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.
Now back to the other end of the spectrum: There are some crimes that must be punished in such a way as to deter others from
considering such behavior as one of life's options. There are also some criminals who, through a series of their own faulty
decisions, live a life of continual, habitual, and destructive criminal acts. In the most severe cases of murder, treason, piracy,
kidnapping, assassination, etc., usually after the convicted criminal has exhibited no remorse or penitence, the state brings
that person's life of crime to an end. This (as above) serves as a signal to everyone else, that bad things will happen
to bad people.
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.
Capital
Punishment Must Be Enforced to Be Effective. [Scroll down] The reason is that capital punishment can be a
powerful deterrent only when it is actually enforced. And death for murder can become the rule, rather than the
extremely rare exception, only after the Supreme Court's death penalty jurisprudence has been swept away. A
constitutional amendment is the only practical means of doing that. This would not involve repealing the Eighth
Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments." Rather, it would involve restoring the Eighth Amendment to its original
meaning. That's what I argued four years before Donald Trump was sworn into office. That's what I have believed
ever since. Over the last four years, in a series of articles for American Greatness, I developed the theme.
New
federal rule to allow other methods of execution besides lethal injection. The Justice Department is changing
its execution protocols, so that federal executions are no longer required to be done by lethal injection only. The
amended rule, as reported by the AP, allows the government to use lethal injection or "any other manner prescribed by the law
of the state in which the sentence was imposed." The rule was published in the Federal Register on Friday [11/27/2020].
Those other manners include "electrocution, inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad." The amended rule goes into
effect on Dec. 24 and comes as the DOJ has scheduled five executions during this lame-duck period.
A
Web of Lies: China Promised to Stop Organ Harvesting. Here's What It's Been Doing Behind Closed
Doors. In 2005, I was astounded to hear from a patient who was a candidate for a heart transplant, and who had
been hospitalized for a year in my department at the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, that he had received an offer from
his insurance company to fly to China and undergo the surgical procedure there, on a specified date within two weeks. A
necessary precondition for a heart transplant is the donor's demise on the day of the surgery, which obviously is not an
event whose date is known weeks in advance. My astonishment only increased when the patient did in fact make the trip
to China and had the transplant on the promised day. He was the first Israeli to have a heart transplant in this
way. Intrigued by the case, I started investigating the subject of organ transplants in China. I discovered that
as early as 1984 a secret law had been promulgated there allowing the organs of persons condemned to death to be harvested
for transplants. The law, whose existence gradually leaked out, is contrary to all international law and ethical
procedures, which absolutely prohibit the use of organs of individuals who have been executed. Indeed, even asking a
condemned person to agree to become an organ donor after his or her death is forbidden. Nevertheless, the law spawned a
flourishing industry in China worth billions of dollars to the state and other players, involving tens of thousands of
procedures a year, based on the sale to transplant tourists of organs of people sentenced to death.
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.
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.
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.
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 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].
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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.
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.
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... Lord Tebbit and our
readers call for its return. Angry calls for the reinstatement of hanging for killers of police officers were growing last night [9/19/2012] following
the double atrocity in Manchester. Led by Tory grandee Lord Tebbit, politicians and victims of crime said there was now enough evidence for the UK to re-examine
the issue.
A
return to capital punishment? It is time we thought once more about the deterrent effect. The murder of two unarmed women police officers is
bound to re-ignite the debate over whether our police officers should be armed as a matter of routine and whether there should be a return to capital
punishment for limited categories of murder, such as that of a police officer, or more generally. The first option of arming police officers would be
allowed by our masters in Brussels and Strasbourg even though it might lead to cases of summary execution of the innocent; the second would not.
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."
Gun crimes don't happen because of
'weak' laws. By combining data from the Census Bureau and the FBI, we see that in states with the death penalty for murder, the
murder rate in 2010 was 25 percent higher than in non-death-penalty states.
Tyrants and Human Nature.
Though the law of demand is not rocket science, liberals and progressives sometimes pretend it doesn't exist. Suppose one
wants to reduce the number of rapes, robberies and homicides. Should we raise or lower the cost of committing such acts?
Though the death penalty exacts a high cost for a homicide conviction, most liberals and progressives are against it. Some
liberals and progressives don't hold criminals responsible, because they believe that poverty and discrimination are the cause of
crime and that it's society that must be cured. Others think that soft sentences and rehabilitation programs reduce criminal
behavior. Both visions lower the cost to criminals of committing a crime.
Convicted Killers Often Live a
Life of Leisure, Professor Says. Most people imagine prison life for convicted murderers as being harsh, brutal, and
isolated, a real-life "Shawshank Redemption." So when convicted killer Danny Robbie Hembree Jr., 50, wrote a letter in January
to the Gaston Gazette in North Carolina, gloating about his comfortable life on death row, it got plenty of attention.
Crucifixion as policy. Benjamin Franklin wrote to M. Benjamin
Vaughn Esq. to explain a point of law. Franklin quoted Judge Bernet, who adjudicated a capital punishment case for horse theft.
The problem was whether it was right to hang a horse thief for the crime committed. Bernet said: ... "man, thou art not being hanged
only for stealing a horse; but that horses may not be stolen."
Mumia's The Word. For decades,
liberals tried persuading Americans to abolish the death penalty, using their usual argument: hysterical
sobbing. ... Fifty-nine percent of Americans now believe that an innocent man has been executed in the last
five years. There is more credible evidence that space aliens have walked among us than that an innocent
person has been executed in this country in the past 60 years, much less the past five years. But
unless members of the public are going to personally review trial transcripts in every death penalty case,
they have no way of knowing the truth. The media certainly won't tell them.
Justice
Department Pursues 'Strange' Probe of Execution Drug. The Obama administration has launched a
quiet campaign over the past two months to seize from local officials a key drug used in lethal
injections — part of a spreading investigation that has contributed to a de facto death
penalty freeze in several states.
The
Death Penalty Does Not Deter Liberals. Put simply, the abolitionist wants to get rid of the death
penalty regardless of guilt and regardless of process. And the impact of these endless appeals is
predictable: It undermines the deterrent capacity of the death penalty. If the liberal reader
cannot understand why a fifteen year delay between crime and punishment undermines deterrence then just try
this little two-step experiment: 1) The next time your fifteen-year old breaks a rule tell him he
will be grounded when he turns thirty. 2) See if you can count to ten before he decides to
recidivate.
Opponents of
capital punishment have blood on their hands. Opponents of capital punishment give us
names of innocents who would have been killed by the state had their convictions stood and they been
actually executed, and a few executed convicts whom they believe might have been innocent. But
proponents can name men and women who really were — not might have been — murdered
by convicted murderers while in prison. The murdered include prison guards, fellow inmates,
and innocent men and women outside of prison.
Execution
Drug Halt Raises Ire of Doctors. Doctors and pharmacists are criticizing a U.S. drug
company's decision to permanently halt production of an anesthetic used in carrying out the death
penalty, saying the drug was still needed for some surgical procedures.
They shoot horses, don't they? For executions, Texas
switches to drug used on animals. Texas, the state that executes more inmates than any
other, said on Wednesday it will follow Oklahoma and switch one of its lethal injection drugs to a
sedative often used to euthanize animals. "It has been used by Oklahoma in their execution
process, so there is a precedent there," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice. "Its use was upheld by the courts, so we're confident it would be upheld
by courts for use in Texas."
US
executions on hold due to lethal injection drug shortage. The lethal injection method is used by
35 states and several of those do not have enough sodium thiopental, an anaesthetic which is used to
render condemned prisoners unconscious shortly before their death. Steve Beshear, the Kentucky governor,
has had to postpone signing two death warrants, for killers Ralph Baze and Robert Foley, whose appeals are
exhausted.
The Editor says...
Nonsense! Every hospital in America has a large stock of sufficiently lethal painkillers. But do
executions have to be completely painless? Did anyone on death row commit a completely painless crime?
California Buys
Execution Drug From U.K. California has purchased a large supply of a drug used in executions
from a British pharmaceutical company, according to a spokeswoman with the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation. The state ordered the drug before the U.K. last month said it planned to limits exports
of the drug, thiopental sodium, because of the U.K.'s "moral opposition to the death penalty."
Texas thinks it can find enough
drugs for April executions. Texas' prison director says he's optimistic the state can find
the drug sodium thiopental or an alternative to carry out executions after Texas' supply expires at the
end of March.
The Editor says...
Why can't they use expired drugs? Are they unsafe? The condemned inmate might suffer some
adverse side effects? If a condemned prisoner caused someone else to suffer a horrible death,
do we really owe that criminal a painless departure?
The
Deaths That Save Lives. Critics of capital punishment argue that it does not act as a
deterrent. The facts speak for themselves: Over the past twenty-five years, the murder
rate in the U.S. has been cut almost in half.
Common
Sense on Capital Punishment: The reliable two-thirds of Americans who have always supported the
death penalty probably wouldn't be surprised to find out that study after study has shown that the death
penalty deters murders. Most studies have concluded that some number of murders between three
and 18 are prevented for every application of capital punishment.
Another
Argument for Capital Punishment. The most common objection opponents offer against capital
punishment is that innocents may be executed. My answer has always been that this is so rare (I do not
know of a proved case of mistaken execution in America in the last 50 years) that society must be prepared
to pay that terrible price. Why? Among other reasons, because more innocents will be killed by
murderers who are not executed (in prison, or once released or if they escape) than will be killed by the
state in erroneous executions.
Why
Would Anyone Support the Death Penalty? (Part I). Once we comprehend this distinction
between murder and all other crimes (which can be restituted for), it should be clear that retribution
not only justifies execution, it requires it. Execution is the only correct penalty-in-kind
for murder, and retribution is the only value so far analyzed which justifies taking this most
precious of payments from someone.
Red Herring Politics.
[Scroll down] One appointment by Governor Jerry Brown ought to tell us a lot about his ideology.
His most famous — or infamous — appointment was making Rose Bird chief justice of the
California supreme court. She over-ruled 64 consecutive death penalty verdicts and upheld none.
Apparently no judge or jury could ever give a murderer a trial perfect enough to suit Rose Bird. To hear
Rose Bird and her supporters tell it, she was just "upholding the law." But, fortunately, the California
voters saw right through that pretense, and realized that she was doing just the opposite — imposing
her own personal opposition to the death penalty in the guise of interpreting the law.
U.S. executions hit 1,000.
A man who went on a 1992 Christmas killing spree that left six people dead, including an 18-year-old mother gunned down
at a pay phone, was put to death Tuesday. It marked the state's second execution in just over a week and the
1,000th in the U.S. since capital punishment resumed in 1976.
Gruesome details of
the crimes committed by various condemned criminals.
Sotomayor Vs. The Death Penalty.
A recently unearthed memo not disclosed on the questionnaire filed with the Senate Judiciary Committee shows
that the empathy that the Supreme Court nominee feels is more for the predators among us than their victims.
It also shows that some of the reasons this self-proclaimed "wise Latina" has for opposing capital punishment
are bogus and flawed.
Democide: When liberals in
the late 1950s decided to tackle crime, how did they go about it? Through the strange means of
decriminalizing criminals. Lowering prison sentences, emphasizing rehabilitation over punishment,
community action over policing. A series of Supreme Court decisions followed — Mapp, Escebedo,
Miranda — disrupting the criminal justice system and effectively evening the odds between criminals
and the public. And the result? Beginning in 1964 — the year of the Escebedo
decision — the murder rate shot up as if strapped to a rocket.
Cheapening the death
penalty: On Feb. 15, 1933, a naturalized citizen named Giuseppe Zangara, in attempting to assassinate
President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was giving a speech in the back of a car in Miami, shot five people,
including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Zangara promptly — within days — pleaded guity to four
counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. When Mayor Cermak died 19 days after
the shootings, on March 6, 1933, two days after Roosevelt's inauguration (the date has since changed to Jan. 20),
Zangara was promptly indicted for first-degree murder. Because he had intended to commit murder, it was irrelevant
that his intended target was not the man he ultimately killed. Zangara pleaded guilty to the additional murder
charge, and on March 20, 1933 — 33 days after the shooting and after spending only 10 days
on Death Row, Zangara was executed.
Capital-punishment
propaganda. When the Maryland General Assembly meets next month, Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected
to push to repeal the state's capital-punishment law. Since the current death-penalty statute was enacted
in 1978, five men have been executed, the most recent being Wesley Baker on Dec. 5, 2005, for murdering a
woman in front of her grandchildren during a 1991 robbery in Baltimore County. In each of his first two
years as governor, Mr. O'Malley tried unsuccessfully to end capital punishment in Maryland, and he's determined
not to lose a third time.
Doctors' board bans
work on death row. An American doctors organisation has quietly decided to revoke the certification of
any member who participates in executing a prisoner by lethal injection.
Judge: No allergy risk
proven for Ohio execution. An inmate scheduled to die next week for raping and strangling a 16-year-old
girl has failed to present enough evidence of an allergy to anesthesia that could affect the execution, a federal
judge ruled Friday [4/16/2010].
The Editor says...
If he would prefer an alternative, let him hang. Really, since when are condemned prisoners entitled to
painless executions? You may be interested to know that Mr. Durr had a trial by jury and was convicted
of aggravated murder; kidnapping; aggravated robbery and
rape.*
The Editor says...
What about the cost of several decades of maximum-security incarceration?
State has enough
sodium thiopental to execute four. In a padlocked refrigerator behind San Quentin State Prison's
death chamber, 12 grams of scarce sodium thiopental is available to carry out up to four executions.
How the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation acquired the drug is both a mystery and an
apparent impediment to its use. Legal analysts and human rights advocates contend that the state must
have gotten the drug from a foreign producer...
US
rejects UN call to abolish death penalty. The United States dismissed international calls Tuesday
[11/9/2010]to abolish the death penalty as friends and foes alike delivered their recommendations on how
Washington can improve its human rights record.
Texas Must Disclose
Source of Execution Drug. Texas must disclose the source of a controversial drug used in capital
punishments, according to the state attorney general, in a move that could prompt other states to be more transparent
about their drug supplies.
Federal
Judge Rules Florida Death Penalty Law Unconstitutional. A South Florida federal judge has
ruled that based on the current sentencing statute, Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional. The
decision came in ruling in a 20-year-old murder case from Indian River County on Florida's Treasure Coast.
Perry
Delivers on Texas Death Penalty. As Texas governor, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry has
presided over 234 executions. It's a record number, which, The Washington Post reported last week,
bestows on Perry "a law-and-order credential that none of his competitors can match — even if they
wanted to." Watch how pundits will try to turn that statistic into a political negative — and
paint Perry as the governor with blood on his spurs — even though American voters overwhelmingly
support the death penalty.
Government policy now grants murderers immunity
from punishment for new crimes. Crime Without Punishment.
Death penalty opponents endlessly moralize that "no civilized society can execute human beings." But
how can a society that considers itself civilized tolerate being governed by power-abusing officials who confer
on the most violent and depraved, precisely because they are the most violent and depraved, the right to commit
additional murders and other barbaric crimes without fear of any punishment at all?
What,
Exactly, Does NC's 'Racial Justice Act' Mean? We'll Know Soon. A judge in Fayetteville, N.C., on
Wednesday [2/15/2012] heard closing arguments in the first case heard under the new law, which allows an inmate
off death row if race is found to have been a "significant factor" in the sentence. ... The decision, which should
come in the next few weeks, will likely set a precedent for what happens with the state's other death-row inmates.
Nearly all of North Carolina's 157 death-row inmates, including roughly 60 white inmates, have challenged their
death sentences on racial-bias grounds.
If
You're Ever Murdered, Here's an Idea. Opponents of capital punishment for murderers argue that
the state has no right to take a murderer's life. Apparently, one fact that abolitionists forget or
overlook is that the state is acting on behalf of the murdered person and the murdered person's family,
not only on behalf of society. In order to make this as clear as possible, here is my proposal:
Americans should be able to declare what they want the state to do on their behalf if they are murdered. ... Just
as I have a pink "donor" circle on my driver's license signifying that in case I die, I wish to provide my organs
to help keep some person alive, I wish to make it known that if I am murdered, I do not want my murderer kept
alive a day longer than legally necessary.
Hang 'em high, Canadians say.
Dust off that hood, John Radclive. It's been 50 years since the last criminal hangings took place in
Canada, and Radclive was the nation's first professional executioner, delivering about 150 final
sentences. ... In fact, only 37% of people now think death for violent offenders is a bad idea.
Federal
judge bars import of execution drug. In a win for death penalty opponents, a federal judge in Washington today [3/27/2012]
barred the use of sodium thiopental — one of three drugs used in executions in Texas until a year ago — on grounds
that its importation violates federal drug laws.
Californians to vote on abolishing death
penalty. California voters will soon get a chance to decide whether to replace the death penalty with life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
Mugshots of Florida Death Row Inmates. What a fine looking bunch. Each
photo is accompanied by an extremely brief biography, and it appears to me that most of these people have been on death row for more than 20 years.
California
man faces death penalty. [Scroll down] Capital punishment has been a hotly contested issue in California. In November,
California voters will vote on a ballot measure that would replace capital punishment with life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole. If the ballot measure passes, it would commute the sentences of more than 700 inmates on death row to life
in prison without possibility of parole — to become the state's most severe form of criminal punishment.
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.
Specific cases:
You
Can't Put This Killer to Death. He Has COVID. Since most people support the death penalty for monsters,
their lefty defenders have been forced to resort to two lines of argument. [#1] They insist that every killer is
suffering from mental illness, childhood trauma, and a deficient IQ due to lead poisoning. The media didn't bother to
interview the family members of the pregnant woman whom Lisa Montgomery cut open to get to her baby repeatedly gave her
sister a platform to claim she was abused. That was the previous death penalty case. Now we've got the suffering
parade. [#2] The second lefty tack is to trigger the Cruel and Unusual Punishment ban that lefties had previously
used to wrongly outlaw capital punishment. In the past that meant falsely claiming that every possible drug combination
would lead to suffering. Now, like the rest of the pro-crime caucus, they're exploiting the coronavirus.
Virginia
gang killer executed by U.S. despite Covid infection. The U.S. government executed a drug trafficker Thursday
for his involvement in a series of slayings in Virginia's capital city in 1992, despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal
injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his recent Covid-19 infection. Corey Johnson, 52, was
the 12th inmate put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, since the Trump administration restarted
federal executions following a 17-year hiatus. He was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. Johnson's execution and
Friday's scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs are the last before next week's inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who
opposes the federal death penalty and has signaled he'll end its use. Both inmates contracted Covid-19 and won
temporary stays of execution this week for that reason, only for higher courts to allow the lethal injections to move forward.
NYT
outraged over execution of man who kidnapped, raped, and buried teen alive. Two people will witness the same
traffic accident and come away with very different retellings of what they saw and heard. In a similar vein, a New York
Times story that appeared Friday [11/20/2020] gives the details of a series of heinous crime that occurred in 1994 and the
execution late Thursday of a man found guilty of those crimes. But the order in which the paper presents these details
is problematic. For one thing, a description of the crime is delayed until paragraph eight. It's not until then
that we learn that Orlando Cordia Hall "and others went to the home of a man in Arlington, Texas, who they believed had
reneged on a drug transaction. ... There, the group kidnapped the man's 16-year-old sister, and members of the group later
raped her, beat her over the head with a shovel, soaked her with gasoline and buried her alive." The name of the victim and
details of her horrific last moments on earth — including the trauma of being serially raped — are omitted.
Lezmond
Mitchell executed inside federal prison in Terre Haute. Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on death
row, was executed Wednesday evening at the federal prison in Terre Haute. Mitchell, 38, was a member of the Navajo
Nation. He was convicted of killing 63-year-old Alyce Slim, and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Tiffany Lee, in Arizona
in 2001. Everything but Mitchell's head and hands were concealed beneath a teal sheet as he lay on a gurney. Asked
if he had any last words, Mitchell said, "No, I'm good." There were no witnesses on his behalf, only media and victim family
members. Two government officials stood nearby as execution procedures began at 6:03 p.m. They read a list of
Mitchell's convicted charges before administering a lethal injection.
Supreme
Court declines to block execution of convicted Navajo murderer following tribe objections. The Supreme Court
dismissed tribal objections to a Navajo inmate's scheduled execution, declining to block the convicted murderer's
punishment. On Wednesday [8/26/2020], the high court issued their decision declining to stop 38-year-old Lezmond
Mitchell's execution without any noted objections from justices. Mitchell was found guilty of stabbing an elderly woman
to death before killing her 9-year-old granddaughter by slitting her throat. "The application for stay of execution of
sentence of death presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied. The petition for a writ of
certiorari is denied," the document reads.
Scott
Peterson's death sentence in murder of pregnant wife overturned by California Supreme Court. The California
Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death penalty sentence for Scott Peterson, convicted in the Christmas Eve murder of
his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner. The court's decision came more than 15 years after Laci, a
Modesto, Calif., school teacher, was killed. Investigators said Peterson dumped his wife's body from his fishing boat
into the San Francisco Bay in 2002. The bodies of Laci and Conner surfaced months later. While the murder
conviction against Peterson stayed in place, the court ordered a new penalty phase trial.
Trump
demands death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. President Donald Trump on Sunday demanded
the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — whose execution was taken off the table by an
appellate court last week. "Rarely has anybody deserved the death penalty more than the Boston Bomber, Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev," Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon. "The court agreed that this 'was one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks
since the 9/11 atrocities.' Yet the appellate court tossed out the death sentence. So many lives lost..." "and
ruined. The Federal Government must again seek the Death Penalty in a do-over of that chapter of the original trial,"
he added. "Our Country cannot let the appellate decision stand. Also, it is ridiculous that this process is
taking so long!"
Federal
Court Overturns Death Sentence For Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A U.S. Court of Appeals overturned
the death sentence of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday [7/31/2020]. Tsarnaev petitioned the First U.S.
Court of Appeals in December 2019 to overturn his death sentence, arguing that his trial never should have taken place in
Boston. Tsarnaev pleaded guilty to setting a bomb that killed three and injured hundreds of others at the Boston
Marathon on April 15, 2013.
Court
overturns death sentence on Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. An appellate court has tossed the death sentence
and overturned three of the convictions of 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The ruling will not result in
Tsarnaev, 27, being freed, and the death penalty can now be revisited in a penalty-phase trial do-over. If federal
prosecutors do not pursue a second death penalty trial, Tsarnaev will remain imprisoned on multiple life sentences that are
not affected by Friday's ruling. The death penalty was invalidated because the trial judge did not adequately screen
jurors for pre-trial bias, the ruling read.
Appeals
court vacates Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence, orders new penalty trial. A federal appeals court ruled
on Friday to vacate the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his brother planted homemade bombs near the
finish of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three spectators. The court also ruled to set aside three of his 30
convictions but said he will remain in federal prison for the rest of his life. The appeals judges ruled US District
Court Judge George O'Toole, who oversaw Tsarnaev's trial, "fell short" of his promise to question jurors thoroughly enough to
identify prejudice, "providing sufficient ground to vacate his death sentences."
Daniel
Lewis Lee executed for torturing, killing Arkansas family in 1996, first federal execution in 17 years. A
self-proclaimed White supremacist who tortured and killed an Arkansas family — including an 8-year-old
girl — was executed Tuesday morning [7/14/2020] in Indiana. Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, was injected with a lethal
dose of pentobarbital at 8:07 a.m., just hours after the Supreme Court greenlit the first federal execution to take
place since 2003.
SCOTUS
rules federal executions are back on. The last inmate to be executed by the federal government was Louis Jones
Jr, in 2003 for the rape and murder of Private Tracie McBride. Two years earlier, both Timothy McVeigh and Juan Raul
Garza shuffled off this mortal coil via lethal injection for obvious reasons. Since then, federal implementation of
capital punishment has gone dormant, though a number of convicts have been assigned the death penalty and run out of appeals
in the meantime. President Trump promised last year that the death penalty would resume at the federal level, but the
court cases involved for most of these prisoners have been held up on one technicality or another since then. But as of
last night [7/13/2020], that appears to be about to change. The Supreme Court issued a late-night 5-4 ruling, saying
that the plaintiffs had failed to make their case and the execution of triple-murderer Daniel Lewis Lee can proceed.
Several others are in the queue on Death Row and are scheduled for execution in the coming couple of weeks.
Two
California death row inmates die from coronavirus complications. Two California death row inmates, including
one convicted of killing two children, have died from what appears to be complications of the coronavirus illness COVID-19,
state officials said. Scott Thomas Erskine, who was sentenced to death for killing two boys, ages 13 and 9, in San
Diego in 1993, and Manuel Machado Alvarez, who raped a woman and killed a man he tried to rob in 1987, died Friday, the state
corrections department said. Erskine, 57, had been on death row since 2004 and Alvarez, 59, since 1989.
Seattle
City Council Unanimously Votes to Repeal Drug Traffic and Prostitution Loitering Laws. The Seattle City Council
unanimously voted to repeal the city's drug traffic and prostitution loitering laws on Monday, sending the bill to Mayor
Jenny Durkan for signing. Two years in the making, the bill seeks to eliminate the ordinances helping police crack down
on loitering by suspected drug dealers and prostitutes — ordinances that a lead sponsor of the repeal bill calls
"manifestly unjust," The Seattle Times reports.
Convicted
child rapist beaten to death in Wash. state prison. A 70-year-old man convicted of multiple child sex offenses
died Friday [6/12/2020] in a Washington state prison after he was beaten by multiple inmates. The Daily News reported
that Robert Munger was serving his 43-year prison sentence at Airway Heights Corrections Center in Spokane County when he was attacked.
Philadelphia
judge orders release of man on death row for 23 years. A Philadelphia judge on Friday ordered the release of
Walter Ogrod, a man who's served 23 years on death row for a slaying prosecutors now don't think he's responsible for.
Philadelphia County Common Pleas Judge Shelley Robins New vacated Ogrod's murder conviction for the 1988 death of 4-year-old
Barbara Jean Horn. Ogrod was sentenced to death in 1996.
Prosecute
actions, not thoughtcrimes. In George Orwell's frightening novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, thoughtcrimes Are
a person's thoughts that contradict or generally do not agree with the approved ideology. The ability to assess a
person's thoughts and mete out punishment for thoughts and not actions obviously poses, in most instances, an impossible
task. In 1998, a black man, James Byrd, was beaten by white men and then dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in
Texas. This event was used extensively in emotionally charged television ads in the year 2000 presidential campaign by
the Democrats to allege that George W. Bush was a racist because he was governor at the time and did not support hate
(thought) crime legislation. In true Texas fashion, the two main actors in this murder were quickly tried and executed
for their actions. Since they were executed, the rationale, thoughts, or reasoning for their murdering Mr. Byrd
were inconsequential, as is appropriate. They were executed for what they did, not what they thought. There would
be no point in executing them twice, once for murder and again for a hate (thought) crime. Dead is dead.
NY
Dems Nadler, AOC & Co. Ask Cuomo to Release 'Significant Amount' of Prisoners to 'Surely Save Lives'.
Jerry Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 11 other New York members of the House of Representatives have sent a letter to
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking him to release prisoners — to protect them from the Wuhan virus. A
"significant amount" of them, no less. In the May 22 letter, the signatories argue that "releasing a significant number
of incarcerated people and ensuring compliance with public health standards will surely save lives, both of those who are
incarcerated and of others living in the community."
NYC
prisoner released by state over coronavirus charged with robbery. A Bronx man released from prison by
Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month amid the spread of the coronavirus has been charged with beating and robbing a 62-year-old
man — who was so scared of getting the ailment he refused to take the money back when cops made an arrest.
Daniel Vargas, 29, was being held on $50,000 bail on robbery, grand larceny and assault charges after allegedly approaching
the elderly victim on Valentine Avenue in the Bronx shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to a criminal complaint.
LA
County Sheriff Orders Closure of Gun Stores, Releases 1,700 Inmates. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva
has released 1,700 inmates from county facilities and is ordering gun stores in the county closed. Fox 11 reports the
gun store closures are part of the coronavirus stay-at-home order while the release of the inmates is an attempt to slow the
spread of the virus in county facilities.
Texas
halts execution for inmate who murdered his family amid coronavirus concerns. The top Texas criminal appeals court
decided on Monday [3/16/2020] to stay the execution of a man condemned for killing his family because of coronavirus risks.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected all grounds of John William Hummel's appeal but decided to stay the execution for
60 days because of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The court said it was making the decision 'in light of
the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address the execution'.
Lawyers look for loopholes and excuses. That's what they do best. Execution
halted for Texas man who killed family after lawyer argues it could "assist in spreading" coronavirus. The
outbreak of the novel coronavirus prompted the top Texas criminal appeals court on Monday to stay for 60 days the scheduled
execution of a man condemned for killing his family. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected all grounds of John
William Hummel's appeal but said it would postpone the scheduled Wednesday execution "in light of the current health crisis
and the enormous resources needed to address the execution." One of the issues that Michael Mowla, Hummel's attorney, had
raised in his efforts to stop the execution was a concern that the process involved with putting Hummel to death "may itself
assist in spreading COVID-19."
Court
is shown horrifying confession of black man facing death penalty in California over 'race hate' slayings of four people. A
man accused of killing four men in California in suspected race hate crimes, told detectives in a recorded interview that he purposely
hunted down white people as his victims. A horrifying recording of Kori Ali Muhammad's confession was played in Fresno, California
Monday [3/9/2020] as a court tried to determine whether the April 2017 murders warrant the death sentence. He explained on the
recording how the killing of motel security guard Carl Williams III, 25, led to the slaying of Zachary Randalls, Mark Gassett, and David
Jackson. 'I didn't want to do nothing to law enforcement so I just found some white men to kill,' Muhammad -- who is black -- told
police in a chilling video from shortly after his arrest.
California
prisoner confesses to killing two incarcerated child molesters. A California prison inmate confessed in a
letter that he beat two child molesters to death with a cane while behind bars just hours after his urgent warning to a
counselor that he might become violent was ignored, a newspaper chain reported Thursday [2/20/2020]. Jonathan Watson,
41, confessed in the letter to the Bay Area News Group in Northern California that he clubbed both men in the head on
Jan. 16 at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran. Prisoner David Bobb,
48, died that day. Graham De Luis-Conti, 62, died three days later at a hospital. Both were serving life
sentences for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14.
Nebraska
Pardons Board denies pardon for Caril Ann Fugate. Without hearing any testimony, Nebraska's three-member
pardons board rejected a request from Caril Ann Clair, formerly Caril Ann Fugate for a hearing to clear her name. It
was Fugate's second and final request for a pardon since she and Charles Starkweather were convicted of killing 11 people
in a murder spree that ended in Wyoming in 1958.
Texas
Executes Death Row Inmate After US Supreme Court Denies Case. Texas executed a death row inmate who was
convicted for the murders of five people, including children, on Thursday evening [2/6/2020] after the U.S. Supreme Court
denied a request to stay the execution. Abel Ochoa, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:48 p.m. local time after he was
administered a lethal dose of pentobarbital at a prison in Huntsville, Texas, according to The Associated Press.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Indiana
woman sentenced to death at 16 to leave prison. Paula Cooper was 16 when she was sentenced to death for killing an elderly Bible
study teacher. That made the Gary, Ind., teen the youngest person ever in the state to face the death penalty. At the time in
1986, she also was the youngest Death Row inmate in the United States. [...] The Indiana Supreme Court commuted the death sentence in 1989
and sent her to prison for 60 years.
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.
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.
Ohio
inmate Ronald Post says he's too fat for execution. A condemned US inmate who weighs at least 218 kg wants his upcoming
execution delayed, saying his weight could lead to a "torturous and lingering death." Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel
clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight, vein access, scar tissue and other medical problems raise the
likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems. He's also so big that the execution gurney might not hold him,
lawyers for Post said in court papers filed on Friday [9/14/2012].
The Editor says...
First of all, I suspect this man's victim experienced a "torturous and lingering death" and now it's payback time. Second, the inmate's
excessive weight is entirely his own fault. I believe there have been several others who have tried to claim they were too fat to execute.
Donald Snyder, Richard Cooey, and Jeffrey Lundgren come to mind immediately — or at least they come to Google's mind.
Racial bias saves death row man. A
convicted killer has been ordered off death row in the US state of North Carolina after a judge ruled his trial had been
tainted by racial bias. Marcus Robinson's case was the first to be heard under North Carolina's controversial
Racial Justice Act (RJA).
Florida killer executed for teen girl's 1983
killing. A Florida inmate was put to death Thursday [4/12/2012], nearly three decades after the murder of 17-year-old Lynn
Elliott, whose failed escape attempt ended a string of rapes and slayings that shook the quiet coastal town of Vero Beach.
Parole Board
agrees to free three 'lifers'. A deadly armed robber once facing the death penalty, a Dorchester appliance store
owner's killer and a man who did nothing to stop a friend from pumping a Springfield resident full of bullets are the first
three "lifers" to be set free since the state Parole Board was revamped by Gov. Deval Patrick following the Dec. 26,
2010, murder of Woburn Police Officer John "Jack" Maguire by a career felon paroled despite serving three life sentences.
Inmate
set to die for 1980 slaying of St. Pete woman. A twice-convicted murderer who has lived on Florida's
death row for more than three decades is scheduled to die by lethal injection this week for killing a St. Petersburg
mother — but like many executions, why he is being killed now and why it didn't happen years ago are both
something of a mystery.
Former Death Row inmate Kenneth Richey back in Putnam County jail.
He got off Ohio's Death Row but Scotsman Kenneth Richey can't stay out of trouble and is back where he began — in
Putnam County Jail. Richey, 47, was to be arraigned today in Putnam County Common Pleas Court for allegedly
threatening Judge Randall Basinger, who was an assistant prosecutor in 1987 when he was convicted of murder in
charges he threatened a local judge.
Condemned
Inmate Rips Oregon Governor for Execution Halt. A condemned inmate who was scheduled to be executed
next month is slamming Gov. John Kitzhaber for giving him a reprieve, saying the governor didn't have the guts
to carry out the execution.
Oba Chandler executed for murdering
Ohio mom, two daughters. Oba Chandler was executed by lethal injection Tuesday [11/15/2011] for the
murder of an Ohio mother and her two teenaged daughters 22 years ago in one of the most notorious crimes in
Tampa Bay history.
