Author: Michael Rushford

The pro-criminal industrial complex, which includes legacy groups like the ACLU and the NAACP, and newer more aggressive advocates such as the Death Penalty Information Center, Sentencing Project, the Marshall Project and numerous Soros-funded groups with a state or city name like “Californians For Safety and Justice,” are celebrating the expected elimination of the death penalty in Virginia.  In an opinion piece in last Friday’s Washington Post, Ashley Nellis, a senior research analyst at the Sentencing Project notes  “Now, Virginia joins a growing wave of states that have rejected this punishment and chosen to make our criminal justice system more humane, equitable and fair.”

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The San Francisco Department of Elections has cleared the way for a campaign to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.  Evan Symon of the California Globe reports that the campaign will need to gather at least 51,000 signatures in order to get the recall before San Francisco voters.  Boudin was elected District Attorney in 2019.  Prior to his election, his only job as a practicing lawyer was as a deputy in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.  Recall proponents cite Boudin’s reluctance to prosecute criminals in numerous crime catagories which they claim has led to increased crime, including a 46% increase in burglaries, and an increase in robberies.  Earlier this week a San Francisco television reporter was robbed in broad daylight while broadcasting live.

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Dzhokbar Tsarnaev, one of two radical Islamic terrorists who set off pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon killing three and injuring 264, and then murdered an MIT police officer during his attempted escape, is suing the federal Bureau of Prisons.  CBS News reports that Tsarnaev is claiming that his treatment at the federal supermax prison in Colorado violates his First, Fifth and Eighth Amendment rights.  Last year a panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his death sentence ruling that the jurors were not properly screened.  SCOTUS is currently pondering whether to review the government’s appeal of that ruling.

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A California murderer, who confessed to killing at least seven young women between 1977 and 1987, was put to death at the state’s Mule Creek Prison on February 28, at the age of 81.  Appropriately, the criminal known as the I-5 Strangler died by strangulation at the hands of his cellmate, convicted murderer Jason Budrow.  Ryan Sabalow of the Sacramento Bee reports that Roger Kibbe confessed the murders to detectives in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty.  Vito Bertocchini, the retired San Joaquin Sheriff’s detective that worked the case, believes that Kibbe left more victims.  If this killer had been charged after Governor Newsom had granted a blanket reprieve to all the murderers on death row, it is unlikely he would have volunteered any information about his victims.  Thanks to Newsom’s edict, Budrow was able to kill his cellmate with relative impunity.   Even if prosecutors are able to secure a death sentence for him, it is unlikely he will ever be executed.  Perhaps the state should move this guy into another murderer’s cell.

With the sanctuary state of California offering free medical care, driver’s licenses, education and other benefits to illegal aliens, along with protection from deportation, and the Biden administration announcement that it will grant amnesty to illegals, reinstate chain migration and not turn away any unaccompanied minors, why wouldn’t foreign nationals pay human smugglers (called coyotes) to get them into the Golden State?  The Associated Press reports that the Ford Expedition that crashed into a semi truck near El Centro, CA on March 2, was carrying 25 people, 13 of which died in the crash.  The vehicle was one of two SUVs that drove through a hole in California’s border fence to smuggle Mexicans into the U.S.  The second, a Chevy Suburban, caught fire on the highway and all 19 passengers were taken into custody.  Under current U.S. and California law, they will undoubtedly be released, and perhaps bused to a U.S. City.  The welcome mat has been laid out and for the coyotes business is booming.

A bill introduced in the House (HR 7120) by California democrat Karen Bass appears to encourage police departments to adopt race and gender based quotas to avoid being sued.  NBC News reports that the Biden Administration is supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to tackle “systemic racism — in police departments.”  Attorney Hans Bader, who reviews the bill in Liberty Unyielding, suggests that it might actually cause racism.  “Under the bill, what matters is numbers and racial bean counting, not actual racism or sexism.”  Disparate impact in police stops or interviews based on race or gender is defined as “prima facie evidence” of a “violation,”  under the proposed law.

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