Category: News Scan

A habitual criminal released from prison four months early due to the Coronavirus was arrested for murdering a 21-year-old woman in Denver last weekend. Spencer Neale of the Washington Examiner reports that the Colorado Department of Corrections released  Cornelius Haney on May 9 to lower the prison population to protect inmates and correctional staff from the Covid-19 virus. Haney was serving a seven-year-sentence for armed robbery and was due for release on August 22. Louis Casiano of Fox News reports that Colorado Governor Jared Polis had issued an executive order giving state corrections officials the authority to release parole-eligible inmates early during the pandemic.  After Haney’s arrest, the Governor told reporters “nobody on that parole board thought that this person was going to do what they allegedly did.”  Bummer for his 21-year-old victim.

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A Missouri man convicted of the brutal 1991 sexual assault and murder of an 81-year-old woman is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection today. On Sunday, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals lifted a stay that a district court judge ordered last Friday.  The appeals court noted that after two mistrials, a trial and conviction that was reversed and remanded by the Missouri Supreme Court, and a second trial and conviction that was later vacated, Walter Barton was convicted after his fifth trial for murder in the first degree. The Associated Press reports that Barton has maintained his innocence throughout and that the findings of an expert hired after his trial by his defense attorneys led three jurors to tell reporters that they would have been uncomfortable recommending a death sentence.  UPDATE: Barton died peacefully via lethal injection Tuesday evening.

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The major media has reported that overall crime is down in most places in America this year, attributing most of the reduction to the nation-wide lockdown due to the pandemic.  But CompStat numbers for New York City, one of the most locked-down places in the nation, show increases in some serious crimes over the first four months of the year.   As of May 3, murders in the Big Apple were up 3%.  Robberies increased by 12%, burglary was up 29% and auto theft jumped by 62%.  There were also reported increases in transit crimes and shootings.  But the increase in violence is not limited to NYC.  Detroit has seen a 66% spike in shootings and an increase in homicides, with increases in shootings also reported in Dallas, Nashville, Philadelphia and Tuscon.   In fact shooting deaths nationally at this point in the year are higher than those over the same period during the last three years.

A bill (SB1413) signed into law in 2018 by California Governor Jerry Brown, which prohibits charging some accomplices to murder with murder, and allows reduced sentences to those previously convicted as accomplices to murder, is being challenged by the Ventura County District Attorney.  Megan Diskin of the Ventura County Star reports that the District Attorney is appealing a Second District Court of Appeal ruling, which upheld the law, to the state Supreme Court.

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The Associated Press reports today that crime in Houston, Texas, is up compared to last year, with homicides increasing by 49%.  Police say that the spike in murders is the result of a drop in the supply of illegal drugs, causing dealers to violently defend their turf and product.   Other crimes that have increased during the pandemic, including aggravated assault, domestic violence, and burglaries, even as some crimes have declined in other parts of the world under lockdown.

Seven weeks after the President recommended that Americans shelter in place and states issued lockdown orders to combat the Covid-19 virus, the process of reopening has begun in some parts of the country.   But in several states, including Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and California governors are moving slowly, insisting that science shows that many businesses and parks should remain closed and healthy people should continue to stay home and avoid others.  Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald has this piece in The Hill suggesting that the science is not clear that the lockdown has worked and that the consequences of sheltering in place may be worse than the disease.

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California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals held last Tuesday that an emergency rule by the state’s Judicial Council authorizing  judges to give zero bail to those charged with nonviolent crimes is not mandatory.  Alaina Lancaster of the Recorder reports that the unanimous court asserted that “[t]he Judicial Council did not intend to suspend the array of statutes governing bail, as well as the superior court’s inherent authority, which allow the court to depart from the scheduled bail amount or impose bail conditions in individual cases under appropriate circumstances.”   The decision was announced in response to a San Diego Superior Court Judge’s decision to depart from the rule and set bail for defendants in order to “assure the appearance of the defendant or protect public safety.”

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A Los Angeles County decision to eliminate bail for those arrested for so-called “low level” felonies is proving to be a bonus for habitual criminals.  The no-bail policy was instituted in late March to reduce the jail population and protect inmates from the Covid-19 virus.  Richard Winton at the Los Angeles Times reports that the no-bail policy has turned the police department into a revolving door where criminals are arrested, charged then released after a few hours to commit another crime.  Over a three-week period in April, habitual felon Eric Medina was arrested and released four times for stealing cars.  In the first 30 days of the policy LAPD has arrested and released 213 criminals multiple times for felonies such as car theft, which is not considered an important crime worthy of time in jail unless, of course, it happens to be your car.

UPDATE:  On Thursday, Alameda County Judge Thomas Reardon released suspected double-rapist Gregory Vien from jail pending trial to protect him from Covid-19.  DNA evidence linked Vien to two rapes in 1997.   The judge relied upon an advisory from California’s Judicial Counsel which recommends zero bail for those arrested for non-violent offenses.  Apparently Judge Reardon considers rape a non-violent offense.

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Although Orange County jails are not full, a court commissioner recently ordered the early release of seven high risk sex offenders because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Jessica De Nova of ABC news reports that all of the released criminals have previously violated parole, some several times.  The Sheriff told reporters that his jail population is down by 45% since March and that none of releases are related to measures taken to protect inmates from the virus.  “We have responsibly created the capacity need in the jail to house sex offenders and other dangerous criminals.”

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During the Covid-19 lockdown, New York’s subways are supposed to be a primary mode of transportation for people working in hospitals, grocery stores and other essential services.  But as reported by CBS New York,  nurses taking the subway to work are sharing the cars with dozens of passed out homeless and shopping carts filled with garbage.  “There is an astronomical amount of homeless people now in the subway,” one conductor told reporters.

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