Monthly Archive: November 2020

Supreme Court Summarily Vacates Pro-Murderer Judge; Killer Executed

by · Nov 20, 2020 12:40 am

Mike wrote earlier today about the last minute stay of execution entered by Tanya Chutkan, a turbo-charged public defender made a federal district judge by Pres. Barack Obama.  The stay was for the benefit of Orlando Hall, who, along with his associates, kidnapped, beat, raped, tortured and then buried alive a 16 year-old girl.

The stay survived for a few hours before being summarily overturned by a 6-3 vote of the Supreme Court.  Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan dissented without opinion.  Hall received his long overdue justice shortly thereafter.

Judges like Chutkan are a disgrace to the bench.  They are not there to do justice or follow the law.  They are there to impose their personal opinions on us lesser creatures.  They should find, or be shown, another line of work.

Federal Judge Blocks Murderer’s Execution

by · Nov 19, 2020 3:46 pm

A DC District judge stayed the federal execution of rapist/murderer Orlando Hall hours before he was scheduled to be put to death today.  The Associated Press reports that in her ruling District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former public defender appointed to the bench by President Obama, was “deeply concerned” about the lethal injection Hall was to receive, which she concludes “violates federal law.”

Continue reading . . .

PA High Court Upholds Murderer’s Death Sentence

by · Nov 19, 2020 11:59 am

In an unanimous decision announced on November 18, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Melvin Knight, for the torture and murder of 30-year-old woman in February of 2010.  The Associated Press reports that Knight was one of two men sentenced to death for the killing.   The victim, Jennifer Daugherty, was mildly handicapped with the mental capacity of a child and trusted everyone she met.

Continue reading . . .

Arrests Down, Shootings Up in NYC

by · Nov 19, 2020 11:35 am

In mid-July, this article in the WSJ noted an increase in shootings in New York City as the lockdowns started to ease. Not to worry, though, Mayor de Blasio was ready with “new tactics to curb violence, including deploying additional officers to areas where shootings have taken place, and increasing efforts to foster coordination between police and communities.” Additional cops can’t hurt, but if you have a fixed number in a city deploying more one place means fewer someplace else. “Foster coordination between police and communities” sounds like the kind of vague generality that typically means nothing worthwhile will get done.

So how is it looking four months later? Continue reading . . .

Did “defund the police” deflate the “blue wave”?

by · Nov 18, 2020 6:49 pm

The past few years have been difficult for the advocates of justice. For most of the time I have been doing this work (since late 1986), the one thing we could always count on was that the people were with us. The courts might misconstrue the Constitution. The legislature might pass some harmful bills and kill all the good ones, but a solid majority of the people always had their heads on straight when it came to law and order.

That started to change when a well-funded and clever disinformation campaign convinced a large portion of the population that our prisons were chock full of harmless minor offenders who could be released without harm to anyone. That was false, but people bought it. Libertarians and many small-government Republicans climbed on board the “reform” movement, giving it a bipartisan cast.

I always knew that the tide would turn back, but how long would it take? How much innocent blood would be spilled before people realized they had been conned? We may have seen the inflection point this year. The pro-criminal crowd may have gotten so overconfident that they showed their true selves with “defund the police,” and the scales have fallen from the people’s eyes. Or at least started to. Continue reading . . .

Court: Brutal Murderer Cannot be Tried as Adult

by · Nov 17, 2020 11:50 am

A unanimous panel of California’s First District Court of Appeal has ruled that a murderer who stabbed a woman 38 times and tried to burn her body cannot be tried in adult court.   Evidence introduced at a pretrial hearing indicates On July 16, 2018, 17-year-old Kevin P. visited the apartment of 38-year-old Kishana Harley allegedly to smoke marijuana with her.  Once inside, he produced a knife and stabbed the woman to death.  He then tried to burn the woman’s body, before taking her cell phone and her car.  The defendant’s DNA was found on the murder weapon along with the victim’s blood.

Continue reading . . .

LA Begins Defunding Police

by · Nov 13, 2020 10:40 am

Bowing to the police reform movement spurred by Black Lives Matter, the City of Los Angeles has announced its plans for cutting $150 million from its police department.  Joel Fox has this piece in California Political Review detailing what cuts will be made.  Among them will be a reduction of roughly 400 officers, cuts in air support (helicopters), robbery homicide, narcotics and gang divisions.  Desks at police stations will only be staffed on weekdays.  Investigations of automobile accidents will end, and those involved will be required to report them online.  This includes accidents with injuries.

Continue reading . . .