by Kent Scheidegger · May 17, 2021 11:56 am
I will be doing a teleforum for the Federalist Society on the Edwards decision today at 4:00 ET / 1:00 PT Friday at 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT. The announcement is here.
Technical difficulties at the teleforum host required last-minute rescheduling.
by Bill Otis · May 12, 2021 8:48 pm
For years, we’ve been told that “the death penalty is dying.” And it’s true that, as the murder rate fell by more than 50% over a generation (1990-2014), support for death sentences likewise fell substantially (although not as much, from 80% in the mid-Nineties to 55% today (still a bigger share of popular support than Joe Biden got)). The number of executions also substantially fell, but is hardly disappearing, since over the last five years, we’ve averaged one execution every 17 days (see this bar graph).
So it’s just not true that the death penalty is dying. It became less frequent as the need for it became less frequent, sure. This is news? But the reason for its persistence is no big mystery. It’s not that America is a primitive, vindictive country. It’s not that we are callous or sadistic. It’s that there continue to be gruesome, atrocious murders for which a jail sentence, no matter what its length, would not strike a normal person as fitting the crime. The most recent example comes from a county and state that were crucial in President Trump’s defeat.
by Michael Rushford · May 12, 2021 3:45 pm
A Tennessee man convicted of murdering a young mother and her daughter is asking a state court to overturn his death sentence due to his claimed mental disability. Travis Loller of the Associated Press reports that Pervis Payne’s execution was halted by the Governor last November, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Payne filed his claim one day after the Governor signed a bill into law which prohibits the execution of “intellectually disabled” murderers. Payne had raised the same claim unsuccessfully in his 2014 appeal in the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals which upheld his conviction and sentence.
by Michael Rushford · May 5, 2021 11:10 am
During 2020, 774 mostly black people in Chicago were murdered, a 50% increase compared to 2019. Shootings were up by over 52% with 3,237 shot. Those numbers should have raised questions among voters about reelecting progressive States Attorney Kim Foxx, who, according to the Chicago Tribune, dropped charges against over 25,000 felons in 2019 and ran on the promise not to prosecute so-called low level criminals like drug dealers and thieves. But with $2 million from George Soros, as reported in the Sun Times, Foxx won reelection last November by over 180,000 votes. Apparently the voters are willing to tolerate more crime because they like her politically correct anti-police and pro Black Lives Matter messaging.
by Michael Rushford · May 4, 2021 2:57 pm
In a unanimous ruling yesterday, the California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence handed down 23 years ago for a woman convicted of killing her four young daughters and attempting to kill her 14-year-old son. The Mercury News reports that Nikolet Amber Nieves’ boyfriend had recently left her pregnant, which she aborted a week before setting fire to her home killing her four daughters and nearly killing her son by two previous marriages. The girls, ranging in age from 5 to 12, died from smoke inhalation. In a note to one of her ex-husbands she wrote, “Now you don’t have to support any of us.” A defense expert testified that he believed she had taken enough drugs to be unaware of what she was doing when she set the fire, but she did manage to call 911 to report it. The jury did not buy it.
by Michael Rushford · Apr 30, 2021 10:59 am
The Black Lives Matter protests last year, characterized by the national media as “mostly peaceful” and called “critically important” by then-Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, regularly devolved into riots causing an estimated $2 billion in damages and at least 25 deaths. Joshua Rhett Miller of the New York Post reports that, at least in Minnesota, some of the rioters are receiving consequences for their crimes. On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced 23-year-old Dylan Shakespeare Robinson to four years in prison and $12 million in restitution for helping to set fire to a Minneapolis police station during rioting on May 28, 2020. Three of his buddies, also caught by security cameras setting fire to the station, are awaiting sentencing. Robinson stupidly bragged about his involvement on Snapchat.
Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Apr 28, 2021 3:30 pm
Proponents of sanctuary city and state policies including non-political groups such as the Cato Institute have told us for years that prohibiting local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities has no impact on crime. But the question has to be asked, if local government policies prevent federal agents from deporting illegal aliens, including those being released from jail, do the crimes they commit actually have no effect on the crime rate? I’m sorry but that does not make sense. Josh Friedman if Cal Coast News reports that Mexican national Alfonso Alarcon-Nunez was sentenced to 50 years in prison for multiple rapes and burglaries he committed in 2017 and 2018 while working as an Uber driver in the seaside college town of San Luis Obispo. Nunez had been previously deported, but slipped back across California’s border, got him self a state driver’s license and a job with Uber, where I’m sure they can’t ask applicants their immigration status. He prayed mostly upon intoxicated college co-eds, raping at least five of them. In 2018 SF Gate reported on the arrest of the “rideshare rapist,” illegal alien Lyft driver, Orlando Vilchez Lazo, for raping at least four women. California is, of course, a sanctuary state.
by Michael Rushford · Apr 28, 2021 11:54 am
The Los Angeles Police Department released first quarter 2021 data showing that shootings in the city have increased by by 73% compared to last year and homicides are up over 30%. City News Service reports that more than half the shootings were gang related. While vehicle thefts were up 20%, the Chief of Police was encouraged that the increase appears to have slowed compared to last month. This comes as Fox News reports that six cities in Los Angeles County have passed no-confidence votes for District Attorney George Gascón, whose policies have restricted prosecutors under his authority from pursuing the full sentences allowed by law for gang members and violent criminals. As of yesterday the cities of Lancaster, LaMirada, Whittier, Beverly Hills, Pico Rivera and Santa Clarita have voiced opposition to Gascón. The progressive DA has also ordered deputies to rescind prior sentencing enhancements in order to give roughly 20,000 convicted criminals the opportunity for early release.
by Bill Otis · Apr 22, 2021 11:10 pm
What will reining in the police, refusal to pursue property crime and trespass charges, going easy on “mostly peaceful” hooliganism, and other aspects of criminal justice “reform” bring? That’s a hugely important question, given the increasing number of (one party and hard Left) jurisdictions that are adopting it. Los Angeles is one. Portland, Seattle and Baltimore are others. Minneapolis is certainly in the mix.
One young woman tells her story, “I’ve lived in Minneapolis my entire life. I’m leaving Friday. I no longer recognize my hometown.” For an on-the-ground view of what “reform” means for ordinary people, I found the account revealing and very, very sad.
by Michael Rushford · Apr 21, 2021 10:37 am
A Nevada man sentenced to death for the 1999 shotgun murders of 4 is asking a judge to order the state to carry out his execution by a firing squad. Ken Ritter of the Associated Press reports that attorneys representing murderer Zane Floyd are arguing that the three-drug protocol used in Nevada executions would amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Floyd is also asking that his execution, scheduled for the week of June 7, be delayed until June 22 to allow him to seek clemency from the State Pardons Board. “This is not a delaying tactic,” said one of his defense attorneys. Yeah right.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED