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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."

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.           

Racial Disparity Among Murder Victims:  Every year since the early 1990s, nearly half of all U.S. homicide victims have been black men.  Considering that black men represent only about 7% of the U.S. population, their disproportionately high victimization rate represents a staggering and often-ignored figure.  Eric Siddall, Vice President of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, has this piece discussing how much the decline in homicides between 1991 and 2014 improved the life expectancy of African-American males, while conceding that, even with reduced murders the disproportion among victims remains.  Siddell cites the 23% increase in homicides between 2013 and 2017 reported by the FBI, at a time when the country is dramatically changing or experimenting with our criminal laws.  He sees this as evidence that the drop in murders may be coming to an end, erasing two decades of progress, at an increased cost in the lives of black men.          

The Surge in Homeless Crime in LA:  The homeless population in Los Angeles has been large and growing for several years and crime has increased steadily along with the population growth.  Joshua Chang of Crosstown reports that something happened between 2014 and  2015 that local the police can't explain.  While the homeless population between 2014 and 2015 increased by 12%, crimes involving the homeless, either as perpetrators or victims, increased by 120%.  Homeless advocates blame Mayor Garcetti's "Clean Streets" initiative to remove trash left by the homeless, claiming that it criminalized the homeless.  The LAPD acknowledged the crime increase, but attributed some of it to better reporting.  Could it be the 2014 passage of Proposition 47, which converted the most commonly committed felonies to misdemeanors?  Following the common sense axiom that excusing crime results in more crime, it seems reasonable.  Homeless crime has continued to increase roughly 45% each year since 2015, with over 15,000 homeless crimes reported last year.     

2nd Conviction in NY Jogger Murder:  Following a mistrial last November, a New York jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict against Chanel Lewis for the 2016 sexual assault and murder of 30-year-old jogger Karina Vetrano.  Katherine Lam of Fox News reports that the victim's body was found in a marsh near her Queens home.  Evidence included a DNA match for Lewis found on the victim's neck, fingernails and cellphone, along with his taped confession to police.  One juror in the retrial told reporters that he felt pressured to find him guilty, but said later that he believed that justice had been served. The NY Legal Aid Society representing Lewis called the conviction a "complete miscarriage  of justice," citing the last-minute discovery of an anonymous letter questioning his guilt, a "race-based dragnet" in collecting his DNA and a coerced confession.   Lewis will be sentenced later this month. 

BJS: Police-Initiated Contacts Way Down:  A Bureau of Justice Statistics report indicates that between 2011 and 2015 police-initiated contacts with the public declined by 8 million nationally.  Leonard Sipes writes in Law Enforcement Today that while there is evidence that proactive policing reduces crime, police over the study period appeared reluctant to engage in aggressive law enforcement.  Sipes suggests that the data, which supplements polling from Gallup, reflects police perceptions of citizen support, harsh media criticism and the willingness of officers to take self-initiated actions.  Every form of police-initiated traffic and criminal stops, including arrests, fell during the study period.  It appears that the move to force police to back off has been successful.