Monthly Archive: June 2023

Supreme Court Narrowly Interprets Mandatory Consecutive Sentencing Statute

by · Jun 16, 2023 10:25 am

Most of the time, when a defendant receives more than one sentence in a single case the judge has discretion to run the sentences consecutively or concurrently. Concurrent sentences, in effect, eliminate the shorter sentence(s); the defendant will do the time for the longest-sentence crime and will not do a single day in prison more for committing the additional crime(s). Cheaper by the dozen.

Legislatures can mandate consecutive sentences in particular circumstances, though. One such mandate is found in the very long and very confusing federal firearm crime sentencing statute, 18 U.S.C. § 924. The U.S. Supreme Court tends to interpret limits on judicial discretion narrowly, especially in sentencing. Today it gave the limit in §924(c) the narrower of two possible interpretations. No surprise there. The decision in Lora v. United States, No. 22-49, was unanimous. Continue reading . . .

No, Defendant Does Not Get Off Scot-Free for a Technical Error

by · Jun 15, 2023 7:28 am

This post on March 16 discussed the Supreme Court case of Smith v. United States, No. 21-1576. Smith had been tried in the wrong district, and his conviction was reversed on appeal. He claimed that the venue was an element of the offense, such that the Double Jeopardy Clause precluded his retrial in the correct district.

I wrote then, “When this case first came up, I thought the claim to be so obviously wrong that there was no chance the Court would buy it. I still think so.”

Sure enough, the high court today decided that Smith can be retried. Unanimously. Continue reading . . .

LA DA Fails to Boot Victim’s Advocate Out of Court

by · Jun 12, 2023 11:03 am

Our system of criminal justice is an adversary one, normally pitting the prosecutor against the defense lawyer. In Los Angeles today, however, the office of District Attorney George Gascón is often agreeing with the defendant.

While there are only two parties to a criminal case, victims of crime in California have a right to be heard under Article I § 28 of the state Constitution, as amended in the original Marsy’s Law, Proposition 9 of 2008. Retired Deputy District Attorney Kathleen Cady has been doing great work in LA toward ensuring that victims’ voices are heard. This raises the ire of Mr. Gascón, interfering with his cozy, collusive motions. Continue reading . . .

SCOTUS Monday

by · Jun 12, 2023 7:58 am

It’s an uneventful Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court. The court issued an orders list but did not take up any cases for full briefing and argument. There are no summary decisions or dissents from denial of certiorari.

We are still waiting on two decisions from the present term: Jones v. Hendrix, No. 21-857, on successive collateral attacks by federal prisoners and Counterman v. Colorado, No. 22-138, on stalking laws and “true threats.”

Decisions are expected on Thursday and Friday this week.

Continue reading . . .

Judge: LA Murderer Can’t Represent Himself

by · Jun 9, 2023 2:42 pm

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has ruled that a man charged with the brutal stabbing murder of a 24-year-old college co-ed can no longer represent himself at his murder trial.  The judge’s order came following an outburst in the courtroom where Shawn Laval Smith continuously cursed the judge and jumped out his seat, requiring his removal from the hearing.  My News LA reports that Smith will be confined to a security chair and represented by a public defender for his next court appearance.

Continue reading . . .

U.S. Supreme Court Curbs Overbroad Use of Identity Theft Law

by · Jun 8, 2023 8:04 am

Congress established a sentence enhancement for “aggravated identity theft,” 18 U. S. C. §1028A(a)(1), when one “knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person” in the course of committing certain other crimes. This broad language can include a wide variety of misuses that would not even remotely come within what most people would regard as identity theft.

Today, the Supreme Court decided the case of Dubin v. United States, No. 22-10. Dubin’s actual crime was a rather mundane case of Medicaid fraud, disturbingly common but not unusual. He charged the government for testing by a licensed psychologist when the test was actually done by an associate and should have been paid at a lower rate. In the process of bilking this important government program, he necessarily used the patient’s Medicaid reimbursement number. He was not claiming to be someone he wasn’t. Is this “aggravated identity theft”? Continue reading . . .

Missouri Executes Double Murderer

by · Jun 7, 2023 10:42 am

The state of Missouri executed double-murderer Michael Tisius by lethal injection Tuesday evening.  He died ten minutes after receiving a fatal dose of the anesthesia pentobarbital.  Jim Salter of the Associated Press reports that Tisius was 19-years-old in 2000 when he murdered two guards at the Huntsville County Jail while helping a friend escape.  In the years since his conviction, his attorneys claimed that Tisius’ sentence should be reduced to life-without-parole because of his neglected childhood, and because one of the sentencing jurors was illiterate.  His attorneys also claimed that the murders were unintentional, although Tisius came to the jail armed with a gun and shot one of the guards multiple times.  It was the twelfth U.S. execution this year.  Last year seven murderers had been executed by June 8th.

Gov. Newsom’s San Quentin Reforms Not Progressive Enough

by · Jun 6, 2023 11:47 am

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s vision of transforming 171 year-old San Quentin prison into a Norwegian rehabilitation campus, where inmates can wear their own clothes and cook their own food while attending classes to get college degrees and licenses in trades like plumbing and truck driving, is apparently dead.  A story in the Davis Vanguard reports that neither the Senate or the Assembly was willing to vote in support of a $360 million down payment to create a friendlier and happier place for the state’s worst criminals.  The amazing aspect of this news is that perhaps the most progressive group in the state,  Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), which advocates for closing prisons, was strongly opposed, because Newsom’s proposal “does nothing to address the systemic racism and violence that prisons perpetuate.”  Law enforcement and victims groups have been opposed to this plan since it was announced earlier this year as a criminal-coddling pipe dream.  CURB opposes it because it does not coddle criminals enough.   Go figure.

Taking a Bite Out of Homelessness

by · Jun 2, 2023 11:30 am

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal notes that California has spent $17 billion on programs to end homelessness and the problem has only gotten worse.  California is home to more than 171,000 homeless individuals, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a 6.2% increase since 2020.  Roughly 67%, or more than 115,000 are unsheltered, meaning that they’re living outside.  While liberal politicians often characterize homelessness as a housing problem, with some even calling the homeless “guests,”  in reality the homeless population is primarily made up of drug addicts and the mentally ill, along with some vagrants who actually prefer living on the streets.  An OpEd in the California Globe by four law enforcement professionals suggest that there is a proven way for the state to eliminate homelessness in one year.

Continue reading . . .