Author: Michael Rushford

DC Circuit Hears Federal Death Penalty Challenge:  A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held oral argument last Wednesday on a lawsuit by condemned federal murderers seeking to block their executions.  John Kruzel of The Hill reports that last fall, after U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr announced his intention to resume federal executions and scheduled four murderers to receive lethal injections, the four won a district court ruling temporarily suspending their executions.

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Court Limits Felon Voter Law:  In an advisory opinion released Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court confirmed that Amendment 4, passed by voters in 2018, limits which felons will be allowed to vote in state and federal elections.  News4 and the Associated Press report that the initiative grants some 1.4 million ex-felons in Florida who have completed “all terms of sentence” with voting rights.  The court held that the “all terms” requirement includes fees and court-ordered restitution, which must be paid before the ex-felon is authorized to vote.  The ACLU and the Marshall Project opposed the requirement because it discriminates against poor ex-felons who do not have the money to comply.   This requirement could significantly reduce the number ex-felon voters in the next election.

An ABC Los Angeles story on crime in Southern California and a report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) have found that overall crime is down in the Golden State, although there were some minor increases in some violent crimes, particularly, as ABC notes, among the homeless in Los Angeles.

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SCOTUS Denies Stay for Texas Killer:  The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the last minute petition to delay tomorrow’s execution of John Steven Gardner.  Joseph Brown of CHNI News reports that Gardner’s claim that his trial attorneys were ineffective did not convince the court to grant him a stay.  Gardner was found guilty and sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of his third wife, who was divorcing him.  The 41-year-old victim died in a hospital two days after she was shot in the head.  On the day she was shot, she managed to call 911 and identify Gardner as the assailant before falling into a coma.  Gardner had previously served eight years in prison for shooting his first wife, who was 18 and pregnant at the time.  The attack caused a miscarriage and left her a paraplegic.  He was returned to prison for kidnapping his second wife when she attempted to leave him.  In each of the marriages the victims were subjected to repeated abuse.  UPDATE:  Gardner died yesterday, sixteen minutes after receiving a lethal injection.

An Algorithm to Predict Crime:   The Dallas Police Department is considering utilizing a risk terrain modeling algorithm developed by researchers at Rutgers University to identify neighborhoods where crime is most likely to occur.  Nic Garcia of the Dallas Morning News reports that the modeling  software looks at not only the level of crime in a particular area, but also the physical characteristics in the area, such as liquor stores, bus stops, street lighting and abandoned buildings, that invite criminal behavior.   Part of the effort to reduce crime in the areas identified by the  software will require changing the characteristics in the neighborhood that researchers conclude promote crime.  This might mean moving a bus stop, requiring security cameras at liquor stores and car washes, and boarding up abandoned buildings.  A similar effort in Atlantic City resulted in a 26% drop in violent crime and a 37% drop in robberies the first year.

Dining Out In LA:   The decision to take your family to a patio restaurant in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice has probably been a bad idea for the last several years.  The beach communities in Southern California, and particularly Venice, have been awash with vagrants for quite some time.  But since California’s decade of compassionate reforms which have allowed thieves, addicts and the mentally ill to take over public spaces, many neighborhoods along the Pacific Coast Highway are no longer safe for law abiding people.

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Border Agent’s Killer Gets Life:  One of the drug smugglers who participated in the 2010 murder of a federal Border Patrol agent was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge Wednesday.  The Associated Press reports that Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes used a  military style assault rifle he obtained through then Attorney General Eric Holder’s “Operation Fast and Furious” to kill agent Brian Terry.  Terry and fellow agents were staking out a site popular with drug traffickers in Southern Arizona when they encountered a group of armed Hispanics.  Terry was shot and killed by one of the AK47 assault rifles the criminals were carrying.

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Problems Emerge With NY Bail Reform:   A New York law which took effect on January 1, to eliminate cash bail for a long list of so-called low level crimes is already coming under fire.  NBC News reports that pressure is mounting in the state’s Democrat controlled legislature to change the new law to give judges the discretion to require bail for some arrestees.   Even Governor Cuomo, who promoted the law, is open to changing it after a New York Judge cited the new law to release a female anti-Semite, arrested for attacking three Jewish women, without bail.  The woman was arrested the next day when she punched a 35-year-old in the face.  Noah Adamitis of Clarion News reports that shortly after the law took effect a judge released a man arrested for bank robbery without bail.  Other crimes requiring the defendant to be released without bail include:  manslaughter, vehicular homicide, assault, criminal possession of a firearm,  promoting child pornography and failure to register as a sex offender among others.   Last year law enforcement leaders warned  legislators that the new law would require the release of criminals who should be held until trial, resulting in increased crime.

24 Australians Arrested For Starting Fires:  While climate activists and many in the media are, once again, pointing to a natural disaster, this time the Australian wildfires, as proof of man-caused climate change, two dozen Aussies have been arrested for setting fires during the country’s hot dry season.  Mark Osborne of ABC news reports that another 53 people are facing charges of violating safety laws during the dry season and another 47 have been cited for throwing lit cigarettes into the bush.

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Private Prison Group Sues CA:  A Florida corporation that runs private prisons is suing California in federal court for a recently enacted law banning new contracts and the opening of any new facilities.  The law, AB32 was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last year whose office stated that private prisons “run contrary to our values.”  Joaquin Palomino of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the private prisons are used primarily to house illegal aliens convicted of federal crimes, although the reporter misidentifies them as “immigrants.”  In its lawsuit the GEO Group argues that the implementation of AB32 will “undermine and eliminate the congressionally funded and approved enforcement of federal criminal and immigration law.”  The author of the law, Alameda County Assemblyman Rob Bonita told reporters that the lawsuit was a “desperate attempt” initiated by “a collapsing industry in its final death throes.”  He was apparently unaware that a few weeks ago ICE signed four multimillion-dollar contracts with several private prison companies including GEO, to operate detention centers in illegal-immigrant-friendly California.

Violent Crime Up in NYC:  The Big Apple experienced a spike in shootings and homicides in 2019, breaking a four-year streak of declines.  Wes Parnell and Thomas Tracy of the New York Daily News report that homicides were up by almost 8% last year, which was the first increase since 2017.  The head of the Police Benevolent Association predicted that recent policies benefiting defendants would continue to drive the crime rate up.  Police unions were also warning that a new law taking effect on January 1 which eliminates bail for most misdemeanors will also encourage more crime over the year ahead.  But city officials see the uptick as a statistical anomaly and Mayor de Blasio said that he would address the increase and “turn this situation around.”