Are State Courts Required to Accept a Confession of Error in a Capital Case?

by · Mar 24, 2025 9:42 am

Two years ago, in Escobar v. Texas, No. 21-1601, the Supreme Court issued a “grant, vacate, and remand” order directing the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider its denial of relief to a death-sentenced murderer ” in light of the confession of error by Texas,” i.e., by the Travis County District Attorney. Are state courts required to accept such confessions of error, however dubious?

In California, “progressive” district attorneys have made wholesale confessions of error in capital cases just because they disagree with the decision of the people to have capital punishment. Courts have mostly rolled over and gone along with these “take a dive” actions, although last week a Santa Clara County judge did draw the line at resentencing Richard Farley for seven murders. See NBC story here. Continue reading . . .

Kids, Gangs, and Prevention

by · Mar 21, 2025 1:46 pm

We would all like to help dissuade kids from joining gangs, but how exactly do we do that? Joshua Crawford has this article in City Journal.

Governments have launched a wide array of prevention and intervention efforts to steer kids away from gang life. These programs try to dissuade youth from joining gangs or encourage them to leave. But the initiatives have had mixed results, and the ones that do work well often have limited access to at-risk kids.

To address the root problem, policymakers must understand why kids join gangs. Specifically, they need to recognize that the biggest driver of gang membership is violent crime. Consequently, the best way to stop teenagers from joining gangs is to provide them with safer neighborhoods. Continue reading . . .

Yes, Murder Is a Violent Offense

by · Mar 21, 2025 12:02 pm

Last year, when the U.S. Supreme Court took up the case of Delligatti v. United States, I noted in this post the absurdity of the question. Today, the Court decided the case. Yes, murder is a “crime of violence” for the purpose of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).

Justice Thomas wrote the opinion for the Court, joined by six other Justices. So who are the other two? Continue reading . . .

Louisiana Nitrogen Execution

by · Mar 20, 2025 2:50 pm

AP has this report by Sara Cline on Tuesday’s execution via nitrogen gas in Louisiana.

Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, authorities said, adding the nitrogen gas had flowed for 19 minutes during what one official characterized as a “flawless” execution.

Witnesses to the execution said Hoffman appeared to involuntarily shake or had “some convulsive activity.” But the three witnesses who spoke — including two members of the media — agreed that, based on the protocol and what they learned about the execution method, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Continue reading . . .

Arkansas Adopts Nitrogen Gas for Executions

by · Mar 20, 2025 1:07 pm

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law a bill that allows the use of nitrogen gas to execute condemned murderers.  Andres DeMillo of the Associated Press reports that Arkansas joins Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma which have approved the use of the gas for executions. Death penalty opponents and most of the mainstream media are criticizing its use as unconstitutional, although it has been approved by multiple courts. Opponents have characterized its use as death by suffocation.

“The decision to use nitrogen suffocation as an execution method is a dangerous and regressive move that puts Arkansas out of step with national trends away from the death penalty,” Megan Bailey, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties of Arkansas, said in a statement.

Continue reading . . .

Four States to Execute Murderers This Week

by · Mar 20, 2025 1:04 pm

On March 18 the state of Louisiana executed rapist/murderer Jessie Hoffman. Anna Young of the New York Post reports that  Hoffman was executed by nitrogen gas. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and execution-style murder of 28-year-old Molly Elliott. Hoffman’s lawyers argued that using nitrogen gas for executions is cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. They also claimed that using the gas interfered with his Buddhist meditative breathing before he died. Their last minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected by a 5-4 vote with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissenting. Alabama used the widely available colorless and odorless gas to put down four murderers without incident last year. Pilar Aries of Fox News reports that Arizona executed murderer Aaron Gunches by lethal injection Wednesday. Gunches was sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend’s ex-husband outside of Mesa Arizona in 2002. He refused legal efforts to stop his execution.

Continue reading . . .

Can California Democrats Kill Proposition 36?

by · Mar 14, 2025 3:20 pm

On November 5, 2024, California voters overwhelmingly adopted Proposition 36, the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, a modest reform to restore consequences for thieves and drug dealers and require treatment for addicts.  It’s adoption was a complete rebuke of Proposition 47, the so-called Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act adopted in 2014 with major funding from the ACLU and socialist billionaire George Soros. That measure decriminalized theft and drug crimes. It’s important to note that Proposition 47 was supported by then Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrat supermajority in the state legislature. Ten years later, these same politicians opposed Proposition 36, although millions of democrats voted for it.

Continue reading . . .

Courts Block Executions in Texas and Louisiana

by · Mar 12, 2025 1:17 pm

On Tuesday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voted 6-2, with one abstaining, to stay the execution of, David Leonard Wood, “the Desert Killer.” On the same day a federal district judge in Louisiana stayed the nitrogen gas execution of a rapist/murderer, Jessie Hoffman, Jr. Alexis Simmerman, Amanda Lee Meyers and Aaron Martinez of the Austin American Statesman report that the Texas court did not state the reasons for staying David Leonard Wood’s execution in its per-curiam opinion. The same court blocked Wood’s execution in 2009 based on his lawyers claim that he was too mentally retarded to qualify for it.  Wood, an habitual sex offender, was convicted in 1987 of the kidnapping, rape and murders of six young women and girls, whose bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert near El Paso. Jurors heard testimony from two cellmates that Woods told about the killings.  A sex  worker also testified that Wood raped her in the same desert area, where the bodies were found, but she escaped when a noise startled him while digging her grave. Wood was convicted of that rape. His attorneys for the murder charges argued that all three were lying.

Continue reading . . .

Four Illegals Arrested in Sanctuary City For Human Trafficking

by · Mar 5, 2025 11:14 am

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that its agents arrested the head of a Guatemalan human trafficking ring that smuggled an estimated 20,000 illegal aliens into the United States from 2019 to 2024.  At a press conference in the sanctuary city of Los Angeles last Monday, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally told reporters that Guatemalan illegal alien, Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, was arrested in the LA neighborhood of Westlake. He was the leader of one of the largest transnational smuggling cartels in the U.S.  Renoj-Matul and his three lieutenants, all illegals from Guatemala, charged between $15,000 and $18,000 to smuggle men, women and children into the U.S. and held most of them in stash houses in Los Angeles. While Renoj-Matul and two of his lieutenants were arrested in LA, a fourth gang member, a driver for the gang, was arrested in Oklahoma where he is facing charges for a November 2023 car crash which killed seven illegals including a four-year-old child.

Continue reading . . .

Canadian Study Finds Length of Incarceration Decreases Recidivism

by · Mar 4, 2025 1:54 pm

Simon Fraser University in British Columbia has this press release announcing this study in the Journal of Criminal Justice regarding the effect of sentence length on recividism. Overall, studies on this issue have mixed results and generally show little effect either way, as Elizabeth Berger and I describe in this article, which is cited in the new article.

Here is the abstract: Continue reading . . .