Category: Sentencing

Fresno Cop Dead Thanks to Newsom’s Early Release Plan

by · Feb 1, 2023 3:24 pm

In 2016, Governor Jerry Brown and progressive billionaire George Soros pooled just over $10 million to fool the public into passing Proposition 57, the so-called “Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act.”  While it was billed as providing well-behaved non-violent felons with a means to gain early release from prison, District Attorneys warned that it would give the state department of corrections unbridled authority to release inmates with multiple violent prior convictions.  Two years later a Los Angeles appeals court and a Sacramento judge ruled that this warning was correct.  In May of last year Governor Newsom’s appointed head of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced new regulations giving over 70,000 prison inmates the opportunity for early release.  A CJLF lawsuit to block these unconstitutional regulations has been dragging through the courts  since last Summer.  On Tuesday,  January 31, a police officer in the small farming town of Selma was shot and killed by gang member sentenced last March to five years in prison for several felonies.  He was released last November after serving seven months.

Continue reading . . .

NY Drug Dealer Convicted of Killing Three

by · Jan 31, 2023 1:55 pm

A New York City drug dealer who distributed fentanyl-laced cocaine out of his mother’s Manhattan apartment has been convicted of the 2021 poisoning deaths of three people.  Aaron Katersky of CBS News reports that Billy Ortega faces 25 years-to -life in federal prison for selling the laced cocaine to stockbroker Ross Mitangi, lawyer Amanda Scher and social worker Julia Ghahramari on the same day in March of 2021.  All three died of fentanyl poisoning.  Federal prosecutors proved that Ortega knew that the drugs he was selling were causing overdoses.  He even gave some of the cocaine to another dealer and suggested he test it’s potency telling him, “give it some girls and you let me know…”  In 2021 18,000 American fatally overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine.  Fortunately federal law provides a stiff mandatory minimum sentence for this type of crime.

The Price of Social Justice

by · Jan 12, 2023 10:00 am

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley’s recent piece, “The Economic and Human Costs of Protecting Criminals,” breaks down the impact of progressive sentencing reforms enacted across the country to achieve social justice.  The elimination of cash bail…the conversion of theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors…various “second chance” or so called smart sentencing laws enacted by democrat politicians to sentence habitual criminals to rehab rather than prison or jail, have come at a very high price.

“There’s little doubt that these policies, promoted in the name of social justice for the poor, result in more crimes being committed by people who otherwise would be behind bars. A study by two professors at the University of Utah, Paul Cassell and Richard Fowles, concluded that “after more generous release procedures were put in place, the number of released defendants charged with committing new crimes increased by 45%.” Proponents insist that only “low-level” and “nonviolent” offenders can take advantage of these reforms, but the study found that “the number of pre-trial releases charged with committing new violent crimes increased by an estimated 33%.” Shoplifters don’t always stick to shoplifting.”

Continue reading . . .

Political Violence

by · Oct 28, 2022 10:01 am

The WSJ has this report on the break-in of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and attack on her husband, Paul Pelosi. It appears at this time that the attack was politically motivated.  “The intruder shouted, ‘Where is Nancy?’ before attacking her husband, one of the officials said.” Continue reading . . .

Rising Crime Rates Are a Policy Choice

by · Oct 27, 2022 9:46 am

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr has this op-ed in the WSJ with the above headline.

The violent crime surge was preventable. It was caused by progressive politicians reverting to the same reckless revolving-door policies that during the 1960s and ’70s produced the greatest tsunami of violent crime in American history. We reversed that earlier crime wave with the tough anticrime measures adopted during the Reagan-Bush era. We can stop this one as well.

I haven’t seen any reactions to the op-ed yet, but I can predict them. Continue reading . . .

The Full Harm of Burglary

by · Sep 16, 2022 9:29 am

Karen Bass, a member of Congress and candidate for LA Mayor, was the victim of a home burglary recently. KTTV has this interview.

Ms. Bass says “my safety was shattered” and describes returning home to find the house burgled as “traumatic.” But isn’t burglary a “non-violent property crime”? Aren’t people who commit such crimes nearly harmless, to be handled with kid gloves and let off lightly? That’s what the folks on Ms. Bass’s side of the aisle have been telling us for years, and California has seen a cascade of laws designed to water down the consequences of committing such crimes. Continue reading . . .

Cal. Legislature’s Rescue of Murderers Upheld

by · Aug 24, 2022 12:32 pm

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is engaged in an all-out effort to reduce the sentences of LA murderers. Among the beneficiaries of Gascón’s efforts is Scott Collins, who gunned down Fred Rose in 1992, stole his car, then drove the car to Fresno to use it in a drive-by shooting. For this he was justly sentenced to death, and the judgment has been upheld on both direct appeal and state habeas corpus.

Despite Gascón’s defection, there appeared to be a strong chance of stopping his intended miscarriage of justice until the murderer-friendly California Legislature came to his aid. Continue reading . . .

Brutal CA Murderer Got Early Prison Release

by · Aug 10, 2022 2:58 pm

The District Attorneys of Placer and Amador Counties told reporters Monday that a Sacramento man arrested for the July murder and dismemberment of an elderly North Highlands woman, gained early release from state prison after serving less than half of his sentence for previous crimes.  Rosalio Ahumada of the Sacramento Bee reports that habitual felon Darnell Erby is facing charges of aggravated murder and burglary for killing 77-year-old Pamela Garrett May, whose dismembered body was found in her home on July 19.  Over the past 20 years Erby had been convicted of 8 different crimes,  arrested 20 times, and had been unable to go more than two years without committing a serious felony.  Under California’s progressive sentencing reforms Erby actually became eligible for parole in 2018, a year after he was sentenced to 12 years for felony convictions in Placer and Amador County.  He was denied parole twice for criminal activity while in prison, but was granted parole in April of 2021.  Governor Jerry Brown’s Public Safety Realignment (AB 209) passed in 2011, and his George Soros-bankrolled Proposition 57, The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act, passed in 2016, made this murderer’s release possible.

Attempted Robbery Is Not Violent?

by · Jun 21, 2022 9:02 am

The U.S. Supreme Court continued its chip-by-chip undermining of federal sentence enhancements for violent crimes, making one more narrowing of the definition of “violent felony.” In United States v. Taylor, No. 20-1459, it’s attempted robbery under the Hobbs Act that bites the dust. This will come as no surprise to those who have watched the steady parade of decisions excluding from the term “violent felony” crimes that common sense would tell us are violent. See, e.g., this post. Continue reading . . .