A
terrifying case for the death penalty. The criminal justice system often is not perfect, but justice
cries out for Oba Chandler to take his last breath Nov. 15 for the horrific murders of an Ohio woman and
her two teenage daughters on Tampa Bay 22 years ago.
The Humberto Leal Execution Intervention.
The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Humberto Leal Garcia tonight. He was convicted in 1994 of
rape and murder, and spent the ensuing 16 years on Death Row. The Obama Administration, including
both the State Department and the President himself, have intervened to demand a reprieve. So has the
Mexican government, the United Nations, and various diplomatic figures, including former President George W.
Bush. There are two phrases you will never read in any mainstream media account of the Leal affair.
One of them is "Adria Sauceda." That's the name of Leal's victim.
Inmate
executed with 1st Arizona use of new drug. Fifty-six-year-old Donald Edward Beaty ... was on
death row for well over two decades after being convicted of raping and murdering Christy Ann Fornoff.
European Union gives millions to anti-death penalty groups in America.
Why on earth are British taxpayers being forced to fund European Union lobbying for policy campaigns in the United
States? Furthermore, why is the EU directly interfering in domestic political debates in America, and so far
without Congressional oversight? As the research detailed [in this article] demonstrates, the EU's European
Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) is spending millions of Euros on US-based campaigns against the
death penalty. An extraordinary development.
Death row inmate, 94, dies.
The oldest death row inmate in the US has died of natural causes at the age of 94. An Arizona Department of
Corrections spokesperson says Viva Leroy Nash died late Friday [2/12/2010] at the state's prison complex in Florence.
Juror speaks
out as Connecticut family's killer gets death penalty. It's trash removal on a global scale,
jurors said yesterday [11/8/2010] of their vote to put home-invasion monster Steven Hayes to death. "The earth will
be a better place if Hayes is removed from it," said juror Herbert Gram, of Madison, Conn., speaking of the
murderer of a Connecticut nurse and her two daughters.
Stopping
Judicial Imperialism. While removing three state supreme-court justices at one time in Iowa is
news today, the very same thing happened in California back in the 1970s. Every single death penalty
imposed by a trial court in California was overturned by the state supreme court, with Chief Justice Rose
Bird voting 64 times in a row that there was something wrong with the way each trial had been conducted.
That was world-class chutzpah.
Revisiting the
Death Penalty. Three years ago, two career criminals, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komiserjevsky,
broke into the Connecticut home of Dr. William Petit where, over a span of hours, they pummeled him with
baseball bats, reducing him to a bloody pulp. Once the man of the house was out of commission, they
proceeded to subject his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, to
unspeakable torture and, eventually, death.
Judge clears way for California's
first execution since 2006. A federal judge on Friday [9/24/2010] denied a stay of execution for
a California man who raped and murdered a 15-year-old, but gave him a choice of whether to die by single
injection or the state's recently revised three-drug method.
Attempt
Left Him Too Brain Damaged To Be Put To Death. The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected the
last minute argument that Brandon Joseph Rhode's recent suicide attempt left him too brain damaged to justify
his execution, which is scheduled for tonight [9/27/2010].
US executes suicidal inmate.
A US man whose attempted suicide last week gained him a brief reprieve was executed on Monday [9/27/2010] by
the state of Georgia for a triple murder in 1998, officials said.
Ohio man executed for fire
deaths of 5 children. An Ohio man said he was "heartily sorry" before he was executed
Tuesday [7/13/2010] for the murders of five children in a 1992 Cincinnati apartment fire he set in an
attempt to destroy evidence of a burglary.
Execution of Texan on death row
halted. Just hours away from lethal injection, Jonathan Marcus Green received a stay from the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Wednesday [6/30/2010] so that it can further consider the question of his
competence to be executed. The state's highest court for criminal matters stopped the execution
following a telephone conference about four hours before Green was to enter the execution chamber. It
then issued orders suggesting it was uncertain over the review of his mental competency.
Death
penalty overturned in 2003 Staten Island cop killings. A vicious cop-killer sentenced to die
for murdering two undercover NYPD detectives will get a second chance to plead for his life. A federal
appeals court today [6/30/2010] narrowly tossed out the capital punishment for Ronell Wilson in the
execution-style slayings of Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin.
Powell
executed for 1978 slaying of police officer. Declining to make a final statement, David Lee Powell
was executed Tuesday [6/15/2010] for killing an Austin police officer 32 years ago as seven members of
his victim's family watched silently from a nearby window.
The Editor says...
The article above has a number of wonderful things to say about the killer, and almost nothing
about the police officer he killed.
The Slow Death of the Death
Penalty? Ronnie Lee Gardner deserves to die: So say the people of Utah, where he killed
a bartender in cold blood, then murdered an attorney during an escape attempt. Gaile Owens also faces
death, in Tennessee on September 28, for hiring someone to kill her husband in 1985. Just after
midnight this Friday, barring a last-minute stay, Gardner will become the 28th person put to death in the
United States this year.
At
inmate's request, Utah prepares firing squad. Barring a last-minute reprieve, Ronnie Lee
Gardner will be strapped into a chair, a hood will be placed over his head and a small white target
will be pinned over his heart.
Georgia
man convicted of killing 2 people executed. A Georgia man convicted of the 1986 shooting deaths
of his ex-girlfriend and her 11-year-old niece was executed Wednesday [6/9/2010] by lethal injection after
sitting on death row for more than two decades.
Grossman
execution set for tonight in wildlife officer's slaying. Peggy Park was 26, just three years out of
college on Dec. 13, 1984, when she decided to question two teenage boys she saw in a van after dark on a back
road in what is now Brooker Creek Preserve. Inside was junior high dropout Martin Edward Grossman, 19, and
his 17-year-old companion, Thayne Nathan Taylor. They had a stolen gun. Grossman was on probation. He'd
already been to prison for grand theft and breaking-and-entering and didn't want to go back.
Supreme Court To Face Mecca. When
six Germans and two Americans were suspected of plotting an attack on U.S. munitions plants during World War II,
FDR immediately ordered them arrested and tried in a secret military tribunal held behind closed doors at the
Department of Justice. Within weeks, all were found guilty. Six of the eight, including one U.S.
citizen, were given the electric chair. One German was sentenced to life in prison and the other American
citizen — who had turned himself in and revealed the plot to the FBI — got 30 years.
The Supreme Court upheld the secret trial, but didn't get around to producing an opinion until after
Old Sparky had rendered its own verdict.
A Conservative Manifesto:
[Scroll down] The news is replete with stories of protesters crowding together outside the gate of a
prison holding candlelight vigils on the eve of the execution of a convicted murderer. There is no
consideration with regard to how vile the committed crime may have been. These half-watt intellects are
filled with compassion for their perceived victim of the state. Bear in mind this group has nothing to
say about the thousands executed by Islamic states.
Silliest excuse yet: Death row foes now
fight the cost of executions. Nearly 3½ years into a court-ordered suspension of
executions, opponents have embraced a new argument: that Californians can't afford to carry out
the death penalty in a constitutional manner. They contend that by commuting all 682 death row
inmates' sentences to life without the possibility of parole, the state could save up to $1 billion
over the next five years — a view expected to be offered, and challenged, during a public hearing
today [6/30/2009] in Sacramento on proposed changes to the lethal injection procedures.
The Editor says...
Executions are not that costly. What really costs the state a lot of money is the years of delays,
appeals and legal wrangling over every imaginable technicality. The state of California is
feeding and housing 682 people who should already be dead.
Toledo
killer executed: Last words are Islamic creed. [Vernon] Smith was convicted of fatally
shooting Sohail Darwish, a 28-year-old immigrant from Saudi Arabia who owned a convenience store in Toledo
that Smith and two accomplices robbed. Even though Darwish complied with the men's orders to hand over
money from the cash register and his wallet, Smith shot him in the chest.
Ohio executes hitchhiker who shot
3 drivers in '83. Ohio executed a hitchhiker Thursday [5/13/2010] who admitted to killing one
motorist who gave him a ride and shooting two others during a three-week string of shootings that terrorized
the Cincinnati area in 1983.
Keep Life
Without Parole, Life After Death. [Scroll down slowly] If you follow these issues, you know that the
most unrepentant sociopaths will exploit any opening. Think Kevin Cooper, who killed chiropractors Doug and Peggy
Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old houseguest in 1983 after he escaped from the California Institution
for Men at Chino, where he was serving time under a phony name for burglary. DNA evidence has proved Cooper's
guilt — yet from Death Row, he still finds lawyers who will ignore the evidence, change Cooper's story and assert
that he is not guilty.
California
killer's case back before Supreme Court. Fernando Belmontes was sentenced to death in 1982 for
murdering a 19-year-old woman. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned his sentence three
times.
Richard
Allen Davis: Safe on Death Row. When a jury found Richard Allen Davis guilty of the murder
of Petaluma's 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1996, Davis puckered his lips and extended a middle finger to TV
cameras. Later, Davis was sentenced to death, and outraged California voters passed a three-strikes
sentencing law. From death row now, Davis still is puckering up and extending his finger at the
public — and the public is paying for it.
Strong push to ban death penalty
falls in Montana. A state House committee vote likely has ended a strong push this year to
ban capital punishment in Montana. The ban had passed the GOP-controlled Montana Senate. But
the House Judiciary Committee's 10-8 vote against a ban Monday [3/30/2009] makes it difficult, but not
impossible, to act on it further.
New Mexico lawmakers vote to repeal death
penalty. New Mexico state lawmakers voted on Friday to repeal the death penalty and replace it with a
sentence of life imprisonment without parole. The Democratic-controlled state Senate voted 24-18 for a
bill to revoke the death penalty, a source at the chief clerk's office said.
New Mexico governor abolishes capital
punishment. Gov. Bill Richardson, who has supported capital punishment, signed legislation to
repeal New Mexico's death penalty, calling it the "most difficult decision in my political life." The
new law replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Che Guevara; a Study in Stupidity, Sadism and
Failure. Here's a "guerrilla hero" who in real life never fought in a guerrilla war. When
he finally brushed up against one, he was routed. Here's a cold-blooded murderer who executed thousands
without trial, who claimed that judicial evidence was an "unnecessary bourgeois detail," who stressed that
"revolutionaries must become cold-killing machines motivated by pure hate," who stayed up till dawn for months
at a time signing death warrants for innocent and honorable men, whose office in La Cabana had a window where
he could watch the executions — and today his T-shirts adorn people who oppose capital punishment!
Debunking
Myths about Capital Punishment: There have been studies validating the efficacy of capital
punishment for more than thirty years, yet, if all you knew was what the mainstream media reported you would
think science had proven otherwise. The good news, though, is that despite the well-funded, anti-capital
punishment misinformation campaign, helped by a liberal media, the public still favors capital punishment.
Majority of Americans favor death
penalty: poll. The majority of Americans support the death penalty but nearly 40 percent
think their moral beliefs would disqualify them from serving on a jury in a capital trial, a poll showed on
Saturday. Conducted for the Death Penalty Information Center, a group that opposes capital punishment, the
poll showed 62 percent of those surveyed support executing convicted murderers.
The
death penalty's deterrence. Twelve studies authored by professors from a number of
renowned universities suggest that the death penalty saves lives by deterring criminals from
committing more homicides. Perhaps the Supreme Court should review these cases while
considering its de facto moratorium on executions, considering not only the state's role in
punishing criminals but also its role in protecting innocents.
The Peril of
Non-Executions. Opponents of capital punishment have succeeded in keeping the emphasis on the
possibility of executing an innocent person, instead of the lives that have already been taken by
those spared the death penalty.
Condemned
Utah killer Ronnie Lee Gardner could face firing squad. A condemned killer appears headed for a
date with death in Utah that could see him sit before a firing squad — a development that would
likely re-ignite protests over an antiquated, Old West-style of justice.
Holder Rules Out Death Penalty for Illegal Aliens Charged
With Murder. Attorney General Eric Holder has directed prosecutors in a federal conspiracy and
murder trial not to seek the death penalty for three El Salvadoran men who are in the United States illegally.
The three are accused of robbing and shooting Claros Luna on July 29, 2009 in Alexandria, Va., just a few
miles from the Justice Department, as Luna transported a prostitute from Maryland to Virginia.
Virginia executes inmate by electrocution.
A Virginia man has been executed for killing a teen girl and then bragging about it to prosecutors once he thought
he could not face the death penalty.
Cost is killing
the death penalty. After decades of moral arguments reaching biblical proportions, after long,
twisted journeys to the nation's highest court and back, the death penalty may be abandoned by several states
for a reason having nothing to do with right or wrong: Money.
Washington
prepares for first execution since 2001. Cal Coburn Brown surprised investigators with his reply
to this routine question at the end of a lengthy police interview: Anything else you want to tell us?
Brown — arrested in Palm Springs, Calif. for an attack on a woman at a hotel — answered
with explicit details about how he had tortured and murdered a 22-year-old woman in the Seattle suburbs just
days earlier. Her body was found in the trunk of her car.
Senate bill
limits capital punishment. Maryland lawmakers struck a heavy blow to Gov. Martin O'Malley's
hopes of repealing the death penalty Tuesday [3/3/2009] by twice amending the bill he favored in such a
way that capital punishment would continue but with a more limited scope.
Feeling Murderers' Pain:
The Supreme Court this week heard arguments that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Euthanasia
advocates consider it a blessing for the deathly ill. Yet it's cruel for the just plain deadly. Believers
in a "living Constitution" forget that at the time the Bill of Rights — and the Eighth
Amendment — was written, "cruel and unusual punishment" was probably considered by the Founding
Fathers to be things like drawing and quartering, burning at the stake, and crucifixion. Death by
hanging or firing squad was considered quite civilized.
Death row inmate claims allergy to lethal
injection. An Ohio death row inmate is attempting to postpone his imminent appointment with the
lethal injection gurney by claiming a possible allergy to the anaesthetic used by the state to dispatch its
condemned prisoners.
The voice-over announcer says...
Tell your doctor if you experience euphoria, hallucinations, coma, or death, as these may be signs of
serious side effects. Ask your doctor if Pavulon is right for you!
Does
lethal injection amount to human experimentation? Currently 35 of the 36 states that allow
capital punishment carry out the sentence using lethal injection. Typically, each inmate receives a
dose of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental, a shot of potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest, and
pancuronium bromide, a potent paralytic to cut off breathing. Each dose is supposed to be administered
in large enough quantities to be individually lethal, and inmates ideally should die from 2 to 8 minutes
after the procedure starts.
Lethal injection issue divides Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court appeared divided today over whether the drugs commonly injected to execute prisoners risk
causing excruciating pain in violation of the Constitution. Several justices indicated a willingness to
preserve the three-drug cocktail that is authorized by three dozen states that allow executions.
The Editor says...
Do murderers give any such consideration to the pain inflicted on their victims? Of course not.
Why then are they entitled to such consideration?
Update: States'
death row injections get OK after high court ruling. Many states wasted little time trying to get
executions back on track following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the use of a three-drug lethal
cocktail. Almost immediately, Virginia lifted its death penalty moratorium. Mississippi and Oklahoma
said they would seek execution dates for convicted murderers, and other states were ready to follow.
A matter of life and death. I
like what Chief Justice Roberts said in his majority opinion: "Some risk of pain is inherent in any
method of execution — no matter how humane — if only from the prospect of error in
following the required procedure. ... It is clear, then, that the Constitution does not demand the avoidance
of all risk of pain in carrying out executions."
Court lifts stays of execution for 3 death
row inmates. The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for Alabama, Mississippi and Texas to set new execution
dates for three inmates who were granted last-minute reprieves by the justices last year.
Georgia executes killer; first in U.S. since
lethal injection upheld. Georgia has executed William Earl Lynd, the first inmate put to death since the U.S.
Supreme Court ended a seven-month moratorium with its ruling last month that lethal injection is constitutional. Lynd
was executed at 7:51 p.m. ET for kidnapping and killing Ginger Moore, his live-in girlfriend nearly 20 years
ago. She was 26 years old when Lynd shot her three times in the face and head on Dec. 23, 1988.
Marek
executed for murdering woman. A Florida man was executed Wednesday [8/19/2009] for murdering
a 45-year-old mother of two who was raped, tortured, and strangled after a car she was in broke down on a
highway 26 years ago.
Virginia Inmate Forcibly Carried to Death
Chamber. An inmate declared his innocence Thursday after he was forcibly carried into Virginia's death
chamber, where he was executed for gunning down a police officer. Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was convicted of
killing the officer during a foot chase a decade ago, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. Thursday at the Greensville
Correctional Center. When the door between Bell's cell and the death chamber opened, the inmate thrust his hips
backward and wouldn't step toward to the gurney where the lethal injection was administered. Six stocky corrections
officers pulled him through the doorway and lifted him onto the gurney.
Tompkins Executed For Teen's
Murder. It took Wayne Tompkins about five minutes to fatally strangle his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter.
Twenty five years later, it took nine minutes for the death row inmate to die by lethal injection at the Florida State
Prison in Starke. Family members of the victim, Lisa Lea DeCarr, struggled to reconcile how a man who killed so
brutally could die with such seeming serenity.
Va. House votes to extend
death penalty. The House has passed bills to expand capital punishment to include those who assist in a murder
but don't commit the actual killing and to those who kill an on-duty fire marshal or auxiliary police officer. The
chamber passed the bills on Tuesday [2/10/2009].
Judge orders lethal injection in
yacht-murder case. Convicted murderer Skylar Deleon was sentenced today [4/10/2009] to die by lethal injection
for three slayings, including the murders at sea of a couple forced to sign over ownership of their yacht, then tied to an
anchor and thrown overboard.
Man
convicted in killing 4 people executed. A former Houston security guard was executed Wednesday
evening for gunning down four people, including his ex-girlfriend and her two small
children, during a shooting frenzy more than a dozen years ago.
Convicted murderer-rapist executed in Houston killing.
Houston rapist-murderer Johnny Ray Johnson, condemned for beating and stomping a woman to death when she refused to participate
in sex, died in Texas' death house Thursday with a hymn on his lips. In a rambling final statement, Johnson denounced
the Texas death penalty, calling Livingston's Allan Polunsky Unit, home of the state's death row, "a dungeon."
Cop killer gets 1st
NH death sentence in 49 years. A jury issued New Hampshire's first death sentence in a half
century Thursday to a man who fatally shot a Manchester police officer to avoid arrest
two years ago. Lawyers for Michael Addison had sought a life sentence, arguing that he acted recklessly,
not intentionally, and suffered from an abusive childhood and possible brain damage from his mother's heavy
drinking while she was pregnant.
The Editor says...
Lawyers always come up with a tear-jerker story to try to establish the defendant as the real
victim. Was the jury supposed to let the defendant get away with murder because his mother
drank a lot?
Man
executed who raped mother; killed daughters. A Florida man convicted of shooting two young
sisters in the head after raping and shooting their mother was executed Tuesday after a nearly two-hour
delay while authorities awaited final rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court. Richard "Ric Ric" Henyard,
34, was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m. He had been condemned for the death of 7-year-old Jamilya
Lewis and her 3-year-old sister, Jasmine.
World Court: U.S. must delay
Mexican death sentences. The World Court ordered the United States on Wednesday to do all it
could to halt the imminent executions of five Mexicans until the court makes a final judgment in a dispute
over suspects' rights.
Texas
Turns Aside Pressure on Execution of 5 Mexicans. Despite pleas from the White House and the
State Department, as well as an international court order to review their cases, Texas will execute five
Mexicans on death row, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday [7/17/2008]. The first of the
executions — that of José Ernesto Medellín, 33, convicted in the 1993 rape and murder
of two teenage girls here — is scheduled for Aug. 5.
The Editor says...
Notice that the article in the New York Times includes a big picture of the murderer's
grandmother. I guess we're supposed to feel sorry for her, not the people her son murdered.
Medellin executed for rape, murder of
Houston teens. The state of Texas defied an international court and executed Jose Ernesto
Medellin late Tuesday [8/5/2008] after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for the killer
in the 1993 Houston gang rape-murders of two teenage girls.
Texas Defies World Court Executes
Condemned Mexican. Texas defied the World Court and executed a Mexican national by lethal
injection on Tuesday [8/5/2008] over the objections of the international judicial body and neighboring
Mexico.
Florida
holds 1st execution since botched method. Florida on Tuesday carried out its first execution
since a botched lethal injection procedure prompted a moratorium and state investigation. Gov. Charlie
Crist's office said Mark Dean Schwab was put to death by lethal injection at 6:15 p.m. Schwab was
convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 11-year-old boy.
Killer
says he's too fat to safely execute. A death row inmate scheduled for execution in October says
he's so fat that Ohio executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish
the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs.
The Editor says...
Bad news, chump. There are plenty of veins, if you know where to look. A good R.N. can find a
vein on anybody. And what is a "safe" execution, anyway? After what this guy did to his
victims, is he entitled to the "safety" of a painless execution?
Update: Ohio
executes man who argued he was too fat to die. Ohio executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double
murderer Tuesday who argued his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane. Richard Cooey, 41,
had argued in numerous legal challenges that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to find
suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals, a problem that delayed previous executions in the state.
Illegal
immigrant executed for murder of Arlington store manager. An illegal immigrant from Honduras who
claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder in Arlington was executed
Thursday evening. [8/7/2008] The Supreme Court, ruling about 2½ hours before his scheduled
execution time, rejected his appeal without dissent.
Destruction
in black America is self-inflicted. Nearly all black homicide is intraracial — more
than nine out of 10 black murder victims in the United States are killed by black murderers. So applying
the death penalty in more cases where the victim is black would mean sending more black men to death row.
How ironic! Oklahoma death penalty
foe commits suicide. Defense attorney Lisa McCalmont was well-known nationally as an outspoken
critic of lethal injection and amassed a trove of information about problems with the three-drug cocktail that
is at the very center of a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear early next year. Colleagues say
McCalmont, 49, was looking forward to the Supreme Court case as a momentous event in her career. But
then, last week, she hanged herself at her home in Norman — a suicide that stunned and baffled some
of those who knew her.
Death
Penalty's Deadly Vacation. The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively halted U.S. executions via lethal
injection until it can rule on a challenge to the constitutionality of a particular execution "cocktail."
This is just the latest example of the whittling away of the death penalty — the courts have already
cut executions by over a third since 1999. But this latest suspension of executions is likely to
demonstrate yet again that the death penalty deters crime.
A judge drags his feet to avoid enforcing the death penalty. Federal
judge in Ohio stripped of five death penalty cases. A chief federal judge took away five death
penalty cases from a colleague criticized by some prosecutors for taking as many as eight years to issue
appeals rulings. U.S. District Judge Walter Rice is based in Dayton and was appointed by
President Carter in 1980.
Judicial temperament? A
poster of Che Guevara hangs on the wall of a judge who found Ohio's death penalty law constitutionally lacking. But
his idol Che was not very respectful of the niceties of justice, and loved to watch firing squads at work.
Court gives nod to lethal
injection. Florida's Supreme Court ruled yesterday [11/02/2007] that the state's lethal injection
procedures are not cruel and unusual, which could clear the way for the first execution in the US since
September. Lethal injection procedures are under review by the US Supreme Court. The nation's
highest court has allowed only one execution since it agreed in September to hear a case from Kentucky that
raises a similar challenge.
Man gets life in
rape, death of 17-month-old. A three-judge panel decided against the death penalty for a man
convicted of smothering and killing a 17-month-old boy as he raped the child. The judges deliberated for
more than 3 hours and were split 2-1 in their decision to sentence John White, 28, to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
The Editor says...
I guess the judges are saving the death penalty for someone who has committed a really serious crime.
Inmate
gets life, plus 301 years. A state prison inmate who shot a correctional officer in the head
while the officer pleaded for his life was sentenced to life without parole yesterday, to the displeasure of
the victim's family and co-workers who had hoped for a death sentence. "You are an evil man," Judge
Joseph P. Manck told defendant Brandon T. Morris, 22. But the judge said factors, including
Morris' emotional immaturity and his history of "staggering" childhood abuse, outweighed the state's arguments
for execution.
[Once again I ask, for whom are the judges reserving the death penalty?]
Child Rape
Tests Limits Of Death Penalty. Ever since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty more
than 30 years ago, justices have been finding ways to limit it. In the intervening years, they have
employed their interpretations of society's "evolving standards of decency" to remove juvenile and mentally
retarded killers from death row.
The Editor says...
Those "evolving standards of decency" are exactly what's wrong with this country. No
civilization can last very long without absolute standards of right and wrong.
Texas
to argue for right to execute child rapists at Supreme Court. The case before the court, Kennedy
vs. Louisiana, concerns a Louisiana law and the case of a Jefferson Parrish, La., man convicted of raping his
8-year-old stepdaughter. But striking down that law could call into question Texas' 2007 "Jessica's
Law," which allows the execution of certain repeat child sex offenders. The Supreme Court ruled
30 years ago that death was an excessive penalty for the aggravated rape of a 16 year-old girl.
Our States'
Right to Kill the Rapist: Our Founding Fathers would never have imagined the constitutionality of executing
rapists to be a serious question. Indeed my own state, North Carolina, considered rape — along with murder,
burglary, and arson — to be punishable by death for the better part of the 20th Century. None of this would
be controversial until some time after the [Supreme] Court — led by Chief Justice Earl Warren — announced
that it had somehow inherited a new standard for declaring statutes in violation of the Eighth Amendment's
ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
Update: High
court: Don't execute child rapists. The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of
people convicted of raping a child. In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death
penalty to be imposed for raping a child violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Supreme
Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape. The death penalty is unconstitutional as a punishment
for the rape of a child, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Wednesday [6/25/2008]. The 5-to-4 decision
overturned death penalty laws in Louisiana and five other states. The only two men in the country who
have been sentenced to death for the crime of child rape, both in Louisiana, will receive new sentences of
life without parole.
Texas and the
Death Penalty: Forty states have the death penalty on the books, but only 34 have carried out
executions since the Supreme Court permitted states to resume capital punishment in 1976. None come
close to Texas, which has carried out 405 executions over three decades. Virginia, with 98 executions,
is a distant second. What accounts for this Lone Star peculiarity, that some find horrifying?
Nebraska
Supreme Court rules electrocution unconstitutional. The Nebraska Supreme Court
ruled Friday [2/8/2008] that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment, outlawing the
electric chair in the only U.S. state that still used it as its sole means of execution. In
the landmark ruling, the court said the state Legislature may vote to have a death penalty,
just not one that offends rights under the state constitution.
Bush
Faces Off With Texas Over Execution. The president wants to enforce a decision by the International
Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights
to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention. That is the same court President Bush has since
said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.
Does Foreign Law Govern
US Courts? First, the US has deliberately not approved the treaty that would give the
International Court of Justice any jurisdiction over American courts and American law. Second, any
defendant can waive any rights that he has, by not raising them, and Medellin did not raise any objection
based on the Mexican consulate not being notified until years after his original conviction.
Update: Supreme Court backs Texas in dispute with
Bush. Texas can ignore President Bush and an international court in refusing to reopen the case
of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, the Supreme Court said Tuesday [3/25/2008]. The court
said Bush exceeded his authority when he tried to intervene on behalf of Jose Ernesto Medellin, facing the
death penalty for killing two teenagers nearly 15 years ago.
Canadian viewpoint: Bring back the
death penalty. For the record, I support capital punishment. Society has the right to
permanently remove criminals for grievous offenses. The public is clearly on side as polls over recent
decades reveal large numbers of Canadians support capital punishment. The death penalty is actually one
of the most humane ways of dealing with the worst criminals. Their quick death does not provide true
justice for what many have done.
Studies say death penalty
deters crime. Anti-death penalty forces have gained momentum in the past few years, with a
moratorium in Illinois, court disputes over lethal injection in more than a half-dozen states and progress
toward outright abolishment in New Jersey. What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic
studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument — whether
the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes.
Texas Governor Goes
Wobbly. Texas Governor Rick Perry commuted the sentence of a worthless hoodlum that had
already lived for eleven years too long as a guest of the state after being involved in a wild rampage that
took the life of a young man in 1996. Kenneth Foster was part of a gun-toting quartet of violent street
thugs who had spent the night robbing and pistol-whipping everyone they could find as they terrorized the
streets of San Antonio more than a decade ago.
Supreme Court blocks Mississippi execution.
The Supreme Court halted an execution in Mississippi on Tuesday [10/30/2007], less than an hour before a convicted
killer was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection. The last-minute reprieve for Earl Wesley
Berry is the third granted by the justices since they agreed late last month to decide a challenge to
Kentucky's lethal injection procedures.
Death penalty advocate studies Holton execution.
A documentary regarding the execution of convicted murderer Daryl Holton is being filmed in Shelbyville this week
by a New York School of Law professor who is a death penalty advocate. "The thing about the Holton case is
that most Americans worry about the death penalty is that an innocent person might be executed," writer-director
Ted Schillinger said between shots at the Shelbyville Times-Gazette newsroom on Monday. "In the Holton
case, the offender is absolutely guilty of a truly heinous crime."
Convicted
Child Killer Holton Executed. A man convicted of murdering four children with an assault rifle was
executed Wednesday, becoming the first Tennessee inmate put to death by electrocution since 1960. Daryl
Holton, 45, had confessed to shooting his three young sons and their half-sister in 1997 in the town of
Shelbyville, about 50 miles south of Nashville.
Capital punishment on decline in
county. On Tuesday night Harris County hit the century mark in executions, which places it
ahead of any other state — not county, but state — in the nation. Virginia is close
with 98, but the gap will only widen. Of the 380 Texas inmates awaiting execution,
Harris County can claim almost a third of them.
Executions down in U.S. but not in
Texas. The convicted killer of a 3-year-old boy is set to die this week, the first of five lethal
injections scheduled this month as Texas bucks a national trend and bolsters its standing as the most active in
carrying out capital punishment.
Lobbying intense on death penalty.
The Council of State, a panel of top elected leaders that will plunge into the death-penalty debate today
[2/6/2007], has been inundated with e-mail messages, letters and phone calls from people who want it to
ask the legislature to decide what role doctors should play in executions.
On Penalty Of Death: Will the execution of Saddam
Hussein have any impact on the fate of convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson? Jurors who on December 20
convicted Wilson of the deaths of undercover detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin will be weighing the
death penalty as an option when the penalty phase of the trial begins January 10.
Lethal injection
blues: Opponents of the death penalty have been rummaging through their bag of tricks and
come up with the theory that lethal injection amounts to "cruel" punishment.
Appeals court
lifts stay on Missouri executions. A federal appeals court lifted a more than
year-old stay on executions in Missouri on Friday, refusing to block capital punishment while
a death-row inmate asks the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the state's form of lethal injection
to be an unconstitutionally cruel punishment.
Tennessee cop killer's execution back
on — for now. Lawyers for convicted cop killer Philip Workman and Tennessee
prosecutors were locked in a federal court battle Monday [5/7/2007] over Workman's execution, scheduled
for early Wednesday [5/9/2007]. … Workman, in an interview with CNN last month, said he feared what lethal
injection might do. "It almost makes me want to choose the electric chair," Workman said.
[You should have thought of that before pulling the trigger, Mr. Workman.]
Death
penalty decision a bad first step. The latest federal judge to rule against the constitutionality
of a state's death penalty is U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who issued a ruling Friday [12/15/2006] that
found California's lethal injection protocol to be "intolerable under the Constitution." Chalk up the
ruling as a victory for Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for raping and murdering 17-year-old
Terri Winchell of Lodi, Calif., in 1981.
Cruel and
Unusual Punishment? Before too much blood spills from "bleeding heart liberals," it might be
helpful to look at Mr. Diaz's criminal resume. According to court records, Diaz was convicted of
second-degree murder in his native Puerto Rico. He escaped from prison there and also from Connecticut's
Hartford Correctional Center in 1981. In Hartford, he held one guard at knifepoint while another was
beaten. Diaz was responsible for three other inmates escaping with him.
Assembly panel OKs doctor
ban at executions. An Assembly committee voted yesterday [4/17/2006] to bar physicians from
participating in executions after a frank debate that invoked abortion in a warning that doctors should be
careful when they ask lawmakers to draw their ethical boundaries.
Condemned can claim injection is
too painful. The Supreme Court opened the door today [6/12/2006] to new constitutional challenges
to lethal injection, the method used by most states and the federal government to execute death row inmates.
Lawyers say
executions are unconstitutional. First a sedative courses through a condemned inmate's
bloodstream, then a paralyzing agent and finally a heart-stopping drug. To witnesses viewing the
execution at San Quentin State Prison, it's like watching a man take a nap for about 10 minutes.
[In all the history of crime and punishment, the condemned criminal's absolute comfort
has never been a great concern, and certainly was not guaranteed. A prisoner on death row
must eventually pay a price for his or her crime, and when the time comes, it is
not painless. Let us remember the pain inflicted on the victims, to
whom no such courtesy was extended.]
The clay
feet of liberal saints. That Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty is no surprise to those
who've looked into the case. But that didn't stop the martyrdom campaign. Their execution
was used to galvanize everyone from establishment liberals to the very, very hard left. Josef
Stalin publicly lamented it. Protests erupted in the capitals of Europe and across the
U.S. A young Felix Frankfurter staked his reputation on their innocence.
Amnesty condemns Saddam trial, death
sentences. Amnesty International has condemned the death sentences handed to Saddam
Hussein and two of his senior allies, describing their trial as a "shabby affair, marred by serious
flaws". The London-based human rights group — which opposes capital punishment — said the trial should
have helped the process of establishing justice and the rule of law in Iraq but was in
fact "deeply flawed and unfair".
[Are they trying to say that Saddam Hussein is without his flaws and is always perfectly fair?]
Fast-track
executions, Thomas says. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas unveiled sweeping proposals that
he says will speed up death penalty cases, which take years to crawl through the legal system.
The wrong
way to restore the death penalty. The governor [of Massachusetts] is right
to support capital punishment. He is right as a matter of justice: Juries ought
to have the option of meting out the very worst punishment to the very worst offenders. And
he is right as a matter of democratic governance: Massachusetts voters have long backed the
death penalty — in 1982 they amended their Constitution to say so
explicitly — but their wishes have been thwarted by the state Legislature
and supreme court.
