The Influence of Crime on the Midterm Election

by · Nov 23, 2022 11:13 am

A review of the post-mortems from the November 8th midterm elections indicate that many were surprised by the outcome.  Most polls got it wrong.  The wailing by liberal pundits in the weeks prior to the election suggested that they were afraid voters were ready to put Republicans in charge of Congress and many state houses in response to inflation, crime, immigration and general dissatisfaction with the direction of the country under Democrat management.  With the exception of a handful of contests, this did not happen.  I was among those who felt that the issue of crime, in particular, was going to induce voters to cross political lines to pic candidates pledging to stop the violence, theft and squalor that currently defines many parts of America.   Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald evaluates the voters response to crime with this piece in the City Journal.

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Recusing the District Attorney’s Office

by · Nov 22, 2022 3:54 pm

Can an entire district attorney’s office be recused from a criminal case on the basis of a campaign fund-raising letter that calls the defund-the-police movement “wacky” and opposes “anarchist groups”? I would think that opposing anarchy is a job requirement for a district attorney, not a disqualification.

Does it matter if the district attorney has appeared in forums where other people said critical things about a group the defendants are affiliated with? I would not think so. But surprisingly, the Superior Court for San Luis Obispo County, California, recused the DA on just such grounds, and the Court of Appeal affirmed. CJLF today filed an amicus curiae letter brief supporting the DA’s petition for review in the California Supreme Court. Continue reading . . .

DC Passes Revised Penal Code

by · Nov 22, 2022 10:10 am

The Washington DC City Council has unanimously passed a bill rewriting the district’s 100-year-old criminal code, as reported by Matt Pusatory and Jess Arnold of CBS News.  Supporters said that the change was “long overdue.”  Among the revisions will be the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences and enactment of early sentence review, for offenders sentenced under previous law.  The bill would also reclassify all crimes, for example; distinguishing robbery from armed robbery.  It also gives the right to a jury trial to misdemeanor defendants.  This would overwhelm the district’s court system, putting pressure on prosecutors and judges to plea bargain.  Commenting on the elimination of mandatory minimums, Councilmember Charles Allen, the head of panel which adopted the bill said, “In regards to mandatory minimums….they frequently just tie the hands of judges and juries, and treat all victims as if they were the same.”  Apparently Mr. Allen believes that convicted criminals are victims.  It is not clear that DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has been criticized for DC’s 18-year high in homicides and other violent crimes, will sign a bill reducing sentences.  The problem Bowser faces was highlighted hours before the bill passed last Tuesday, as ex-con Kelvin Blowe, who advocated for the shorter sentences, was fatally shot on his way home from work, as reported by Fox News.

Alabama Execution Update

by · Nov 18, 2022 10:21 am

Alabama hit man Kenneth Eugene Smith got a (hopefully brief) respite from his execution yesterday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay on a different issue than the one noted in this post. The Supreme Court vacated the stay, three Justices dissenting, but the warrant expired at midnight, and the execution team was not able to find a suitable vein in that time.

Execution warrants that are good for one calendar day only are an old tradition, but there is no need for such a limitation. In an era where many judges are prone to issue last-minute stays, whether they are legally justified or not, a one-day window needlessly changes quickly reversed stays into longer ones in practice, as the date-setting machinery must be restarted. This is also very stressful for victims’ families, who often travel to the execution site believing that they are finally going to see long-overdue justice done, only to have it snatched away at the last minute.

States are gradually doing away with the one-day rule. California has a 10-day window, enacted by initiative. Continue reading . . .

A Bad Week For Murderers

by · Nov 17, 2022 2:19 pm

This is a bad week for murderers. I previously noted that the Supreme Court turned down the stay application of Alabama hired hit man Kenneth Smith. He is scheduled for execution at 6:00 p.m. CST. This morning Oklahoma executed Richard Fairchild for the torture and murder of a 3-year-old boy. AP story here; Supreme Court denial here.

Yesterday Arizona executed double murderer Murray Hooper. AP story here. Supreme Court denials here and here.

