Category: General

Thomas Creech—who murdered at least six people, was sentenced to death in 1974, and then killed a fellow prison inmate in 1981—is finally facing execution on Wednesday in Idaho, as reported by the Associated Press. Last Friday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Creech’s claim that he should not be executed because he was sentenced for killing the inmate by a judge rather than a jury. While investigators believe that Creech murdered 11 people, he has only faced trial for six.

Creech’s first victim was 70-year-old retiree Paul Schrader, who he stabbed to death in Tuscon. After killing him, he used his victim’s credit cards and vehicle to flee to Portland, Oregon. He used a mental defense, was acquitted for that murder, and was committed to an Oregon mental hospital. In 1974, on a weekend pass,  Creech traveled to Sacramento and killed Vivian Grant Robinson at her home. The crime went unsolved until Creech confessed while in custody in Idaho. He was convicted of Robinson’s murder in 1980. Continue reading . . .

The top prosecutor in Maricopa County, Arizona told reporters Wednsday that she is turning down the Manhattan District Attorney’s request to extradite a murder suspect because they are too soft on crime in New York City. Michael Dorgan of Fox News reports that Raad Almansoori is a suspect in the February 8 murder of a 38-year-old woman in New York. He allegedly beat the victim to death with a clothes iron.  Before he could be arrested, he fled to Arizona where he is now facing charges for the February 18 stabbing of two women and the attempted rape of one of them in a McDonald’s restroom. Police arrested him after he fled the scene in a stolen car. At a recent press conference, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said, “having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan D.A. there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out and doing this to individuals either in our state or county or anywhere in the United States. He is being held without bond, meaning there is no amount of money that he can post to get out of custody at this point.”

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A violent gang member serving a prison sentence for stalking his ex-girlfriend has been denied early release by California’s Third District Court of Appeal.  Kelly Kimble received his third felony conviction in 2008 for stalking his ex-girlfriend. He was sentenced under the state’s “Three Strikes” law to 25-years-to-life plus one year based on a prior prison term enhancement. His two prior convictions were for attempted kidnapping and making criminal threats. As reported by the Metropolitan News Enterprise, in 2013 Kelly had petitioned for re-sentencing after state voters adopted Proposition 36,  the “Three Strikes Reform Act.”  That measure allowed criminals convicted of a third felony, not considered violent or serious, who had only one violent prior conviction to receive a reduced sentence at the discretion of a judge. The judge in this case explained that Kimble’s prior acts “involved physical violence” that he had violated conditions of probation and conditions of parole, that he “continues to defy authority year after year.” Twice assaulting other prisoners, and maintained gang ties. In 2014 the Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s decision. Then in 2022 Governor Newsom signed SB 483, another pro-criminal release bill, into law.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, two of the most pro-criminal politicians in state history, have announced that they are partnering to rescue the city of Oakland from its current crime wave. Jakob Rogers of The Mercury News reports that just days after dispatching 120 Highway Patrol officers to beef up Alameda County police, Newsom and Bonta are now sending attorneys from the AG’s office and the National Guard to help progressive District Attorney Pamela Price prosecute criminals. The problem is real. While crime dropped in many California cities last year, it rose dramatically in Oakland. Police report that robberies grew by 38%, burglaries jumped by 23%, while vehicle theft climbed 44%. People living in Oakland faced a 1 in 30 chance of having their car stolen last year. Considering who is leading this rescue effort, and who heads up the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, it is hard to take this seriously

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When Virginia politicians abolished the state’s death penalty three years ago, they promised that the murderers sentenced to death would serve life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP). An article in Liberty Unyielding reports that the very next year those same politicians introduced a bill called “second look” to give murderers sentenced to LWOP the opportunity for parole after serving 25 years. That bill failed to pass on a straight party line vote.  It was reintroduced again last year and died in the Republican controlled house. This year both houses of the Virginia Legislature have democrat majorities and two “second look” bills have been introduced again, with even more benefits for murderers.

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Imagine you are a police officer in a high-crime urban district responding to a report of a drive by shooting.  As you and your partner begin talking to witnesses a local law requires you to fill out a form listing the race, age and sex of everybody you talk to. The New York City Council has just passed the “How Many Steps Act” to require police to do this, supposedly to discourage racial profiling. California puts even more of a burden on police with the Racial & Identify Profiling Act. As a legislator, Attorney General Rob Bonta voted for this law. It requires officers to fill out an eight page form with 200 fields. Heather MacDonald has this City Journal piece breaking down what amounts to the most stupid anti-police legislation ever adopted.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom was caught on a Zoom forum Wednesday demonstrating that he has no idea how the crime policies he has supported have increased crime, particularly retail theft, across the state. David Propper of the New York Post reports that on the forum the Governor recounted that when he was preparing to check out during a recent visit to a Sacramento Target store, a man walked right out the door with stolen merchandise. Newsom asked the clerk “why didn’t you stop him.” The female clerk responded “She goes, ‘oh, the governor.’ Swear to God, true story on my mom’s grave. ‘The governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability.’ I said that’s just not true.” He told her that California’s Proposition 47 made the penalty for thefts of $950 or higher “the 10th toughest in the nation.” The Governor then told the clerk he wanted to see her manager.

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Last month the California Board of Parole Hearings, which is under Governor Newsom’s authority, approved parole for child murderer Patrick Goodman.  Goodman, a repeat felon, beat his girlfriend’s three-year-old son to death in 2000.  Sean O’Driscoll of Newsweek reports that the little boy died of a broken neck, broken ribs, a severed bowel, a severed artery and fifty separate external injuries.  In 2002 Goodwin was convicted of murder and child abuse in San Francisco and sentenced to 25-years-to-life.  Twenty-one years later, after fifteen minutes of deliberation, the two Board  Commissioners announced, “We find that Mr Goodman does not currently pose an unreasonable risk to public safety and is therefore suitable for parole.”  Assistant District Attorney Victoria Murray-Baldocchi pleaded with the Commissioners not to parole Goodman.

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Last year when Los Angeles County was considering adopting a zero bail policy, progressive District Attorney George Gascon announced his support saying that letting criminal defendants out without posting bail was safe and would make more of them return to court for trial.  Michael Ruiz of Fox News reports that Gascon’s claims regarding zero bail have turned out to be false.  The most recent example is Victor Duartemacias, one of LA county’s many catalytic converter and car thieves, who led police on a high speed chase the day after Thanksgiving.  Duartemacias was driving a stolen car when he blew through an intersection and smashed into Pedro Barrera’s pickup.  The pickup was hit so hard it knocked down a light pole as the stolen car burst into flames.  Barrera lost an arm in the crash, and died a month later in intensive care.

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A Californian is four times more likely to be killed in a hit and run accident than a person living in New York or Illinois. Marc Sternfield of KTLA reports that data from the National Traffic Safety Board indicate that more than one out of every ten fatal car accidents in the state were hit an run incidents. The national average of traffic fatalities that involve a hit and run driver is 6.33%.  It is 10.48% in California. The city with the highest hit and run death rate is San Francisco at 22% followed by Los Angeles with 15%. Most of the Californians killed by hit an run drivers were pedestrians. California also leads the nation on the number of stolen vehicles according to 2022 data with over 202,000, nearly twice as many as the second-place state of Texas. So the next time a California politician brags about the state being a national leader, believe him.