Remorseless killer executed at
Lucasville. Remorseless to the end, Darrell Ferguson was executed today for the
Christmastime murders of three elderly, disabled Dayton residents in 2001. Ferguson, 28,
died by injection at the 10:21 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
Spewing curses, killer is put to death.
Joseph Nichols, condemned for the murder of a 64-year-old Houston convenience store clerk, died in the state's
death house Wednesday with a curse on his lips. He was the eighth killer executed in Texas this year,
the second this week.
Reagan's common sense on
capital punishment, crime, and moral absolutes. A victory for state rights, justice, and a safer
America came last Monday [6/26/2006] when the Alito-led Supreme Court upheld a State of Kansas law that favors
capital punishment when the evidence for or against imposing death is equal.
No
race bias seen in death penalty demand. A study by the Rand Corp. think tank failed to find
racial bias among U.S. federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty in criminal cases. The study by the
Santa Monica, Calif.-based group examined the files of 652 defendants charged with capital offenses between
Jan. 1, 1995 and July 31, 2000. Rand said it was one of the most thorough examinations ever
of federal death penalty prosecutions.
The Pope, Richard Speck
and the death penalty: If Richard Speck isn't a textbook example of why capital punishment is
warranted, he'll do until a better one comes along. Slowly and methodically, he snuffed out the lives of
the young women. He strangled five of his victims and stabbed the other three. He raped one before
killing her.
Virginia brings back electric chair
for execution. A convicted murderer was executed in the electric chair in Virginia [7/20/2006],
becoming the first person in the United States to be put to death by electrocution in more than two years.
Time Magazine's Anti-Death Penalty Cover Boy Proven Guilty
By DNA Test. Way back in 1992 Roger Keith Coleman was Time magazine's cover boy against
the death penalty. Time ran the following over a photo of Coleman in chains: "This Man Might Be
Innocent, This Man Is Due To Die." Fast forward to 2006 and DNA tests have proved Coleman
was in fact rightfully convicted of raping and killing his 19-year-old sister-in-law.
DNA Tests Confirm Guilt of Executed
Man. New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's
electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, the governor said Thursday [1/12/2006].
The Editor says...
Almost everyone in prison claims to be innocent. On the other hand, here is a
case where a guy on death row could very well be innocent:
Maybe, or maybe
not. A man's life hangs in the balance. Whose judgment do you trust, twelve duly appointed
jurors or one lone blogger? Normally, I'd say "the jury," but in the case of Cory Maye things may
not be what they seem.
Stay
of Execution Denied for Police Officer's Killer. A convicted killer who argued that the state's
use of lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment was put to death in Starke after the U.S. Supreme
Court denied him a stay. Clarence Hill, 48, was executed for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police
officer in a savings and loan robbery.
The Editor says...
24 years on death row is at least 23 years too long. In this case, it was half a lifetime.
Outrage
over honor for cop-killer inmate. Cop-killer Leslie Ann Nelson, 48, a transsexual go-go
dancer whose name was Glenn Nelson before a sex-change operation at age 34, was convicted of killing
Camden County law enforcement officers John McLaughlin and John Norcross during a 1995 standoff in
Haddon Heights. She was removed from death row, but has an upcoming death-penalty trial in
which she wants to represent herself. Juries have twice decided she should die, and twice those
sentences were overturned by the state Supreme Court.
Judge says the 'Railroad Killer' Can Die Next
Week. A judge ruled Wednesday [6/21/2006] that serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, who gained
notoriety as the "Railroad Killer" linked to at least 15 murders across the country, is mentally competent to
be executed next week for the 1998 rape-slaying of a Texas doctor.
[Why wait until next week?]
Frail, blind convicted
killer executed in California. Clarence Allen was put to death by lethal injection early
Tuesday [1/17/2006] after failed efforts to convince Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the US Supreme
Court that he was in such poor health that killing him would be cruel.
[Who were the people putting up such resistance to this execution? Aren't they the
same people who are in favor of assisted suicide for sickly old people?]
Scott Peterson will probably die of
old age. California's chief justice, Ronald George, acknowledged that an appeals process that is
"in many ways dysfunctional" will keep Peterson alive for decades to come. "The leading cause of death on
[California's] death row is old age." But no chief justice should be glad that the judicial system he
presides over cannot do its job.
Scott Peterson transferred to San
Quentin. Since 1978 executions are just the third-leading cause of death for California's Death
Row inmates. The first is natural causes and the second is suicide. The earthquake state has
executed 11 people in the past 27 years — despite having 644 inmates on Death Row.
Editor's note: According to news reports I've
heard, Scott Peterson will be in a cell by himself, will eat meals by himself, and will exercise outside every
other day. He doesn't have to work, his meals, clothing and housing are provided at no cost (to him), and
he isn't bothered by telemarketers. What a great life! This kind of "punishment" is exactly the
reason that the death penalty isn't an effective deterrent. If he had been dragged out of the courtroom
and executed the day he was found guilty, (after a lengthy, fair and well-documented trial) the message to
future murderers would be loud and clear.
Capital Punishment: Justice & Deterrence: Crime
always demands a suitable punishment, and to fail to punish crime is to degrade
and disrespect the rights of every other citizen.
Inmate survives first
execution. A double murderer was put to death in Ohio but not until after one of his veins had
collapsed, causing the condemned man to sit up and tell his executioners, "It's not working", officials
said.
The Editor says...
Lethal injection was mandated by many states because it is supposed to be
completely painless. An execution, in my opinion, should be mercifully quick, even
if not pain-free.
Is "putting down" a murderer "cruel and
unusual"? Convicted cop killer Clarence Hill had his day in the U.S. Supreme Court this
week as the Justices heard arguments that executing him by lethal injection would violate
the 8th Amendment's prohibition against inflicting cruel and unusual punishments.
China's hi-tech 'death van': After trials of the mobile
execution service were launched quietly three years ago — then hushed up to prevent an
international row about the abuse of human rights before the Olympics last summer — these
vehicles are now being deployed across China. The number of executions is expected to rise to a
staggering 10,000 people this year (not an impossible figure given that at least 68 crimes —
including tax evasion and fraud — are punishable by death in China).
"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."
Abu-Jamal's
conviction upheld, death sentence questioned. College kids march with his face on placards,
chanting a mantra that has been oft-repeated throughout the world: "Free Mumia!" But others
insist that Mumia Abu-Jamal is not the martyr supporters have tried to make him. Instead, they say, he's
a manipulative, cold-blooded cop-killer who used his talents as a radio reporter and his resume as a black
activist to hoodwink his ill-informed backers into proclaiming his innocence.
Mumia Abu-Jamal Loses
Bid For New Trial. Mumia Abu-Jamal has lost his bid for a new trial in the killing of a
Philadelphia police officer in 1981. The Supreme Court says in an order Monday it will not take
up Abu-Jamal's claims that prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted him of
murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
Who Wants To Free Mumia Now? Last week,
the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking a new trial for death-row inmate and former Black Panther Mumia
Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Earlier, a lower
court rescinded Abu-Jamal's death penalty, which prosecutors have asked to be reinstated. Meanwhile, as the
Philadelphia Inquirer reported, last week's ruling "virtually guarantees that the internationally known death-row
inmate will never be freed."
The Editor says...
I think I see what's going to happen next — a presidential pardon.
Abu-Jamal
supporters meet, to seek White House help. Stung by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week
denying a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, supporters of the internationally known death-row inmate met
yesterday at a church in West Philadelphia and said they planned to seek some type of presidential
intervention on his behalf.
The Stanley Williams subsection:
Credibility,
executed. Death penalty opponents — with the help of a sympathetic
media — hone their statistical legerdemain, suggesting that everyone who's gotten
off death row in recent years was innocent, when in fact many just had flawed trials. And,
of course, there's all the America bashing from a crowd that can cheer Yasser Arafat's Peace
Prize but also can call Schwarzenegger a murderer with a straight face.
He went to the penitentiary but showed
no penitence. The "Redemption"
of Stanley 'Tookie' Williams. Williams claims redemption, but refuses to accept
responsibility for murdering four innocent people. Williams shot one victim, Albert Owens,
who worked at a 7-Eleven, twice in the back, after Owens pleaded for his life. Williams, 11 days
later, gunned down the owners of a small motel, a family of three.
Toot,
toot, tookie, goodbye. Although, intellectually, I can grasp the point of view of
those morally opposed to capital punishment, emotionally I am unable to fathom how they can
congregate outside prisons and hold candlelight vigils for mass murderers. Wouldn't their
time be better spent visiting the burial sites of the victims, and leaving flowers instead of
candle wax behind?
The legacy of
Tookie Williams. Convicted murderer of four and founder of the notorious Crips gang,
Tookie Williams, is gone, executed under the death penalty of the state of California. Now those
who protested his conviction, and worked for his clemency, want him to be remembered as a hero.
Martyrdom?
Martyrs die for a cause. Williams died for executing four unarmed people during two 1979 robberies,
shooting a woman in the face, and laughing uncontrollably at the gurgling sounds a male victim made as he
died in agony.
Death Penalty Double Standard: Tookie vs.
Allen. Countless articles were written bemoaning Tookie's loss and news anchors
spoke glowingly of his supposed contributions to ending gang violence. That Tookie himself
was the founder of the notorious "Crips" gang, responsible for so much murder and mayhem over the
years, didn't seem to enter into the equation. Neither did the four people he murdered in
cold blood.
This is what "swift and sure" means... Prosecutor says Guilty Saddam would
hang quickly. The Iraqi High Tribunal's chief prosecutor says Saddam Hussein will hang
immediately if he is found guilty on charges relating to deaths of 148 Shiites. … "If the court
passes a death sentence on any of the defendants in the Dujail case, the law is clear, the sentence
must be carried out within 30 days following the appeal," Mr Mussawi said.
Execution
uncertain in grenade murders. Relatives of the two servicemen killed in Sergeant Hasan Akbar's
grenade and rifle attack said yesterday [4/29/1005] that he deserved the death sentence given to him by a
military jury. But specialists in military law say it is hardly a certainty the execution will ever
happen. The military has not executed one of its own since 1961, while states have put scores of
civilian killers to their deaths.
Iraq hangs 27 on terrorism
charges. Iraqi authorities hanged 27 convicted "terrorists" today, an interior ministry spokesman
announced. "Twenty-seven terrorists were hanged today in Baghdad. Most of them were Iraqis," said
interior ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf. He said they were convicted for attacks on Iraqi civilians
and sentenced to death, in an execution order signed by an Iraqi vice president.
The crime, not his race,
put Baker on death row. Another Maryland death row inmate is scheduled to take the lethal
injection needle. And, again, anti-death penalty activists have yanked out their ever-handy race card.
The "Let Scott Peterson Live" Campaign at CBS.
As if we needed any more evidence of liberal media bias on the part of CBS, the senior political editor for CBS
News, Dotty Lynch, has written a column arguing that convicted killer Scott Peterson should be allowed to live
the rest of his life at taxpayer expense in a California prison because he may not really be guilty of
murdering his wife and unborn son.
Judge not. Here they
go again. On March 1, the Supreme Court — by its now familiar 5–4 margin —
issued a ruling that bans states from executing anyone who was younger than 18 at the time of his crime.
You may believe that this ruling gives teens a license to kill, or you may consider it to be a sensible
protection for our innocent children. Either opinion is defendable, and immaterial. The important
thing — and the frightening thing — about the ruling is that it continues the court's
march toward a "living Constitution" and away from original intent.
Those poor,
poor perverts. I can nearly, but not quite, understand why some people object to capital
punishment. … What I can't begin to fathom are the people who seem to have the same tender feelings
for sexual predators that the rest of us have for our pets. Unfortunately, these aren't the same
mushy-headed simpletons holding candlelight vigils outside San Quentin. Instead, they're judges
and legislators.
Evolving
Standards of Decency. William Kristol sarcastically thanks the US Supreme Court for
its recent decision saving the life of Christopher Simmons, the youthful sadist who murdered
Shirley Crook for the fun of it in 1993. In seven paragraphs of well-tempered fury,
Kristol contrasts the judicial sensitivity to "evolving standards of decency" that spared
Simmons from the death penalty because of his age with the absence of any such sensitivity
when it came to Terri Schiavo.
Scalia
Slams Juvenile Death Penalty Ruling. Justice Antonin Scalia criticized the Supreme Court's recent
decision to strike down the juvenile death penalty, calling it the latest example of politics on the court that
has made judicial nominations an increasingly bitter process.
Judicial
supremacists and the despotic branch. Justice Antonin Scalia, a dependable
constitutional constructionist, protested on behalf of the dissenters that capital
punishment should, rightly in accordance with constitutional federalism, be determined
by individual states. … "To invoke alien law when it agrees with one's own
thinking, and ignore it otherwise, is not reasoned decision-making, but sophistry."
Forgetting
Facts While Making Law. In our system of limited government, with its separation of
powers, we depend upon our unelected lifetime-tenured judges to restrain themselves from implementing
their own moral, social and political values when they are unsupported by a plain understanding
of the Constitution and at odds with the choices we make through the democratic process.
On
the Supreme Court's definition of cruelty: In this case, a majority of the court
ruled that the execution of someone who was 17 at the time of the crime violates
the 8th Amendment, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments." It reached
this conclusion just 16 years after deciding that the execution of a 17-year-old did not
violate the 8th Amendment. What changed was not the 8th Amendment, which reads
exactly as it did then. What changed, in the court's opinion, were the "evolving
standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."
U.S.
Constitution: Made in Jamaica? In Roper v. Simmons, the Supreme
Court reached out and gave America a good old-fashioned smack-upside-the-head when it abolished
capital punishment for juvenile offenders. … The Court declared that the death penalty
was now unconstitutional for minors due to a supposed "emerging national consensus" that the
death penalty was wrong. The last time we checked, the Supreme Court was supposed to use
the Constitution as its guide. If anyone's to take notice of an "emerging national
consensus," it's the legislature.
The
new age Supreme Court. In its 5-4 decision on March 1, the
Court decreed that "Juveniles are less mature than adults and, no matter how heinous their
crimes, they are not among 'the worst offenders' who deserve to die." While I certainly
respect that opinion, I strongly object to the United States Supreme Court presuming to
impose it on our entire society as if it is the final arbiter not just of the law, but
our moral standards.
The Supreme
Court's vexing elitism. In my last column, I discussed the Supreme Court's
abominable decision outlawing the death penalty for murderers under the age of 18. I have
a few more complaints. First, much of the Court's analytical emphasis considers the
plight of the offenders. Conspicuously lost in the equation are concerns for the victims
and society at large, for whom the Court demonstrates a stunning disregard.
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.
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.
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.
In
Chicago [and] other cities, more cops are calling it quits, retiring amid anti-police backlash. The number of
police officers retiring in Chicago and other cities has soared amid a chorus of anti-police rhetoric that's become
increasingly loud over the past year. In Chicago, 560 officers retired in 2020 in a police department that had about
13,100 sworn officers as of March, records show. That's about 15% more cops retiring than during the previous year,
when the number of retirements rose by nearly 30%. In New York City, 2,500 cops retired last year, nearly double the
number in 2019, according to the New York Police Department, which has about 34,500 uniformed officers.
Bail
fund promoted by Kamala Harris won't share records of alleged criminals it sprung from jail. A bail fund
promoted by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris that reportedly helped bail out several accused and convicted criminals —
at least one with a markedly violent history — is refusing to share the records of the individuals it helped spring
from jail in the midst of last year's deadly Black Lives Matter-led riots in Minnesota. In June 2020, as violent unrest swept
the country in the wake of Minneapolis resident George Floyd's death at the hands of city police, Harris — then two months
away from being chosen as Joe Biden's running mate — tweeted out a link to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which claims to
"pa[y] criminal bail and immigration bonds for those who cannot otherwise afford to."
An
L.A. councilman lied to the FBI. Probation officials say he deserves no jail time. It was the first blockbuster
case to surface in the federal corruption probe of Los Angeles City Hall — a multi-count indictment accusing
former Councilman Mitchell Englander of taking envelopes of cash, lying to the FBI about that money and obstructing its
investigation. Englander, while serving in office, made false statements to FBI agents during three separate
interviews, prosecutors said, providing untrue information about his dealings with a businessman who gave him $15,000 in two
casino bathrooms. The case was resolved quickly, with Englander pleading guilty to a single count of scheming to
falsify material facts. But now, prosecutors are voicing objections to the sentence recommended by federal probation
officials: three years' probation, a $9,500 fine and no jail time or community service.
Illinois
Lawmakers Pass 'Transformational' Criminal Justice Legislation In 11th Hour Of Lame Duck Session. Illinois
lawmakers on Wednesday [1/13/2021] used the final hours of the general assembly's lame duck session to pass a sweeping and
controversial criminal justice reform bill that would eliminate cash bail, make it easier to ban officers from working at
police departments across the state and allow for anonymous complaints against cops. The legislation, passed Wednesday
morning after hours of late night bargaining, was a legislative priority of the Black legislative caucus. It was
drafted as the legislature's answer to the months of policing-related protests this summer.
The worst
run cities in America. The state of cities around the country is rapidly declining, leading to the greatest
rates of emigration since the days of disorder and distress in the 1970s. Eight cities stand out as the worst run in
the country, when ranked with markers like costs of living, education, poverty, and crime. These are New York, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, Portland, Oakland and Chicago. [...] Several of the worst run cities had
surging crime before 2020. But such curbing of police has resulted in violent crime spikes that have become out of
control. Shootings in New York nearly doubled, murder spiked by 20 percent, and burglary rose by over 40 percent
last year. Los Angeles enacted a $150 million cut to its police, as the murder rate increased by 20 percent.
The murder rate in Washington rose by almost the same, as Philadelphia boasts the second highest murder rate in the country,
and Portland has had the most homicides in three decades.
The Left Finds Time for One More Big Lie Against
Trump. As a preface, let there be no doubt that those who violated the law, acted violently, trespassed federal
grounds on Wednesday, January 6, should be prosecuted and punished as prescribed by law for their crimes just as Antifa,
Black Lives Matter, and other criminals who brought violence, destruction, bloodshed, and mayhem to Portland, Seattle, and so
many other American cities during the months leading up to the presidential election should be arrested, prosecuted, and
punished as the law demands for their crimes.
Soros Soars, GOP Cowards
Cower. I devoted my Dec. 15 column to newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and
his benefactor George Soros. Gascón has one goal: to put the people of L.A. at the mercy of criminals.
He's the face of anarcho-tyranny, and George Soros is the wallet. [...] As I wrote in my Dec. 15 column, a key element in
Gascón's victory was the fact that the local GOP didn't lift a finger to oppose him.
Defenders of Civilization?
Is there really a legal system any more, at least as we once knew it, in our major cities — New York, Portland,
Seattle, and Los Angeles? Violent crime has soared. Murders are up 30-50 percent in many of those places.
In 2020, whether an arsonist, looter, or rioter was arrested, indicted, and jailed depended on the ideology of the
perpetrator and the political context of the crime. Old ideas like "broken windows" preventative enforcement went down
the memory hole. Did Rudolph Giuliani's crime-reduction miracle in New York City ever really exist? Is it legal
for a district attorney simply to announce that he will no longer enforce the legal code? Can victims of ensuing crimes
sue such somnolent prosecutors? [...] Either police can make an in-vain arrest in their no-bail, Soros-funded prosecuting
attorney jurisdictions and see the arrested subject released, angry or defiant or both. Or they can risk being attacked
or shot by emboldened criminals, given police deterrence has vanished. Or, in extremis, they can use force and
find themselves charged with a felony and likely to have their careers ruined.
S.F.
parolee accused of killing 2 pedestrians was free despite several recent arrests. A driver accused by police of
killing two pedestrians in downtown San Francisco on New Year's Eve while intoxicated and in a stolen car is a parolee who
remained free despite being arrested several times in the city in recent months, according to city officials and public
records. Troy Ramon McAlister, a 45-year-old city resident who was released on April 10 from a state prison sentence
for robbery, was not charged with new crimes by the District Attorney's Office after any of last year's arrests, the most
recent of which occurred on Dec. 20.
Early
vaccination in prisons, a public health priority, proves politically charged. First came the outcry in a Denver
newspaper op-ed, arguing that Colorado's coronavirus vaccination plan would bring relief to a man who fatally shot four
people before it protected the author's law-abiding, 78-year-old father. [...] The plan, which put incarcerated people in
line for coronavirus immunization ahead of the elderly and those with chronic conditions, had been released by the state
health department. It was the product of months of deliberation by members of the state's medical advisory
group — physicians, public health officials and experts in bioethics. But their framework, when subject to
the machinery of online outrage, quickly unraveled. Asked by a Fox reporter about the prioritization, and the criticism
touched off by the op-ed, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said at a December news briefing there was "no way" the limited
supply of shots would "go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven't committed any crime." He let out a short laugh
as he pronounced the word "prisoners."
2
siblings killed by suspect driving wrong way in Florida chase. A carjacking suspect driving against traffic on
a Florida freeway during a high-speed chase on Tuesday night [1/1/2021] crashed head-on into an SUV, killing two Wisconsin
siblings, officials said. [...] The suspect, who led law enforcement on a chase at speeds above 110 mph, also died in the
crash, according to the sheriff's office. His name wasn't immediately released. Chitwood said the suspect had 50
prior arrests.
Omro Siblings
Killed In Florida Wrong Way Crash. This was intentional," said Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
"Everything that he did was about destroying somebody's life." [...] The suspect also died in the crash near Daytona
Beach. Authorities say the vehicle was stolen at gunpoint from an Orlando area pizza delivery driver. "He's got
50 prior arrests, he has no driver's license, he's been incarcerated eight times in state prison, he's got crimes in
here — here's his criminal history and he's out walking amongst us. 200 pages... Carjacking, home
invasion, robbery. He got out of prison last year for grand theft and he's out and about," Chitwood said.
Los
Angeles County Prosecutors Sue Gascon For Not Enforcing The Law. Los Angeles County District Attorney George
Gascon hasn't even been in office for a month yet but he's been making more headlines than the pandemic. Unfortunately
for Gascon (and the citizens of his county), few of those breaking news items have been of the good variety. The wildly
liberal, anti-cop DA has been working overtime to empty the jails and prevent the prosecution of criminals, even as crime
rates have been surging in the City of Angels. The latest news out of his office won't be changing that pattern at
all. His own prosecutors are going to court to ask a judge to block their new boss's orders and prevent them from
having to break the law themselves by carrying out his directives. And it looks like they have a pretty solid case.
California
Supreme Court Rules Thousands Of Sex Offenders Are Eligible For Early Release. On Monday [12/28/2020], the
California Supreme Court ruled that thousands of inmates convicted of non-forcible sex crimes may be eligible for early
release under a ballot measure that was overwhelmingly approved by voters four years ago. The initiative, called
Proposition 57, was written by then-Governor Jerry Brown (D) and passed by nearly two-thirds of the electorate. It was
crafted to reduce the state's prison population, saying any person found guilty of a "nonviolent felony offense" would be
eligible for early parole. Brown said it was never intended to cover sex offenders. However, the original
language did not exempt them from consideration. Lower appeals courts had ruled that nonviolent sex offenders could not
be excluded, and the high court affirmed those rulings.
What
the Media Didn't Want To Report About These Capital Punishment Cases. This summer, the federal government began
putting people to death for the first time in 17 years. "Trump administration executes Brandon Bernard, plans four more
executions before Biden takes office," said a Washington Post headline last week. While that is technically true, it
wasn't Trump who convicted these men of murder; it was a jury of their peers. It wasn't Trump who upheld their
convictions after numerous appeals; it was the judicial system. It wasn't Trump who found the death penalty
constitutional; here, it was the Supreme Court that reaffirmed the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 requires executions to
be carried out "in the manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed." It wasn't Trump who
sponsored that law in 1994; it was Joe Biden. Reporters nearly always glide past the horrifying specifics, spending
inordinate amounts of space presenting the case of anti-death penalty advocates, who often dishonestly paint these men as victims.
Operation
Legend Leads to Over 6,000 Arrests, Including 467 for Murder: DOJ. Outgoing Attorney General William Barr
on Wednesday gave his last update on Operation Legend, a Trump administration initiative to drive down violent crime in major
inner cities, saying that the program had led to over 6,000 arrests since its launch earlier this year. The operation
was launched in Kansas City, Missouri, in July and has since been expanded to eight cities that saw rising crime rates this
past year. It involves surging federal agents and resources to inner cities to assist local and state law enforcement
officials tackle violent crime and restore public safety. Of those who were arrested, about 1,500 were charged with
federal offenses, and 467 were suspected of homicide. The program also resulted in the seizure of 2,600 firearms, more
than 32 kilos of heroin, more than 17 kilos of fentanyl, more than 300 kilos of methamphetamine, more than
135 kilos of cocaine, and more than $11 million in drug and other illicit proceeds.
Democrats
ditch 'defund the police' slogan, but not necessarily policy principles. With the 2020 campaign season over,
the message is clear from the upper echelons of the Democratic Party: "Defund the police" is not the message that they
want to communicate to voters. Former President Barack Obama warned in an interview earlier this month that "you lost a
big audience the minute you say it." President-elect Joe Biden in a private meeting last week, according to audio obtained by
the Intercept, said, "That's how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we're talking
about defunding the police." But behind the debate on semantics and public-facing messaging, Democrats are not necessarily
abandoning the stated principles behind the slogan: Using mental health workers to respond to police calls or funding
social services rather than military-grade police equipment, for instance.
AOC,
Omar, and Squad Want to Free 500,000 Fat Criminals. Obese rapists, insane serial killers, and child molesters
over 55 years old could be on the loose in your neighbrohood if the Squad's latest social justice bill becomes law.
The bill to free all the fat criminals, sponsored by Rep. Tlaib, Rep. Lee, and Rep. Pressley, and co-sponsored by
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Omar, and eight other Democrats, and endorsed by Black Lives Matter, calls for a mass jailbreak
to protect criminals from the coronavirus. The existing wave of coronavirus criminal releases already helped boost crime
rates in major cities with double digit increases in homicides. Robberies have shot up like a rocket with criminals
stealing cars and looting businesses while knowing they won't be jailed. But that's not enough for the Squad. They
want to free all the criminals. Especially the fat ones.
Seattle
politician who defunded the police called 911 to protect her from a crime she wants to legalize. A Seattle City
Councilwoman called the police to her home Friday [12/17/2020] to report a crime she is effectively trying to legalize, according to media
reports. Lisa Herbold phoned authorities on Friday after a man reportedly threw a rock through her living room window, My Northwest
reported. The councilwoman said "she was on the west side of the living room near the kitchen when she heard a loud noise that
sounded like a gunshot and dove into the kitchen for cover," according to a redacted police report obtained by the publication.
U.S.
City May Pass "Duress Legislation" to Give Criminals "Poverty Defense". Elected officials in a major U.S. city
plan to pass a law that will allow thieves to sell items they steal if they do it to earn money for basic needs and
trespassers to set up camp on private property when it is to obtain adequate shelter. Dozens of other crimes —
including assault and harassment — will be excused under the preposterous measure if suspects are poor, mentally ill
or addicted to drugs. It is being crafted as a poverty defense and will allow municipal court judges to dismiss a multitude
of crimes if poverty, mental illness or a substance-abuse disorder drove the perpetrator to commit them. Even for a famously
liberal left coast city like Seattle it seems like a bit much. The proposal was first introduced during the Seattle City
Council's budget deliberations weeks ago, according to a local news report. It was put on hold over a budget process
bureaucracy but has gained incredible steam and appears to have enough support to alter the city code early next year.
"The idea could enormously impact the city — and set Seattle apart from the rest of the country in its approach to
misdemeanor crimes," according to the news story, which includes the concerns of frustrated public safety advocates who say
the law will essentially legalize most crimes in Seattle.
8,000+
Nursing Home Residents and 49 Criminals Died in Pennsylvania. Guess Which Group Democrats Care About. One
of the most important and least discussed coronavirus subjects in this election was the decision by Democrat governors to
infect huge numbers of nursing home residents by forcing nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients. Governor Wolf in
Pennsylvania and his health expert, Richard 'Rachel' Levine, were one of the worst offenders. [...] Let's compare and
contrast. 8,047 nursing home residents dead isn't a crisis. But 49 criminals dead is a death sentence. These
are Democrat priorities. Free the criminals and kill the elderly.
If
the Media Doesn't Report on Crime, It Won't Exist. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism was set up at
Harvard. Like everything touching old foundations and journalism, it's a toxic disaster. And this one is right up
there with In Defense of Looting. [...] No this stuff isn't marginal. Nieman is influential and it's part of the
larger pro-crime push. And the reshaping of the legacy media. Even at this late date, one of the few things the
local news does anymore is sports, weather, and crime. Lefty virtue signaling destroyed sports. The push to make
every weather report about global warmunism while firing any weatherman who doesn't go along has been underway for years.
California
Sheriff Rejects Court Order To Reduce Inmate Population, Blasts The ACLU. The sheriff of Orange County,
California, said on Wednesday that he would fight a recent order issued by a local superior court judge to significantly
reduce the number of inmates housed in the county's jail system due to COVID-19 concerns. According to FOX 11 News,
Sheriff Don Barnes "is refusing to release any more" incarcerated people despite the mandate. "These people who remain
in the jail, they may have diabetes, but they're also charged with murder," Barnes told the outlet during an online
interview. "Or they may be over 65, but may be a child molester." Sheriff Barnes posted an open letter to social
media on Wednesday afternoon announcing his intention to appeal last Friday's directive by Judge Peter Wilson to cut the
detainee population in all congregate living areas by 50%. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in April by the
America Civil Liberties Union seeking to protect medically vulnerable people from coronavirus infection.
California
Sheriff Refuses To Release 1,800 Inmates After Judge's Order. A California sheriff is refusing to comply with a
judge's order to release 1,800 inmates from Orange County jails, including individuals who have been imprisoned for murder,
due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson on Friday ordered the
release of 50 percent — or 1,858 inmates out of 3,716 — to curb the transmission of COVID-19, the
disease caused by the CCP virus. "I have no intention of releasing any of these individuals from my custody," said
Sheriff Don Barnes, pushing back against the order. "We are going to file an appeal and we're going to fight it and if
the judge has any intent of releasing any one of these individuals, he will have to go through line by line, name by name,
and tell me which ones he is ordering released."
DA
Who Prosecuted 8-Year-Old Gabriel Fernandez's Killers Tearfully Refuses to Comply With Gascon's Directives. As
one of three members assigned to the LA County District Attorney's complex child abuse unit Deputy District Attorney Jon
Hatami prosecutes the most heinous and heartbreaking cases that come into the office. Between 2013 and 2018 Hatami was
the lead prosecutor for one of the most infamous child abuse cases in Los Angeles history, the torture and murder of Gabriel
Fernandez. After winning a conviction against Fernandez's mother's boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, Hatami revealed to
reporters that one reason the case was so personal to him was because he had also been abused as a child. [...] Now Hatami is
working to obtain justice for another child's killer, but his hands are tied because of his new boss's Special Directives.
Seattle
weighs 'poverty defense' for most misdemeanor crimes. Seattle lawmakers are considering a law that would excuse
suspects from most misdemeanor crimes if they can be linked to poverty or mental illness. If approved, it would make
the Emerald City the nation's first to have such a measure on the books. The Seattle City Council said the proposal,
crafted with input from local public defenders, would excuse suspects from minor crimes like theft, trespassing, or
assault — but not in cases of domestic violence or driving while impaired, KUOW-TV reported. "In a situation
where you took that sandwich because you were hungry and you were trying to meet your basic need of satisfying your hunger,
we as a community will know that we should not punish that," Anita Khandelwal, King County director of public defense, told
the station. "That conduct is excused."
Inside
Soros DA George Gascon's Office: Deputy DA's Threatened, Intimidated to Uphold New Policies. Soros-funded
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, as we've reported, made major waves during his first week in office. On
day one, he issued nine Special Directives instituting "criminals first" policies like failing to prosecute many
misdemeanors, a blanket prohibition on seeking the death penalty or life without parole, and a ban on charging juveniles as
adults. Throughout the week, victims, law enforcement officers, and court personnel were shocked to see the results of
those policies in action in the courtroom (including a failure to charge enhancements or "strikes" against a man accused of
decapitating two of his children).
NYC
has freed thousands of gun suspects this year as shootings soar: NYPD. Nearly 90 percent of suspects
arrested on gun charges this year are back on the streets, which the NYPD says has fueled a historic spike in shootings that
have left more than 1,756 dead or wounded. About 3,345 of the 3,793 perps arrested between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30
for firearms crimes — 88 percent — were let go, according to department data. Just 450 remain in
jail, the NYPD told The [New York] Post. Some of the suspects posted bail, but judges were required to release others
under new reform laws that prohibit them from setting monetary bail on some gun-possession cases. The crime became
ineligible for bail in most circumstances under the Jan. 1 law changes, which mandate judges to release collared suspects,
with no money down, on hundreds of charges considered "non-violent." The NYPD has repeatedly blamed this year's
stunning 96-percent surge in shootings on the loosened bail laws and early release of prisoners due to COVID concerns.
Seattle
is considering making it legal to steal, as long as you're poor and plan on selling the items. Remember over
the summer when AOC blamed the spike in crime in New York City on parents stealing food to feed their families? [Tweet]
She was roundly ridiculed for that, of course, but now Seattle hopes to make AOC's fantasy a reality by creating an
affirmative defense for theft if you intended to sell the stolen items for "basic needs" like food or rent. It's called
"the poverty defense," and would not only make stealing legal, but apparently fencing items as well, and would cover over 100
misdemeanor crimes.
Judge
to California's 3rd Largest County: On Account of COVID, Release Half Your Convicts. How do you empty a
large county's jail system by half? That's a question currently demanding an answer, as a West Coast judge has ordered
that very thing. As reported by The Daily Wire, on Friday, Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson dictated Sheriff Don
Barnes must liquidate Orange County's jail system by 50%. The decision comes following the American Civil Liberties
Union's April lawsuit demanding the release of disabled and vulnerable inmates in light of the pandemic.
