Author: Bill Otis

Supreme Court Clears the Way to Execute Child Killer Purkey

by · Jul 16, 2020 1:14 am

The Court’s order dissolving Judge Chutkan’s attempt once more to frustrate justice with infinite delay is here.   Kent correctly predicted several hours ago that Chutkan was “plow[ing] right into reversal number three.”

I’m not especially an optimist, but there may be reason to hope that the Supreme Court is starting to show long overdue impatience with what Justice Alito correctly called abolitionists’ “guerilla war against the death penalty.”  Endless last-minute stunts, newly discovered brain lesions, sudden devotion to religion  —  all the usual maneuvers out of the game-the-system playbook might have worn out their welcome.

And thank you to President Trump and Leader McConnell for Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, both essential votes in the majority.  The Court’s four more liberal members again dissented.

New Light Shed on the “School to Prison Pipeline”

by · Jul 15, 2020 11:19 am

The “school-to-prison pipeline” is a favorite phrase of sentencing reform advocates.  It’s meant to imply that the real problem with thieves, drug pushers and con artists, etc., is not the choices they make, but the callous and woeful treatment society gives them  as school kids.  Because society is to blame, it’s unjust to punish the individual  — indeed, it’s no longer that the criminal owes a debt to society; it’s that society owes a debt to him!  We see this theme in dozens if not hundreds of academic proposals to water down (or, better, eliminate) punishment in favor of social programs to cater to those who, in that wonderfully opaque phrase, “interact with the criminal justice system.”

In a sense, there may indeed be a “school-to-prison pipeline,” but the way it operates is not exactly what we’ve been led to believe.  It might have more to do with what sort of “education” is going on in the classroom.  The Los Angeles teachers’ union seems to want to help us understand.

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Jeff Sessions, an Appreciation

by · Jul 15, 2020 6:03 am

Former Attorney General and US Senator Jeff Sessions yesterday lost his bid to return to the Senate when he was defeated in the Alabama Republican primary.  In my view, Sessions was one of the very best members of Congress in standing up for sober criminal justice policies.  He did this for most of his public life, starting in 1975 when he became an Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.  In 1981, President Reagan appointed him to be US Attorney; in 1994, he was elected Attorney General of Alabama, and two years later, he handily won a Senate seat.  He served in the Senate until President Trump appointed him Attorney General in February 2017.  He resigned, at the President’s insistence, 20 months later.

Although Sessions’ contributions to sound criminal justice policy were substantial to say the least, they are not, in my view, the reason for which his public service should best be remembered.

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Trump Commutes Roger Stone’s Sentence. Let the Reformers’ Hypocrisy Begin!

by · Jul 10, 2020 7:05 pm

The President today commuted Roger Stone’s 40-month prison sentence, which he was to start serving shortly.  As I noted in my earlier post on the Stone sentencing, Mr. Stone seemed to me to be a lifelong blowhard and bully.  He was convicted on ample evidence of witness tampering.  The line prosecutors (members of the Mueller team) recommended a sentence of seven to nine years.  Their superiors at DOJ thought that excessive, and changed the recommendation to roughly three to four years.  The sentencing judge, an Obama appointee, apparently agreed with the superseding, more lenient recommendation.

There was much debate about whether the lighter recommendation was merely political genuflection to the President’s wishes, or was instead, and as I believe, justified on the merits of the Department’s assessment of the Sentencing Guidelines.  But that debate will seem tame compared to the one about to begin about today’s commutation.

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They’re Telling Us What They Have in Mind. Best We Listen.

by · Jul 7, 2020 12:49 pm

One among many reasons I regularly read Doug Berman’s excellent blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, is the breadth of its coverage.  Today it features an article of great value because of its honesty.  It tells us, without a whole lot of varnish, what our opponents on criminal justice policy have in mind for the country.

We ignore it at our peril.  The people behind these suggestions are going to be eager candidates for politically-appointed sub-Cabinet positions in a Democratic administration, at the Justice Department and elsewhere.  If you want to know what the Biden DOJ is actually going to be pushing  —  as opposed to the relative pablum we’ll be hearing about in the campaign (if the former Vice President chooses to mount one)  —  here it is.

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The Most Tragic Victims of America’s Murder Spree: Black Children

by · Jul 6, 2020 5:39 pm

My friend Daniel Horowitz of the Conservative Review is an incredibly diligent and resourceful investigator of crime data.  He has given me permission to repeat here his story today about the gruesome toll our present murder spree is taking on those least able to protect themselves  — black children.  As Daniel observes:

[F]ireworks were not the only munitions shot over the July 4 weekend. Statues weren’t the only things felled by anarchists and criminals roaming…the streets. This weekend was a bloody one across the country, with [dozens of] shootings in America’s cities, including New York, [once] considered the safest American city for a generation. Once again, African-American victims, including a number of young children, paid the price while the anarchy was excused and even legitimized by the media and politicians.

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As the Police Are Scorned and “Progressive” Prosecutors Settle In, Murder Explodes Across America

by · Jul 6, 2020 12:36 pm

The New York Times today makes some efforts to explain away the story, but for the most part tells it straight up:  Murder is surging in cities across the country:

Overall crime is down 5.3 percent in 25 large American cities relative to the same period in 2019, with violent crime down 2 percent.

But murder in these 25 cities is up 16.1 percent in relation to last year. It’s not just a handful of cities driving this change, either. Property crime is down in 18 of the 25 sampled cities, and violent crime is down in 11 of them, but murder is up in 20 of the cities.

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Abolish the Police? “That Would Be Suicide.”

by · Jul 3, 2020 9:02 pm

The types  —  mostly white  — who went to Columbia and NYU Law and take the limo out to their weekend place in the Hamptons are none too pleased with the NYPD.  Their man, Mayor Bill de Blasio, just cut the police budget by a billion dollars, in a time of dramatically rising violent crime.

But New Yorkers who lead ordinary lives have a different view.  Asked about the prospect of abolishing the police, the response made up in common sense what it lacked academic refinement:  “That would be suicide.”

The commentary in the Western Journal lays it on the line.

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