for a judge to reject the jury's decision.  Garguilo, was convicted for the brutal stabbing murders of Ashley Ellerin, 22, Maria Bruno, 32, and the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy, between 2001 and 2008.  The victims were killed by a distinct pattern of stab wounds, and substantial evidence including a DNA match, tied Garguilo to the crimes.  DNA evidence also tied him to the 1993 stabbing murder of an 18-year-old woman in Illinois who lived in his neighborhood.  This case was widely publicized because Ashton Kutcher was called to testify about his connection to one of the victims.  While Garguilo's attorneys claimed that his alleged mental illness diminished his responsibility of the killings, the jury did not accept this defense. 

C&C has been off the air since Tuesday morning. Our web host, Bluehost, migrated our site to a new server. However, they botched the move, failed to get the internet pointers pointing to the new location correctly, failed to fix the problem in a timely manner, and failed to effectively communicate with us regarding the outage, its cause, and its duration. Needless to say, we will be looking for a new host before the end of our present term.

Study Casts Doubt on Racial Bias in Police Shootings:  A study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds to the list of academic papers which provide evidence against the widely accepted claim that police shootings of black and Hispanic males are driven by racial bias.  The study "Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings," performed by five Psychology professors from Michigan State University and the University of Maryland, created a detailed database on fatal officer involved shootings which included the race and sex of the officers as well as the victims and accounted for the level of violent crime in the community where the shootings occurred.  The study found that the widely used benchmark of comparing the percentage of a given race in the population to the percentage of that race who are shot by police, is misleading because the exposure of members of different races to situations where police shootings are the most frequent vary widely.  "We find no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.  Instead, race-specific crime strongly predicts civilian race."

Illegal Alien Arrested in Seattle Murder:  An illegal alien from El Salvador has been arrested for the brutal machete murder of a 16-year-old high school student.  Michael Spears of KIRO 7 reports that the partially dismembered body of Juan Carlos Con Guzman was found in a river last month.  20-year-old Carlos Iraheta-Vega has been named as a suspect in the murder.  Iraheta-Vega entered the country as an unaccompanied minor protected from deportation under the Obama Administration's DACA program.  According to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, Iraheta-Vega was arrested three times, including twice for drunk driving.  On each occasion ICE asked King County police to hold him for deportation, but because King is a sanctuary county, he was released back into the community.  Local officials and an immigrant rights activist responded that the police would have violated the local sanctuary law if they had held Iraheta-Vega for ICE agents.  Now a teen-aged boy is dead. 

Newsom Signs Batch of Criminal Justice Reforms: Courthouse News Service reports that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed several criminal justice bills last week, adding to the wide-ranging reforms of his predecessor, Jerry Brown.  A few of these changes include: banning facial recognition on police body cameras, easing mandatory sentences, and making it easier to expunge criminal records. The banning of facial recognition on police body cameras is based on the concern that facial recognition cameras "turn body cameras into a 24-hour surveillance tool". Police argue that facial recognition technology allows them to identify suspects. Another bill will remove the one-year sentence increase for each prior prison or jail term.  Proponents claim that the new law will save millions of dollars from prison and jail costs.  Many in law enforcement opposed the bill believing that repeat felons should serve longer sentences.  Another measure would allow the state to expunge the criminal records for offenders who have completed their sentences, to enable them to secure jobs and housing. Gov. Newsom stated that these bills, "show a new path to ensure our state moves closer toward a more equitable criminal justice system," the goal he has to make sure those who were or are incarcerated have a new chance at life once they get released. It is unclear how many serious habitual felons and gang members will benefit from the reduced sentences and erased criminal records provided by these new laws.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that David Boies' law firm can't represent an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein in her defamation suit against Alan Dershowitz, escalating a feud between two of the country's most prominent attorneys.

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Tomorrow the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of the younger of the D.C. Sniper pair, Lee Boyd Malvo. The case is Mathena v. Malvo, No. 18-217.CJLF's amicus brief in the case is here. Our press release is here.

