Monthly Archive: May 2021
by Michael Rushford · May 4, 2021 2:57 pm
In a unanimous ruling yesterday, the California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence handed down 23 years ago for a woman convicted of killing her four young daughters and attempting to kill her 14-year-old son. The Mercury News reports that Nikolet Amber Nieves’ boyfriend had recently left her pregnant, which she aborted a week before setting fire to her home killing her four daughters and nearly killing her son by two previous marriages. The girls, ranging in age from 5 to 12, died from smoke inhalation. In a note to one of her ex-husbands she wrote, “Now you don’t have to support any of us.” A defense expert testified that he believed she had taken enough drugs to be unaware of what she was doing when she set the fire, but she did manage to call 911 to report it. The jury did not buy it.
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by Amber Westbrook · May 3, 2021 11:46 am
Politico has this story on the proposal for California to provide on-site medical care for individuals injecting illicit drugs, including, but not limited to heroin. The goal of SB 57 (Wiener, D San Francisco) is also to obtain immunity from federal enforcement for the professionals running the program and the drug-users. The most recent proposal awaiting legislative approval is for the California cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to open and run these injection sites for five years to “test” the model.
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by Amber Westbrook · May 3, 2021 10:30 am
The Associated Press has this story on the early release of thousands of inmates; “California is giving 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, the opportunity to leave prison earlier…” This is result of a promise made by Governor Newsom to decrease prison populations throughout the state of California and close prisons. Thanks to Proposition 57 (adopted in 2016) state prison inmates, even those convicted of violent crimes, receive “good time” credits to reduce their sentences by up to 50%. Last year approximately 21,000 inmates in California were released from prison. There will be a total of 3 prison closures in California by next year.
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by Kent Scheidegger · May 3, 2021 8:20 am
The U.S. Supreme Court released its regular Monday orders list today. Not surprisingly, there were several wake-of-Jones orders in cases that had been on hold for that decision. Oklahoma v. Johnson, No. 19-250, and United States v. Briones, No. 19-720, were sent back for reconsideration. These were cases where the lower court decided in an under-18 murderer’s favor based on a broad interpretation of Montgomery v. Louisiana. Cases where the lower court ruled against the defendant based on a narrow interpretation of Montgomery were simply denied, including Newton v. Indiana, No. 17-1511, and Garcia v. North Dakota, No. 19-399. Continue reading . . .
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