by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 13, 2022 8:07 am
Does a venue error equal a Get Out of Jail Free card? That is, if the government files its charges in a locale that is later determined to be incorrect, does the defendant walk regardless of how clearly guilty he is or how atrocious the crime is? Or can he be retried in the venue now deemed correct?
The U.S. Supreme Court took up this question this morning in Smith v. United States, No. 21-1576.
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 13, 2022 7:58 am
Here is one more step toward post-Covid normalcy. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Public Information Office said yesterday that the Court would resume its traditional practice of announcing decisions in person. Amy Howe has this post on her blog. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 12, 2022 11:23 am
Dan Walters has this column with the above title at Cal Matters on the continuing harm from Jerry Brown’s deceptive 2016 initiative, Proposition 57.
Six years ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown tricked California voters into passing a ballot measure that, he said, would make it easier for non-violent felons to earn paroles and thus ease the state prison system’s severe overcrowding.
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 12, 2022 8:52 am
The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the case of United States v. Hansen, No 22-179, for full briefing and argument. Here is the Question Presented, as phrased by the Solicitor General:
Whether the federal criminal prohibition against encouraging or inducing unlawful immigration for commercial advantage or private financial gain, in violation of 8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) and (B)(i), is facially unconstitutional on First Amendment overbreadth grounds.
The answer would seem to be a clear “no,” but the Ninth Circuit held to the contrary. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 9, 2022 1:28 pm
The WSJ reports promising results from anti-addiction medication for prisoners during confinement and after release in this article by Julie Wernau. As always with addiction treatment, keeping people in the program is a major challenge. Strong post-release supervision with real consequences is essential. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Dec 9, 2022 1:12 pm
The state of Mississippi is set to execute Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. on Wednesday, December 14 for the 2000 kidnap, rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl. The Associated Press reports on a judge’s ruling allowing the state to move forward with Loden’s execution despite his pending lawsuit challenging the state’s three-drug protocol. As detailed in a 2013 federal District Court decision denying Loden’s claims on habeas corpus; on the evening of June 22, 2020 witnesses saw Lodin flirting with sixteen-year-old Leesa Marie Gray while she was working in her family’s restaurant in Dorsey, Mississippi. At about 10:30 PM Lodin spotted Ms. Gray’s car on the side of a rural road with a flat tire. Initially, he offered to help her, but eventually forced her into this van and drove to his grandmother’s remote farm. “Over the course of the next few hours, he raped her numerous times and battered her sexually, videotaping portions of the abuse, before suffocating and strangling her to death inside of the van. He then pushed her nude, bound body under a fold-out seat in his van, went inside his grandmother’s house, and fell asleep.” UPDATE: Loden was pronounced dead at 6:12 PM Thursday.
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 9, 2022 9:56 am
Hans Bader has this post at Liberty Unyielding: “The murder rate has fallen by two thirds since 2018, and crime has fallen by 75%, in El Salvador as it has imprisoned large numbers of criminals. The country has put a hefty 2% of its adult population in prison. This is due to the anti-crime policies of its current president, Nayib Bukele.”
Bader quotes an essay by Edgar Beltrán at Law and Liberty:
In 2015, El Salvador reached a sky-high 103 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The year before Bukele came to power, it was 51 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Now, it is 17.6, about half the rate of American cities such as Philadelphia or Chicago…. Bukele is, by far, the most popular, democratically elected leader in the world. Independent polls have his local approval rating around 80 or 85%. The explanation is relatively simple: El Salvador went from being one of the most violent countries in the world, absolutely dominated by criminal gangs, to reducing crime by 75%. Bukele promised to end crime and he delivered … by putting in jail almost 2% of the adult population of the country.
by Michael Rushford · Dec 8, 2022 9:41 am
In an effort to protect them from deportation, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has announced a policy that requires prosecutors to drop or reduce the charges against offenders in the country illegally. Louis Casiano and Bill Melugin of Fox News report that the new directive requires deputy DAs to make their charging decisions based upon whether or not they would effect the possibility an offender being deported, including aliens legally in the country. As a sanctuary state, California law prohibits local police from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities regarding illegals, but ICE can still track down and arrest offenders who have been convicted of serious or violent crimes, without help from local police. In many cases the new policy will result in dropping gun and gang enhancements which could trigger deportation. This policy creates two classes of criminals in Los Angeles; legal and illegal alien criminals who will be undercharged or diverted to avoid deportation, and U.S. citizens who break the law and face the full consequences for their crimes. While the policy is almost certainly unconstitutional, it demonstrates how little regard for public safety or equity Gascon and his supporters have.
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 6, 2022 9:38 pm
The effort to recall LA DA George Gascón won an injunction against county election officials today, granting them access to records to support their claim that the registrar wrongly disqualified petition signatures. Scott Schwebke has this report in the Orange County Register. Continue reading . . .
by Kent Scheidegger · Dec 5, 2022 3:22 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court has amended its rules, effective the first of the year. Among the changes, people filing “friend of the court” briefs no longer have to ask consent of the parties. The clerk’s comments on the changes note, “While the consent requirement may have served a useful gatekeeping function in the past, it no longer does so, and compliance with the rule imposes unnecessary burdens upon litigants and the Court.” Amen. Continue reading . . .
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