Also yesterday, Texas executed Stephen Barbee for the murders of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her 7-year-old son. AP reports: Continue reading . . .

Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner Impeached

by · Nov 17, 2022 12:51 pm

The Pennsylvania House has voted 107-85 to impeach Soros-bankrolled Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.  With Krasner running the District Attorney’s office,  homicides, violent crime and carjackings have reached historic levels, exceeding those of much larger cities including New York and Los Angeles.  The Washington Post reports that the impeachment now moves to a trial in the state Senate.  Krasner, a progressive reformer who brags about fewer arrests and convictions on his website, responded to the impeachment saying, “it shows how far toward fascism the Republican party is creeping.”  Both the PA House and Senate have Republican majorities.

LA Votes for More Crime

by · Nov 17, 2022 11:32 am

With the election of liberal congressperson Karen Bass as Mayor, and the replacement of LA County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva with former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, Los Angeles voters have made a clear choice to reject any aggressive effort to reduce the crime and violence which plagues the city.   Sheriff Vilaneuva’s tough-on-crime approach will be replaced by Sheriff Luna’s promise to investigate his own department and develop a “more collegial” relationship with pro-criminal District Attorney George Gascon.  During the campaign, mayoral candidate Rick Caruso promised to add 1,500 officers to the police force, restore the Crash Unit that targets high crime areas, crack down on gun traffickers, and push for reform or repeal of Proposition 47.  He set a goal of taking 30,000 homeless off the streets in the first year, clearing out parks, beaches and sidewalks. He pledged to build and repurpose properties to create shelter space at half of LA’s current $700,000 per bed housing cost. He has also pledged to expand mental health and drug addiction services to get the 67% of LA homeless who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs into care.

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Judicial Override, the Sixth Amendment, and Retroactivity

by · Nov 16, 2022 9:55 am

Sentencing a murderer to death generally requires three decisions in the United States today: (1) a factual finding that the defendant is guilty of the highest degree of murder; (2) a further factual finding that an additional aggravating factor is true;* and (3) a discretionary decision that death is the appropriate punishment for this murder and this murderer, considering both aggravating and mitigating factors.

The first decision must be made by a jury under the Sixth Amendment, unless the defendant waives that right. In Ring v. Arizona, the Supreme Court held that the second decision must also be made by a jury, though it previously held the opposite multiple times. The third decision may be vested in a judge (or panel of judges) or a jury by state law. Only Nebraska currently vests the decision in judges.

If a state can vest the decision in the judge entirely, can it also have a jury make a recommendation but still leave the final decision with the judge no matter what the jury recommends? Of course. If a state has such a system but decides to change it and make the jury’s life-sentence recommendation binding, does the U.S. Constitution require that it make that change retroactive, overturning final judgments entered under the old system? Of course not.

Yet that question is before the Supreme Court today in the case of hired hit man Kenneth Eugene Smith. [Update: Stay denied without comment or dissent.] Continue reading . . .

Is Crime in San Francisco Worse Than NYC?

by · Nov 14, 2022 11:42 am

Responding to MSNBC interviewer’s statement that New York City residents “don’t feel safe in this town,” and are “worried we could become San Francisco,” the state’s newly-elected Governor Kathy Hochul said NYC “will never be San Francisco.”  Mallory Monench of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Hochul went on to say that the Big Apple was successfully fighting crime, with homicides and shootings down dramatically from last year.  While the two cities have vastly different populations, on overall crime they are generally comparable.   Homicides are tracking down 14% in New York City compared to last year while they are up in San Francisco by .43%.  But NYC saw dramatic increases in 2020 and 2021, while San Francisco homicides increased only slightly.  Both cities have unacceptable rates of violent crime.  When it comes to property crime Hochul is correct about San Francisco.  The numbers for 2020 show almost three times the rate of property crimes in San Francisco than in New York.  The reporter admits something that most of the media and liberal think tanks ignore, “The number is almost certainly higher in reality since many people don’t report property crime to the police because of the perception that doing so won’t make a difference.”

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