Feds Backstop CA's Weak Sentencing of Gun Criminals:  The State of California has some of the toughest laws restricting gun and ammunition ownership and purchases in the country, but the penalties for criminals with guns are so soft, District Attorneys are allowing the worst gun criminals to face prosecution under federal law.  Barbara Harvey of Cal Matters reports that while Governor Newsom noisily signed 15 gun safety laws this month to limit possession of firearms by the law abiding public, the sentences for criminal  possession of firearms have been weakened by reforms aimed at keeping criminals out of prison.  Under California law a criminal with serious priors caught in possession of a firearm might serve a 3 year sentence in prison or county jail with half off for good behavior.  Under federal law the same criminal faces 10 years in federal prison and must serve 85% of that sentence before being considered for parole.  As a result, District Attorneys are partnering with U.S. Attorneys to have the worst gun criminals prosecuted in federal court under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program initiated by President George W. Bush, abandoned during the Obama Administration, and revived by the Trump Administration.  U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, whose jurisdiction covers 34 California counties from Bakersfield to the Oregon and Nevada borders, said that his office is aggressively prosecuting "people with lengthy criminal records, prior convictions for crimes of violence.....because those are the problems in these communities."  A bill to increase the sentence for criminal possession of a firearm died last year in the Assembly Public Safety Committee, chaired by Los Angeles Democrat Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who opposes any bill that would add prison time.         

Capitol groundskeepers who have been attacked by homeless people recently may carry pepper spray, but the state won't yet pay for it, according to a letter the California Department of General Services sent to the workers' union.

Malvo Case Focuses on Juvenile LWOP:  The U.S. Supreme Court's hearing in Mathena v. Malvo, scheduled for Wednesday, October 16, has intensified the debate between those who want to end life without parole (LWOP) sentencing of murderers under 18, and prosecutors and victims groups who maintain that LWOP is appropriate in some cases.  R.J. Vogt of Law 360 reports that  the court will be deciding if its earlier rulings in Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana, which placed limits on LWOP sentences for under 18 murderers, should be expanded to partially or completely eliminate the sentence, or should be narrowly construed.  Malvo was 17 in 2002 when he and John Allen Mohammad carried out a 20-day spree of random sniper attacks in the DC area,  murdering 10 people and injuring 3 others.  Since Miller and Montgomery were handed down, 23 states have abolished LWOP for juvenile murderers while 22 others have kept it.  Proponents of abolishment argue that the brains of 17 year-olds are undeveloped and often unable to control behavior.  An attorney representing another juvenile murderer told reporters, "it serves no purpose to condemn him to die in prison for his actions as a child."  But the families of those murdered by these "children" feel differently.  "Many victims would like to see Malvo in prison for the rest of his life," said CJLF Attorney Kymberlee Stapleton, who authored the Foundation's brief in the case.  Another victim's advocate put it this way:  "There are some people who are damaged and completely unable to be safe among society."  While this case is under review, abolitionists are seeking state legislation to reduce LWOP sentences for murderers up to age 25.           

The U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term on Monday.  This morning it released a short list of five cases in which it granted review.  That list can be found here.  Of the five cases, only one is criminal.  

Jordan Rubin has this preview of the criminal cases in the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court for Bloomberg Law.

The amici are a diverse group. Boise is supported not only by law enforcement groups and conservative organizations and government entities but also by organizations serving the homeless and by localities with quite left-of-center governing bodies, including the City of Los Angeles.

A line of curtains swung open in a dark room of state witnesses. Bucklew was in a room next door positioned on a gurney with a sheet over all but his head. He did not appear to say anything as the drug began working its way through his system. A few wiggles of the toes and a couple turns of the head was it, no choking or other sounds were heard or seen.

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Missouri Executes First Murderer Since 2017:  A Missouri man convicted of aggravated murder during a 1996 crime spree died peacefully Tuesday from a massive lethal injection of pentobarbital.  The Associated Press reports that Russell Bucklew had won stays of execution twice based on concerns that a medical condition he suffered from would cause his execution to be painful.  On Valentine's Day in 1996, Bucklew's girlfriend broke up with him.  Over the next few weeks Bucklew stalked her and attacked her physically, punching her in the face and cutting her with a knife. Fearing for her life and the lives of her children, she moved into the home of her new boyfriend. On March 21, Bucklew stole a car, armed himself and followed her to the boyfriend's house.  Once there, he shot and killed the boyfriend, pistol whipped and raped his ex-girlfriend, then led police on a chase that concluded with a gunfight that wounded two officers.  Bucklew later escaped from the county jail and attacked his ex-girlfriend's mother with a hammer before being rearrested.  The prosecutor who convicted Bucklew told reporters, "He is probably the most pure sociopath I ever prosecuted."