Capital punishment is a complex and controversial issue, and this is by no means a complete examination of the subject.

Additional introductory remarks added 5/18/2019:
Execution is the most severe punishment inflicted by the U.S. government and its states and territories.  It only takes a moment to understand that the most severe punishment is reserved for the most ruthless, sadistic, and sociopathic criminals.

The reverse is also true, and serves as an illustration:  The Medal of Honor is reserved for only those rare members of the military services who exhibit the most conspicuous gallantry, usually in the face of grave danger and likely death.  It is awarded by the U.S. Congress and presented by the President himself.  Its rarity and the great formality of the presentation ceremony reflect the great honor given to America's finest.  The medal also sends a signal to everyone else, that high honors come to honorable men and women.

The deterrent effect of executions is diminished greatly if the likelihood of detection and arrest is small, or if the punishment is delayed by years of imprisonment, due to endless appeals and a tiresome series of arguments about legal loopholes.

Aside from all that, this page also has a section about crime and punishment in general.

Supreme Court refuses to allow federal executions carry on — for now.  The Supreme Court denied the Trump administration's request to override a district court ruling halting federal executions that were scheduled for this week.  The order, issued Friday, allows the litigation to carry on at the federal appeals court for now while the executions are stalled.

Supreme Court temporarily blocks Trump administration request to resume federal executions.  The Supreme Court on Friday [12/6/2019] blocked the Trump administration from resuming federal executions in an attempt to put to death four convicted murderers.  The executions were slated to begin next week.  The justices upheld a lower court ruling imposed last month after inmates claimed executions by lethal injection would violate federal law.  U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., had imposed a temporary injunction on executions, saying they would conflict with federal law.  That ruling was upheld Monday by a three-judge federal appeals court.

Sirhan Sirhan goes under the knife.  Earlier this year, [Governor Gavin] Newsom reprieved all 737 murderers on California's death row.  These were the worst of the worst, including Luis Bracamontes, who gunned down two police officers in Sacramento in 2014 and said he wished he'd killed more cops.  Also gaining a reprieve was "Tool Box Killer" Lawrence Bittaker, who raped and killed five teenage girls in 1979 after torturing them with pliers and screwdrivers.  Had Sirhan Sirhan been on death row, the Kennedy killer would also have gained a reprieve.  In California, any assassin can take the life of any innocent victim, including a presidential candidate, and be sure of keeping his or her own life.

Barr Promises Fast Track for Federal Death Penalty.  The Trump administration is pushing for legislation that would accelerate certain federal death penalty cases.  The new legislation is expected around Labor Day, according to Attorney General William P. Barr, and will specifically expedite the use of the death penalty for offenders who murder police officers or commit mass murders.

Trump pushes capital punishment in wake of shootings.  Buried in Paragraph 8 was the guts of his proposal.  It said, "The president also called for cultural changes, citing violent video games.  Further, Trump said he has directed the Justice Department to propose legislation ensuring that those commit hate crimes and mass murders 'face the death penalty and that this capital punishment be delivered quickly, decisively, and without years of needless delay.'"  Now we get to the specifics.  President Trump wants to empty death row the right way.  Executions work as a deterrent to crime only if they are swift.  20-year delays make a joke of such sentences.  He just made them an offer they cannot accept.  Any deal Democrats and their RINO friends want to make will have to include hanging killers.  The president tiptoed around Fake Conservatives who want him to cave on gun control.

Attorney General William Barr orders first federal executions in nearly two decades.  The federal government will resume executing death row inmates after nearly two decades without doing so, the Department of Justice announced Thursday [7/25/2019].  Attorney General William Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five inmates convicted of murder and other crimes.  The executions have been scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020.  The department also announced a new execution protocol, replacing the three-drug cocktail previously used in federal executions with the single drug, pentobarbital.

Cotton Blasts Dem Nominees Over Death Penalty Criticism.  Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (Ar.) blasted presidential hopefuls Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Ma.) and South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg for their criticisms of the death penalty.  Warren and Buttigieg denounced the news that the DOJ would resume executing federal death row inmates, which marked an end to a 16-year gap during which no federal executions occurred.  "Our criminal justice system has a long history of mistakes when it comes to capital punishment — especially when it comes to Black and Brown people," Warren wrote on Twitter.  "We cannot let a broken system decide the fate of incarcerated Americans.  I oppose the death penalty."

The Editor says...
I'm opposed to putting people to death, too, but not as much as I'm opposed to feeding and housing murderers and other violent and habitual felons for decades after their crimes.  Assuming that's they're caught, convicted, and sent to death row, which is assuming a lot.

Justice Department says it will Resume federal capital punishment after nearly two-decade break.  he U.S. Justice Department has scheduled the execution of five death-row federal inmates, after Attorney General William Barr announced he has reinstated the federal government's use of capital punishment after a nearly two-decade hiatus.  'Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,' Barr said in a statement on Thursday [7/25/2019].

Do we want these people alive:  Re-instating the Federal Death Penalty.  Regardless of how you feel about the death penalty, it is hard to argue that it would be a better place if Timothy McVeigh was still breathing.  Even if behind bars.  Some may argue that life in a concrete and metal cell measured in feet is a far worse sentence.  The last person the federal government executed was Louis Jones, Jr., a US Army soldier who was killed following his conviction of rape and murder of Pvt. Tracie McBride, a soldier.  His lawyers argued that due to sexual abuse as a child and PTSD as a decorated war veteran, he was not responsible for his action.  This was in 2003 and under President George W. Bush.  (Should Louis Jones Die? — Newsweek)  But that is all about to change.

A Common-Sense Ruling on Death Penalty Drugs.  If there's one thing that tells you government in America is too big and unaccountable, it's when one branch of government stops another government from doing what it was set up to do, even if it's not the first agency's job.  Case in point:  Under President Barack Obama, the Food and Drug Administration stopped multiple states from carrying out executions because the agency had not approved the drugs they intended to use for lethal injection.  Really.  President Donald Trump's Department of Justice is changing that.

Texas to bar all chaplains from execution chambers.  Texas prisons have amended their policy to disallow all chaplains from the execution chamber following two controversial high-profile cases, according to the Texas Tribune.  Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of Patrick Murphy, who had been sentenced to death for his part in the 2000 murder of an Irving, Texas, police officer, because he had not been given access to a Buddhist chaplain.  Only prison employees are allowed in the chamber and the state only employs Christian and Muslim clerics as prison chaplains.  The high court ruled that this constituted religious discrimination and gave the state the option of allowing chaplains of all religions or banning them from the chamber entirely.

Gorsuch Death Penalty Decision Causes [Concern] On The Left.  Personally, I'm opposed to the death penalty.  That opposition is based on two things.  First, the time lag from conviction to execution is typically one or more decades.  That, to me, negates the deterrent or even the retributive aspects and reduces it to being mauled to death by DMV clerks.  Second, the bone-deep corruption in our justice system which routinely uncovers prosecutors knowingly convicting people on the most flimsy of evidence and elected prosecutors using tough sentencing as a campaign tool doesn't make me want to give this system the power to take a life.  Combine these two together and I'm basically against the idea.

The Editor says...
I disagree.  The delay between conviction and execution is almost entirely due to lawyers, who make their living by searching for loopholes and technicalities.  In China, the condemned inmate is taken away to his execution immediately upon conviction.  In a way, that's more humane, because one would spend a lot less time dreading the inevitable.  Whether one dies on Death Row from old age, from lethal injection, or at the hands of another inmate, one lives in certainty that escape is impossible.  Secondly, I find it difficult to believe that anyone in this century has been sentenced to death based upon flimsy evidence.  Most of the people who get the death penalty have lengthy criminal records and probably deserved execution long before they were finally sent to death row.

California executes a 'moratorium' on the death penalty.  During the past eight years, California voters have twice reiterated their support for the death penalty by defeating propositions seeking to overturn it.  If anyone was confused about Californians' understanding of the death penalty representing an important part of justice, in 2016 they even passed a proposition calling for the speeding up of executions by shortening the decades-long appeals process.  In other words, Californians want the death penalty, and they want to it happen faster and more often.

Gavin Newsom Doesn't Care about Crime Victims.  On March 13, California governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order granting a reprieve to all 737 convicted murderers awaiting execution in the Golden State. [...] All 737 reprieved death-row inmates had been found guilty of murder by a jury of their peers, beyond any reasonable doubt.  The convicted murderers had also exhausted all the possibilities of the appeal process, which in the California criminal justice system is quite extensive.  Gavin Newsom is not an attorney and not a judge.  The governor did not attend the trials and produced no new exculpatory evidence in any of the cases.  Those awaiting execution include Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed twelve-year-old Polly Klaas, and "Tool Box Killer" Lawrence Bittaker, who raped and killed five teen girls in 1979 after torturing them with pliers and screwdrivers.

Killing the Death Penalty via Edict.  To my conservative friends who like when chief executives push the envelope on "national emergencies" and executive orders, I offer you California Gov. Gavin Newsom.  Last week, he grabbed national headlines for his decision to grant reprieves to all 737 prisoners on California's death row based on his own personal feelings: [...] Governors have the power to pardon people and give reprieves.  But just as advocates for limited government believe that presidents should let Congress take the lead on spending matters, they too should prefer that governors stick to the spirit and not just the letter of the law.  Such reprieves are meant for particular cases — not as a means to change public policy.

Kamala Harris Says She Would Not Execute Someone for Committing Treason Against the United States.  In an interview broadcast yesterday by National Public Radio, Sen. Kamala Harris (D.-Calif.) said that she would not impose the death penalty on someone who committed treason against the United States.  Harris takes the position that the death penalty should never be used as punishment for any crime.

Governor's reprieve may not be the news Death Row inmates want to hear.  One should stay out of prison, but if you have to serve a long sentence, California's Death Row is not a bad option, compared to the main line in the 35 institutions run by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  That's why Gov. Gavin Newsom's reprieve for the 723 men and 22 women on Death Row is not the news the condemned may want to hear.

Gov. Newsom to order halt to California's death penalty.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is suspending the death penalty in California, calling it discriminatory and immoral, and is granting reprieves to the 737 condemned inmates on the nation's largest Death Row.  "I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people," Newsom said in a statement accompanying an executive order, to be issued Wednesday [3/13/2019], declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.  "The death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian."

Lethal injection or gas?  Alabama's death row gets to choose.  Some say inhaling nitrogen gas would be like dying on a plane that depressurizes in flight, swiftly killing all aboard.  Now more than a quarter of Alabama's death row inmates have signed statements saying they would prefer that gas over lethal injection or the electric chair when facing execution.

Pope Francis Is Woefully Wrong about the Death Penalty.  Pope Francis has amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church to reject the death penalty.  Whether this is an appropriate Catholic stance is for Catholics to decide.  But the complete elimination of the death penalty would undermine the social order of modern states, in my view.  The Hebrew Bible prescribes the death penalty for murder and — unlike most pre-modern societies and many Muslim countries today — prohibits the payment of wergild.  An eye and a tooth can be requited by monetary compensation (that was the meaning of "an eye for an eye"), but not a life.  The rabbis of the Second Temple period set an extremely high hurdle for the death penalty and declared that a court that ordered a single execution in a hundred years should be considered cruel.

Pope Francis Rewrites Catholicism ... and the Bible.  Pope Francis, the product of Latin American liberation theology — along with many other Catholic religious and lay leaders — is remaking Catholicism in the image of leftism, just as mainstream Protestant leaders have been rendering much of mainstream Protestantism a branch of leftism, and non-Orthodox Jewish clergy and lay leaders have been rendering most non-Orthodox synagogues and lay institutions left-wing organizations.  The notion that it is immoral to execute any murderer — no matter how heinous the murder, no matter how many innocents he has murdered, no matter how incontrovertible the proof of guilt — is an expression of emotion, not of reason or natural law or Christian theology or biblical theology.  Regarding the latter, the biblical commandment to put premeditated murderers to death is unique.  First, it is fundamental to biblical morality.

Cuomo Invokes Pope in Advancing Legislation to Abolish Death Penalty.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D.) announced this week he would advance a bill to abolish the death penalty in the state "in solidarity with Pope Francis."  Pope Francis decreed on Thursday [8/2/2018] that the death penalty was "inadmissible" in all cases, and the Catholic Church would work "with determination" to see the practice ended around the world.  Church doctrine formerly accepted the death penalty in some instances if was "the only practicable way" to defend life.  Cuomo, who penned an op-ed against capital punishment in 2004 for the New York Times, tweeted out a story about the Vatican's decision along with his own announcement.

Pope Francis and Capital Punishment.  In a move that should surprise no one, Pope Francis has once again appeared to contradict two millennia of clear and consistent scriptural and Catholic teaching. [...] There has always been disagreement among Catholics about whether capital punishment is, in practice, the morally best way to uphold justice and social order.  However, the Church has always taught, clearly and consistently, that the death penalty is in principle consistent with both natural law and the Gospel.  This is taught throughout scripture — from Genesis 9 to Romans 13 and many points in between — and the Church maintains that scripture cannot teach moral error. [...] If capital punishment is wrong in principle, then the Church has for two millennia consistently taught grave moral error and badly misinterpreted scripture.

Catholic Church changes teaching to oppose death penalty in all cases.  The Roman Catholic Church formally changed its teaching on Thursday to declare the death penalty inadmissible whatever the circumstance, a move likely to be criticized in countries where capital punishment is legal.

CNN's Cuomo Lectures Conservatives on What It Means to Be Pro-Life.  Conservatives vary greatly on the issue of the death penalty.  While there are many conservatives that put stock in the death penalty, there's a growing number who do not.

Unabomber's Brother, NAACP Call for End to Death Penalty.  A representative from the NAACP joined other activists to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, referring to capital punishment as "state-sponsored violence."  "This is a modern-day human rights issue that felt really solvable as a law student, like, we can just get rid of this, right?  We don't need this.  Let's move forward and get rid of this and move on to some other human rights issues — that's kind of how I found myself representing people who are on death row," Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of criminal justice programs at the NAACP, said during a vigil to abolish the death penalty recently organized by Death Penalty Action at the Supreme Court.

Poll: Most Americans favor the death penalty.  The Pew Research Center has released a poll showing that 54 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder.  That's up from 49 percent two years ago.  (As Kent Scheidegger has explained, this number understates opposition to abolishing the death penalty, but I'm focused here on the trend).  The death penalty has always had the support of a plurality of Americans.  However, that support declined dramatically in the past 20 years.  In 1996, 78 percent of Americans supported it compared to only 18 who opposed it.  Today, the split is 54-39.

A Leftist Core Belief:  Denying Evil.  With thousands of black people being shot in leftist-run cities, leftists act as though the killings aren't the work of a few evil men and hence should be addressed not by vigorous law enforcement, but by gun control and telling blacks their situation is all due to white racism.  This despite the fact that the average black resident of the Democrat-created ghettos is an honest person who doesn't go around shooting people.  Leftists also believe that we're too hard on criminals.  Leftists are constantly advocating for criminals' "rights" and support the idea that letting obviously guilty criminals loose based on legal technicalities that throw out irrefutable evidence of guilt is a good thing.  Leftists have a bizarre attitude toward murderers, rapists, and drug-dealers because leftists believe that criminals aren't really evil or responsible for their actions.  Rather, leftists argue that societal pressures, poor upbringing, etc. are the cause of crime — even though this flies in the face of the reality that most people who suffer from the problems that leftists cite as causing crime don't become criminals.

Democrats demand death penalty for cops who commit assault, murder.  Several House Democrats have introduced legislation that would subject state and local police to the death penalty if they are found guilty or assault or murder.  The Police Accountability Act, from Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., is one of the Democrats' answers to the police brutality that they say still plagues black Americans around the country.  His bill would subject police to the death penalty when cops commit certain crimes that already trigger the death penalty in other circumstances.  Johnson, who has introduced this bill in prior Congresses, said it's needed because police cannot be put above the law.

Authoritarianism, Crime, and Freedom.  In January, I took up Donald Trump's extraordinary promise to bring the crime and violence we know today to a quick end.  I argued that this seemingly impossible vow can be fulfilled, but only by dramatically increasing the speed and certainty with which murderers are put to death.

DoJ Releases First Estimate of Number of Foreigners Held in Federal Prisons:  Over 45,000.  This is the first time we've troubled ourselves to attempt a first-pass count — we count everything in this country.  We have whole sections of government devoting to counting every thing in America — air conditioners, cars, gay and transgender students at risk, etc.  The only things we don't count are the things the Ruling Class doesn't want the public to know the numbers on.

Housing Illegal Aliens in America's Jails Costs $1.2 Billion.  Nearly a quarter of the inmates in federal prisons were born outside the U.S., and more than half of those have final deportation orders, the Department of Justice said Tuesday [5/2/2017].

DOJ: One in Four Federal Inmates Is Foreign-Born.  The Justice Department published statistics on the prison population to comply with directives in President Donald Trump's January executive order overhauling the immigration system.  The foreign-born prison population as of March 25 totals 45,493, or 24 percent of all federal inmates.  Of that group, 3,939 now are American citizens.  That leaves 41,554 inmates who remain citizens of foreign countries.  Some 22,541 of them, or 54.4 percent, have final orders to be deported once they've completed their sentences.  Another 33.4 percent, 13,886, are under investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for possible deportation.

Federal judge backs firing squads, guillotine for executions.  A controversial federal judge thinks firing squads and guillotines should come back in style as the debate over executions in Arkansas rages on.  Ninth Circuit Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski, in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" set to air Sunday, said conducting lethal injections is a sham that masks that fact that people are getting killed.

Death-Penalty Opponents Are Being Dishonest in Their Arguments.  Consider the April 17 broadcast of Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier.  Casey Stegall reported on the legal battle in Arkansas, where officials want to execute eight death-row inmates in eleven days before their supply of midazolam expires.  This is one of the drugs used to carry out lethal injections.  Stegall did his legwork.  He talked to Susan Khani, the daughter of the woman murdered, execution-style, by Don Davis in 1990.  She told Stegall the last quarter century has been agony for her, adding:  "He is just a very cruel person.  He needs to be put to death."  Stegall then talked to the usual death-penalty opponents.

Death Penalty Opponents are Being Dishonest in Their Arguments.  Casey Stegall reported on the legal battle in Arkansas, where officials want to execute eight death row inmates in 11 days before their supply of midazolam expires.  This is one of the drugs used to carry out lethal injections.  Stegall did his legwork.  He talked to Susan Khani, the daughter of the woman murdered, execution-style, by Don Davis in 1990. She told Stegall the last quarter century has been agony for her, adding, "He is just a very cruel person.  He needs to be put to death."

Gorsuch Casts First Major Tie-Breaking Vote Allowing Arkansas Executions To Proceed.  In what will undoubtedly be a memorable first major tie-breaking vote as a Supreme Court Judge, Neil Gorsuch cast the deciding vote last night to allow Arkansas to begin executing a group of 8 death-row inmates.  The decision came after attorneys for the State of Arkansas sought an expedited process to allow for the executions to proceed before their lethal-injection drugs expire at the end of April.

Judge halted execution plan, then participated in death-penalty protest.  An Arkansas judge who barred the state from hurriedly executing eight inmates attended a death-penalty rally just hours later — even posing as a condemned man as part of the protest.

Arkansas Supreme Court bars judge who joined protests from hearing death penalty cases.  A state judge who railed against the death penalty at protest rallies while he blocked executions in his courtroom ran afoul of the Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday [4/17/2017] as the legal fight over a planned spate of executions continued into the night.  The state high court barred Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen from hearing cases involving executions, capital punishment and the state's lethal injection protocol, then referred him to the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission.  Judge Griffen lost the battle, but he may have won the war:  The Arkansas high court also granted stays of execution to the two convicted murderers scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Monday, Bruce Ward and Don Davis.

AR Supreme Court Bars Judge Wendell Griffen from Death Penalty Cases.  The Arkansas Supreme Court is taking action against Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen.  The high court ruled early Monday afternoon that Judge Griffen be barred from hearing any death penalty, execution or drug protocol cases.  The decision follows Griffen's protest Friday outside the Governor's Mansion against the scheduled executions.

Arkansas' multiple execution plan unravels after rulings.  Arkansas' plan to execute eight men by the end of the month appeared to be unraveling on Friday, with a judge blocking a lethal injection drug use and the state's highest court granting a stay to one of the first inmates who had been scheduled for execution.  Judge Wendell Griffen of the Pulaski County Circuit issued a temporary ruling that prohibits Arkansas from using its supply of vecuronium bromide after a company said it had sold the drug to the state for medical purposes, not capital punishment.

The Supreme Court Plays Fast and Loose with the Eighth Amendment.  To honor the human dignity of those who refuse to honor the human dignity of others is an absurdity than destroys the very concept of human dignity.  Civil society is grounded in the mutual recognition of the human dignity of fellow citizens.  To use the language of the Declaration:  all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Those who fail to honor the obligation to recognize the humanity of others — their rights and liberties — have voluntarily withdrawn from the social compact that constitutes civil society.  Once they have demonstrated they no longer have obligations to society, society no longer has obligations to them, except that American society has pledged always to extend due process rights and protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

George Soros-backed prosecutor yanked after refusing to seek death penalty for cop killer.  A Florida prosecutor elected with $1 million from liberal billionaire George Soros has been removed from all first-degree murder cases after refusing to seek the death penalty for any suspect, including an accused cop killer.  State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who won an upset victory in November after receiving $1.38 million from the Soros-backed Florida Safety & Justice PAC, had 21 first-degree murder cases in Orange and Osceola counties reassigned Monday to other prosecutors by Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican.  His executive order came after she announced she would not seek the death penalty against Markeith Loyd, who has been charged in the murders of his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon in December and Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton in January, or any other defendants.

Rick Scott takes 21 murder cases from Orlando prosecutor who won't seek death penalty.  Gov. Rick Scott took 21 first-degree murder cases away from Orlando-area State Attorney Aramis Ayala after she said she would not seek the death penalty in any cases.  "Each of these cases I am reassigning represents a horrific loss of life," Scott said in a statement Monday.  "The families who tragically lost someone deserve a state attorney who will take the time to review every individual fact and circumstance before making such an impactful decision."

State Attorney Aramis Ayala won't seek death penalty while in office.  While discussing the Markeith Loyd case Thursday [3/16/2017], State Attorney Aramis Ayala said she will not seek the death penalty during her administration.  Ayala said she made the decision after conducting a review.  The most visible case immediately affected by Ayala's decision is Loyd's, who is charged with killing Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton and his pregnant ex-girlfriend.  Ayala's statement was made during a news conference she called to discuss her decision not to seek the death penalty in the Loyd case.

Arkansas plans to execute 8 men over 10 days.  Eight men are scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Arkansas in the space of just 10 days, according to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office.  The state — which has not put anyone to death for 11 years — plans to execute the men in pairs between April 17 and April 27.  So many executions in such a short amount of time is "unprecedented" in the United States, said a spokesman for a group that monitors US executions.

Bring back the firing squads.  Liberals pushed us away from hangings and firing squads to the electric chair, which they then said was cruel, to gas chambers, which they then said was cruel, to lethal injections, which they then said was cruel and whose chemicals are no longer sold.  Mississippi wants to bring back firing squads.  Good.

Mississippi may become fourth state to revamp execution method.  Mississippi lawmakers want to bring back the firing squad, electric chair and gas chamber as execution methods, a step three other states have taken recently, but for a different reason.  Oklahoma reintroduced the gas chamber, Utah the firing squad and Tennessee the electric chair in response to a nationwide scarcity of lethal injection drugs for death row inmates.  Mississippi legislator Andy Gipson said he introduced House Bill 638 in response to lawsuits filed by "liberal, left-wing radicals" challenging the use of lethal injection drugs as cruel and unusual punishment.

Sheriff Clarke:  All Cop Killers Should Get the Death Penalty.  Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke says that every murder of a law enforcement officer should be classified as a capital crime punishable by death. [...] Sheriff Clarke argued that every cop killer should receive the death penalty, even in states that don't have capital punishment.

Backward-looking "Progressives".  Murderers may in some cases have had unhappy childhoods, but there is absolutely nothing that anybody can do to change their childhoods after they are adults.  The most that can be done is to keep murderers from committing more murders, and to deter others from committing murder.  People on the left who want to give murderers "another chance" are gambling with the lives of innocent people.  That is one of many other examples of the cruel consequences of seemingly compassionate decisions and policies.  Ironically, people on the left who are preoccupied with the presumably unhappy childhoods of murderers, which they can do nothing about, seldom show similar concern about the present and future unhappy childhoods of the orphans of people who have been murdered.  Such inconsistencies are not peculiar to our time, though they seem to be more pervasive today.  But the left has been trying, for more than 200 years, to mitigate or eliminate punishments in general, and capital punishment in particular.

The 7 Ugliest Propositions on the California Ballot.  [For example,] Prop. 62 — The death penalty for the death penalty.  This is as straightforward as it sounds.  If you think California shouldn't have a death penalty for those who commit the most heinous acts of premeditated violence, often with deadly outcomes, then vote yes.  If you believe, as I do, that these worst-of-the-worst criminals should have to pay the ultimate price for their acts, then vote no.

Governor to seek reinstatement of death penalty in New Mexico.  Gov. Susana Martinez said Wednesday she intends to seek reinstatement of New Mexico's death penalty.  Martinez's announcement comes in the aftermath of Friday's shooting death of Hatch police Officer Jose Chavez.  Chavez, 33, was killed during a traffic stop.  The state of New Mexico has charged Jesse Denver Hanes, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, with killing Chavez.  If convicted of murder in the state case, Hanes faces life in prison.  Hanes also faces charges at the federal level, but those charges wouldn't warrant the death penalty, Elizabeth Martinez with the U.S. Attorney's Office told KVIA.  Hanes is also wanted in Ohio in connection to the July shooting death of 62-year-old Theodore Timmons.  Ohio does have the death penalty.

Delaware's Death Penalty Law Struck Down by State Supreme Court.  Delaware's highest court declared the state's death penalty law unconstitutional Tuesday, ruling that it violates the Constitution's guarantee of a fair trial.

Pharmaceutical Giant Just Declared War on the Death Penalty.  U.S. firm Pfizer officially withdrew from the lethal injection trade on Friday, announcing it will no longer supply medicines for use in death row executions.  The global giant announced its commitment to block all sales for that purpose in a move reflecting growing opposition to the death penalty in the U.S. [...] Fewer states sentence people to death now, and those that still do are doing so less often.  In total, 19 states have abolished the primitive act, and it's no secret the European-led boycott of medical drugs — used by U.S. corrections departments to execute prisoners — has had a startling impact.

Pfizer says it's blocking use of drugs for lethal injections.  Pharmaceutical company Pfizer said Friday [5/13/2016] it was blocking use of its drugs in lethal injections, which means all federally-approved drugmakers whose medications could be used for executions have now put them off limits.

A Death Sentence in Louisiana Rarely Means You'll be Executed.  Four out of five death sentences in Louisiana since 1976 have been reversed.  And for every three executions the state carried out, one death row prisoner was exonerated.  These statistics are among the most notable in an analysis of the death penalty in Louisiana, published this week by Tim Lyman, an independent researcher, and Frank Baumgartner, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina who has crunched similar numbers in Florida, Ohio, and Missouri.

Pope Francis calls for global abolition of the death penalty saying 'Thou shalt not kill' applies to the guilty as well as the innocent'.  Pope Francis has called on Catholic leaders to seek a ban on the death penalty exclaiming that 'Thou shall not kill applies to the guilty as well as the innocent'.  Speaking to thousands at St. Peter's Square, in the Vatican, the Pontiff asked politicians around the world to make 'a courageous and exemplary gesture' during the Church's current Holy Year.

Pope Francis calls on Christians to abolish death penalty.  Pope Francis on Sunday urged Catholic leaders to show "exemplary" courage by not allowing executions this year, while expressing hope that eventually the death penalty will be abolished worldwide.

Lawmakers strike political compromise to fix Florida's death penalty law.  In an effort to keep Florida's death penalty from a barrage of legal attacks after a Supreme Court decision halted executions, state lawmakers have reached a compromise that would allow the Sunshine State to continue executions.  The Supreme Court ruled in January that the state's method of sentencing people to death was unconstitutional because it weighed power too heavily toward judges over juries.  The nation's highest court found the state's sentencing procedure was flawed because juries play only an advisory role, while the judge makes the key decisions and can find differently from the jury.

Some Reading for Conservatives Who Oppose the Death Penalty.  Does the death penalty bring about justice?  To many citizens, the answer is yes, absolutely.  When someone takes the life of another or several others in a wanton, cruel, and malicious way, nothing less than the forfeiture of the killer's life brings justice.  Life for a life (or many lives) taken.  Does the death penalty bring about safety?  Yes, for sure.  Executed killers will never claim new victims.  They are completely incapacitated, something life without parole cannot guarantee.  And executions, beyond a doubt, deter others from committing murder.  How many depends on a variety of circumstances, but to claim there is no (zero) deterrence brought about via execution of the guilty is completely absurd.

Oklahoma delays executions until at least 2016.  No executions will be scheduled in Oklahoma until at least next year as the attorney general's office investigates why the state used the wrong drug during a lethal injection in January and nearly did so again last month, the office said Friday [10/16/2015].

Supreme Court Justice Argues World Opinion Matters on the Death Penalty.  Should the Supreme Court care that other countries have abolished the death penalty?

Connecticut's highest court BANS death penalty in the state — sparing the lives of 11 men.  Connecticut's highest court has overturned the state's death penalty — meaning the two men convicted in the brutal murders of the Petit family will no longer be executed for their crimes.  In a 4-3 ruling on Thursday [8/13/2015], Connecticut Supreme Court declared that the death penalty was unconstitutional, sparing the lives of the 11 men currently on death row in the town of Somers.

The case for the death penalty.  [Scroll down]  Those who would eliminate the death penalty also might reflect on notorious mass murderer Richard Speck, who viciously raped and murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966.  His death sentence was overturned, and he ended up with a life sentence.  Years later he admitted to a journalist that he enjoyed getting high in prison, and later a videotape would turn up that showed Speck using drugs, having sex with another inmate and displaying $100 bills.  He said, "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose."  He also described strangling the nurses and joked, "It just wasn't their night."  He would die of a heart attack after 25 years in prison, a stint he seemed to have enjoyed.

The Butchers of Planned Parenthood.  Mitchelle Blair, not knowing what to do with the bodies of two of her children, whom she had murdered, stuffed them in her freezer.  She'd tortured them for months first — strangling them, suffocating them with plastic bags until they passed out, starving them, burning them with boiling water.  She said she killed her son by accident; she'd intended to torture him further.  Her daughter she killed on purpose.  "If I had the chance to do it again, I would," the mother said.  Pleading guilty, she asked the court to impose the death penalty on her.  Prosecutors regretfully informed her that Michigan has no death penalty.

Supreme Court upholds use of drug implicated in botched executions.  The Supreme Court upheld the use of a controversial drug in lethal injection executions Monday [6/29/2015], as two dissenting justices said for the first time that they think it's "highly likely" that the death penalty itself is unconstitutional.  The justices voted 5-4 in a case from Oklahoma that the sedative midazolam can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Battle for Death Penalty Transparency.  Americans may shudder at the barbarity depicted in videos showing public executions by the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China, but the fact remains that alone among all Western countries, the United States is a death penalty country.  Though the death penalty is legal in the majority of American states, only a handful of them actually carry out executions, numbering in the few dozens annually.  Part of the reason the American public maintains a steadfast support of its government killing convicted murderers is due to the cloak of secrecy covering executions and the fact that the most common form of execution, lethal injection, is sold to the public as a medical procedure, akin to putting a sick animal to sleep.

Nebraska senators override governor's veto, repeal death penalty.  Nebraska has repealed the death penalty following a dramatic vote Wednesday [5/27/2015] by state lawmakers to override the governor's veto.  The high-stakes vote to override the veto of Legislative Bill 268 was 30-19.  It requires at least 30 of 49 senators to overturn a gubernatorial veto.

Republican stance on death penalty appears to be shifting.  Nebraska's Republican-dominated Legislature is making a concerted push to do away with the state's death penalty, the latest sign of cracks in conservatives' once-bedrock support for capital punishment.  When lawmakers voted 30-13 vote [sic] to repeal the state's death penalty last week, Republicans delivered 17 of the votes in favor of the measure, outnumbering the 13 votes Republicans cast against it, according to The Wall Street Journal.  GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts has vowed to veto the bill.

Utah gov signs bill allowing firing squad.  Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions Monday when Gov. Gary Herbert signed a law approving the controversial method's use when no lethal-injection drugs are available.

Why Brain Injury Matters In Death Row Cases.  Cecil Clayton was executed Tuesday [3/17/2015] by the state of Missouri.  At 74 years old, Clayton was the state's oldest death row inmate.  He landed on death row after he murdered a police officer, Christopher Castetter, who was dispatched to a house where Clayton had broken in, back in 1996. [...] Three different medical doctors declared Clayton incompetent after he was sentenced to death.  This is problematic, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 (Atkins v Virginia) that it was unconstitutional to execute an intellectually disabled individual by the Eighth Amendment, prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Texas now down to last dose of lethal injection after executing Mexican Mafia enforcer.  A Mexican Mafia hit man convicted of beating and strangling a San Antonio woman because she didn't pay the gang's 10 per cent tax on her illegal drug sales was executed Wednesday evening [3/11/2015].

Firing squad bill passes the Senate, heads to governor for signature.  The [Utah] Senate passed a bill that would bring back the firing squad in Utah as a method of execution.  In an 18-10 vote, the Senate approved House Bill 11, sponsored by Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, which would bring the firing squad back as a backup method of execution, should the primary method of lethal injection be unavailable.

Attorney General Eric Holder calls for states to stop death penalty until Supreme Court decides.  Attorney General Eric Holder called on states to temporarily pause death penalty executions on Tuesday [2/17/2015], until the Supreme Court decides a case about the controversial drug cocktails used for lethal injects in some states.

Pennsylvania Stops Using the Death Penalty.  Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday [2/13/2015] that the state has effectively put a moratorium on the death penalty.  While Wolf awaits a report from a task force on the state's use of capital punishment, he will grant temporary reprieves for all death row inmates whose executions are scheduled.

Oklahoma considers nitrogen gas chamber to execute death row inmates.  Following the state's botched lethal injection last spring, in which the inmate groaned and writhed on the gurney before a problem was discovered, the state is exploring using a nitrogen gas chamber which would make the execution painless.  Breathing the gas would cause hypoxia, similar to what happens to pilots at high altitudes.

Ohio to delay 7 executions while searching for new drugs.  Ohio will delay the executions of seven death row inmates while searching for an adequate supply of drugs that complies with its new execution protocol, the state's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Friday [1/30/2015].  That means the state will not carry out any executions in 2015, the agency said in a press release.

U.S. Supreme Court to review Oklahoma execution procedure.  The Supreme Court on Friday [1/23/2015] agreed to review Oklahoma's controversial method of execution by lethal injection, taking up a case brought by three death row inmates who accuse the state of violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

California AG Kamala Harris to appeal ruling against death penalty.  A federal judge's "flawed" decision declaring California's enforcement of the death penalty unconstitutional will be appealed, state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris announced Thursday [8/21/2014].  Harris will ask the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn last month's ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who said decades-long delays and uncertainty about whether inmates will be executed violated the Constitution's ban on cruel or unusual punishment.  Harris personally opposes the death penalty but promised voters she would enforce it.

How does the U.S. compare to other countries?
Saudi Arabia has beheaded 19 people in one month.  Human Rights Watch reports that Saudi Arabia has beheaded 19 people since the beginning of August.  Some confessions may have been gained under torture and one poor defendant was found guilty of sorcery.  Yep, sorcery.  That might sound archaic, but we are talking about a regime so very concerned about offending God that it has even banned certain names for being "blasphemous".

Executions should be by firing squad, federal appeals court judge says.  Days before an Arizona murderer gasped and snorted for more than 90 minutes and died nearly two hours after his execution began, a conservative federal appeals judge called for replacing lethal injection with firing squads, saying the public must acknowledge that executions are "brutal, savage events."  "Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and beautiful — like something any one of us might experience in our final moments," U.S. 9th Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote in a dissent in the Arizona death penalty case of Joseph Rudolph Wood III.

California Death Penalty Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Says.  A federal judge ruled Wednesday [7/16/2014] that California's death penalty system is so arbitrary and plagued with delay that it is unconstitutional, a decision that is expected to inspire similar arguments in death penalty appeals around the country.  The state has placed hundreds of people on death row, but has not executed a prisoner since 2006. [...] About 40 percent of California's 748 death row inmates have been there more than 19 years.

Federal judge rules California's death penalty unconstitutional.  A federal judge declared California's death penalty unconstitutional Wednesday, saying delays of 25 years or more in deciding appeals and carrying out occasional executions have created an arbitrary and irrational system that serves no legitimate purpose.  The ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of Santa Ana was limited to a single case and had no immediate impact on executions statewide, which have been halted by federal courts since 2006 because of multiple problems in lethal injection procedures.

The Editor says...
I'm no expert, but this might be the first time that the 8th Amendment has been used in this manner.  The judge appears to say that the anxiety caused by the long and variable delay between conviction and execution is cruel and unusual.  This problem is very easy to fix:  Execute all condemned criminals within 30 days.  In China, they don't even wait that long!

Judges [sic] Orders Temporary Halt to Ohio Executions.  Ohio executions have been put on hold for 2 1/2 months after a federal judge said [5/27/2014] he wanted to hear arguments over the state's new lethal injection procedures.

Tennessee brings back electric chair.  Tennessee has decided how it will respond to a nationwide scarcity of lethal injection drugs for death-row inmates:  with the electric chair.

Lawmaker wants to bring back 'humane' firing squad executions.  In the wake of a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month, a Utah lawmaker says he believes a firing squad is a more humane form of execution.

Execute Cleanly or Not at All.  The guillotine, which was invented specifically to eliminate foul-ups from the executioner's lack of skill and/or sobriety, is about the only existing execution method that will get it right every time.  Nobody knows, however, whether the severed head can sense the trauma before consciousness is lost.  This suggests a need for a method that is known to be so painless and trauma-free that it is among the most deadly workplace hazards:  asphyxiation in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere.  It is deadly precisely because it is painless and trauma-free; the victim doesn't know what is happening to him before it is too late.

Appeals court overturns ruling on execution drugs.  A federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out a ruling requiring the Texas prison system to disclose more information about where it gets lethal-injection drugs, reversing a judge who had halted an upcoming execution.

US Supreme Court won't stop Texas execution over state refusal to name lethal drug supplier.  The U.S. Supreme Court won't stop the execution of a Texas serial killer whose attorneys want the state to release information about where it gets its lethal injection drug.

Attorney General Says Tennessee Can Lawfully Electrocute Inmates.  The State Attorney General says Tennessee can lawfully use the electric chair on death row inmates if drugs used for lethal injection are not available.

'Ground zero' for the death penalty.  Missouri executed its fourth inmate in as many months early Wednesday [2/26/2014], even as the issue of capital punishment has sparked a new and reshaped political debate in the state and across the country.  The Midwestern state has become a key battleground:  As lethal-injection drug supplies have been disrupted, states have been scrambling to adapt, and Missouri lawmakers from both sides of the aisle aren't happy with what they say is excessive secrecy about the process and questions about whether the sentences are being competently carried out.

Federal judge temporarily blocks Okla. pharmacy from selling drug to Missouri for execution.  A federal judge agreed late Wednesday to temporarily block an Oklahoma pharmacy from providing an execution drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for use in an upcoming lethal injection.

The Editor says...
Why do pharmacies have lethal drugs on hand?

Oklahoma Pharmacy Won't Give Drug for Missouri Execution.  An Oklahoma pharmacy has agreed not to provide Missouri with a made-to-order drug for an inmate's execution scheduled for later this month, according to court documents filed Monday [2/17/2014].

The Editor says...
Oh, I see.  The drug is "made to order."  (Now I'm a little more concerned about my doctor's handwriting.)  Is there not one pharmacist in Missouri who can make it?

States Consider Reviving Old-Fashioned Executions.  With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about their effectiveness, lawmakers in some death penalty states are considering bringing back relics of a more gruesome past:  firing squads, electrocutions and gas chambers.

Louisiana will change protocol, adopt Ohio lethal injection drugs one week before scheduled execution.  With just more than one week to go before convicted killer Christopher Sepulvado is scheduled to die by lethal injection, Louisiana will alter its execution protocol and swap out a one-drug recipe for the same two-drug cocktail used in Ohio executions.

Wyo. lawmaker proposes firing squads for executions.  A Wyoming lawmaker is pushing to allow use of firing squads to execute condemned state inmates if constitutional problems or other issues ever prevented the state from using lethal injection.

Dem Bill Would End Death Penalty for Espionage, Treason, Assasinations.  The Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act.  (HR 3741) would "end the death penalty for assassination or kidnapping that results in the death of the president or vice president, and also ends it for the murder of a member of Congress."  The list goes on:  "using a weapon of mass destruction, or murder done via torture, child abuse, war crimes, aircraft hijackings, sexual abuse, bank robberies or the willful wrecking of a train."  And there is even more [...]

California will no longer pursue three-drug lethal injections.  California has dropped its legal efforts to win approval of a three-drug method of lethal injection and will instead propose single-drug executions, a prisons spokesman said Wednesday [7/10/2013]. [...] Any new method of execution will be subject to public comment and review by a federal court.  The process could take years.

The ECHR says it's 'inhuman' for murderers to get whole-life sentences.  Judges in Strasbourg have opened a new front by ruling that Britain is in breach of Article 3 of the European convention on human rights by imprisoning some the worst imaginable killers for whole-life terms.  The Grand Chamber of the European Court has ruled in three test cases that their sentences must be reviewed after 25 years.

The Editor says...
A murderer is still a murderer after 25 years.  The purpose of a life sentence — and capital punishment, to some extent — is to take murderers and the most egregiously violent criminals off the steets.  Permanently.

Barbarism in Philadelphia.  Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is on trial in Philadelphia for doping one patient to death and killing seven fetuses born alive.  He doubtless seems a worthy candidate for death row.  Dr. Gosnell, after all, is a monster. [...] Dr. Gosnell was merciless killer, willing to perform abortions at any stage of pregnancy.  He routinely induced labor in women more than six months pregnant and then cut the spines of their breathing newborns.  This was Gosnell's "standard procedure," according to the grand jury report.  "These killings became so routine," in fact, "that no one could put an exact number on them."

The death penalty does not serve as a deterrent if it's not on the books.
After bombings, a push to restore the death penalty.  Democratic leaders today put a quick stop to a move to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts, rejecting a House budget amendment containing a death penalty measure first proposed by former Gov. Mitt Romney in 2005.  The House voted 119-38 to send the amendment to further study in a committee, a move that eliminated the amendment from immediate consideration as part of the budget bill under debate in the House this week.  Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984.

The Boston Bomber Should Face The Possibility Of The Death Penalty.  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother murdered three people at the Boston Marathon, and grossly mutilated dozens more.  The brother was killed in a shootout with police.  The question is what justice Dzhokhar should face.  The answer, as the Justice Department apparently understands, is a jury empowered to consider the death penalty.

Why Don Opposes Capital Rape.  It's pretty easy to see that I am not applying a double standard in opposing abortion and supporting the death penalty.  An unborn child is not the same thing as a convicted murderer.  In fact, no unborn child has ever committed murder. [...] And nothing deters like capital punishment.  No executed man has ever become a recidivist.

Death and Life in Maryland.  Respect for human life should mean a murderer ought to forfeit his or her own life as payment for the life taken.  Life in prison is unequal punishment.  It is not fair to the victim, to the victim's family or even to the killer who has not received his or her "just deserts."  In the case of abortion, obviously there can be no sentence of death or life in prison for the "murderer."  But that doesn't mean that Maryland cannot exercise an equivalent respect for life through laws that restrict abortion.  Shouldn't the lives of the unborn also be spared a death sentence?

Maryland lawmakers vote to repeal death penalty.  Maryland lawmakers approved a measure abolishing the death penalty on Friday [3/15/2013] and sent the bill to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has long supported banning capital punishment.

The Cruel and Unusual Eighth Amendment.  To date the Court has not ruled that the death penalty per se violates the Eighth Amendment; however, it has created certain procedures and exceptions governing the request of the death penalty, for instance requiring a criminal defendant to have in fact killed or attempted to kill a victim.  The Court also held in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) that the mentally retarded, as a class, are exempt from the death penalty.

Defend the Second Amendment by Restoring the Eighth.  States find it cheaper to feed, clothe, house, and guard a murderer to the end of his days, and nurse him through the diseases of old age, than to jump through the endless legal hoops of proving to the most soft-headed appellate court in the land not only that he committed the crime, but that he deserves to die for it.  Those hoops were invented by the United States Supreme Court, in blatant disregard of the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment.  That amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments" applied only to the federal government in the first place, and it referred only to torturous executions such as crucifixion, burning, boiling, drawing and quartering, etc.  It did not prohibit strangulation by hanging, which was the common practice of every jurisdiction involved in the amendment's adoption and ratification.

The death penalty is not what it used to be.  Seventeenth-century England, whence comes so much of our law and culture, hanged evildoers with the enthusiasm of modern Texas.  There's the story of the shipwrecked sailor of the time who was washed up on a distant shore after a storm at sea.  He opened his eyes the next morning, and the first thing he saw, on a hill far away, was a gallows.  "Thank God!" he cried.  "I'm in a Christian country."

W.Va. delegate fighting to reinstate death penalty.  With neighboring Maryland about to be-come the sixth state in as many years to abolish the death penalty, one West Virginia delegate is on a quixotic quest to resume executions in his state for the first time in a half-century.  This year marks the 27th in a row that Republican Delegate John Overington has introduced a bill to reinstate capital punishment.

Texas prison system running out of execution drug.  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Thursday [8/1/2013] that its remaining supply of pentobarbital expires in September and that no alternatives have been found.

Texas refuses to give back lethal drugs, proceeds with execution.  A Texas man convicted of killing his parents was executed as planned Wednesday night despite a growing controversy over the drug used to carry out the punishment.  Last week, state prison officials refused a request from the compounding pharmacy that created and sold Texas the pentobarbital — a single-dose drug used in executions — to return the drug.

Missouri to Return Execution Drug After European Objections.  The state of Missouri said on Wednesday it will return an anesthetic it planned to use for executions after the German manufacturer voiced concerns that using it for lethal injections could lead to the European Union to ban export of the drug to the United States.

Reuters Editor at Large Likens U.S. Death Penalty to ISIS Beheaders.  While promoting a book of news photography on CBS This Morning on Saturday [9/6/2014], Sir Harold Evans, editor at large of the Reuters news agency, called the electric chair a "monstrosity" and said seeing a picture of one was "almost as appalling, in its sense, as these barbarians who have taken the heads off journalists in the desert."  Of course, the imposition of the death penalty in the U.S. is reserved for the worst murderers, after lengthy trials and appeals, while the ISIS executioners beheaded innocent journalists as a way to terrorize the civilized world.

Arizona to change drugs used in executions.  Arizona officials will no longer administer the two-drug combination used in the nearly two-hour execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood this year.

Tennessee executes blind man for killing ex-girlfriend in 1991.  A blind prisoner convicted of killing his estranged girlfriend by setting her on fire in her car was put to death Thursday [12/5/2019] in Tennessee's electric chair.  Lee Hall, 53, became only the second inmate without sight to be executed in the U.S. since the reinstatement of the nation's death penalty in 1976.  Hall was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m. at a Nashville maximum-security prison, prison officials said.  He chose the electric chair over Tennessee's preferred execution method of lethal injection — an option available to inmates in the state who were convicted of crimes before January 1999.  He also became the first blind inmate in U.S. modern history to die by electrocution.

Texas court stops Rodney Reed's execution to further review claims of innocence.  Texas' highest criminal court halted Rodney Reed's execution Friday afternoon, sending the now-famous case back to the trial court to further review several claims — biggest of all that he is innocent of the murder that landed him on death row more than 20 years ago.  The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' ruling came hours after the state's parole board separately recommended Gov. Greg Abbott delay Reed's Wednesday execution by 120 days.  The court's ruling effectively preempts any gubernatorial involvement since it takes Reed's execution off the calendar and starts a new legal process.

Florida Supreme Court rejects death row inmate's appeal for stay of execution.  The Supreme Court of Florida on Tuesday [11/12/2019] rejected an appeal for a stay of execution for a death row inmate convicted of killing a 14-year-old girl in 1985.  James Dailey was sentenced to death in 1987 for killing Shelly Boggio, whose body was found over 30 years ago stabbed, strangled, drowned and naked floating in waters off Indian Rocks Beach in Pinellas County.

Convicted murderer's wants to be freed from his life sentence because he had technically 'died' when his heart stopped during a medical emergency.  A convicted murderer serving life in prison must remain behind bars despite his claim that he died when his heart stopped momentarily, a judge has ruled.  Benjamin Edward Schreiber, 66, 'is either still alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is actually dead, in which case this appeal is moot,' a judge in Iowa ruled on Wednesday [11/6/2019].  Schreiber was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1996 ax-handle bludgeoning death of John Terry, and sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.

Public Defender:  Illegal Alien Charged with Murdering Four Americans Unfit for Death Penalty Due to Low IQ.  An illegal alien accused of murdering four Americans over the course of a week in Nevada is set to claim that he is "intellectually disabled" in order to avoid the death penalty.  Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, a 20-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, was charged with murdering 56-year-old Connie Koontz, 74-year-old Sophia Renken, 81-year-old Gerald David, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon David, between January 10 and 15 after prosecutors said he was looking to steal money from his victims to buy more meth.  The state of Nevada is seeking the death penalty.

Somebody saved the taxpayers a lot of money.
Pedophile who abused up to 200 children stabbed to death in prison.  A notorious British pedophile who was serving 22 concurrent life sentences for abusing 22 children in Malaysia — and up to 200 during an eight-year spree — was stabbed to death in a prison in England, according to reports.  Richard Huckle, 33, was found dead Sunday [10/13/2019] inside his cell at the high-security Full Sutton Prison in North Yorkshire after being attacked with a makeshift knife, according to the BBC.  "Humberside Police are working closely with the Prison Service to investigate the death of an inmate and at this time we are treating the death as suspicious," police said in a statement.  "It would be inappropriate to comment further while a police investigation is ongoing."

First Step Act beneficiary wanted for murder.  It was bound to happen, and sooner rather than later.  Joel Francisco, dubbed by authorities the crown prince of the Almighty Latin Kings gang, was released from prison thanks to the First Step Act.  Now, he is now wanted for murder.  Francisco was sentenced in 2005 to life imprisonment for trafficking in crack cocaine.  The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced sentences for this crime, but not retroactively.  The First Step Act that President Trump signed into law with broad bipartisan support, included a provision that made the Fair Sentencing Act apply retroactively.  As a result, Francisco became eligible for release from prison.  He was released in February.  This criminal now stands accused of stabbing a man to death at a hookah lounge in Providence, Rhode Island.

Death row inmate with rare condition may suffer excruciatingly painful death, lawyers say.  The fate of a convicted killer in Missouri inmate rests with Gov. Mike Parson, who must decide if the risk posed by Russell Bucklew's unusual medical condition is grave enough to halt his execution.  Bucklew, 51, is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening [10/1/2019] for killing a man during a 1996 crime spree that started with his girlfriend breaking up with him on Valentine's Day.  He suffers from cavernous hemangioma.  The rare disease causes blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and throat.  A permanent tracheostomy in his throat helps him breathe.  His attorneys say in the clemency request that if one of the throat tumors bursts, Bucklew could suffer an excruciatingly painful death.

The Editor says...
[#1] He should have thought of this before committing murder 23 years ago.  [#2] Load him up with fentanyl and demerol, and and he will feel no pain.  [#3]  The pain of his execution is momentary.  It's nothing compared to what happens after that.

Alyssa Milano:  You Can't Talk About Being Pro-Life If You Support Executing Child-Murderers.  [Scroll down to the facts; for example:]  Lezmond Mitchell stabbed to death a 63-year-old grandmother and forced her nine-year-old granddaughter to sit beside her lifeless body for a 30 to 40-mile drive.  Mitchell then slit the girl's throat twice, crushed her head with 20-pound rocks, and severed and buried both victims' heads and hands.  On May 8, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona found Mitchell guilty of numerous offenses, including first degree murder, felony murder, and carjacking resulting in murder, and he was sentenced to death.  Mitchell's execution is scheduled to occur on Dec. 11, 2019.

Bobby Joe Long, a serial killer >br>who terrorized Florida in 1984, killing 10 women, is executed.  Bobby Joe Long, a serial killer who terrorized Florida with a 1984 spree that claimed the lives of 10 women, was executed Thursday [5/23/2019].

Catholic bishops urge governor to spare Bobby Joe Long.  The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to spare the life of convicted Tampa Bay serial rapist and murderer Bobby Joe Long.  In a letter to the governor, the bishops asked DeSantis to commute Long's sentence to life in prison, specifically pointing out mitigating circumstances in Long's case.

'That's Just Insane': Australia's Secret Deal to Take In Rwandan Guerrillas.  For more than a decade, the United States had a problem:  three Rwandan men, sitting in jail in Virginia, who had stood accused of brutally murdering tourists in Africa — but now had a chance of winning release onto American streets.  The three had been rounded up after a bloody 1999 attack that made headlines across three continents, in which two Americans and six other Western tourists on a gorilla-watching visit to the Ugandan rainforest were killed with machetes and axes.  The crime was so horrific that U.S. prosecutors charged the men under terrorism statutes, extracted them from Rwanda and then took the rare step of demanding the federal death penalty.  But in 2006, the prosecution went off the rails:  A judge in Washington ruled the men's confessions were obtained through torture in Rwandan detention centers, and the case was dropped.

Clarence Thomas blasts Stephen Breyer as death penalty divides Supreme Court.  Justice Clarence Thomas wanted to make sure there was no doubt about the heinous crime of Christopher Lee Price, whose attack on an Alabama minister nearly scalped the man, leaving him to a slow and painful death.  In an opinion Monday [5/13/2019], Justice Thomas defended the Supreme Court's decision to approve Price's execution and blasted fellow Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who had tried to erect roadblocks on the path to the execution chamber last month.

Hillsborough judge rejects move to stop Bobby Joe Long's execution.  A judge has denied an effort to stop the scheduled May 23 execution of Bobby Joe Long, a Tampa Bay area killer who murdered eight women in the 1980s.  Hillsborough Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco issued an order Monday rejecting arguments from Long's defense, including the contention that Florida's lethal injection drugs might cause Long to have a seizure during the execution.  Long, 65, suffers from temporal lobe epilepsy.

Florida wants to execute Robert Joseph Long.  His real name is Bobby Joe Long.  Does it matter?  Last week, the governor ordered the state to kill a man named "Robert Joseph Long."  The name appeared just like that, eight times, in a death warrant signed April 24 authorizing the state to execute Long for a 1984 Hillsborough County murder.  A letter that accompanied the warrant referred to him as "Robert Joe Long."  So did the original sentencing paperwork.  Here's the problem:  That's not his legal name.  The man the state wants to execute is Bobby Joe Long.

DeSantis orders execution for Bobby Joe Long, who killed at least eight women in the 1980s.  A year ago, Cher Lowther typed a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, beseeching him to follow through on a promise the state made more than 30 years earlier to put Bobby Joe Long to death.  Long, a notorious serial killer, murdered at least eight women in the Tampa Bay area in the early 1980s, including Karen Dinsfriend, Lowther's step-sister.  He was first sentenced to die in 1985, yet he remains on death row.

These are the 737 inmates on California's death row.  Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign an executive order on Wednesday to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in California.  The order will prevent the state from putting prisoners to death by granting temporary reprieves to all 737 condemned inmates on California's death row, the largest in the nation.

Death-row inmate says cryptic last words before fight breaks out at execution.  [Billie Wayne] Coble, once described by a prosecutor as having "a heart full of scorpions," and was the oldest inmate executed by Texas since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.

Man who killed 8-year-old girl found strangled in prison.  The Office of the State Medical Examiner says an Oklahoma man convicted of murder in the 1997 disappearance of his 8-year-old neighbor was strangled to death in his prison cell.

America's Newest Muslim Martyr is a Child Rapist and Killer.  Defensive wounds showed that the 15-year-old girl had fought long and hard for her life.  There wasn't enough soft tissue left to show the marks on her flesh, but marks remained on her wrists and her bones.  Hakim had hacked her to death while she had fought desperately to survive.  It took two years to bring him to justice, but not before Hakim tried every trick in the book.  Including accusing another man of the crime.  In 1997, Hakim signed a statement, blaming another man and three other women for the attack.  When his partner confessed, then eventually he did too.  A year before murdering Tiffany, Hakim had shot and killed Reinhard Mabins, a 13-year-old boy, and Ernest, his older brother.  He was convicted of all three murders.  The killing of the Mabins boys earned Hakim life in prison, while Tiffany's rape and murder put the monster on Death Row.  As was typical, Hakim's lawyers tried every trick to get him off the hook.  His father hadn't loved him, his mother was too busy to spend time with him and he hadn't understood how serious the case was.  Finally, there was one last card to play.  And Hakim's lawyers took that card to the Supreme Court.  At the last minute, Hakim wanted his Imam with him in the death chamber.  Yusef Maisonet, the imam of Masjid As Salaam, was not familiar with the safety protocols of the death penalty process, and was not allowed to be in the actual chamber.  The case went up to the courts, up to the Supreme Court, which turned Hakim down.  Instead Imam Maisonet met with Hakim before the monster was put down and taught him how to die like a good Muslim.

Alabama death row inmate's execution in limbo as courts weigh religious requests.  An Alabama man who was set to be executed by the state Thursday night is now waiting out his punishment while a federal court argues over his religious requests.  Domineque Ray, who was sentenced to death for raping and murdering 15-year-old Tiffany Harville in 1995 Selma, was not allowed to bring his holy book into his death cell with him after he was transferred there Tuesday, according to AL.com.  After a filing from his lawyers, Ray was given access to a Quran, but he still has one more request:  his imam, or Muslim spiritual leader.

The Editor says...
I believe he will be surrounded by imams right after he's executed.  If you get my drift.

Texas executes inmate, 61, who killed police officer in adult-bookstore robbery.  A Texas man convicted of shooting and killing a Houston police officer in 1988 during a failed robbery at an adult bookstore was executed Wednesday [1/30/2019], officials said.  The convict, Robert Jennings, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m., 18 minutes after receiving a lethal injection and some 30 years after fatally shooting 24-year-old officer Elston Howard.

Nevada Death Row Inmate Scott Dozier Dies by Apparent Suicide.  Scott Dozier, a death row inmate in Nevada, was found dead in his cell Saturday of an apparent suicide, state department of corrections officials said.  Dozier, 48, was hanging from a bed sheet tied to an air vent in his cell at Ely State Prison, the department said in a news release.

Nevada death-row inmate found dead in cell after execution called off.  A Nevada inmate sentenced to death in 2007 for committing drug-related murders in Phoenix and Las Vegas, and who had tried several times to kill himself after two scheduled lethal injections were postponed, was found dead hanging from a bedsheet Saturday, officials said.  Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found unresponsive in the death-row cell he was housed in by himself at the state's maximum-security prison in Ely, the Nevada Department of Corrections said.

Court rejects Jerry Brown's clemency orders for 3 more California killers.  The California Supreme Court this week rejected three more of Gov. Jerry Brown's recommendations to commute sentences of longtime prison inmates who he believed had reformed behind bars, including a Sacramento man who beat a man to death in 1997.  The court in recent weeks now has denied 10 of Brown's clemency actions, the first time it has exercised that power in half a century.  The latest denials followed Brown's annual Christmas Eve clemency actions that included 143 pardons and 131 commutations.

Illegal Immigrant, Held on Murder Charge, Released Because of 'Clerical Error'.  A 17-year-old illegal immigrant — behind bars on a murder charge — was released from a local North Carolina jail that just pulled out of an immigration screening program with Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE).  Sergio Coello-Perez, a Mexican national, was released from the Mecklenburg County Jail on Thursday after seven months in custody.  He was released with a written promise to appear in court and to wear a 24-hour electronic monitoring bracelet, WBTV reported Friday [12/28/2018].  On Friday, the teen was booked into the jail again.

'Clerical error' leads to murder defendant's release from jail.  According to court records, a clerical error in court led to the release of a Mecklenburg County inmate facing a first degree murder charge.  Sergio Coello-Perez had a day and half of freedom that started Thursday [12/27/2018 morning.  He had spent six months behind bars.

Cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal granted appeal, spurring outrage from widow of slain police officer.  The widow of a Philadelphia police officer who was gunned down 37 years ago in the line of duty is "outraged" over a judge's decision last week to grant her husband's killer a chance to appeal his conviction.  On Thursday [1/27/2018], Judge Leon Tucker granted Mumia Abu-Jamal another opportunity to appeal his 1981 conviction in the death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.  Abu-Jamal spent three decades on death row before his sentence in the shooting death of Faulkner was thrown out over flawed jury instructions.

Texas man who killed newlywed during robbery is executed.  A Texas man who fatally shot a husband and sexually assaulted his wife during a 1993 robbery was executed Tuesday evening.  Alvin Braziel Jr., 43, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the 1993 slaying of 27-year-old Douglas White, who was attacked as he and his wife walked on a jogging trail.

Texas Man Who Shot and Killed Newlywed in 1993 Is Executed.  The state of Texas executed a Dallas man for the murder of a newlywed man more than 25 years ago.  Alvin Braziel Jr., 43, died via lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville for the 1993 killing of 27-year-old Douglas White, who was attacked by Braziel while walking on a jogging trail.  The motive in the killing was robbery and rape, according to reports.

Tennessee electrocutes second inmate in 2 months.  A Tennessee inmate became the second person to die in the state's electric chair in just over a month Thursday [12/6/2018], nearly two decades after Tennessee adopted lethal injection as its preferred method of execution.

Tennessee: 2nd condemned man in weeks chooses electric chair.  A Tennessee inmate set to be put to death next week has requested the electric chair and not the state's preferred method of a lethal injection, becoming the second inmate this year to make that choice as an execution date loomed.

Death row inmate says, 'Let's rock,' before dying on Tennessee electric chair.  Edmund Zagorski, the convicted killer who opted for the electric chair instead of lethal injection, was asked if he had any last words before dying and he responded, "Let's rock." [...] Zagorski, who was convicted of the April 1983 killings of two men during a drug deal by slitting their throats, called the electric chair the lesser of the two evils in the state.

Death-row inmate Edmund Zagorski moved to 'death watch' as execution nears.  As his planned Thursday [11/1/2018] execution draws near, Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski has been moved to "death watch," according to reports.  Meanwhile, the maker of the state's electric chair, which is expected to be used for the first time since 2007, says he's worried that the device might not work as planned.

South Dakota inmate cracks traffic joke before execution.  A South Dakota inmate, who was executed Monday evening [10/29/2018] for beating a guard to death during a failed prison escape, used his final moments to crack a joke. [...] Berget, who killed Ronald "R.J." Johnson in 2011 with a pipe at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.  He was the state's fourth execution since it reinstituted the death penalty in 1979.  Johnson was killed on his 63rd birthday and was nearing the end of a nearly 24-year career as a guard.

Tennessee executes child killer Billy Ray Irick with drug that inflicts 'torturous pain'.  Tennessee has carried out its first execution in nearly a decade using a controversial cocktail of drugs including a lethal ingredient described by the Supreme Court as "chemically burning at the stake".  Billy Ray Irick, an inmate convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of seven-year-old Paula Dyer, received a three-drug injection on Thursday night [8/9/2018] after the US Supreme Court denied a final request to stay his execution.

The Editor says...
Maybe they should serve jalapeño soup for dinner on death row, whenever there's an execution, just to give everyone a foretaste of things to come.  The lesson for the rest of the Tennessee lowlife morons is clear:  If you don't want to be chemically burned at the stake, don't rape and murder a seven-year-old girl.

Suspect in BART fatal stabbing deserves death penalty, past victim says.  The suspect who allegedly stabbed two sisters, killing one, at a rail station in Oakland, Calif., deserves the death penalty, a past victim of the suspect says, according to a report.  Nearly a decade ago, John Cowell, 27 — the BART stabbing suspect — along with three other teens, beat up Shane Glick, 51, outside his Concord, Calif., home, Glick told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Nevada plans execution with never-used-before drug cocktail.  The new execution protocol appears to be an updated version of a procedural plan submitted to Judge Togliatti last September.  The new one, dated June 11, blacks out some details, including times that family members, witnesses and media may arrive at Ely State Prison, around 400km north of Las Vegas.  It substitutes midazolam for expired prison stocks of diazepam, a sedative commonly known as Valium.  The plan doubles the number of possible injections of the sedative from four for diazepam to 10 for midazolam.  The scheduled doses and delivery of fentanyl and cisatracurium were not changed.  [Scott] Dozier has repeatedly said he wants to die and he doesn't really care if he suffers.

'Ice pick killer' Danny Paul Bible executed by lethal injection, despite firing squad, nitrogen gas pleas.  A Texas prisoner dubbed the "ice pick killer" will now "burn in hell for eternity," a family member of one of his victims says, after he was put to death Wednesday night [6/27/2018] by lethal injection — with officials ignoring his unusual request to be executed by firing squad or nitrogen gas.  Danny Paul Bible was killed Wednesday night after unsuccessful appeals argued his health issues made it likely his execution would be botched and cause him unconstitutional pain. [...] Bible was a drifter with a record of violence in several states when he was arrested in Fort Myers, Florida, in 1999 for a rape in Louisiana.  He told detectives in Louisiana about four Texas killings — including the death of a 4-month-old boy — and at least nine rapes, including five in San Jacinto County northeast of Houston.  The four slaying victims included 20-year-old Inez Deaton, a friend of Bible's cousin who was found on the banks of a Houston bayou in 1979.  Investigators determined she had been raped and fatally stabbed with an ice pick.

Ailing Texas inmate wants execution by firing squad or gas.  A Texas death row inmate who confessed to four slayings and at least nine rapes is set for lethal injection Wednesday amid concerns from his lawyers that his health issues make it likely his execution will cause him unconstitutional pain.

The Editor says...
As usual, the criminal puts up a fuss over his pain, and neither he nor the newspapers say anything about his victims' pain.  The Constitution, as amended, prohibits cruel and unusual punishment but does not prohibit inflicting pain during an execution. There is therefore no such thing as "unconstitutional pain."

New York is freeing another cop killer from prison.  Another Black Liberation Army cop-killer is getting parole — Robert Hayes, a cold-blooded thug who killed a transit cop in a senseless subway platform shootout in 1973, then turned a sawed-off shotgun on the five cops who later busted into his hideout.  Transit patrolman and father of two Sidney Thompson, 37, lost his life for merely trying to arrest the then-23-year-old Hayes and a second BLA member for jumping a turnstile.  Sentenced to 35 to life in 1974 — before state law mandated life without parole for cop-killers — Hayes will get out as early as July 24, The [New York] Post has learned.

Texas school shooting suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis won't be executed, could be free in 40 years.  The teenager accused of the massacre at a Texas high school Friday could be out of prison in 40 years and will definitely not be executed.  Dimitrios Pagourtzis is 17 and the Supreme Court has barred both the death penalty and life without parole as cruel and unusual punishment for criminals under 18, according to a legal analysis by USA Today.  The 2005 case of Roper v. Simmons said juveniles could not be executed, even if they're legally considered adults in their state, because they are too immature and their brains underdeveloped.  The 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama extended the logic to permanent imprisonment.

Texas School Shooter Won't Face Death Penalty, Could be Paroled in 40 Years.  Dimitrios Pagourtzis murdered 10 people when he opened fire at his Santa Fe, Texas high school.  He won't face the death penalty.  He might not even spend his entire life in prison.

The Editor says...
The victims are just as dead, whether the shooter is 17 or 40 years old.  The Supreme Court has negated the deterrent effect of the death penalty for anyone under 18.

Hero knew the danger, went anyway.  Police officer Sean Gannon is a hero — plain and simple.  His life should not have been cut so short at the young age of 32.  Gannon paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep our community safe when a thug allegedly opened fire on him while searching a home the criminal was hiding out in.  It is unfortunate the death penalty is not allowed in Massachusetts because Thomas Latanowich doesn't deserve the right to breathe and is the perfect candidate for lethal injection.

Dueling rallies held over parole of convicted cop killer.  Dueling rallies were held Friday on the controversial decision to release convicted cop killer Herman Bell from prison.  Bell was a member of the radical Black Liberation Army who killed Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini after luring them to a Harlem housing project with a phony 911 call.  Jones died instantly from a single shot.  But Piagentini was shot 22 times after begging for his life.  Bell was captured and convicted in 1971 and has been behind bars ever since.

Death sentence reinstated for only woman on Mississippi's death row.  A divided federal appeals court has reinstated the death sentence of Mississippi's only woman on death row, after her capital murder conviction was previously overturned by federal judges.  The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-5 Tuesday that allegations of racial bias in jury selection were insufficient and shouldn't have led to Lisa Jo Chamberlin's sentence being reversed.  The ruling came nearly three years after a federal court ruling granted her a new trial in a 2004 double homicide in Hattiesburg, Miss., the Clarion Ledger reported.

Judicial Depravity in California.  In November 2016, California voters passed Proposition 57, the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act.  Championed by Governor Jerry Brown, the measure expanded parole possibilities for nonviolent offenders and barred prosecutors from filing juvenile cases in adult court.  Last month, California's Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 57 could be applied retroactively.  On those grounds, California's Third Court of Appeals "conditionally reversed" the conviction of one of the most violent criminals in state history and expanded his prospects for early release.  Daniel Marsh was just 15 on April 14, 2013, when he broke into the Davis home of 87-year-old Oliver "Chip" Northup, an attorney and popular bluegrass musician, and his 76-year-old wife, Claudia Maupin, a pastoral associate at the Davis Unitarian Church, where the couple met.  A police report said that the two were killed "in a way that manifested exceptional depravity," which was no exaggeration.  The autopsy report runs 16 pages and 6,658 words, noting that the murderer stabbed Maupin 67 times and Northup 61 times.

To avoid death penalty, Florida cop killer will claim brain damage.  The man who killed Tarpon Springs police Officer Charles Kondek in 2014 suffered from head trauma that likely impaired his judgment at the time of the shooting, according to his attorneys.  That diagnosis is how the defense hopes to convince a jury to spare Marco Antonio Parilla, Jr. from being sentenced to death.  Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand told the Tampa Bay Times his client has "brain abnormalities" that can affect decision-making.

Protect Kids or Confiscate Guns?  The perpetrator, the sick and evil 19-year-old who killed 17 innocents with a gun is said to be contrite.  Having confessed, he faces life in prison.  For the next half-century, [he] will be fed, clothed, sheltered and medicated at the expense of Florida taxpayers, including the families of those he murdered.  [His] punishment seems neither commensurate with his crimes nor a deterrent for sick and evil minds contemplating another Columbine. [...] [This man] should never have been allowed to purchase or possess a gun.  He was angry, alienated, isolated.  Police had been to his family home to deal with complaints 39 times.  Yet he had no arrest record when he purchased his AR-15.

The One Single Person To Blame For The Florida School Shooting.  The shooter's defense team says the poor guy is "troubled" and they're "exploring the possibility of autism."  I don't personally care about his mental troubles or whatever alleged psychiatric disorder they can tag on him (and I'm sure they can tag him with several).  Here's the only thing we need to know:  Did he know what he was doing when he did it, and did he know it was wrong?  Well, his defense team (stupidly) has also said that the shooter is deeply sorry for his actions and he understands the gravity of what he did.  In other words, he's not crazy.  He's fully responsible for his behavior.  100%.  A crazy man is a man who has no concept of reality and truly does not understand that he isn't supposed to kill people.

Man jailed in Pasco shooting.  Qiu Feng Ke says Edward Tudor was "just unlucky" to become the one he shot to death this week in their Holiday neighborhood.  It could have been a past neighbor who had treated him poorly.  Or, Qiu said, if he moved away from Richboro Drive, it might have been the next one.  It was Tudor, his neighbor of four years, who pushed him too far, Qiu said Thursday, handcuffed in his orange and white striped jumpsuit inside the Pasco County Jail, where he is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge.

Why pursue execution for Seminole Heights killings?  Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren announced he will seek the death penalty if accused Seminole Heights mass killer Howell Emanuel Donaldson III is convicted.  Yes, the killing spree for which Donaldson stands accused was horrific.  He is accused of shooting four people to death during a killing rage that rattled Seminole Heights and the entire Tampa Bay community.  As Warren framed it in a news conference announcing the decision, "The death penalty is for the worst of the worst, crimes that are far more egregious than the typical murder.  And that's what we have here."

Texas "Tourniquet Killer" put to death in first execution of 2018.  Texas carried out the nation's first execution of 2018 Thursday evening, giving lethal injection to a man who became known as Houston's "Tourniquet Killer" because of his signature murder technique on four female victims.  Anthony Allen Shore was put to death for one of those slayings, the 1992 killing of a 21-year-old woman whose body was dumped in the drive-thru of a Houston Dairy Queen.

'Tourniquet Killer' executed in Huntsville.  Shore was nicknamed the "Tourniquet Killer" because he used homemade tourniquets to strangle his victims.  Police eventually linked to Shore to the murders through his DNA, which was taken during a separate child rape investigation.

Self-inflicted capital punishment:
Convicted War Criminal Drinks Poison in Courtroom.  Convicted war criminal Slobodan Praljak started shouting [11/29/2017] as the presiding judge delivered the tribunal's final decision, which would have kept Praljak behind bars for 20 years.  The 72-year-old yelled, "Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal!  I reject this verdict!"  Ignoring an instruction to sit down, Praljak then drank an unidentified liquid from a small bottle, drawing confused stares from his attorneys and others in the chamber.

Sickly Ohio death row inmate will get 'special, wedge-shaped pillow' to help him breathe during execution.  A sick Ohio inmate will receive a wedge-shaped pillow to help him breathe as he's put to death this week, officials said.  Alva Campbell, 69, a death row prisoner who has argued he was too ill for lethal injection is slated to die by injection Wednesday.  Campbell has severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder as the result of a decades-long two-pack-a-day smoking habit.  Campbell's attorneys say he uses a walker, relies on a colostomy bag, requires four breathing treatments a day and may have lung cancer.  They have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Wednesday's [11/15/2017] execution, because of his poor health, a motion opposed by the state.

The Editor says...
This is the latest in a long series of legal ploys, e.g., my client is too fat to fit into the electric chair, my client is too stupid to be executed, my client is too sick to die, etc.

Defiant Torrey McNabb saved final words for AL before execution.  The Alabama Department of Corrections executed Torrey McNabb Thursday night for his conviction in the 1997 murder of Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon.  McNabb was declared dead at 9:38 p.m. by lethal injection at Holman Prison in Atmore.

Oklahoma Terrorist Gets Death Penalty.  Speaking to the jury that had already convicted Alton Alexander Nolen of first-degree murder in the death of Colleen Hufford, Cleveland County, Oklahoma, district attorney Greg Mashburn said of Nolen, "He wants the death penalty.  Give him what he wants."  Mashburn added that Nolen wanted the death penalty because he believes "something good" is waiting for him on the "other side," so Mashburn pleaded for the jurors to "give it to him, and let him find out."  The jury deliberated three hours before returning a death penalty verdict for Nolen, who had beheaded co-worker Hufford with a knife in 2015.  In Oklahoma, juries have three options in a first-degree murder conviction:  life in prison, life in prison without the possibility of parole, and death.

Florida executes Plant City man convicted of killings decades ago.  Florida executed an inmate Thursday [10/5/2017] who was convicted of killing two people after a night of drinking decades ago.

Florida Supreme Court backs Gov. Scott in Orlando death-penalty dispute.  Gov. Rick Scott was within his executive authority in reassigning more than two dozen potential death penalty cases away from an Orlando state attorney who declared she wouldn't pursue the punishment for any case prosecuted in her district, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday [8/31/2017].  In a 5-2 ruling, justices said Aramis Ayala's "blanket" opposition to seeking the death penalty negates her argument of having exercised prosecutorial discretion.

Florida executes convicted killer using new drug.  Florida on Thursday [8/24/2017] put a man to death with an anesthetic never used before in a U.S. lethal injection, carrying out its first execution in more than 18 months on an inmate convicted of two racially motivated murders.  Authorities said 53-year-old Mark Asay, the first white man executed in Florida for the killing of a black man, was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m.  Thursday at the state prison in Starke.  Asay received a three-drug injection that began with the anesthetic etomidate.  Though approved by the Florida Supreme Court, etomidate has been criticized by some as being unproven in an execution.  Etomidate replaced midazolam, which became harder to acquire after many drug companies began refusing to provide it for executions.

Alabama executes man for 1982 murder.  [75-year-old Tommy] Arthur was convicted of killing riverboat engineer Troy Wicker, who was fatally shot as he slept in his bed in the north Alabama city of Muscle Shoals.

Arkansas executes first inmate since 2005.  Ledell Lee's execution was the first in the state since 2005.  He was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m.  Thursday [4/20/2017], four minutes before his death warrant was due to expire. [...] Lee, 51, was put on death row for the 1993 death of his neighbor Debra Reese, whom Lee struck 36 times with a tire tool her husband had given her for protection.  Lee was arrested less than an hour after the killing after spending some of the $300 he had stolen from Reese.

Arkansas executions:  Who's on death row?  [For example,] Kenneth Dewayne Williams, [who] was initially scheduled to be executed on Thursday, April 27. [...] He was convicted of murdering Cecil Boren in 1999.  Three weeks after his conviction, Williams escaped by hiding in a container of hog slop being ferried from a prison kitchen to a prison hog farm outside the main gates.  While in prison, Williams said he had killed another person in 1998.  He gave a one-hour, 15-minute speech in front of the parole board where he accepted full responsibility for his actions.