New
DA Gascon to decline prosecution on range of low-level crimes. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's
Office will no longer prosecute a range of misdemeanor crimes, from resisting arrest to drug possession to making criminal
threats, according to a memo issued this week by new DA George Gascon. [...] The memo spells out misdemeanors which should be
declined or dismissed before arraignment, with a number of exceptions at the discretion of the prosecutor. Among
them: Trespassing, disturbing the peace, driving with no license or a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug
possession, drinking in public, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest, among others.
Minneapolis
delivers on its George Floyd promise to defund police and wipes $8m from force's budget. Minneapolis City
Council on Thursday [12/10/2020] approved a controversial budget which is set to move $8 million of funding from the
police — despite record crime rates since the May death of George Floyd. Mayor Jacob Frey, who had
threatened to veto the entire budget if the council went ahead with a plan to cap police staffing, said the vote was a
defining moment for the city which was the first to be hit by anti-police protests following the death of Floyd. The
city has been plagued by soaring violent crime since then — with homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary,
theft and arson all up on last year's figures.
LA
District Attorney Whistleblower: Gascon's Sentencing Special Directive Is Illegal. New Los Angeles
District Attorney George Gascon has had the most active first week on the job of probably any officeholder ever,
anywhere. On Day One he issued nine Special Directives to his staff, instituting a wet dream of Black Lives Matter and
Antifa justice policies — and decreed that those policies should be implemented in all pending cases and even up
to 20,000 cases in which the criminals were already sentenced. On Day Two he dropped charges against a "protester"
accused of trying to wreck a train (you read that right) during a protest against the LA Sheriff's Department after deputies
shot and killed a known gang member and drug dealer, Dijon Kizzee, who'd pulled a gun on them. We can't wait to see
what the rest of the week will bring.
New
Los Angeles DA Snubs Staff, Meets With BLM, Will Implement Radical Progressive Agenda. The worst fears about
the new district attorney in Los Angeles County, George Gascón, are already materializing. After defeating the
incumbent DA on November 3, Gascón was sworn in on Monday [12/7/2020]. Gascón announced that his office would
immediately end cash bail for many offenses, refuse to pursue the death penalty, and cease trying juveniles as adults for
violent offenses.
California
Court Order Frees 250 Criminal Illegal Aliens into U.S.. Criminal illegal aliens who were released from
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody due to a court order in Adelanto, California, have been re-arrested for
child sex crimes, burglary, drug possession, and drunk driving. By October, ICE released more than 250 illegal aliens
from their Adelanto detention facility after a court order mandated that they free up space. Those released were put in
the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program that places GPS ankle bracelets on each illegal alien as they are freed into the
interior of the United States.
70th
Harris County Resident Murdered by Suspect Out on Bond, Says Victim's Advocate. According to a victim's
advocate, Derrick Mike has become the 70th person in Harris County to be murdered by a suspect out on felony bond. The
suspect, 23-year-old Edward O'Neal IV, had been charged in the 2016 slaying of his friend Ryan Roberts in a case that drew
international attention since O'Neal claimed to be a worshipper of Satan. Records indicate O'Neal had confessed to
several people including his mother that he had stabbed Roberts to death. Family members told police and media that
they knew O'Neal worshipped the devil, and his mother stated that he had killed two family pets.
New
Los Angeles DA Gascon Sworn In, Will "End Bail Completely Jan 1," Resentence Up To 20,000 Convicted Criminals.
As RedState and countless other publications warned, if Los Angeles elected socialist and Soros-funded candidate George
Gascon as its District Attorney, he would institute radical changes in the criminal justice system. He essentially
partnered with Black Lives Matter during the election, and pledged his allegiance to them after Election Day. Gascon
was sworn in Monday [12/7/2020], and immediately implemented sweeping changes that go far beyond what even jaded political
observers expected.
Seattle
City Council Poised for a Breakthrough in Eliminating Most Property Crime — Make It Legal. Two
months ago Seattle City Councilwoman Lisa Herbold proposed legislation under the guise of a budget bill that would, for all
practical purposes, eliminate the prosecution of approximately 90% of all misdemeanor crimes in Seattle through the creation
of an affirmative defense to conviction of "duress" stemming from poverty, homelessness, substance addiction, or mental
illness. [...] But the proposal from Herbold would create a complete defense of "duress" to misdemeanor criminal charges for
any criminal defendant who can show they fit into one of the "exempt" classifications. By one estimate it is likely
that that 9 out of 10 criminal misdemeanor cases filed by the City Attorney's Office would be subject to such a defense, and
as a practical matter, charges would never get filed in the first instance.
Have
the police just given up on crime? This prolific shoplifter was caught red-handed by security guard.
Nicholas Richards is a familiar face in the stores of London's West End. He's a serial shoplifter. One of the
establishments he has been banned from because of his persistent offending is the flagship branch of Boots in
Piccadilly. But here he is, captured on CCTV of that very store before the latest lockdown, brazenly helping himself to
£170 worth of Gucci products from the fragrance counter. Richards, in a fashionable black T-shirt and jeans, was
caught red-handed by security officers from private police force My Local Bobby (MLB). They handcuffed him and waited
for the real police to arrive, but they needn't have bothered.
Black
Virginia police chief fired for charging prominent BLM vandals and public officials. Back on June 10th in
Portsmouth, Virginia, a large group of protesters decided to tear down and destroy a Confederate monument located in that
city. An investigation was launched, led by Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene. After collecting video from
the event and conducting interviews for two months, Greene announced in August that charges were being filed against
19 people who had been involved in the destruction. [...] You might think that would be pretty much the end of the story,
but it wasn't. Among those arrested was State Sen. Louise Lucas, several leaders of the local Black Lives Matter
movement, officials from the NAACP, and a member of the local school board. Since several crimes had obviously been
committed, you might think that Chief Greene (who is Black, by the way) would be lauded for holding all citizens, regardless
of their status accountable. You would be wrong, however. Howls of protest emerged not only from the community
but from elected officials. Yesterday the situation came to a head and Chief Greene was unceremoniously fired.
Virginia
Police Chief Fired After Charging Democrat Leaders with Felonies!. Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene was
fired Monday morning after being suspended from her position as Police Chief two months ago. Chief Green was suspended
on September 4th by the former city manager just weeks after she brought felony charges against Democrat State Senator Louise
Lucas and others in relation to protests and monument destruction that occurred June 8th. Senator Lucas was caught
on video instructing Portsmouth Police officers to stand down during the protests.
Minneapolis
Police Chief Pleads For Outside Help Amid Hemorrhaging Police Force. The Minneapolis chief of police implored
the city council to bring in help from the outside after a hemorrhaging police force has left the city reeling amid rising
crime. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo asked city authorities to reinforce their dwindling numbers as
violent crime escalates in the city, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Resources are hemorrhaging," Arradondo
said at a Tuesday meeting. "Our city is bleeding at this moment. I'm trying to do all I can to stop that bleeding."
Los
Angeles cops will no longer be answering certain calls. [Scroll down] Another 350 positions for uniformed
officers will be eliminated by April according to the latest announcement. The LAPD will be reducing the number of cops
on a variety of task forces, including (but not limited to) robbery, homicide, and gang and narcotics units. Boy...
things must be really going well in Lalaland these days if they don't need to keep the police working as diligently in those
areas. Oh, wait. That's not actually the case at all. In fact, murders in the City of Angels are up by 20%
compared to the same time last year. And the number of arrests being made is down. Some of you may hear about the
proposal to not respond to minor accidents anymore and see it as no big deal. But it is. It goes back to the
basic premise of the theory of broken windows policing.
One-Party
Democrat Rule Is Killing California, And It's Coming For The Country. The twin problem of drug addiction is rampant
criminality. Drug addiction causes criminality as junkies are looking to feed their habits. Both are traceable to
Proposition 47, passed by voters in 2014. The law steeply reduced penalties for law breaking, including drug
offenses, most of which are now misdemeanors, punishable by tickets addicts ignore. Since theft worth less than $900
has also been reclassified as misdemeanor, in the post-47 environment criminals walk into stores and nonchalantly sweep
merchandise into large garbage bags. Unable to cover the losses, retailers close, turning formerly lively urban
enclaves into blight.
Austin
sees spikes in violent crime, officer retirements after defund police vote. Austin has seen a spike in violent
crime and officer retirements after the city council voted over the summer to immediately slash $20 million from the police
department budget, becoming the first major Texas city to do so. In August, Austin City Council members voted
unanimously to cut about $150 million, or roughly one-third, from its police department and allocate those funds to areas
like violence prevention, housing and mental health services. Only about $21.5 million was immediately removed from the
department's funding in part by canceling three upcoming cadet classes and slashing overtime expenses. "It is
demoralizing for the officers. It is angering for the citizens because they're having to wait longer for officers to
get the calls. And it's unsafe for citizens and officers," Austin Police Association President Bill Cassidy told Fox News.
Logically indisputable reasons why President Trump should
be reelected. [Scroll down] President Trump is the only candidate in this race who has any real interest
in penal and prosecutorial reform. Both former vice president Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, have
spent most of their careers increasing the sentences of all categories of convicted people and have some direct responsibility
for the fact that the United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of its incarcerated people,
and that an utterly scandalous 99 percent of criminal prosecutions are at least partially successful, 97 percent of
those without a trial. The U.S. has six to twelve times as many incarcerated people per capita as Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, the most comparable large, prosperous democracies. The American criminal-justice
system is a disgrace, and both of the Democratic candidates for national office are complicit in that disgrace.
Anarchy in New York?
One late summer Sunday morning, Demetrius Harvard, a 30-year old Bronx man, stood on a subway platform in Greenwich Village
and methodically threw construction material onto the tracks. Bystanders tried to stop him, and someone even went into
the train well to remove the debris, but Harvard persisted in his sabotage. Eventually, he succeeded in derailing an
uptown A train, injuring several passengers. You had to read to the end of tabloid news reports to get the real
story. Two weeks earlier, in the same neighborhood, Harvard had tossed a steel bench through a bus window. He was
arrested, charged with criminal mischief, and immediately "ROR'd" — released on his recognizance — with
no bail. This cycle is now all too common in New York, where public order and safety have been buffeted by chaotic
forces. Criminal-justice reform at the state level removed bail as an option for all but the most heinous charges.
Under
Trump, black prison rate lowest in 31 years, Hispanics down 24%. America's imprisonment rate has dropped to its
lowest level since 1995, led by a dive in the percentage of blacks and Hispanics sent to jail during the Trump
administration, according to a new Justice Department tally. For minorities, the focus of President Trump's First Step
Act prison and criminal reform plan, the rate is the lowest in years. For blacks, the imprisonment rate in state and
federal prisons is the lowest in 31 years, and for Hispanics, it is down 24%.
San
Francisco: A string of drug stores close after shoplifters strip the shelves bare. You'll be shocked to
learn there are some serious problems in San Francisco with petty crime. This week the San Francisco Chronicle reported
on the seventh Walgreens drug store to announce it is closing in the city since last year. The problem is a wave of
shoplifting from retail locations that can add up to millions of dollars in lost merchandise. [...] The Walgreens clerks
can't do anything about the theft because the company has a policy preventing them from interfering in shoplifting.
Allegedly this is for their safety but I suspect it's really because if they didn't have this policy and anyone got hurt,
they would be sued.
Court:
San Quentin must release prisoners due to lack of COVID care. Finding that state officials have acted with
"deliberate indifference" to the health of prisoners at San Quentin — where 75% of them have tested positive for
the coronavirus and 28 have died — a state appeals court took the unprecedented step Tuesday of ordering at least
half of the prison's 2,900 inmates transferred or released.
Houston
Police Sgt. Killed By Repeat Offender After Soros-Funded D.A. Refused to Press Charges. A police sergeant
in Houston, Texas was shot dead Tuesday morning [10/20/2020] by a suspect who was in police custody just two days earlier,
but was allowed to go free when the Democrat district attorney refused to press charges. HPD Sergeant Harold Preston
had been with the Houston Police Department for 41-years and was due to retire at the end of the year, according to the
Montgomery County Police Reporter. The local pro-police paper is urging voters to oust the D.A., whose campaign for
office was bankrolled by left-wing billionaire George Soros.
Soros-Funded
Prosecutors Put 'Social Justice' Above Law and Order, Analysts Say. Self-styled progressive political activists
who win election as district attorneys with financial support from wealthy donors have made "social justice" initiatives more
important than public safety, legal analysts say. George Soros, the Hungarian American billionaire investor, stands out
as the big donor behind a super PAC that helped elect district attorneys who have overseen a dramatic increase in
crime. The Justice and Public Safety super PAC feeds into a larger network of local political action committees.
Some of the district attorneys elected with its support have attracted media attention for their antipathy toward law
enforcement. "I refuse to call them progressives," Charles "Cully" Stimson, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage
Foundation, said in an interview with The Daily Signal, adding: "There's nothing progressive about what they're doing."
The
literally deadly results of "bail reform". Last week, a 43-year-old Long Island man named William Farnum was
being pursued in his vehicle by the NYPD. The suspect eventually crashed into a utility pole. When the police arrived
on the scene and approached to investigate they discovered that Farnum had slit his own throat in the driver's seat of his
car and was dead. The bad news didn't end there, however. When officers attempted to notify his next of kin they
discovered two dead bodies in his home. They are believed to be the remains of Farnum's father and sister, reportedly
killed by Farnum. What's really got the local police and Republican lawmakers up in arms about this situation is the
fact that Farnum never should have been out on the streets when all of this was taking place. Scrolling through the
man's recent history of engagements with law enforcement and the totality of his criminal record, he should have been behind
bars. But new bail reform laws in New York have tied the hands of judges and it was virtually impossible to keep Farnum
locked up for more than a few hours at a time.
California
will begin housing male inmates in women's prisons to 'respect' gender identities. Biological males who find
themselves on the wrong side of the California justice system will now be given the choice to serve their sentence in either
a men's or a women's prison. Under a new law, a prisoner's claimed gender identity will determine what type of facility
they end up at. Prison officials will be forced to address inmates by their chosen pronoun and "honorific" title.
Worse yet, authorities will seemingly be stripped of any real power to stop these transfers.
Slaughter in the Cities.
Establishment voices are finally, grudgingly admitting that murders and shootings are up spectacularly in 2020. But the
reasons, they all agree, are immensely complicated and rather boring. Perhaps, they muse, it has something to do with
lockdowns? Or there could be any number of other subtly interacting factors. Who can tell? In any case,
this mysterious rise in violence is beyond the comprehension, much less the control, of politicians. [...] Did anything
happen in late May that encouraged criminals and discouraged cops? The data journalists appear stumped when they try to
think back that far. But, as you may recall (it was in the news at the time), George Floyd died in police custody on
May 25, and three days later the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis let rioters burn down a police station. From there,
looting and rioting spread nationwide as the press and universities extolled the Mostly Peaceful Protesters.
Pay
Attention To Local Elections, Because Whoever Wins Can Make Your Life Miserable. This year, more than any other
in recent memory, we got a bitter taste of the power of local officials to enable, and even promote, rioting and mayhem in
America. Many of us have watched aghast as mayors of blue cities like Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York turned a
blind eye or even encouraged mob rule that resulted in wide-scale violence, vandalism, looting, injury, and, yes,
murder. They have flatly rejected all offers by President Trump to bring it under control by calling in the National
Guard. Let's not forget that these mayors — along with the many other officials close to them —
were elected locally. Recall, it's local elected prosecutors, district attorneys, state's attorneys, and attorneys
general that have the power to allow violent criminals to roam free after an arrest. We see this happening repeatedly
in Democratic Party-run cities like Seattle and Portland where Antifa thugs caught on camera assaulting officers and citizens
are immediately set free without bail.
Stealing
Soho: Luxury retailers terrorized by shoplifting mobs. Bands of shoplifters are terrorizing Soho's
high-end boutiques, lifting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of designer merchandise, and in some cases, threatening
security guards to keep quiet — or be labeled racist, The [New York] Post has learned. The disturbing
pattern began in late May during the riots that rocked the city in the wake of the George Floyd police custody death.
High-end Celine was looted of $1.5 million in merchandise then, and the blatant thievery continues "every week" in ritzy
stores such as Prada, Moncler, Dior and Balenciaga, one plugged-in local said. "This is happening every week.
Walk around Soho on Wooster Street and Greene Street, Mercer Street. ... You have huge bouncers out there trying to deter
hit-and-run activity," the source, a restaurateur, said. But in some cases, the thieves are given carte blanche to steal.
Cop-assaulting
NYC teen back on streets after latest arrest. A Manhattan man who head-butted an NYPD cop amid a string of
recent arrests, including three for assaulting officers, was back on the streets Saturday [10/10/2020], just days after
landing behind bars for another brazen attack on law enforcement, The [New York] Post has learned. Angel Rivera, 18,
may be the latest poster child for junk justice in the Big Apple. On Wednesday, Rivera was arrested for assaulting two
cops during a late night melee outside the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn, police sources said. Rivera allegedly hit several
officers with a metal barrier and then punched the arresting officer in the face, causing one to be brought to Bellevue
Hospital, police sources said. Charges ranged from criminal possession of a weapon, assault and resisting arrest.
Rivera posted bail Saturday in that case, police sources said.
Tom
Gores resigns from LACMA board over prison phones investment. NBA team owner Tom Gores stepped down from the board
of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Thursday night [10/8/2020] after calls for the billionaire's ouster over his investment firm's
ownership of a prison telephone company. Criminal justice activists have been hounding the 56-year-old private equity
titan since his Beverly Hills firm acquired Securus Technologies in 2017. Last month, two groups sent a letter to the
museum's leadership accusing Gores of the "deliberate exploitation of Black, Brown, and economically distressed communities."
FBI:
Over 4 Times More Killed with Knives than Rifles. The FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2019 shows more than
four times as many people were stabbed to death than were killed with rifles of any kind. The UCR shows 364 were killed
with rifles in 2019, while 1,476 were stabbed to death with "knives or cutting instruments."
REPORT:
Nearly 70% Of Portland Rioters Had Charges Dropped By Progressive DA. Nearly 70% of the individuals arrested
during the riots and unrest in Portland, which stretched from the end of May through early October, had their charges
dismissed by the Multnomah County District Attorney's office, according to data released Thursday [10/8/2020]. The
Portland DA "released a new statistical dashboard that analyzes protest-related cases referred to his office by law
enforcement for prosecutorial review and potential issuing," the office announced on in a statement on Thursday, laying bare
Multnomah County's strategy in handling cases of individuals arrested during protests, demonstrations, riots, and unrest,
referred to them by Portland's Police Department.
Protesters
want to defund police. Homicides and violence are spiking. The homicide rate is spiking, a troubled
police department is reeling from street demonstrations seeking racial justice and accountability, and the city budget is
ravaged by the coronavirus economy. The push to reshape police departments is occurring in cities across the country,
but it is perhaps nowhere more evident than here in Oakland, where veteran activists want to sharply reduce the police budget
but much of the broader community is struggling with what that could mean.
Former
Jail Workers Accused of Cruelty for Forcing Inmates to Listen to 'Baby Shark' on Repeat. Two former Oklahoma
jail workers and their supervisor are accused of cruelty for forcing inmates to listen to "Baby Shark" on repeat. Five
inmates were handcuffed to a wall and forced to listen to the children's song on repeat at a loud volume for hours, the
Oklahoman reported. Court records obtained by the New York Times show that the alleged incidents occurred on at
least five occasions in November and December, where each inmate would be placed into an empty attorney visitation room while
handcuffed to the wall and forced to stand for as long as two hours. "Baby Shark" was then played through a computer on
an endless loop, and inmates were forced to listen to the song.
Newt
Gingrich predicted some disturbing events if Biden wins. [Scroll down] During the debate, Kamala spoke
openly about her plans to impose on the United States the criminal justice system in California: [...] The language
highlighted in that wall of words is the crucial language. Doing away with cash bail is why people arrested in blue
states are immediately out on the street to kill again. The claim about implicit bias is a lie intended to hamstring
police. The studies about so-called "implicit bias" have been debunked. Moreover, there is no connection between
a police officer's race and the likelihood that he will shoot a black person. We've also seen what happens in
Democrat-run cities that impose Harris's plans for criminal justice reform. In Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the San
Francisco Bay Area, crime is skyrocketing, with the streets now given over to homeless, often crazy, people, and stores and
homes subject to endless break-ins. Democrats have also made clear that they see California leading the way on labor
laws (especially for illegal aliens), on climate change laws, and on gun control. Kamala, the hardest left senator, is
the harbinger of California's hard-left policies being instituted in Congress.
BLM:
A Righteous Cause or Communism in Blackface? According to the Gallup Center on Black Voices, 81% of black
Americans either want to retain police presence, or want more. [...] [I]n many cities, including my hometown of Stockton,
California, one of our biggest complaints about the police is that they don't come fast enough when called; that sometimes,
police don't show up for up to two hours, if they show up at all. In my city, that has a lot to do with the fact that
our police officers were reduced by a third in 2010, after a former mayor cut $14 million from the department. The
reduction was felt across the city as crime drastically increased in the subsequent years and Stockton set new records for
most homicides in 2011 and 2012. When the cuts were made, it was so dire that Stockton PD officers had to reluctantly let the
city know that they could no longer guarantee our safety.
NYC's
crime wave reaches new height as this year's murder tally surpasses all of 2019. New York City surpassed
another grim crime milestone last month, as the number of murders blew past all of 2019's tally — and there are
still three months remaining in 2020, according to new data. The NYPD recorded 51 murders last month, or nearly double
the 2019 figure for September — pushing the total number of homicides this year to 344. That is already the
highest overall annual figure the city has seen since 2013, when 335 slayings were logged for that year, NYPD data shows.
If the current pace holds, murders could surpass 400 for the year. The last time homicides ticked up above 400 was
in 2012, when 419 were recorded, according to NYPD data.
Who
wants to guess what level NYC's murder rate just hit? While many media analysts are focusing on the COVID death
toll, now over 200,000, the remaining residents of the Big Apple have a different figure to worry about. The city has
finished compiling the official law enforcement numbers for the month of September and New York City has hit a different sort
of milestone. The number of murders in Gotham has now eclipsed the number that was seen for all of 2019 and there are
still a full three months to go. As of Thursday, the city had recorded 344 killings, a figure that's already higher
than any full year since 2013, and that record is already in danger as well.
Formerly known as the Ferguson Effect: US
sees 710 additional homicides and 2,800 more shootings, attributed to 'Minneapolis effect'. With police
departments across America under siege, pushed back on their heels by the oft-violent Black Lives Matter movement, the
Democratic Party and their media allies, violent crime is "skyrocketing." That's the assessment of Paul Cassell, a
professor at S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, who has dubbed the explosion of violence the "Minneapolis
effect." The professor is the author of a recent research paper titled, "Explaining the Recent Homicide Spikes in U.S.
Cities: The 'Minneapolis Effect' and the Decline in Proactive Policing." "I think what Minneapolis is seeing is
the same thing we're seeing all over the country," Cassell told Fox 9. "We're seeing a reduction in proactive policing,
and as a result of that homicide and shootings are skyrocketing all over the country."
Operation
Legend Results In 500+ Arrests, Including 37 Murder Suspects. U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison, at a joint press
conference with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith, announced today [9/29/2020] that 518
arrests have been made by local and federal law enforcement officers in Operation LeGend. "On behalf of the team of
federal law enforcement agencies involved in this groundbreaking initiative, I made certain promises when Operation LeGend
was launched," Garrison said. "Those promises have been kept. The FBI, the ATF, the DEA, and the U.S. Marshals
Service worked collaboratively and effectively with the Kansas City Police Department and other local law enforcement
agencies to accomplish the objectives of Operation LeGend. We created a model for others to follow. Our success
in Kansas City is now being duplicated in eight more cities across the nation."
NY
Attorney General: We Should Just Ignore Some Arrest Warrants. NY Attorney General Letitia James had
decided to make an example of the police-shooting death of Allan Feliz in 2019 and use that as an excuse to push for a rather
radical change in NYPD policy. Feliz was pulled over by an NYPD sergeant named Jonathan Rivera last October and
provided someone else's ID (his brother's) when asked for his driver's license. The brother had some outstanding
warrants for minor infractions. An altercation ensued, leading to Feliz being shot and killed by the officer.
Using that incident as an example, the AG is now recommending that officers no longer conduct arrests of individuals during
traffic stops if they have outstanding warrants for a variety of classes of minor offenses. These would include bench
warrants for failing to appear in court or more minor, public nuisance offenses.
NYPD
Should Stop Making Traffic Stops, Attorney General Says. New York's attorney general on Friday recommended the
New York Police Department get out of the business of routine traffic enforcement, a radical change she said would prevent
encounters like one last year in the Bronx that escalated quickly and ended with an officer fatally shooting a
motorist. Attorney General Letitia James, who acts as a special prosecutor appointed to investigate certain police
killings, argued that traffic stops for minor infractions often end in violence and that Allan Feliz's death last October
after he was pulled over for a seat belt violation "further underscores the need for this change."
A "Culture
of Lawlessness" in D.A. Offices. U.S. Attorney William McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania blames
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for the rise in violence in the City of Brotherly Love. Krasner's
policies, McSwain announced, "create a culture of lawlessness; they leave criminals emboldened; and they have inevitable
consequences." Indeed, since Krasner took office in 2018, homicides are up 49 percent and shootings have climbed by
59 percent. If the trend holds, Philadelphia will tally more than 450 homicides in 2020 — the highest
count in nearly 30 years. Crime is spiking precisely because Krasner isn't holding serious offenders accountable.
Convicted
NYPD cop killer Anthony Bottom scheduled to be released on parole. The last of three convicted Black
Revolutionary Army members behind bars for murdering two NYPD cops nearly 50 years ago is set to be freed on parole in
October, police union officials said Tuesday [9/22/2020]. Anthony Bottom, who has spent more than 43 years in prison
for his role in the assassinations of Officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones in 1971, will be sprung by Oct. 20, a
source told Pix 11 News. The board's decision infuriated Piagentini's widow, Diane Piagentini.
Group
Robs A CVS In Broad Daylight As Employees And Manager Just Watch. Ever since California decriminalized what the
state considers 'petty crime', this sort of brazen robberies of stores has become more and more common. Add mask laws
to the mix, which conceals criminals' identities, you can bet on a lot more of these broad daylight heists.
[Video clip]
Shootings
soar in Portland after mayor disbands police gun unit. Shootings in Portland, Oregon, nearly tripled over the
summer after Mayor Ted Wheeler disbanded the city's police gun crimes unit, according to new police data. The city
recorded 223 shootings in July and August, up from 77 over the same period in 2019. And a little more than halfway through
September the city already had 64 shootings, or double the shootings from the same month last year. The numbers were
released last week.
Man
Suspected in Seattle Homicide Had Been Turned Free by Leftist Prosecutors 34 Times. Seattle Police think that
well-known homeless man Travis Berge killed a 30-year-old woman on Thursday morning [9/17/2020]. Police were called
about a body in the city's Cal Anderson Park, and officials then went on the hunt for Berge, the Post Millennial
reported. Officials soon found Berge in a nearby building. At first, they thought he was barricaded in the
building, but after a SWAT team entered, they found the suspect at the bottom of a tank that contained 50 gallons of
water and bleach. A HAZMAT crew was then called in to try and make sense of the situation.
Aurora,
Colorado police stand down twice to avoid arresting violent felon. Guess why. A couple of weeks ago, some
problems arose at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. One of the residents had unwisely invited Robert Thompson,
47, to stay at the apartment he shared with his girlfriend. He did this despite Thompson having a lengthy rap sheet and
a history of criminal behavior. [...] The following day, Thompson's behavior flew further out of control and he wound up
trapping McCoy's girlfriend in their bedroom along with a friend. He then took a golf club and began smashing
everything in the apartment, moving on to vandalize cars in the parking lot. [...] The situation was so far out of control
that the police believe it might result in someone winding up dead, but they were told to "stand down" and walk away.
Twice. So what led to that decision? The Deputy Chief admitted that the choice made by the police was
influenced by the death of Elijah McClain in police custody last month.
Minneapolis
City Council Panics Over Surge In Violence After Demonizing Police: 'Where Are The Police?' The
Democrat-controlled Minneapolis City Council is reportedly panicking as violent crime is surging throughout the city after
they called for defunding the police department following the death of George Floyd in late May. During a two-hour
Minneapolis City Council meeting on police reform, "council members told police Chief Medaria Arradondo that their
constituents are seeing and hearing street racing which sometimes results in crashes, brazen daylight carjackings, robberies,
assaults and shootings," MPR News reported. "The number of reported violent crimes, like assaults, robberies and
homicides are up compared to 2019, according to MPD crime data. More people have been killed in the city in the first
nine months of 2020 than were slain in all of last year. Property crimes, like burglaries and auto thefts, are also
up. Incidents of arson have increased 55 percent over the total at this point in 2019."
Oregon
catches arsonist in the act, lets him out, surprised to find he sets new fires. There's stupid, there's
pig-stupid, and there's Oregon. That's the astonishing picture we have here where a suspect, Domingo Lopez, Jr., 45,
who had been arrested just 12 hours earlier for setting fires, got somehow let out and proceeded to commit to more arson,
with the Antifa weapon of choice, the Molotov cocktail, as if that couldn't be foreseen. The second time around, he set
six fires. Who needs global warming with guys like this? The big fail here was from the justice system, which let
the known firebug, freshly caught in the act, out and about. Obviously, there's something going on with this. How
could anyone in authority be this stupid? It's sheer lunacy to let a caught-in-the-act arsonist out at a time of high
fires and not guess he'll go back to the same thing he was caught doing earlier. But that's exactly what happened.
Random
Thoughts On The Floyd Case. Is it possible for any of the four former Minneapolis police officers charged in
the death of George Floyd to receive a fair trial? In Minneapolis? If not in Minneapolis, anywhere else in
Minnesota? Is it possible that a Hennepin County jury won't have the external effects of not guilty verdicts in mind
when they retire to deliberate? I've had those questions in mind since expedited criminal charges were filed following
the rioting that convulsed the Twin Cities. Public officials including Governor Walz have repeatedly declared the
officers guilty of murder. We are deep into a verdict first, trial later mode.
Jail
Releases Portland Man Who Set Fire With Molotov Cocktail, Then He Sets Six More. On Sunday, police arrested a
man who confessed to starting a brush fire with a Molotov cocktail in Portland. They booked him in Multnomah County
Jail. Portland being Portland, the authorities released the suspect that evening. The man then went on to start
six more fires before the police arrested him yet again. The cops took him to a hospital for a mental evaluation. [...]
The story did not end there, however. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt has notoriously taken the side of
violent antifa rioters against the police they attack, and he announced that his office would not prosecute many riot-related
crimes, even when some of those crimes endanger the lives of police officers. Perhaps that attitude helps explain why
Domingo Lopez Jr. left jail on Sunday evening [9/13/2020]. Apparently, the suspect had enough time on his hands to
set a whopping six more fires before the police again detained him.
'Enter
At Your Own Risk!': Texas Police Group Puts Up Billboards Warning Those Entering Austin That City Defunded
Police. People entering Austin, Texas, from Interstate 35 will see two billboards warning them that the city
defunded police. One billboard says, "Warning! Austin defunded police. Enter at your own risk!" CBS News
reported. The board is referring to the Austin city council's vote last month to cut the police budget. The
second billboard reads, "Limited support next 20 miles," the outlet reported. The billboards were put up by the
Texas Municipal Police Association, which announced its campaign Wednesday [9/9/2020] on Facebook.
Just
1 in 5 shootings in NYC resulted in an arrest this year. We recently discussed the sickening news that New York
City had already passed 1,000 shootings in 2020, a number that's in excess of the total number of shootings for all of 2019
and there are still four months to go. But as with any municipal government and law enforcement agency, the raw number
of incidents doesn't tell the whole story. How effective are officials being in solving these cases and putting the
guilty behind bars? According to a new report from the New York Post, things aren't looking all that hot on the
enforcement front, either. The NYPD's clearance rate for shootings is hovering below 20% on the year, meaning that more
than four out of five shooters are still on the streets, and this has many of the locals feeling nervous.
Growing
numbers of district attorneys are out to undermine the law. One reason for the surging, often protracted
violence in US cities is the rise of a host of progressive prosecutors who actually tilt against law and order. The
trend is most glaring in places known for their kooky left-wing politics, like Portland and San Francisco, but extreme
leftists have also taken over as district attorneys in cities like Chicago and Boston. Many owe big thanks for their
elections to funding from far-left fatcat George Soros. In Portland, violent "protests" have dragged on for months,
thanks to the idiocy of Mayor Ted Wheeler, who let hoodlums drive him out of his own condo — but also to Multnomah
County DA Mike Schmidt, who dropped charges against hundreds of people arrested for offenses like interfering with cops,
disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and rioting. Schmidt also made it harder to prosecute assaults on cops.
California
DA's new policy to consider looters' 'needs' before charging them. A California district attorney is requiring
her prosecutors to consider looters' "needs" when weighing criminal charges against them. The new mandate, set forth by
Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton, makes it tougher to prosecute looting cases in the county, which sits
just outside San Francisco. Investigators must now consider "was this theft offense substantially motivated by the
state of emergency, or simply a theft offense which occurred contemporaneously to the declared state of emergency?,"
according to the policy reported by local outlet East County Today.
Portland
Police, FBI and U.S. DOJ Refuse to Arrest Antifa Murder Suspect Because He Supports Joe Biden and Black
Lives Matter. It's time to be brutally honest and face the enemy as a united nation. Trump supporter
Aaron "Jay" Danielson was murdered on the streets of Portland Oregon. Danielson's murder was caught on camera, and
everyone, including thousands of people who watch social media, know exactly who killed him, [...]. However, despite
everyone knowing exactly who carried out a politically motivated assassination, [the suspect] has not been arrested.
The Portland police, the FBI and the United States Department of Justice have not arrested him; and the only logical
conclusion to be gained from that reluctance is that [the] Antifa supporter [...] is also a supporter of Black Lives Matter
and Joe Biden. Therefore no-one does anything. When you accept this reality, it is only then that we can start
to fathom just how seriously screwed up the U.S. system of justice has become. If you support Trump you are a disposable
statistic; however, if you support the mob all efforts will be undertaken to protect you from the consequences of your own
violent action.
Meet
The Rioting Criminals Kamala Harris Helped Bail Out Of Jail. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a problem.
