by Kent Scheidegger · Nov 10, 2022 9:40 am
A bit late on this report. The 2022 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded in September. The winners list is here. The prize in literature went to Eric Martínez, Francis Mollica, and Edward Gibson for their research on why legal documents are hard to understand: “Poor Writing, Not Specialized Concepts, Drives Processing Difficulty in Legal Language.” I pretty much knew that, but it’s nice to see it confirmed in published research. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Nov 2, 2022 2:19 pm
In debates over criminal justice policy, people are constantly referring to crime indexes for the question of whether crime is up or down and by how much. But there are problems with the official indexes. One of them is that indexes tend to be dominated by the least serious crime chosen for inclusion in the particular index. Crimes are simply counted, and because the frequency of crimes tends to be inversely related to their severity, the less serious crimes dominate.
For example, the FBI’s index of violent crime includes murder (and voluntary manslaughter), rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Murder is the most serious, followed by rape, but the other two are much more common. As a result, the violent crime index is largely a measure of robbery and aggravated assault, and it relatively insensitive to changes in the rates of murder and rape.
One alternative is an index with crimes weighted according to their severity. I have seen such indexes in other countries and for some jurisdictions within the United States, but none for the United States as a whole. Here is a first cut at a severity-weighted index of violent crime in the United States. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Nov 1, 2022 8:44 am
The U.S. Supreme Court has concluded its oral argument in Jones v. Hendrix. The question is whether federal prisoners who have already had an appeal and one or more collateral reviews of their convictions can use the “saving clause” of 28 U.S.C. §2255(e) to bring habeas corpus petitions in certain cases in which Congress has forbidden a successive 2255 petition.
The claim is that 2255(e) preserves claims that were traditionally cognizable in habeas despite the 1996 amendment that limited successive petitions. It is difficult to make a prediction from argument. Several of the justices said little or nothing. However, I was encouraged that some justices questioned what point in habeas history we should be looking at. The availability of habeas corpus has varied widely throughout history. The kind of claim at issue in this case would not have been cognizable in early America, as documented in our brief in this case. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 31, 2022 9:45 am
The U.S. Supreme Court issued an orders list from last week’s conference. No new cases were taken up for full briefing and argument. There were no opinions of the Court issued and no opinions dissenting from denial of certiorari.
In other words, the orders/opinions aspect of today’s session was boring. All attention is on the oral argument in the school admission affirmative action cases being argued today.
Tomorrow, the Court will hear argument in Jones v. Hendrix, No. 21-857, asking whether Congress left a huge loophole when it cracked down on successive collateral petitions by federal prisoners. We think not. CJLF’s amicus brief is here. Unfortunately, the Solicitor General has gone over the hill and joined the defendant on the main point, although disagreeing on the details and the application to this case.
Also on tomorrow’s docket is Cruz v. Arizona, No. 21-846, regarding the way Arizona has treated past capital cases where the trial court refused to inform the jury that the defendant would not be eligible for parole if sentenced to life in prison.
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 28, 2022 10:01 am
The WSJ has this report on the break-in of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi. It appears at this time that the attack was politically motivated. “The intruder shouted, ‘Where is Nancy?’ before attacking her husband, one of the officials said.” Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 27, 2022 9:46 am
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr has this op-ed in the WSJ with the above headline.
The violent crime surge was preventable. It was caused by progressive politicians reverting to the same reckless revolving-door policies that during the 1960s and ’70s produced the greatest tsunami of violent crime in American history. We reversed that earlier crime wave with the tough anticrime measures adopted during the Reagan-Bush era. We can stop this one as well.
I haven’t seen any reactions to the op-ed yet, but I can predict them. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 26, 2022 5:29 pm
A poll conducted by the Harvard University Center for American and Political Studies and the Harris Poll yielded the result in the caption (more precisely 64-36) along with several other interesting results. This is one more encouraging sign that the people are returning to common sense on crime. It can’t come a moment too soon. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 26, 2022 11:38 am
Plea bargains often involve an agreement for the defendant to plead guilty to a lesser offense and for the government to dismiss charges of a greater offense. When the bargain also includes an agreement for the defendant to pay restitution to the victim, does it matter that only the greater, dismissed charge carries a restitution requirement, and the lesser charge to which the defendant pleads guilty does not?
No, it does not matter in federal criminal cases, the Ninth Circuit decided yesterday in Jane Doe v. U.S. District Court (Alexander), No. 22-70098. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 14, 2022 10:45 am
With Republicans finally running effective campaign ads on the crime issue, we are hearing predictable cries from the soft-on-crime crowd that this is Willie Horton all over again. It is, but that does not mean what they are implying. Horton and his crimes were a completely valid criticism of a horrible policy decision by Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, but it has gone down in leftist mythology as racist fear-mongering. Diana Allocco has the first of a two-part series of articles at Tipp Insights here. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Oct 14, 2022 9:56 am
A century and a third after his suicide, Vincent Van Gogh still can’t catch a break. The WSJ reports that protesters threw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in London’s National Gallery. Cue Don McLean. Continue reading . . .
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