Supreme Court blocks death sentence over racial bias.  The Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas murderer Wednesday [2/22/2017] because of racially discriminatory testimony presented by his own defense team.  The 6-2 ruling was the second in the court's new term to overturn a death sentence, and it could be a harbinger of things to come.  The justices heard another death penalty case from Texas in November that hinges on a prisoner's intellectual disability.

Homeless sex offender who killed 4 O.C. women is sentenced to death.  Steven Dean Gordon, the serial killer who says he deserves to die for his crimes, found no disagreement last year from the jury nor, on Friday [2/3/2017], from the judge.  Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick H. Donahue sentenced Gordon to death for the abduction and murder of four women who had been working as prostitutes in Santa Ana and Anaheim in 2013 and 2014.  In December, a jury convicted the 47-year-old Gordon of the murders and voted that he should die.

Dylann Roof Sentenced to Death for Charleston Church Massacre.  An admitted white supremacist was condemned to death Tuesday for massacring nine black worshipers who'd invited him to study the Bible with them at a Charleston, S.C., church, ending a two-phase federal trial that exposed the killer's hate-fueled motives and plumbed the chasms of grief left by the victims' deaths.  The jury, the same that convicted Dylann Roof in the murders last month, announced its verdict after deliberating less than three hours.

Hell gets ready to welcome Charles Manson.  Charles Manson is closing in on death's door, a source familiar with the matter told The [New York] Post on Monday [1/9/2017].  "I don't think he'll be around too much longer, but he is able to talk in his current condition," the California Corrections Department source said, referring to the infamous cult leader's health crisis.  Last week, Manson, 82, was taken out of Corcoran State Prison in California's Central Valley and rushed to a hospital in Bakersfield about 60 miles away for emergency surgery to stop his intestines from bleeding, sources told The Post.

Fry Dylann Roof.  The guy made the decision to load the gun, walk into a church, and shot ten people, murdering nine.  All were killed by multiple gunshots fired at close range.  During the shooting, he taunted the victims, "Y'all want something to pray about?  I'll give you something to pray about."  He [surely] seemed to understand the consequences of his actions then!  One of his victims was an 87-year-old church choir member.  A five-year-old girl survived the shooting by pretending to be dead.  If doing something like that doesn't earn a seat on the electric chair, what does?  I don't care if Roof did it because he hates blacks, he hates churches, he hates God, or if he thinks his dog told him to do it.  The consequence is the same.  I keep hearing we have to look inside Roof's head and try to understand.  Why?  It doesn't change what he did.

Federal judge orders state to provide Mumia Abu-Jamal with hepatitis C treatment.  A federal judge on Tuesday [1/3/2017] ruled that Mumia Abu-Jamal should be provided new medications by the state to treat his hepatitis C infection.  U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani ordered that Abu-Jamal, who is serving life in prison for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, must be seen by a doctor within 14 days to determine if there is a medical reason he should not get the expensive drugs.  If Abu-Jamal is medically cleared, the state must provide him with recently developed direct-acting antiviral medication, also known as DDA.

The Editor says...
Please note that the man whose health is such a great concern is a cop killer and was sentenced to death in 1982.  In my opinion, he should have been executed no later than 1983.

Alabama inmate executed after two court-ordered delays.  Smith was convicted of capital murder in the Nov. 8, 1994, shooting death of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson.

"Grim Sleeper" Lonnie Franklin Jr.  Sentenced to Death.  The former L.A. garbage collector who earned the name "the Grim Sleeper" after a string of murders between 1985 and 2007 was sentenced to death in Los Angeles Superior Court today [8/10/2016].  Judge Kathleen Kennedy today told 63-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr., "You shall suffer the death penalty," during a sentencing hearing.  The last time a prisoner was executed by the state was in 2006.

The 'Grim Sleeper' is sentenced to death for string of murders.  "This is not a sentence of vengeance," Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy told Franklin as relatives of his victims looked on, some of them in tears.  "It's justice."  Franklin, 63, was convicted earlier this year of killing nine women and a teenage girl from 1985 to 2007.  During the penalty phase of his trial, prosecutors connected him to several additional slayings.  Detectives believe he may have killed at least 25 women.  The judge read the names of the 10 victims Franklin was found guilty of killing.  In each case, Kennedy told him, "You shall suffer the death penalty."

'Grim Sleeper' Lonnie Franklin Jr.  Sentenced to Death for Murders of Los Angeles Women.  Lonnie Franklin Jr., known by the nickname the "Grim Sleeper," was sentenced to death today in connection with the killings of women in the Los Angeles area from 1985 to 2007.  His trial began in February of this year, more than three decades after the death of the first victim.  The victims, all between the ages of 15 and 35, were strangled or shot and left in alleyways near Franklin's home in South L.A., The Associated Press said.

The Editor says...
This man started killing women 30 years ago, and it may be another 30 years before he is executed — if he doesn't die of old age first.  The death penalty isn't much of a deterrent if the public perceives that the state isn't serious about it.

El Chapo is safe, but...
Lynch: Justice Dept. to seek death penalty against Dylann Roof.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Tuesday [5/24/2016] that the Justice Department would seek the death penalty against Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof.  "The nature of the alleged crime and the resulting harm compelled this decision," Lynch said in written statement.  Last July, Lynch announced federal hate crime charges against the then-21-year-old suspect, alleging that Roof sought to ignite racial tensions across the country by targeting Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church because of its local and historical significance.

Supreme Court throws out death sentence from all-white jury.  The Supreme Court upended the conviction and death sentence of a black Georgia man Monday [5/23/2016] because prosecutors violated the Constitution by excluding African-Americans from the all-white jury that determined his fate.

Drug lord El Chapo will finally be extradited to the U.S. under guarantee he won't face the death penalty.  Mexico's Foreign Relations Department has approved the extradition of convicted drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to the United States.  The department said in a statement Friday [5/20/2016] that the US has provided 'adequate guarantees' that Guzman would not face the death penalty.  Mexico has abolished capital punishment and does not extradite its citizens if they face possible execution.  The process can still be appealed, meaning it could be weeks or months before the Sinaloa cartel leader may be sent to the US, where he is wanted in multiple jurisdictions on charges related to drug trafficking and organized crime.

Man who killed Plant City worker wants execution sped up.  Wayne Doty, who shot to death a worker at a manufacturing plant in Plant City in 1996, wants to die in Florida's electric chair.  Immediately.  The twice-convicted killer — Doty murdered a fellow inmate at Florida State Prison, also in 1996 — doesn't want to be represented by attorneys and refuses to appeal his death sentence.

Texas executes man who said he drank victim's blood.  A South Texas man was executed Wednesday forthe 1998 slaying of a 12-year-old boy whose blood the convicted killer said he drank after beating the seventh-grader with a pipe and slitting his throat.  Pablo Lucio Vasquez told police he was drunk and high when voices convinced him to kill David Cardenas in Donna, a Texas border town about 225 miles south of San Antonio.  He also told detectives in a videotaped statement that he drank some of the boy's blood.

Prosecutor Who Sent Innocent Man to Death Row Is Disbarred.  A former prosecutor who used false testimony and withheld evidence to send a now-exonerated man to death row in Texas has lost an appeal to overturn his disbarment.

Texas executes suspected poacher who shot, killed game warden.  A Texas man was executed Wednesday evening [1/27/2016] for fatally shooting a game warden nine years ago during a shootout after a 90-minute chase that began when he was suspected of poaching.

After delay, serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin executed by lethal injection.  Oscar Ray Bolin, convicted of murdering three Tampa-area women in 1986, was executed by lethal injection Thursday night [1/7/2016] at Florida State Prison.  Bolin, 53, was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m., 11 minutes after the execution began.  Scheduled for 6 p.m., Bolin's execution was delayed by the U.S. Supreme Court as it considered a last-minute appeal.

Execution day arrives for Oscar Ray Bolin.  A former carnival worker who was convicted of killing three Bay-area women and then married a member of his defense team was executed Thursday night [1/7/2016] after 30 years of trials, guilty verdicts and appeals.

US Death Row Inmate Denied Beer as Last Request.  A death-row prisoner in Georgia, to be executed Thursday, requested six beers instead of food as his last wish, a request that prison authorities refused Wednesday [11/18/2015].  "His request was declined as alcohol is a contraband item," Georgia Department of Corrections in Jackson said in a statement.

The Editor says...
The lethal drugs they're about to administer are probably contraband items, too.  So what?  If the condemned man wants a case of whiskey and a carton of cigarettes instead of his last meal, why not give it to him?  If he'd rather be hanged than put in the electric chair, why not let him have that choice?

US high court grapples with racism in jury selection.  Timothy Foster has spent nearly 30 years on Georgia's death row.  On Monday [11/1/2015], his lawyer will speak before the Supreme Court to fight for his life, pointing to endemic racism in US jury selection and the death penalty.

Orlando man who murdered 4 family members to be executed tonight.  Jerry Correll is set to be executed [10/29/2015] for fatally stabbing his 5-year-old daughter, his ex-wife, her mother and her sister 30 years ago at a home along Tampico Drive in Orlando.  Correll is the first death row inmate in Florida to be executed since January.

Texas executes inmate for killing man in $8 robbery.  No late appeals were filed for Juan Martin Garcia, who was lethally injected [10/6/2015] for the September 1998 killing and robbery of Hugo Solano in Houston.

The Editor says...
The Associated Press once again shows its bias, starting with the headline in this story.  The execution was about the murder of an innocent man.  It was not about the eight dollars that changed hands.

Virginia executes serial killer who claimed to be disabled.  The El Salvador native was sentenced to death in Virginia in 2010 for the murder of a young couple more than two decades earlier.

Virginia set to execute convicted rapist and serial killer who claims he's intellectually disabled from a malnourished childhood in El Salvador.  Virginia is poised to execute a convicted serial killer [10/1/2015] who claims he's intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the state's supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the execution is supposed to take place.

One juror firmly opposed death penalty for theater shooter James Holmes.  Nine of the 12 jurors in the Colorado theater shooting trial wanted to execute James Holmes, but one was steadfastly against the death penalty and two others wavering, a juror told reporters after the verdict was announced.  Because the 12 jurors failed to unanimously agree that Holmes should be executed, he will be sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2012 attack on a midnight screening of a Batman movie in Aurora that also left 70 injured.  "Mental illness played into the decision more than anything else," said the woman, who would not give her name.

Dylann Roof indicted on federal hate crime charges in Charleston church shooting.  While neither federal nor state prosecutors have decided whether to pursue the ultimate punishment, Wednesday's [7/22/2015] indictment hinted at federal prosecutors' intentions to seek the death penalty.  Citing U.S. laws on the death penalty, it stated that Roof intentionally targeted vulnerable people and meant to kill "more than one person in a single criminal episode."

US should hang Edward Snowden, says former spy panel senator.  The U.S. should publicly hang leaker Edward Snowden if and when he falls into the government's hands, according to the former top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.  "We need to hang him on the courthouse square as soon was we get our hands on him," retired Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) — who served as vice chairman of the powerful intelligence panel before stepping down from Congress last year — said during an appearance at the University of Georgia this month.  "I hope none of you have any sympathy for him," he told students at the Terry College of Business.

Connecticut home invasion killer loses bid to drop appeals, proceed to execution.  A Connecticut judge has rejected a request by one of two men convicted in the killings of a mother and her two daughters in a home invasion to drop his remaining appeals and proceed to execution.

Boston Marathon bomber apologizes, formally sentenced to death.  The outcome of Wednesday morning's [6/24/2015] federal sentencing hearing was a foregone conclusion after the jury decided to impose the death penalty last month.  The 21-year-old former college student is the first person to be handed a death sentence in a federal terrorism case since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Editor says...
It may be the first federal terrorism prosecution since 9/11/2001, but there have been numerous cases of Islamic terrorism since then.

Texas inmate, 67, executed for slayings 31 years ago.  A 67-year-old man convicted of killing four men more than three decades ago was executed Wednesday, making him the oldest of the 526 Texas prisoners put to death since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev: No Better Argument for Capital Punishment.  On the one side are those who believe that just because someone brutally rapes and murders an innocent woman or murders and maims more than 260 people does not mean we in turn should respond as if we are ourselves equally uncivilized. [...] On the other side are those whose logic compels them to believe that only a hopelessly naïve or frighteningly misguided society would want to see such vicious killers free to live, to study, and to be provided food, shelter and health care at taxpayer expense for the rest of their lives.  Even the staunchest opponent of capital punishment, once victimized or having lost a loved one at the hands of truly evil miscreants, typically fall into this group.

A campaign to drum up sympathy for cold-blooded killers:
Justices to Hear Challenge That Argues Lethal-Injection Drug Causes Agony.  The use of a lethal-injection drug involved in prolonged, apparently agonizing executions last year will come under scrutiny in the Supreme Court on Wednesday [4/29/2015] as the justices hear a case brought by three condemned prisoners from Oklahoma.  The prisoners, convicted murderers, are challenging the use of the sedative midazolam as the first step in executions.  Lawyers for the prisoners, with the support of many medical experts, say that even if properly administered, the drug cannot reliably cause deep unconsciousness before the injection of other extremely painful agents that cause death.

Texas Carries Out First Execution Since Obtaining New Supply Of Lethal Injection Drugs.  Texas executed Kent Sprouse Thursday [4/9/2015] in its first execution since obtaining a new batch of lethal injection drugs last month.  Sprouse, 42, was convicted and sentenced to death for killing a Dallas police officer and a customer at a gas station in 2002.

Tsarnaev Deserves the Death Penalty, and So Might Michael Slager.  How about now?  Are you in favor of the death penalty now?  I ask because the preferred argument from opponents of the death penalty is doubt:  We can never be sure; look at all of the people released from death row; we can't afford to risk ending a single innocent life.  None of those arguments apply to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Yes, let's reserve the death penalty for somebody who has done something really bad.
Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks out against the death penalty for convicted Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says she's relieved Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty of carrying out the Boston bombing — the greatest tragedy in her state's recent history — but doesn't believe he should be executed.

Elizabeth Warren is Pro-Life!  Yesterday Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all counts for his murderous act of terrorism.  He could get the death penalty... but not if Mass. Senator and left-wing hero Elizabeth Warren has her way.  She wants the terrorist's life spared.

Fool of the Week: Boston bombers' mom.  The Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted this week on all 30 counts levied against him.  He will begin the sentencing phase of his trial very soon.  Should he be put to death?  Well if being convicted on 17 counts that carry a possible penalty of death is a qualification, I would say so. — After all, if you have the death penalty law there's not a more appropriate case to apply it to.  However, Tsarnaev's mother blames the United States for the troubles her terrorist son is in.

Texas man on death row since 1984 loses Supreme Court appeal.  The Supreme Court turned away an appeal Monday [3/23/2015] from a convicted killer who has spent more than 30 years on death row in Texas.

Missouri Man Executed for Killing Neighbor in 1990.  Walter Timothy Storey was put to death early Wednesday [2/11/2015] for killing 36-year-old special education teacher Jill Frey in February 1990 in a St. Louis suburb.

Texas Executes Killer Robert Ladd After Low-IQ Arguments Rejected.  Texas on Thursday [1/29/2015] executed a man convicted of fatally beating a mentally disabled woman — after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he has an IQ of 67 and should be exempt from the death penalty. [...] Ladd was sentenced to death for hammering, strangling and setting ablaze 38-year-old Vicki Ann Garner in 1996 — while he was on parole for a 1980 stabbing and arson that killed a woman and two children.  Ladd's lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union said his IQ fell below the threshold generally accepted for impairment, which prosecutors disputed.

Supreme Court Halts Oklahoma Execution of Richard Glossip, Two Others.  The U.S. Supreme Court issued stays of execution Wednesday [1/28/2015] for three Oklahoma death-row inmates whose challenge to the state's lethal-injection formula will be heard in the spring. [...] For the first time since 2008, the high court has agreed to hear a challenge to the legality of lethal injection.  The Oklahoma case centers on the first of three drugs administered to a condemned inmate — the sedative midazolam, which opponents say isn't strong enough to protect a prisoner from the other two chemicals used.  Midazolam has featured in at least three executions that did not unfold as planned.

Florida executes ringleader of 1993 home invasion that ended with man's murder, wife's rape.  Florida on Thursday [1/15/2015] executed the ringleader of a 1993 home-invasion robbery that ended with the murder of a Pensacola banker and the repeated rape of the banker's wife.  Johnny Shane Kormondy, 42, was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m. at Florida State Prison, about 11 minutes after the lethal injection was administered.

'My body is on fire': Convicted baby killer.  Oklahoma's first execution since it botched the lethal injection of a death row inmate 10 months ago saw convicted baby killer Charles Frederick Warner exclaim from the death chamber:  "My body is on fire."  In a disturbing sequence, the 47-year-old Warner made the claim after getting a dose of the sedative midazolam followed by involuntary twitching after the lethal injection was administered.  He stopped breathing seven minutes later.

The Editor says...
You see, the problem with executions is that they cannot be both instantaneous and painless.  (Surely the people murdered by those who are now residents of death row had experiences that were neither painless or quick.)  If the goal is to strike a balance between the two, the firing squad and the guillotine are probably better than intravenous infusion of chemicals prescribed by the state.  It would be far more effective to give death row inmates unlimited access to morphine, heroin, cocaine, or any other drugs they want, and let them handle the rest.

Texas to execute man who lawyers say is delusional.  No one disputes that Scott Panetti — heavily armed, head shaved and wearing camouflage — shot and killed his in-laws at their Texas Hill Country home, showering his estranged wife and 3-year-old daughter in blood.

Death row inmate's prison food complaint rejected.  A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected the arguments of a home invasion killer on death row who complained that the food he is being served in prison is not kosher.

The Editor says...
Read the description of this guy's crime and then tell me that his religion is an important part of his life.

Ninth execution in Missouri this year in what activists say was racially biased case.  The man who killed a suburban Kansas City, Mo., gas station attendant in front of the worker's 8-year-old stepdaughter in 1994 was put to death just past midnight on Wednesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre, the ninth execution in the Missouri this year.  With Leon Taylor's death by lethal injection, 2014 ties 1999 for having the most executions in a year in Missouri.

Holder Takes Death Penalty off Table for Gang Members Charged with Killing Cop.  On November 14, federal prosecutors made it clear that Attorney General Eric Holder has "taken the death penalty off the table" for four men charged in the gang-related murder of Waynesboro, Virginia, police officer, Captain Kevin Quick. [...] Prosecutor Timothy J. Heaphy says Holder is responsible for making the call on death penalty cases.

Capital punishment prevents things like this:
Murderer finishes 30-year term, kills mother after welcome home party, police say.  A 45-year-old man who on Friday [10/10/2014] finished serving 30 years in prison is charged with killing his mother two days after being released, authorities said.  Steven Pratt was arrested Sunday morning, less than 48 hours after he was freed from Bayside State Prison for killing his neighbor in 1984.

Attorney General Eric Holder orders no death penalty for three members of Brooklyn drug crew.  Outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered federal prosecutors not to seek the death penalty against three members of a Brooklyn drug crew charged with a killing in which the victim was tortured, the [New York] Daily News has learned  The decision was disclosed Thursday [9/25/2014] in a one-sentence letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block several hours after Holder announced he was resigning after nearly six years as the nation's top law enforcement official.

Supreme Court Refuses to Stay Execution in Missouri.  Michael Worthington, 43, raped and murdered a college student in 1995.

Arizona Used 15 Doses Of Lethal Drugs To Execute Inmate.  The Arizona Department of Corrections and the Arizona attorney general have said that Wood's execution was not botched and that he was sedated after three minutes — claims that were reiterated Friday [8/1/2014].  A medical examiner also told the department that the IVs were "perfectly placed" in Wood's arm.

When the hangman botches the job.  What makes the Arizona execution particularly horrific is that it was the third such cruel and unusual botch job this year.  Ohio put Dennis McGuire to death in January with a cocktail of new and untested drugs that, if not mixed properly, cause unimaginable pain.  McGuire screamed that he felt as if his body was on fire, and death did not follow his gasping and writhing on a gurney for 25 minutes.

The myth of botched executions.  On Wednesday [7/23/2014], the State of Arizona executed Joseph Wood.  The left wing media immediately jumped on the case, calling it a "botched execution."  To begin with, the execution wasn't botched.  He's dead, isn't he?  Wood was convicted of two counts of first degree murder.  The murders occurred in 1989.  Wood was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991.  He spent 23 years on death row while tax payer funded lawyers cranked out every strategy possible to stop or delay his execution.  The botching was not the execution.  The botching was that it took 23 years.

Kansas top court overturns death sentences in 'Wichita Massacre'.  The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday overturned death sentences for two brothers convicted in the 2000 execution-style murder of four people on a snowy soccer field in Wichita, ruling that the trial judge erred in refusing to conduct separate penalty phases for the two men.

Lakeland child killer Eddie Wayne Davis set to be executed.  A man convicted of the 1994 rape and killing of an 11-year-old Lakeland girl is set to be executed Thursday [7/10/2014] with the victim's grandmother watching from the witness chamber on behalf of the child and her deceased mother.

John Henry scheduled for execution at 6 p.m. Wednesday.  Henry was sentenced to death for murdering his wife in Zephyrhills in 1985.  Defense attorney Baya Harrison, who filed the appeal over the weekend, has argued that Henry, 63, is mentally disabled and should not be put to death under the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  Henry has been on death row for 27 years.  He stabbed 28-year-old Patricia Roddy 20 times in 1976.  He served just over seven years before being paroled in January 1983.  In December 1985, he stabbed his wife, Suzanne Henry, to death with a 5-inch paring knife after an argument.

Florida execution is nation's third in 24 hours.  In the third execution nationwide in less than 24 hours, a three-time Florida murderer was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday night [6/18/2014].  The execution of John Ruthell Henry was the state's 13th since April 2013 and the 18th since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011.  The trio of executions Tuesday and Wednesday were the first since the botched lethal injection of an Oklahoma killer in April.  Henry, 63, was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m. after being injected with three drugs at the Florida State Prison in Starke.

An attempt by the New York Times to make the perp look like a victim.
On Death Row With Low I.Q., and New Hope for a Reprieve.  For Ted Herring, who has spent 32 years on Florida's death row for murdering a store clerk, signs of intellectual disability arose early and piled up quickly:  He repeated first grade and got D's and F's through fourth grade.  He read like a fourth grader at 14 and did not know that summer followed spring. [...] At 19, in 1981, Mr. Herring murdered a Daytona Beach 7-Eleven clerk, robbed the store and walked away with $23.84.  But because Mr. Herring's I.Q. scores were 72 and 74, just over the "bright line" cutoff of 70 used by Florida to determine intellectual aptitude, the Florida Supreme Court returned him to death row.

The Editor says...
Stupidity is not a license to kill.

Botched Oklahoma execution: Did anyone remember Clayton Lockett's victim?  One person who will not weigh in on the merits of Clayton Lockett's execution is Stephanie Neiman.  Clayton Lockett tried to rob a house Miss Neiman was at.  She tried to fight him off.  He and his accomplices overwhelmed her.  They beat her, bound her with duct tape, taped her mouth shut, shot her, then buried her alive.  Many of those outraged at how Mr. Lockett's execution played out will, hopefully, pause to reflect on exactly why the state chose to execute him.

White House Condemns Partial-Birth Abortions After 150th Trimester.  It's all in the timing.  Now we know where they draw the line.

He deserved it: Friends of victim weigh in on botched execution.  Those who knew the victim of a convicted killer who died in a botched execution this week have spoken out to say he deserved the painful death — in which he took 47 minutes to die after periods of writhing in pain.  They expressed their lack of remorse as a disturbing video emerged of Clayton Lockett confessing, and calmly described shooting a teenage girl and watching his partners in crime bury her alive.  Lockett was sentenced to death for the killing of 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman 15 years ago in Oklahoma.

BBC Can Barely Contain Its Glee Over Problems with Oklahoma Execution.  Due to European Union's ban on the export of one of the drugs historically used in US lethal injections, a new lethal combination of drugs were administered that prolonged the time it took between the onset of prisoner's loss of consciousness and the time he was finally pronounced dead.  Prison officials confirmed the prisoner ultimately died of a heart attack that occurred nearly 40 minutes after the first sedative was administered.  They claim that at no time after having lost consciousness did the convicted murderer ever regain it.  With repeated and detailed descriptions of the procedure used to execute a man whose crime, watching his friends bury alive the 19 year old girl he raped and then shot, was mentioned, if at all, merely as a passing aside.

The Editor says...
Sometimes executions get messy.  The guillotine and perhaps the firing squad are probably the only methods of execution that work every time without complications.  Lethal injections depend on the inmate having good veins, and in the Oklahoma case, the man's veins either collapsed or ruptured, depending on which news report you read, and the situation got pretty gruesome afterward.  But as many have pointed out, the perpetrators of capital crimes don't go out of their way to make death smooth and seamless for their victims; in fact, it's usually just the opposite.

Missouri executes man for 1993 murder of couple.  Missouri executed an inmate early Wednesday [4/23/2014] who was convicted of killing a farming couple in 1993.

This is what capital punishment prevents:
Early-Release Felon Charged with Kidnapping, Rape, Torture.  A man on probation as a "non-violent offender" under California's prison realignment program has been charged with kidnapping, raping, and torturing a 16-year-old girl in South Los Angeles, and detectives suspect he may be connected to three other recent murders.

Texas receives new drugs, executes serial killer after temporary stay.  Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, was the first inmate to be injected with a dose of newly replenished pentobarbital that Texas prison officials obtained to replace an expired supply of the powerful sedative. The serial killer claims to have killed as many as 70 people.

Juan Carlos Chavez executed for 1995 rape, murder of Jimmy Ryce.  A man was executed Wednesday night in Florida for raping and killing a 9-year-old boy 18 years ago, a death that spurred the victim's parents to press nationwide for stronger sexual predator confinement laws and better handling of child abduction cases.

The truth about the long execution of Mr. McGuire.  In January 2014, Mr. McGuire was a 53-year old man on death row.  But in February 1989, he was a young man who murdered Joy Stewart.  And who is Mrs. Stewart?  She was a 22-year old newlywed pregnant woman who would have given birth to a child in just two months if Mr. McGuire hadn't raped her in a particularly horrific way, stabbed her, slit her throat and left her to rot in the woods.  Yes, the same Mr. McGuire whose 26 minutes of pain are cause for Ohio to re-evaluate its values, we're told.

Family of Executed Man Plans to Sue State.  The family of a death row inmate who was executed with a new drug concoction is planning to sue the state of Ohio for "cruel and unusual punishment," arguing that he was used as an "experiment."  The family of Dennis McGuire, 53, watched him die for 26 minutes, during which he was heard having gasping, snorting and making other sounds of distress. [...] McGuire was executed for the 1989 rape and murder of Joy Stewart, who was eight months pregnant at the time.

The Editor says...
One wonders what sorts of gasping and snorting and other sounds of distress came from the woman he killed.

Just What Constitutes 'Humane' Execution?  Dennis McGuire, convicted in 1989 of raping and murdering a young, pregnant woman, was executed in Ohio last night.  His death took 26 minutes from the time the experimental cocktail of lethal drugs was injected until he was pronounced dead.  The two drugs used — midazolam, a sedative; and hydromorphone, a morphine derivative — were employed because penobarbital, [sic] the drug formerly used by the state, was unavailable due to a manufacturer's refusal to sell the drug for the purposes of execution.

The Editor says...
It is inaccurate to say "his death took 26 minutes," if the clock started when his first I.V. sedative was injected.  If swift death is the goal, bring back the guillotine.

Askari Abdullah Muhammad, previously known as Thomas Knight, executed in Florida.  The 62-year-old inmate was initially condemned to die for the 1974 abduction and killings of Sydney and Lillian Gans of Miami.

Florida executes Askari Abdullah Muhammad (Thomas Knight) for killing guard, couple.  A Florida inmate was executed Tuesday 1/7/2014] for fatally stabbing a prison guard with a sharpened spoon while on death row for abducting and killing a Miami couple.  Askari Abdullah Muhammad, previously known as Thomas Knight, was pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday [1/7/2014] after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, the governor's office said.  The execution took place in the same prison where Muhammad killed corrections officer Richard Burke in 1980.

The Editor says...
This man was executed 39 years after committing murder, and because he wasn't executed immediately, a death row guard lost his life, too.

Missouri executes serial killer Franklin.  Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist who targeted blacks and Jews in a cross-country killing spree from 1977 to 1980, was put to death Wednesday [11/20/2013] in Missouri, the state's first execution in nearly three years.

The Editor says...
The deterrent effect of the death penalty is diminished considerably if it takes the state 40 years to follow through.

Man who killed up to 20 people during racist nationwide crime spree set for execution in Missouri.  Even among the hard-core criminals on Missouri's death row, [Joseph Paul] Franklin is perhaps the most notorious, a cunning killer who picked out victims at random, using marksman skills to murder and maim from a hidden spot in a vacant building, a grassy field and a highway overpass.

US murderer confesses just before execution.  After claiming his innocence for over two decades, William Happ finally confessed to murder as he was put to death by lethal injection in the US state of Florida.

The Editor says...
It could be that Mr. Happ wanted to acknowledge his guilt at long last, but maybe he was just trying to buy some time.

Woman on Death Row Could be Freed to Await Retrial.  An Arizona woman who has spent more than two decades on death row after being convicted of having her 4-year-old son killed for an insurance payout is expected to be released on Friday [9/6/2013] while she awaits a retrial of the case that made her one of the state's most reviled inmates.

Soldier Sentenced to Death for Fort Hood Shooting.  The same jurors who convicted Hasan last week deliberated the sentence for about two hours.

The Editor says...
It will be interesting to see how long it takes to carry out the death sentence, especially with the defendant offering no resistance.

The Editor says...
The writer in USA Today reports the story with obvious sympathy for the perpetrator, as if everybody stabs a little old lady to death once in a while.

Fla. man executed for rape and murder of girl, 10.  A convicted child molester condemned for the 1990 rape and murder of a 10-year-old Florida girl was executed Wednesday [5/29/2013] at the Florida State Prison.

Cowardly Colorado Governor Hickenlooper Commutes Death Sentence Until End of Term.  When faced with a question of clemency or justice, Hickenlooper gave himself a pardon from responsibility.

Colorado governor delays convicted killer's execution.  Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper indefinitely delayed the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap on Wednesday [5/22/2013] and said he was unlikely to allow it as long as he is governor.

Two killers: Which received justice?  They say that justice delayed is justice denied.  If that is the case, then surely the families of Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit can rightly complain that there is no justice in Montana.  The two men were murdered execution style in 1982 by Ronald Allen Smith, who during his trial confessed to the murder and said he had wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.  He also rejected a plea bargain for life in prison and insisted on the death penalty.  He got his wish, and then, three weeks later, got cold feet, deciding apparently that he did not want to know "what it felt like" to die.  So now for 30 years, justice has been in abeyance.

Police: Former death row inmate kills mom.  A California man once sentenced to death for killing two people in the 1960s was under arrest Thursday [1/10/2013] after police said he led officers to the body of his 89-year-old mother.

Where are the fathers?  [Scroll down]  [Andrea] Yates, it would emerge in her trial, had a history of mental illness and suicide attempts, as well as bouts of postpartum depression.  Because of this, her 2002 conviction for capital murder was overturned in 2006, after a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.  Shockingly, she is now asking to be let out of the hospital for weekly visits to church.  Not only might she be granted this wish, but authorities are not ruling out the possibility that she will be rehabilitated enough to re-enter society altogether.  Her actions were — for lack of a more appropriate word — satanic.  As far as I'm concerned, she deserved the death penalty, or at least life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Obese killer spared by governor.  The obese killer on Ohio death row successfully petitioned for clemency due to his size, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Monday [12/17/2012].  Ronald Post, who was condemned to execution for the 1983 murder of a motel clerk, and his attorneys had argued that a confession was falsely exaggerated and that he could not be humanely put to death due to his size.

Adam Lanza Would Not Have Received the Death Penalty in Connecticut.  Though Adam Lanza may have committed one of the most heinous crimes in history, had he survived his rampage and been convicted in court, he would not have been sentenced to death.  In April of 2012, Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) and the Democrat-led Connecticut legislature repealed the death penalty on a party-line vote.

"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege."

— Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878    

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2019 by Andrew K. Dart

The Editor says...
(1) I've never even seen the inside of a law school, but even I can tell you that the Tenth Amendment says this is an issue which should be decided by each of the 50 states for themselves, not by the Supreme Court.  (2) In the Jewish culture, a 13-year-old boy has a bar mitzvah ceremony, in which he declares, "Today, I am a Man," and is then considered an adult.  (3) If you are a drug dealer and a murderer and a recalcitrant felon, you should get the electric chair if you are at least 13 years of age.

Debating the death penalty:  With conservative ideas sinking new roots across American culture, conservatives have new reason to test their own thinking.

California to Execute Inmate in 1981 Slayings.  It would be the first execution in California since January 2002 and only the 11th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977.  More than 600 men are on the state's death row. … The last execution in California came on Jan. 29, 2002, when Stephen Wayne Anderson was put to death for shooting an 81-year-old woman in 1980.

More innocents die when we don't have capital punishment:  Murderers who are not executed have murdered innocent people — usually fellow prisoners.  And the very real possibility of escape from prison means that murderers threaten far more innocent lives than capital punishment does.

Vermont Has its First Capital Trial in 50 Years.  A man convicted of helping to fatally beat a grandmother as she prayed for her life was formally sentenced to death Friday [6/16/2006], Vermont's first death sentence in almost half a century.

Executing "children," and other death-penalty myths:  The age issue is a red herring.  No state allows the death sentence for anyone younger than 16, and no one younger than 23 has been executed in modern times.  The truth is that capital punishment in America is the most accurate and carefully administered criminal sanction in the world, and the public has good reason to support it.

Controversial Study Says Executions Save Lives:  Three economists at Emory University are stirring the pot with a new study that concludes an average of 18 lives are saved each time a criminal is executed.

Murdering the bell curve:  After hearing the (overwhelming) evidence against him, a jury sentenced Atkins to death.  Last week, the Supreme Court overturned that sentence.  The court ruled that the Constitution makes Atkins ineligible for the death penalty if he can prove he is "retarded."  In other words, Atkins avoids his capital sentence if he is at least smart enough to know how to fail an IQ test.

Accountable, Yet Not Accountable:  A "Retarded" Supreme Court Decision:  The Supreme court recently released its decision in Atkins v. Virginia, regarding the propriety of executing the mentally retarded.

Retardation and capital punishment:  The Supreme Court, in its decision, said that persons deemed retarded -- with an IQ of 70 or less (why not 71?)-- and judged guilty of a capital crime, cannot be executed.  In so ruling, the court majority moved from the intention of the Founders, which was to make execution more humane, to focusing on the status of the guilty, which appears not to have entered the Founders' minds while crafting the Eighth Amendment.

Execution of the mentally retarded:  What next for HB 236 opponents after Supreme Court's ruling?

Deal keeps Penry imprisoned for life.  The long saga of convicted murderer Johnny Paul Penry, whose case helped push mental retardation into the national debate over capital punishment, ended Friday [2/15/2008] with a plea agreement to a life sentence.  Penry, one of Texas' best-known death row inmates, agreed to three life sentences and to a stipulation that he was not mentally retarded, in spite of what his lawyers have asserted for almost three decades.

How would the court fare on an IQ test?  In Atkins vs. Virginia, handed down last week, the Unites States Supreme Court substituted the judgment of six justices for that of 20 state legislatures.

Texas jurors send killer to his death 'because the Bible told them to'.  A Texas man is due to be executed next month despite admissions by jurors that they consulted biblical passages advocating death as a punishment to help to decide his fate. ... During the trial, the jurors were instructed by the judge not to refer to anything that was not presented as evidence in the courtroom.

The Editor says...
When the judge demands that they not "refer to anything", does that include the jurors' common sense, morality and individual experiences?  If the judge instructed the jurors to find the defendant not guilty, would they be so obligated?  I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd pay much attention to orders of that sort.

Will the death penalty meet its maker?  (Numerous links to death penalty articles.)

News and timely commentary about crime and punishment in general:

Related topic: Cell phones in jails and prisons

Why Is Our Society Degrading So Badly, So Fast?  On a local level in many cities and communities, Democrats in power are by their actions undermining the rule of law.  For example, expected compliance with the law in several of our leading cities run by Democratic Party leaders, including most notably New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, is now often based on a person's economic and immigration status, race, sex, sexual orientation, and increasingly an indication of a person's political and religious affiliations.  The reason for these exemptions being granted is based on the dual ideologies of identity politics and social justice.  The creation of an implied multi-tier justice system expressly violates our fundamental value of the law applying equally to citizens from all walks of life and most importantly results in the increasingly intolerable and dangerous conditions existing on the streets of these cities and an overall perception of communities in decline.

Thought San Francisco's Quality Of Life Couldn't Get Worse?  Think Again.  San Francisco garnered national headlines with the election of its new district attorney, a progressive, which means there will be zero progress made in the homelessness crisis, and little if any made toward reducing crime in the city and county.  Chesa Boudin, a one-time deputy public defender who has never tried a case, was elected in a close race, and will assume office in January.  Before he had a chance to decide if the new drapes in his office were going to be socialist red or blue state blue, Boudin announced that he would not prosecute quality-of-life crimes such as "public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc."  We assume public defecating on streets and sidewalks, today's San Francisco "treat," will also go unprosecuted.

Michael Bloomberg Vows to Free 316K Accused 'Non-Violent' Criminals from Jail.  Billionaire and 2020 Democrat presidential primary candidate Michael Bloomberg is vowing to free hundreds of thousands of accused criminals who are deemed "non-violent" by eliminating bail nationwide.  During a speech in Jackson, Mississippi, Bloomberg laid out his plan to "reduce or eliminate the use of cash bail for non-violent offenders" who are awaiting trial.  Such a policy would mean that of the roughly 462,000 accused criminals held in local jails, about 316,000 would be released without ever having to post bail.

Man drove stolen SUV to bail out brother — who was busted for stealing an SUV: cops.  A Kansas man was busted for driving a stolen Chevy SUV to a local jail to bail out his brother — who was being held for driving a stolen Chevy SUV, according to authorities.  The sibling already in the pokey, Eric Dean McCracken, 36, had been arrested in Topeka early Friday for allegedly driving a stolen 2007 Trailblazer with a suspended license, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office said in a release.  A few hours later, his younger brother, Keith Ray McCracken, 32, was also arrested after a short chase with cops tracking the GPS of a stolen 2015 Silverado, the department said.

