Author: Kent Scheidegger

The Full Harm of Burglary

by · Sep 16, 2022 9:29 am

Karen Bass, a member of Congress and candidate for LA Mayor, was the victim of a home burglary recently. KTTV has this interview.

Ms. Bass says “my safety was shattered” and describes returning home to find the house burgled as “traumatic.” But isn’t burglary a “non-violent property crime”? Aren’t people who commit such crimes nearly harmless, to be handled with kid gloves and let off lightly? That’s what the folks on Ms. Bass’s side of the aisle have been telling us for years, and California has seen a cascade of laws designed to water down the consequences of committing such crimes. Continue reading . . .

Cal. Legislature’s Rescue of Murderers Upheld

by · Aug 24, 2022 12:32 pm

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is engaged in an all-out effort to reduce the sentences of LA murderers. Among the beneficiaries of Gascón’s efforts is Scott Collins, who gunned down Fred Rose in 1992, stole his car, then drove the car to Fresno to use it in a drive-by shooting. For this he was justly sentenced to death, and the judgment has been upheld on both direct appeal and state habeas corpus.

Despite Gascón’s defection, there appeared to be a strong chance of stopping his intended miscarriage of justice until the murderer-friendly California Legislature came to his aid. Continue reading . . .

Responses to Soros Op-Ed

by · Aug 9, 2022 10:01 am

As noted in this post, the WSJ recently published an op-ed by George Soros explaining why he has pumped money into the campaigns of progressive prosecutors and intends to continue doing so. This article naturally prompted many critical letters to the editor, and the WSJ has printed them over multiple days, which is somewhat unusual.

In today’s batch, the WSJ printed my letter, noting an example refuting Soros’s claim that the progressive policies are evidence based. The August 4 batch included letters from Thomas Hogan on recent research tying progressive prosecutors to increased homicides and from Hans Bader on the fallacy of Soros’s racial statistics (unfortunately chopped down in the editing process to omit essential support). Yesterday’s print edition has a letter from an LA police officer with anecdotal but significant evidence that criminals in LA believe they can commit crimes with impunity because of the LA DA’s policies.

California Legislature Ramming Through Another Pro-Murderer Bill

by · Aug 3, 2022 11:46 am

Today, there was a hearing scheduled on California Senate Bill 300, a bill to change the state’s “special circumstance” law in favor of the murderers, with an implication that it applies retroactively to overturn cases already properly tried. However, the “hearing” has been limited to people stating if they support or oppose, with no opportunity to give the reasons, making it pointless. So here is what I would have said.

In California, first-degree murder with “special circumstances” is punishable by death or life in prison without possibility of parole. The law is subject to the criticism that the special circumstances are not special enough, and I have proposed some pruning myself in the past. SB 300 would limit special-circumstance murder for accomplices to those who can be proved to have intended to kill. In 1990, Proposition 115 added a “reckless disregard of human life” alternative for accomplices convicted of first-degree murder under the felony murder rule, implementing an option allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Tison v. Arizona (1987).

Applied to future cases, that would not necessarily be a bad change. It would have virtually no effect on capital punishment, as today’s juries seldom-to-never impose the death penalty on accomplices without an intent to kill. The huge problem is imposing such a fact-finding requirement retroactively. This is not speculation. We have been there and done that. It was the key issue in the first capital case I ever briefed. Continue reading . . .

Gascón Recall Petition Random Sample Completed, Full Count Required

by · Jul 15, 2022 3:00 pm

The Los Angeles County Registrar has completed the process of validating and counting a random sample of 5% (i.e., 1/20) of the recall petitions. See this press release. The sample was 35,793 signatures, of which 27,983 were found valid. If exactly the same ratio holds for the total petitions, the number of valid signatures would be 27,983 x 20 = 559,660.  That would be agonizingly close but 7,197 short of the required 566,857. Continue reading . . .

Boudin Critic Appointed New SF DA

by · Jul 8, 2022 2:11 pm

SF Mayor London Breed has appointed Brooke Jenkins to be the San Francisco District Attorney, filling the vacancy created by the recall of Chesa Boudin. Eric Ting had this article yesterday in the SF Chronicle based on an insider tip, and the official announcement was made today, as reported in this article from Bay City News.

The appointment is a short one, as a special election will be held concurrently with the November general election to fill the seat until SF’s odd election cycle comes around again in 2023.

Ms. Jenkins was a prosecutor in the office until last year, when she quit over Mr. Boudin’s policies and joined the recall effort. Heather Knight had this article at the time on her departure. She considers herself a progressive (it is SF, after all), but what she means by “progressive” is clearly much different than what Mr. Boudin means.

Continue reading . . .

A Great Day in LA

by · Jul 6, 2022 12:24 pm

The committee working to recall LA DA George Gascón has this announcement:

For all the victims of George Gascon’s reckless policies. For all the families who have been robbed of justice. And for every law-abiding resident who just wants to feel safe.

George Gascon has got to go.

Today, we will take a major step towards making that a reality.

Join us TODAY at 1:45pm at the LA County Registrar of Voters. A large moving truck filled with all the signed petitions will be driven to the County Registrar, and delivered.

Continue reading . . .

The Exoneration Hustle

by · Jul 6, 2022 8:53 am

Thomas Hogan has this article with the above title at the City Journal.

The headline is becoming more common: “Innocent Man Freed After Decades in Jail for Murder!” As a matter of statistical probabilities, it must be true that some innocent defendants are convicted. But experienced law enforcement officials are growing concerned that progressive prosecutors are freeing guilty murderers in their rush to enforce their own politics of decarceration and equity. A close look at how this exoneration hustle works is worth reviewing because the pattern becomes clear.