Author: Kent Scheidegger

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 . . .

Walz Dithered While Minneapolis Burned

by · Aug 14, 2024 8:54 am

VP Harris’s choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate has prompted examinations of his role in the Minneapolis riot of May 2020. Heather MacDonald has this op-ed in the WSJ, with the above title.

The protests included widespread looting and arson. Rioters then attacked the firefighters as they responded to the fires, further aggravating the damage. The police and their station house were also attacked.

Despite repeated requests from the mayor, Gov. Walz sent only a small contingent of the National Guard on the evening of the second day of rioting–too little, too late. Not until the fourth day did the Guard arrive in force. Continue reading . . .

Alabama Nitrogen Execution Case Settled/Dismissed

by · Aug 7, 2024 2:24 pm

Following the nitrogen hypoxia execution of Kenneth Smith earlier this year, Alabama murderer Alan Miller sued the state to change its execution protocol, despite having sued previously to demand that the state use nitrogen. The case filed in March was Miller v. Marshall, 2:24-cv-00197-RAH (USDC MD Ala.) On Monday, Alabama AG Marshall issued a press release announcing the case had been settled. “The two sides had spent months in discovery, anticipating a major hearing on August 6, but after reviewing key documents and deposing the State’s witnesses, Miller agreed to settle with the State. The terms of the settlement remain confidential, but the result will be the dismissal of Miller’s lawsuit with prejudice.”

Due to the confidentiality of the settlement, the federal district court record on PACER contains only a stipulation of dismissal, not disclosing the terms, and a dismissal order.

I have not been able to find anything from the other side, but the fact that the case is settled with the execution date intact tends to confirm the AG’s claim that the settlement is a capitulation after the plaintiff’s attorneys found they had no case. The lack of any information on the anti-death-penalty Death Penalty Information Center also tends to corroborate this conclusion. The DPIC’s modus operandi is to carefully curate information on the death penalty, presenting only information that supports opponents and burying information that supports proponents. Continue reading . . .

District Attorneys and Sentence Reductions

by · Jul 24, 2024 1:56 pm

If the current elected prosecutor decides that a sentence obtained by a predecessor in a criminal case is not a good one (even if authorized by law and legally imposed), can he just move for a reduced sentence? Is the judge obligated to comply?

Ron Matthias, California Senior Assistant Attorney General (Ret.) has this op-ed in the Silicon Valley Voice denouncing Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s motions to reduce all of the death sentences coming from that county (San Jose and vicinity). Continue reading . . .

Just Deserts in Alabama

by · Jul 19, 2024 12:59 pm

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” — Adam Smith

Keith Gavin was convicted of murder in Illinois in 1982. Although sentenced to 34 years in prison, he was paroled in only half that time. The next month after his release, he shot and killed William Clayton during a robbery in Centre, Alabama.

Gavin did not get off so easy the second time. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his stay request yesterday, and he was executed about 6:00 pm. Continue reading . . .

USCA9 Vacates SF Camping Injunction

by · Jul 8, 2024 11:00 am

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction against San Francisco, preventing the city from enforcing its ordinance against camping on public property based on its precedents in Martin v. City of Boise and Johnson v. City of Grants Pass. The decision was 2-1, with Judge Bumatay dissenting, noting that “there’s nothing in the text, history, and tradition of the [Cruel and Unusual Punishment] Clause that comes close to prohibiting enforcement of commonplace anti-vagrancy laws, like laws against sleeping on sidewalks and in parks.”

Last week the Supreme Court reversed in Grants Pass, taking the same view of the Eighth Amendment as Judge Bumatay. See this post.

Today, the Ninth withdrew its published opinion and replaced it with a brief “memorandum,” i.e., an unpublished opinion. Continue reading . . .

Prop. 47 Damage Control Initiative on Cal. Ballot as Prop. 36

by · Jul 4, 2024 8:58 am

The Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Theft Reduction Act, a California ballot initiative to limit the damage from 2014’s disastrous, Soros-funded, Proposition 47, among other things, will be on the November ballot as Proposition 36. The Cal. Secretary of State released the ballot measure number list yesterday.

The initiative’s provisions are summarized in Section 2: Continue reading . . .

Final Orders List

by · Jul 2, 2024 8:38 am

The U.S. Supreme Court issued the last regular orders list of the term today. The court took up two cases on resentencing under First Step Act (which should have been titled the False Step Act or perhaps the Misstep Act). If a federal criminal sentenced before the Act gets a resentencing for some reason, does he get the benefit of the Act’s softer sentencing?

There will be a few orders lists during the summer recess, but they will likely be procedural matters, not decisions on whether to take up a new case.

Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court Narrows an Obstruction Law

by · Jun 28, 2024 11:47 am

No one was surprised when the rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were charged with crimes. A lot of people were surprised when they were charged with violating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a law mostly about financial matters enacted in the wake of the Enron fiasco. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court disapproved the creatively broad reading of the law behind these prosecutions in Fischer v. United States. Continue reading . . .