New York City to Free 125K Accused Criminals, Give Taxpayer-Funded Housing, Job Training.  The state of New York is likely to free at least 125,000 accused criminals from prison next year and provide many with taxpayer-funded housing and job training services thanks to criminal justice reform laws.  As Breitbart News has reported, the state's series of bail reforms will ensure that suspects accused of crimes deemed "non-violent" are not jailed before their trial dates and do not have to post bail. [...] Across the county, jailbreak legislation is helping to free thousands of accused and convicted criminals from prison.  Federally, the First Step Act that was signed into law by President Trump has thus far freed about 240 sex offenders, nearly 60 convicted murderers and assailants, as well as almost 1,000 inmates convicted of drug crimes.  Also freed by the First Step Act is Joel Francisco, a notorious former leader of the "Latin Kings" gang who immediately returned to a life of drugs after his release and is now accused of murder.

'I've been dying for 25 years': How a cop has stalled his child sex abuse trial for decades.  In 1995, Leonard Forte was due in a Vermont courtroom to face charges that he'd repeatedly raped and molested his daughter's 12-year-old friend.  Instead, he started dying.  Forte, then a 54-year-old former detective with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in New York, told the Vermont court his heart had failed and that he was on a transplant list.  He said his doctors had given him a grim diagnosis:  Without a new heart, he'd be dead within a year.  A Vermont prosecutor agreed to delay the case until Forte was healthy enough to stand trial — unless his terminal condition made prosecuting him a moot point.  Forte never received a heart transplant.  But he also didn't die.

Anti-prison anarchy is spreading:  It's way beyond 'soft on crime'.  Stathos Hugunnie was wanted in connection with two stabbings in a housing project in Long Island City one day in April 1997.  When police showed up, Hugunnie fired eight shots, striking NYPD officer Peter Bueti three times in the chest, which would have killed him if not for his protective vest.  After being released from prison two years ago, he was picked up again on drugs and firearms charges.  Yet he was released on just $5,000 bond.  This, folks, is the real criminal justice dysfunction that needs "reform," but victims and law enforcement don't have the same lobbying power criminals do.  Although New York's new law abolishing cash bail won't be enacted until January 1, judges are already getting a head start by either applying it now or setting bail at a very low rate, even for repeat violent felons.  Hugunnie was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal weapons possession, and criminal use of a firearm for the 1997 incident.  Back then, criminals were actually locked up, so he served 20 years in prison.

Taking off the woke glasses.  Now, we are living in a time in which those committing crimes will not likely face up to consequences befitting their transgressions.  In California, it appears that homelessness and petty crime go together.  All kinds of offenses are occurring with little or no accountability for those involved.  New York is suspending bond and bail for criminality, including assault, arson, bribery, resisting arrest and so much more.  Radical mobs are outright intimidating and assaulting those who don't agree with their philosophy and are mostly getting away with their heinous behavior and actions.  The tiniest bit of common sense would indicate that bad behavior and disregard for law cannot be corrected with inaction.  In other words, bad behavior without consequences begets more bad behavior.  This is elementary stuff, right?

Dem prosecutors fear for suburbs' safety; radical district attorneys, fueled by Soros cash, take control.  Radical social justice activists will serve as the top prosecutors for three major Washington, D.C., suburbs — including the two wealthiest counties in the U.S. — after George Soros's political action committee poured $2.1 million into ordinarily sleepy local races.  In Virginia's Fairfax and Arlington counties, the "reformer" attorneys ran on platforms far to the left of the Democratic incumbents, beating them in primary races before ultimately winning the general elections.  In both cases, the incumbents expressed concern for public safety if the Soros-backed candidates took control.  They also said that the activists were pushing a national platform about racism and over-incarceration that had no basis in reality in the affluent, liberal jurisdictions.

Kamala Harris Campaign Collapses Under Perception of Law and Order.  The Black Lives Matter movement that burst on to the scene in 2013 and 2014 poisoned the Democratic Party.  Harris is a delayed casualty.  Any hint of belief in law and order is now the kiss of death in the party.  The Left relentlessly attacks all law enforcers, from policemen to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.  These brave guardians are viewed with suspicion at best and hatred and revulsion at worst.  In a party where up is down, the criminals are celebrated as heroes while courageous defenders are cast as villains.  It is the same trend that has led Democrats to decriminalize many drug and theft crimes in their jurisdictions down to misdemeanors.  The result, to no surprise, is that these types of acts are becoming as common as jaywalking.  Lawlessness is now viewed as a civic virtue.  In some areas of California, you can walk into a Target and help yourself to your favorite DVD or a pair of designer jeans with no threat of being apprehended.

Lucky San Francisco:  With Chesa Boudin as DA, good luck getting a cop when you want one.  Well, Chesa Boudin has finally done it: he's gotten himself into the San Francisco D.A.'s seat, after a lifetime of standing up for crooks and mastering criminal "justice" from Bill Ayers's stepdad berth and Hugo Chávez's knee.  Like the way criminal justice works in Caracas?  In San Francisco, Hugo Chávez's trusted adviser is now there to help.  He's there to "transform," as he says.  That's his brand, as the Bay Area tech marketing hipsters say.  This won't work out too well if you've got bums vomiting at your doorstep, gang members shooting with muzzle flashes 'round corners, and junkies setting up camp on your sidewalk.  We've already seen the boulder-warfare some of the homeowners are putting up in a desperate bid to stop it.  Such people can probably now look forward to getting arrested.

Conservatives aim to convert convicts at 'Prison CPAC'.  The Conservative Political Action Conference went to prison — and found a receptive audience among the locked-up murderers, robbers and drug dealers there.  The American Conservative Union hosted its first-ever "Prison CPAC" this week to coach about 250 inmates on the life lessons and conservative values they need to reenter society.  Libertarian activist Maj Toure, founder of Black Guns Matter, told the prisoners gun control was a racist tool of the political left rooted in the bigotry of the Civil War era.  Mr. Toure implored the prisoners to "organize, organize, organize" to become a powerful political bloc to fight the radical left and to earn back the right to vote.  "Overwhelmingly, Democratic policies put black and brown people in jail," Mr. Toure said, prompting the inmates at State Correctional Institution at Chester to leap to their feet and applaud.

Trump Hasn't Yet Fulfilled His "Law and Order" Vow.  Let's look at one point where the party has fallen far short of its promises.  Among the vows we haven't kept is this one:  "I have a message for all of you:  The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon — and I mean very soon — come to an end." [...] But is there any demographic in this country where people don't want to see crime and violence come to a sudden end?  Only on the extreme Left — a sinister region to which Democratic activists and politicians increasingly are drawn — do criminals have prestige and cops get treated as enemies.  That is not where suburbia lives.  No swing voter sees law and order in that way, and an enormous number of the very folks for whom the Left presumes to speak don't see it that way either.

More than 450 Oklahoma inmates [are] walking out of prison doors.  More than 450 inmates walked out the doors of prisons across Oklahoma on Monday [11/4/2019] as part of what state officials say is the largest single-day mass commutation in U.S. history.

Nearly 900 city inmates may be freed even before bail-reform law takes effect.  Nearly 900 city jailbirds could be celebrating Christmas early courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a plan to quietly free them before the state's bail-reform law goes into effect next year, The [New York] Post has learned.  And if that weren't enough of a gift, Mayor Bill de Blasio is promising to follow up with even more presents for the lucky accused criminals — by giving them free baseball tickets, movie passes and gift cards to encourage them to return to court, sources familiar with the program said.  "You're literally rewarding them for committing a crime," said a disgusted senior staffer in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Female Offenders:  Perpetrators, Predators, and Pedophiles.  A survey done by California Coalition against Sexual Assault revealed that one in three lesbians admitted to being sexually assaulted by another female.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control then completed its own national survey, and the results were surprising.  Men were just as likely to be victims of sexual assault over the course of one year and, in 79% of cases, reported a woman as the perpetrator.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) showed that in 58% of cases, when a woman sexually assaulted a man, she used violence (and 41% of the time when it's a female-on-female sexual assault).  The BJS also looked at rape in U.S. prisons, and its findings were even more startling.  According to BJS data, a woman is much more likely to be sexually assaulted by another female inmate than by male staff and also more likely than men are in male prisons, shattering the stereotype of prison rape being a male-on-male scenario.  Even more disturbing is that in nearly every case of a minor (regardless of sex) being sexually assaulted in a juvenile detention facility, the perpetrator was female.

Crime and no punishment:
Maryland driver gets probation for Delaware crash that killed 5 NJ family members.  A horrific crash in Delaware last year left a New Jersey man and his four daughters dead — but the Maryland driver whose pickup truck crossed a highway median, according to authorities, won't be going to prison.  Instead, defendant Alvin Hubbard III, 46, of Cambridge received one year of probation from Judge Calvin L. Scott Jr.  The sentence came Friday [11/1/2019] in a Delaware courtroom.

Oklahoma parole board approves largest inmate commutation in US history.  Oklahoma officials voted Friday [11/1/2019] to release more than 400 prison inmates in what would be the largest one-day commutation in U.S. history.  The vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board granted commutation to 527 inmates, 400 of whom are scheduled to be released Monday [11/4/2019] once their commutations are processed over the weekend.  Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has made reducing the state's prison population a priority, backed the panel's decision.

California's Prop 47 leads to [a] rise in shoplifting, thefts, [and] criminal activity across [the] state.  These brazen acts of petty theft and shoplifting are a dangerous and all-too-common consequence of Proposition 47, a referendum passed five years ago that critics say effectively gives shoplifters and addicts the green light to commit crimes as long as the merchandise they steal or the drugs they take are less than $950 in value.  The decision to downgrade theft of property valued below the arbitrary figure from felony to misdemeanor, together with selective enforcement that focuses on more "serious" crimes, has resulted in thieves knowing they can brazenly shoplift and merchants knowing the police will not respond to their complaints, say critics.

New York Lawmaker Proposes Bill Allowing Prisoners to Vote.  A New York state lawmaker is proposing legislation to make prison inmates eligible to vote in elections while incarcerated.  State Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) introduced a bill before Election Day on Tuesday, November 5, that would allow prisoners to register and vote while incarcerated, the New York Post reported.  The state and county boards of elections would keep tabs on the program, and convicted felons would also be allowed to take part.

Heroin addict allegedly drags NYPD cop with his car — and wins $11 million in court.  A heroin addict with nearly 20 arrests to his name allegedly dragged a cop along a busy Bronx street while fleeing a traffic stop, forcing another lawman to shoot him — and a jury just handed him an $11 million payday, The [New York] Post has learned.  Raoul Lopez took the city to court over the harrowing 2006 run-in that left him partially paralyzed on his right side, and was awarded the eight-figure sum by a Bronx jury on Tuesday [10/29/2019].  Lopez, 27 when the encounter happened, was in the midst of "a two-week long bender" and had just scored his latest fix on February 1, 2006, when he rolled through a stop sign at East 169th Street and Grand Concourse, a city lawyer wrote in papers filed in the Bronx Supreme Court case.

Is California Becoming Premodern?  Stores are occasionally hit by swarming looters.  Such Wild West criminals know how to keep their thefts under $950, ensuring that such "misdemeanors" do not warrant police attention.  California's permissive laws have decriminalized thefts and break-ins.  The result is that San Francisco now has the highest property crime rate per capita in the nation.

How America's justice system is beginning to crumble.  We Americans have long prided ourselves on the fairness of our system of justice.  It remains the best in the world.  But, just like a strong and magnificent bridge across a wide river, corrosion can set in.  If not monitored and repaired, the bridge can suddenly collapse.  Likewise, if we ignore the warning signs, if we do not address the inequities in our justice system, the public will reach a point when there is so little respect for the law that its enforcement will cease to be effective.  The danger is that we might become a lawless society, and that will lead to becoming a failed state.  Chaos and disintegration could follow.  Hyperbole?  Here are seven warning signs, present today, that we ignore at great peril. [...]

Federal judge rules Florida can't stop ex-felons from voting because of money owed to state for restitution.  A federal judge has ruled against a Florida law saying ex-felons can only vote if they are up to date on money owed to the state.  U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declared the rule as unconstitutional in his 55-page opinion.  Hinkle acknowledged in his Friday ruling that the law will still likely go through the Florida Supreme Court or a federal trial.

Fewer Jails Won't Make Fewer Criminals.  New York City has approved a plan to close the incarceration facilities on Rikers Island and replace them with four new borough-based jails.  When first put forth in 2017, the plan was conditioned on a reduction of the city's total jail population over the next ten years to about 5,000 inmates by 2026.  Unlike Rikers Island — which, at half the size of Central Park, is large enough to hold ten separate low-rise jail facilities, along with parking lots, maintenance areas, and space for outdoor basketball courts and running tracks — the new jails will be high-rise buildings in already-dense urban areas.

Portland homeless man who menaced a woman and child gets probation despite 220 previous arrests.  A homeless man named Brian Ray Lankford who threatened a woman and her son with a large tree branch in 2017 was given a break this week.  Instead of putting Lankford in jail, the prosecutors cut a deal which gave him probation and mandatory drug treatment.  That might not seem so bad until you learn how many laps Lankford has already made around this particular block.

Ocasio-Cortez Calls For Abolishing Prisons In The United States.  Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said this week that it was time for the United States to have a serious conversation about "decarceration" and "prison abolition in this country."  "Mass incarceration is our American reality," the former bartender tweeted.  "It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery.  To end it, we have to change.  That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country."

The Editor says...
First of all, Jim Crow, apartheid, and slavery have nothing to do with the overwhelming majority of the people in state and federal prisons today, because they were born after 1965 or because they are not black.  If Ms. Ocasio-Cortez were to visit a few state prisons, she would quickly see there are people in those prisons who need to be locked up permanently.  Secondly, there are no "mass incarcerations."  Everybody in prison was tried individually and found guilty, one at a time.

The O.J. verdict introduced the world to social justice.  Justice — the real, blind kind that is dependent on due process, the presumption of innocence, and evidentiary standards — takes each case in a vacuum.  The individual is judged for his individual crimes or lack thereof, and guilty or innocence is not transferred by association.  Social justice, in contrast, judges based on collective responsibility.  Rather than evaluate O.J., a black man with all of the privilege and wealth of a beloved celebrity in white America, for his individual crime, social justice averaged out all of the historical and not-so-historical atrocities against black Americans and gave him a get-out-of-jail free card as a result.

Report: Violent Crime Rate in 2018 Lowest Since 1971.  FBI crime stats show the "estimated rate of violent crime was 368.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants."  That is a 3.9 percent reduction in the rate when compared with 2017 stats, but the real lesson emerges when we look long term.  For example, Bearing Arms reports that the 2018 rate of violent crime was barely above the 1971 rate of 396 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants.

California Shocked To Find Bill Decriminalizing Retail Theft Resulted In... More Retail Theft.  A few years ago, California passed one in a series of bills aimed at emptying the jails and prisons.  Proposition 47 carried the disingenuous name of "the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act and its stated purpose was to keep non-violent offenders out of jail.  To achieve this goal, the state decriminalized a number of lesser offenses, including retail theft.  The law raised the value of the amount of merchandise someone could steal while still only being charged with a misdemeanor to nearly one thousand dollars.  To the great surprise of the government, people noticed this change and began taking advantage of it.  They have now recorded multiple years of steadily increasing, organized robbery.  These plots are known as "mass grab and dash" thefts and they generally involve large numbers of young people all entering a store at the same time, grabbing armfuls of merchandise and dashing back out to their vehicles and hitting the highway.  Not only are robberies on the rise, but arrests and prosecutions are down.  Who could possibly have predicted this?

Warren Financially Benefited from Private Prisons Despite Claiming They Are 'Profiteering off Cruelty'.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) benefited financially from the existence of private prisons despite vowing to ban them on the grounds that they are "profiteering off cruelty," a report from the Washington Free Beacon revealed.  Warren pledged in June to ban private immigration centers and private prisons, detailing the vow in a Medium post.

1 in 7 New Orleans Adults is the Target of an Arrest Warrant.  So how do they intend to fix this situation?  Some simply want to act like those warrants were never issued and wipe them from the books.

There is 1 arrest warrant for every 7 residents in city of New Orleans.  According to city data — there are more than 55,000 outstanding warrants in Municipal and Traffic Court in New Orleans.  If you do the math, that means there is 1 outstanding warrant for every 7 people in the city of New Orleans.  "The main reason so many people are in this cycle is because they are poor and they could not get off work and did not have child care, they couldn't afford that fine on the front end," City Councilman Jason Williams said.

Biden Says If Male Identifies As Woman He Should Be Housed With Female Inmates In Prison.  What could possibly go wrong?  [Video clip]

Gov. Newsom Commutes Sentences of 21 Violent Criminals Incarcerated in CA Prisons, Including 4 Murderers with Life Sentences.  Far-left California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted sentences of 21 violent criminals including 4 murderers with life sentences without possibility of parole.  One of the murderers was arrested in 1993 for fatally shooting a man during a carjacking and another was incarcerated in 1991 for killing an armed guard during a robbery.  A man who served 31 years of 2 life sentences for a double murder in 1988 was also given clemency by Newsom.

No Justice But What We Make.  After a drawn-out legal battle, [Jose Inez] Garcia-Zarate was acquitted on charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and assault with a firearm.  The only thing Steinle's vindicators managed to stick to this slimy foreigner was a felony conviction for unlawful possession of a gun.  That conviction, however, was recently overturned by a California state appeals court.  According to NPR, the 1st District Court of Appeals ruled in late August that the conviction should be overturned because the judge did not give the jury proper instructions on the possession charge.  The judge made a "prejudicial" error when he failed to provide the jury with "the momentary possession instruction."  If this makes no sense to you, then rejoice, for you are among the sane.

California Introduces Bill to Ban ICE Detention Centers, Private Prisons.  The state of California is cracking down on "private for-profit prisons" after introducing a bill to ban the facilities.  Moreover, it means shutting down U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's privately run detention centers.  The bill AB-42 passed the state assembly Wednesday [9/11/2019] with 65 votes in favorable votes.  According to Newsweek, it would mean shutting down four detention centers holding "up to 4,500 inmates."

Convicted rapist killer strikes again in NYC after getting out of jail.  A convicted rapist-killer who strangled a teen in 1981 and was suspected of cutting out the eyes of an earlier victim has been arrested on a new rape charge, six years after he got out of jail.  Christopher "Crazy Chris" Aniades, 62, is being held on a charge of attempted forcible rape after the alleged attack, according to the city Department of Correction.

The Case for High-Speed Police Car Chases.  Gentle readers, in our previous visit we discussed a police chase in Baltimore, one that was, in my view, imprudently and prematurely called off by a police commander who was worried about the potential for a traffic collision.  The suspect being pursued had committed two acts of attempted murder on police officers, the first by trying to run an officer over with a car, the second by shooting at another officer, yet this supervisor chose to allow the suspect to escape.  Two days later, police shot and killed the suspect after, yes, another car chase.  A police officer and a civilian were wounded during the second chase, injuries that would not have occurred had the suspect been captured in the first one.

Four years after allowing universal 'concealed carry' law, Maine rated the safest state in the nation for crime.  Since 2015, residents of the state of Maine have been allowed to carry a concealed firearm without any special permit, and now the results are in: crime has fallen to the point where the state is now rated the safest in the nation from the threat of crime. [...] As the Maine Examiner noted, second-ranking Vermont also has a constitutional carry law.  Guns in the hands of honest citizens decrease crime.

Criminologists Mislead Us.  There is significant bias among criminologists.  The reason for that bias is that political leanings of academic criminologists are liberal.  Liberal criminologists outnumber their conservative counterparts by a ratio of 30-to-1. Ideology almost perfectly predicts the position of criminologists on issues from gun control to capital punishment to harsh sentencing.  Liberal criminologists march in step for gun control, oppose punitive prison sentences, and are vehemently against the death penalty.  In 2012, the National Academy of Sciences commissioned a study on the growth of incarceration.  It showed that from 1928 until 1960, crime rates rose slowly each year.  After the 1960s, crime rates exploded to unprecedented levels of violence until the 1990s.

7 ways for conservatives to counter gun control with criminal control.  As the Democrats seek a relentless war on guns by focusing on the relatively small number of people killed in mass shootings, Republicans should have a bold counter-agenda to deal with the vast majority of other homicides in this country — committed with handguns or other objects — who are almost always known career criminals.  Senate Republicans should counter the coming gun control agenda with a criminal control agenda. [...] Also, how about dealing with the ultimate avoidable deaths caused by criminal aliens who would never have been in the country if we actually enforced our immigration laws?

They've Lost Their Minds in San Francisco.  San Francisco, a city described in song for its natural beauty, is descending into an abyss of homelessness, the use of sidewalks as toilets and a place you might not want to visit, much less live.  The latest, but surely not the last demonstration of insanity, is San Francisco's Board of Supervisors' adoption of new "person first" language guidelines meant to "change the public's perception of criminals."  The words "convicted felon," "offender," "convict," "addict" and "juvenile delinquent" are now out.  These individuals will henceforth be referred to as a "justice-involved person."  Someone previously called a "criminal" will now be referred to as "a returning resident," or "a formerly incarcerated person." [...] The English language once conveyed meaning.  Properly written and spoken, it suggested one was educated and capable of conversing in polite company.  Today, it is often used to cover up true intentions.

San Francisco's New PC Terms For Criminals Met With Mockery.  Amid the city's interconnected and rapidlly escalating crime and homelessness crises, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has determined that one of the ways it can help inspire the city's expanding criminal population to good behavior is to simply play some games with language.  In a non-binding resolution passed last month and which has gained the support of the district attorney, the city presents the grim statistic that now one-fifth, one out of every five, residents of the city has a criminal record.  In response to this alarming criminal reality, the board has introduced its new "person first" terminology, in which old terms the city fears might encourage "negative predispositions" and "unfounded assumptions" have been swapped out for more positive and "stigma"-free language.

San Francisco, where felons are 'justice-involved' and there's no shame in crime.  San Francisco's Board of Supervisors just adopted a resolution recommending that felons not be called felons but rather "formerly incarcerated person" or former "justice-involved" person or "returning resident" — or any other number of soft and fuzzy names that won't hurt the feelings of the, umm, felons.  File this under Ridiculous.  "We don't want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done," Supervisor Matt Haney said to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Why you'll no longer find 'convicted felons' in San Francisco.  "Convicted felons" may be getting a makeover in San Francisco.  Under a new resolution by the city's Board of Supervisors — which voted to use "person-first" language in the criminal justice system — they'll be referred to as "justice-involved persons," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  The guidelines nix other terms too, such as "prisoner," "convict" and "inmate," along with any words that "obstruct and separate people from society and make the institutionalization of racism and supremacy appear normal."  As part of the guidelines, a drug addict or substance abuser will become a "person with a history of substance abuse."  And a "juvenile delinquent" will instead be referred to as a "young person with justice system involvement."

The Editor says...
One of the traditional deterrents to crime is the lifetime stigma attached to convicted felons.  An increase in criminal activity will naturally accompany the erosion of that disgrace.  The politicians in California are going out of their way to make criminals feel better about themselves.  They don't need encouragement!

Republican Sen. Martha McSally wants to make domestic terrorism a federal crime.  Sen. Martha McSally wants to make domestic terrorism a punishable crime in the wake of two mass shootings potentially tied to ideologically motivated violence in California and Texas.  McSally, R-Ariz., intends to introduce legislation when the Senate returns from the summer recess to create a law in the federal criminal code to address domestic terrorism.  Federal authorities use other laws, such as weapons offenses and hate crimes, to charge such acts.

The Editor says...
How is domestic terrorism worse than foreign terrorism?

To stop more shootings, stop erasing criminal records of juveniles prone to violence.  The mass shooter in Dayton, Ohio who was killed by police early Sunday after he shot nine people to death and wounded more than a dozen fit the now-familiar profile of the troubled youth with a well-documented history of threats dating back to high school.  The Dayton gunman had a "kill list" and had interacted with law enforcement as a minor, authorities said.  Similarly, the man charged with killing 17 people and wounding 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last year was also well known to high school counselors and local police before he turned 18, police said.

Venezuela's death squad regime warns Venezuelans to stay out of... Dayton, Cleveland, El Paso, Detroit.  Venezuela, that land of free health care, free education, subsidized food, subsidized gas, and five million nationals fleeing for their lives, is warning its nationals, many of whom are waiting to be let in at the U.S. border for asylum, to stay out of the very, very, very dangerous U.S.

Fellow prisoner drowns a pedophile, 56, who abused an 11-year-old girl, in a jail toilet in a 'revenge killing'.  A convicted child sex abuser was drowned in the toilet by a fellow prisoner as the result of a 'revenge killing', said police.  David Oseas Ramirez, 56, who had been serving a life sentence for molesting an 11-year-old girl in 2013, was found dead in his prison cell at Duval County Jail in Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday morning [7/30/2019].  Jacksonville Sheriff's Office announced in a statement on social media that a fight broke out between Ramirez and convicted murderer Paul Dixon, 43, who was later arrested over the incident.

Ex-cop cellmate claims to have saved Jeffrey Epstein from hanging, source says.  A law enforcement source confirmed that the cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, claimed to have helped Epstein after finding him unconscious.  Investigators were still trying to determine if an assault had occurred or if the sex offender facing up to 45 years in prison had in fact tried to take his own life, the law enforcement source said.  "You've got a guy who is a millionaire who is now living among rats and mold and wants to go home," the source said.  "This is a disgusting place and the people there, they treat you disgusting.  Who wouldn't be suicidal in that kind of place?  You have a silver spoon in your mouth and then you're put in a cesspool."  Bruce Barket, a lawyer for Tartaglione, refused to go into detail about the incident but did not dispute the account.

Commentary about Baltimore and Chicago.  [Chicago is] a town that has a homicide clearance rate (that is, percentage of fatal shootings for which someone got caught) this year of nine percent.  You literally have a 90% chance of getting away with shooting someone in Chicago.  In addition among those shootings where we know the race of the assailant just 5% — a literal one — was white.  15 were black and 4 Hispanic.  Yet the city has an approximate 32% white population with the same, roughly, being black and about 28% Hispanic.  In other words both black and Hispanic people are ridiculously over-represented when it comes to both shooting victims and perpetrators.  That's not racist, it's factual.

Everything You Don't Know About Mass Incarceration.  The FBI tracks and reports on eight "index crimes" committed in the United States.  Half of those offenses are violent, and half concern property: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft, motor-vehicle theft, and arson.  Since 2010, the U.S. has averaged about 1.2 million violent index crimes and 8.5 million property index crimes yearly.  Keeping in mind that many similar crimes never get reported to the FBI, note that police clear just 46.8 percent and 18.9 percent of violent and property index offenses, respectively.  Put differently, since 2010, about 5.1 million violent index crimes and 54.9 million property index crimes have gone unpunished — which works out to more than 7.5 million of these offenses yearly.  Even assuming that certain criminals commit a disproportionate number of the crimes, one can say with confidence that, in any given year, a large number of people who should be in prison are not.

Killer released from prison, dubbed too old to be dangerous, kills again.  A man who spent decades in prison for fatally stabbing his wife was released after being deemed too old to pose a threat — only to be convicted this week of a nearly identical crime.  It took jurors in Maine less than an hour to find Albert Flick, 77, guilty in the 2018 murder of a homeless mother, Kimberly Dobbie, who was stabbed at least 11 times while her twin sons watched. [...] Flick was freed in 2004 — only to be sent back to jail in 2010 for assaulting another woman.  The judge at the time ignored the recommendation for a longer sentence, saying Flick wouldn't be a threat because of his age and it didn't make sense to keep him locked up.

This Man Did Nothing Wrong, But He Faces 49 Years In Prison.  The weaklings and fools in the California state legislature decided that guns are bad, bad, bad, so they passed some stupid 'gun control' laws to fight crime.  But Mr [Girard Damian] Saenz was never charged with any crime other than having weapons the state didn't think he should have.  He didn't rob anyone, he committed no crimes using the firearms in his possession.  This is the natural result of the left's insanity when it comes to our Second Amendment rights:  the state legislature made simple possession of firearms it didn't like a crime in itself, but the crime they said that they were preventing never occurred; Mr Saenz was not even suspected of using the firearms illegally.  The Pyrite State created a crime where no crime existed, infringed a man's rights when he had infringed on no one else's.

When the MSM Say Someone Is in Prison for a Minor Drug Crime, They're Always Lying.  If the left has its way in the next few years, there won't be anyone left in prison because, you see, they're overflowing with innocent black men locked up for "nonviolent drug crimes."  All of them!  Over the weekend, NBC News investigative reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell appeared on MSNBC's "Kasie DC" to tell the story of Bill Underwood, loving parent and prison mentor, who has already spent nearly 30 years in prison for a nonviolent drug crime. [...] Despite what I'm sure was an exhaustive investigation, I was suspicious of Caldwell's characterization of Underwood's crime.  My rule is:  If you're not telling me why someone was sentenced to life in prison, there's probably a reason you're not telling me.

20% federal inmates are immigrants, mostly Mexican.  One-fifth of all federal prison inmates are not U.S citizens, many facing illegal immigration charges, according to new data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  There are a total of 35,009 "criminal aliens" of 180,344 in prison, and 60% are Mexican, according to an analysis provided to Secrets by David Olen Cross of Salem, Ore., a crime researcher who writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime.

Decriminalizing Crime; Criminalizing Speech.  By a strange and perfectly logical logic many people believe that, for example, if there were no guns there would be no gun violence.  Ergo, eliminating all guns will eliminate all gun violence.  It will do nothing about knife violence, but you can't have everything.  And the logic does not explain how we are to take way over 300 million guns.  But, to the zealot, ideology trumps reality.  Similarly, if we want to reduce crime, or, at least crime statistics, the best way is to decriminalize crime.  The more we legalize otherwise criminal activities, the fewer crimes there will be.  By the logic of political correctness and certain idealist thinkers, what means that what makes a crime a crime is saying that it's a crime.

Criminal Justice Reform Comes Home to Roost.  The same public officials who used to brag about how many criminals they arrested are now proud of how many they let go.  In Chicago, the local papers run banner headlines touting the success of this new social-justice strategy — as measured by the record low number of people in Chicago jails.  The thinking is that we have to rethink how we treat black criminals.  The talking heads and politicos agree that black people are victims of relentless white racism, all the time, everywhere, and that explains everything — especially why so many black people are stopped, arrested, charged, convicted, sent to prison, released, then returned to prison in numbers that are so wildly out of proportion.

Teenager Accused of Rape Deserves Leniency Because He's From a 'Good Family,' Judge Says.  The 16-year-old girl was visibly intoxicated, her speech slurred, when a drunk 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted her in a dark basement during an alcohol-fueled pajama party in New Jersey, prosecutors said. [...] But a family court judge said it wasn't rape.  Instead, he wondered aloud if it was sexual assault, defining rape as something reserved for an attack at gunpoint by strangers.  He also said the young man came from a good family, attended an excellent school, had terrific grades and was an Eagle scout.  Prosecutors, the judge said, should have explained to the girl and her family that pressing charges would destroy the boy's life.

Radical Democrats seem to think it's shameful to put bad guys in jail.  A perfect symbol to show how far-left and crazy the Democratic Party has become is that it was an attack line in Thursday night's debate to say someone was a prosecutor. [...] The assumption was that being a prosecutor is a bad thing.  Apparently, for this primary electorate, that assumption may be correct.  And the lack of media surprise at this as a counterpunch also indicates that a prosecutorial background is a liability in today's Democratic Party.  This is nuts.  In general, prosecutors are the "good guys."  They make sure bad guys, indeed sometimes truly awful people, go to prison.

Supreme Court rules 'crime of violence' law is unconstitutionally vague.  A divided Supreme Court ruled Monday [6/24/2019] that a federal law requiring longer prison sentences for using a gun during a "crime of violence" is unconstitutionally vague.  The court voted 5-4 stating the law "provides no reliable way" to determine which offenses qualify as crimes of violence.

SCOTUS decision might lead to release of thousands of violent felons.  Justice Neil Gorsuch seems really determined to give violent gun felons a degree of due process our founders never envisioned.  In yet another opinion, expanding upon previous decisions declaring the "crime of violence" statute unconstitutional, Gorsuch joined with the four liberal justices to vacate the criminal conviction of two violent robbers while declaring the statute upon which the conviction rested as unconstitutional.  Meanwhile, there is no urgency from Congress to promote "criminal justice reform" that would actually stem the tide of judicially-mandated jailbreak of violent criminals.

Crime Without Consequences.  National Public Radio (NPR) reported, "the majority of these violations are for 'minor infractions, such as failing a drug test or missing a curfew.  Those so-called technical violations cost states $2.8 billion every year, the report says."  But the underlying data and the footnotes to CSG's own report belie those bold, topline claims.  A few necessary corrections and clarifications are in order.
  •   "State prison" includes county jails (which aren't state prisons, at all) and most sentences are short stays.
  •   Parole and probation are distinct, but all terms are mutually agreed upon conditions to maintain the offender's liberty and are often tailored to their risk and history.
  •   Prior to being re-incarcerated, both parolees and probationers receive revocation hearings, administered by a neutral third-party.
  •   Technical violations are not necessarily minor and often include a re-offense or serious abrogation of their release terms that threatens the public safety.
So little of what CSG says is true it almost would be laughable — if not for the tragedy that some state lawmakers may use the report to alter public safety laws to favor criminals.

Supreme Court offers gun-possession loophole for illegal immigrants.  The Supreme Court ruled Friday [6/21/2019] that an illegal immigrant who had a gun — a crime — can't be prosecuted if he didn't know he was in the country illegally.  In a 7-2 decision the justices said in a crime where the status of a person is the "crucial element" to the offense, the government must prove the person was aware of that.  Otherwise, it might just be an innocent mistake.  That could affect "thousands" of previous convictions.

The Editor says...
Anyone who crawled over (or under) a wall or a fence in the middle of the night, and then began a "life in the shadows," should be well aware that he or she is living here illegally.

A self-imposed protection racket:
Fresno Plan to Stop Crime:  Pay Criminals Not to be Violent.  The San Joaquin Valley Sun reported that the Fresno plan to stop gun violence by paying criminals not to be violent is in the budget process.  Richmond, Stockton and Sacramento have funded stipends for 'high risk' individuals such as gang members in a program called "Advance Peace."

Alaska Supreme Court rules state sex offender registry law unconstitutional.  The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that a state law requiring the registry of all sex offenders is unconstitutional because it violates offenders' rights to due process.  The ruling was issued Friday [6/14/2019].  In a 3-2 decision, the court said an offender must be given the chance to prove he or she is rehabilitated and no longer remains a threat to the public.

California court says convicts must pay restitution, even if crime is minor.  Convicted criminals in California must repay their victims for financial losses even for the minor crimes classified as infractions, like a mauling that killed a disabled person's service dog, an appellate court has ruled.  The state Constitution, under a provision added by a 2008 ballot initiative, specifies that "restitution shall be ordered from the convicted wrongdoer in every case ... in which a crime victim suffers a loss," said the Los Angeles County Superior Court's Appellate Division.  The ruling was issued a week ago and was published Friday [6/7/2019] as a precedent for future cases.

DC Considering Voting Rights for Prisoners.  Washington, DC, could become the first jurisdiction to restore voting rights for prisoners after a majority of its council-members on Tuesday backed bills to give incarcerated individuals voting rights and the ability to vote via absentee ballots.  Council-member Robert White (D) introduced legislation that would give voting rights to "residents convicted and imprisoned for committing felonies."  Another bill would allow D.C. residents in federal prisons to vote with absentee ballots.

Reflections on the Torture of Paul Manafort.  The sadistic treatment of Paul Manafort illustrates something I have believed since I attended graduate school in the 1970s and saw the behavior of left-wing students:  Leftism makes people meaner.  There are kind and mean conservatives and kind and mean liberals.  Neither liberalism nor conservatism makes people kinder or meaner.  But this is not the case with leftism.  With the handful of exceptions that accompany every generalization, leftism makes people meaner, even crueler.  Take the transfer of Manafort, the one-time Trump campaign manager, from a federal prison to New York's Rikers Island prison.

An obvious violation of the Eighth Amendment:
Why is Paul Manafort off to Rikers?  The decision to move Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was sentenced earlier this year to nearly seven years in prison in connection with two federal cases, from the decent federal prison to which he was sentenced to solitary confinement to the dangerous hell hole that is New York City's Rikers Island seems abusive and possibly illegal.  I know Rikers well having spent time there visiting numerous defendants accused of murder and other violent crimes.  It is a terrible place that no one should ever be sent to.  It should be shut down.  It is so bad that defendants often plead guilty, even if they have defensible cases, simply to move to a safer and better prison.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:  Paul Manafort "should be released" from "torture" of solitary confinement.  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday knocked reports that President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was going to be moved into solitary confinement in her district, calling the punishment "torture."  "Paul Manafort is being sent to solitary confinement in my district -- Rikers Island.  A prison sentence is not a license for gov torture and human rights violations.  That's what solitary confinement is.  Manafort should be released, along with all people being held in solitary," the New York Democrat tweeted.  Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal critic of prisons' use of solitary confinement.

Deep State:  First, the attempted coup.  Now, the political prisoner.  What we are all looking at is how criminal Deep State is, demonstrating how it can use the levers of power to turn a first-world country into a banana republic.  We aren't seeing normal things from these people, we are seeing some incredible abuses of power.  Manafort was convicted earlier and is doing time in Pennsylvania for white collar crimes around taxable income and foreign agent registration.  These are crimes few are ever prosecuted for, but they were real enough.  Now he's a wedge player in a new and very dirty deep-state political game.

Update:
Paul Manafort [is] not going to Rikers Island, will remain in federal custody after DOJ rejects move, source says.  The Justice Department has rejected New York County District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s attempt to have former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort transferred to the notorious Rikers Island prison complex ahead of his pending state court trial, amid questions as to why the move was even contemplated in the first place, Fox News is told.  Fox News first reported earlier this month that a New York State judge ordered the transfer at Vance's request.  However, because Manafort has been convicted on federal charges, any attempt to move him out of federal custody must be approved by Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.  On Monday [6/17/2019], Rosen denied the attempt, effectively keeping Manafort in federal custody.

The Editor says...
Earlier coverage of this story indicated that Mr. Manafort had already been moved [1] [2] or "will be sent" there [3] or "could happen as early as Thursday [6/6/2019]." [4]

Manhattan prosecutors cave in on Manafort Rikers scheme after DoJ note.  Maybe we really do have a Department of Justice that's serious about reforming itself.  Attorney General William Barr deserves applause for this one. [...] Now, Manafort is not a guy anyone needs to feel much sympathy for for being in a federal prison, given that he committed crimes on his tax reportage that most of us would never think of doing.  But the Deep State has shown itself to be far, far more vile than Manafort ever was.

California Is The Future The Liberal Elite Wants For You.  [Scroll down]  Already, petty crime has been effectively legalized.  Crooks get a free pass on the first $950 a day they steal.  The casual larceny and other offenses that make life unbearable are becoming more and more common as liberal laws release criminals to victimize regular citizens.  This is known as "justice," as if someone who steals from a hardworking businessman is being cruelly put out by being arrested for it.  And now pot's effectively legal here, which is spectacular.  Just what Cali needed — more people on a drug that makes them dumber and lazier.

