Monthly Archive: July 2020

Federal Execution Case

by · Jul 13, 2020 4:13 pm

The appeal in the Eighth Amendment challenge to the federal exection protocol is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in case No. 20-5199, In the Matter of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Execution Protocol Cases: Roane v. Barr. See Mike’s post this morning. In her ruling, Judge Chutkan states, “The last-minute nature of this ruling is unfortunate, but no fault of the Plaintiffs.” She is partly correct in that, if in little else. The last-minute nature of the ruling is primarily the fault of Judge Chutkan herself. The Court of Appeals should not only vacate the stay, it should boot her off the case.

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USCA9 Issues Split Decision in Sanctuary City Grant Case

by · Jul 13, 2020 10:49 am

Not surprisingly given its prior narrow interpretations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on the sanctuary city grant issue. That is, the federal government cannot deny federal law-enforcement grants for a state’s refusal to inform immigration authorities when they release a deportable alien from prison and related matters. However, the court vacated the nationwide aspect of the injunction, limiting it to California.

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DC Judge Blocks Federal Executions

by · Jul 13, 2020 9:29 am

Today’s execution of triple murderer Daniel Lee was stayed by a federal district judge as reported by Ronn Blitzer and Bill Mears of Fox News.  District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled this morning that the Department of Justice was trying to rush through the process to execute Lee and two other federal murderers set for execution later this week.   A quick appeal of the judge’s ruling is likely.

Trump Commutes Roger Stone’s Sentence. Let the Reformers’ Hypocrisy Begin!

by · Jul 10, 2020 7:05 pm

The President today commuted Roger Stone’s 40-month prison sentence, which he was to start serving shortly.  As I noted in my earlier post on the Stone sentencing, Mr. Stone seemed to me to be a lifelong blowhard and bully.  He was convicted on ample evidence of witness tampering.  The line prosecutors (members of the Mueller team) recommended a sentence of seven to nine years.  Their superiors at DOJ thought that excessive, and changed the recommendation to roughly three to four years.  The sentencing judge, an Obama appointee, apparently agreed with the superseding, more lenient recommendation.

There was much debate about whether the lighter recommendation was merely political genuflection to the President’s wishes, or was instead, and as I believe, justified on the merits of the Department’s assessment of the Sentencing Guidelines.  But that debate will seem tame compared to the one about to begin about today’s commutation.

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White Supremacist May be First Federal Execution in 17 Years

by · Jul 10, 2020 12:57 pm

After nearly 2 decades of postponement, white supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee is scheduled to be executed on Monday. As reported in the Washington Free Beacon, this will be the first Federal execution in 17 years.  Should it proceed as planned, Lee’s execution will mark the culmination of continued efforts by Attorney General William Barr to restart the death penalty.

Lee is facing the death penalty for the 1996 murder of the Mueller family, including husband and wife William and Nancy Mueller, and their eight-year-old daughter, Sarah. Lee, and his accomplice Chevie Kehoe were members of a white supremacist group that envisioned the  a white ethnostate as the future of the US, supporting their cause with the proceeds of their killing spree. The duo suffocated William and Nancy before torturing and murdering their daughter, later dumping the bodies in a bayou and joking the family was now on a “liquid diet”.

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The Major Media Spin on Rising Crime

by · Jul 10, 2020 11:49 am

While many local papers, television and radio news broadcasts have been reporting widespread increases in violent crime in most large U.S. cities this year, the focus of the national media has been on the dominant issues of the liberal narrative.  These include systemic racism, particularly in law enforcement, horror stories about the pandemic, particularly in states where Republican Governors have ended lockdowns, and endless criticism of the President and anyone who supports him.  Yesterday NBC news broke ranks, and actually reported on the spike in shootings, but still managed to spin it to fit the narrative.

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Texas Resumes Executions

by · Jul 9, 2020 3:22 pm

Texas resumed executions yesterday after a 5-month hiatus that was due in part to Covid-19 and in part to flaps over whether clergymen would be allowed in the execution chamber. Juan Lozano and Michael Graczyk report for AP:

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas inmate received lethal injection Wednesday evening for fatally shooting an 82-year-old man nearly three decades ago, ending a five-month delay of executions in the nation’s busiest death penalty state because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Understanding Prop 47’s Real Outcomes

by · Jul 9, 2020 2:18 pm

Last month, the Public Policy Institute of California released a report, entitled “Proposition 47’s Impact on Racial Disparity in Criminal Justice Outcomes”.

The report examines Proposition 47, “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act”, which implemented three broad changes to felony sentencing laws. First, it reclassified certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, including shoplifting, forgery, insufficient funds, petty theft, receiving stolen property, and petty theft with a prior. The proposition also reclassified drug possession under Health and Safety Code sections 11350, 11357(a) , and 11377 as strictly misdemeanors. (As with the aforementioned theft offenses, these new misdemeanor rules do not apply to individuals who one or more prior offenses (specified under Penal Code section 667(e)(2)(C)(iv).)

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Politically Incorrect Research Withdrawn

by · Jul 9, 2020 11:10 am

Two university psychologists have retracted their study published last year in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), because its politically-incorrect findings have been cited in some pro-law enforcement articles.  The  study:  Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings,  by Joseph Cesario of Michigan State and David Johnson of the University of Maryland, analyzed 917 fatal police shootings in 2015 to determine if racial bias played a role in who got shot.  The study concluded that it did not.

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Indian Country

by · Jul 9, 2020 8:49 am

The U.S. Supreme Court ended its term today with a 5-4 bombshell decision that much of Oklahoma remains “Indian country” for the purpose of prosecuting crimes, even though it hasn’t been that in reality for a century. The Court also decided two politically charged cases regarding subpoenas for President Trump’s financial records.

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