Author: Kent Scheidegger

Supreme Court Takes Up Law Enforcement Related Cases

by · Oct 4, 2024 10:19 am

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a short orders list from Monday’s pre-term conference, adding 15 cases to the docket for the October 2024 Term. A much longer list of cases turned down will likely be issued next Monday at the formal opening of the term.

Continuing the high court’s frustrating lack of interest in criminal law, the list includes only one actual criminal case, Thompson v. United States, No. 23-1095. This case raises the question of whether the federal law against false statements to financial institutions and federal agencies extends to misleading half truths. An aspect of the case that increases its media profile is the fact that defendant Patrick Daley Thompson is the grandson of Chicago’s notoriously corrupt mayor Richard J. Daley and the nephew of later mayor Richard M. Daley.

There are also several law-enforcement-related civil cases, a category that gets more interest from SCOTUS:

Gutierrez v. Saenz, No. 23-7809, is a federal civil rights suit regarding a Texas capital case. It presents somewhat complex issues regarding DNA testing, standing, and distinctions between innocence claims and sentencing claims.

Barnes v. Felix, No. 23-1239, is a police use-of-force case involving the “moment of threat doctrine.” As described by the petitioner (i.e., the plaintiff suing the police officer), this approach “evaluates the reasonableness of an officer’s actions only in the narrow window when the officer’s safety was threatened, and not based on events that precede the moment of the threat.” In the Fifth Circuit, Judge Higginbotham wrote a concurrence to his own majority opinion asking the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split on this issue. Continue reading . . .

Multiple Murderer Executed in Texas

by · Oct 3, 2024 8:58 am

A man convicted of murdering two teenaged girls in 1988 was executed yesterday, Juan Lozano and Michael Graczyx report for AP.  Garcia White killed five people altogether. The appeals dragged on for well over three decades despite the lack of any doubt of guilt.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who witnessed White’s death, lamented that it took some 30 years to carry out the jury’s death verdict as multiple appeals in White’s case worked through the courts.

“The suffering of surviving (victims’) family members is just unspeakable,” she said. “At least it’s over.” Continue reading . . .

Free the Detergent!

by · Oct 2, 2024 5:08 pm

The San Diego Union-Tribune has this editorial, titled Endorsement: Yes on Prop. 36: Time to free the detergent.

The coming landslide win for Proposition 36 will be a triumph for truth over spin. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board has long supported criminal justice reform. But in real time, we saw the obvious flaws of Proposition 47 — the November 2014 measure that Proposition 36 is meant to fix. It changed many “nonviolent” felonies into misdemeanors in a ham-handed way that incentivized certain crimes.

Eleven months later, The Washington Post dispatched a reporter to San Diego who wrote an unforgettable account showing the incredulity of law enforcement over the new status quo: “instead of arresting criminals and removing them from the streets, their officers have been dealing with the same offenders again and again. Caught in possession of drugs? That usually means a misdemeanor citation under Prop 47, or essentially a ticket. Caught stealing something worth less than $950? That means a ticket, too. Caught using some of that $950 to buy more drugs? Another citation.

Nothing has changed since then — unless you count the emergence of a cottage industry determined to depict Proposition 47 as good no matter what. So store clerks say they’ve stopped reporting thefts because there’s no point? It’s a blip. So store owners are spending heavily to lock up more goods than ever, including detergent? There’s no proof that’s necessary — the corporations in charge have an agenda.

Manipulation of crime statistics, one of our favorite subjects, enters into the picture: Continue reading . . .

The Cost of Lax Enforcement of the Law

by · Sep 17, 2024 11:06 am

The Washington Post provides an example of the cost of not enforcing the law, even for minor offenses, in this story by Racher Weiner.

Paisley Brodie, age 12, was walking from school to the library when she was hit by a car while crossing the street in the crosswalk. She was taken from the scene in an ambulance. The car that hit her “has 94 unpaid tickets worth $19,770 from D.C. traffic cameras, six for speeding just this month and four for running red lights since July.”

It turns out this is not unusual. The car “is among roughly 2,100 vehicles with 40 or more unpaid tickets, according to D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles numbers from last year. It’s a fresh example of how drivers can rack up infractions from D.C. cameras but remain on the road.” Continue reading . . .

Musk Enters the DA Election Wars

by · Sep 13, 2024 12:10 pm

For some years now, George Soros has been spending a chunk of his fortune to buy district attorney seats in many cities by injecting a massive infusion of cash in support of a soft-on-crime candidate, often with deceptive ads. In Los Angeles last time, for example, ads for George Gascón touted him as the Democratic candidate, even though the race was nonpartisan and his opponent was a lifelong Democrat.

The good news is that another billionaire, Elon Musk, is weighing in on the other side, Joe Palazzolo and Dana Mattioli report for the WSJ. The bad news is that his first effort was a flop. Continue reading . . .

Crime Victim Survey 2023

by · Sep 12, 2024 1:46 pm

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has released the 2023 National Crime Victimization Survey. After increases in 2022, the rates were nearly the same as the past year, with violent crimes down 1/1000* and property crimes up the same amount.

The rates at which victims reported crimes to the police rose from 41.5% to 44.7% for violent crimes and fell from 31.8% to 29.9% for property crimes. For thefts other than cars, less than a quarter of crimes committed are now reported to the police. Continue reading . . .

Notorious Rapist Paroled Under Prop. 57 as “Nonviolent Offender”

by · Sep 10, 2024 10:47 am

Dan Walters has this column at CalMatters:

Eight years ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown hoodwinked California voters into making it easier for violent sex offenders to shorten their prison sentences.

A month ago, the 2016 ballot measure that Brown sponsored, Proposition 57, allowed one of the state’s most notorious serial rapists, Andrew Luster, to be granted parole after serving less than half of his 50-year prison term. Three weeks later the Legislature passed a bill to close the loophole in Prop. 57 that could allow Luster to be released.

When Brown proposed Prop. 57 to voters, he said it would benefit only those convicted of nonviolent crimes by allowing them to qualify more easily for parole.

“It’s well-balanced,” Brown said at the time. “It’s thoughtful.”

Continue reading . . .

Hit Man Sentenced to No Punishment At All for Murder

by · Sep 6, 2024 1:13 pm

AP reports:

A former Mafia hitman already serving life in prison was sentenced to 25 years Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Prosecutors said Fotios “Freddy” Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at the troubled U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization Friday, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.

The Justice Department said last year that it would not seek the death penalty against Geas in Bulger’s killing.

Congress abolished parole in the federal system many years ago, so life in federal prison is life without parole. Gaes’s new sentence is nominally consecutive to his life sentence, meaning it will begin the day he dies. Hence, he has been sentenced to no punishment at all. The government even plea-bargained a clearly premeditated murder down to manslaughter. Continue reading . . .

Cal. Prop. 47 Fix Initiative Ahead Over 2/1

by · Aug 22, 2024 2:03 pm

U.Cal. Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies has a poll taken early this month on three initiatives on that state’s ballot. The press release is here. Proposition 36 is a measure to fix some of the problems resulting from 2014’s Proposition 47. The poll shows Prop. 36 ahead by 56-23 with 21% undecided.

A landslide win would send a strong signal that the state’s voters are waking up to the reality that the claims that going soft on crime actually improves public safety are nonsense.

Early polls showing an initiative ahead generally need to be regarded with caution, as the late breaks in voting tend to be toward “no,” but this is such a strong lead that this tendency may not matter. Continue reading . . .