Alabama lawmakers back chemical castration for child predators.  Alabama state lawmakers passed a bill that would require child predators to be "chemically castrated" before they leave prison, a report said Tuesday [6/4/2019].  The bill, which was submitted to Gov. Kay Ivey over the weekend, will require sex offenders convicted of abusing a child under the age of 13 to take drugs that block the production of testosterone and hormones as a condition of parole.  If a convict refuses to take the medication, they'll be considered in violation of parole and immediately taken back into custody, the bill states.  They'll also be required to pay for the medication.

De Blasio wants teens charged with robbery, assault freed without bail.  Mayor Bill de Blasio hopes to "more than triple" the number of teens who are released from city jails with no bail on charges as serious as armed robbery, assault and burglary, The [New York] Post has learned.  New guidelines from the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice will also "significantly" expand the number of adults eligible for de Blasio's no-bail Supervised Release Program, according to a memo sent to top city judges this month and obtained by The Post.  The policy changes — which take effect on Saturday — will let defendants between ages 16 and 19 qualify for the program's Youth Engagement Track, which is now capped at age 17, except in Brooklyn.

Why Plea Deals Are a Gross Miscarriage of Justice.  [Robert P. Murphy] goes solo to explain why the common practice of "offering a plea deal" is a horrible practice, which gives us little reason to trust that those convicted are actually guilty of the crimes to which they confess.  [Video clip]

A Full Presidential Pardon.  [Scroll down]  The American criminal justice system is frequently and largely evil; I was convicted for attempted obstruction of injustice.  It was never anything but a smear job.  For my friends, no explanation was ever necessary; for my enemies, none would ever have sufficed.  As I told the trial judge at resentencing:  I always try to take success like a gentleman and reversals like a man.

Dallas prosecutor encourages shoplifting.  The liberal district attorney in Dallas, John Creuzot, is refusing to prosecute shoplifters who steal less than $750, if what they stole was "necessities" like food or diapers, and they haven't tried to resell what they stole.  This refusal to prosecute will spawn an increase in shoplifting.  That will drive up prices for necessities like food, at the expense of law-abiding people.  Criminal penalties deter crime, as studies have found, and serious penalties deter better than trivial ones.  So the Dallas DA's refusal to prosecute shoplifters will embolden more people to steal.

Testimony from legally blind eyewitness results in murder conviction; case now under review.  The murder conviction of a Chicago man is under review in Illinois, after it was revealed following trial that the key witness — who purportedly saw the crime and identified the perpetrator — is legally blind.  Dexter Saffold swore under oath five years ago that he saw Darien Harris kill a man at a South Side gas station in 2011.  While there was no physical evidence linking Harris to the crime, and surveillance footage did not show the shooting or the suspect's face, Cook County Circuit Judge Nicholas Ford found Saffold to be an "honest witness" who gave an "unblemished" testimony, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Could A $15 Minimum Wage Make Neighborhoods Less Safe?  The minimum wage debate has reignited in recent months as Congress considers the Raise the Wage Act of 2019, a bill that would more than double the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.  Skeptics worry that a 107% increase in the minimum wage will substantially reduce low-skilled employment, hurting many of the vulnerable workers it was designed to help.  But a $15 minimum wage could mean more than lost jobs.  My new research, co-authored with Zachary Fone of the University of New Hampshire and Resul Cesur of the University of Connecticut, finds evidence that some affected younger workers turn to property crime as a consequence of a higher minimum wage.

Unlocked and Unsafe:  Leaked videos expose Arizona prison's broken cell doors.  The video reveals a disturbing, everyday truth about multiple units inside Lewis:  Cell doors don't lock.  And the doors haven't locked for years.  "It's Jurassic Park," said Carlos Garcia, a retired 20-year employee of the Arizona Department of Corrections.  "These are top-of-the-line offenders, and they're running rampant with open doors.  How do you like that?  They don't even need a key," he said.  "They just open their own door."

A Seattle Judge Sent A Homeless Man With 72 Convictions To Jail, The City Attorney Was Furious.  A 55-year-old homeless man named Francisco Calderon punched a complete stranger in the mouth one day in November, giving him a bloody lip.  The victim called 911 and Calderon was arrested and charged with assault.  He pleaded guilty to the crime.  That turned out to be his 72nd time being convicted of a crime, fourteen of those convictions were felonies.  And yet, City Attorney Pete Holmes worked out a plea deal with Calderon's public defender which would keep him out of jail.  Instead, he would get probation and drug treatment.  Enter Municipal Court Judge Ed McKenna whose job it was to sentence Calderon.  McKenna wasn't convinced no jail time was appropriate in the case and questioned the plea deal.

Rapists and murderers could be set free after age 55 if 'crazy' bill proposed by NYC Dems passes.  New York City Republicans and law enforcement officials are incensed over a proposal seeking to grant parole eligibility to older inmates who have served some prison time.  Currently imprisoned felons, including murderers and rapists, could be out on the street again if the controversial state bill passes, allowing inmates aged 55 and older who have been in prison at least 15 years to be eligible for parole.

Report: U.S. Incarceration Falls to 20-Year Low.  The share of the adult population in prison has fallen to its lowest point since 1997, a new report released Thursday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows.  The report is the latest instance of the BJS's ongoing Prisoners series, which has provided the public with detailed statistics on state and federal offenders for decades.  Thursday's [4/25/2019] report provides information on the state of the nation's prison system in 2017, with data on both the federal system (which accounted in that year for about 12 percent of all incarcerated) and the prisons of the 50 states.

Saudi Arabia beheading so many prisoners it needs more executioners as Kingdom is tipped to set new slaughter record.  The ruthless Saudi government is beheading so many people it needs to recruit a deadly new squad of sword-wielding executioners.  The news comes after it slaughtered 37 people in one bloody day last week meaning it is now tipped to kill a record number of its citizens in 2019.

Long before latest arrest, serial rape suspect had lengthy criminal history.  Julie Lensing saw the story, "Serial rapist targets escorts, assaults them at knife-point" and felt sick to her stomach.  She recognized the suspect, Kenyatta Buckles, because she had been a juror when he was on trial in an earlier rape.  Lensing was convinced he was guilty.  Other jurors disagreed and eventually acquitted him.  "I wish we could have found him guilty," she said.  It wasn't the first time Buckles, 24, had avoided prison.  During the past five years, Buckles has been convicted of two felonies and charged with several others.  He admitted to violating his probation three times, and warrants had been issued for his arrest at least 10 times.

Jail survey: 7 in 10 felons register as Democrats.  A new study of how criminals vote found that most convicts register Democratic, a key reason in why liberal lawmakers and governors are eager for them to get back into the voting booth after their release.  "Democrats would benefit from additional ex-felon participation," said the authoritative study in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.  The authors, professors from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, found that in some states, felons register Democratic by more than six-to-one.  In New York, for example, 61.5 percent of convicts are Democrats, just 9 percent Republican.  They also cited a study that found 73 percent of convicts who turn out for presidential elections would vote Democrat.

15 Serial Killers, Rapists, Kidnappers, Child Molesters [who are] Eligible to Vote Under Bernie Sanders' Plan.  This week, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsed a plan that would allow felons serving time behind bars the right to vote from their prison cells.  "So, I believe people who commit crimes, they pay the price and they get out of jail, they certainly should have the right to vote," Sanders said during a town hall.  "But, I believe even if they are in jail, they're paying the price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy."  Initially, Sen. Kamala Harris said, "I think we should have that conversation" when asked about allowing convicted criminals to vote from their cells, but she has since backtracked on that statement, declaring that she actually opposes giving felons in prison the right to vote.  "Do I think that people who commit murder and people who are terrorists should be deprived of their rights, yes I do," Harris said.

California Inmate Accused of Torturing, Beheading Cellmate.  A California inmate now stands accused of torturing and beheading his cellmate, according to reports.  Convicted murderer Jaime Osuna has been accused of the brutal torture and death of his cellmate at Corcoran State Prison in the Fresno suburb of Corcoran, California.  The man was killed in the early morning of March 9 and died of blood loss from "multiple sharp force trauma injuries," charging documents state.

County judge unleashes on prosecutor as more and more people aren't getting the "Smollett Deal".  One of the many topics that Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office has regularly avoided since abruptly dropping charges against Jussie Smollett on March 26th is this:  Could they point to any other occasions when they flat-out dropped felony false police report charges without requiring the accused to at least plead guilty?  It's an essential question because Joe Magats, the top aide who took over the Smollet case when Foxx "recused" herself insisted that the resolution Smollett enjoyed "is available to all defendants; it's not something out of privilege; it's not something out of clout."

Soros-Funded Groups Work to Register 1.4 Million Ex-Felons Ahead of 2020.  The current battle revolves around a Florida state amendment that was passed last year restoring voting rights for felons, with progressive groups opposing a local bill that would require the state's ex-felons to first pay civil fines and court fees before registering to vote.  Florida's Amendment Four was approved by voters during last year's Midterm election.  The heavily Soros-funded American Civil Liberties Union and Brennan Center for Justice based in New York both served as consultants in drafting Amendment Four.

The Editor says...
The loss of voting privileges is part of the punishment for felonies.  One can pay his or her "debt to society" in the penitentiary, but one of the traditional deterrents to felonious behavior is to be permanently banned from voting, jury duty, and with various types of licensing, among other things.  Crime and punishment, minus punishment, leaves only crime.

Killer of LA Police Officer Dies at San Quentin.  The killer of a California police officer has died [4/20/2019] after being found unresponsive in his cell at San Quentin State Prison.

Dallas will no longer prosecute 'petty crimes'.  Is this the face of criminal justice "reform"?  Dallas County district attorney John Creuzot is enacting sweeping changes to the way his office deals with crime.  It appears that Creuzot will be giving petty criminals a pass.  Creuzot will "decriminalize" most petty crimes against property, reform the bail system, and refuse to prosecute first-time drug offenders.

Social Justice Prosecutors.  [Scroll down]  Individuals from this new class of legal eagles have advanced in all branches of government and at all levels — local, state, and federal.  They have attended notable law schools, they are African-American, and they are hellbent on ushering in an era of seeking what today's liberal law schools are pouring into their students by the bucket full — not "justice" but "social justice."  Now finding themselves in positions of power, these social justice warriors have a deep-rooted belief in the fundamental unfairness of America in general, and our judicial system in particular.  They believe that crimes for which underprivileged groups, namely blacks and Latinos, have higher rates of sentencing and incarceration, are the product of an at best a biased, and at worst a racist system; a system which they are a part of and can find ways to affect.  One example is when the Obama/Holder DOJ released 6,000 people from federal prisons and reduced the sentences of as many as 46,000 others as a part of their sentencing-reform efforts in 2015.

Florida man gets out of jail, immediately steals from car in prison parking lot: cops.  A man leaving jail in Florida this week was arrested minutes later — accused of stealing from a car in the prison parking lot, police records show.  Michael Casey Lewis, 34, had just been bonded out of St.  Lucie County Jail in Fort Pierce, Fla., when officers spotted him "acting suspicious" in the parking lot, according to his arrest affidavit.  He claimed to be waiting for his girlfriend — but security footage allegedly showed him checking for unlocked cars and finally getting into one.

China Using AI Surveillance In VIP Jail To 'Make Prison Breaks Impossible'.  A high-security VIP prison in China is deploying an AI monitoring system to surveil convicts — tracking their every move to 'learn' their behavioral patterns and flag abnormal activity, according to SCMP.  State-run Yancheng prison has installed a network of cameras in every cell and every corner of the building, which some experts believe will make escape impossible even if inmates are able to bribe the guards (who we expect the system to be used to monitor as well).

Inmates at UK's largest prison [are] allowed to lock and unlock their own cells.  Inmates at the largest UK prison have been given the ability to lock and unlock their cells, along with requesting privacy.  The all-male prison, HMP Berwyn, located in Wales, is the largest prison controlled under the Ministry of Justice.  The inmates are majority C-class offenders, meaning they cannot be trusted in open conditions yet they are unlikely to try and escape.

Are 18-year-olds minors?  Pennsylvania judges urge review of case that could affect hundreds of young lifers.  It was standing room only last fall when Superior Court heard arguments about whether Avis Lee, who was 18 when she served as lookout in a 1981 robbery, was really just a kid at the time, and therefore constitutionally protected from automatic life without parole.  The case, attendees hoped, could clear the way for as many as a thousand Pennsylvania lifers who were just a couple years into adulthood to be resentenced under the same U.S. Supreme Court decision that relied in part on evolving neuroscience to determine that juveniles are less culpable than adults, and so cannot be sentenced to life in prison without individualized hearings.

The Editor says...
The line has to be drawn somewhere.  Right now, the line is at age 18.  If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Roberts Keeps Joining High Court Liberals.  Chief Justice John Roberts is showing a new willingness to side with the U.S. Supreme Court's liberal wing after the divisive confirmation fight over Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  Roberts joined the liberals Wednesday [2/27/2019] in two rulings that left the conservatives in dissent.  Most notably, he cast the deciding vote to order a new look at the mental competence of a death row inmate who says he can't remember the crimes he committed.

G-Men Out of Control.  The broadening revelations of the lawless, almost putschist excesses of the Comey-McCabe FBI and elements of the Justice Department and the Brennan-Clapper intelligence services invite serious contemplation of how close the United States came to being a country where regime change might be plausibly and self-righteously attempted by what in undemocratic countries is generally known as the secret police. [...] For at least 60 years I have heard high American officials announce that the United States is not a "banana republic."  Of course it is not, and never was. But there is a complacency about America's status as a society of laws that is both unbecoming and unjustified.  As many judges, lawyers, and commentators have noted, the level of prosecution success in criminal cases is over 95 percent, 97 percent of those without a trial; these, and the proportion of the population that is incarcerated, are totalitarian numbers.

Shooting Death of a Teenager in Brooklyn Comes Amid Rise in Murders.  A 15-year-old boy from Haiti was shot and killed in front of his sister by a hooded gunman on Friday night in a horrific scene that rocked his Brooklyn neighborhood and served as a grim reminder of a growing number of murders in New York. [...] His murder was the latest in an increasingly violent year in New York City, and Brooklyn in particular.  As of Feb. 17, there had been 48 murders in the city this year, up from 31 during the same period in 2018.  That increase has been driven mostly by killings in Brooklyn, where there have been at least 15 more murders compared with this point last year.

Based On 'Discrimination' Law, Iowa Jury Awards Trans Woman $120,000, Access To Male Prison Facilities.  A jury in Iowa has concluded that the state discriminated against a former Iowa Department of Corrections nurse because the employer wouldn't let her use the bathrooms with male employees.  The jury also said the Iowa Department of Corrections denied Jesse Vreogh health care coverage for "medically necessary surgery" — i.e. a double mastectomy to look more like a man.  The jury awarded Vreogh $120,000 for the "emotional distress" of both instances based on Iowa's sexual orientation and gender identity law, which was introduced in 2007 and signed by Democrat Gov. Chet Culver.

Alabama man serving life sentence for sex trafficking escapes maximum-security prison.  A man serving life in prison on human-trafficking charges escaped from a maximum-security prison in north Alabama Wednesday, officials said.  Corey Aris Davis, 30, was not in his cell at St.  Clair Correctional Facility in Springville during a security check at 8 p.m. CST, the Department of Corrections said in a statement.

America's incarceration rate is at a two-decade low.  The U.S. incarceration rate fell in 2016 to its lowest level in 20 years, according to new data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the statistical arm of the Department of Justice.  Despite the decline, the United States incarcerates a larger share of its population than any other country.  At the end of 2016, there were about 2.2 million people behind bars in the U.S., including 1.5 million under the jurisdiction of federal and state prisons and roughly 741,000 in the custody of locally run jails.  That amounts to a nationwide incarceration rate of 860 prison or jail inmates for every 100,000 adults ages 18 and older.

Convicted child killer found dead in Oklahoma prison cell; victim's body never found.  A man convicted in the cold case murder of an 8-year-old girl whose body has never been found was discovered dead in his Oklahoma prison cell Friday night [1/11/2019], according to reports.  The body of Anthony Joseph Palma, 59, was found around 7:30 p.m. by a correctional officer doing a routine security check, a report said.  Medical staff could not revive him and he was pronounced dead around 8:55 p.m.

Maryland man who attacked police station in 2016 gets 195 years.  A Maryland man who opened fire on a police station in 2016, leading to the friendly-fire death of a narcotics detective, was sentenced Thursday to 195 years in prison.  Michael Ford, 25, was convicted in November of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and weapons charges in the killing of Prince George's County Police Detective Jacai Colson. [...] Ford's brothers, Malik and Elijah, recorded cellphone videos of the ambush after dropping him off at the station in Landover, a suburb of Washington, D.C.  They agreed to film the shooting so the video could be sent to [...] a website known for posting users' violent videos, a police detective testified in 2016.

Inmate convicted in child porn case dies of injuries suffered in prison fight, authorities say.  A man serving a 40-year sentence for his role in an international child pornography ring has died following a fight at a federal detention center in Michigan, authorities said Friday [1/4/2019].  Christian Maire, 40, of New York, was pronounced dead following an altercation involving seven inmates Tuesday at the Milan detention center about 50 miles southwest of Detroit, a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

San Quentin inmate who escaped prison captured at Taco Bell.  A 21-year-old prisoner who escaped from the high-security San Quentin State Prison in California was captured by police Saturday afternoon [12/29/2018].  Shalom Mendoza, who was serving five years for using a deadly weapon during a carjacking attempt, walked away from a prison work crew Wednesday [12/26/2018], according to police, and was discovered missing that night during an official head count.

Department Of Justice Continues To Run Interference For The Obama Administration.  [Scroll down]  There are lots of "cooperating witnesses" an boodles of physical evidence but the fly in the ointment is that El Chapo has a history of being a customer of Eric Holder's Justice Department.  Under Holder, the only Attorney General to ever be cited for criminal contempt by the Houses of Representatives, El Chapo was allowed to buy a massive amount of firepower from gun stores in the United States using straw-buyers and using gun stores who were cooperating with the federal government under what was known as Operation Fast and Furious.  Several of those weapons were recovered from El Chapo's headquarters when he was arrested.  Federal prosecutors don't want the jury of rubes to hear about it.  I say rubes because that is plainly how the federal prosecutors see the jury.

More Post- Freddy Gray Bad News From Baltimore.  This Washington Post article about homicide rates in Baltimore is important for two reasons.  First, it confirms with updated statistics the killing spree that followed attacks on policing in Baltimore after Freddy Gray's accidental death.  Second, it demonstrates why recidivism rates based on arrest statistics vastly understate the amount of crime committed by those released for prison. [...] A depleted, demoralized police force is going to struggle to solve crimes, especially when crime is increasing.  And a police force that's demonized by politicians and the federal government is probably going to receive less help from residents in solving crimes than a force that's not under concerted assault.  But here's the point that's relevant to legislation, like the recent jailbreak bill, that results in less jail time for criminals, especially felons.  The inability of the police to solve crimes means that the recidivism statistics based on arrest rates vastly understate the amount of crime released prisoners actually commit.

More about Baltimore.

Biologically Male Transgender Inmate Moved To Women's Facility After Yearlong Legal Battle.  On Thursday, attorneys for 27-year-old Deon "Strawberry" Hampton announced that their client, a biological male who identifies as a female and is serving a ten-year prison sentence for residential burglary, would be transferred from a men's correctional facility to a women's correctional facility.  Hampton filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) in late-November 2017, demanding to be moved to a women's prison following 16 months of hormone therapy.  The lawsuit alleged that Hampton was the target of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of correctional officers at multiple facilities — first at Pinckneyville Correctional Center, then at Menard Correctional Center.

Federal Judge Orders Male Inmate Transferred To Women's Prison Because He Identifies As Female.  A man presenting as a woman is being sent to a previously all-female prison.  Deon Strawberry Hampton is serving a 10-year-sentence for burglary.  A federal judge has approved the Illinois inmate's transfer to a women's penitentiary.  27-year-old Strawberry claims he's endured years of sexual assault, taunting, and beatings at the male Big House.  He was moved this past week from his old prison bars in Dixon to all-new prison bars at the women's Logan Correctional Center.

Stand by for a wave of male prison inmates claiming to be transgender females.  Two federal judges now have ruled, setting the precedent of transferring a male prison inmate to a female prison because he claims to feel that he is a woman and poses as one, and, in the current instance, has undergone surgical mutilation of his reproductive organs.  The "transgender female" is referred to as a "woman" and "she" in the following report from the Associated Press:  ["]A transgender woman serving a 10-year sentence in Illinois for burglary has been moved from a men's to a women's prison in what could be a first for the state, her lawyers announced today.["]  The transfer was forced by a federal judge whom the AP does not wish to identify.  (Why?)  That judge evidently accepts the politically correct line that, contrary to settled science, sex is not determined by chromosomes.

Five homeless vagrants face no charges in attack on cop seen in viral video, says Manhattan DA.  Attacking a cop has joined fare beating and public urination on the list of subway misbehavior Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance won't bother prosecuting.  Officer Syed Ali — an Army combat vet who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — had no trouble fending off five homeless vagrants with his baton and his feet as they came at him one by one on Sunday night.  The attack, captured on video, was viewed 4 million times on Twitter.

NYPD officer fights off aggressive drunks in the subway but none of the attackers are charged.  While most of us were getting ready for Christmas, NYPD officer Syed Ali was working a transit beat in the NY subways Sunday night [12/23/2018].  This particular night, five intoxicated men were harassing a woman on the platform of the East Broadway station. [...] Officer Ali, who is a combat veteran, was praised by the Mayor and various NY authorities for dealing with the drunks without escalating the situation. [...] But some were upset that the men who harassed the subway rider and tried to fight a police officer were released and won't be charged with anything.

5 California deputies attacked, injured by jail inmates: sheriff's office.  Five deputies at a California correctional facility were hospitalized after they were attacked by inmates on Thursday morning.  The attacks happened around 7:30 a.m. as inmates were exchanging items in a hallway at the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.  The jail was placed on a temporary lockdown following the incident, which officials said was "quickly controlled."

Missouri man sentenced to watching 'Bambi' once a month as part of punishment.  A Missouri man charged with taking part in the illegal killing of "several hundred deer" was ordered to undergo an unusual punishment as part of his sentence.  David Berry Jr., part of a southwest Missouri family arrested for killing and leaving deer to rot after removing their heads, has been ordered to watch the animated Disney classic "Bambi" once a month while he is in prison, Fox News reported.

One percent of the population commits one eighth of the aggravated assaults in a city of four million.
Los Angeles Doubled its Homeless Budget, Doubled Homeless Crime.  It wasn't all that long ago that the nation watched transfixed in horror as fires tore apart California, destroying homes and claiming lives.  In all the debates about global warming and forestry management, one singular cause of the fire was left unaddressed.  Global warming wasn't starting the fires.  People were. [...] This November, the Los Angeles Zoo had to evacuate its animals over a fire in yet another homeless encampment.  That fire not only endangered lives, but diverted resources from fighting the much more serious fires in Ventura County.  But instead of shutting down the encampments, Mayor Garcetti, who has done more to legalize and subsidize homelessness in Los Angeles than any of his predecessors, sent "outreach workers" from the expanding behemoth of the LA Homeless Services Agency to ask them to please move.  That worked about as well as expected.

Escaped child killer missing for more than 40 years may be 'hiding in plain sight,' feds say.  A convicted child murderer who has eluded authorities for more than four decades may be living under an alias in one of two states and "hiding in plain sight," according to federal officials.  The U.S. Marshals Service added Lester Eubanks to its "15 Most Wanted List" on Dec. 7 in hopes of ending his 45-year stint on the lam.

Homeless Crime in LA is Up 50%.  You get more of what you subsidize.  When you subsidize homelessness as Los Angeles, New York and a number of other cities driving a boom in homelessness have been doing, you get more of it.  And you also get more of the crime that comes with it.

Homeless Crime Jumps Nearly 50 Percent in Los Angeles, LAPD Says.  The number of crimes in which homeless individuals were listed as suspects increased by nearly 50 percent in the city of Los Angeles in 2018.  Crime data provided by the Los Angeles Police Department showed there were 8,906 crime reports between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 this year in which a homeless person was listed as the suspect, compared with 5,976 for the same time period in 2017.  LAPD officials said most concerning were the disproportionate number of homeless individuals listed as suspects in physical attacks that cause serious injuries, described as, "aggravated assaults," in police records.

Jared:  The Birdbrain of Alcatraz.  As anyone with an amoeba's understanding of recent history knows, beginning in the early '60s, assorted [...] liberals jettisoned logic, common sense and a basic understanding of human nature by releasing criminals from the prisons where they belonged.  Instead of punishing criminals, we would give them social services, education and job training — with the implied understanding that they wouldn't move next door to any of the reformers.  The experts assured a disbelieving public that these policies would reduce crime.  As Thomas Sowell writes in The Vision of the Anointed:  Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy, the stage was set.  Liberal criminologists' soft-on-crime policies were in place.  We only needed empirical evidence.  "THE RESULTS:  Crime rates skyrocketed.  Murder rates suddenly shot up until the murder rate in 1974 was more than twice as high as in 1961.  Between 1960 and 1976, a citizen's chances of becoming a victim of a major violent crime tripled."  Prior to this period, crime had been declining for three decades.

The Anti-Trump Hysterics Roll On.  The rotten criminal justice system of the United States itself (99 percent conviction rate, 97 percent without trial) does not meet standards distinctly higher than some despotisms.

The Nixon 'Road Map' Won't Save Mueller's Futile Prosecution.  [Scroll down]  At least there was a crime at the Watergate and a few other places.  But both attempts at pseudo-legal putsches are and have been disgusting and profoundly illegal corruptions of the system, and contribute to an understanding of why the American prosecutors win a North Korean level 99 percent of their indictments, 97 percent without a trial, and the sweet land of liberty has six to 12 times as many incarcerated people per capita as comparable large and prosperous democracies:  Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Man killed woman hours after his release from prison, authorities say.  A man who police suspect of killing a woman hours after he was released from an Arizona prison was arrested Friday [11/23/2018] at a hotel, authorities said Saturday.  The suspect, identified as David Bohart, 34, had been released the Tucson state prison complex Monday after serving a three-year stint for possession or use of dangerous drugs, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections website.

Crime Plummets After QuikTrip Stores Add Good Guys with Guns.  QuikTrip convenience stores added good guys with guns in Wichita, Kansas, and the results were so good that they are expanding the program to stores in other areas.  The NRA noted, "After implementing the new strategy at its Wichita, Kansas locations and seeing success, QuikTrip, the massive gas station and convenience store chain said it would expand the policy to other stores."  KWCH reports that the good guys with guns will be armed security, but QuikTrip also left the door open to armed clerks in situations where the clerks "have previous experience and necessary licenses."

Whose fault is this?
Dallas jailers ordered transgender woman to show her genitals, lawsuit says.  A transgender woman has filed a federal lawsuit against Dallas County alleging jailers ordered her to show her genitalia to them so they could determine her sex.  Valerie Jackson, 32, had been arrested in November 2016 after she left a gun in her purse when she went through security at Dallas Love Field, but a grand jury declined to indict her on the weapons charge.  Her lawsuit, filed Friday [11/2/2018], alleges that she was harassed and humiliated at the jail and that her constitutional rights were violated.

When Laws Are Not Enforced, Anarchy Follows.  What makes citizens obey the law is not always their sterling character.  Instead, fear of punishment — the shame of arrest, fines or imprisonment — more often makes us comply with laws.  Law enforcement is not just a way to deal with individual violators but also a way to remind society at large that there can be no civilization without legality.  Or, as 17th-century British statesman George Savile famously put it:  "Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen."

Our Under-Incarceration Problem, Explosive Packages Edition.  This is a recurring but almost always ignored phenomenon.  In one high-profile case after another, we learn that the criminal is a chronic offender with a rap sheet that, in a properly functioning society, would have mandated his incarceration at the time of his latest offense.  Yet, Democrats and too many Republicans, including some in the White House, are dead set on increasing the number of convicted felons, including dealers of drugs like fentanyl, on the streets.  They want shorter sentences for such offenders and they want them released from jail early — an obvious recipe for more crime faster.  In short, the bipartisan leniency-for-felons crowd seeks to make our under-incarceration problem worse, even though doing so can only increase the occurrence of crime, including violent crime.

Inmates charged in 2 Ohio prison knife attacks.  Two Ohio inmates have been charged in separate knife attacks at a prison in assaults that severely wounded a guard and injured four prisoners who were unable to defend themselves because they were handcuffed to a table.

Jerry Brown's get-out-of-jail-free card in California.  Here's a story that's making the news in San Diego as a local district attorney protests, but it's actually a state problem that goes back to the usual lefty suspects, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown.  Thousands of murder convictions are likely to be vacated due to a change in state law that effectively says that if you were the guy sitting in the shotgun seat of the car as the other guy pulled the trigger, you get off scot-free — you're no longer convicted of murder, too.  The County of San Diego alone is set to release about 150 such charmers onto the streets, and the other 57 counties are going to have to do similar.  All told, about 800 of them are reportedly going to get let out.

Juvenile center brawl gets out of hand.  New video obtained by the [New York] Post shows the wild gang melee at the city's new juvenile center Wednesday [10/3/2018] that left 20 officers injured.  The footage, which begins mid-brawl, shows correction officers at the Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx frantically scrambling to get the teenage inmates under control.  [Video clip]

The new Mafia is wising up and keeping quiet.  Meet the new mob — same as the old mob.  Thirty-three years after John Gotti carried out his audacious hit on crime boss Paul Castellano, which flouted Mafia rules and brought a wave of devastating prosecutions under the Dapper Don's brash reign, New York's five crime families have reverted to their old-guard ways.  They're keeping quiet.  No more press conferences or TV appearances.  No more weekly meetings with capos at favorite restaurants or social clubs.  No more shootouts between warring factions.  No more wire rooms for taking wagers.

Nation's Largest Jail System To Host Voter Registration Event For 'Justice-Involved' Inmates.  Los Angeles County officials have organized a special event on Tuesday, National Voter Registration Day, targeting eligible inmates inside a downtown jail.  It's part of a government-ordered effort "to register as many justice-involved County residents as possible in advance of the November 2018 election."  County agencies leading a "voter engagement task force" have been working with the ACLU, anti-incarceration groups, and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, which operates seven custody centers that make up the nation's largest jail system.  The campaign, called "L.A. Free the Vote," was created "to strategize and guide voter registration efforts for justice-involved residents."

Florida man sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing $600 worth of cigarettes.  A Florida man who stole 10 cartons of cigarettes from a Circle K was sentenced to 20 years in state prison.  Robert Spellman, 48, was convicted of burglary and grand theft in August, according to the Pensacola News Journal, after he stole the cigarettes from a stock room in the store manager's office at the convenience store. [...] Spellman has 14 felony and 31 misdemeanor convictions on his résumé, making him a habitual felony offender.

The Editor says...
No, Mr. Spellman did not get 20 years for stealing ten cartons of cigarettes, as the headline above falsely asserts.  He got 20 years in the slammer because he is unwilling to obey the law and stay out of trouble.  Our society is a safer place because recalcitrant felons like Mr. Spellman are locked up.

Woman stole ambulance, led cops on chase, for 39th arrest since 2013: reports.  An Oregon woman charged with stealing an ambulance last Sunday while paramedics performed CPR on an unconscious woman had one question after her arrest, according to a report.  "Why did they leave it unlocked?," suspect Christy Lynn Woods, 37, of Roseburg, asked, according to an affidavit reviewed by the Oregonian. [...] It was Woods' eighth arrest this year, the report said.

Transgender woman accused of sexually assaulting inmates.  A transgender woman serving time at an all-female UK prison sexually assaulted four inmates at the facility, according to new reports.  Convicted sex offender Karen White, 52, who was born a man and identifies as a woman, confessed this week to two counts of sexual touching at New Hall Prison, in Wakefield, The Sun reported.  She denied the two other counts, according to the report.

Notorious baby-killer released after 30 years behind bars.  A New York woman convicted of killing her infant daughter in the 1980s and suspected of killing seven of her eight other children has been released from prison.  R29vZCBsdWNrIHdpdGggeW91ciBjYXJlZXIgYXQgUGxhbm5lZCBQYXJlbnRob29kLg==

California Gov. Jerry Brown Sets Record of 1,018 Pardons in 8 Years.  California Gov. Jerry Brown used his executive powers to issue 36 gubernatorial pardons on Friday, to hit a record of 1,018 pardons in eight years in office.  Although 22 of those were for murder and 13 for attempted murder or manslaughter, Brown said each of the pardons he provided went to individuals that had had "demonstrated exemplary behavior" and lived "productive and law-abiding lives" following their convictions and time served in prison, according to the Fresno Bee.

Lawmaker Proposes Implanting Microchips in People to Track Non-Violent Offenders Like "Pets".  This Tuesday [8/7/2018], Toledo City Councilman Rob Ludeman suggested that criminals be implanted with microchips so they can be tracked by police and the courts.  Ludeman also made comments essentially describing people charged with crimes as animals.  The councilman said, "this can't be inhumane because we do it to our pets."  Ludeman suggested that implantable microchips should be used instead of ankle bracelets for people doing time on house arrest because ankle bracelets don't work on the cop shows that he watches.

More about RFID.

Convicted child rapist escapes from Kansas prison three days after arrival.  A man convicted of raping a child escaped from a Kansas prison Saturday [8/4/2018] — just three days after his arrival, authorities said.  The inmate, identified as Robert Terrell, 36, jumped a fence on the west side of the Winfield Correctional Facility around 8:50 p.m., according to a Facebook post by the Cowley County Emergency Communications department.

'How could he be found competent after what he did?'.  The mental health therapist, one of a parade over the years, recommended Christian Gomez might try socializing a little more.  As if some coffee shop rendezvous would be therapeutic for an increasingly withdrawn schizophrenic who skinned and buried the family cat. [...] On the afternoon of Dec. 30, 2014, Christian's grandparents took him for a regularly scheduled visit with a therapist where it was decided the then-23-year-old needed to find a new psychiatrist.  The next day Christian cut off his mother's head.  He is crazy no more.  At least not according to the state of Florida.  After roughly three years in a state mental hospital, Christian Gomez, now 27, was declared competent to stand trial on July 9.  Facing a life sentence, he accepted a plea deal that effectively works out to a 25-year sentence followed by 10 years of probation and treatment.  Factor in time already served and the possibility of an early release, and he could potentially be free in another 20 years or so.

Dozens of locked up sex offenders among those granted conditional pardons by Gov. Cuomo so they can vote.  Dozens of convicted sexual predators deemed too dangerous to be returned to the community after their release from prison are among the thousands who received conditional pardons from Gov. Cuomo, giving them the right to vote, the Daily News has learned.  At least 77 sexual predators sent to civil confinement in state psychiatric hospitals after their prison time was up are affected by the widespread pardons, various records show.

Inmate chokes fellow prisoner to death on Rikers Island.  An inmate was killed when another prisoner blindsided him and choked him inside a facility on Rikers Island Monday [7/16/2018], sources said.  Artemio Rosa, 27, came up from behind the victim while he was sitting down in the Anna M. Kross Center and began to choke him, according to sources.  Corrections officers pried Rosa from the 35-year-old victim and called 911 — but the man collapsed and died before EMTs could revive him.

Alleged Cop Killer Should Have Been in Jail Due to Drug Charges.  Last week, Townhall reported the senseless killing of Weymouth, MA police officer Sgt. Michael Chesna on July 15th.  More than 3,000 people attended a vigil held in Chesna's honor this past week, but it turns out his alleged killer, Emanuel Lopes, should have been in jail due to violating the conditions of his bail on a drug-dealing charge from October 2017.  The Boston Herald reports that Emanuel Lopes was arrested in October 2017 for dealing cocaine to minors.

Minnesota inmate's bloody past comes to light after allegedly killing corrections officer.  A one-eyed inmate accused of killing a Minnesota corrections officer on this week has a history of violence — though his recent "good behavior" allowed him access to tools and an industrial building where the officer was killed, authorities said Thursday.  Edward Muhammad Johnson, 42, attacked and fatally injured Officer Joseph Gomm with a weapon, authorities said.  While authorities didn't name the type of weapon, reports say it was a hammer.  A preliminary autopsy showed Gomm died of blunt force trauma.

The Editor says...
In a more sensible world, killing a prison guard would result in an immediate transfer to death row.  Or straight to execution.

The Police State Abolishes the Trial.  Several years ago, the police entered the office of a young professor at a reputable university and arrested him for an online crime.  They took the professor away, booked him, and then offered him a deal:  admit guilt and get off easy.  The professor said to the few people to whom he was permitted to speak that this was crazy because he was innocent.  His lawyer warned him:  fight this and you could get life; admit guilt and you will get a suspended sentence.  He took the deal.  It was a trick.  Now he languishes in jail, his life wrecked as far into the future as he can see.  This doesn't happen in America, does it?  Yes, it does.  Not only that, it is increasingly the norm.

Man gets life term for beating 2 children to death, torturing a third.  A California man who was convicted of murdering two young children and torturing another with his lover in 2015, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Gangster State.  Consider what we are watching with our government.  News brings word that the US Attorney is dropping charges against the terrorists, who went on a rampage during the inauguration last year.  They announced this in a holiday week, so it would get the least amount of news coverage.  Now, they certainly could have looked into who financed the riot, who helped organize it and then went after the shot callers, but they never bothered to do that.  Instead, they sat on it until people forgot about it and then dropped the case.  Now, we have mountains of laws for dealing with self-defined criminal groups.  The Feds could go after a Lacy MacAuley, who details her activities on-line, in order to figure out who pays her rent.  Then they could go after that person or group.  This is basic police work.  At the very minimum, the people financing these terrorists would know they have some exposure, but that never happens.  You see, everyone knows who finances Antifa and other terrorists operations and they have friends in high places.

Ex-New York Chief Judge:  It's time to end cash bail.  As the former chief judge of New York, I have seen that money bail doesn't work.  In New York, like most states, a person who is charged with a crime can be required to put down money as bail, serving as collateral to ensure he or she returns to court.  If you can pay, you go home.  If you can't, you go to jail.  In other words, if you are wealthy, you can fight your charges from home with the help of high-end lawyers.  If you aren't, you may have to defend yourself from behind bars, represented by a public defender who is hard-pressed and more than likely overloaded with other cases.  In New York City, only 12 percent of the people who have bail set can pay immediately.  The other 88 percent are transported to the infamous jail complex on Rikers Island.

Gangbangers arrested for killing teen getting protection in jail.  The eight gangbangers accused of butchering innocent teen Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz are getting special treatment in jail, according to law enforcement sources.  The men — all variously charged with murder in the 15-year-old's grisly mistaken-identity slaying — have been moved out of the general population because they are getting threats, sources said.  Some are being held at Rikers Island and the rest at other jails.  Each time one of them is moved, all other inmate transfers are put on hold — and the suspects are accompanied by several correction officers and a captain who film the transfer, the source said.

