Monthly Archive: July 2025

Exceptionally Bad Reporting on the Glossip Case

by · Jul 24, 2025 9:29 am

Reporting on court cases is often bad, but NBC has an exceptionally atrocious report on the Glossip case here. The article says:

The witness, Justin Sneed, admitted killing Van Treese but told prosecutors that the killing was at Glossip’s direction in exchange for $10,000. Sneed, a motel handyman, was sentenced to life for the crime, while Glossip was given the death penalty.

In the Supreme Court’s majority ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that prosecutors “knew Sneed’s statements were false” and that “because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt of capital murder, the jury’s assessment of Sneed’s credibility was necessarily determinative here.”

Anyone reading that who did not already know the facts of the case would take it to mean that the Supreme Court held that the prosecutors knew Sneed’s statements about the crime were false. That is, a reader would naturally read it to say that the statements referred to in the second paragraph are those described in the first.

But that implication is false. No court has ever held that Sneed’s statements about the crime are false. The statements in the Supreme Court case involved collateral matters about Sneed’s treatment with lithium while in jail. Continue reading . . .

Michigan Law Protects Repeat Felons

by · Jul 23, 2025 1:24 pm

The arrest of a Flint Michigan City Councilman for beating his live-in girlfriend highlights how the state’s soft-on-crime policies protect its criminal population. As reported by Hudson Crozier of the Daily Caller News Foundation (published by Liberty Unyielding), Councilman Leon El-Alamin spent seven years in prison for gang-related drug and gun crimes before gaining early release and forming a non-profit dedicated to ending the “mass incarceration” of people of color and rehabilitating former criminals.  In the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer implemented the Clean Slate program, which allows convicts with up to three felony and an unlimited number of misdemeanor convictions to have their criminal records expunged.  After El-Alamin’s criminal record was erased under that program, he was able to receive a concealed-carry permit, which are not available to those with previous felony convictions.

Continue reading . . .

Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers

by · Jul 21, 2025 9:47 am

In the many, many debates that I have had on capital punishment over the years, almost all of the opponents have promised the audience that we don’t need the death penalty to prevent release of murderers back in the community because we have this wonderful alternative of life without parole. The badly worded poll questions that opponents love to cite (see this post) involve offering life without parole as the alternative.

One of the problems with that argument is that there is no such thing as life in prison with no possibility of parole. Future governors, legislatures, or courts may create a possibility of parole even for the very worst murderers.

Tim Cruz has this article in the City Journal, titled Why Is Massachusetts Releasing First-Degree Murderers? Continue reading . . .

Progressive DA Declines to Prosecute Sex Offender

by · Jul 17, 2025 1:31 pm

The newly-elected District Attorney of Arapahoe County Colorado is facing a recall after announcing that her office will not be prosecuting sex offender Solomon Galligan for attempting to kidnap a little boy from a school playground last year. Jennifer Taer of the New York Post reports that District Attorney Amy Padden announced last Friday that it has been determined that Galligan, 33, is not competent to stand trial and will be released to a mental health facility.  Galligan, who is currently receiving gender transition treatment, was caught on video approaching a group of students at an Aurora elementary school playground and grabbing an 11-year-old boy.  When the child broke free, Galligan ran off.  His older sister told reporters that her brother has been in an out of jail for twelve years and that it’s not safe for the community or Galligan to be out on the streets.  She said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder when he was 16, he was deemed unfit to stand trial in previous instances and wasn’t institutionalized because of a shortage of beds in mental-health centers.  Another relative said “This has been like the fourth time that we’re sitting here thinking, ‘How the hell did he get released? Who’s letting him out?’ “

Continue reading . . .

Of Crime and Groceries

by · Jul 11, 2025 8:43 am

Among the many strange ideas of New York mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is the notion that government can do a better job running grocery stores than free enterprise. This strange idea arises from the combination of the fact that some neighborhoods have inadequate or insufficient groceries combined with the ideological imperative to blame problems on approved villains, with businesses being at the top of the list.

Steven Malanga, in the City Journal, argues that the true cause is quite different:

New York City retailers have been closing shops by the hundreds in the last seven years because of growing social unrest and crime sparked by misguided criminal-justice reforms. Moreover, Mamdani’s own criminal-justice agenda, which includes reducing enforcement by the police department, promises to add to retailers’ woes.

Continue reading . . .

The Cushy Prisons for Murderers Act of 2025

by · Jul 11, 2025 8:23 am

Just when one thinks that the California Legislature has already maxed out its soft-headedness on crime, it goes and demonstrates that there is no limit. A bill has passed the California Senate by a wide margin declaring that “life inside prison should be as close to life outside of prison as much as possible.” [Sic.] As amended in the Assembly, Senate Bill 551 now includes this provision*:

The Legislature recognizes that life in prison can never be the same as life in a free society. However, active steps should be taken to make conditions in prison as close to normal life as possible, aside from loss of liberty, and to ensure that this normalization does not lead to inhumane prison conditions.

Unbelievable. Yes, we do not want our prison conditions to be inhumane. But “as close to normal life as possible”? It’s supposed to be punishment. And since the 2011 realignment, nearly everyone in California state prison (as opposed to county jail) is there for serious crimes, multiple repeated crimes, or both.

For premeditated murder, death is justice and anything less is mercy. Mercy is sometimes the right choice, but that does not mean we have to go overboard. A premeditated murderer who gets life in prison with a possibility of parole has already gotten off with less than he deserves. So now we have to take “active steps” to make sure he is comfy and entertained during his too-short time in the slammer? And we spend taxpayer money to do so while far more important functions of government go unfunded?

Who votes for this insanity? Continue reading . . .

Understanding retail theft in California

by · Jul 9, 2025 11:14 am

Concerns about retail theft in California have grown in recent years, with implications for businesses as well as the broader economic climate and the sense of safety across communities. In response, California lawmakers and voters have enacted several legal reforms aimed at curbing theft. A recent report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office breaks down what we know about retail theft trends over the past decade, explores potential contributing factors, and reviews how recent policy changes may have affected these trends.

Continue reading . . .

A Baltimore Miracle?

by · Jul 9, 2025 8:21 am

Is the infamously violent Baltimore City* on track for a miracle? Joshua Crawford, director of criminal justice initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, has this op-ed in the Baltimore Sun,** titled “Are we witnessing a Baltimore Miracle in fight against crime?” He notes Baltimore’s sky-high crime rates, followed by dramatic drops beginning in 2023:

Murder declined nearly 22% in 2023, and then another almost 23% in 2024 — erasing all of the post-2014 increases. Through May 1, 2025, homicides were down another 31%, putting Baltimore on pace for its fourth sub-200 murder year since 1970, and the city’s lowest total since the mid-1960s.

This success follows adoption of a three-pronged effort:

First, in January 2022, Mayor Brandon Scott’s office launched its Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS). GVRS is a focused deterrence policing strategy that focuses on violent groups driving violence. It does so by credibly delivering three messages. Respected members of the community convey that violence is unacceptable and must stop, optional services are offered for those who wish to desist from shootings and other gun violence, and finally, predictable, swift, and certain consequences are promised to those whose groups continue to engage in gun violence.

Continue reading . . .

New Cases at the Supreme Court

by · Jul 3, 2025 8:27 am

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court took up five cases for argument next term, two of which are consolidated. None are criminal cases. One case, Oliver v. Brandon, Mississippi involves the scope of the rule of Heck v. Humphrey, which prevents the use of civil litigation to do an end-run around the limits on collateral attack on state convictions in habeas corpus law. We will take a closer look at that one, although on its facts it appears that the plaintiff has a valid complaint.