Category: Sentencing

Judicial Factfinding, Multiple Sex Offense Convictions and Consecutive Sentences

by · May 25, 2023 4:18 pm

Over a period of 10 months, Edgar Sandoval Catarino sexually abused his 9-year old cousin on multiple occasions.  He was charged with 8 counts of forcible lewd acts on a child under the age of 14 (Penal Code §288(a)) .  Each charge alleged an identical range of dates during which these offenses may have occurred.  A jury subsequently convicted him on 6 of the counts and the verdict also included the same range of dates alleged on each count, but did not further specify on what dates each of the crimes took place.  At sentencing, the court found that each conviction occurred on separate occasions and sentenced him to full, consecutive terms for each pursuant to Penal Code section 667.6(d).  Catarino argued that because the jury did not make specific findings that each of his convictions constituted separate incidents occurring on separate occasions, it violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.  The California Supreme Court rejected this argument and upheld his full, consecutive sentences this morning in People v. Catarino (S271828) Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court takes up prior conviction problem, again

by · May 15, 2023 3:50 pm

No criminal statute has taken up more of the U.S. Supreme Court’s time in recent decades than the Armed Career Criminal Act. As the name implies, sentencing under the act depends heavily on the extent of the defendant’s criminal career. The chronic headache comes from the fact that each jurisdiction defines crimes differently, and federal defendants prosecuted under the ACCA typically have multiple prior convictions in state court. Continue reading . . .

Human trafficking of adults is not “serious”?

by · May 5, 2023 3:42 pm

The Public Safety Committees of both houses of the California Legislature have long been known as graveyards. Strong criminal justice bills are buried there. A bill regarding human trafficking, SB 14, emerged from the Senate Public Safety Committee last week, but the extent to which it had to be watered down to survive is an appalling commentary on the present state of the California Legislature.

The base offense is defined in section 236.1(a) of the Cal. Penal Code. “A person who deprives or violates the personal liberty of another with the intent to obtain forced labor or services, is guilty of human trafficking ….” In other words, we are talking about actual slavery in the twenty-first century. Who could possibly be against throwing the book at present-day slavers? Continue reading . . .

‘Defund the Police’ Is Over. Now What?

by · Mar 8, 2023 2:58 pm

William Galston, the WSJ’s resident contrarian columnist*, has this column with the above title. Galston notes the political developments in Chicago, New York, and Washington and has this advice for his fellow liberals:

These events prove that dealing with the crime surge is back on the national agenda. Democrats must find a way to demonstrate their commitment to public safety while pursuing reasonable reforms of the criminal-justice system.

I have no quarrel with that statement, but the trick is defining “reasonable.” Continue reading . . .

DC Police Chief: “Lock Them Up”

by · Mar 8, 2023 11:15 am

Last year homicides in Washington, DC reached a twenty year high while the brain-dead City Council was passing a law to shorten sentences for violent and serious crimes.  The Daily Mail reports that yesterday Metro Police Chief Robert Contee made a startling suggestion.  “What we got to do, if we really want to see homicides go down, is keep the bad guys with guns in jail.  Because when they’re in jail, they can’t be in communities shooting people.”

What a concept….actually punishing criminal offenders.  Several questions come to mind regarding this announcement.  What if most of the offenders to be locked up are black?  Is the Chief racist?  Is he actually supporting “mass incarceration,” which progressives tell us was an abject failure in the 1990s?   Answer:  most criminal offenders in Washington, DC are black, and most of their victims are black.  Progressives and race-baiters insist that the only way to achieve “racial justice” is to stop arresting black offenders, leaving them on the streets to find more black victims.  Where is the justice in that scenario?  By the way, Chief Craig and Mayor Muriel Bowser, who also wants the district to crack down on criminals, are both black.

Continue reading . . .

Biden Bails on DC Penal Code Reforms

by · Mar 6, 2023 11:12 am

A District of Columbia penal code revision intended to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences and reduce the consequences for crimes, such as robbery and burglary, has been withdrawn by the DC City Council Chairman after President Biden announced that he would sign a bill to block it.  Because the District of Columbia is not a state, Congress has the last word on its policies. After the district’s council passed the revision last year and voted to override democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto, it still had to be introduced as a bill and approved by Congress.

Continue reading . . .

Sentencing Statutes and Logic for Lawyers

by · Feb 27, 2023 10:39 am

Statutes are generally drafted by lawyers on legislators’ staffs. Unfortunately, too many lawyers did not take basic logic as undergraduates, and it is not generally taught in law school. The U.S. Supreme Court has now taken up a case to unravel the logic of a bit of statutory drafting that could have been written more clearly. Continue reading . . .

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.