Florida man sent back to jail after not paying for taxi ride home from jail.  Authorities say a Florida man was returned to jail shortly after his release because he couldn't pay the taxi driver that took him home from the jail.  Florida Today reports that 40-year-old Charles Folk was arrested Thursday morning [6/28/2018] and charged with petty theft.  Melbourne police say Folk hailed a taxi outside the Brevard County Jail Complex in Cocoa shortly after midnight.  After traveling 30 miles to his Melbourne home, Folk told the driver that neither his sister nor his roommate could help him pay the $70 fare.  The driver called the police.

Senator wants to know how police can locate any phone in seconds without a warrant.  A senator is demanding that the FCC investigate why a company, contracted to monitor calls of prison inmates, also allows police to track phones of anyone in the US without a warrant.  The bombshell story in The New York Times revealed Securus, a Texas-based prison technology company, could track any phone "within seconds" by obtaining data from cellular giants — including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon — typically reserved for marketers.  The report said former Mississippi County sheriff Cory Hutcheson used the service nearly a dozen times to track the phones of other offices, and even targeted a judge.

Service Meant to Monitor Inmates' Calls Could Track You, Too.  Thousands of jails and prisons across the United States use a company called Securus Technologies to provide and monitor calls to inmates.  But the former sheriff of Mississippi County, Mo., used a lesser-known Securus service to track people's cellphones, including those of other officers, without court orders, according to charges filed against him in state and federal court.  The service can find the whereabouts of almost any cellphone in the country within seconds.  It does this by going through a system typically used by marketers and other companies to get location data from major cellphone carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, documents show.

Study: No Racial Difference in Police Shootings Compared to Crime Rates.  Black Americans are not more likely to be shot by the police than White Americans in proportion to each group's rate of interaction with the police, as measured by crime rate, a new study argues.  The report, by psychologists Joseph Cesario and David Johnson and criminologist William Terrill, analyzes trends in fatal shootings by police in 2015 and 2016 using a variety of data sources.  Measuring racial disparities in police use of force is a touchy subject.  High-profile shootings of black men by police have been a focal point for Blacks Lives Matter and similar groups, which see such shootings as both endemic of larger police abuses and an epidemic in their own right.

Chief: NYPD's Gang Database is 99% Minorities.  The 17,000 individuals named in the NYPD's gang registry are 99 percent black or Latino, Chief of Detectives Dermot F. Shea revealed this week, according to the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.  Shea, testifying Wednesday before the City Council's Committee on Public Safety, was talking publicly for the first time about one of the department's most popular crime-fighting tools.  He said the database is 65 percent African Americans, 24 percent non-white Hispanics, and 10 percent black Hispanics.  He said the average age of those included is 27 and that 1,460 of those listed are younger than 18.

Thefts rise after California reduces criminal penalties.  California voters' decision to reduce penalties for drug and property crimes in 2014 contributed to a jump in car burglaries, shoplifting and other theft, researchers reported.

Another Terrorist Sues the Bureau of Prisons.  Add convicted terrorist Rafiq Sabir to the growing list of incarcerated radical Islamic terrorists who are suing the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for allegedly violating their rights.  Sabir is serving a 25 year sentence after a 2007 conviction for conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida.  Sabir's attorneys argued "that he was a gullible man" and only pretended to pledge bayat to al-Qaida to impress someone.  U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska saw it differently.  She felt that Sabir lacked remorse and imposed the stricter sentence to deter others who would seek to join a terrorist organization.

Dozens of pencils, 7 tweezers found inside inmate's 'birth canal': Georgia sheriff's office.  Pencils, tweezers and hair pins were discovered inside a female inmate this week, according to a Georgia sheriff's office.  The writing utensils were captured in a snap the Oconee County Sheriff's Office put on Facebook Thursday [6/7/2018].

The Editor says...
I suspect it was the misuse of her "birth canal" that landed her in jail initially.

30 percent of federal prisoners are immigrants, DOJ/DHS reports.  Immigrants accounted for more than 30 percent of the federal prison population and nearly all of them are confirmed or suspected illegal immigrants, the government said in a new report Tuesday [6/5/2018].  The government said it had 57,820 migrants in its prisons as of Dec. 31, Homeland Security and the Justice Department said in the joint report.  Nearly 20,000 other immigrants were held in pretrial detention by the U.S. Marshals Service, most of them in contracted facilities, costing the government $134 million for just three months.  That works out to nearly $90 a day for each person in those contract facilities.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions said there shouldn't be any illegal immigrants in prisons, because they shouldn't have been in the country in the first place.

Soros becomes the kiss of death for his own handpicked DA candidates.  Is Soros money becoming the kiss of death for candidates who take it?  Sure looks like it, based on the miserable poll performance of Soros's little pawn in the San Diego district attorney's race. [...] Soros, remember, had this master plan to take over district attorney offices in key cities across America and seed them with his hand-picked anti-law enforcement candidates.  The plan was to get people in office who would let crooks out of jail to effectively reduce the quality of life for the middle-class law-abiding people he has such a problem with.

Facebook Cofounder's Wife Bankrolls BLM Activist Shaun King's PAC.  The wife of a Facebook cofounder has provided a bulk of the funding to a political action committee that was co-founded by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist Shaun King to target district attorney races across the country in an attempt to "fight structural racism."  Liberal activists and entities, such as billionaire George Soros and the Color of Change PAC, have quietly flooded local district attorney races across the country with cash and organizational support in an attempt to overhaul the criminal justice system by electing far-left DAs.  King, who first spoke to media on the formation of the Real Justice PAC in February, told the Huffington Post at the time that "No position in America, no single individual has a bigger impact on the criminal justice system — including police brutality, but the whole crisis of mass incarceration in general — than your local district attorney."

Staggering DOJ study: 83 percent of prisoners re-arrested within 9 years of release.  Last Wednesday, the DOJ released an updated study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics showing that 83 percent of prisoners released by states under jailbreak programs similar to what the bipartisan cabal is promoting in Washington were re-arrested within nine years of their release.  So much for the recidivism argument for early release programs.  Unfortunately, the House was in such a rush to pass this bill even without a CBO score that the DOJ report didn't come out until a day later.

New York cop killer released from prison given right to vote under new Cuomo policy.  A cop killer recently released from prison will get another added benefit of freedom:  the right to vote.  Herman Bell, 70, who served 44 years in prison for the murder of two New York police officers in the 1970s, was granted parole last month by the state parole board.  But a fresh decision by New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to issue conditional pardons to more than 24,000 parolees means Bell can vote in the upcoming election.

A First Step for Prison Reform.  The First Step Act establishes new tools for prison management to conduct ongoing risk assessments of each prisoner, evaluating the likelihood of the prisoner recommitting a crime.  The profiling also establishes a basis for programs and job training to assist in rehabilitation of these individuals.  Prisoners productively participating in these programs, and showing progress in behavior and attitudes, are rewarded with increased phone time, visits, and transfers to facilities closer to their homes and families.  Those achieving a low-risk profile of recidivism may be eligible for at-home confinement or for being transferred to halfway houses for the final period of their sentences.

Cuomo issues pardons officially giving parolees voting rights.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued conditional pardons restoring voting rights to more than 24,000 parolees — including cop killer Herman Bell, who was released from prison last month.  The pardons cover 24,086 ex-cons who are currently under parole supervision, the governor's office said Tuesday [5/22/2018].  Cuomo issued an executive order last month which gave him the authority to issue pardons so ex-cons could vote while on parole.  Bell is among the among the felons whose voting rights were reinstated, records show.

Liberalism's Impact on Abhorrent Behavior.  Instead of strongly enforcing the rule of law, liberals purport that people shouldn't be held responsible for their behavior via formal punishment.  This has strangled the justice system for over two decades.  It manifests in failed social engineering experiments like community corrections that allow a violent repeat offender to walk among the law-abiding public.  That does not teach such an offender that their behavior won't be tolerated.  Consequently, such criminals do not learn about their wrongdoings, continue to engage in antisocial behavior, and reoffend.

Transgender:  AG Sessions Ends Obama's Mixed-Sex Prison Policy.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions' deputies are ending President Barack Obama's last-minute decision to impose the transgender ideology in federal prisons.  Obama's January 2017 transgender policy directed prison officials to allow men to move into women's prisons if the men claim a female "gender identity."  Sessions' revised policy says officials "will use biological sex as the initial determination" when assigning people to either male or female prisons, according to the policy document published May 11 by Buzzfeed.

500 Driving Mile Rule and Restoring Congressional Intent to Truth in Sentencing Law.  The crux of the bill is that it would require the implementation of evidence-based recidivism reduction programming in federal prisons and allow eligible offenders to earn time credits to serve part of their sentence in home confinement, halfway houses, or community supervision.  It also has other long overdue provisions, mostly related to prisoner re-entry into society.  The bill is modeled after the reforms in more than 30 states, including Georgia and Texas, to reduce recidivism and enhance public safety.

Justices: No Life-Without-Parole Presumption for Juveniles.  North Carolina's highest court says there's no legal presumption young people convicted of first-degree murder should receive life in prison without parole.

$46,654: Annual Cost of Detaining Illegal Alien Exceeds Average American Income.  The federal government paid a "bed rate" of $127.82 per day to house each illegal alien detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in fiscal 2016, according to ICE data published in a new report by the Government Accountability Office.  Even if you do not count the extra day in that leap year, that works out to $46,654.30 for each detention bed occupied by an illegal alien for 365 days.  The approximately $46,654 it cost to house a detained illegal alien for 365 days in fiscal 2016 was approximately $104 more than the average income for Americans 15 and older that year — which, according to Census Bureau Table PINC-01, was $46,550.

Transgender inmate sues prison over witchcraft rights.  A transgender inmate is suing a North Carolina prison, saying it's blocking her from practicing witchcraft.

Violent crime by juveniles up sharply since Broward County adopted PROMISE program.  Broward County's PROMISE program (which stands for Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Supports & Education) coincides with higher levels of violent crime among juveniles, even as levels of such crime have been falling statewide.  Broward County adopted the PROMISE program in 2013 at the urging of the Obama Education Department.  As Ed pointed out last month, based on a story by Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations, the move away from arrests even for repeat offenders appears to help explain why school shooter Nikolas Cruz was able to engage in violence and even bring bullets to school without any arrests or legal consequences.  Sunday, Sperry published a follow up looking more broadly at the results of the PROMISE program.  He found those results don't match up with the claims of its supporters.

Texas inmates go on hunger strike after feces-throwing sparks lockdown.  Several inmates at a Texas prison north of Houston are on a hunger strike after their unit was locked down because they were berating guards and throwing feces, the Houston Chronicle has reported.  The hunger strike began Friday [4/13/2018] after inmates at the Wynne Unit in Hunstville [sic] were put on lockdown for "an uptick in infractions, including verbal abusiveness toward officers and 'chunking,' or throwing bodily fluids," according to the Chronicle.  Officials said the 17 inmates participating in the strike are being monitored by medical staff; 156 total are on lockdown.

Prosecutors in D.C. Focus on 'Restorative Justice' for Juvenile Offenders.  D.C. Chief Deputy Attorney General Natalie Ludaway said all of the District of Columbia's prosecutors consider themselves "progressive prosecutors." [...] Using the example of a young person stealing someone's smartphone, Ludaway touted the benefits of the district's Alternatives to the Court Experience (ACE) Diversion Program.  Ludaway said the young person might be arrested for the crime and "generally held in lock-up, and then that morning our prosecutor goes through the list and really making very quick decisions of how that youth should be treated."  "If the youth receives diversion, we work with a program called ACE diversion and ACE diversion, for $4,000, for that youth, $4,000 over a 6-month period, that youth, instead of entering the criminal justice system, will be given mentorships, mental health, monitoring in school; sometimes it means being able to go to activities, to museums," she said.  According to Ludaway, the $4,000 diversion estimate compares to probation at $40,000 and confinement at $70,000.

The Editor says...
I'd rather see the government spend $40,000 and keep the thief out of circulation for a while.  He wasn't going to the museum anyway.  Moreover, there is no such thing as "mass incarceration."  There's never a trial at the county courthouse at which 500 juvenile defendants are convicted at once.  Large prison populations exist because this country has so many godless, fatherless, poorly educated and amoral young men who act like baboons.

Seven inmates killed at South Carolina maximum-security prison after hours of fighting.  Gang-related fights over territory and over cellphones and other contraband provoked nearly eight hours of rioting at a maximum-security prison in South Carolina, where seven prisoners were killed amid the chaos, state corrections officials said Monday [4/16/2018].  All the dead at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville were killed by their fellow prisoners, and were mostly stabbed or slashed with homemade knives, authorities said.  An additional 17 inmates were injured and treated at hospitals.

South Carolina prison riot leaves seven inmates dead.  Seven prisoners have been killed and at least 17 others injured in a riot at a maximum security prison in the US state of South Carolina, officials say.  Violence erupted at the prison facility on Sunday evening [4/15/2018] and was brought under control in the early hours of Monday.  "This was all about territory, this was about contraband," the South Carolina Department of Corrections said.

Judge says torching victim can testify from beyond the grave at boyfriend's trial for her murder.  A woman who died after being set on fire by her boyfriend will testify at his murder trial from beyond the grave.  Judy Malinowski, 33, died in August 2017, two years after being torched by her boyfriend Michael Slager outside a gas station near Columbus, Ohio, in June 2015 but recorded a video in hospital before she lost her fight for life.  Slager goes on trial for her murder in July, and in a rare move, a judge has allowed the interview Malinowski gave from her hospital bed to be heard by the jury.  The judge ruled Friday [4/13/2018].

Alabama teen turns down 25-year plea deal, gets sentenced to 65 years instead, and laughs.  An Alabama teen laughed Thursday as a judge sentenced him to 65 years in prison for murder and theft after he rejected a plea deal that would have given him 25 years behind bars.  Lakeith Smith, 18, of Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced to 65 years by Judge Sibley Reynolds for "felony murder, armed burglary, second-degree theft and third-degree theft," FOX8 LIVE reported.  Smith smiled and laughed while being sentenced at the Elmore County courthouse.  He had turned down a plea deal that would have recommended he spend 25 years in prison on the charges.

'Palm Sunday Massacre' killer freed from prison and believed to be living in New York.  The killer who took the lives of eight children and two young mothers in 1984 in Brooklyn in what has been called the 'Palm Sunday Massacre' has been released from prison, despite multiple denials of parole.  Christopher Thomas, now 68, was convicted of the mass shooting and sentenced in 1985 to 25-50 years, but was released on January 5 and is now believed to be living in Queens, New York.

Drones delivering contraband to prisons [is] a budding problem.  A package of contraband covered in grass clippings that was dropped by a drone at a Panhandle prison is one of the most recent examples of inmates using advanced technology to smuggle illegal items behind prison walls.

Why is the death penalty for drug-traffickers controversial?  President Trump is proposing that the death penalty be used for drug-traffickers.  Most of the reporting I have seen presents that as a controversial, radical, dictatorial proposal. [...] I would think CNN and other supposed journalists point out that the death penalty for drug-traffickers has been on the books since 1988 and was greatly expanded in 1994, when Democrats controlled the government, but they seem to either forget or intentionally ignore the actual laws.

NY Lawmaker Blasts State Board for Paroling Double Cop Killer.  A New York City lawmaker ripped the New York State Parole Board for agreeing to release a former Black Liberation Army member convicted of murdering two NYPD officers.  State Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge) said the board's membership was recently shuffled and that the members were nominated by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D).

Obama DOJ Forced FBI To Delete 500,000 Fugitives From Background Check Database.  The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich testified Wednesday [3/14/2018].  Fugitives from justice are barred from buying a firearm under federal law.  But what is a fugitive from justice?  That definition has been under debate by the FBI and the ATF.  According to The Washington Post, the FBI considered any person with an outstanding arrest warrant to be a fugitive.  On the other hand, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives defined a fugitive as someone who has an outstanding arrest warrant and has crossed state lines.

Steyer Works to End Bail Payments for Criminal Defendants in California.  Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, who has been pushing for President Donald Trump's impeachment and recently spent $3 million to register Latino voters, also is working hard this week to resuscitate a California state bill that would end the process of demanding thousands of dollars in cash bail from suspected criminals.

25 cities where crime is soaring.  Violent crime is a broad designation consisting of the most egregious infractions — aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder.  According to the FBI, there were 386 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the United States in 2016.  While the crime rate has fluctuated slightly in recent years, the incidence of violent crime in the United States remains effectively unchanged from half a decade ago.  The national violent crime rate does not tell the whole story, however.  Crime is a local issue, and in some parts of the country, violence is surging.

CNN Admits:  U.S. Town Where Guns Are Required Has Had Only 1 Murder in 6 Years.  CNN admitted in a report on March 6, 2018, that a Georgia town requiring gun ownership has only seen one murder in six years and maintains a violent crime rate of less than two percent.  CNN reports that Kennesaw, Georgia, adopted an ordinance in 1982 requiring the head of every household to "maintain a firearm."  CNN suggested the law requiring gun ownership is not actually enforced, but it simultaneously reported that the town of Kennesaw has only witnessed one murder in the past six years.  In other words, just the common knowledge that guns are in the hands of law-abiding citizens appears to restrain the actions of criminals.

Suspect in Chicago cop's death got off easy for major parole violations, records suggest.  The suspect who allegedly gunned down Chicago police Commander Paul Bauer near City Hall earlier this month received an unusually light sentence for major parole violations in 2007, court records show.  The documents, reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times, reveal that Bauer's accused killer, Shomari Legghette, dodged up to 30 years in prison when he was booked for the violations that year.  At the time of his 2007 sentencing, Legghette was on parole following an armed robbery conviction that landed him a 16-year sentence, and prison time from 1998 to 2005.

How a list of 23 crimes now dominates California's debate over prison punishment.  California has a long history of mixing crime and punishment with raw politics.  But outrage doesn't always translate into coherent policy, and unintended consequences can spark even more public anger.  With that in mind, consider the last two years of debate over what should, and should not, be a "violent" crime.  That debate begins with the index of crimes in section 667.5 of the California Penal Code.  The list was first enacted in 1976, and has been tinkered with so many times it's hard to say whether it's a fair representation of the most heinous crimes.

Court ends bail for illegal aliens.  The headline in the Washington Times was close but no cigar:  "Illegal immigrants have no automatic right to freedom, Supreme Court rules."  Oh they have a right to freedom.  Just not here.  They are free to go home in the paradises they left behind.  President Trump is helping them get home.  "Immigrants being held for deportation don't have an automatic right under the law to post bond and be set free, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a decision that could give the Trump administration more freedom to pursue stiff detention policies for illegal immigrants who show up at the border claiming asylum," Stephen Dinan of the Times wrote.

Rates of unsolved murder by state.  News reports based on FBI statistics show that somewhere between 35%-40% of homicides in the US go unsolved in the US today.  Uniform Crime Reporting data, available at the state level (excluding Florida), show that right at one-third of homicide offenders remain racially unidentifiable.

   District of Columbia   56.1%
   Illinois               55.4%
   Maryland               46.1%
   New York               44.0%
   California             43.9%
   Massachusetts          43.8%
   Rhode Island           42.0%
   New Jersey             41.8%
   Michigan               38.8%
   Connecticut            37.1%

Stepping Up initiative seeks to keep mentally ill out of jail.  So the Lorain County Board of Mental Health and the Lorain County Sheriff's Office along with several community partners ranging from local police departments and the court system are participating in an innovative program aimed at intervention and redirection.  According to the national Stepping Up initiative, each year more than two million people suffering from severe mental illnesses find themselves incarcerated turning county jails into makeshift psychiatric facilities and making it more difficult for those in need to receive the care they need.

New York City prison guard seriously injured in attack by 6 inmates, authorities say.  In what authorities said was a premeditated beatdown, a gang of six Rikers Island prison inmates attacked a New York City correction officer Saturday [2/10/2018].  The unidentified 39-year-old officer was hospitalized in serious condition, Michael Skelly, a spokesman for the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, told the New York Post.  Media reports said the officer had suffered a broken neck or "fractured spine."

Worst Responders.  Latent within the idea of gun control is the notion that guns increase aggregate danger, and if prohibited, police and other professionals might easily protect the disarmed populace from any remaining guns, as well as other risks.  This is a dubious hope.  We have relatively few police in this country, and they are spread very thin, particularly in rural areas.  As the saying goes, "when seconds count, the police are minutes away."  As a general matter, police investigate crimes after they are completed.  Their deterrent effect consists primarily in the general threat of detection and incarceration.

San Francisco Prisons Implement Reforms Giving Transgenders Special Treatments.  San Francisco prisons formally announced they are implementing a policy for transgenders that will respect their gender preferences, house them in the cells of their chosen identity, and offer other gender identity services.  The San Francisco Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday [2/21/2018] that inmates who identify as transgender, gender variant or non-binary will be able to choose a name and gender identity upon entering the prison.  They will also get to determine if a man or woman will search them before they're admitted into the prison, according to CBS San Fransisco.

Second, Third, and Fourth Chances — at What Price?  The deincarceration movement, which would return thousands of convicts to American streets, presents a threat to public safety.  Repeat offenders already commit a substantial portion of the nation's violent crime — according to one study, 53 percent of killers have at least one prior felony conviction.  They will be walking the streets in greater numbers if deincarceration advocates have their way.  Consider a few examples.  In October 2017, Radee Prince shot and killed three people in Maryland.  Prince, it turns out, had 42 prior arrests and 15 prior felony convictions. [...]

New York City prison guard seriously injured in attack by 6 inmates, authorities say.  In what authorities said was a premeditated beatdown, a gang of six Rikers Island prison inmates attacked a New York City correction officer Saturday [2/10/2018].  The unidentified 39-year-old officer was hospitalized in serious condition, Michael Skelly, a spokesman for the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, told the New York Post.  Media reports said the officer had suffered a broken neck or "fractured spine."

Is California Starting to Circle the Drain?  I recently became a crime victim for one of the few times in my life.  My car was burgled while I was up in the Bay Area on my weekly sojourn to the Peoples Republic of Berkeley.  I say "burgled" rather than "broken into," because there was no smashed window, or picked lock, nor did I leave the car unlocked.  Rather, I was the victim of a clever gang of organized car burglars in the Bay Area who are using sophisticated scanners to copy and boost the key-fob signal for recent model keyless entry and ignition cars.  Once you latch on to the signal, the car door unlocks at the touch of your hand, as people with such models know. [...] This kind of activity is epidemic in the Bay Area right now.  There were 30,000 car thefts reported in San Francisco last year (much higher in the Bay Area as a whole).  The police are doing very little about it.

Inmate's Weave Hid Coke, Meth, 78 Doses Of LSD.  A Pennsylvania inmate had 78 doses of LSD, cocaine, methamphetamine, and a glass pipe stashed under her hair weave, contraband the woman apparently smuggled into the lockup following a prior arrest, according to court records.  Carema Lashandra Brown, 29, was booked into the Jefferson County jail on January 5 after she was charged with two felony theft counts.  Unable to post $60,000 bail, Brown was detained at the jail in Brookville, a borough about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.  Within a week of Brown's arrival, jail personnel began investigating the distribution of narcotics inside the facility.  During questioning, two female inmates — whose recorded phone calls indicated they had been using LSD — confessed that they obtained the acid from Brown.

Parents of slain Pizza Hut robber angry that victim used a gun against him.  Self-defense is regarded as a right deriving from natural law.  But that offers no justification to the parents of Michael Grace, Jr. of Charlotte, NC, who was shot to death while attempting to rob a Pizza Hut. [...] I may be an extremist, but it seems to me that if one decides to commit a crime, the victims should have more rights than the perpetrator, especially the right to defend themselves from the presumption of violence that accompanies a robbery, home invasion, or other property crime.

The 'War on Crime' has failed.  Here's a better battle plan.  Since President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Crime" in 1965, politicians have been embracing tough-on-crime policies every election cycle.  Unfortunately, this has exacted a horrific toll.  The U.S. crime rate has never fallen below 1965 levels, and the incarceration rate now approaches that of North Korea.  What 50 years of uninterrupted bipartisan tough-on-crime policies have produced is a 16 percent higher crime rate, a near doubling of violent crime, and thousands of murders.  The population equivalent of Houston is behind bars, while the public is less safe than a half-century ago.  Lady Justice has cast her scales aside in disgust and fallen on her sword.

The Editor says...
"The public is less safe that a half-century ago" because there are not enough people behind bars, and more violent criminals enter this country every day.  Other factors include poor education, the Ferguson Effect, violent movies and video games, and fatherlessness.

Democracy's Highest Crime and Misdemeanor.  Is there sufficient decency and courage in the midst of Washington's swamp to compel the pursuit of justice wherever in the Ruling Class it leads and then to prosecute the lawbreakers — whomever they are?  First, it's vital to understand that when you give a pass — or worse you give multiple successive passes — to lawbreakers, you not only protect those who violated the law, but you empower and encourage would-be lawbreakers to do the same or worse.  Second, when laws are not enforced they cease to have meaning.

Convicted Muslim rapist sues state over failure to provide sharia meals.  An inmate has sued Oregon Department of Corrections staff for failing to serve meals that observe his Muslim faith.  Rashid Kambarov, 29, who is serving a sentence for rape, filed a complaint this week in U.S. District Court in Pendleton.  He is a legal permanent resident from Turkey and is incarcerated at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla.  He is suing the superintendent of Two Rivers, Troy Bowser, and other administrators at the prison.

The Real Gender Gap:  Family Breakdown and Black Males.  Data from the state of Virginia shows a strong association between single parent households and violent crime. [...] According to the Heritage Foundation, black illegitimacy rose exponentially halfway through the 1960s.  This is precisely when the perverse incentives of Johnson's "War on Poverty" were being implemented.

What could go wrong?  NY to give tablet computers to 51,000 prison inmates.  Good news for every inmate in New York State prisons:  Each of you will soon be receiving your own tablet computer.  The free tablets for all 51,000 state prisoners are being sold to the public as an opportunity to educate prisoners for a law-abiding life when their sentence is completed.  Although inmates will not have uncontrolled Internet access, prison system officials say the individual devices will help prisoners keep in touch with their families and become better prepared to reenter lawful society.

The Editor says...
I thought that was what the weight room was for.

Coast Guard rape conviction overturned after court's scathing attack on women-packed jury.  The nation's highest military court has thrown out the 2012 rape conviction of a Coast Guard enlisted man because admirals and prosecutors packed the seven-member jury with five women, four of whom held jobs as advocates for victims of sexual assault.  In a 5-0 ruling that could change how the military conducts sex abuse trials, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces unleashed caustic criticism of all involved. [...] Ten jurors were selected, and seven of them were women.  Of those jurors, five women and two men heard evidence, deliberated and rendered a verdict.  Of those five women, four were assigned as advocates for victims of sexual misconduct.

Inmates destroy an Ohio prison with broken metal furniture in violent riots.  Teenage inmates at a Ohio juvenile prison have been caught on camera destroying the facility during a violent riot.  Six inmates have since been charged over the January 8 incident at the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center in Cleveland.  The sheriff's department SWAT team was called in after the teens — aged 14 and 15 — used broken metal furniture to smash security glass and barricade themselves into cell blocks.

The Editor says...
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Man who fled country after fatal Tampa DUI crash gets 15 years in prison.  Many of William Angel's family and friends were willing to forgive Christopher Ponce for taking his life in a wrong-way drunken driving crash.  But in 2013, Ponce cut off a court-ordered electronic monitor and fled.  For the victims, that made a difference.

Inmates in California prison hospital riot after crackdown on child porn.  In the case of Coalinga State Hospital, located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles around 57 miles southwest of Fresno, it was opened in 2005 as a self-contained, 1,286 beds, psychiatric hospital with a security perimeter.  Most of the hospital's forensically committed patients are sexually violent predators.  Red Pill reports for The Goldwater that on January 14, 2018, patients at Coalinga State Hospital overtook the facility in a major riot after hospital staff removed all electronics equipment from the patients due to the widespread sharing and distribution of child pornography.  The staff deprived the patients of access to the Internet — and to child porn — as a result of a Department of State Hospitals emergency regulation that blocks the patients' "possession, viewing, and distribution of illicit materials" by barring them from possessing digital memory storage devices such as flash drives or thumb drives, hard drives such as those in computers, memory cards, digital media players, and digital media burners.  Prior to the crackdown, "patients," including convicted violent sex predators, were allowed compact disc and digital video disc players, as well as Internet access — in a prison hospital!

Activists make the case for 'a world without prisons' in new Black Lives Matter memoir.  Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele, authors of the new book When They Call You a Terrorist:  A Black Lives Matter Memoir, are self-described "prison abolitionists." [...] Khan-Cullors, a cofounder of the Black Lives Matter hashtag and subsequent movement, called upon acclaimed journalist and author Bandele to compose the memoir.  The pages reveal the racial profiling and police brutality that Khan-Cullors and her family have experienced, the circumstances that led to the formation of one of the most controversial civil rights movements, and the way in which her narrative of black liberation has been branded as "terrorism."

75 women have been strangled or smothered in Chicago since 2001. Most of their killers got away.  Over the last 17 years, at least 75 women have been strangled or smothered in Chicago and their bodies dumped in vacant buildings, alleys, garbage cans, snow banks.  Arrests have been made in only a third of the cases, according to a first-ever analysis by the Tribune.  While there are clusters of unsolved strangulations on the South and West sides, police say they've uncovered no evidence of a serial killer at work.  If they are right, 51 murderers have gotten away with their crime.

Rate of Imprisonment for Black Adults Falls 29% Over Decade.  The rate of imprisonment for black adults fell almost 30 percent over a decade, according to a Wednesday [1/10/2018] report from the Department of Justice.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics released its statistics on the United States prison population and the rate of imprisonment among different groups, according to a release from the bureau.  Among its findings was that black Americans' rate of imprisonment declined by 29 percent between 2006 and 2016.

One in Fifteen Oregon Prisoners Is a Criminal Alien; Nearly Half Convicted of Sex Crimes.  The murder of Kate Steinle in California highlighted the fact that we have a serious criminal illegal alien problem in this country.  Many of these individuals, after breaking the law to enter the country, go on to commit other crimes — theft, rape, and even murder.  David Olen Cross released a December 2017 report based on Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) data, announcing that there are "973 foreign nationals (criminal aliens) incarcerated in the state's prison system."  Oregon has 14,739 inmates incarcerated in its 14 prisons scattered across the state.  "Approximately one in every fifteen prisoners incarcerated by the state was a criminal alien, 6.60 percent of the total prison population," the report said.  According to Cross, all of the 973 criminal aliens currently in the state's prisons were identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  Anytime that happens, DOC officials will place an "ICE detainer" on the inmate.  "After the inmate completes his/her state sanction, prison officials will transfer custody of the inmate to ICE," he said.

President Trump's Murder Report Card.  One reason Donald Trump is president is because of the Obama administration's own goal in setting off a major murder wave in Ferguson in 2014, in an era when both technology and prosperity should have been lowering the death toll from crime. [...] The FBI won't release its 2017 murder statistics for many months.  But to shed light on the important question of how the Trump administration is doing, I've sifted through year-end local newspaper reports and police department databases from the 51 biggest municipalities in America.  The impact of the Ferguson Effect is statistically vivid in Ferguson's neighbor St. Louis, where the number of homicides ranged from 113 to 120 from 2011 to 2013.  Then in 2014, when the Obama administration and the prestige press took the side of anti-police rioters in promoting the Michael Brown fake news, homicides jumped to 159.  Killings numbered 188 the next two years, and in 2017 had reached 205 by Dec. 29.  While St. Louis used to be the fourth-biggest city in America back when it hosted the 1904 Olympics, it is now merely the 61st-largest city, with only 311,000 people.  So St. Louis' murder rate (65.8 per 100,000 in 2017) is now 27 times that of increasingly utopian San Diego (2.4), the least murderous of the country's fifty biggest cities.

Two Thieving Thugs Attempt Burglary At Detroit Power Station, Get "Shocking" Surprise.  I'm sure it won't be long before the families of these two clowns are suing the city to try to turn this incident into a payday.  These guys were trying to steal instead of working for a living.  In my opinion, they got what they deserved for being criminals and for being stupid.  I am curious about whether either of them could read the "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE" signs posted all around that building.

More whites, less crime.
Don't Take the Wrong Lessons from NYC's Murder Drop.  New York City's formerly high-crime neighborhoods have experienced a stunning degree of gentrification over the last 15 years, thanks to the proactive-policing-induced conquest of crime.  It is that gentrification which is now helping fuel the ongoing crime drop.  Urban hipsters are flocking to areas that once were the purview of drug dealers and pimps, trailing in their wake legitimate commerce and street life, which further attracts law-abiding activity and residents in a virtuous cycle of increasing public safety.  The degree of demographic change is startling.  In Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, for example, the number of white residents rose 1,235 percent from 2000 to 2015, while the black population decreased by 17 percent, reports City Lab.  In Bushwick, Brooklyn, the number of whites rose 610 percent over that same decade and a half; the black population was down 22 percent.  Central Harlem's white population rose 846 percent; the black share dropped 10 percent.  In 2000, whites were about three-quarters of the black population in Brownsville-Ocean Hill; by 2015, there were twice as many whites as blacks.  In 2000, whites were one-third of the black population in Crown Heights North and Prospect Heights; now they exceed the black population by 20,000.

Wrong-footing the NYPD.  New York's city council passed a controversial package of bills this week collectively called the Right to Know Act.  The laws require police to provide business cards to almost everyone they encounter and also mandate that they inform people of their legal right to refuse being searched.  Both policies will raise the transaction costs of policing and undermine the proven — and legal — tactics that have contributed to the city's sharp decline in violent crime over the last 25 years.  The provision that will require officers to inform investigatory targets of their right to withhold consent to searches is based on the city council's finding that "many New Yorkers are unaware of their constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement officers."  The law is thus meant to minimize the consequences of constitutional ignorance for New York's criminal class, with whom the NYPD often interacts.

Once US murder capital, NYC close to record low in homicides.  Through Dec. 17, the city of 8.5 million people, once America's murder capital, had recorded 278 killings.  That puts it on pace to end this year with killings down 14 percent from last year, and well below the 333 in 2014, which was the year with the fewest homicides since the city began keeping accurate crime statistics in 1963.

Chicago court: 'Making a Murderer' defendant's confession stands.  A federal appeals court in Chicago narrowly overturned a ruling Friday that could have freed a Wisconsin inmate featured in the "Making a Murderer" series from prison, though one dissenting judge called the case "a profound miscarriage of justice."  The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed Brendan Dassey's claims that investigators tricked him into confessing that he took part in raping and killing photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005.  Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 after telling detectives he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach.

Philadelphia Committee Passes Bill Forcing Store Owners to Remove Bullet-Proof Glass Because it's Offensive.  What's more important, protecting the dignity of customers who shop in local liquor stores, or the innocent employees and store owners who come in every day, knowing that the only thing that ensures they will go home alive, is the bullet-proof glass between them and the criminal element who enters their store?  Well, according to one Philadelphia councilwoman, it's the dignity of the customers.  Philadelphia's Public Health and Human Services Committee passed a bill Monday [12/4/2017] to ban shop owners from protecting themselves with bulletproof plexiglass.

Portland police reportedly scrap gang database over fear of labels.  Authorities in Portland, Ore., are reportedly scrapping their database of suspected gang members out of fear that these labels will most negatively affect minorities.  Portland police, next month, will end its two-decade-old practice of designating people as gang members or associates following the pressure from the community, The Oregonian reported.  Activists have been trying to abolish the database and gang designations for years, claiming they disproportionately affect minority communities.

If there was ever a candidate for capital punishment, it was this guy:
Charles Manson Dies At 83.  Manson was born into and raised in true dysfunction.  A reason for his depravity but never an excuse.  Good people have come out of far worse.  I can't help but realize Charles Manson was older than my living grandmother.  He also lived to be older than my maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother.  This is a travesty and a shame.  Better people deserved Manson's longevity.

Charles Manson dead at 83.  Manson incurred more than 100 rules violations since 1971, when he and other members of his so-called family were convicted of killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area during two August nights in 1969.  Over the years, he was cited for assault, repeated possession of a weapon, threatening staff, and possessing a cellphone.  Officials have said over the years that he spat in guards' faces, threw hot coffee at a prison staffer, started fights, tried to cause a flood and set his mattress ablaze.

Confused NYPD cops afraid of 'stopping anyone' under new stop-and-frisk policies.  NYPD cops are terrified of "stopping anyone" under new stop-and-frisk policies, fearing that the brass "won't have our backs," a court-appointed monitor reported.  Attorney Peter Zimroth, who is tasked with implementing court-ordered reforms to the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk program, said officers have been telling trainers that they are unsure "what's expected" of them.  "Officers have said, 'The law is confusing.  I don't know what's expected of me anymore,'" Zimroth wrote in a memo to Manhattan federal Judge Analisa Torres, outlining focus-group feedback ahead of new training procedures.

Good News:  Many Liberal Cities Are Providing Free Legal Help To Illegal Aliens.  So, they're getting some sweet, sweet taxpayer cash to protect people who shouldn't be in the country to start with, which means less cash to deal with things like cleaning streets.  Or dealing with all the violence, especially in places like Atlanta, Baltimore, and Chicago.  According to Neigborhood Scout, Baltimore ranks a 2, with 100 being the safest.  Surprisingly, Chicago is an 11 (it's very big, and the reported crime is confined within small areas).  Atlanta is a 2.  The other cities aren't exactly great, either, excepting Santa Ana, which is a 24.  That means that 76% of cities are safer.  Some are more about property crime, some are more about violent crime, some are both.  Anyhow, this adds to the money already being appropriated by many cities to provide legal council to illegal aliens, meaning less money for law abiding/legal citizens.

Cook County Jail in Chicago is out of control.  The forces of law and order no longer control the streets of Chicago.  [Indeed], they can't even control inmates in the jail.  Civil order is collapsing in Chicago.  We learn that once incarcerated, the inmates are controlling the Cook County Jail, and engaging mass behavior so vile that public defenders are refusing to enter and meet their clients.  What follows is so disgusting that readers are cautioned to proceed only if psychologically able to face repulsive information. [...] But this is a problem that money can't solve.  Inmates have lost all respect for civil society and all fear of punishment, and that is part of the larger problem of the breakdown in civil order in Chicago, on its way to becoming America's first Third World City.

Paroled killer goes back to prison after fourth murder.  A Missouri man who served time for a triple homicide nearly 50 years ago before being paroled was sent back to prison after pleading guilty to his fourth murder.  Torrance Epps, 79, pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Tiandra Johnson, 32, while he rolled his wheelchair through a senior housing complex where he lived on Jan. 19, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.  Epps told St. Louis Circuit Judge Dennis Schaumann that he shot Johnson because he thought she entered his apartment with a backup key from the complex's office to steal from him.  Johnson was later found dead in a hallway at the Lafayette Towne senior housing complex.

