Monthly Archive: February 2024

A Texas man convicted and sentenced to death for the 2000 robbery and murder of his cousin, James Mosqueda, and the cousin’s fiancee, Amy Kitchen, was executed Wednesday evening. James Powell of USA Today reports that Ivan Cantu continued to claim that he was innocent right up to his death, arguing that his ex-girlfriend gave false testimony at trial implicating him in the killings and that his defense attorney was incompetent.  Kim Kardashian contacted Texas Governor Greg Abbot asking him to postpone the execution for 30 days and 150,000 people signed a petition urging a stay of execution. Based on the overwhelming evidence, it is remarkable that anyone could question Cantu’s guilt.

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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has announced his opposition to an amendment to the state’s budget bill which gives sentence reductions to criminals, including violent criminals. Hans Bader of Liberty Unyielding reports that in a letter to the Democrat-controled legislature Miyares wrote,

“Cutting sentences for violent crime, especially in cases identified as a high risk for recidivism, is having a detrimental impact on public safety throughout Virginia,” Miyares wrote in the letter. “Aggressive sentence reductions for violent criminals and those with high risk for recidivism disregards past and future victims. Allowing such a practice is not justice, and it’s not safe.”

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Thomas Creech—who murdered at least six people, was sentenced to death in 1974, and then killed a fellow prison inmate in 1981—is finally facing execution on Wednesday in Idaho, as reported by the Associated Press. Last Friday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Creech’s claim that he should not be executed because he was sentenced for killing the inmate by a judge rather than a jury. While investigators believe that Creech murdered 11 people, he has only faced trial for six.

Creech’s first victim was 70-year-old retiree Paul Schrader, who he stabbed to death in Tuscon. After killing him, he used his victim’s credit cards and vehicle to flee to Portland, Oregon. He used a mental defense, was acquitted for that murder, and was committed to an Oregon mental hospital. In 1974, on a weekend pass,  Creech traveled to Sacramento and killed Vivian Grant Robinson at her home. The crime went unsolved until Creech confessed while in custody in Idaho. He was convicted of Robinson’s murder in 1980. Continue reading . . .

The top prosecutor in Maricopa County, Arizona told reporters Wednsday that she is turning down the Manhattan District Attorney’s request to extradite a murder suspect because they are too soft on crime in New York City. Michael Dorgan of Fox News reports that Raad Almansoori is a suspect in the February 8 murder of a 38-year-old woman in New York. He allegedly beat the victim to death with a clothes iron.  Before he could be arrested, he fled to Arizona where he is now facing charges for the February 18 stabbing of two women and the attempted rape of one of them in a McDonald’s restroom. Police arrested him after he fled the scene in a stolen car. At a recent press conference, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said, “having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan D.A. there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out and doing this to individuals either in our state or county or anywhere in the United States. He is being held without bond, meaning there is no amount of money that he can post to get out of custody at this point.”

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A violent gang member serving a prison sentence for stalking his ex-girlfriend has been denied early release by California’s Third District Court of Appeal.  Kelly Kimble received his third felony conviction in 2008 for stalking his ex-girlfriend. He was sentenced under the state’s “Three Strikes” law to 25-years-to-life plus one year based on a prior prison term enhancement. His two prior convictions were for attempted kidnapping and making criminal threats. As reported by the Metropolitan News Enterprise, in 2013 Kelly had petitioned for re-sentencing after state voters adopted Proposition 36,  the “Three Strikes Reform Act.”  That measure allowed criminals convicted of a third felony, not considered violent or serious, who had only one violent prior conviction to receive a reduced sentence at the discretion of a judge. The judge in this case explained that Kimble’s prior acts “involved physical violence” that he had violated conditions of probation and conditions of parole, that he “continues to defy authority year after year.” Twice assaulting other prisoners, and maintained gang ties. In 2014 the Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s decision. Then in 2022 Governor Newsom signed SB 483, another pro-criminal release bill, into law.

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