They know it, the media knows it, everyone knows it. For three months they have ignored the deadly rioting that spread
across the nation's cities on both coasts and in between. They insisted that what we were seeing was "mostly peaceful"
protests and that Donald Trump and his evil allies were defaming decent Americans who just want social justice. Now
they want to denounce these riots, but there is a problem: Harris is a financial supporter of the rioters she now
claims to denounce.
A Tyranny Perpetual
and Universal? [Scroll down] Need evidence that going soft on crime is high on the agenda? Consider
how, early in the COVID-19 panic, leftist pols prioritized letting criminals out of jail, ostensibly because they were at
risk of infection. The real reason, though, is explained by Rahm Emanuel's famous exhortation to his comrades to "never
let a serious crisis go to waste." Governors, mayors, district attorneys, police chiefs, and sheriffs in blue zones across
the country simply followed hizzoner's advice and did what they always wanted to do anyway but hitherto could, or dared,
not. Emboldened by the crisis, drunk with power, and half-convinced that a scared population wasn't paying attention,
they let the bad guys go. They got away with it, and they'll make the policy permanent once they have lasting power.
The
Chaos in Urban America Is Bad Now — But Can Only Get Worse With Biden. People used to accuse
Democrats of being "soft on crime." Now, Democrat-run cities can't even properly identify crime, let alone punish it.
(Except, perhaps, the ultimate sin of defending your life and home from the mob). The eccentric, oddball, strange and
perverse crew of mayors that run these urban cesspools are intransigent in their refusal to fight crime. President
Donald Trump is increasingly at war with America's Democrat-run cities — but only because their mayors refuse to
fight the war with the crime on their streets. This week, the President announced that he was sending 200 federal
agents to Chicago and Kansas City. He has already sent U.S. Customs Border Security guards to Portland in an attempt to
alleviate the lawlessness and chaos in that city. At least he can still distinguish between legitimate protest and
rioting. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, apparently, cannot.
John
Lennon's murderer denied parole for 11th time. The man who killed John Lennon in 1980 has been denied parole
for the 11th time. Mark David Chapman, 65, is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Wende Correctional Facility
outside of Buffalo, New York. He was denied parole after being interviewed by a parole board earlier in August, the
Associated Press reported. Chapman shot the former Beatle and famed musician outside of his Manhattan apartment just
hours after Lennon had autographed an album for him.
Soros
DA Diana Becton Requires Officers Consider Whether a Looter "Needed" Stolen Goods Before Charging. Last week we
brought you the story of Nichelle Holmes, a Deputy District Attorney in California who made social media posts proclaiming
"We want more than a citation for vandalism" for the couple who painted over a Black Lives Matter mural in her
jurisdiction. The office has now charged the couple with a "hate crime." Holmes' boss, Diana Becton, is in her first
term as elected District Attorney, one of a number of district attorneys heavily supported by lefty billionaire George
Soros. Sources tell RedState that as soon as Becton took over she implemented major changes in the way the office was
run and in the way crimes were charged and how aggressively cases were prosecuted. One recent change, which I'll
address further in a moment, has to do with charging people for "looting," which is basically stealing during a state of
emergency (i.e., protests or riots). Becton is BFF's with St. Louis' Kim Gardner and Chicago's Kim Foxx, who've
been in the news for their terrible policies.
Oregon
governor considers releasing 400 prisoners as coronavirus precaution: report. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is
considering commuting the sentences of as many as 400 prisoners in the state's detention centers as a coronavirus precaution,
according to reports. The move would come as police in the state's largest city, Portland, have their hands full with
nightly riots and destruction for three straight months — with protests in other cities as well. The
prisoners eyed for early release would include those who are within two months of the end of their sentences — as
well as about a dozen inmates deemed "medically vulnerable" to the virus, OregonLive.com reported.
California Apocalypto.
It is now August in California. So we can expect the following from our postmodern state government. [...] We can
expect lots of crime, because in fear of COVID-19 and in line with no-to-little bail policies, lots of criminals roam our
streets. The state was once far safer after the adoption of the three-strikes law, but as crime radically declined, the
imprisoned criminal, not his prey, was recalibrated as a victim. Gun sales are soaring, in the bluest of states, as if
carjackers and home invaders just might not extend exemption to the woke. California, as some of the Democratic primary
candidates bragged last year, is the progressive model of the future: a once-innovative rich state that is now a civilization
in near ruins.
NYC
grocers alarmed by uptick in theft, quality of life crimes. Grocery store owners are convinced: the five-finger
discount is back in a big way. An uptick in shoplifting and other violations during the coronavirus lockdown has
hundreds of independent supermarket owners around the city complaining the NYPD hasn't been responsive enough when they
call — whether it's about thieves, maskless shoppers or neighborhood drug peddlers. "We're pretty much on
our own," said Pedro Goico, who owns six grocery stores in the Bronx and Brooklyn. "Right now, it's very tough to be in
the grocery store business. We're getting no help from the city." Goico said his stores have been plagued with
shoplifters and estimates that 6% to 7% of his bottom line has disappeared because of it since March. Before COVID-19,
he said he'd typically lose about 1% to shoplifters.
Despite
Constant Libel of Trump, I Trust the People. Ms. Harris has many critics among the 98% of Democrats who
did not support her candidacy for president. The Left is displeased with her performance as San Francisco's district
attorney and as attorney general of California: she always called for maximum sentences and condoned the widespread American
practice of prosecutors extorting or suborning inculpatory false evidence by threats of indictment if that evidence is not
forthcoming, and promises of immunity from prosecution for perjury if it is. Loyola law professor Lara Bazelon recently
accused Ms. Harris in the New York Times of having "fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been
secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony, and the suppression of crucial
information." President Trump has made serious efforts at penal reform and sentence reduction for nonviolent
offenders. By contrast, Ms. Harris sent over 1,000 marijuana users to prison but acknowledged having tried it
herself. Ms. Harris's performance as a prosecutor clashes with the general current Democratic enthusiasm for
defunding and discouraging the police and turning a blind eye to urban vandalism, arson, and looting.
The State of Our Cities That Our Media Is Hiding
From You. [Quoting Mike Doran:] I've been exchanging messages with friends about what what's happening in
our cities: NY, Philadelphia and LA especially. A lot of disturbing things are not making the news. Even
Republicans aren't drawing attention to it. Here's a message from a friend about life in NY today: "Here's my
neighborhood, Mike: An elderly man, enjoying dinner w/his wife at an outdoor restaurant, punched in the face. A
woman waiting for the subway to come stabbed in the back. An older neighbor pausing to catch his breath told to pay two
dollars in protection money or get [...] off that particular street corner. This is just the ten block radius from
where I live in the last six days." Other friends from NY talk about shattered business districts, drugstores with locked
shelves, and hundreds of homeless people and parolees, including sex offenders, being moved into hotels on the Upper West
Side adjacent to schools and playgrounds, which are filled with needles again like in the 1970s. Friends in Philadelphia
report large homeless encampments in the city center and being robbed at gunpoint. Friends in LA talk about squatters
taking over empty homes in professional class neighborhoods whose residents fantasize about emigrating to Canada.
One
story from the night of looting in Chicago that doesn't fit the approved narrative. [Scroll down]
[Demisck] Lomax, 25, was charged with aggravated battery of a police officer. Prosecutors say he has previous narcotics
convictions. You might expect him to sit in jail until trial. And you'd be right, in that Chicago of old. [...]
Cook County Judge Mary Marubio set his bail at $5,000. Lomax only had to come up with $500. I first read about this
fascinating story on the Twitter feed of CWB Chicago, which covers a lot of crime news. Chicago Ald. Brendan
Reilly, who represents much of the looted area, was furious with the bond for Lomax. So I confirmed the CWB account
with law enforcement, then called Reilly. "It has to change and change fast," said Reilly. "What we're seeing
here with all the violence in Chicago is the result of a series of bad policy decisions, including the push for low bond and
the criminal justice revolving door.["] "I don't want people in jail for nonviolent crimes, but now, there aren't any
consequences for committing any crime. Police catch a lot of the bad guys, but bond court is a joke, with prosecutors
and judges releasing violent offenders.["]
Montgomery
County Gave ICE A 28-Minute Warning Before Releasing Illegal Immigrant Charged With Second Degree Rape.
Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, gave Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a 28-minute notice before releasing
an illegal immigrant charged with second-degree rape and sexual abuse back into the public, according to county data obtained
by the Immigration Reform Law Institute. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich had pledged to allow more cooperation
with ICE on Nov. 4 when he rolled back a sanctuary policy he signed into law three months prior that prohibited county
officials from working with ICE. But the data obtained by IRLI shows that ICE was given less than four-hours notification
to pick up eight illegal immigrants from Montgomery County jails after Elrich's policy was rescinded. "Montgomery
County claims to be cooperating with ICE, but the implementation of this policy is a joke," IRLI Executive Director of General
Counsel Dale Wilcox said in a statement Wednesday [8/12/2020].
Joe
Biden's response to rising crime: Pander to anti-police radicals. The most serious issue in policing
today is a skyrocketing homicide rate — not "systemic racism," the issue that animates those "mostly peaceful
protestors" who are looting businesses and destroying public property across the land. Joe Biden should show leadership
on the slay spree. Instead, he panders to the anti-police left. The recent uptick in violence is no mere
blip. Homicides in Minneapolis have nearly doubled compared to this point in 2019. Chicago just saw its deadliest month
in 28 years, part of a nearly 50 percent spike in homicides over the past year. In Gotham, the first six months of 2020
saw a 21 percent increase in murders over the same period last year, only to be followed by a 50 percent increase for
July. It's a pattern extending nationwide — 36 of the country's 50 largest cities have experienced
double-digit homicide increases in 2020, and the trend is getting worse, not better.
In Colorado,
the police are canceling themselves. The state of Colorado has been experiencing the same twin dilemmas that
have been plaguing much of the country for the past several months and this has had a rather drastic impact on police forces
across the board. They're dealing with the pandemic like everyone else, and police officers have jobs that put them in
constant contact with the public. At the same time, protests and demonstrations blaming the police for many of
society's ills have led the state to eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement officers. This puts them a
greater personal risk of civil suits or criminal charges if an arrest of an uncooperative suspect goes awry. What's the
upshot of all of this been? Far fewer interactions with the public and a significant increase in police officers
retiring early or simply quitting and seeking new types of employment.
Paper:
Chicago Prosecutor Kim Foxx Has Dropped 25,183 Felony Cases. Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dropped
over 25,000 felony cases, including charges of murder and the alleged hate crime hoax from former Empire star Jussie
Smollett, according to an analysis released by the Chicago Tribune on Monday [8/10/2020].
Revealed:
Top Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx's office has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases including murders, shootings, sexual
assaults. Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases — including many
involving charges of murder and other serious crimes — in her first three years on the job, a new report shows. Foxx
gained notoriety last year when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor accused of staging a
racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019. The Chicago Tribune on Monday published an analysis of Foxx's
overall record on dropping charges, revealing that she has done so at a rate that's 35 percent higher than her predecessor.
Left-Wing
Prosecutors, Many Backed By Soros Cash, Implement Soft-On-Crime Policies Across America. Left-wing prosecutors
have implemented soft-on-crime approaches to criminal justice across America, in some instances making it a matter of policy
in major cities not to prosecute specific crimes, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found. A common, though not
universal, feature of prominent left-wing district attorneys is the backing of political organizations funded by left-wing
billionaire George Soros. The New York Times has credited Soros with pioneering the "push to overhaul prosecutors'
offices" across the country. Cook County, Illinois, State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx, whose jurisdiction includes
Chicago, took office in 2017 after winning her election with the help of a Soros-funded super PAC. Soros poured more than
$400,000 into Illinois Justice & Public Safety PAC in 2016, Illinois State Board of Elections records show. Foxx was
the only candidate that the PAC supported in 2016, those records show.
Our
under-incarceration problem, violence against women edition. Last October, Ibrahim Bouaichi sexually assaulted
Karla Dominguez with whom he reportedly had been in a relationship. He was charged with six felony counts and held
without bond in an Alexandria, Virginia jail. In April, a judge, Nolan Dawkins, ordered the release of Bouaichi due to
the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Bouaichi was 33 years old. The virus probably posed about the same threat to his
health as the flu. Moreover, there had been no cases of the virus at the Alexandria jail. Bouaichi's lawyers
argued that visits to the jail had been curtailed and that they needed to meet with their client. But all trials had
been postponed. The lawyers apparently did not seek relief from the curb on their ability to visit Bouaichi.
Instead, they insisted on his release. [...] You can probably guess the rest of the story. In late July, Dominguez was
shot to death in Alexandria. The police issued a warrant for the arrest of Bouaichi on the charge of murder. He
fled. When the police finally spotted him and moved in for the arrest, he killed himself. Our criminal justice
failed Karla Dominguez, just as it consistently fails the victims of thugs and predators like Ibrahim Bouaichi.
COVID-19
Is No Reason to Empty Prisons. Under the guise of protecting prisoners from the spread of Covid-19, large
numbers of dangerous criminals are being freed from custody. This is creating a horrific situation that is endangering
the public and has now led to the death of a witness in a rape case. In Alexandria, Virginia, rape suspect Ibrahim E.
Bouaichi was released from prison in April because of concerns that he would contract Covid-19. Even though Bouaichi was
indicted on serious charges such as rape, sodomy, abduction, strangulation and burglary, former presiding Circuit Court Judge
Nolan Dawkins ordered his release on a $25,000 bond. Despite the warnings from prosecutors that Bouaichi was a danger
to the community, Dawkins released him to home confinement. This was an incredibly unwise decision because he was a
danger to not only the community at large, but also to an especially vulnerable individual, Karla Elizabeth Dominguez
Gonzalez, who accused him of rape last December and testified against him. Sadly, on July 29, Ms. Dominguez
was found shot to death. Local law enforcement authorities identified Bouaichi as her murderer.
Rape
suspect freed from jail amid COVID-19 allegedly kills accuser. A Virginia rape suspect was released from jail
over coronavirus concerns — and then shot dead his accuser, authorities say. Ibrahim E. Bouaichi, 33,
of Greenbelt, Md., had been indicted on charges of rape, strangulation and abduction after Karla Dominguez, a native of
Venezuela, told cops in Alexandria, Va., that he sexually assaulted her in October, the Washington Post said. Bouaichi
turned himself in 11 days later, and a judge ordered him held without bond. Then, despite objections by an
Alexandria prosecutor, lawyers for the man, who was charged with six felonies, successfully argued on April 9 that he be
released on $25,000 bond — with a condition that he only leave his Maryland residence to meet with lawyers or
pretrial services officials, the newspaper said.
As always, fear of the virus does far more damage than the virus itself. Girl
Slaughtered After Her Alleged Rapist Was Released From Jail Over COVID Concerns. An alleged rapist killed his
accuser after being released from jail over concerns he and his lawyers would contract coronavirus. According to the
Washington Post, Ibrahim Bouaichi hunted and killed his accuser, Karla Dominguez, after being released from jail because of
concerns the Wuhan coronavirus would put Bouaichi and his lawyers at risk of falling ill. Bouaichi was indicted on
charges of rape, strangulation, and abduction after Dominguez, a native of Venezuela, told law enforcement in Alexandria,
Va., that he sexually assaulted her in October. Eleven days after his indictment, Bouaichi turned himself into
authorities, and a judge ordered him to be held without bond. Bouaichi's lawyers requested bond, arguing their client
could not be safe from the Wuhan virus because it was "impossible" to provide adequate social distancing and other safety
measures behind bars. The men added that the arrangement also put them at risk, explaining that lawyers seeking a
contact visit would "also expose themselves to contaminated air and surfaces." Jail spokeswoman Amy Bertsch pointed out
that the jail implemented increased cleaning and health screening in early March "and there were no cases of covid-19 at the
jail during their client's incarceration."
ACLU launches push
to free 50,000 inmates from US prisons in response to 'systemic injustice'. The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) is launching a multi-year effort to win the release of tens of thousands of prisoners by lobbying governors to grant
mass clemency as a remedy to "systemic injustice." The effort, called, "The Redemption Campaign," aims to "liberate" 50,000
prisoners with the vision of "transform[ing] the concept of clemency from a case-by-case extension of individual mercy into
an essential systemic response to decades of racist, punitive, and degrading incarceration," a report from the group
says. The organization will be attempting to sway constituents and affect gubernatorial campaigns amid widespread calls
for change to the criminal justice system.
Democrat
Domestic Terrorism Can No Longer Be Ignored. Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act defines "domestic terrorism" as
activities involving acts in violation of state or federal criminal laws that are "dangerous to human life" and "appear to be
intended" either to (i) "intimidate or coerce a civilian population," (ii) "influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion," or (iii) "affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping."
Intimidating a civilian population? Coercing government officials? Engaging in mass destruction and assassination of
police? Ding-ding-ding! [...] Democrat domestic terrorists light fires everywhere they go, egg on violence against police
and civilians, and threaten businesses who refuse to pay into their protection rackets by "donating" to their favorite money-laundering
501(c)(3)s; and our criminal justice system looks the other way or even actively abets the terrorists by releasing them from jail cells
just as soon as they arrive, while leaving Americans to fend for themselves.
About
20% of N.J. Prisoners Could Be Freed to Avoid Virus. New Jersey lawmakers seemed close to supporting
legislation on Thursday that could free more than 3,000 prisoners — about 20 percent of the state's prison
population — months before their release dates in response to the extraordinary threat posed by the coronavirus in
tightly packed correctional facilities. Inmates who are within a year of completing their state prison sentences would
be eligible to be released up to eight months early based on credits awarded for time served during the pandemic.
Minneapolis
Police Advise: Give Up Your Property To Criminals And Obey Them. Minneapolis City Government's 'robbery
prevention tips' include giving up your wallet and obeying criminals. Police are encouraging residents to surrender to
criminals as part of their "robbery prevention tips" willingly turn over your valuables, and no matter what, don't resist.
The Editor says...
How is that a robbery prevention tip?
Minneapolis
police tell residents to obey criminals and 'be prepared' to be robbed. Officials are now telling residents to
be ready and willing to comply with the demands of criminals in an email sent to Third Precinct residents. "Be prepared
to give up your cell phone and purse/wallet," the police said in their email, a copy of which was obtained by Alpha
News. The email said citizens should listen to criminals and "do as they say." The message warned that "some
victims have been maced, dragged, assaulted, and some threatened with a gun."
The Editor says...
Minneapolis will probably end up under the control of Sharia police,
who will be immune to criticism.
California
Releases Convicted Murderer Serving 84-Year Sentence Due To Covid. The family of a murder victim in California
was outraged to learn that the state has released the person responsible for killing their loved one as part of an effort to
reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks inside prisons. Terebea Williams, 44, was sentenced to 84 years-to-life in prison
on charges including first-degree murder, using a firearm, carjacking, and kidnapping of 23-year-old Kevin "John" Ruska Jr.
in 1998.
Convicted
child molester gets taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery while in prison. An Idaho inmate currently incarcerated
for sexually assaulting a child has received taxpayer-funded "sex-reassignment" surgery after suing the state for it.
Yep, really. Adree Edmo, a 32-year-old man who identifies as a woman, has been imprisoned since 2012 for "sexually
assaulting a sleeping 15-year-old boy." He filed suit against the state of Idaho in 2017, claiming that the state was
violating his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment by denying him free (taxpayer-funded) transgender
surgery. Really. It went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The
real world consequences of releasing felons early. Houston's first Sikh police officer, Deputy Sandeep
Dhaliwal, was gunned down by Robert Solis when he pulled Solis over for a routine traffic stop. Solis had a 30-year
career criminal history that includes burglary, theft, multiple arrests for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, robbery
with a deadly weapon, drunk driving, and multiple kidnapping charges. In 2002, Solis was convicted for shooting a man
in the leg and then holding his own toddler son hostage with a gun during a standoff with police. He was sentenced to
20 years, but thanks to Texas' jailbreak policies, was let out in 2014 after serving just 12. As difficult as it may be
to believe, Texas' "evidence-based" rehabilitation programs didn't reform Solis. Deputy Dhaliwal paid the price.
These are the real world consequences of jailbreak policies in Texas and elsewhere. The U.S. has a serious
under-incarceration problem and, with the complicity of some conservatives, the problem is getting worse.
Great
news: Minneapolis city council decides not to pay armed vigilantes to replace police. Give credit where
due for thinking outside of the box, I guess, although this idea belongs in a box ... buried under the St. Anthony
Falls. In the Minneapolis city council's haste to prove it doesn't need a professional and trained police force to keep
the peace, they nearly decided to pay ad hoc bands of armed citizens to patrol the streets. Only late inquiries about
this proposal from city residents and local media managed to change their minds: [...] Ahem. I myself am
a lawful owner of firearms, properly authorized to carry in public. However, that does not make me a Junior
G-Man, nor does it make thousands of other lawful gun owners in the state qualified to keep the peace. We have the
necessary training to use our firearms wisely and to understand the legalities of lawful self-defense, but that's it.
Illinois
has paroled double-ax murderer, other heinous killers, offering Gangster Disciples boss hope. Wielding a
hatchet, Otis Williams slaughtered a man and woman in Kankakee County in 1974 to keep them from talking to the police about
meat, candy, cigarettes, vegetables and fruit he'd stolen from a market. Convicted in their deaths, Williams and an
accomplice got prison terms of 800 to 2,400 years. In 2013, making his 30th appearance before the Illinois Prisoner
Review Board, Williams finally succeeded in winning his freedom. The board said he was remorseful, a model inmate and
no risk to the public. He was paroled by a vote of 11-4. Two years later, his accomplice A.D. Clark also was
paroled. Williams, Clark and a man who massacred five people in a shooting spree at a restaurant are among dozens of
elderly Illinois murder convicts who have won parole over the past decade, a Chicago Sun-Times examination of state records
found.
Freedom
to Deface. Mayor Bill de Blasio has cancelled a graffiti-eradication program targeted at cleaning private
buildings. He is thus deliberately sending New York City back to its worst days of crime and squalor. The
symbolic significance of this cancellation is as large as its practical effect. Nothing sent a stronger signal in the
late 1980s that New York was determined to fight back from anarchy than the transit system's campaign against subway
graffiti. That campaign was based on Broken Windows theory, the most transformative idea in urban policy over the last
40 years. Broken Windows recognizes that physical disorder and low-level lawlessness — graffiti,
turnstile-jumping, and litter — telegraph that social control in a disordered environment has broken down.
That low-level lawlessness invites more contempt for public norms of behavior, including felony crime.
King County executive plans to depopulate
youth jail by 2025. King County Executive Dow Constantine announced Tuesday afternoon [7/21/2020] he plans to
convert the remaining detention units at the county's juvenile jail to "other uses" by 2025. He made the announcement
on Twitter, citing a desire to move public funding away from "systems that are rooted in oppression," The Seattle Times
reported.
Mayor
de Blasio: NYC Is Safer With Fewer People in Jail. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) said Thursday
[7/16/2020] that his city is safer and better with fewer people in jail, even as shootings and violence have spiked in the
city this summer. "We now have fewer people in our jails than any time since WWII and we are safer for it and better
for it," de Blasio said. But the city has experienced a dramatic uptick in crime this year. According to the most
recent NYPD crime statistics, violent crimes — including shootings, murders, and burglaries — have all
skyrocketed. Year-to-date shooting incidents in the city have increased by 61 percent, and the number of shooting
victims has increased by 70 percent.
Suspect
Who Allegedly Attacked 3 NYPD Officials Is Released From Jail Without Bail. The man who allegedly beat a top
official in the New York City Police Department and two other police officers this week was released from jail without
bail. "Quran Campbell, 25, is accused of socking the highest-ranking uniformed cop [NYPD Chief Terence Monahan] several
times in the face as Monahan tried to arrest him after Campbell had allegedly punched another NYPD officer and lieutenant"
near the Manhattan approach to the Brooklyn Bridge, The New York Post reported.
Man
accused of punching NYPD chief, cops on Brooklyn Bridge released without bail. The Bronx man who allegedly
punched NYPD Chief Terence Monahan and two other officers during protests on the Brooklyn Bridge Wednesday has been released
without bail. Quran Campbell, 25, is accused of socking the highest-ranking uniformed cop several times in the face as
Monahan tried to arrest him after Campbell had allegedly punched another NYPD officer and lieutenant near the Manhattan
approach to the bridge. Campbell was arraigned on assault charges in Manhattan criminal court and was granted
supervised release.
11th San Quentin
inmate's death tied to COVID-19. San Quentin inmate Jeffrey Hawkins, who was sentenced to death in two
Sacramento County murders in 1987, died Wednesday at an outside hospital of complications from COVID-19, according to the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Hawkins, 64, is the 11th inmate at San Quentin whose death has
been linked to COVID-19. Across California, 37 state prison inmates with confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, according
to the CDCR website tracking illnesses and deaths related to the pandemic.
California
to Release 18,000 Prisoners by End of August to 'Slow the Spread of COVID-19'. According to the California
Department of Corrections, the state is set to release up to 18,000 prisoners by the end of August to 'slow the spread of
COVID-19.' Officials in California say releasing prisoners will help protect the "health and safety of the incarcerated
population." "These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,"
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a news release. "We aim to implement these
decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety."
Supreme
Court declines to reinstate vote of nearly 1 million Florida felons. The Supreme Court on Thursday [7/16/2020]
let stand a lower court ruling that could strip voting eligibility from up to 1 million Florida felons who have
completed their sentences but have yet to pay outstanding fines, restitution and other fees.
Man
accused of murdering 11-year-old at July 4 BBQ in DC was released under coronavirus jailbreak. The same
flat-earth "science" being used as a pretext to criminalize Americans for not wearing masks has been used to release violent
criminals. Now, another one of those released from jail under coronavirus jailbreak policies has been charged with
murder in the nation's capital. July 4 weekend was a horrible bloodbath for black children across many of our
nation's prominent cities. As I chronicled each of the cases last week, I predicted that most of the suspects would be
repeat violent offenders, gun felons, parole violators, or all of the above. Well, that appears to be the case in the
horrific D.C. shooting on Independence Day that left 11-year-old Davon McNeal dead. McNeal was helping his mother at a
neighborhood barbecue when a group of drive-by shooters fatally shot him. D.C. police have now arrested two suspects,
have issued warrants for two more, and are waiting on a fifth.
Why
Do We Have Police, Anyway? [Scroll down] Huizinga and Spierenburg write about the "pacification" and
"privatization" of European society in the last 500 years. What they mean is the gradual replacement of clan and gang
feuds and public executions with police and courts and prisons. Here's the prison story. First they imprisoned
madmen; then they imprisoned the poor in workhouses (see peasants, above); then they imprisoned the criminals. Way to
go, guys. Why do we have our modern pacified middle-class cities? Nobody knows, least of all lefties, but I have
an idea. It is because violence and blood feuds and gangs do not pay. Hello Minneapolis? Anyone
there? Notice that in the USA every immigrant wave involves a surge in gangs. The Irish had their gangs in the
19th century; the Jews had their gangs at the turn of the 20th century; the Italians had their gangs till the day before
yesterday. But as each immigrant wave climbed into the middle class, their gangs disappeared. Today we have Black
gangs and Hispanic gangs, because those are the ethnic groups that have not yet climbed into the middle class.
Are
We In The First Days Of A Lawless Era? A nation founded on the rule of law appears to be yielding to the rule
of the mob. Not everyone has surrendered. The trend, though, is worrisome. Too many of our "leaders" and
institutions are failing us. In 2020, law enforcement officers in this country are being treated not just with
disrespect but in many instances are being abused verbally and physically. Rioters and looters are going unpunished,
not because they can't be identified or the cases against them are weak but because prosecutors (several of them backed by
George Soros) refuse to uphold the law and charge the offenders. Violent gangs have been allowed, almost encouraged, to
take over city streets, sidewalks, and private property; shut down the free movement of others; and topple public monuments.
Up
to 8,000 California inmates could be released early to stop crowding at prisons during COVID-19.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced (CDCR) announced new
programs that will allow for the early release of up to 8,000 inmates by the end of August to mitigate the spread of COVID-19
as outbreaks continue to flare up across the state prison system. "These actions are taken to provide for the health
and safety of the incarcerated population and staff," Ralph Diaz, Secretary for the CDCR, said in a press release on
Friday. "We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety."
California
may release 10% of inmates in pandemic response. California officials will soon release another 2,100 inmates
from state prisons in response to the coronavirus pandemic and in all now plans to release a total of more than 10,000
inmates, or nearly 10 percent of prisoners, as Gov. Gavin Newsom responds to intensifying pressure from advocates,
lawmakers and federal judges.
Left-wing
'Breathe Act' Would Close All Federal Prisons, Immigration Detention Centers. The left-wing political group
Black Lives Matter is seeking support in Congress for radical legislation that would, among other things, close all federal
prisons and immigration detention centers. The bill "would eliminate federal programs and agencies used to finance and
expand the U.S. criminal-legal system, such as the Department of Defense 1033 program, the Edward Byrne-Justice Assistance
Grant Program, Community Oriented Policing Services, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement," the bill states.
The joker is wild.
Today, the Supreme Court navigated its way through disputes about the disclosure of President Trump's financial records
without doing much harm (in my view, at least). However, the Court issued a real stinker in a case that was under my
radar — McGirt v. Oklahoma. By a 5-4 vote, the Court decided that much of Oklahoma is "Indian
country" for the purpose of prosecuting crimes committed by Indians. Justice Gorsuch joined the four left-liberals and
wrote the opinion. Gorsuch's idiosyncratic "textualism" has become the joker in Supreme Court litigation (Justice
Scalia's sound textualism wasn't). Today, the joker was wild. The case involved Jimcy McGirt.
Supreme
Court: Eastern Oklahoma is American Indian territory. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday [7/9/2020] that a large swath
of eastern Oklahoma is actually an Indian reservation belonging to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, meaning that hundreds of prosecutions could
be tossed because the state does not have jurisdiction there, including in part of Tulsa. The 5-4 decision notes that only federal
prosecutors have jurisdiction over American Indians on the reservation, which includes most of Tulsa, the state's second-largest city.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined the court's four liberal justices in the majority decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma.
9
Radical Ideas in the Biden-Sanders 'Unity' Platform. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-VT) released the policy recommendations of their "unity task force" on Wednesday [7/8/2020]. [...] Here are nine
of the most radical proposals in the "unity" document: [...] [#3] "End cash bail." The platform calls for eliminating cash
bail across the country — a radical experiment in criminal justice reform that has only just begun in California
and New York, with results that are deeply concerning. The idea is to reduce inequities, but in practice the end of
cash bail means releasing violent criminals to commit more crimes. One suspect in antisemitic attacks in New York City
late last year, for example, was repeatedly re-arrested after her releases.
Let's
Talk about Black Privilege. During the recent George Floyd — related terrorist looting and riots,
retired St. Louis, Mo. police captain David Dorn was shot and killed; he was 77. His death was recorded on a phone for
the world to see, in a grotesquely grim The Truman Show moment for the nation. Dorn's alleged murderer, a
24-year-old ex-felon named Stephan Cannon, was convicted at 18 for violent felony robbery and was supposed to serve a
seven-year sentence. But he never served a day thanks to leniency from the presiding judge. The violent ex-felon
subsequently twice violated his probation but, alas, never went to prison. Cannon is black; his two accomplices were
also black. [...] As a free black ex-felon after committing a violent crime and then violating his probation: black
privilege — yes or no?
Philly
has waived all citations against protesters after they said arrests violated their rights. During the month of
protests against police brutality in Philadelphia, more than 750 people were arrested for curfew violations, failure to
disperse, and disorderly conduct. Many were handcuffed, taken to remote police districts, and kept in hot cars or buses
for hours — some so long they urinated on themselves or began pleading for water. Then, they were released
not with criminal charges but civil citations, the type of ticket given for high weeds or litter. Less than a week
after an Inquirer report on allegations the practice was a violation of free speech, Mayor Jim Kenney on Wednesday [7/8/2020]
announced that all of the code-violation notices issued to protesters from May 30 to June 30 would be waived.
(The decision has no bearing on cases involving criminal charges.)
Six
Weeks, Six Cities, 600 Murders. The single most important issue, affecting some of the largest swaths of
populations in America, is the scandal the media ignores even as it explodes in our faces. In only six weeks, city
after city operated by entrenched Democrats have seen a massive expansion in lawlessness, violence, and murder.
Stunningly, many news outlets seem gobsmacked and mystified at how or why such an explosion of lawlessness has
occurred. For the sake of brevity, let's sample six of the nation's largest cities, including all of the top three.
[#1] New York: The Democratic mayor has long been understood as anti-police. His wife recently imagined the city
as "Nirvana" if the NYPD were eliminated altogether. Thus far in 2020, homicides are up 21 percent. Shootings are
up by 46 percent. The Democratic mayor's agenda included emptying the prison known as Rikers Island, bail reform letting
perps walk before the paperwork is completed, and the effort to #DefundPolice that took 600 anti-crime units out of commission.
How
did a child pornographer get paroled from a 1,000-year sentence? The judge who originally sentenced Peter
Mallory in 2012 called him "probably the most prolific collector of child pornography in the entire world," and applied
consecutive sentences to keep him in prison for 1,000 years. Mallory's collection was not just vast but particularly
cruel, with images of child rape and torture among them. He should have been in prison for the rest of his life.
Today, however, the former county commissioner walks free on parole after serving 0.8% of his sentence.
Seattle
police's CHOP sweep brought arrests but quick release from jail as well. After spending several hours behind
bars Wednesday [7/1/2020], Rashyla Levitt returned Thursday to the streets, protesting and confronting authorities just a day after
Seattle Police Department officers swept through the area that had been known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. "We
are back with the fire and we are ready to go," she said. Levitt was one 44 people arrested early Wednesday morning in
Capitol Hill as police moved in during a predawn operation that pushed a handful of demonstrators from the area. Police
charged Levitt with failure to disperse, but since it was only a misdemeanor, the judge released her.
San Francisco will
end mug shots release, citing racial bias. San Francisco police will stop making public the mug shots of people
who have been arrested unless they pose a threat to the public, as part of an effort to stop perpetuating racial stereotypes,
the city's police chief announced Wednesday [7/1/2020]. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the department will
no longer release booking photos of suspects to the media or allow officers to post them online. The policy takes
effect Wednesday.