79-year-old man going back to prison for another homicide.  A 79-year-old St. Louis man who spent several years in prison for killing three people is going back to prison after pleading guilty in another killing.

Mark Zuckerberg and liberals seek to weaken bail system that keeps us safe.  For any liberal to entertain winning the Democratic nomination for president these days, there are some important boxes to be checked, including taking on America's system of law and order.  Now Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has begun checking the boxes.  Zuckerberg has hired Hillary Clinton's pollster.  He's hired Barack Obama's campaign manager.  He's even visited the first presidential caucus state of Iowa.  And he's pandering to the left's machine by funding a campaign that aims to get rid of our nation's bail system.

Judge won't cut prison term of man who pleads obesity.  A claim of obesity won't shave time off a Tampa man's prison sentence.  U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday on Friday [12/20/2017] declined to reduce the 76-month term he imposed Oct. 12 on Stephen Donaldson Sr., 72, for peddling an illegal offshore tax shelter.  On Monday, Donaldson's attorney suggested his client, at 5-foot-9 and 273 pounds, was too fat for his prison sentence, given the likely effect of weight on his health and longevity.

Police-focused NFL protests overlook rising, disproportionate black homicide rate.  Lost in the uproar over the NFL sideline protests against police brutality are newly released statistics showing that the threat to black men is skyrocketing — not from trigger-happy or racist cops, but from crime.  More than any other demographic group, black men are paying the price with their lives with a surging violent crime rate over the past two years, including a 20 percent jump in the overall homicide rate, even as the number of blacks killed by police declines.  Using homicide figures from the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Report released Sept. 25, Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald found that the number of black homicide victims has jumped by nearly 900 per year since the Black Lives Matter movement took root in 2014.  "The majority of victims of that homicide surge have been black," Ms. Mac Donald said in an email.  "They were killed overwhelmingly by black criminals, not by the police and not by whites."

How the private prison industry came to California, Part 1.  On March 5, 2012, Tom Weil, City Manager of California City, California, signed a letter to a lawyer from Fort Lauderdale.  "Speaking from over 12 years of experience," he wrote, "you will not find a better partner in the business world."  The partner was Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the most successful for-profit prison company in the United States.  Well-established in dozens of jurisdictions but perpetually battling public distaste, CCA, like any dynamic business, is ever-exploring new opportunities, and there seemed one to be had in rural Southwest Ranches, Florida.  The letter was among a collection of documents recently released by the City of California City.

The Big Myth About Dirty Jobs, Minimum Wage, and Illegal Immigration.  I have a friend who's a United States marshal, and one of his duties is to work with people in the federal Witness Protection Program.  Over and over again, the protected witness gets a new location, a new house, a new identity, and then spends the first couple of years going to a community college or some other training program to develop a skill — since their prior skills might have been either bank robbery or serving as a punching bag for a Mafia husband — and then when it's time for the final step, nobody will hire them.  The marshal is required by law to tell the potential employer that the new hire is a protected witness with a fake identity — and most bosses say, "No, thanks."  But believe it or not, those are easier placements than the typical ex-convict recently out of state prison on, say, an aggravated assault charge.  One of the cruelest things we do to prisoners is pump them up with the idea that, if they educate themselves in prison and learn a trade, they will be able to work when they get out.  This is a lie.  They probably won't be able to work, because, aside from typical job-interview demerits like too many nasty facial tattoos, that felony conviction automatically eliminates them on most application forms.

Vicious Street Thug Cries Like a Baby When Sentenced.  The man being sentenced murdered somebody.  During his trial, the perpetrator smiled, gestured and cursed at the family. during the trial.  These are behaviors that might do well on the street; however the judge showed complete disdain for his theatrics.  The man's behavior impacted the judge's view, and thus her decision.  This criminal showed no remorse for murdering somebody.  Regardless of the circumstances of the murder, the man should at least find some humanity for those who were impacted.

FBI releases shocking new data on murder rates hidden by Obama administration.  The FBI report adjusts and corrects numbers released for 2015 during the Obama administration. [...] The FBI report showed that black Americans are more frequently the victims of murder than whites or Hispanics.  Of the 16,964 murder victims registered, 6576 victims were white, 7881 were black, and 2367 were identified as Hispanic in ethnicity.  As for offenders, there were a total 16,914.  Of these offenders, 5004 were indentified as white, 6095 were black; of unknown race there were 5574, other races were 291, while those of Hispanic ethnicity totaled 1553.

Detroit police chief:  FBI is wrong.  Detroit is not most violent city in U.S..  Newly released FBI statistics paint Detroit as the most dangerous big city in America.  One former FBI chief suspects other cities cooked their numbers to rank better.  Police Chief James Craig says the FBI data is flat wrong.  "I reject it," Craig said of the FBI report on Monday [9/25/2017], saying his own data using a new software system shows violent crime in Detroit went down 5% in 2016, and has been trending downward since 2013.

Detroit is again the most violent city in the USA.  Detroit regained the title as the most violent big city in America in 2016, witnessing more murders last year than Los Angeles, which has four times as many people, according to new FBI crime figures released Monday [9/25/2017].  But Detroit Police Chief James Craig disputed the FBI's numbers, stating:  "Just because it's coming out of the FBI" doesn't mean it's accurate.  "I reject it," Craig said of the FBI report, saying his own data using a new software system shows violent crime went down 5% in 2016, and, has been trending downward since 2013.

Teen accused of shooting Yonkers officer got probation last week on gun charge.  While Yonkers Police Officer Kayla Maher recovered from a bullet to the face, PIX11 News learned on Tuesday that one of the teenagers charged in the shooting, and who was shot himself in the exchange, had been released by a Bronx judge last week in another weapons case that involved a semi-automatic gun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a machete.  Frank Valencia, 18, of New Rochelle, received probation and youthful offender status when he was sentenced by Judge George Villegas of Bronx Supreme Court on Sept. 20.  The light sentence was meted out over the objections of prosecutors representing the Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.

Violent crime rising throughout US, FBI says.  The report says increases in violent crime were happening in suburban areas and cities of all sizes, ranging from those with populations below 10,000 to those with populations of more than 250,000.  It added that rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults all showed an uptick in 2016.

Teen who shot cop was loose thanks to judge's slap on the wrist.  The Yonkers cop who was shot in the face during an ambush Monday [9/25/2017] left the hospital to the cheers of fellow officers — as it emerged Tuesday that the teen who allegedly blasted her was free thanks to a Bronx judge's leniency.

Teen who punched principal in face gets sweet deal from judge.  A hot-headed teen got a slap on the wrist Friday for slugging a Manhattan principal who told him to turn down his music.  Judge Edwina Richardson-Mendelson granted Luis Penzo, 19, youthful offender status and sentenced him to a conditional discharge — as long as he stays out of trouble for three years he'll dodge prison and a criminal record.  "You made us very proud," the judge said of the surly teen's compliance with a family therapy program.  Penzo, who sauntered into Manhattan Supreme Court Friday [9/22/2017] wearing a white T-shirt and red gym shorts, offered no apology for the October 2016 beatdown of Principal Matthew Tossman.

Sub-Chicago and America's Real Crime Rate.  The NYU School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice, in its annual report on crime, finds that the murder rate in America's 30 largest cities rose 13.1 percent in 2016 — an alarming figure, especially considering last year's identical increase.  Striking a calming note, the Brennan Center's press release accompanying the report begins by reminding us that "Americans are safer today than they have been at almost any time in the past 25 years."  But downplaying the recent uptick in the homicide rate distracts from the fact that there is more than one America when it comes to violent crime:  indeed, 51 percent of all U.S. murders are committed in just 2 percent of the nation's counties, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.  No city more starkly illustrates this disparity than Chicago.

Are Sex Offender Registries Unconstitutional?  A ruling coming out of a federal court in Denver this week could lead to a significant change in how the country deals with convicted sex offenders.  Judge Richard Matsch heard a case involving three convicted sex offenders who were protesting having all of their personal information published on a public sex offender registry.  Rather than ruling on whether or not the three could have their details removed (which was all that was requested), Matsch ruled that the entire registry was unconstitutional.  This one is going to be appealed and if it makes it to the Supreme Court it could impact the laws in pretty much every state in the union.

Houston police catch 14 armed robbers and looters amid flood emergency.  Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said he is not going to tolerate criminals taking advantage of people in the community during such a devastating time.  He said his officers arrested 14 alleged looters since Sunday [8/27/2017].  Those arrested will face stiffer punishments under a Texas law providing heftier penalties during a crisis, prosecutors announced Tuesday [8/29/2017].

In Chicago, people get away with murder.  In some years in the 1960s, the police solved murder cases at a rate of higher than 90 percent.  But high murder clearance rates are just a memory.  Since Jan. 1 of this year, more than four out of every five murders in Chicago have gone unsolved.  That's a shockingly low number, perhaps even a historic low.  On what grading curve is 20 percent anything but utter failure?  Since 2006, the city's murder clearance rate has dropped steadily, with just a couple of notable bumps up.  Fewer arrests mean more killers on the streets.  More killers on the streets mean nobody is quite as safe.  And when killers are not caught, others are less afraid to kill.

Women Push Back Against Crossdressing Men in Female Prisons.  Surprise, surprise.  Women, whose interests liberals loudly claim to represent, don't like it that perverted men who dress in women's clothes have been forced upon them in prisons in order to advance the liberal agenda.

Hospitals Grapple With $6B Issue: Inmates Ingesting Foreign Objects.  American medical professionals are weighing an issue that costs taxpayers about $6 billion a year: prison inmates intentionally swallowing foreign objects like forks, steak knives, razor blades, paperclips and pens.  Medical ethicist Brendan Parent came across the problem in early 2016 while making rounds at NYU Langone Medical Center facilities.  He found that certain inmates from Rikers Island had been admitted to NYU facilities five, six or seven times after voluntarily ingesting foreign objects on separate occasions.  Though swallowing objects is a common form of smuggling contraband into prisons, Parent said that was not an issue with the cases he came across.  He instead questioned the conditions at Rikers, a New York City facility with a history of inhumane treatment and living conditions.  He suggested in a recent interview that inmates are ingesting objects to momentarily escape, even if the hospital visit is only a two- to four-day stay.

Google Women.  Why aren't there more women criminals?!  Men in jail outnumber women by a ratio of 14-to-1.  We male stutterers outnumber women, too.  This isn't fair!  We need more affirmative action!  These disparities must be caused by sex discrimination because everyone knows there are no real differences between genders.

Immigrants are 22 percent of federal prison population.  A stunning 22 percent of the federal prison population is immigrants who have either already been deemed to be in the country illegally or who the government is looking to put in deportation proceedings, the administration said Tuesday [8/1/2017]. [...] The 22 percent is much higher than the population of foreign-born in the U.S. as a whole, which is about 13.5 percent.  All told, the government counted more than 42,000 aliens in federal prisons as of June 24.  About 47 percent already face final deportation orders, making them illegal immigrants, and 3 percent are currently in immigration courts facing deportation proceedings.

FOIA still doesn't apply to private prisons.  What right to privacy do for-profit prisons have?  Should it be closer to those of a company like Hilton Hotels or Lockheed Martin, or closer to that of the governments alongside which they provide their incarceration services?  Through the Freedom of Information Act and equivalent state laws, the operations and artifacts of the government's activities are made available to citizens and businesses.  This level of openness, though, severely flawed as it is in practice, often doesn't extend to the private businesses, contractors, non-profits, and other entities with whom government agents share their work.  Among these are major prison companies, like GEO Group and CoreCivic, and a slowly-shrinking group of lesser known businesses focused on managing lock-ups at a cost they claim is less than that these agencies would otherwise be paying.  Since their inception, this built-in barrier to accountability has bothered opponents of prison privatizations.

Five heartbreaking examples of why the bail bonds industry is badly in need of reform.  One man put down his car as collateral for a $1,420 bond to get his brother out of jail.  Shortly after, he then learned that ICE had put a detainer on his brother, and he would be deported, rendering the need for bail moot, since bail doesn't apply in those cases.  Did the bail bond company promptly release his car?

Mississippi man freed after 11 years in jail without a trial.  A Mississippi man who has been in jail for 11 years without a trial for the alleged murder of his father soon will be released.  Police say Steven Jessie Harris was arrested in October 2005 for the murder of his father, Malichi Randle.  He was indicted with 11 different counts including murder in 2006, but a later ruling declared him incompetent to stand trial after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.  Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott says Harris at the time went on a crime spree shooting his father and cars.  He also allegedly carjacked and stabbed a driver.  Deputies pursued Harris and the spree ended in a shootout with police injuring three deputies, according to police.

The Editor says...
Obviously the man needs to be locked up, but not without due process.

Car thief found dead in O.C. jail cell he shared with suspected double-murderer.  A car thief killed earlier this month at Orange County Jail shared a cell with a suspected psychotic double-murderer, leading the victim's attorney to question why two men with such different criminal histories were housed together.

Drug dealer arrested after calling police to report stolen cocaine.  David Blackmon probably won't go down in history as a criminal mastermind, at least judging by the ridiculous reason for his arrest.  The 32-year-old "self-proclaimed drug dealer" stunned police in Florida when he called 911 to report his cocaine had been stolen, along with some cash.

Chicago To Make Bail More Affordable.  On Monday [7/17/2017], the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill. issued an order stating that judges are prohibited from setting bails higher than a defendant can afford.  For felony defendants, this will begin Sept. 18, but those facing misdemeanor cases will have to wait until January.  "I think people who are arrested will be given the full recognition that they are presumed innocent," Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who signed the order for the new policy, told the Chicago Tribune.

The Editor says...
If they are presumed innocent, why were they arrested?  If you commit a crime, you are guilty.

Illegal Immigrants Face Criminal Charges for First Offenses.  Migrants who are caught crossing the border illegally for the first time are now facing criminal charges in federal court in Arizona as the Trump administration steps up efforts to deter illegal immigration.

For Many of Us, the War on Drugs Is Not Real.  For instance, did you know that America spends over $51 billion per year on this war against drugs?  Did you know that about 1.25 million Americans are arrested annually for drug possession?  That 643,000 of them were only in possession of marijuana?  That since 2006, over 100,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war?  You probably did know that, more or less.  These are facts — we know about "mass incarceration," for instance — and I do not dispute them.  But there are different ways to know something, distinctions that make all the difference.

Police officer deaths on duty have jumped nearly 20 percent in 2017.  The ambush shooting that killed a New York City police officer in the Bronx marked the latest in a growing number of officer deaths in 2017, up 18 percent from this time last year.  A total of 67 officers have died so far this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.  It found there were 57 officer deaths between January 1 and July 5, 2016.  In addition, gun-related deaths have risen by 9 percent, from 22 to 24 for 2017, the researchers say.  The figures suggest a grim trend; 2016 was the deadliest year for police in 5 years.  A total of 135 officers died last year.

Who Is Keeping Score On Obama's Failed Pardons?  As expected, the black beneficiaries of Obama's mass pardon/commutations are already returning to whence they came.  As reported by myself and others over the last few years [...], Obama commuted the sentences of a whopping 1715 federal inmates and outright pardoned another 212.  These pardons were heavily weighted to black drug offenders.  The reason he gave was a belief that the justice system was rigged against his fellow African-Americans.  It seems that Carole Denise Richardson[,] one of his fellows who needed a second chance, is back in custody for theft and according to authorities, "Richardson violated five separate terms of her release including failing to report that she was arrested, that she'd been terminated from a job for failing to show up and that she had changed her address."

Arkansas inmate recaptured 32 years after escape.  Arkansas authorites said Sunday [6/25/2017] that they had apprehended an inmate who had been on the run for more than three decades. [...] Dishman escaped from the Cummins unit in rural Lincoln County on May 28, 1985 while serving a 7-year sentence for theft of property and burglary convictions in Washington County.

Texas woman freed from life sentence by President Obama is back in prison.  A Texas woman who was freed from a life sentence last year after President Obama granted her clemency is behind bars again.  According to the Houston Chronicle, Carol Denise Richardson, 49, was arrested for theft in Pasadena, a Houston suburb, and violated other conditions imposed when she was released from prison.  "This defendant was literally given a second chance to become a productive member of society and has wasted it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Imperato said in a statement released by his office.

The Editor says...
Like it or not, there are people who should stay in prison forever because they think like criminals, act like criminals, and will always be criminals.

Alabama man jailed for a decade without trial awaits decision from judge.  An Alabama man who has been jailed on a murder charge for the last 10 years without a trial could soon learn his fate.  Houston County Circuit Judge Kevin Moulton heard arguments in a case involving Kharon Davis on Tuesday [6/6/2017] in Dothan.  Davis was arrested and charged for the murder of Pete Reaves in June 2007 at an apartment in Dothan, the Dothan Eagle reported.  Davis' attorney Thomas Goggans argued his case should be dismissed because he was previously represented by a lawyer with a possible conflict of interest in the case.  His previous attorney, Ben Meredith, had a son who was going to testify as a witness for the prosecution.

Immigrant Deaths in Private Prisons Explode Under Trump.  Men and women held by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are on pace to die at double the rate of those who died in ICE custody last year, a Daily Beast review of ICE records found.  And most will die in privately run facilities.  Eight people have died in ICE custody in the 2017 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2016.  That's almost as many as the 10 who died in the entire 2016 fiscal year.  All but one of the deaths this year, and all but two last year, occurred in privately run prisons.  Nine of the 18 deaths occurred at facilities run by GEO Group, the nation's second-largest private prison company.

Heroin dealers deserve prison, not sympathy.  The deadly poison that is heroin made its way to your small town from Mexico, where it was grown and processed, later to be trafficked to your neighborhood where its target customers were someone's children, parents, brothers and sisters.  But right now, when you open the newspaper or turn on the television, you learn that the person that brought the drugs into your neighborhood, which ultimately made their way to your child, is considered by many in both the media and the public to be a "non-violent, low-level drug offender."

DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo's life sentence thrown out.  A federal district court judge has overturned the sentence of Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the two people convicted in D.C.-area Beltway sniper attacks nearly 15 years ago, according to a ruling released Friday [5/26/2017].  Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the sniper-style attacks committed around the region in October 2002 along with John Allen Muhammad.  Ten people were killed and three others were shot during a three-week period.

The Democrats' Second Secession & America's New Civil War.  [Scroll down]  Similarly, the animus behind Democratic assaults on Republicans and their support for law and order as "racist" is the direct consequence of viewing all social disparities through the distorted lens of oppression politics.  Thus, the "over-representation" of African-Americans in the prison system is not because of systemic racism.  Police forces have been integrated for decades, along with the entire criminal justice system.  African-Americans are "overrepresented" in the prison population because they are "over-represented" in the commission of actual crimes.  Democrats' embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement and its efforts to cast career criminals as civil rights victims and law enforcement officials as villains is an inevitable consequence of ignoring the specific circumstances of the incidents under review, and forcing them into the melodramatic framework of "racism" and "oppression."

Longer prison sentences: Good for the crime rate, bad for the criminal.  Getting tough on serious crime was a central focus of the Trump campaign, and so far Jeff Sessions, the new Attorney General, has not disappointed.  His latest action, a memorandum to all federal prosecutors amending the Obama policy of going easy on serious offenders, orders federal prosecutors to charge criminals with the most serious offense that is readily provable — that is, charge with the crime that carries the most severe sentence — including a mandatory minimum sentence. [...] By directing federal prosecutors to "charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense" in felony cases, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions did last week, he is fulfilling the government's primary responsibility:  protect American citizens from harm, and provide them with a safe environment.

Murder Isn't a Nationwide Problem.  The vast majority of murders in the United States occur in just a tiny percentage of counties.  In fact, the country can be divided up into three types of places:  those where there are no murders; those where there are a few murders; and those where murders are very common.  In 2014, the most recent year that a county level breakdown is available, 54 percent of counties (with 11 percent of the population) had no murders.  69 percent of counties had no more than one murder, and about 20 percent of the population and only 4 percent of all murders in the country.  The worst 1 percent of counties have 19 percent of the population and 37 percent of the murders in 2014.  The worst 2 percent of counties contain 47 percent of the population and accounted for 51 percent of the murders.  68 percent of the murders occurred in only 5 percent of counties.

Police arrests are plummeting across California, fueling alarm and questions.  In 2013, something changed on the streets of Los Angeles.  Police officers began making fewer arrests.  The following year, the Los Angeles Police Department's arrest numbers dipped even lower and continued to fall, dropping by 25% from 2013 to 2015.  The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the San Diego Police Department also saw significant drops in arrests during that period.

California has fewer arrests, but not necessarily less crime.  The number of arrests by police in California has plunged in recent years, but that doesn't necessarily represent good news on crime, according to an analysis published Saturday [4/1/2017].

They're Not Federal Prisons, They're Factories With Fences.  It is immoral, not to mention economically self-defeating, to permit into U.S. markets goods made by prison labor overseas.  So why isn't it just as immoral and just as self-defeating to flood the marketplace with products made by prison labor here in America?

1st sex reassignment inmate says women's prison is 'torture'.  The first U.S. inmate to have taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgery says she's been mistreated since being transferred to a California women's prison, where she now has a beard and mustache because officials have denied her a razor.

The judges & others who left alleged EMT killer walking free.  Just what does it take to get a ticking-time-bomb thug off the streets?  That searing question is prompted by news that the man charged with the murder of an EMT last week had no business walking free — yet officials failed to rein him in.  At just 25, José Gonzalez already had 31 arrests, including violent incidents, before his fatal run-in with EMT Yadira Arroyo.  Reports also say he was a Bloods gang member.  Yet a Mayor de Blasio-tapped rookie judge, David Kirschner, still gave him a free pass — just three weeks before the fatal encounter.

Why wasn't this man permanently locked up?
Bronx EMT Yadira Arroyo's killer is a Bloods gang member with 31 prior arrests.  The man arrested for running over FDNY emergency medical technician Yadira Arroyo and killing her after stealing her ambulance in the Bronx has a long arrest record and a history of mental illness, sources said.  Jose Gonzalez, 25, who goes by the nickname "Breezy Blood" and is a Bloods gang member, has 31 past arrests — plus six other contacts with cops related to mental illness or injury, according to police sources.  He lives in Fordham Heights in the Bronx.

Beloved mother-of-three beaten to death with a wine bottle by a parolee robber at the liquor store she owned.  A mother-of-three liquor store owner was bludgeoned to death with a wine bottle at her store on Thursday [3/2/2017], during a robbery carried out by a parolee.  Police were called to Char's South Ave Wine and Liquor around 5pm and found owner Charlotte Lahr suffering from severe trauma to the upper body.  Police and firefighters tried to revive the mother-of-three at the scene but she died.  Parolee Kevin Quander, 59, was arrested the next day for her murder and for robbing the store.

The Illusion of Freedom:  The Police State Is Alive and Well.  [Scroll down]  In fact, the American police state has continued to advance at the same costly, intrusive, privacy-sapping, Constitution-defying, relentless pace under President Trump as it did under President Obama. [...] For-profit private prisons haven't stopped locking up Americans and immigrants alike at taxpayer expense.  States continue to outsource prison management to private corporations out to make a profit at taxpayer expense.  And how do you make a profit in the prison industry?  Have the legislatures pass laws that impose harsh penalties for the slightest noncompliance in order keep the prison cells full and corporate investors happy.

The revolving door at the prison is a problem for all of us.
Gang member accused of killing Whittier cop had cycled in and out of jail, records show.  The gang member accused of killing a Whittier police officer Monday [2/20/2017] has cycled in and out of jail for repeatedly violating the terms of his release, records show.  L.A. County sheriff's homicide Capt. Steve Katz on Tuesday identified the suspect as Michael C. Mejia, 26, a career criminal with a history of drugs and violence.  Mejia has a "history of control problems," Katz said.  Mejia is suspected of killing Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer and wounding another officer in a shootout following a crash involving a stolen vehicle.

Face-tattooed gangster shot LA cop dead in murderous rampage after he was released from prison early.  The first picture has emerged of the face tattooed gangster who killed a Los Angeles cop and wounded his colleague when they found him in a crashed, stolen car after allegedly murdering his cousin.  Michael Mejia, 26, shot dead veteran police officer Keith Boyer, 54, on Monday morning when he approached him at the scene of a crash in Whittier, around 23 miles south east of central Los Angeles.

Here's A Rundown of All the Looting and Robbery Incidents That Occurred During the Oroville Evacuation.  There's a lot to worry about when a disaster strikes your community.  You have to make sure that your friends and neighbors are going to be okay.  You have to make sure that you have plenty of food, water, and medical supplies.  You may even have to prepare to evacuate your home and leave most of your valuables behind.  And while you're focused on making sure that you and your loved ones are prepared to ride out that disaster, you can rest assured that there will always be some predatory person in your community who is preparing to take advantage of your situation.  That's the ugly truth about disasters, natural and man-made, that everyone needs to understand.  When everyone else is panicking or gathering supplies or hunkering down or running away, there's always someone watching the chaos and thinking "there's an opportunity for me here."

Michigan prisoners face harsh penalties for throwing bodily fluids at guards.  Inmates at Michigan jails will soon be seeing a new sign around their facilities warning them that throwing bodily fluids at working guards is a felony punishable by an additional five years behind bars.  The Officer Dignity Initiative will take effect this month and will add five years to the sentence of any inmate that throws food, urine, blood, feces, spit or other bodily fluids at a guard.

Just like Stalag 13:
Inmates have been sneaking in and out of Atlanta prison for years.  Inmates trying to break out of prison is nothing new.  But inmates breaking out, then breaking right back in?  It's apparently been happening for years at a federal facility in Atlanta.  Back in January 2013, the Atlanta Police Department started investigating inmates "temporarily escaping" from the medium-security US Penitentiary in the city, according to court documents filed in what appears to be the latest unapproved furlough.  Cops believe the inmates escaped through holes cut in the prison fence.  Officers first noticed a car parked near the prison fence line.  The people inside wore ski masks and jumpsuits.  When cops approached, the suspects climbed the fence and ran back onto prison grounds, court records show.

Muggers share their secrets on who they target and why.  Muggers often don't care how old their victims are or if they're robbing a man or a woman.  They're also not concerned about being seen on surveillance cameras.  Those revelations are some of the results of a survey of convicted robbers conducted by NBCNewYork.com.

Man freed early from life sentence by Obama back in jail.  A San Antonio man who was freed from life in prison by President Barack Obama is back behind bars after allegedly crashing his vehicle into another motorist and undercover police cars while fleeing from a drug deal Thursday [2/2/2017].

Man freed early from life sentence by Obama back in jail.  A San Antonio man who was freed from life in prison by President Barack Obama is back behind bars after allegedly crashing his vehicle into another motorist and undercover police cars while fleeing from a drug deal Thursday [2/2/2017].  Robert M. Gill, 68, whose life sentence for cocaine and heroin distribution conspiracy was commuted by Obama and expired in 2015, was profiled last year in the Express-News about his readjustment to life on the outside.

How Donald Trump and Friends Can Crush the Great Crime Wave.  [Scroll down]  Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the magnification of technicalities went into overdrive.  With Mapp v.  Ohio (1961), the Warren Court extended the exclusionary rule to state prosecutions, and with Miranda v.  Arizona (1966), it added to the right of a suspect to remain silent a right not to be questioned and a right to receive helpful legal advice from detectives whose true job is to solve crimes.  Decided on a 5-4 vote and perhaps the most controversial ruling of Warren's tenure, Miranda provoked three bitter dissents, which make interesting reading for anyone of Roosevelt's or Cardozo's bent of mind.  And then there is the interdiction of the death penalty, a series of rulings starting with Trop v.  Dulles (1954) that traduced the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment and, through its multifarious restrictions and requirements, has made the condign punishment of capital crimes virtually impossible.

Convicted killer first U.S. inmate to get state-funded sex-reassignment surgery.  A 57-year-old convicted killer serving a life sentence in California became the first U.S. inmate to receive state-funded sex-reassignment surgery, the prisoner's attorneys confirmed Friday [1/6/2017].

Willie Horton:  A Fake News Story That Refuses to Die.  To merit his life in prison, Horton robbed a 17-year-old gas station attendant, fatally stabbed him 19 times, and dumped him in a trash can to die.  Twelve years later, despite a life term without parole, Horton received a weekend furlough, during which he knifed, blinded, and gagged a man in Maryland, raped his fiancée, and stole their car.  Dukakis supported the furlough program even after this incident.  So perversely liberal was the idea that Al Gore cited the Horton incident in his primary campaign against Dukakis.  The Bush campaign did not show or name Willie Horton in the ad it produced on this subject.  The ad showed prisoners passing through a revolving door while telling how liberal Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis had supported this program.

Land of the Free, Home of the 33,000 Violent Street Gangs.  The FBI says that altogether, the United States is now home to about 33,000 violent street gangs, with a presence in all 50 states.  There are an estimated 1,350 gangs in Los Angeles alone. [...] There are a total of 1.4 million criminally active gang members across the country.  That means for every two sworn law enforcement officers in America, there are three gang members.  The number of violent gang members today is 40 percent higher than in 2009, and 25 times higher than in 1975.  And the figure keeps growing each year.

1 in 5 D.C. Killers Were Set Free by "Sentencing Reform".  Sentencing reform, a euphemism that the pro-crime lobby uses to mean going soft on criminals, is championed by the left and by some elements on the right.  [A recent] Washington Post story shows the terrible effects of sentencing reform on the victims of criminals freed to rape and kill. [...] The mythical "kid just locked up for smoking pot once" touted by sentencing reform advocates is just that.  A myth.  The system is full of repeat offenders who take advantage of every loophole thanks to their lawyers and then continue committing more crimes, going in and out of the system.

Five terrifying truths about our criminal justice system.  [#1] The Constitution may not apply:  Ironically, once a person has been taken into the custody of the state, a whole swath of that Supreme Law of the Land may not apply.  There's no definite verdict yet on how much an inmate is allowed to express under the First Amendment, though it's pretty clear that censorship is permitted of both the materials he or she receives and reads and is allowed to send.  Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure don't apply in your cell or even in your home when on probation, where a search can be conducted by a probation officer without a warrant.  And multiple state prison systems themselves have been deemed in violation of Eighth Amendment guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment by virtue of their terrible medical offerings.  Package that up with explicit prisoner carve-outs in the Thirteenth Amendment for slavery and in the Fourteenth Amendment permitting their denial of the vote, and you've got a situation in a majority of the country where to be in prison is to effectively be in political exile.

The 7 Ugliest Propositions on the California Ballot.  [For example,] Prop. 57 — Jerry Brown's "Let's Put Violent Criminals Back On The Street" Act is a terrible measure.  Don't be fooled by the false and misleading ballot title and summary that leftist Attorney General Kamala Harris put on this one — it will reduce prison sentences for many, many violent criminals and put them back on the streets.  Worst of all — the sentencing "reforms" in it are retroactive — so victims of violent crimes trying to recapture some dignity and meaning in their lives will be re-victimized because of this cruel and dangerous ballot measure.

The Clinton Record.  [Scroll down]  Consider some highly noteworthy facts:  In 1990, when there were about 1,149,000 prisoners in penitentiaries nationwide, there were 1,820,130 violent crimes committed that year, including 23,440 murders.  In 2014, when there were 2,208,000 inmates in penitentiaries nationwide, a total of 1,197,987 violent crimes were committed that year, including 14,249 murders.  So, even as the population of the United States grew by 28% between 1990 and 2014, the incidence of violent crimes declined by 46%, and the incidence of murders fell by 39%.  These numbers suggest that putting more criminals in prison has helped to spare at least a million people per year from being victimized by violent crimes, and to save at least 9,000 people per year from being murdered.  If we look at the numbers from this perspective, incarceration suddenly doesn't look like such a bad thing, does it?

Arrest Numbers Reflect Growing Pot Tolerance.  FBI statistics released last week show that the number of marijuana arrests in the United States, after rising slightly in 2014, fell by 8 percent last year, reaching the lowest level in two decades.  The total was nevertheless more than twice the number in 1991, before a nationwide cannabis crackdown that peaked in 2007.  The number of marijuana arrests has fallen more or less steadily since then, reflecting a growing consensus that cannabis consumers should not be treated as criminals.

The Editor says...
The article immediately above is slightly misleading, in my opinion.  The number of arrests is down, but that's because in Texas, possession of small amounts of marijuana is a misdemeanor that is handled like jaywalking:  A citation is issued and eventually the defendant pays a fine.  And in other states, like Alaska, Oregon and Washington (for example), mere possession is no longer illegal.  The statistics have nothing to do with tolerance.

Heather Mac Donald Fact-Checks Hillary Clinton on Systemic Bias and Stop-and-Frisk.  Outside of academia, the legal profession is second to none in its leftward bent and racialist worldview; and its conservative members believe in equal protection under the law.  Participants in the system, particularly the judiciary, would not tolerate a situation in which black defendants were, as Clinton alleges, being given more severe sentences than white defendants for the same criminal conduct.  Federal sentences (and sentences in most states) are computed under race-neutral guidelines that factor in both offense conduct and criminal history.  The more crimes one commits, the heavier the sentence for any one crime.  This is a recidivism thing, not a race thing.

Obama Admin Slows Immigration Prosecutions, Increases Weapons Charges.  The number of new federal criminal prosecutions have hit their lowest level in nearly a decade, helped by declines in white collar and immigration prosecutions.  That's according to Justice Department data recently analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.  As TRAC details, the 9,118 federal criminal prosecutions the government undertook in July are the fewest since July 2007.  The July 2016 tally represented a 15.5 percent decline from June and continued this fiscal year's ongoing downward trend.

Presidential Pardons, Not Just for Low-Level Offenders Anymore.  On Tuesday [8/30/2016], the Obama administration granted presidential commutations to 111 federal inmates — including Oakland's Darryl Lamar Reed, a.k.a.  "Lil D."  So Reed stands out as the rare Californian to win a commutation, as well as an exception to the criteria for Obama's 2014 Clemency Initiative.  Then-Deputy U.S. Attorney General James M. Cole explained that inmates applying for a sentence reduction should be "nonviolent, low-level offenders without significant ties to large-scale criminal organizations, gangs or cartels."  Former Alameda County prosecutor Russ Giuntini was appalled to see Reed's name on a commutation list.  "This is not a guy that got caught up in the draconian federal sentencing guidelines," Giuntini wrote in an email.  Lil D is the kind of guy "the guidelines were made for.  He headed the largest dope organization in Oakland," which was responsible for a lot of carnage, was caught "red handed" processing some 20 kilograms of cocaine into crack — and thus landed in the federal pen.

One California city is paying people not to commit crimes.  A San Francisco suburb is testing a controversial strategy to combat the gun violence that's plagued the community — paying people not to commit crimes.  The experiment known as "Advance Peace" is being conducted in Richmond, Calif., and works like this:  The 18-month fellowship hires convicted felons to "court" troubled youth — who so far have avoided arrest due to lack of evidence — with offers of cash and out-of-town vacations if they mend their ways.  If, after six months, a "fellow" in the voluntary program begins to achieve specific goals, they can earn up to $1,000 a month.

Ramen noodles replacing cigarettes as US prison currency, study finds.  The level of care inside America's prisons, and particularly the quality of the food, has fallen so far prisoners are using ramen noodles as their preferred form of money for buying and selling goods and other favours, a new study has found.  The emergence of ramen noodles as a sort of cell-block currency in place of cigarettes is evidence of what Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, calls the new "punitive frugality" that has taken hold in a prison system that is intent on cutting costs.

The Editor says...
Here is some free advice:  Prison is bad.  Perhaps you should do whatever is necessary to avoid incarceration.

Justice Department Says Poor Can't Be Held When They Can't Afford Bail.  Holding defendants in jail because they can't afford to make bail is unconstitutional, the Justice Department said in a court filing late Thursday — the first time the government has taken such a position before a federal appeals court.  It's the latest step by the Obama administration in encouraging state courts to move away from imposing fixed cash bail amounts and jailing those who can't pay.

US announces end of private prison use.  The US Justice Department has announced its intention to stop using private prisons, after a recent audit concluded that private facilities are both less safe and less effective than government ones.  US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates circulated a memo instructing officials to either stop renewing contracts for private prison operators, or to "substantially reduce" the contracts' scope.  The goal, Yates wrote, is "reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons."  "They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department's Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security," Yates added.

Obama administration to end use of private prisons.  The Justice Department says it's phasing out its relationships with private prisons after a recent audit found the private facilities have more safety and security problems than ones run by the government.

More than 100,000 defective combat helmets made by federal inmates put soldiers' lives at risk — and cost the government $19 Million.  Defective combat helmets made by federal inmates in Texas put soldiers' lives at risk.  The poorly-manufactured helmets were produced for the US military using prison labor and later failed ballistics tests, the Justice Department's Inspector General said Wednesday [8/17/2016] in a report.  Nearly 150,000 of the helmets were manufactured between 2006 and 2009, when the White House ordered 'surges' in combat troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Poorly supervised inmates also used dangerous, improvised tools such as makeshift hatchets, which could easily have become weapons.

Women in jails are the fastest growing incarcerated population, study says.  The majority of those women entering jail are black and Hispanic, mirroring demographic trends that cross gender lines.  Women, however, tend to enter jails in more vulnerable situations than men, as a higher percentage of women in jail were using drugs, unemployed or receiving public assistance at the time they were arrested.

The Editor says...
If the intent of this article was to make me feel sorry for the women in prison, it didn't work.

'Irish travelers' federally indicted in sweeping fraud probe.  Twenty-two Augusta area residents, many known as "Irish travelers," were named Tuesday in a 45-count federal indictment on charges of racketeering and other criminal activity related to the group's alleged scams.  According to allegations in the indictment, the defendants operated out of Murphy Village, near North Augusta in Aiken County, and committed a number of fraudulent schemes to obtain life insurance benefits, food stamps, Medicaid funds and fraud involving vehicle financing.  The travelers, which founded Murphy Village, self-identify as roving laborers and salesmen who offer an array of door-to-door services, according to the indictment.

These Gun Owners Are Least Likely Criminals, Report Finds.  Concealed-carry permit holders are nearly the most law-abiding demographic of Americans, a new report by the Crime Prevention Research Center says — comparing the permit holders foremost with police.  "Indeed, it is impossible to think of any other group in the U.S. that is anywhere near as law-abiding," says the report, titled "Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States 2016."  From 2007 through 2015, permits issued by state and local governments increased by 215 percent, to more than 14 million Americans, according to the data.

Crack Dealer Freed Early Under Obama Plan Murders Woman, 2 Kids.  This week a grand jury in Franklin County returned a 10-count, death-penalty indictment against the ex-con, 35-year-old Wendell Callahan, for the triple murders.  Callahan broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment and stabbed the three victims, according to a statement issued by Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien announcing the indictment.  The bloody crime scene was discovered by the woman's current boyfriend, who subsequently engaged in a fight with Callahan before he fled. [...] Callahan should have been in jail when the crimes occurred, but he was released four years early because federal sentencing guidelines for crack dealers got reduced.  The change is part of President Obama's effort to reform the nation's justice system as a way of ending racial discrimination.

For some people, being in prison isn't that bad.
FBI: Woman robbed Wyoming bank to return to prison.  A woman who was recently released from prison in Oregon robbed a bank in Wyoming only to throw the cash up in the air outside the building and sit down to wait for police, authorities said Friday [7/29/2016].

Unfair to the jury:
Judge rules Neo Nazi can cover up his white supremacist face tattoos to hide them from the jury in his armed robbery trial.  A white supremacist is being allowed to cover up his Neo Nazi face tattoos as he goes on trial for armed robbery.  Bayzle Morgan is accused of stealing a man's motorcycle at gunpoint in Las Vegas, Nevada, in May 2013.  But prosecutors are concerned that jurors will not give the 24-year-old a fair hearing when they see his numerous Nazi-themed face tattoos, Review Journal reports.

The Editor says...
Apparently the definition of "a fair hearing" is a hearing most likely to result in a positive outcome for the defendant.

Inside the Deadly World of Private Prisoner Transport.  Every year, tens of thousands of fugitives and suspects — many of whom have not been convicted of a crime — are entrusted to a handful of small private companies that specialize in state and local extraditions.  A Marshall Project review of thousands of court documents, federal records and local news articles and interviews with more than 50 current or former guards and executives reveals a pattern of prisoner abuse and neglect in an industry that operates with almost no oversight.  Since 2012, at least four people, including [Steven] Galack, have died on private extradition vans, all of them run by the Tennessee-based Prisoner Transportation Services.  In one case, a Mississippi man complained of pain for a day and a half before dying from an ulcer.  In another, a Kentucky woman suffered a fatal withdrawal from anti-anxiety medication.  And in another, guards mocked a prisoner's pain before he, too, died from a perforated ulcer.

Violent Felons Are Trying to Get Their Gun Rights Back in Virginia.  As congressional Democrats spent the week pressing for the passage of new gun control legislation, violent felons in Virginia were able to take steps towards having their right to own a firearm restored thanks to action taken by the state's Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.  When McAuliffe restored the voting rights for 206,000 felons in a move critics say was politically motivated, he also opened the door for those felons to have their right to own a firearm restored.  Previously, felons would individually have to petition the executive branch to have their civil rights restored.  Petitioners would have to fill out an application to the secretary of the commonwealth and submit a letter to the governor explaining why they deserve to have their rights restored.

The Editor says...
I can see where a state might restore a convicted felon's rights after a period of 15 or 20 years of good behavior, post-incarceration, but to forgive and forget as soon as his prison sentence is completed is reckless and highly premature.  The lasting stigma of a felony conviction is supposed to be part of its value as a deterrent.

U.S. Spends More on Medical Care for Inmates than Seniors, Veterans, Military Personnel.  President Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that there's an extra special place in his heart for incarcerated criminals, but this is a bit much.  The administration spends a lot more money on the medical care of jailed convicts than retired seniors on Medicare, active U.S. military personnel or veterans, including an extra $100 million in one year alone, according to a federal audit released this month.  The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) consistently pays outside doctors and hospitals more to treat inmates than Medicare or other federal agencies would pay for the same services, according to the report which is the result of a Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General investigation.

'Ferguson Effect' is a plausible reason for spike in violent US crime, study says.  A new justice department-funded study concludes that a version of the so-called "Ferguson Effect" is a "plausible" explanation for the spike in violent crime seen in most of the country's largest cities in 2015, but cautions that more research is still needed.  The study, released by the National Institute of Justice on Wednesday, suggests three possible drivers for the more than 16% spike in homicide from 2014 to 2015 in 56 of the nation's largest cities.  But based on the timing of the increase, University of Missouri St Louis criminologist Richard Rosenfeld concluded, there is "stronger support" for some version of the Ferguson Effect hypothesis than its alternatives.

Man vows to continue to stalk TV reporter when sentence expires.  A man who was being sentenced for stalking a Philadelphia news reporter vowed Wednesday [5/25/2016] to continue to stalk the woman once his 15-year term ends.  Christopher Nilan, 32, made the promise after he received his sentence for stalking a female KYW-TV reporter, The Delaware County Daily Times reported.

The Editor says...
This is the sort of person who should be locked up indefinitely.  He has made his criminal intents known, and the state can either keep him in custody or try to follow him around wherever he goes.

Gunman Who Killed Auburn Officer Had Attacked Police Before.  State officials said 35-year-old Jorge Zambrano had been released from the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, a maximum-security prison, on Nov. 1, 2013, after serving time on a list of charges, including cocaine trafficking, two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, two counts of resisting arrest, and selling, using or possessing a firearm silencer. [...] "When you have an Incorrigible criminal, someone who just doesn't cooperate whether they're in jail or out of jail, the criminal justice system doesn't know what to do with them to be honest with you," [Former Boston Police Commissioner Ed] Davis said.

Fundamentally Transformed: City after City Seeing Rising Crime Rates.  [T]his phenomenon is simply the most important development in police work since the advent of data-driven police work some 25 years ago.  In 1990 there were 2,245 murders in New York City; in 2014 there were 328.  In Los Angeles, there were 1,092 murders in 1992; in 2014 there were 260.  More than any other factor, it was data-driven police work, carried out by well-trained, well-informed, and well-motivated cops that brought these grim numbers to their currently more tolerable levels.  But now it's all being undone, and in city after city the trend is once again pointing toward higher crime.  America's police officers are today just as well trained and informed, but they are less motivated to do the proactive police work that keeps criminals in check.

Obama To Decriminalize Criminals.  [Scroll down]  Rather than blame the system they set up or the criminals themselves, Obama blames the criminal justice system.  In a speech last July at the NAACP convention our president, the "social justice warrior," said that our criminal justice system was neither smart enough nor fair enough.  "It's not keeping us as safe as it should be.  It is not as fair as it should be.  Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something about it," Obama declared.  Really?  How "smart" does it need to be.  The legislature passes laws, the president signs them at the justice system does what it is told to do — dispense justice.  It's neither fair nor unfair.  It's impartial, or supposed to be.  You break the law — you go to jail.

The 10 Most Dangerous Lies About Criminal Justice "Reform".  Myth #5:  We have a big government culture of over-criminalization that threatens liberty.  Fact:  Absolutely.  There are plenty of frivolous regulatory crimes on the books.  And none of that is addressed in this legislation or in any of the ongoing "bipartisan" negotiations.  This is all about promoting the ACLU's agenda for hardened criminals.  As it relates to our culture of violent crime, witnessed by the recent spike in crime across the nation, we do not do enough to combat it.  Ordered liberty is built upon government doing a few things well, one of which is law enforcement.  Returning to pre-Reagan crime levels where people are restricted in their movements and activities due to the paralysis we are now seeing in places like Baltimore, represents the highest level of tyranny.  Crime, lawlessness, and fiscal dependency policies undermine liberty in the inner cities, not sentencing and incarceration.

Obama doesn't think rapists, armed robbers, drug dealers are 'criminals'.  It's only May, but I think I've found the euphemism of the year:  According to Team Obama, criminals should now be declared "justice-involved individuals."  The neo-Orwellianism comes to us from the bizarre flurry of last-minute diktats, regulations and bone-chilling threats collectively known to fanboys as Obama's Gorgeous Goodbye.  In another of those smiley-faced, but deeply sinister, "Dear Colleague" letters sent to universities and college this week, Obama's Education Secretary John King discouraged colleges from asking applicants whether they were convicted criminals.

Obama: Our criminal justice system imprisons too many criminals.  [President Obama's weekly remarks]  Today, there are some 2.2 million people behind bars in America.  Millions more are on parole or probation.  All told, we spend $80 billion taxpayer dollars each year to keep people locked up.  Many are serving unnecessarily long sentences for non-violent crimes.  Almost 60 percent have mental health problems.  Almost 70 percent were regular drug users.  And as a whole, our prison population is disproportionately black and Latino.

The Editor says...
By and large, the people in prison are there for good reasons.  It may be true that a wholesale marijuana distributor or a serial burglar may be "non-violent" criminals, but there are minimum-security facilities and halfway houses for people like that.  Talk to someone who works as a prison guard, and you will quickly learn that there are thousands of people in this country who are behind bars because they need to be.

What's Next?  Voting Absentee from Prison?  [Scroll down]  Supporters of the plan like to talk about how these individuals have "paid their debt to society," only in this instance these 44,000 are still making payments in the form of probation or parole.  This is like allowing a layaway customer to take possession of the Xbox before he's made the last payment.  Come to think of it, some of these future Democrat votes may be on probation or parole because they took the Xbox without making any payments.  [Governor Larry] Hogan originally vetoed the bill because he harbors quaint notions about the need for consequences to follow when someone breaks the law.  He felt that no one put a gun to the criminal's head and made them take up a life of crime.  On the contrary the people with the guns to their heads were the law-abiding.  Forfeiting the right to vote until they paid their entire debt to society was only right and proper.

Prosecutors have too much power.  Juries should rein them in..  If there's strong evidence that you've committed a crime, there's still hope.  Despite the evidence, those responsible for convicting you may choose to let you go, if they think that sending you to jail would result in an injustice.  That can happen through what's called "prosecutorial discretion," where a prosecutor decides not to bring or pursue charges against you because doing so would be unfair, even though the evidence is strong.  Or it can happen through "jury nullification," where a jury thinks that the evidence supports conviction but then decides to issue a "not guilty" verdict because it feels that a conviction would be unjust.  Strangely, the former is much less controversial than the latter.

Jurors need to take the law into their own hands.  Nationally, most of the people locked up for drug crimes are African American, in spite of studies that demonstrate blacks don't use or sell drugs more than any other group.  We make up 13 percent of the country's population but nearly 60 percent of the people doing time for drug offenses.  And an endless series of videos have shown how black people get policed:  the mailman arrested in Brooklyn for yelling at the cops who almost ran him down; the teenage girl tackled by the cop at a pool party in McKinney, Tex.; Eric Garner, arrested for selling a cigarette in Staten Island and then put in a chokehold that killed him.  Like a lot of African Americans, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I encourage any juror who thinks the police or prosecutors have crossed the line in a particular case to refuse to convict.

The Editor says...
The Editor does not necessarily agree with all of the opinions expressed in the article immediately above.  Some of them, perhaps, but not all of them.

Potential Supreme Court Candidate Defended Pipe Bomber, Child Murderer.  Judge Jane Kelly, who was appointed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2013, is reportedly on President Obama's short list for the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia.  Before becoming a judge, Kelly worked for years as a public defender in Iowa.  In 2005, Kelly was the appointed attorney for a 26-year-old man named Casey Frederiksen, who was charged with possession of child pornography.  Although Frederiksen had previously been convicted of sexual assault involving a minor, Kelly urged the judge to grant him leniency, arguing that he was not a danger to others and should be released and allowed to live with his father.  Frederiksen was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the case.  A decade later, Frederiksen was convicted of murder and sexual assault in the 2005 cold case killing of 5-year-old Evelyn Celeste Miller.

Obama's prisoner clemency plan faltering as cases pile up.  In April 2014, the administration of President Barack Obama announced the most ambitious clemency program in 40 years, inviting thousands of jailed drug offenders and other convicts to seek early release and urging lawyers across the country to take on their cases.  Nearly two years later the program is struggling under a deluge of unprocessed cases, sparking concern within the administration and among justice reform advocates over the fate of what was meant to be legacy-defining achievement for Obama.

Police: Man charged in North Bergen crash that killed 2 teens driving at 'outrageous' speed.  Shock and sorrow overflowed among relatives and friends who gathered in mourning on Monday [3/7/2016] at the site where two teenagers were killed by a speeding car in North Bergen over the weekend, as more details emerged about the motorist who is charged in their deaths.  Eric Patterson, 23, of Jersey City had tallied a long list of motor vehicle violations and had racked up 23 license suspensions.  He had last driven legally in September 2014.  Law enforcement officials on Monday [3/7/2016] said he may have been traveling at 74 mph on the 25-mph roadway just before the deadly crash occurred.

The Editor says...
This young man is 23 years old, and has had his license suspended 23 times, prior to September 2014, which was 18 months ago.  If he started driving when he was 16, that means he got his license suspended 23 times in 5½ to 6 years, or about every 90 days.  It would be interesting to read the court transcript from the day his license was suspended for the 21st time.  Surely something was said along the lines of, "We'll give you just one more chance, and then you're really in trouble!"  But no, for whatever reason, the State of New Jersey is determined to keep a license in this guy's pocket — even though he would probably drive around without one.  To me it appears that the judges in New Jersey don't care what you do, or how many times you fail to learn your lesson, as long as you hire a lawyer and pay the fine promptly.  Even for the 22nd time.  It's no wonder there's so much crime in this country.  Punishment is hit-and-miss, at best.

A Million People Were In Prison Before We Called It Mass Incarceration.  October's cover of The Atlantic carries a headline that, even a decade ago, you probably never would've seen:  "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration."  The 20,000-word article attached to it, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, covers the remarkable growth in the United States' prison population and its outsize impact on black individuals, families and communities.  That Coates's piece employs the phrase "mass incarceration" 17 times is telling.  The term has become ubiquitous in conversations about prison in the United States.  But 10 years ago, barely anybody put the two words next to each other to talk about what the phrase has come to represent for many:  everything that's wrong with the American justice system.

Crack Dealer Freed Early Under Obama Plan Murders Woman, 2 Kids.  A convicted crack dealer who left prison early as part of the Obama administration's mass release of federal inmates has been indicted by a grand jury for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend and her two kids in Columbus, Ohio.  The gory crime drew national attention because the children, ages 7 and 10, were murdered to eliminate them as witnesses in the brutal massacre of their 32-year-old mother.  This week a grand jury in Franklin County returned a 10-count, death-penalty indictment against the ex-con, 35-year-old Wendell Callahan, for the triple murders.

Minor offenses in Manhattan will no longer result in arrests.  Under the terms of a new initiative that takes effect March 7, low-level criminal offenses such as public consumption of alcohol and taking up two seats on the subway for offenders won't result in arrests or prosecutions — just summonses.  "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office will no longer prosecute most violations or infractions, and the NYPD will no longer arrest individuals who commit these offenses — such as littering, public consumption of alcohol, or taking up two seats on the subway — unless there is a demonstrated public safety reason to do so," the agencies said in a joint release with City Hall.

The New California Crime Wave.  Something amazing has happened in California.  First, a brief background:  Crime rates across the state, after a long period of steady decline, had reached fifty-year lows in 2014.  Then, that November, a 60 percent majority of California voters — presumably incapable of accepting such good news without a measure of collective guilt — decided that it would be a really enlightened idea to pass Proposition 47, a ballot initiative bearing the cheery name "The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act."  The purpose of this measure was to downgrade many types of drug possession and property crimes from felonies (punishable by more than a year in prison) to misdemeanors (which often entail no prison time at all).  For the benefit of squeamish skeptics, the self-assured proponents of Prop 47 condescended to explain that these reduced penalties would not only alleviate prison overcrowding, but would also make California's streets safer by placing drug offenders into warm-and-fuzzy treatment and counseling programs, rather than into disagreeable prison cells.  If you think this sounds like a familiar old tune, you're quite correct.  It was #1 on the left-wing hit parade throughout the 1960s, when it became the theme song of skyrocketing crime rates across the United States.  And now the Golden Oldie is back, in the Golden State.  The tangible results of Prop 47 were both immediate and breathtaking.  Within a year, there were some 14,000 fewer inmates in California's state prisons and local jails, just as the Proposition's backers had promised.  But the other half of their promise — improved public safety — somehow failed to materialize.

California's "unprecedented mass forgiveness" of convicts raises more than a few questions.  In case you hadn't heard, California's governor has been on something of a binge in terms of releasing convicts from prison and reforming the system to be more fair to everyone.  Prison reform and rehabilitation vs isolation is all the rage these days it seems.  The Washington Post ran a feature this week on how wonderfully this has been going and it certainly makes a grade A effort to paint a happy face on these proposals.

Reverse shakedown:
Washington D.C. council passes proposal to give residents up to $9,000 in cash not to commit crime.  They say crime doesn't pay, but that might not be entirely true in the U.S. capital as lawmakers look for ways to discourage people from becoming repeat offenders.  The D.C. Council voted unanimously Tuesday [2/2/2016] to approve a bill that includes a proposal to pay residents a stipend if they don't commit any crimes.  It's based on a program in Richmond, California, that advocates say has contributed to reductions in crime there.

Lunch Money Surrendered.  The Council of the District of Columbia approved legislation Tuesday [2/2/2016] that would pay residents in the nation's capital for not committing crimes. [...] The experiment in Richmond, on which the above is based, involved "sifting through police records to determine the 50 [or so] residents most likely to shoot someone."  And then "approaching them and [offering] a stipend [of up to $1000 a month] to turn their lives around, and a mentor to help."  After four years of being subsidised for not being caught committing any further violent crimes, 65 of the 68 "fellows" enrolled in the programme were "still alive," although "one had survived a shooting and three had died."  This was deemed "promising."

Escaped California inmate was ordered deported in 1998, but never left.  One of the three violent convicts who escaped from a Southern California jail Friday [1/22/2016] had been ordered deported to his native Vietnam in 1998, but was able to remain in the U.S. and rack up more criminal convictions.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday [1/26/2016] that Bac Duong, 43, came to the United States legally in 1991 but was ordered removed seven years later after he served time in state prison for a 1997 burglary conviction.  However, the Orange County Register reported that Vietnam routinely refused requests from the U.S. to accept Duong and other deportees.

Supreme Court justices extend bar on automatic life terms for teenagers.  The Supreme Court ruled Monday [1/25/2016] that people serving life terms for murders they committed as teenagers must have a chance to seek their freedom, a decision that could affect more than 1,000 inmates.

Judge ignored warnings, freed 'slasher'.  The career criminal charged with slashing a woman on her way to work in Chelsea was on the streets because a judge ignored warnings that he's a "high risk" defendant and sprung him without bail on an earlier assault, The [New York] Post has learned.  Kari Bazemore is also suspected in yet another attack on a Bronx woman after Manhattan Judge Laurie Peterson set him free on Dec. 31.

Murder suspect in Washington had been released from prison early, officials say.  Officials announced last week that as many as 3,200 prisoners had been mistakenly released since 2002 because of problems calculating sentences.  So far, more than two dozen offenders who need to serve additional time are back in custody, and the Department of Corrections is reviewing additional releases.

Study: Smaller Counties Driving US Jail Population Growth.  While big-city jails get most of the attention, lockups in small and medium-sized counties have actually driven the overall explosion in the U.S. inmate population, according to a new analysis of 45 years of jail statistics.

Burglary suspect hides in Florida lake, where gator eats him.  A suspected burglar jumped in a Florida lake apparently hiding from law enforcement before an 11-foot alligator killed him, investigators said Monday [12/7/2015].  His hand and foot reportedly turned up inside the animal's stomach.  Brevard County Sheriff's Maj. Tod Goodyear says 22-year-old Matthew Riggins told his girlfriend he would be in Barefoot Bay to commit burglaries with another suspect.

Cruz: Most violent criminals are Democrats.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said late Monday that most violent criminals also identify as Democrats.  "Here is the simple and undeniable fact — the overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats," he said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" that evening.  "There is a reason why for years the Democrats have been viewed as soft on crime," Cruz continued.  "They go in and appoint to the bench judges who release violent criminals.

Agency to Remove Art by Native American Activist Prisoner.  The paintings were done in prison by Leonard Peltier, 71, a Native American activist who is serving two consecutive life sentences in the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

In some countries, the justice system moves with lightning speed:
Kill on the spot': Poll shows most Israelis support immediate execution for Palestinian attackers.  Over 50 percent of Israelis think that Palestinians suspected of carrying out terror activities "should be killed on the spot," says a new think-tank poll.  The hardening stance comes as 6 more Israelis were injured and 2 attackers killed over the weekend.

Obama Wants You To Refer To Juvenile Delinquents As 'Justice-Involved Youth' Now.  It's time to update your politically-correct jargon, America, because the Obama administration is no longer referring to juvenile delinquents as "juvenile delinquents."  Instead, the new, preferred and totally different term for kids who commit crimes is "justice-involved youth."  Attorney General Loretta Lynch rolled out the term earlier this week in a press release obtained by the Media Research Center.  "The Department of Justice is committed to giving justice-involved youth the tools they need to become productive members of society," Lynch explained.

Juvenile Delinquents Are Now 'Justice-Involved Youth'.  They used to be called juvenile delinquents.  But not any more.  The new term is "justice-involved youth," a non-disparaging, government-speak phrase that fits with the Obama administration's recent push to give people with criminal convictions a second chance to become productive citizens.  "The Department of Justice is committed to giving justice-involved youth the tools they need to become productive members of society," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a news release on Monday [11/2/2015].  Lynch said the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are launching a $1.7-million initiative to help Public Housing Authorities and legal assistance groups "reduce barriers for justice-involved youth."

Obama: Too many folks in our prisons.  [Quoting Barack H. Obama:]  ["]Today, there are 2.2 million people behind bars in America and millions more on parole or probation.  Every year, we spend $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to keep people incarcerated.  Many are non-violent offenders serving unnecessarily long sentences.["]

The Editor says...
Really, Mr. President?  Name one "non-violent offender" currently living in a state penitentiary.

Judge orders risk review of sex offenders in civil program.  Judge Donovan Frank laid out what he says must be done to fix problems with indefinite detentions that he ruled unconstitutional earlier this year.

States Struggle With What to Do With Sex Offenders After Prison.  Behind razor wire and locked metal doors, hundreds of men waited on a recent morning to be counted, part of the daily routine inside a remote facility here that was built based on a design for a prison.  But this is not a prison, and most of these men — rapists, child abusers and other sex offenders — have completed their sentences.  They are being held here indefinitely under a policy known as civil commitment, having been deemed "sexually dangerous" or "sexual psychopathic personalities" by courts.  The intent, the authorities say, is to provide treatment to the most dangerous sex offenders until it is safe for the public for them to go home.

Drone carrying drugs, hacksaw blades crashes at Oklahoma prison.  A drone carrying mobile phones, drugs, hacksaw blades and other material dangling in a bundle from a fishing line crashed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester before inmates could grab the contraband, prison officials said on Tuesday [10/27/2015].

The Banana Republic of America.  The American justice system is not without its flaws as we've seen all too many times.  A grievous crime is committed and the perpetrator is never discovered.  Sometimes there is a suspect who seems to be the perfect candidate but a grand jury doesn't find sufficient evidence for the prosecutors to move forward.  And in other cases, even if you get them to trial a jury doesn't see things the same way as the public.  (O.J anyone?)  In very rare cases a pardon can be issued and the system seems to have been short sheeted.  (Democrats will always cite Nixon for that one.)  But all of these scenarios have one thing in common:  the rule of law was followed, the accused were given their fair shot at defending themselves and the republic managed to stumble along on its way.

The Myth of Criminal-Justice Racism.  As President Barack Obama said in July in Philadelphia:  "The real reason our prison population is so high" is that we have "locked up more and more nonviolent drug offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before."  In popular understanding, prisons and jails are filled with harmless pot smokers.  The most poisonous claim in the dominant narrative is that our criminal justice system is a product and a source of racial inequity.  The drug war in particular is said to be infected by racial bias.  "Mass incarceration" is allegedly destroying black communities by taking fathers away from their families and imposing crippling criminal records on released convicts.  Finally, prison is condemned as a huge waste of resources.  Nothing in this dominant narrative is true.  Prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending.  Drug enforcement is not the driving factor in the prison system, violent crime is.

Obama's Tragic Let 'em Out Fantasy.  It takes a lot more than marijuana or cocaine use to end up in federal prison.  But the truth didn't matter.  Mr. Obama's prison tour came amid the biggest delegitimation of law enforcement in recent memory.  Activists, politicians and the media have spent the past year broadcasting a daily message that the criminal-justice system is biased against blacks and insanely draconian.  The immediate trigger for this movement, known as Black Lives Matter, was a series of highly publicized deaths of black males at the hands of the police.  But the movement also builds on a long-standing discourse from the academic left about "mass incarceration," policing and race.

A Life Sentence for James Holmes, Aurora Theater Gunman Who Killed 12.  In a decision that surprised many in this community, a jury sentenced James E. Holmes on Friday [8/7/2015] to life in prison with no chance of parole, rejecting the death penalty for the man who carried out a 2012 shooting rampage that killed 12 people in a Colorado movie theater.

California man who held 26 kids, bus driver captive in underground trailer gets parole.  The governor of California on Thursday [7/30/2015] allowed parole for one of three men convicted in the 1976 kidnapping of 26 children and their school bus driver who were held captive in a buried trailer.

Youngest children ever tried for first-degree murder set to be released from prison.  Curtis Jones was 12 and Catherine Jones was 13 when the siblings killed their father's girlfriend, Nicole Speights, 16 years ago.  They eventually pleaded to second-degree murder and were given 18-year sentences.  Curtis and Catherine will be on probation for the rest of their lives.

The Editor says...
Unless the penitentiary system works a lot better than I believe it does, I predict they'll both be back in prison within a year.

Obama and Over-Criminalization.  Obama recently told Americans that we are locking up too many people.  He meant, by that, that Americans are sending to prison people who are guilty only of drug offenses and pose no threat to public safety.  There is a kernel of truth in what he says.  People who use drugs, like people who drink too much, are not a threat to us unless they are on the highway or are committing other crimes while under the influence.  There is a predictable flaw in this leftist logic.  Look closer at the criminal records of these "non-violent" offenders and, almost always, if they are in prison, they have a history of violent offenses, or there is a lesser included violent crime in the underlying sentence, or the offense has been plea-bargained so that the violent nature of the underlying criminal act is watered down.

Inmate was nearly cut in two, missing organs after California prison riot.  Homicides are distressingly common in California prisons.  More than 160 inmates have been killed in the last 15 years, and the state has one of the nation's highest inmate homicide rates.

12 prison staffers suspended after convicted killers escape.  State prison officials announced a major shake-up Tuesday [6/30/2015] at the maximum-security slammer where two convicted killers broke out and led authorities on a 23-day manhunt.  A "new leadership team" is being installed at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, with three top-ranking officials and nine security staffers suspended, according to a statement from the Department of Corrections and Community Service.

FBI investigating possible corruption at New York prison.  What started as an investigation into how two convicted murderers managed to break out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York has now sparked an FBI investigation into possible broader corruption and drug trafficking at the facility.  Prison employees have told investigators about heroin use among inmates at the Clinton Correctional Facility, and the role of employees in the drug trade, law enforcement officials briefed on the probe told CNN on Monday [6/29/2015].

Cops livid over proposed 'police reform' measures.  Rank-and-file cops are fuming over several "police reform" measures [New York] City Council members plan to review this week, including bills that would force cops to get suspects' consent for searches, imprison police for using chokeholds, and require cops to give out the Civilian Complaint Review Board's phone number.  "These pieces of legislation have been proposed by individuals who have neither the expertise nor the experience to establish policy in the dangerous business of fighting crime," PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement Sunday [6/28/2015].

Across US, over 130 prison escapees on the loose.  Somewhere out there are an admitted killer who crawled through a Texas prison's ventilation ducts, a murderer who apparently escaped from an Indiana institution in a garbage truck, and a Florida convict who got other inmates to put him in a crate at the prison furniture shop and had himself delivered to freedom by truck.

Murder map shows where in the world you are most likely to be a victim of homicide.  A Brazilian think tank has released a macabre interactive map, which exposes the nations where people are most likely to be murdered — with Latin American nations coming top.  The Homicide Map, compiled using the most recently available date from 2012, lays bare how a third of the world's 450,000 murders were against victims in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, despite the fact that less than a tenth of the world's population lives in this region.

Free the Baltimore Six.  [Scroll down]  From the days of Sacco and Vanzetti on, leftists had invested a great deal of emotional capital in claiming the guilty innocent.  They particularly liked to declare groups of guilty people innocent — the "Jena Six," the "Chicago Seven (or Eight)," the "Catonsville Nine."  Beginning with the Zimmerman case, they switched tactics and began to insist the innocent were guilty, a darker turn altogether.  Now America has a genuine collective of the unjustly accused, the six officers that the New York Daily News casually describes as the "suspected killers" of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore Six.  But now leftists are the ones doing the accusing.

Three Observations About Hillary's Speech on Criminal Justice Reform.  I have read Hillary Clinton's speech on criminal justice reform and have three observations I would like to make.  First, Hillary gave the speech at Columbia University under the auspices of the David Dinkins Leadership and Policy Forum. Hillary said that Dinkins "leadership helped lay the foundation for the dramatic drop in crime in the years that followed."  Those would be the years that Rudy Giuliani was mayor.  Let me put this way.  Would Hillary have walked through Times Square while Dinkins was mayor?

Citing Baltimore unrest, Hillary Clinton calls for police body cameras and an end to mass incarceration.  Amid continuing unrest in Baltimore over the death of a young black man in police custody, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday [4/29/2015] called for widespread use of police body cameras and an end to mass incarceration during her first major policy speech since launching her presidential campaign.

The Editor says...
There is no mass incarceration.  Every defendant gets his own trial.  Incarceration will stop when crime stops, unless there is some monetary incentive to keep the prisons full.  The judges and court reporters can find jobs elsewhere.

More Prisoners, Less Crime.  For many reasons, including better policing and more incarceration, Americans feel, and are, safer.  The New York Times has not recently repeated such amusing headlines as "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling" (1997), "Prison Population Growing Although Crime Rate Drops" (1998), "Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction" (2000) and "More Inmates, Despite Slight Drop in Crime" (2003). [...] Last July [2007], Obama said that "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities."  Actually, there are more than twice as many black men ages 18 to 24 in college as there are in jail.

Baltimore proves the need for 'Broken Windows' policing.  Here's hoping Mayor Bill de Blasio isn't too busy playing political games and barnstorming the country to absorb the right lessons from the Baltimore riots.  If he's paying attention, he'll learn a thing or two about policing and that the bloody price of failed leadership is paid by innocent families and businesses.  The disgraceful orders for cops to disappear or stand by and watch as rioters, looters and arsonists had their way should never be repeated anywhere again.  Nor should any mayor talk, as Baltimore's foolishly did, about giving "those who wished to destroy space to do that."

The perilous new push to excuse lawlessness.  Announcing his presidential bid this month, Sen. Rand Paul said he wants to repeal "any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color."  Fulfilling this promise would require gutting murder statutes, and most other criminal laws, given the disproportionate black crime rate.  But whether or not Paul reaches the White House, a wide-ranging movement is already under way to transform the criminal justice system in order to avoid a disparate impact on blacks.  This push will jeopardize the country's two-decade-long crime drop.

Unexpectedly: Crime Rates Begin to Rise in Los Angeles.  I bring you shocking news, gentle readers.  If you take thousands of incarcerated felons and turn them loose on society, and you then allow the federal government and cultural elites to demoralize the police officers charged with keeping these liberated hoodlums in line, you end up with higher crime.  Who would have dared imagine it?  This is the state of affairs in California, where a succession of imprudent decisions by judges, lawmakers, and the electorate have combined to throw open the prison gates to swarms of men who in a sane world would have remained locked away at a safe remove from the law-abiding public.

Ankle monitors are no substitute for the incarceration of violent criminals.
D.A. says teen in alleged assault of pizza deliverer wore monitor.  A 17-year-old boy charged as an adult in connection with the alleged kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery of a woman delivering Domino's Pizza in Antioch was wearing a GPS ankle monitor, prosecutors said Wednesday [2/11/2015].  Darrion Miles Jr., 17, appeared in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez on Wednesday on felony charges of forcible rape, sodomy, oral copulation, digital penetration, kidnapping, robbery and making criminal threats.  He did not enter a plea and was held at juvenile hall in lieu of the $6.4 million bail.  Authorities would not say why Miles had been outfitted with an ankle monitor, but Miles referred to his "po," or probation officer, on his Facebook page, which is peppered with derogatory references to women.

How to Make Sense of an Incoherent America.  [Scroll down]  Lots of college campuses are in so-called dangerous neighborhoods.  East Palo Alto is not far from the Stanford campus.  New Haven can still be a perilous place for Yale students.  Many of the Cal State campuses are in iffy neighborhoods.  Women alone walking to cars or apartments in these environs can often be targeted by criminals.  Why, then, is there not a greater campus awareness campaign about the dangers of the street, or at least more attention to insist that felons and convicted rapists are not released early in college neighborhoods?  Instead, more emphases recently have been focused on date rape and other college students.

Senator Leahy on Justice Dep't.: Incarcerating Criminals Doesn't Make Us Safer.  During a hearing on the nomination of Loretta Lynch to serve as Attorney General to the United States, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member, Senate Judiciary Committee seemed to suggest that the Justice Department spends too much money on incarcerating criminals and that such incarcerations don't keep Americans safer.  "Nearly one-third of its budget goes to the Bureau of Prisons, draining vital resources from nearly all other public safety priorities," said Senator Leahy.  "A significant factor leading to this budget imbalance is the unnecessary creation of more and more mandatory minimum sentences."

Which Criminals Can Be Rehabilitated?  Imprisoning convicted criminals serves two primary purposes:  (1) to increase the safety of the public by quarantining unlawful offenders, and (2) to rehabilitate those who are incarcerated through punishment.  Point 1 is fairly straightforward, but point 2 may be food for thought.  Recidivism rates in America have been trending upward, from around 63% in 1983 to around 77% now.  This presents a peculiar contrast to the 40% decrease since 1983 in overall crime.

California Voters to Decide on Sending Fewer Criminals to Prison.  California voters appear poised to scale back the heavy reliance on incarceration they once embraced, with a measure that would transform several lower-level, nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors punishable by brief jail stays, if that, rather than time in a state penitentiary.  The referendum on Nov. 4 is part of a national reappraisal of mass incarceration.

Federal inmate dies after attack at prison.  A federal inmate serving a 40-year sentence for child-related sex offenses has died after being attacked at a southern Kentucky prison.

California Releases Thousands of 'Lifers' from Prison.  California continues to stretch the imaginations of non-liberals.  One unthinkable policy is Governor Brown's policy by which thousands of presumably dangerous prisoners originally sentenced by juries to life sentences in the slammer are being set free.  A Friday [8/8/2014] radio segment on the California Report was downright cheery about cons being released into local communities. [...] In other words, don't be scared, little citizens — the murderers and rapists have been taught techniques in anger management.

13 Ways The American Police State Squanders Your Tax Dollars.  [#8]  $6.4 billion a year for the Bureau of Prisons and $30,000 a year to house an inmate.  There are over 3,000 people in America serving life sentences for non-violent crimes.  These include theft of a jacket, siphoning gasoline from a truck, stealing tools, and attempting to cash a stolen check.  Most of the non-violent offenses that triggered life sentences were drug crimes involving trace amounts of heroin and cocaine.  One person imprisoned for life was merely a go-between for an undercover officer buying ten dollars' worth of marijuana.  California has more money devoted to its prison system than its system of education.  State spending on incarceration is the fastest growing budget item besides Medicaid.

Our Unwillingness to Defend Ourselves.  The U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that 2012 losses because of personal identity theft totaled $24.7 billion.  The money losses from identity theft pale in comparison with the costs of paperwork, time and inconvenience imposed on the larger society in an effort to protect ourselves.  According to LifeLock, while the laws against identity theft have gotten tougher, identity theft criminal prosecution is relatively rare.  Unless we develop a low tolerance and a willingness to impose harsh sentences, identity thieves will continue to impose billions of dollars of costs on society.

Facing legal heat, Texas prison system tries new cooling devices to ease oppressive temps.  The nation's most populous prison system, facing legal actions and criticism about inmates having to endure oppressive Texas summer heat, is looking to make conditions a bit more bearable at seven state lockups by installing cooling systems similar to those seen on the sidelines of early-season football games.

Prison: The Benefits are Great!.  Some of you may recall that back in 2002 there was a fair amount of controversy surrounding the California Department of Corrections' (DoC) decision to allow a life-saving, million dollar heart transplant for an inmate serving 14 years for armed robbery.  The DoC reasoned that not doing so would violate the 1976 Supreme Court ruling that states it's "'cruel and unusual punishment' to withhold necessary medical care from inmates."  The decision by the DoC raised an important question:  Should prisoners get transplants ahead of law-abiding citizens?

Court affirms Mass. murderer's right to get sex change in prison.  A federal appeals court on Friday [1/17/2014] upheld a judge's ruling granting a taxpayer-funded sex change operation for a transgender inmate serving a life sentence for a murder conviction, saying receiving medically necessary treatment is a constitutional right that must be protected "even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox."

Alabama Lawmaker Re-Introduces Castration Bill For Sex Offenders.  An Alabama legislator has re-introduced a bill to legalize castration of convicted child molesters if their victims were under the age of 12 — and make them pay for the procedure.  The Florence Times Daily reports that Rep. Steve Hurst (R-Munford) is proposing the bill for the 2014 legislative session, which begins in January. Hurst attempted to push this bill during the 2013 session, but it did not make it out of committee.

Same Lies, Different Day.  By focusing on the gun, and not the user, the left does not have to address the failure of the criminal justice system to consistently punish illegal gun use.  They can ignore, for example, that prior gun charges against the Navy Yard shooter were not pursued in a liberal criminal justice system that coddles criminals and ignores gun crimes.  Prosecutors in liberal jurisdictions, and perhaps in many jurisdictions, are much more interested in obtaining convictions than actually punishing gun crimes.  For the sake of their stats, they will accept guilty pleas to one of many lesser included charges, perhaps a second degree assault or a disorderly conduct, and dismiss the gun charges.

Aaron Alexis and The War On Standards.  We often hear from the left that our criminal justice system is broken.  Part of what the left, including our Attorney General, means by this is that too many people are in jail, especially too many Blacks.  I take no position in this post about that claim.  But in the case of Aaron Alexis — the Navy Yard mass murderer — it looks like the criminal justice system's breakdown consists of its failure to incarcerate.

Leftists Just Can't Help But Ruin the World.  From the 1960s well into the 1980s, laws regarding criminal justice and self-defense were stacked heavily against law-abiding Americans.  Liberal judges routinely handed down minimal sentences after criminals had been convicted of heinous crimes.  Americans who had defended themselves against criminals using force, often in their own homes, faced severe prosecution for exercising their natural right to defend their loved ones, their homes and their property.  Crime rates soared and outrage built up as the legal system allowed criminal after criminal to walk free while acting in self-defense could ruin a law-abiding American's life.  Liberals did all of this in the name of "social justice," on a theory that the system is inherently racist, poverty causes crime, and society is ultimately to blame for criminals.

Crime and Punishment in a Free Society.  In England, the early kings recognized that the administration of justice could be a cash cow.  So they grabbed on and never let go.  As a result, the emphasis shifted to punishment (fines and imprisonment) and away from restitution (making victims or their heirs as whole as possible).  Liberty-minded people should regret this change.