The
Huge Law Enforcement Scandal that Cries Out for Justice. In the American Thinker (June 30), Jack Cashill offers
an eloquent plea for an Atticus Finch to take up the cause of George Zimmerman in suing those responsible for perpetrating
the Trayvon Hoax. There is another case, also in Florida, awaiting its Atticus Finch, the product of an earlier moral
panic, the now largely forgotten "mass sex abuse in daycare" hysteria. These cases, replete with lurid charges the
media mindlessly and breathlessly disseminated in the 1980s and '90s, are today widely recognized as a modern version of the
Salem witch trials of the 1690s, down to allegations of Satanic rituals by caregivers. Despite this, one victim remains
incarcerated. Frank Fuster has now served thirty-five years in prison for a crime not only that he did not commit, but
that never happened. His first parole hearing is scheduled an unbelievable 114 years from now — in March 2134.
LAPD
Morale Collapses to 'Record Low': 'It's Simply Not Worth It Any Longer'. Morale within the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD) is currently at a "record low," thanks to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and the vilification of
police by local politicians. Robert Harris, the director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told CBS Los
Angeles that officers feel "beaten" and "bruised" by the ongoing protests. That was corroborated by a Breitbart News
source within the LAPD, who said: "Morale across the rank-and-file is at a record low. Especially out on the
street in patrol. We have been vilified and abandoned by the mayor, all but three of the city council members, as well
as many business owners and residents of the city of Los Angeles."
Nearly
300 NYPD Officers File for Retirement as Violent Crime Surges. Close to 300 New York City Police Department
(NYPD) officers have filed for retirement over the last month amid riots against the police and as violent crime keeps
surging. According to figures released to the New York Post, about 272 NYPD uniformed officers have filed for
retirement since riots over the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd began in late May. At the same time last
year, about 183 officers had filed for retirement, indicating a nearly 50 percent spike in retirements this year.
Abolish
the police? Prisons? More? — Here's where this radical experiment is headed. Radicalism
in America's largest cities seems impervious to reason. Consider this headline in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
"Despite a wave of violence, Minneapolis 'defund police' effort continues: An influential bloc of City Council members
is pressing ahead with plans to dismantle the department as a monthlong eruption of gunfire sent tremors through
neighborhoods." Reporter Liz Navratil explained that a majority of the Minneapolis City Council and like-minded community
activists have used terms such as "defund," "dismantle" and "abolish" in different ways. There's some semantic
tap-dancing. But they're serious. They're working to rewrite the city charter and dismantle a "minimum size
requirement" for the police department. They talk about a police-free future.
BLM proves
the Broken Windows Theory. Taking over a crime-ridden New York City in 1993, Mayor Rudy Giuliani applied the
Broken Windows Theory approach to crime in which small crimes are enforced as a means to create an atmosphere of law and
order. Liberals have for 20 years denied his success reducing crime as mayor had anything to do with him, much less
this theory. But under Obama, liberals began proving Giuliani was most correct. Today, as the Black Liberation
Movement (aka Black Lives Matter) takes over cities, Democrat-run cities are turning into shooting galleries. [...] This is
not an overnight nightmare. Democrats have planned this BLM rioting for a long time, and have actually held test runs
in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore. Apparently, they are satisfied with their finished product.
Council advances plan to dismantle
Minneapolis Police Dept. The Minneapolis City Council on Friday [6/26/2020] unanimously approved a proposal to
change the city charter to allow the police department to be dismantled, following widespread criticism of law enforcement
over the killing of George Floyd.
Police
Commissioner Dermot Shea: Our criminal justice system is 'imploding'. The city's top cop said the
criminal justice system is "imploding" as he highlighted a rise in shootings and killings on the city's streets and slammed
pols for refusing to support the Finest at an invite-only press conference at NYPD headquarters this week. "You have to
step back and look at this. You have a criminal justice system that is imploding," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea
lamented during a small meeting with reporters Wednesday at One Police Plaza in Manhattan. "Imploding. That's the
kindest way to put it." Shea went on to point out that many criminal cases were "ongoing," "stagnant" or "deferred."
"Each one of those represents somebody not being held accountable and no consequences," Shea said.
Obeying
The Law Is For Suckers. If you watch the news, national or local, there is a disturbing percentage of our
fellow Americans doing whatever [...] they want to do with little or no concern for the law. And the law has little
or no concern for itself, at least when it comes to those charged with enforcing it. Across the country, charges are
being dropped against rioters and looters. Why? Many of those people in position to prosecute the guilty have no
interest in doing so. [Indeed], many of them ran on the idea of not prosecuting people. What kind of idiot would vote
for a district attorney who promised to let people get away with more? Well, from San Francisco to St. Louis,
they did just that.
Nonwhite
Minnesota corrections officers blocked from guarding Derek Chauvin: complaint. Eight minority corrections
officers in Minnesota say they were sent to a separate floor of a county jail and barred from guarding fired Minneapolis
police Officer Derek Chauvin after his arrest in the death of George Floyd, according to a report. The minority
officers working in Ramsey County, who have filed a discrimination complaint, also say a supervisor told them they were viewed
as a potential "liability" regarding Chauvin's stay in the jail because of their race, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.
Former
officer warns about civil war when thin blue line breaks: 'America is tearing itself apart because of the radical left'.
Former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Peggy Hubbard warned that America is about to step over the "thin blue line between
chaos and order. The Navy veteran and former police officer came to the defense of law enforcement in an emotional Facebook Live
video shared this week, warning that the nation stands at the edge of coming chaos as officers who have been disrespected continue to
abandon their posts.
14-year-old
guilty of robbery in Tessa Majors case sentenced to 18 months in prison. A 14-year-old who admitted taking part
in a robbery that led to the brutal stabbing death of Barnard College student Tessa Majors was hit with the maximum sentence
of 18 months in custody Monday [6/15/2020]. The 5-foot-5 defendant — nabbed a day after Majors'
murder — admitted participating in the robbery and picking up the murder weapon off the ground shortly before it
was used in the horrifying murder. The sentence handed down by Manhattan Family Court Judge Carol Goldstein was the
maximum possible time the teen could have gotten, according to the city Law Department.
Gov.
Cuomo's New York: 250 Inmates Freed from Prison Rearrested 450 Times. At least 250 convicted and accused
criminals freed from New York's Rikers Island prison have been rearrested 450 times thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D)
jailbreak directive. New York Police Department (NYPD) data reported by NBC New York's Melissa Russo reveals that since
Cuomo issued a statewide order demanding jails and prisons release inmates to abide by social distancing measures in late
March, at least 250 inmates from Rikers Island have been re-arrested.
Rikers
Island Inmates Released Because of COVID Rearrested Hundreds of Times. Hundreds of inmates were released from
Riker's Island in New York City to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the prison. Officials knew the risks.
And those fears have been realized, hundreds of times. New reporting from Melissa Russo reveals that at least 250
prisoners out of the 2,500 who were released early have gone on to commit at least 450 more crimes. "The NYPD is not
happy," Russo said, somewhat understatedly.
Manhattan
judge frees alleged looter busted in bloody attack on NYPD cop. A Manhattan judge set free an alleged looter
charged with bashing a cop's head open with a glass bong swiped amid violent protests sparked by the police killing of George
Floyd, The [New York] Post has learned. The move marked at least the second time that Judge Laurie Peterson has
overruled prosecutors and released a defendant without bail — which in the earlier case allegedly led to a pair of
unprovoked slashings by the psycho who got sprung. "What could she possibly be thinking? Is she living under a
rock? Did she see the looting going on in the city?" said a cop who worked in Manhattan every night of the recent
riots. "I guess they really want to do away with cops and let the criminals run wild."
New
York and California Freed Thousands of Criminals and the Riots Began. New York City released over 2,650
criminals from prison to protect them from the pandemic. But they didn't stay home or wash their hands. They went
back to their old jobs and 100 of them accounted for 190 arrests for crimes like burglary and robbery. A rapist was
released and he went back to raping. One of the freed criminals was responsible for 18 burglaries at closed
eateries. And when he was arrested, the end of bail meant that he was set loose. This looting was going on long
before the riots. Now as the rioters and looters rule the streets of Manhattan, when the police manage to arrest them,
they have to quickly let them go. "When it comes to a burglary, a commercial store, which is looting, they're back
out," Chief Terrence Monahan said. "Because of bail reform, you're back out on the street the next day. You
cannot be held on any sort of bail." Of the 650 thugs arrested, almost all will be released back on the street to
riot and loot again.
Our
under-incarceraton problem, looting edition. During last week's rioting, Chicago police arrested Antonio Harris
for looting. He was stealing shoes from a New Balance store. Who is Antonio Harris? According to Daniel
Horowitz, Harris was convicted of first-degree murder in 1999. Instead of life imprisonment, the sentence he would get
in a well-functioning criminal justice system, he received a 25-year sentence. Instead of serving that sentence, as he
would in a well-functioning criminal justice system, Harris was let out after serving only half of it. Since that
release less than ten years ago, Harris has been sent back to prison for three felony drug convictions, according to
Horowitz. Harris also has a pending felony case of criminal damage to government property. Let that sink
in. Harris, with a 1999 first degree murder conviction and three subsequent felony drug convictions, was on the street
last week.
What
Do They Really Want? [Scroll down] The main job of the police officer, after all, is not to stop crimes
in progress (since there are too few of them to see everything), but to show up after the fact and then sniff out a
suspect. This means everyone who fits a criminal's description in the area will be tracked down, picked up, tied up,
and locked up — and if he refuses, probably beaten up. If he refuses too manfully, possibly killed. In
a country of 330 million people, there are going to be a few dozen murders by cop. But you get rid of this right to
track, and you've gotten rid of the police. You get rid of profiling, and you get rid of the concept of
policing. You get rid of the police, and you get rid of society. And Minneapolis, where the violent crime rate
was already horrible — this year, before the riots, twice the national average, and last year three —
is already too dangerous. Thanks to Black Lives Matter blowing up the police stations, it is about to get worse.
Minnesota
AG Keith Ellison May Have Just Screwed Up Case Against George Floyd Cops. I'm no legal expert, but I wondered
to myself if Keith Ellison hadn't overcharged the cop who killed George Floyd. Now there's someone much smarter than I
who agrees. Andy McCarthy, who writes for National Review, is a former federal prosecutor and has been a trusted guest
on my radio show for the better part of 20 years. He believes Ellison might have just colossally screwed up his case
against the cops. My words, not his. McCarthy called Ellison's amended charges "dangerously flawed."
Overcharging is tantamount to over-promising. It's perceived as overly punitive and less thoughtful in some cases.
Sure, everyone's angry. Sure, Floyd's death appears to be criminal. But you've got to be able to prove what you charge.
Are States Going
To Prosecute Their Rioters? It Depends. Footage of violent riots and rampant looting is coming out of
nearly every major city in the U.S., but states vary wildly in their efforts to prosecute those responsible for the
unrest. While local police have had no issues arresting those engaging in violence, some jurisdictions have declined to
prosecute them. Others, however, such as Texas and Missouri, are taking a far more strict approach and partnering with
the federal government to press charges. Arguably the most relaxed reaction to rioters came out of St. Louis,
Missouri, where local prosecutor Kim Gardner refused to charge nearly 40 people arrested for rioting.
DA
declines to prosecute man arrested in St. Patrick's Cathedral vandalism. Turns out desecration is no
crime in New York City. The Queens man arrested for scarring the landmarked façade of St. Patrick's Cathedral
during a George Floyd protest is now free — because the Manhattan District Attorney's office declined to prosecute
him. Yadir Avila Rosas, 26, was taken into custody at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, an NYPD spokeswoman told The [New York]
Post. Police charged Rosas with criminal mischief in the third degree and making graffiti, alleging that he was the
"getaway driver" for two women who tagged the famous house of worship with spray-painted slogans on May 30. But an
expected Saturday afternoon [6/6/2020] arraignment never happened, at the DA office's discretion.
Famous
bail opponent suddenly wants cash bail back. We've covered any number of stories about New York's disastrous
"bail reform" law and the chain of resulting arrests that would be almost comical were it not for the number of people
victimized through recidivism. [...] As you've no doubt heard, there have been quite a few arrests being made in New York
City over the past week or so, mostly at night as a result of the "unrest" sweeping the city these days. Because of
these laws, nearly all of the people found to have been looting, smashing windows and setting police vehicles ablaze have
been immediately released. As you might imagine, that doesn't provide much of a disincentive for them to go out the
following night and do it all over again, as many have gone on to do. This seems to have finally come to the attention
of the Governor, who now wants judges to start bringing the hammer down and keeping them behind bars while the police
struggle to restore order.
George-Soros-Backed Leftwing Radical Attorney General Kim
Gardner Has Released Every Single Rioter and Looter Arrested in St. Louis. George Soros realized that it
was very expensive and very hard to attempt to support so many leftwing legislators that they could change the law to make
crime, well, not a crime. So he settled on a new strategy. One that worked. He put a huge amount of money
into the campaigns of leftwing, pro-crime prosecutors and attorney generals. He wouldn't bother to get laws changed —
too difficult! No legislator wants to face a campaign ad against him pointing out, accurately, that he voted to decriminalize
crime. No, he'd just bankroll dozens (hundreds?) of leftwing DAs and AGs to ignore the laws entirely, claiming that
prosecutorial discretion gives the absolute power to simply declare that The Law Is No Longer The Law.
Riots,
Brought To You By District Attorneys Who Won't Prosecute. adicalized district attorneys in cities across
America are putting violent rioters and looters back on the streets, and letting other hardened criminals walk. More
than anyone, one man is responsible for this outrage: Billionaire socialist George Soros. St. Louis is a
case in point. There, prosecutor Kim Gardner let 36 people arrested for looting and rioting go scot-free, according to
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gardner's office used the pathetic excuse that it needed "essential evidence" from
the police, implying it had none. One wonders how people caught in flagrante delicto could simply be
released. The answer is, Gardner is a far-left acolyte of Soros, having been the recipient during her 2016 election of
no fewer than three separate donations from a Soros-backed political-action committee.
NYC
Arsonists to Be Instantly Freed from Jail Thanks to 'Bail Reform' Law. Arsonists who set fires in New York
City, New York, during multiple nights of riots will be instantly freed from jail if ever arrested thanks to Gov. Andrew
Cuomo's (D-NY) bail reform law. For many nights now, arsonists have set ablaze New York City Police Department (NYPD)
vehicles, city dumpsters, and rubble on the streets of New York City. Those arrested for arson, if arrests are made,
will spend less than 24 hours in jail.
Nearly
All Rioters Freed from Jail in D.C., Most Avoid Felony Riot Charges. Nearly all rioters have been freed from
jail in Washington, D.C. and most have had felony riot charges dropped against them, and now they are only facing burglary,
destruction of property, and curfew violation charges. Arrest records obtained by WUSA 9 reveal that hundreds of
rioters have been arrested over the last week in riots and looting sprees across the nation's capital.
Over
400 NYC Looters to Be Freed from Jail Thanks to 'Bail Reform' Policy. More than 400 looters arrested in New
York City, New York, riots this week will be immediately freed from jail thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D-NY) "bail
reform" policy that eliminated bail for many nonviolent and violent crimes. As riots rage on in New York
City — and Mayor Bill de Blasio has refused to deploy the U.S. National Guard — hundreds of looters
arrested for burglarizing shops and stores are set to be immediately freed back onto the streets. The New York
Times noted that more than 400 people in New York City have been arrested for looting commercial businesses.
Almost all of them will likely be released from jail immediately after their arraignments in court.
Houston
sees 'unprecedented violence' after bail reform amid pandemic, says police chief. Texas bail reform measures
being implemented in the wake of the coronavirus crisis have led to a spike in crime and some police officials are warning of
the consequences. The police chief of Houston decried the "unprecedented violence" assaulting the city and blamed the
pandemic for new orders that have effectively made it easier for criminals to go free.
The
Continued Attacks On The American People As Convicted Criminals Released Onto The Streets. Whether it is
business owners or those who work, since this entire coronavirus hoax began, it has been the people who have been under
attack. Government remains "essential" while hair salons and general merchandise stores are deemed "non-essential,"
unless you're a national brand. States are releasing convicted criminals others are being pardoned, but in the end,
it's always the people under attack. [Video clip]
Why is THEIR health so important? One
Third Of Jail Inmates Nationwide Set Free in Unprecedented Coronavirus Jailbreak. A new study reveals that
almost a third of county jail inmates have been set free from the facilities during the coronavirus pandemic. The
Prison Policy Initiative study has determined that 32% of inmates at county jails have been set free. [...] Many jails have
released up to half of their inmates, with facilities in Oregon, Arkansas and New Jersey releasing between 57% and 63% of
their jail inmates.
California
governor: Shrink prisons to help cut budget. Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to significantly shrink
the footprint of California's prison system, partly because of massive budget cuts prompted by the pandemic but also because
of philosophy. The revised budget he sent to state lawmakers this week envisions closing two state prisons in the
coming years; cutting nearly one in five of the 43 inmate firefighter camps; and eventually closing all three state-run
juvenile prisons.
Felon
Freed from Jail Over Coronavirus Accused of Murdering Young Woman. A convicted felon who was freed from a
Colorado prison over concerns of the Chinese coronavirus spreading has been arrested less than a month later for allegedly
murdering a 21-year-old woman. Cornelius Haney has been charged for the first-degree murder of Heather Perry, whose
body was found in a Denver, Colorado alleyway, according to CBS Denver.
Pelosi
Coronavirus Plan Orders Felons, Illegal Aliens to Be Freed from Prison. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA)
latest Chinese coronavirus relief package includes a mandate that federal inmates, as well as local convicts and illegal
aliens, be released from jail so long as a court considers them "non-violent" offenders. Pelosi's plan would order the
release of federal prisoners, illegal aliens in federal immigration detention facilities, and local convicts if they are
considered by the courts and judicial officers to not be a threat to the community.
The Editor says...
They have all been proven to be "a threat to the community." That's why they're in prison.
More evidence that the virus is perceived as no big deal: California
inmates tried to infect themselves with coronavirus for freedom. A group of California inmates are accused of
trying to intentionally infect themselves with the coronavirus — thinking they would be set free if they
contracted the contagion, authorities said Monday [5/11/2020]. Prisoners at the North County Correctional Facility in
Castaic were filmed sharing a disposable cup and sniffing a used face mask in order to accomplish their alleged plot,
according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. "Somehow, there was some mistaken belief among the inmate
population that if they tested positive, that there was a way to force our hand and somehow release more inmates out of our
jail environment — and that's not going to happen," Villanueva said at a press briefing.
San
Francisco DA Says His Father, Convicted Murderer And Former Member Of Terrorist Group, Should Get Out Of Prison. San
Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin believes his father, convicted murderer and former Weather Underground member David Gilbert,
should be released from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic. Gilbert and Boudin's mother, Kathy Boudin, were convicted of murder
in 1983 for serving as getaway drivers during a bank robbery that left three people dead at the hands of their co-conspirators.
Authorities:
Cook County Jail Inmate Switched Identities With Another Inmate, Was Released From Jail While Wearing Mask. A
Cook County Jail inmate switched identities with another inmate and was wrongfully released while wearing a face mask this
past weekend, the Sheriff's office said. On Saturday [5/2/2020], Quintin Henderson, 28, was scheduled to be released
from custody on an I-bond for a drug charge, when he gave his identity to another inmate, Jahquez Scott, for a promise of
$1,000, the Sheriff's office said.
Men
Accused of Raping Children Among 830 Inmates Freed in Massachusetts. Two men accused of raping children are
among the nearly 830 Massachusetts inmates that have been freed in the last month over concerns of the Chinese coronavirus
crisis spreading in prison facilities. Convicted child rapist Glenn Christie, 54-years-old, and 29-year-old Matthew
Parris, accused of raping two teenage girls this year, have both been released from Massachusetts prisons after the state's
supreme court has ordered the routine release of hundreds of accused and convicted criminals.
Orange
County DA 'outraged' after commissioner releases 7 dangerous sex offenders due to COVID-19 restrictions. Orange
County, Calif. District Attorney Todd Spitzer stated Saturday [5/2/2020] that he is "outraged" after the state ordered
the release of seven high-risk sex offenders from the county's jails over concerns they could contract coronavirus.
Appearing on "Fox & Friends Weekend" with host Jason Chaffetz, Spitzer said that the issue at hand is not just in Orange
County or California, but "is a ruse that has been pulled on the American public, on jails and custodial facilities all over
the nation."
Why
is the Trump admin allowing judges to illegally release criminal aliens? Attorney General Barr threatened to
file lawsuits against governors overstepping their power to infringe upon civil liberties, yet the only lawsuits that are
succeeding are the ones from illegal aliens. Suddenly, when it comes to those with no right to be in our communities,
the courts are all-powerful and the executives are weak. In fact, the president really has the power to deport illegal
aliens and prevent them from being released into our communities. Late on Thursday [4/30/2020], U.S. District Judge
Marcia G. Cooke in Miami became the latest federal judge to illegally mandate that ICE release "vulnerable" populations in
detention facilities. She charged that ICE acted with "deliberate indifference" and engaged in what amounts to "cruel
and unusual punishment" against illegal aliens by not releasing them during the coronavirus epidemic. Therefore, Cooke
ordered ICE to submit twice-weekly reports on the status of the detainees and who is being released.
Second
sex offender put up for early release, Spokane list includes gang members, others connected to homicides. A KHQ
investigation has identified another convicted sex offender on the list of prisoners up for early release, as the state seeks
to stop the spread of COVID-19 behind bars. The Department of Corrections website indicates that Milo M. McCune was
scheduled to be released yesterday to the community under the commutation program. He qualified for this special,
safety-first leniency because the state considered his last crime to be violent.
Murders
in NYC surge for second week in a row as coronavirus lockdown continues. Despite coronavirus lockdown measures,
murders in New York City have doubled over last years's numbers for the second consecutive week. This week last year,
the city saw five murders to this year's 10 murders, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) reported. The NYPD
regularly publishes statistics through its CompStat portal, comparing current stats with the equivalent period in the
previous year. While some crimes — including felony assault and rape — have declined, murder has
increased, as did burglary and grand larceny auto, according to the department.
Washington
Supreme Court rejects lawsuit seeking additional release of prisoners due to coronavirus threat. The Washington
Supreme Court on Thursday swiftly rejected a lawsuit seeking to force Gov. Jay Inslee to order the release of thousands
of people from Washington prisons to protect them from potential exposure to the coronavirus. In a 5-4 decision, a
court majority found the emergency petition by Columbia Legal Services had not proved the state is failing in its duties to
incarcerated people. The court's order, signed by Chief Justice Debra Stephens, said, "on the record presented, the
Petitioners have not shown the Respondents' actions constitute deliberate indifference to the COVID-19 risk at the Department
of Corrections facilities..."
Serial
Burglary Suspect Free Without Bail Despite Alleged Crime Sprees. A serial burglary suspect with a long criminal
history is free without bail despite allegedly being involved in a recent string of burglaries in Fremont, Milpitas, San
Jose, Santa Clara and Palo Alto, Fremont police said. Kristopher Sylvester, 34, of Fremont, was arrested by Fremont
detectives on April 2 for allegedly committing multiple commercial burglaries, possessing a loaded firearm, evading police
and violating his probation, according to police.
Early
inmate release a 'kick in the gut' for Chehalis burglary victim. The burglary was more than two years ago, but
it still hurts Keith Heldreth. [...] Heldreth's trailer was stolen out of the front yard of his Chehalis home in December
2017. He said there were more than $100,000 worth of collectibles, tools and memorabilia stored in the trailer. One of
the men convicted of the burglary, Shane Poeschl, is on the state's list of inmates who will likely be released early to
create more room in prisons because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Why
is coronavirus being used as excuse to release illegal aliens instead of send them back? Federal judges and
liberal governors had a brilliant idea the minute the coronavirus outbreak became apparent: In addition to releasing
our own criminals, why not release other countries' criminals? Thanks to the ruling of a federal judge who is not even
in New Jersey, ICE released 700 criminal aliens from New Jersey. This is happening throughout the country. As
citizen rights are being infringed upon without due process, it seems like illegal aliens are the only ones with access to
the courts. Now, a single California judge, Jesus Bernal, is ordering ICE to release all illegal aliens at high risk
and all those over 55. [...] Let's not forget that most aliens can voluntarily depart without proceedings under
INA §240B. We are not trying to hold them. They are the ones demanding to stay.
50
Freed Coronavirus Inmates Carried Out Crime Spree. Pro-crime policies work. Enact them and you get more
crime. As I discuss in today's article, thugs killed more people in Chicago than the coronavirus. Freeing thugs
as a response to the coronavirus makes as much sense as setting your house on fire to stop flooding in your kitchen. [...]
The coronavirus jailbreak that freed criminals under the guise of protecting them from the pandemic has endangered everyone's
lives. [...] Mayor Bill de Blasio's priority is putting as many criminals back on the street as he can.
California
sheriff outraged that child abuse suspect could be freed due to coronavirus. San Bernadino County Sheriff John
McMahon said California's decision to free inmates in the name of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) will endanger the public
by recycling felons back into society. In a Tuesday [4/21/2020] interview with Fox 11, McMahon claimed repeat child
abusers are able to benefit from the state's new $0 cash bail emergency mandate and will be released back into
circulation. There are 13 exceptions for serious offenses, but child abuse is not one of them. "Felony child
abuse does not fit into that list of 13, so even though this guy had a prior for domestic violence conviction for child
abuse, he gets arrested for child abuse again, and then he gets released on zero bail with a court date in July," he said.
Some
inmates receiving coronavirus stimulus payments, watchdog warns. Some inmates are receiving the $1,200
coronavirus economic stimulus payments that are part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, according to a government
watchdog. "We have no doubt that inmates are receiving checks for the same reason dead people are receiving checks,"
Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, told Just the News. "The IRS is relying on 2018 or 2019 tax
returns, and does not know whether the taxpayer is deceased, incarcerated, or divorced, all of which, among other factors,
would impact their eligibility to receive stimulus checks today," he also said.
De
Blasio Learns Released Inmates Committed New Crimes. Somehow He Is Surprised By This. After learning that
inmates released from Rikers Island because of the coronavirus were committing new crimes, groundhog murderer Bill de Blasio
lamented dolefully that the criminals' actions were "unconscionable." De Blasio mourned during his morning briefing, "I think
it's unconscionable just on a human level that folks were shown mercy and this is what some of them have done." De Blasio
protested that few released criminals had committed new crimes, saying, "We do see some recidivism. I have not seen a
huge amount, but any amount is obviously troubling. We're going to just keep buckling down on it, making sure there's
close monitoring and supervision to the maximum step possible. And the NYPD is going to keep doing what they're doing."
Cops
enforcing Florida beach restrictions nab Pennsylvania murder suspect violating lounging rule. Florida police
patrolling beaches just days after they partially reopened nabbed more than a violator of coronavirus restrictions.
Jacksonville police came across a man suspected of homicide hundreds of miles away and ended up arresting him on Sunday
[4/19/2020], as hundreds of people had flooded beaches again after the closures were partially lifted.
Dallas Starts
Emptying Jails Because Wuhan Virus. As people are imprisoned with excessive bail for throwing a party or
dragged off in handcuffs for exercising constitutional rights, authorities continue to let real criminals run loose.
Spitting
criminals are NYPD's new scourge amid coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus has given criminals a new deadly
weapon: saliva. Spit-slinging sickos are declaring they are infected with COVID-19 and spraying their targets with
sneezes, coughs or sputum. "[...], now you have coronavirus," Jason Mason, 28, told four NYPD officers last Wednesday [4/15/2020]
as he spit on them from inside a holding cell, police said. Cops said he was collared after being caught with a knife in a
suspected drug deal.
Over
16K US inmates have been released as coronavirus crisis has progressed. As of Thursday [4/17/2020], there have
been more than 16,000 inmates released from prisons all over the United States due to the novel coronavirus. A total of
approximately 16,622 inmates have been released — or are scheduled to be released shortly — due to the
COVID-19 outbreak. The majority were being held on non-violent charges or were deemed to pose no immediate threat to
society if released. With very few exceptions, jail inmates have yet to be convicted. They are usually awaiting
trial. Prison inmates, on the other hand, have already been convicted and sentenced.
Inslee
plan to release hundreds of prison inmates leaves questions, draws criticisms from all sides. Gov. Jay
Inslee's announcement of a plan to release hundreds of inmates from Washington prisons has left unanswered questions, with
officials unable to share a detailed plan on Tuesday for who will be freed and exactly how the changes will protect inmates
left in state lockups. Inslee and state Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Steven Sinclair on Monday announced
they would release as many as 950 inmates to free up room in Washington's 12 correctional facilities as a way to help protect
vulnerable inmates from contracting the coronavirus.
Florida
inmate freed because of coronavirus outbreak, accused of murdering someone the next day. An inmate freed from
the Hillsborough County Jail in Tampa to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is back behind bars after allegedly murdering
a man the day after his release, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said late Tuesday [4/14/2020]. Joseph Edwards
Williams, 26, was sprung from jail along with 163 detainees said to be low-level offenders on March 19, according to records
from the Sheriff's Office. Mr. Williams had been arrested on March 13 for possession of heroin and possession of
drug paraphernalia.
LA
County Sheriff Frees Thousands More Prisoners. Law enforcement leaders across the U.S. have used the COVID-19
crisis to free prisoners that they ardently wanted to free anyway. Even as the worst of the plague has passed over the
land, elected leaders are still freeing crooks from the jails. This isn't as a favor to the rest of us, it's in service
to the elected leaders' social justice friends and personal (or George Soros's) political agendas. This brings us to
hapless LA Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, who announced on Monday [4/13/2020] that LA County's jail population is lighter by 25%
thanks to him!
Some Violent Crime
Is On The Rise As Coronavirus Engulfs America. As most of the U.S. is shut down over the coronavirus pandemic,
some violent crime rates continue to rise. While the virus has slowed overall crime in some major cities, certain types
of violence has increased. Just days after the White House released its strict coronavirus guidelines, domestic
violence rates surged across the country. The Seattle Police Department reported a 23% increase, while a domestic
violence hotline in Nashville reported a 55% increase in calls over the first few weeks of March. Those numbers have
only continued to surge as the U.S. and other parts of the world have been put under a quasi-form of indefinite house arrest.
Convict
let out on coronavirus concerns arrested for assault and robbery. The nation's thugs rejoiced when the
coronavirus plague hit the U.S., giving anti-incarceration social justice warriors just the push they needed to find a reason
to let them out of their prisons. Lefty city and state leaders ensured it happened, and predictable as sunrise, the
released thugs went back to doing what got them incarcerated in the first place. [...] Only to a leftist would any of this
make sense. [...] It's a textbook example of social justice warrior leftists taking the coronavirus crisis and using it to
advance their long-held agendas.
George
Soros-Funded Group to Governors: Release as Many Prisoners as Possible Due to Coronavirus. The Brennan
Center for Justice, which is heavily financed by George Soros, has submitted a letter to the governors of all fifty states
urging them to use executive action to "release as many people as possible from incarceration" due to coronavirus fears
"provided they do not pose serious public safety threats." The letter cited concern that the U.S. prison population could
face greater risk of illness and death than the general public due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Closing Churches, Opening Jails.
Thousands of prisoners have been released from jails since the coronavirus crisis hit. "In Los Angeles County, Sheriff
Alex Villanueva has embarked on what appears to be the largest U.S. effort to release inmates, freeing 1,700 people this month,
or about 10 percent of the population of one of the nation's largest jail systems," reports the New York Times.
The New York Post has reported on the case of a child rapist who was released to protect him from the coronavirus: [...]
This appears to be happening throughout the world, with countries such as Great Britain announcing large releases of
prisoners. One would have thought the safety of the community trumps a prisoner's right to be free of exposure to
sickness in jail. But, no, we're told that opening up prisons is sound public policy. Meanwhile, in keeping with
our pagan times, as prisoners leave jail, some pastors enter it. In Tampa, pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested for
violating public health orders after holding Sunday services. In Baton Rouge, pastor Tony Spell was arrested for not
observing a ban against large gatherings.
Federal
judges reject California mass prisoner release. Federal judges on Saturday refused on procedural grounds to
order California to free thousands of prisoners to ease crowded conditions that attorneys representing inmates likened to a
"tinderbox" ready to ignite with the rapid spread of the coronavirus. But the three judges invited inmates' attorneys
to file a new motion with either or both of two individual judges who oversee major class action lawsuits over inmate medical
and mental health care.
In
What Sense Do You Think We Are Free? [Scroll down] Ostensibly to "socially distance" inmates from
infected jail cells, Los Angeles' Sheriff Alex Villanueva "is freeing prisoners from Los Angeles County jails and curbing
arrests for more law-breakers." Apparently, Villanueva and Co. have "cut their arrests by 80 percent." Four-in-five
potential not criminals going to jails in Los Angeles is a real problem, because that unquestionably means more criminals on
the streets free to commit crimes. And police around the country seem to have their hands full enforcing "social
distancing" guidelines, arresting pastors and whatnot. But Americans have Second Amendment rights, and can protect
themselves, right? Well, in Los Angeles, gun shops were, just days ago, being forced to close their doors, clearly
infringing upon the rights of law-abiding Americans who would "keep and bear arms" in order to protect themselves from the
criminals their government has been releasing into the public.
Child
rapist ordered released to keep him safe from coronavirus. A Massachusetts man convicted of repeatedly raping a
12-year-old boy was ordered released from jail Friday — because he suffers from health conditions that can make
him vulnerable to coronavirus, according to new reports. Glenn Christie, 54, who uses a wheelchair, was ordered
released from the Massachusetts Treatment Center by Superior Court Judge Heidi Brieger, WBUR reported. One of the
conditions is that Christie tests negative for COVID-19, the station reported. Christie was convicted of child rape and
indecent assault on a child under 14 and was being held for violating his probation conditions, according to the report.
Philadelphia's Only Surging
Industry. Last week, Philadelphia's police department reported that criminal activity in the first three months
of this year increased by double-digit percentages when compared with the same period in 2019 — the most violent
year since 2007. So far in 2020, property and violent crimes have spiked by 16 percent and 11 percent,
respectively, with the largest increases in retail theft — which skyrocketed 59 percent, after district attorney
Larry Krasner announced that his office wouldn't prosecute that crime — and other serious violent offenses, such
as aggravated assault, up by 20 percent. Though the Philadelphia Inquirer has tried to downplay the spike
in crime, statistics show that, even as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolds, crime has increased overall, despite a slight dip
during the city's first full week of shutdowns.
California
to release 3,500 inmates early as coronavirus spreads inside prisons. California is granting early release to
3,500 inmates in an effort to reduce crowding as coronavirus infections begin spreading through the state prison system.
Lawyers for Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday told a panel of federal judges the state is taking "extraordinary and unprecedented
protective measures" to slow the spread of the virus and protect those who live and work within California's 35 prisons.
The accelerated parole policy — affecting inmates due to be released over the next 60 days — comes
in the face of pressure to do much more.
NYC
judge frees alleged murderer out of concern he'll catch coronavirus. A Manhattan judge on Thursday [3/26/2020]
ordered the release of a career criminal charged with stabbing his girlfriend to death out of concern he could contract
coronavirus at Rikers, the [New York] Post has learned. State Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer freed Pedro
Vinent-Barcia, 63, and 15 other inmates after the Legal Aid Society filed a petition arguing that their detention exposed
them to serious medical harm in the midst of a pandemic sweeping through city jails. Prosecutors objected, citing the
brutality of the crime and the defendant's criminal record.
NYC
to release more than 1,000 prison inmates due to coronavirus concerns. New York City will release more than
1,000 prison inmates due to coronavirus concerns, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday [3/24/2020]. According to the New
York Post, approximately 300 prisoners in the Rikers Island prison complex and other city facilities will be released this
week to limit the spread of COVID-19 through NYC's jail system. De Blasio said inmates chosen are serving less than a
year in prison for misdemeanors or non-violent felonies.
And how is that idea working out? Anarchy
mixed with tyranny: Jailbreaker criminal terrorizes woman in her home. Utah, like nearly every state with
Democrat or liberal Republican leadership, has released some criminals from prison, supposedly under the guise of avoiding
spread of the virus in prison. What they are really doing is spreading the disease of crime into our communities.
Joshua Haskell, 42, of American Fork, Utah is someone deemed by the liberal politicians as a "nonviolent, low-level"
offender. He was released on March 17 from a halfway house, pursuant to an incomprehensible order to release low-level
offenders into the community during the coronavirus epidemic. Just two days later, he was arrested in the home of a
woman after he allegedly attacked the homeowner with a knife in her bed. According to the charging documents, as
reported by the Deseret News, the woman awoke to find Haskell standing over her bed.
Pedophile
Who Sexually Abused 9 Boys Murdered in Georgia Prison. A child molester who was serving a life sentence after
he had sexually abused nine boys was brutally murdered during a fight. Last Friday [3/20/2020], Cesar Pastrana, 33, had
served eight years out of his life sentence before he was killed during a fight at Hancock County Jail, Georgia.
Georgia Department of Corrections have signaled that they are treating the death as a homicide, but have not released how the
inmate was killed, the name of his suspected killer, or whether it was in connection with his crime.
NJ
Releases up to 1,000 Prisoners From Jail, Threatens Residents For Disobeying Lockdown Orders. Democrats hate
ordinary citizens, and it is during times like now, where it becomes really apparent. In New Jersey the state's Chief
Justice, Stuart Rabner, has ordered up to 1,000 prisoners in the state be released due to the threat posed by the
coronavirus. The Chief Justice released two classes of prisoners, those imprisoned for low level crimes and those in
prison for probation violations.
Philadelphia
goes lawless. Officially, this time. Restaurants are closing. Toilet paper is flying off the
shelves. Arrests are being put on hold. Is there an end to the madness the coronavirus has inflicted on our
nation? In Philadelphia, crimes are no longer being treated as crimes as law enforcement has been instructed to stop
making arrests. No, seriously. A decree has been sent down from ironically named Police Commissioner Danielle
Outlaw for police to stop arresting people who commit "non-violent" crimes. They are instead to hold suspects in their
cars and issue warrants for future arrest, assuming law enforcement can find them later. Drug dealers, car thieves, and
prostitutes will now be essentially ticketed with an order to appear in court for arrest at a later date, though that is not
necessarily described in the warrant they receive. Instead, they will be found when the Commissioner decrees it is okay
to book people at the police station again.
'A Storm
Is Coming': Fears of an Inmate Epidemic as the Virus Spreads in the Jails. It started with a jails investigator
in an office three miles from Rikers Island. Then, a correction officer at a security checkpoint near the entrance to
the jail complex got it. Hours later, it was an inmate in a crowded housing unit. Within days, the investigator
had died and three more correction officers and two other staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus, confirming
fears that the highly contagious disease had arrived in the nation's second-largest jail system, endangering 5,300 inmates
and twice as many guards.On Thursday, the jail system's chief physician, Ross MacDonald, took to Twitter with a
warning: "A storm is coming."
Philadelphia
Braces for Looting as Police Suspend Arrests for Non-Violent Crimes. A controversial suspension of non-violent
arrests has Philadelphia businesses on edge and fortifying against potential looters. Philadelphia Police Commissioner
Danielle Outlaw announced the suspension of all arrests for certain non-violent crimes Wednesday, according to WTXF-TV.
According to documents acquired by law enforcement journalist Rob O'Donnell, the move suspends arrests for narcotics
offenses, theft, burglary, stolen vehicles, fraud and prostitution.
Philadelphia's
progressive DA has declared war — on cops, law and order. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry
Krasner is a direct threat to the public safety of the City of Brotherly Love. Philly PD Cpl. James O'Connor,
shot and killed in the line of duty Friday, didn't have to die. If not for Krasner treating violent and dangerous
criminals with kid gloves, O'Connor would be alive today. O'Connor's alleged killer, Hassan Elliot, should never have
been on the streets. He was cut loose and slapped on the wrist by Krasner's office time and again. Every time
Elliot was arrested for serious felonies, Krasner's indifference and ideology prevented the government from doing its duty to
protect the public. Elliot's 2017 illegal firearms possession case was settled almost immediately for time served when
Krasner took office in 2018. Krasner's predecessor detained Elliot, but Krasner released him the next day. A year
later, he was caught with large amounts of cocaine packaged for distribution. That was a violation of his supervision
requirements. Krasner released Elliot, scheduling his trial. That same day (March 1, 2019) Elliot killed someone.
Ohio
Jail Releases Hundreds To Protect Them from Coronavirus Despite No Known Cases. Do you know what we need during
a national emergency? More alleged criminals out on the streets. This is apparently the lesson we're supposed to
take away from officials in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the jurisdiction in which the city of Cleveland is located. Ohio's
second-most populous county has decided to release hundreds of inmates from the Cuyahoga County jail over COVID-19
fears. Here's the thing — not a single person in the jail was known to be infected.
You
Can't Get Hand Sanitizer Because Of Government Regulations. After the Wuhan Flu hit America, the Democrats
decided that America should be more like China. New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo, who got his job the same way as many
totalitarian leaders, by being the son of the guy who used to have the job, led the way to the People's Republic of America.
[...] "We are introducing New York State Clean hand sanitizer, made conveniently by the state of New York. This is a
superior product to products now on the market," Governor Cuomo declared. [...] The specific part of the state making NYS
Clean is the Great Meadow Correctional Facility: a maximum-security prison which Cuomo had visited two years ago to address
the constant violence in the prison. [...] Corcraft, also known as the Bureau of Corrections, was already making hand
sanitizer at $68 bucks for a five-gallon pail. There's a nice profit margin there considering that prison workers are
being paid between 16 cents to $1.30 an hour.
Update: Cuomo's
New York branded hand-sanitizer isn't being made by inmates after all. Earlier this month, Governor Andrew
Cuomo announced that New York would be producing its own hand-sanitizer called "NYS Clean." He explained that the new
hand-sanitizer would be "made" by Corcraft which is the name for New York's prison industries. But according to a
report published today by Vice, prison inmates aren't "making" the sanitizer so much as putting the stuff, which is made
elsewhere, into jugs and bottles.
Philadelphia
Police Will Not Arrest for Burglary or Theft Due to Coronavirus. As an outcome of short-sighted coronavirus
issues, the Philadelphia police department has announced they will no longer be arresting suspects for retail theft, auto
theft, burglary, narcotics or other "non violent" offenses. Instead they will write tickets, release the suspects and
address the criminality later on. Now watch what happens. CTH saw the instructions earlier today [3/17/2020] but
we did not want to immediately distribute the information. It should be remembered the current Philadelphia police
commissioner, Danielle Outlaw (pictured left), is a social justice activist from Portland, Oregon. Unfortunately,
there is a predictive element to this. Perhaps some are familiar with the post Hurricane Andrew experience in Homestead
and Miami-Dade. The only thing standing between law-abiding citizens and those who would take their possessions is an
ability to defend your own property. This is now the Philadelphia reality.
5
Big Government, America-Destroying Schemes Democrats are Proposing During COVID-19 Crisis. Here are just five,
America-destroying proposals that we would never seriously consider but are now floated as serious policy proposals during
this crisis. [...] [#4] Empty Prisons: Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley told MSNBC's Al Sharpton that she was
advocating for a blanket commutation of sentences to release prisoners from incarceration in light of the COVID-19
dilemma. "This pandemic, COVID-19, has certainly highlighted and exasperated every socio, ratio, and political fault
line in our country. And I'm just advocating to make sure that when we are talking about those that are most
vulnerable, our low-income residents and citizens, those experiencing homelessness, our seniors, that we are also including
the incarcerated men and women, who are certainly amongst one of the most vulnerable populations.
Major
crimes in NYC unexpectedly surge after bail reform law. We recently looked at some new proposals for
fixing New York's disastrous new "bail reform" law or at least mitigating some of the damage it's causing. They may
want to get off the stick and start looking at those suggestions in a hurry because a newly released report shows that major
crimes in New York City took a very sharp turn upward in February as compared to the same period of time last year. And
the police have the data to show that the bail reform policies are playing a significant role in this very bad development.
Here's
What's Happened in NYC Since the State Ended Cash Bail on January 1. During a press conference on Thursday, the
New York Police Department reported that "major crime is up 22.5% this February over a year ago." And they "attribute the
spike to the bail reform pushed through the state Legislature in Albany last year, which is releasing people who have been
arrested for one crime to go out and commit another." [...] Even de Blasio admits it. He said, "There's a direct
correlation to a change in the law, and we need to address it, and we will address it." He added that he was "absolutely
confident it would be addressed in Albany in the budget due April 1."
NY Major
Crime Soars. Police Blame Bail Reform. Major crimes soared in February in New York City, and New York
Police Department (NYPD) officials blame one change that was implemented for the uptick: bail reform. The NYPD stated
in a press release, "Criminal justice reforms serve as a significant reason New York City has seen this uptick in crime."
According to the NYPD, compared to February 2019, major crimes grew 22.5%; in addition, the city suffered a 7.1% increase in
shootings. The city also saw a rise in robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny, according to Fox
News. The only piece of good news was that murder plunged 20%.
MPD
whistleblower details alleged crime underreporting in the first interview. A whistleblower from the D.C. Police
Department is talking openly about the crime underreporting she says she's witnessed inside the Metropolitan Police
Department. "I was surprised," said MPD Sergeant Charlotte Djossou. "I didn't want to believe it." Djossou, a
15-year MPD veteran previously honored for her service by Police Chief Peter Newsham, is going public with stunning
allegations about what she says is going on in her own department. [...] She claims D.C. police supervisors are ordering
investigators to downgrade crime classifications form more serious crimes to less serious ones to make the city's crime stats
look better.
The Editor says...
In other words, the streets are even more dangerous than you think they are.
Legalizing Ecoterrorism
on the Left Coast. Law & order break down where liberals rule. San Francisco is an obvious example.
Portland is another: ["]Five climate radicals arrested for sabotaging train tracks used by Zenith Energy to transport
crude oil are free today because Portland, Ore., jurors just couldn't bring themselves to convict the earth's saviors.
The five jurors believed the defendants' 'climate necessity defense,' which argues you can break the law if you're saving the
planet.["]
Black-on-Jewish
attacks in NY, black-on-Asian attacks in SF: Same progressive rule. [Scroll down] The second thing we see is that
this person has no fear of the police, no fear of the feds, and no fear of punishment, no matter what he does. That's the work of
leftist politics that in San Francisco now requires a dollar value of $951 in thievery before any police action can take place.
Thieves know they get the first $950 free in that city. Cash bail has been eliminated, and San Francisco's district attorney has
a pinned tweet praising Bernie Sanders for praising that. That crazed leftist "serving" as district attorney, one Chesa Boudin,
is the son of a terrorist killer, raised by Bill Ayers, last seen "serving" as Hugo Chávez's translator, whose big selling point
is "decarceration," and ending "mass incarceration," and who refuses to prosecute quality-of-life crimes such as public urination.
The cops in that city are throwing up their hands at having this creep at the prosecutorial helm, effectively making all street crimes
get-out-of-jail-free cards.
Is It Illegal
To Encourage Unlawful Behavior? If you tell someone to violate the law, is that a punishable crime?
Simply put, that case comes before the Supreme Court on Feb. 25. Justices will consider whether to uphold the conviction
of a woman whose crime was advising immigrants to break the law. Will the justices rule that the First Amendment forbids
making this a crime, or try to avoid that question altogether?
Jamming in Jail.
Illegal cell phones are smuggled into America's prisons by the thousands each year through a variety of means including
drones, incoming vehicles, and facility staff. Due to the growing illegal market for the phones, individuals are paid
an average of $50 to $1,000 to smuggle the contraband into state facilities. Phones go for even higher rates if the
risks and security protocols at the facility are higher. Oklahoma has experienced numerous challenges and risks that
contraband has inflicted on its prison system. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, 52,039 contraband
cell phones have been confiscated in the state's correctional facilities since 2011. Once inside prison walls, the
phones are used to conduct criminal activities ranging from cash transfers for drugs and extortion, to ordering violence
against individuals outside of prison. Prison staff are even subject to threats or violence outside of prisons by
disgruntled inmates. Most recently Oklahoma experienced a statewide correctional facility lockdown from gangs ordering
coordinated riots using contraband cell phones across the prison system.
Family
of Spring Valley library stabbing victim demands answers. The family of a security guard who was fatally
stabbed on the job at a Spring Valley library is demanding answers. Just months before Blanchard Glaudin, 25, was
charged with stabbing Sandra Wilson at the Finklestein Library, a judge had allowed his release without bail after an alleged
attempted rape in November. Wilson's brother, Marvin Hayward, believes his sister would still be alive had it not been
for Glaudin's release.
Convict
Who Thanked New York Democrats for Abolishing Bail Arrested for 140th Time. A convicted felon who thanked New
York Democrats this week for eliminating bail for a series of crimes deemed "non-violent" was arrested for the 140th time,
just days after he was released from New York City Police Department (NYPD) custody. Career criminal Charles Barry,
56-years-old, was arrested Tuesday evening by NYPD for allegedly scamming a Belgian tourist on the New York City subway,
provoking his 140th arrest, as the New York Daily News noted.
Witness
Murdered After NY Governor Andrew Cuomo's Jailbreak Law Revealed His Identity in MS-13 Trial. New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo has pilfered the people of New York of their hard earned money, attacked their freedoms and now, due to his
flagrant disregard for human life, a man has been murdered due laws that forced his identity to be revealed in a criminal
case involving MS-13 gang members. Wilmer Maldonado Rodriguez, 36, was to testify against members of the MS-13 gang who
were alleged to have beaten and stabbed him in October 2018.
Top
NYPD cop warns officers not to wear their uniforms in public and to hide department logos for their own safety.
A top NYPD official has warned officers not to wear their police uniforms or department logos in public following
back-to-back assassination attempts on cops in the Bronx. Hazel Jennings, chief of the Department of Corrections,
issued a memo on Sunday night essentially urging officers to hide their police affiliation to avoid being targeted. The
memo came after a career criminal carried out two separate attacks on officers in the Bronx in the span of just 12 hours,
leaving two officers injured.
De
Blasio admits NYC crime jump is linked to bail reform. Mayor Bill de Blasio linked a recent crime surge in the
Big Apple to the state's controversial overhaul of bail laws Friday, after spending a week dancing around the matter.
"We had, for six years, steady decreases in crime across the board. There's not a whole lot of other environmental
things that have changed recently," Hizzoner told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on new CompStat data that shows crime has soared since
the new laws took effect at the start of 2020. "It sort of stands out like a sore thumb that this is the single biggest new
thing in the equation and we saw an extraordinary jump." "Of course there's always a possibility this is plain
statistical variation, that happens sometimes," he added. "But I think it's pretty clear that there's only one new
major piece in the equation."
Shoplifter
hijacks Uber for wild getaway while also wearing ankle bracelet. A Long Island man hijacked an Uber to use as
his getaway car — apparently forgetting that he was still wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet from his last
bust, leading cops straight to him, police said Friday [2/7/2020].
Crime Is on the
Rise in New York City. Major crimes jumped in New York City in January, new data from the NYPD show, bucking
the trend of decades of declining crime. Compared with January 2019, the Big Apple saw increases in robbery, assault,
burglary, and larceny in the first month of 2020. The new statistics also confirm an increase in crime on the city's subways,
a longtime hot spot for violence that was thought to have cooled in the past two decades. The new figures come as the city
and state struggle with a controversial new bail reform law, which mandates the release of most nonviolent offenders before
trial. The uptick in crime will likely add fuel to the fire for opponents eager to see Albany modify the law or
scrap it altogether.
Grocery
Chain Begs Forgiveness for Not Liking Shoplifting. Once, rights were meaningful. People insisted on
fundamental rights such as free speech and self-defense. But then liberals perverted the word "right," just as they
perverted the word "liberal." Now we are told that we have a "right" for other people to be forced to provide us with
what we want for free. For example, thanks to the predominance of feminism, someone else being made to pay for a woman's
tampons is becoming a right. The right to free tampons has not yet been implemented by Big Government. No matter;
for now, people can just help themselves in stores. Stores that object are bullied into backing down.
UK
Supermarket Forced to Apologize For Asking People Not to Steal Female Menstrual Products. A UK supermarket was
forced to apologize for asking people not to steal female menstrual products, because shoplifting is apparently 'woke'
now. Yes, really. It all started with a tweet which received nearly 15,000 likes. "We really need a genuine
conversation as a society about what 'safety' means," commented Oonagh Ryder alongside an image of sanitary products on a
shelf behind a sign which read "Help us build safer communities — report shoplifting to a member of staff."
[Photo] Respondents to the tweet asserted their human right to steal tampons and sanitary towels.
High-Ranking
Judge Says New Bail Rules a 'Significant Threat to Public Safety' in NYC. A high-ranking judge in New York City
said the state's recent guidelines regarding bail represents a "significant threat to public safety" in the five boroughs and
beyond. "It is my opinion that without significant changes, the current legislation will not only be a missed
opportunity for long-overdue criminal justice reform, but also a significant threat to public safety," Bronx Criminal Court
Supervising Judge George Grasso said. "We already are seeing serious spikes in violent crime throughout New York City
in 2020." "I am now in the criminal justice system for over 40 years — 30-plus NYPD and 30-plus
judge — and I am very concerned," he said during a speech in Queens, NY.
America's Quiet Policing Crisis.
Across the United States, from cities to rural counties, police departments are confronting a recruitment crisis.
"Going back to 2010, we had about 4,700 online applications. That dropped down to about 1,900 last year," said Steve
Anderson, chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, in a Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) report last
year. Seattle's police department reported a 40 percent to 50 percent drop in applications, while Jefferson County,
Colorado's applications plummeted 70 percent. In total, 86 percent of police chiefs nationwide reported a shortage of
sworn officers, with nearly half stating that the shortage had worsened over the past five years. Currently, about 18,000
police departments in the U.S. are responsible for protecting over 300 million Americans. But there just aren't enough
cops to go around. This little-noticed staffing crisis could intensify over the next decade, especially as a glut of
cops hired in the 1990s ages into retirement.
FBI:
Violent crime is up and arrests are down. Here's your criminal justice "reform". Across the country,
we're seeing an increase in the amount of crimes being committed, but are seeing fewer arrests. Some say it's a push
for criminal justice reform. Others say it's because of the growing divide between police officers and the
public. Whatever the case, here are the facts. Per new FBI data, the vast majority of reported crimes do not end
in arrest (chart below). Less than two out of five reported crimes end in an arrest. Arrests are declining.
Falling arrests have real implications for citizen satisfaction, fear of crime and a sense of justice. Concurrently,
there are those who believe that fewer arrests are in society's best interest.
Sanctuary
recidivism rate at 25% in California's Orange County. Orange County in California is seeing a recidivism rate
of more than 25% for illegal immigrants it has released under the state's sanctuary law, according to new data the sheriff's
department released and ICE highlighted this week. Migrants who were released then rearrested for new crimes had
charges of rape, domestic violence, DUI and child sex offenses. In 2019, Orange County said it got requests from U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to turn over 1,507 inmates. It did release 492 of them to ICE after they'd
completed their sentences, but 1,105 were put back on the streets under the terms of the state's sanctuary law, known as SB54.
'McMillions':
How ex-cop orchestrated $24 million McDonald's Monopoly scam. In 1987, McDonald's launched an ingenious
sweepstakes based on the game of Monopoly. Customers would purchase sandwiches, fries, drinks, etc., that included
peel-off game pieces on the packaging — potentially rewarding them with anything from a Filet-O-Fish to a new car
to $1 million. People went wild for it and business spiked by 40 percent for the fast-food giant, who kept it up
for years. But it wasn't all happy meals. "It seemed like an opportunity for ordinary people to get ahead, but there
were consequences," said Brian Lazarte, co-director of the HBO docu-series "McMillion$," premiering Monday, about the
contest. In fact, some 50 people would be convicted for cheating.
Antifa
plans massive anti-cop action in NY subways, push for free transit, ending police presence. Police in New York
are increasing their presence in subways Friday after members of the far-left Antifa movement called for a mass protest
against law enforcement and transit fares. The Police Benevolent Association of New York City issued a strong warning
ahead of Friday's Antifa demonstration, urging New Yorkers to "pay close attention." "This is [the] true endgame of
the anti-police movement, an end of all policing & destruction of public order," the group said in a tweet. "Our
members have spent their careers — and in some cases given their lives — to bring public safety
back to NYC. We can't go backwards."
Report
indicates child sex offender does not meet criteria for a predator after transitioning to woman. Iowa officials
will release a biological man who molested up to 15 children and obtained a sex change after a preliminary report indicated
the sex offender is not a threat. The Iowa attorney general's office filed a Jan. 9 motion announcing that it will no
longer recommend that 23-year-old Joseph Matthew Smith, who now identifies as a woman, be institutionalized in the Cherokee
Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO), the Storm Lake Times reported in January.
Transgender
woman arrested for aggravated assault against public official is jailed — with male inmates. A
biological male who identifies as a woman was arrested on a first-degree felony charge of aggravated assault against a public
servant after 12-hour standoff with police in Harker Heights, Texas, and was booked Monday into the Bell County
Jail — with male inmates, despite the suspect's transgender status, the Killeen Daily Journal reported.
"Inmates are processed based on their actual sex at the time they arrive here and not what they say they want to be," Chuck
Cox, chief deputy of the Bell County Sheriff's Office, told the paper. "It is our policy to keep all inmates safe
regardless of who they are."
Fatal
DWI suspect bragged about bail reform: 'I'll be out tomorrow'. A Long Island man arrested after a fatal drunken
wreck Jan. 12 bragged to cops, "The laws changed, I'll be out tomorrow," thanks to new bail reform measures, prosecutors said
Thursday [1/30/2020]. Jordan Randolph, 40, who did walk free the next day, also told cops the deadly crash was "just a DWI."
Details of the boozy bust were revealed Thursday as Randolph was hit with a 24-count indictment for vehicular manslaughter, aggravated
vehicular homicide and a slew of other charges in the crash that killed 27-year-old Jonathan Flores-Maldonado.
New
York City Politicians: Fixing What Isn't Broken. [Scroll down] The War on Police and the soft on
crime, hug a thug mentality, has returned and destroyed the safety and order of the city. Criminals have morphed into
victims, where Mets Baseball tickets are given out for promises to appear in court. Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio and his
band of cowards offer hugs and kisses for criminal conduct. Who comes up with this idiocy except liberals? Mayhem
has returned. Murders, and robberies are increasing, and the message is clear to crime victims: you don't matter.
Politics does. The current climate in New York City is dire. Yet rather than protect the law-abiding citizens,
the misguided liberal politicians doubled down with another pro-criminal policy that no longer requires bail for people
arrested. This will fully unleash the criminal element on law-abiding New Yorkers. It won't be long before it
begins to have an impact on Manhattan tourism. The results in the first month of this insane policy are apparent.
A sharp rise in crime so far in 2020 has predictably occurred.
About
90 percent of all jaywalking tickets issued to black and Latino pedestrians in NYC. New Yorkers are known for
darting into traffic without heeding crosswalks and traffic lights. It's a habit that's largely ignored by law
enforcement, but the NYPD can and does hand out hundreds of summonses for jaywalking each year. Last year, about
90 percent of all tickets were issued to black and Latino pedestrians, according to city data first reported by Streetsblog.
The Editor says...
Is it not possible that lily-white New York pedestrians obey the law? Maybe that's why they don't get ticketed.
Long
Island judge ignores bail law, refuses release of 'menace to society'. A Long Island judge intentionally
ignored the state's controversial bail-reform law and refused to release a defendant he deemed a "menace to society," The
[New York] Post has learned. Nassau County District Judge David McAndrews admitted in court that accused two-time bank
robber Romell Nellis wasn't charged with a "bondable or bail offense" — but still ordered him held on $10,000 cash
or $20,000 bond. "I don't want you walking around my neighborhood," McAndrews told Nellis, according to a transcript of
the Jan. 9 hearing in Hempstead.
It
looks like New York's getting the crime uptick politicians have been asking for. Robbery is up almost 30% in
New York City since the first of the year. Is this a statistical blip, a trend — or a New Year's bail-reform
gift from Albany, robbery now largely being a revolving-door offense in the Empire State? Time will tell, but consider
this as well: According to the latest NYPD stats, the number of shooting victims in the city is up 31% since New Year's
Day — so at the very least Gotham appears to be off to a rocky 2020 compared to last year. Which should not
surprise: Not only does government usually get more of what it encourages, when it comes to crime, it also gets more of
what it fails to discourage. Sad to say, New York falls down on both counts.
Two
Convicted Pedophiles Beaten to Death by Inmate with Cane. An inmate at a California prison murdered two
convicted child molesters by beating them to death with a walking cane, according to authorities. Jonathan Watson, 41,
allegedly beat David Bobb, 48, and Graham De Luis-Conti, 62, to death last Thursday at around 2:30 p.m. at the California
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (SATF) and State Prison in Corcoran, according to the New York Post.
Latest
Liberal "Solution." Start Slashing Police Budgets. Philip V. McHarris is a PhD candidate in Sociology and
African American Studies at Yale University. In his WaPo op-ed, McHarriss explains how the real problem with law
enforcement is that there are just too many [...] police in this country. And if the Democrats really want to get
serious about criminal justice reform, they need to be pushing to cut police budgets all across the nation, particularly in
our larger cities, so there won't be so many cops out there arresting people. The funds should instead be channeled
toward social assistance programs designed to lift people out of poverty.
Suspected
robber who 'targeted four banks and was released under New York's no-bail law strikes A FIFTH time. A serial
bank robber targeted four New York banks, was released under the city's new law which requires no bail for holding suspects,
only to strike a fifth financial institution, police claim. The suspect, Gerold Woodberry, 42, is alleged to have
robbed banks in New York's Midtown Manhattan, Harlem, West Village and the Upper West Side, since December 30, sources
said. However, under the new 'no bail' law, he was released on Thursday [1/9/2020].
Criminals are going from Rikers Island straight to the subways. De
Blasio giving freed NYC inmates MetroCards and gift cards. So sorry we had to lock you up — please
accept these parting gifts as an expression of our hope, it won't happen again! Mayor Bill de Blasio's latest
soft-on-crime initiative has workers stationed on Rikers Island presenting newly released jailbirds with free transit passes
and two $25 debit cards each, The [New York] Post has learned. Plans even call for the addition of prepaid,
"burner"-style cellphones and drawstring bags for the ex-inmates to carry their swag, a source familiar with the program
said. The "crime pays" giveaways build on another de Blasio policy — revealed by The Post last month —
that showers freebies including Mets tickets on prisoners being released under the state's new bail-reform law.
Atlanta
PD Will No Longer Chase Criminals if They Flee From Cops. Last Friday [1/3/2020], Atlanta police chief Erika
Shields announced that her officers would not engage in vehicle pursuits while the department evaluates its
policies. "Please know that I realize this will not be a popular decision," she said, understating the case
considerably. "And more disconcerting to me personally, is that this decision may drive crime up." I suggest "may"
is not the proper auxiliary verb here. The decision will drive crime up. How could it not? When it
becomes known among Atlanta's criminal classes that all one need do to escape punishment for his misdeeds is to use a stolen
car, or perhaps alter or remove the license plates on one's own, and you'll have a crime wave in no time.
Confirmed:
New Jersey gave Texas church gunman plea deal wiping out gun felony. Last month's shooting at West Freeway
Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, has sparked much conversation on the state's gun laws, as well as proposed
gun-related legislation in states like Virginia. Another thing that has come to light from this tragedy relates to bail
reform taking place in several states, most notably New York. Since the shooting, it's been discovered that the gunman,
43-year-old Keith Thomas Kinnunen, now deceased after being shot by the church's head of their volunteer security group, Jack
Wilson, had previous run-ins with law enforcement in Texas, as well as other states.
Trump
Hater Starts Fires in Jewish Girls' Dorm, Released the Next Day. Early Friday morning [1/3/2020], Peter Weyand
broke into the all-female dormitory of Yeshiva University's Stern College. He kicked through the glass door of the
Manhattan Jewish dorm and began starting fires. FDNY firefighters arrived, put out the fires, and fire marshals
arrested the arsonist. "Thanks to the thorough investigative work of our Fire Marshals, a dangerous individual has been
quickly apprehended," Commissioner Nigro announced. Not so fast. On Saturday, Weyand had his hearing and was
out. Prosecutors hadn't asked for bail because pro-crime "bail reform" meant that arson was not longer a qualifying
crime requiring bail. A day after this "dangerous individual" had been caught, he was out again on supervised
release. By that evening, he had been arrested for yet another break-in. This time targeting a private home in
Staten Island.
Under-incarceration
allowing scary frequently arrested predator to roam the streets of Chicago looking for more victims. Scary
people are roaming the streets of many big cities, thanks to Democrats, who believe that innocent black people are arrested
convicted by our purportedly racist justice system. Under the rubric of "bail reform," even chronic offenders can be
back on the streets the same day they are arrested. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was recently so embarrassed by the
catch and release of Tiffany Harris after back-to-back arrests for violent attacks on orthodox Jews accompanied by hateful
rhetoric that he personally intervened with the court to get her locked up on psychiatric grounds. But the policies
that led to her release remain in place in New York. Equally problematic is Chicago, where "bail reform" has been in
place since 2017. In addition, probation is liberally granted, leading to this scary fellow now walking the streets
after four recent arrests, and one conviction (so far) in just a few months.
New
York's Jewish Elite Bails Out. Attacks on New York Jews continue unabated in the New Year. A Jewish teen
was threatened with a knife by a mob on New Year's Eve, and a Jewish man was attacked by two women on the street on New
Year's Day. Many of the attacks are simply not reported out of fear. No wonder — unless the attack
causes serious injuries, most of the suspects have been released without bail and are walking the same neighborhoods as their
victims, unlikely to serve any time or even make their court appearances. [...] Thanks to the new bail law, Jews are now
being beaten in the streets with impunity. The law eliminates bail and requires pre-trial release for those charged
with many violent and heinous crimes, such as second-degree manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide, criminal possession
of a gun, and dozens of other serious charges.
Democrats
call for and act on abolishment of cash bail. If your sole source of news is leftist media such as Slate,
you'll believe that there are "people who are in jail solely because they can't afford to pay their way out." Nope.
There are people in jail awaiting trial because they are accused of serious crimes and they are deemed by a judge to be a
threat to society. Someone like Tiffany Harris of Brooklyn seemingly fits that bill. Late last month Harris
allegedly slapped three Orthodox Jewish women as she said "F-U Jews" and was promptly arrested. Courtesy of New York
State's new laws that eliminate most cash bails, Harris was back on the street a few days later. The next day Harris
allegedly punched a woman and was arrested again — and was released. A few days later, during a court-mandated
meeting with a social worker, Harris was arrested again after allegedly pinching that worker.
Mayhem
on the Streets of NY. Beginning on the first of this year, New York's "no bail no jail" law, enacted by the
Democratic legislature and put into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo went into effect. [...] It may be true that some low-level
crimes for which poorer arrestees cannot afford bail, means they languish in jail until trial, but this law is so poorly
crafted that it includes crimes for which bail is warranted no matter what the economic condition of the person arrested, for
otherwise there is no penalty for immediately repeating the criminal acts. Criminals learn there are no consequences
for their actions. Of course, it won't much affect the rich, who glide about in chauffeured cars and live in gated
communities or buildings guarded by doormen, but the middle class surely are impacted. Once, again these misguided
efforts to coddle the underclass have the effect of remaking our cities and states on a feudal model where the rich are
protected and serfs who work and pay taxes are in constant danger from brigands and murderers.
Texas
church shooter had massive rap sheet — with almost no prison time. [T]he shooter who killed two
people at the West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas on Sunday [12/29/2019], was not allowed to own a gun. Under
current law, it was 100 percent illegal for him to own or carry any firearm. He had a massive rap sheet dating back to
1998, including gun felonies. Yet he wasn't locked up. That is why he was able to kill two people in the church.
[...] Texas allows citizens to carry concealed weapons, so he was stopped before he could shoot and kill more. But the
ugly fact is that most mass shooters are repeat offenders and known to law enforcement. If we actually had criminal
control, almost all of these attacks would be prevented. If the Left really wants to prevent most mass shootings, how
about we bring back and reinforce mandatory minimum sentencing on gun felons? Throughout Americans cities, so many
violent offenders have rap sheets full of gun violations, yet they are not seriously punished.
Illinois
governor pardons more than 11,000 marijuana convictions to ring in 2020. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker
granted tens of thousands of pardons for people convicted of low-level marijuana-related offenses on Tuesday. The Land
of Lincoln is set to welcome a new marijuana legalization law on January 1, becoming the 11th state to legalize pot for those
21 years of age and older. Pritzker, a Democrat whose family owns the Hyatt hotel chain, described the more than 11,000
expungements as the first step in anticipation of the new law taking effect on Wednesday [1/1/2020].
Back
to the pre-Giuliani era: Serious crime up 31% in NYC's Central Park this year. NYPD crime stats recently
reported by the New York Post show that violent crime incidents in Central Park, Manhattan, have spiked 31 percent in 2018.
[...] The cleanup of Central Park was one of the milestones of the era of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in New York that jump-started
a two-decade decline in crime throughout the city. Those gains are now being reduced due to the abolishing of pretrial bail,
reduced sentencing, early release, and almost no deterrent against juvenile criminals. The subways have already returned to
pre-Giuliani-era crime levels. According to NYPD data, there were 1,185 transit misdemeanor assaults citywide from Jan. 1
to Nov. 17, which reflects a 10.9 percent increase from the same time last year.
Organized
Retail Theft On The Rise; Cops Blame Prop 47, Safe Neighborhoods Law. You've likely seen the videos on social
media or the local news: groups of people rushing into a store, grabbing armfuls of merchandise. The brazen crimes are
on the rise and CBS13 has learned, in most cases, the crooks get away from authorities. After searching police reports
and arrest records, CBS13 found that while the rate of these grab and dash crimes is on the rise, the rate of arrest is
down. We turned to law enforcement and the retail industry for answers. Both blame a California law intended to
make "neighborhoods safe."
Suspects
released without bail after shocking attacks on Jews. Suspects arrested in last week's spree of eight
anti-Semitic attacks are being quickly released right back into the neighborhoods they terrorized thanks to "bail reform"
legislation — which doesn't even take effect until Jan. 1. The most recent case of revolving-door justice
came Saturday morning, with the release, with no bail, of a woman charged with punching and cursing at three Orthodox women,
ages 22, 26 and 31, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn at dawn the day before. The accused assailant, Tiffany Harris, was
hauled in handcuffs before a Brooklyn judge on 21 menacing, harassment and attempted assault charges.
Nashville
man wanted in connection with murder of brother of 49ers QB had just been released from jail. Tennessee's
allegedly Republican governor, Bill Lee, has promised to "empty our jails." He claimed, "We have to be creative and
innovative and disruptive and challenge the way we've been doing things forever." Well, if the man Nashville police are
seeking in connection to the murders of Clayton Beathard, 22, and Paul Trapeni III, 21, indeed committed those murders, it
will be precisely because he was let out of jail so "innovatively."
Mayor
Pete Wants to Decriminalize 'Meth, Coke, Ecstasy,' Not Just Pot. In an interview on Friday [12/27/2019], Mayor
Pete Buttigieg (D-Church of Social Justice) clarified his drug policy, calling for decriminalization of all drugs including
methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy. "Incarceration should not even be a response to drug possession," Buttigieg told
editors at the Des Moines Register.
Abolish the Police?
The latest call to action from some criminal-justice activists: "Abolish the police." [...] When I first heard this
slogan, I assumed that it was a figure of speech, used to legitimize more expansive criminal-justice reform. But after
reading the academic and activist literature, I realized that "abolish the police" is a concrete policy goal. The
abolitionists want to dismantle municipal police departments and see "police officers disappearing from the streets."
One might dismiss such proclamations as part of a fringe movement, but advocates of these radical views are gaining political
momentum in numerous cities. In Seattle, socialist city council candidate Shaun Scott, who ran on a "police abolition"
platform, came within 1,386 votes of winning elected office. During his campaign, he argued that the city must
"[disinvest] from the police state" and "build towards a world where nobody is criminalized for being poor."
FBI
is investigating former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin who issued more than 400 pardons in the weeks after he lost his
reelection bid. The FBI is investigating former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin who controversially issued more
than 400 pardons in the weeks after he lost his reelection bid. Among those who were granted clemency after Bevin lost
his seat on November 5 was murderer Patrick Baker, who had served two years of a 19-year sentence for killing a man during
a home invasion. Bevin also pardoned Micah Schoettle who was sentenced in 2018 to 23 years in prison for multiple
sexual offences involving children.
Liberal
Virginia Prosecutors Spread Soros Project to DC Suburbs. Parisa Dehghani-Tafti placed her left hand on her old
law school textbook, "A Theory of Justice," from New York University as she was sworn in Monday evening as commonwealth's
attorney for Arlington County, Virginia, and the neighboring city of Falls Church. Dehghani-Tafti is one of three new
progressive prosecutors seeking to "reimagine" law enforcement in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia. The
others are in nearby Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
Cook
County Christmas shopping, Kim Foxx style. When state's attorney Kim Foxx announced no prosecution for
shoplifting under a thousand dollars, the results were fully predictable. Chicago and Cook County, Illinois are leading
the headlong American rush toward lawlessness and the loss of civil order. The election of Kim Foxx as Cook County
state's attorney, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in backing by George Soros, has been a further disaster —
with not just the scandalously lenient treatment of Jussie Smollett after convulsing Chicago and the entire country with a
fake hate crime caper, but the virtual abolition of laws against felony shoplifting under one thousand dollars.
Rising
disrespect for cops not only wrong, it puts us in danger. Police officers are now required to handle the
fallout from a vast range of social pathologies that were once the domain of social workers, psychologists and family
members, such as mental illness, widespread homelessness and drug abuse. Even more demoralizing, police officers must
look on as the criminals that they have risked their lives to apprehend get turned loose by "social-justice" DAs and
"progressive" judges who no longer see their role as protecting the community from predators. Some DAs have even
exposed police officers to greater danger by announcing that they will not prosecute those who resist police.
My
husband was shot dead in a gun-free zone — Now his imprisoned killer sends me love letters. My
stalker just won't go away. Ten years ago, he murdered my husband, Ben, right in front of me in the middle of a busy
restaurant. But my nightmare didn't end with my stalker's incarceration, as I recently found out that he is writing me
letters from prison. The letters show absolutely no remorse and profess his twisted love for me. This man already
terrified me, and what he has written has made me even more fearful. I have nightmares about the threat that he poses
to me and my loved ones after his release from prison.
Cop
Killer brags on video about his life of crime & getting out of prison easily. Tavores Dewayne Henderson was
wanted for the murder of Nassau Bay Police Sergeant Kaila Sullivan. He has been captured, but there is more to that
awful story. Henderson murdered Nassau Bay Police Sergeant Kaila Sullivan during a traffic stop on Tuesday
[12/10/2019]. He is a career criminal who has bragged about his extensive criminal history on social media.
Car
burglaries in some California cities are at crisis levels. Prosecutors say their hands are tied. An
epidemic of car burglaries in San Francisco over the last few years has led one Democratic lawmaker to propose plugging a
loophole in state law that allows some break-ins to go unpunished, but the Legislature has balked at prosecutors' requests to
make obtaining convictions easier. The proposal, which would eliminate a requirement that prosecutors prove a car's
doors were locked at the time of a break-in, has been shelved two years in a row in legislative committees. Lawmakers
struggling with prison crowding and public pressure to enact criminal justice reform have been reluctant to do anything to
put more people behind bars.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
$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.
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 pooreducation,
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...
VGhlIHZpZGVvIHNob3dzIGV4YWN0bHkgdGhlIGJlaGF2aW9yIG9uZSB3b3VsZCBleHBlY3QgLS0gaW4gdGhlIGJhYm9vbiBjYWdlIGF0IHRoZSB6b28h
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Confession
deal backfires and serial killer goes free. Nolan Ray George, then in his mid-20s and working
for the City of Pontiac, eventually confessed to three strangulations, two of them fatal, and went to prison
for one. Through plea deals with police and prosecutors, and fortuitous appellate court decisions, he
served only 12 years in a Michigan prison. Once released, he fatally strangled another woman in
Ohio and was the prime suspect in a second strangulation. He served only 10 years there.
Revisiting Crime
and Punishment. [Scroll down slowly] That our prison population has quadrupled over the last
few decades is proof that some measure of the sanity on the issue of crime and punishment that had been
lost during the heady days of the 1960's has been restored. But the paradigm of "rehabilitation" that
rose to dominance during that time has not lost its hegemony, for our prisoners are supplied access to a variety
of goods that well exceed the necessaries of life and that have nothing at all to do with punishment.
RFID Compliance Monitoring as a
Condition of Federal Supervised Release. Some states have moved to chemically castrating
certain types of sex offenders, while others have considered implementing lifetime GPS monitoring.
And, for the better part of two years, the chipping of convicted sex offenders has lingered in the minds
of concerned citizens and government officials alike, mutually frustrated with the serious inadequacies
of existing sex offender punishment and registration regimes.
A
Legal System Only a Mother Could Love. Why ... do we go so far out of our way to protect
criminals? It's as if we're playing a game and all the rules are in their favor. For instance, why
should a cop making an arrest have to pause to read the perp his rights? Why shouldn't jurors be made
aware of the defendant's criminal history? Why should a cop's honest mistake work to the felon's
advantage? One final question: When is a bloody axe not a murder weapon? Easy answer: When
it's spotted in the back seat of a car that's been stopped because of a malfunctioning brake light, and not
because the driver was suspected of whacking off his wife's head.
Obama:
Tilting at Racial Windmills. Simply put, black offenders do not receive stiffer penalties than
white offenders for equivalent crimes — not today, and not at any time in recent decades. The
most exhaustive, best designed study of this matter — a three-year analysis of more than 11,000
convicted criminals in California — found that the severity of offenders' sentences depended
heavily on such factors as prior criminal records, the seriousness of the crimes, and whether guns were
used in the commission of those crimes. Race was found to have no effect whatsoever.
The Costs of Crime: For
more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or
downplaying the fate of the victims of those criminals. Britain has gone much further down the road that
the New York Times is urging us to follow. In the process, Britain has gone from being one of the most
law-abiding nations on earth to overtaking the United States in most categories of crime.
1
in every 136 U.S. residents is behind bars. Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a
year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.
The Editor says...
The article above, since it was written by an Associated Press writer, is apparently based on the liberal
perspective that too many people are incarcerated in the U.S., and most of them don't deserve to be there, and
they're only in jail because they're not white, etc. Of course this is nonsense. So many people are
in jail because this country is full of criminals! Many more have been or should be in prison.
Skewed views of crime:
It does no good to point out that soaring crime rates in the United States began to turn down only after the
declining rate of imprisonment was halted and reversed, leading to a rising prison population much deplored by
liberals. It does no good to point out Singapore's imprisonment rate is more than double that of
Canada — and its crime rate less than one-tenth the Canadian crime rate.
Crime and
Rhetoric: Having declined for decades on end, the murder rate suddenly doubled between 1961 and
1974. The rate at which citizens became victims of violent crimes in general tripled. Such trends
began at different times in different countries but the patterns remained very similar. As the rates of
imprisonment declined, crime rates soared — whether in England, Australia, New Zealand, or the
United States.
New
High In U.S. Prison Numbers. More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail
or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the
federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday [2/28/2008].
The Editor says...
That's money well spent. As long as there is plenty of extra prison space, criminals
will think twice about the consequences of their actions.
'Laxachusetts': Where
criminals get coddled. Does it come as a surprise to anyone that Leeland Eisenberg — the
disturbed man who allegedly strapped road flares to his chest and took five people hostage at Hillary Clinton's
campaign headquarters Friday [11/30/2007] in New Hampshire — is a convicted rapist released from a
Massachusetts prison?
Headbutting Police
Dogs – A 'PC' Step Too Far. You really couldn't make it up... a Welsh police force is
training its dogs to headbutt criminals rather than bite them, because politically correct –
'PC' – bosses are afraid that allowing the dogs to bite criminals will infringe their human rights!
When good people fight
back: A guy came in with a knife, a threat and a demand for money. But this time someone
fought back. Someone who didn't get the memo or pay attention in the training class. Someone up on
the mezzanine saw the guy and the knife — and saw a chair, up on the mezzanine. A big
chair. And this somebody picked up the chair and heaved it down. It clocked the wannabe robber and
knocked him down. He stood up, demonstrated that he knew several ways to use the f-word, and ran out the
door with his tail between his legs.
A Land Fit for Criminals, Part I. The
general mindset of the political left is similar from country to country and even from century to century.
The softness toward dangerous criminals found in such 18th century writers as William Godwin and Condorcet has
its echo today among those who hold protest vigils at the executions of murderers and who complain that we are
not being nice enough to the cutthroats imprisoned at Guantanamo.
A Land Fit for Criminals, Part II. Where
the dominance of the left is greatest — in the media and in academia, for example — facts
to the contrary are seldom heard. The futility of imprisonment, for example, is a dogma on the
left. It does no good to point out that Singapore's imprisonment rate is more than double that
of Canada — and its crime rate less than one-tenth the Canadian crime rate.
In Canada... Criminals
have all the rights. Researching a column last week I came across a revealing
government document. You only have to read a few pages to realize how, over the decades, our
ruling class' obsession with the "rights" of criminals has reduced their victims to afterthoughts.
Not only have we scrapped capital punishment, gutted the meaning of "life" imprisonment and allowed
violent criminals to apply for unescorted day passes from prison after serving one-sixth of their
sentence and full parole after one-third. Today, the very language of government when it
speaks of prisoners' rights is reverential.
Inmates asking court to decide if
nutraloaf is meal or punishment. When shooting suspect Christopher Williams acted up in prison, he was
given nutraloaf — a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins,
beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes. Prison officials call it a
complete meal. Inmates say it's so awful they'd rather go hungry.
Prison blues: States slimming down inmate
meals. The recession is hitting home for inmates, too: Some cash-strapped states are taking aim at
prison menus. Georgia prisoners already didn't get lunch on the weekends, and the Department of Corrections recently
eliminated the midday meal on Fridays, too. Ohio may drop weekend breakfasts and offer brunch instead. Other
states are cutting back on milk and fresh fruit.
Alabama sheriffs feed
inmates on $1.75 a day. Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs
$1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over.
More than 80 years later, most Alabama counties still operate under this system, with the same $1.75-a-day
allowance, and some sheriffs are actually making money on top of their salaries.
Prison Staff Forced to Address Every Inmate
as 'Mister'. A British prison is forcing its staff to prove they treat inmates decently as part
of the Prison Service's national "decency agenda," which includes addressing all inmates, including sex
offenders and violent criminals, as "Mr.," the Telegraph reported Wednesday [10/1/2008].
Notes on Michigan criminal procedure:
Michigan sentences may not exceed two-thirds of the maximum. A crime that is on the books as 12 years,
for example, means a maximum sentence of 8-12 years with eight years being the effective maximum. How
much of that will be served? The judges say that defendants usually get out after serving about
80 percent of the minimum. In this case, that would be a little less than six and a half years.
Much of that time would not be served in prison, but in halfway houses.
Do the time, lower the crime.
In the last 10 years, the effect of prison on crime rates has been studied by many scholars. The Pew report
doesn't mention any of them. A high risk of punishment reduces crime. Deterrence works. But so does
putting people in prison. The typical criminal commits from 12 to 16 crimes a year (not counting drug
offenses). Locking him up spares society those crimes. Several scholars have separately estimated that the
increase in the size of our prison population has driven down crime rates by 25%.
Who freed the
cop-killers? The only thing that would've prevented this homicide was the one thing politicians,
judges, prison officials in Philadelphia don't want to address. Warner, Cain and Floyd should have been
behind bars at the time they were committing the robbery.
He's been held in 44 offenses — and he's 17.
Since age 10, Travis Hylton has been in and out of the Pima County juvenile court system, having been arrested
on 44 criminal offenses in seven years. All but six of those charges have been dismissed based on the fact
that doctors deemed Hylton — now 17 — incompetent to stand trial and unable to assist in his
defense. Now Hylton sits in jail on three counts of attempted murder.
States May Free Inmates
to Save Millions. Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic
and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison,
including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals.
More Prisoners, Less
Crime. Last July, 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. Last September he said, "We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders
for the better part of their lives." But Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, writing in the institute's
City Journal, notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population.
When
dealing with punks, there's no time to be a liberal. In my humble opinion — shared
with all those with some elementary understanding of the art of policing — the leading cause of
anti-social behaviour is permission. People, and young punks especially, will do things that even they
know are malicious because no one will stop them. The worst possible conditions exist, as today, when
the surrounding society is befogged with idiotic, decadent notions, such as the idea that the punks are
themselves "victims" of some material deprivation, when what they have in fact been deprived of is the
iron fist of the law.
Idiot Compassion:
Idiot compassion invents Miranda rights to protect criminals from prosecution rather than allowing police
powers to protect innocent citizens. ... Idiot compassion is so fearful that one innocent man might be
imprisoned that it helps enact laws that insure freedom to thousands of certainly guilty ones, by disallowing
evidence obtained against them.
Shocking
crimes of the 65 killers released under Labour to strike again. Murderers freed from life
sentences under Labour have committed a string of rapes and killings. Ministers last night admitted the
full scale of reoffending by so-called lifers. After their release, the 65 killers committed at least
three further murders, one attempted murder and three rapes. They were also responsible for crimes such
as a paedophile attack, two woundings causing grievous bodily harm and three offences of kidnapping, false
imprisonment or abduction.
Judges
tentatively order California inmates released. A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled
Monday that California must release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding. The judges
said no other solution will improve conditions so poor that inmates die regularly of suicides or lack of
proper care. The panel said it wanted the state to present a plan to trim the population in two to
three years.
The Editor says...
Yes, prisons are unpleasant. That's why the threat of imprisonment is a deterrent. Here's
a sure way to relieve overcrowding: Build more prisons.
Bailiff's mistake leads to mistrial in Harris murder.
The Harris County jury returned a guilty verdict after deliberating 45 minutes in a murder case, but the judge realized
he had a real problem. Sitting in the jury box were 13 citizens. Instead of sentencing Charles Mapps to prison
in the shooting death of his girlfriend, state District Judge Mark Kent Ellis on Tuesday declared a mistrial.
D.C.'s
money-saving plan: Free inmates. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wants to help balance the District's
recession-squeezed budget by allowing as many as 80 percent of the city's inmates to qualify for early release,
borrowing a tactic that has stirred controversy elsewhere in the nation. The city hopes to save $4.4 million
in fiscal 2010 under the plan, which would reduce the prison population by 2 percent from its current daily
average of 3,000 inmates.
The Editor says...
Hmmm... two percent of 3,000 inmates. That's only 60 inmates set free, and yet it
will save $4.4 million, which means that it costs over $73,000 per year to keep each inmate
locked up.
One
in 25 adult Ohioans is in prison, in jail, on parole or on probation, study finds. One in
every 25 adult Ohioans is in prison, jail or on parole or probation, a study by the Pew Center on the States
shows. While the national average is one in 31 U.S. adults, the numbers are more dramatic for Hispanics
(one in 27), men (one in 18), and blacks (one in 11), according to One in 31: The Long Reach of
American Corrections, released today. Ohio's one-in-25 rate was sixth among the states. Georgia
had the highest at one in 13, and New Hampshire the lowest at one in 88.
The Editor says...
If the people in prison are genuinely guilty of violent crimes, and they've all had fair trials and
adequate legal representation, then statistics like those above are not alarming at all. On the contrary,
it should be very reassuring to know that dangerous criminals are locked up!
Remember the Golden Oldies, Dr.
Emanuel. How humane, how civilized, liberal values have made America. We've gotten rid of the death
penalty, and all other cruel and unusual punishments. So Charles Manson — murderer of nine
people — and hundreds of other murderers can live out their lives in relative comfort, not having
to worry about where their next meal is coming from, or freezing in the winter, or having to do hard
labor, or miss their weight-lifting routines or basketball games.
Getting
away with murder is the norm in Detroit. At least 7 in 10 people who committed murder
in this city last year have gotten away with it. The most generous interpretation of 2008 homicide
warrants and convictions supplied by local law enforcement officials shows that in more than 70 percent
of homicide cases no suspect has been identified, arrested, charged or convicted of a killing.
APF and Hardin Constitution Violations.
A Livingston state representative is questioning whether Hardin officials and American Police Force have violated
the Montana constitution. Representative Robert Ebinger says he became aware of the situation after
Cascade and Park County law enforcement officials came to him asking questions about APF. ... "No armed
person or persons or body of men shall be brought into the state for the presentation of the peace or the
suppression of domestic violence unless the application of the legislature or of the governor when the
legislature cannot be convened," said Ebinger while reading the constitution word for word.
California jail
entrepreneur has checkered past. Michael Hilton showed up in Hardin, Mont., last week,
presenting himself as an economic savior, the man who would take over the town's $27 million
jail — empty since it was built as a development project in 2007 — and provide 200 new
jobs in the process. He wore a military style uniform, and as a gesture to local law enforcement
offered up the use of three Mercedes SUVs.
Leftwing Pseudo-science Threatens Freedom.
America's Constitution is based on the Enlightenment view that Man has volition and Reason. Because of this, he is
perfectible and can determine how to live his own life. He therefore has no need of a government's telling him what
to do. Because we choose our own actions, we are responsible for them. In being responsible for them, we
necessarily become deserving of rewards or punishments according to whether our actions victimize others.
At
least someone in prison can't rob you. Yesterday [10/6/2009], the Prison Governors' Association voted
to abolish all prison sentences of under 12 months. Short sentences, they believe, don't work and cost too
much. ... [But] when criminals are in jail, they can't break into your house or attack people in the street.
Seattle's
teenage Jesse James. Victims call him a one-man crime wave who ought to be in prison. Fans
say he's a misunderstood folk hero in the grand tradition of Robin Hood, Huckleberry Finn, and Jesse James.
To police near Seattle, who are once more on his elusive tail, Colton Harris-Moore can be summed up in two
words: most wanted.
Leftwing Pseudo-science Threatens
Freedom. If the reader is ever accepted for jury duty, do not believe doctors' "genetic" or
"mental illness" excuses. Those are designed to make you disregard the defendant's responsibleness.
Those charlatans will hide behind the prestige of science. Human conduct is not their legitimate
field, for that is the field of volition, Reason and ethics.
Inmate released
early is arrested in rape attempt. One of the inmates the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
released early as part of an effort to reduce the state's prison population was arrested Tuesday [2/2/2010]
on suspicion of attempted rape, less than 24 hours after getting out of jail, The Bee has learned.
Confessed
child murderer spends days in downtown Lauderdale park. Gary Kerpan confessed years ago to snatching
a 12-year-old girl, raping her, stabbing her and killing her. Now that he's out of prison, he hangs out in
Fort Lauderdale's Stranahan Park. He is one of Fort Lauderdale's homeless.
Muslims Exempt from Death Penalty in U.S.?
Last October there was another in the growing number of Islamic honor killings in the United States when a Muslim in
Peoria, Arizona, Faleh Almaleki, got into his Jeep Cherokee and ran down his twenty-year-old daughter Noor, as well
as her boyfriend's mother, Amal Khalaf. Noor died not long thereafter, and Faleh Almaleki was charged with
first-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of leaving the scene of a serious accident. But
prosecutors announced this week that he will not face the death penalty — it wouldn't be multicultural.
California
prison case goes to Supreme Court. Agreeing to hear an appeal from Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday [6/14/2010] it will decide whether the state
can be forced to release 46,000 inmates — more than one-fourth of its prison
population — to relieve overcrowding. The justices said they would hear the
case in the fall and rule early next year.
Change
Club Med Environment at Club Fed. Unleashing criminals from American jails onto American streets
is determinately criminal. But still, the debate on American incarceration continues to flare up due to
tough economic times and because our country spends roughly $50 billion annually to incarcerate public
nuisances and dangerous thugs. Shockingly, the annual cost per prisoner in California is $50,000.
No wonder there has been a violent push for the privatization of prisons and the revamping of the American
legal system.
Penny-Wise on Crime.
For more than 200 years, the political left has been coming up with reasons why criminals should not be punished
as much, or at all. The latest gambit in Missouri is providing judges with the costs of incarcerating the
criminals they sentence.
The Myth that
High Unemployment Means a High Crime Rate. Crime and unemployment: everyone knows that they go
together. Right? Unemployed people, desperate for enough money to pay their bills, buy groceries, and
get medical care (since those heartless Republicans think "don't get sick" is a health care plan), must turn to
crime. At the very least, disheartened men sitting at home are going to lose their tempers, get into fights,
and shoot their spouses. Like most conventional wisdom among the elites, it turns out not to be true.
Anger at flat-screen TV prison order. The
Scottish Prison Service is ordering hundreds of flat-screen televisions for inmates in order to meet energy efficiency
targets, it has emerged.
East End store owners fighting
back. On Saturday morning [12/18/2010], police said, a man identified by police as the owner
of Shew Food Market, in the 7500 block of Canal, shot a robber who was fleeing, along with an accomplice,
after taking a bag containing a substantial sum of money.
A Predictable
Tragedy in Arizona. A 2007 study by the U.S. Justice Department found that 56% of state
prisoners, 45% of federal prisoners, and 64% of local jail inmates suffer from mental illnesses. A
2008 study out of the University of Pennsylvania that examined murders committed in Indiana between 1990
and 2002 found that approximately 10% of the murders were committed by individuals with serious mental
illnesses. There are about 16,000 homicides a year in this country. Using the Indiana study
as a guide, roughly 1,600 of them are likely committed by people with serious mental illnesses. ... State
governments have been very effective in emptying the hospitals in an effort to save money but remarkably
ineffective in providing treatment for seriously mentally ill individuals living in the community.
Keen Graphs of the Obvious.
Not to put too fine a point on it: liberals have been wrong about almost everything, and conservatives have been
right about almost everything, at least in my lifetime (half a century). That goes not only for the economy,
the role of government, and climate change, but also for many "social issues" as well.
· The death penalty seems to actually deter murder.
· Higher rates of handgun ownership do not appear to cause more crime.
· Putting more people in prison seems to reduce crime.
· Increased concealed carry of handguns by law-abiding citizens coincides
with reduced homicide rates.
Urgent new
protection for felons' feelings. Imagine, if you can, the shock and pain that denizens of the
nation's capital feel as they return from prison only to discover that the office tasked with helping them
is called the "Office on Ex-Offender Affairs." Such a pejorative welcome must surely harm the tender
psyches of those perps. And, frankly, to discover that society attaches a stigma to felons must be
quite the shock. Worry not, because the stalwart D.C. government has a plan to stanch the suffering.
Inmates reap
rewards of $35M settlement. [New York City] has started doling out $1,000 checks to 26,131
former jailbirds who won a $35.7 million class-action settlement for illegal strip searches —
and recipients who are back in jail are throwing their newfound weight and windfall around. "I own
you!" inmates are bragging to jailers on Rikers Island, according to Correction insiders.
No More Smoking
For Florida Prisoners. In an effort to reduce healthcare costs at state prisons the Florida
Department of Corrections is moving to make sure their facilities are smoke-free by September. ... "Inmate
smoking and second-hand smoking is costing millions in healthcare costs each year," said Florida Department
of Corrections Secretary Edwin Buss.
The Editor says...
It's only a matter of time before this smoking ban faces a court challenge based on the Eighth
Amendment. But in the meantime, it's a step in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned — not
because I'm opposed to other people smoking, but because prisons should be made as uncomfortable as
legally possible, so the threat of prison time will act as a deterrent to crime.
Where does
California put 33,000 released inmates? Hasn't California suffered enough? Apparently not,
according to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the name of reducing prison overcrowding and preserving a
"standard of decency," the high court this week handed down a decision that could set the stage for something
indecent: the release of tens of thousands of prisoners back into society.
In
lieu of prison, bring back the lash. Suggest adding the whipping post to America's system of criminal
justice and most people recoil in horror. But offer a choice between five years in prison or 10 lashes
and almost everybody picks the lash. What does that say about prison?
The Right TV: 12 most
conservative TV shows ever. [#5] Dragnet (1951-59, 1967-70): Dragnet was based on a
simple, conservative premise: Cops are good, criminals are bad, and crime must be punished. Los
Angeles detective Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) was the hard-nosed and efficient policeman tracking down the
bad guys. The show never got its due for its realistic portrayals of crime and detective work. Every
show ended with the perpetrator caught and sentenced. The remake of the show from 1967 to 1970 was
decidedly conservative as well, standing up against the hippie idiocy of the period.
Throw away the key! Paroled
lifers pose high risk of new crimes. More than a third of the most serious criminal offenders
paroled in Massachusetts over the past five years were returned to prison for committing new crimes or
violating the conditions of their release, a Globe review has found, raising questions about the public
risk posed by granting early release to scores of convicted murderers, as well as the state's ability
to supervise violent criminals on parole.
More
than 150 rapists freed early from prison went on to rape again. More than 150 convicted rapists
have gone on to attack again in the last five years. Ministry of Justice statistics revealed last night
the shocking extent to which sexual predators are re-offending, many after being freed from prison early.
Inmate
sues state over lack of porn in jail. A Macomb County inmate is suing Gov. Rick Snyder and the state,
claiming he is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because jail rules ban pornographic materials.
Kyle Richards, 21, of Fraser filed the five-page handwritten lawsuit June 10 in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
He wants a judge to let inmates possess erotic/pornographic materials along with personal televisions, video
game consoles and radios.
The Editor says...
I'm sure he would also like to have a leather recliner, a keg of beer, and a home theater
system. That's the whole idea about jail time: It's not supposed to be fun.
Crime Is Easy. Maybe there is a
simple explanation for the riots. In Great-Britain crime is easy and almost risk-free.
Convicted
hammer killer carried out 11 armed raids while on day release. A convicted hammer killer carried
out 11 armed raids on bookmakers while he was on day release from prison. Joseph Williams was
allowed temporary leave from his 'open' prison in preparation for permanent release from his life sentence
for murder. But the 52-year-old gambling addict took advantage of lax supervision to go on a robbery
spree to pay for his habit.
California's Prison
Release Program. Yes, it's expensive to keep people in prison, but Californians may one day
rediscover that it's even more expensive to let them out.
Prisoners
watch pay-TV movies in Victoria's jails. Prisoners are watching pay-TV movies in their cells,
at a cost to taxpayers of tens of thousands of dollars. Pay-TV packages for Victoria's jails cost
thousands of dollars a month, data obtained under Freedom of Information reveals.
The Editor says...
Personally, I don't have a problem with prisoners wasting their lives away, as well as their minds, by
watching television. That's better than having them riot and kill each other, or trying to escape, or working
out in the weight room. Television is a cheap tranquilizer. Even so, the prisons would be more of a
deterrent if they were more miserable places to live.
The scandalous state of
our prison system. The state of our prisons has become something of a scandal. We have more
prisoners today than we have soldiers, and more prison guards than Marines. Our prisons have become boot
camps for criminals. That's one reason why I'm sympathetic to Peter Moskos' idea to bring back flogging.
Poverty
Doesn't Make Thieves — Liberalism Does. During the Great Depression, levels of crime actually
dropped. During the 1920s, when life was free and easy, so was crime. During the 1930s, when the entire
American economy fell into a government-owned alligator moat, crime was nearly non-existent. During the 1950s
and 1960s, when the economy was excellent, crime rose again. In Britain, where the social safety net is more
like a social swaddling cloth, crime rates other than murder are significantly higher than in the United States.
In England: Thousands
serving community sentences commit violent and sexual crimes. Fifty people a day suffer a
violent or sexual attack by a convict spared jail in the 'soft' justice system. Victims include
young children assaulted by paedophiles, figures released by the Government show. They reveal that
every year more than 18,000 convicts given a community punishment commit a sexual or violent crime within
12 months of being sentenced.
Top Fresno auto
thief Robert Wollert released. Robert Frederick Wollert, dubbed Fresno's top auto thief last year
by police, won't serve a day in prison for his crime spree — thanks to a new state policy that sends
non-violent convicts to local jails instead of state prisons.
Soy diet
prompts prisoners' lawsuit. Prison grub never had a high culinary reputation, but now some
inmates say it's not just the taste they don't like. Illinois convicts have gone to court, claiming that
too much soy in their diets has left them with severe health problems, including heart issues and thyroid
damage, along with allergic reactions and gastrointestinal distress.
How State Budget Battles
Could Mean More Criminals Back on the Streets. In an article, "What's Behind America's Falling Crime Rate?," Time magazine
reported, "In his book Why Crime Rates Fell, Tufts University sociologist John Conklin concluded that up to half of the improvement
was due to a single factor: more people in prison. The U.S. prison population grew by more than half a million during the 1990s
and continued to grow, although more slowly, in the next decade. Go back half a century: as sentencing became more lenient in the
1960s and '70s, the crime rate started to rise. When lawmakers responded to the crime wave by building prisons and mandating tough
sentences, the number of prisoners increased and the number of crimes fell." But the budget battles in the states could change all
of this, putting crime reduction in jeopardy.
Hundreds
Kept Imprisoned in Georgia Despite Serving Their Sentences. Georgia penitentiaries continue to feed, clothe, and
pay medical expenses for hundreds of inmates who were approved for parole but cannot be released because they have nowhere to
live. About two-thirds are convicted sex offenders. About one-third require mental illness treatment but are otherwise
not considered a threat to public safety. [...] Having nowhere to go means inmates approved for parole have no family able or
willing to take them and no publicly supported housing facility willing to accept them. One of the challenges of Georgia
corrections reform is where released inmates are to go when they leave prisons.
Top
five cliches that liberals use to avoid real arguments. [#5] 'Better 10 guilty men go free...' As a truism, it's a
laudable and correct sentiment that no reasonable person can find fault with. But that's the problem: No reasonable person disagrees
with it. There's nothing wrong with saying it, but it's not an argument — it's an uncontroversial declarative statement.
And yet people say it as if it settles arguments. It doesn't do anything of the sort. The hard thinking comes when you have to deal
with the "and therefore what?" part. Where do we draw the lines? If it were an absolute principle, we wouldn't put anyone in prison,
lest we punish an innocent in the process.
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.