by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 6, 2022 4:12 pm
Below is a list of decisions in criminal and related cases by the U.S. Supreme Court in the term just ended, the October 2021 Term. The capsule description for each case is from the Court’s website. It is the flyout that appears if you hover your mouse pointer over the case on the website’s decision list.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 6, 2022 12:24 pm
The committee working to recall LA DA George Gascón has this announcement:
For all the victims of George Gascon’s reckless policies. For all the families who have been robbed of justice. And for every law-abiding resident who just wants to feel safe.
George Gascon has got to go.
Today, we will take a major step towards making that a reality.
Join us TODAY at 1:45pm at the LA County Registrar of Voters. A large moving truck filled with all the signed petitions will be driven to the County Registrar, and delivered.
by Michael Rushford · Jul 6, 2022 9:59 am
California’s Second District Court of Appeal has held a 2021 law (SB 567) signed last October by Governor Newsom, cannot require a judge to re-sentence an offender to a lower term. The Metropolitan News Enterprise reports that the new law required trial courts to sentence a defendant to the the lower term if he/she “has experienced psychological, physical or childhood trauma,” that contributed to the commission of the offense. The case involved the 2021 conviction of habitual felon Norman Salazar for confining his ex-girlfriend in a motel room and beating and torturing her for nearly twenty hours. When Salazar took her to her bank to withdraw $3,000, the victim lifted her sunglasses to show the teller her black eye. The teller called the police and Salazar was arrested.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 6, 2022 8:53 am
Thomas Hogan has this article with the above title at the City Journal.
The headline is becoming more common: “Innocent Man Freed After Decades in Jail for Murder!” As a matter of statistical probabilities, it must be true that some innocent defendants are convicted. But experienced law enforcement officials are growing concerned that progressive prosecutors are freeing guilty murderers in their rush to enforce their own politics of decarceration and equity. A close look at how this exoneration hustle works is worth reviewing because the pattern becomes clear.
by Bill Otis · Jun 30, 2022 8:37 pm
Over the history of the Supreme Court, only a very few justices opposed the death penalty in all circumstances: Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens, Ginsburg and Breyer. Today, the last remaining member of that group, Justice Breyer, retired, leaving the Court without a single categorical opponent of the death penalty for the first time in decades. I believe we now have the most pro-DP Court of my lifetime.
Justice Breyer was pretty much a down-the-line liberal on criminal justice issues, but is a modest and friendly man with a wicked sense of humor, and never had the driven and angry edge to him that many abolitionists do. It remains to be seen whether his replacement, Justice Brown Jackson, will match his intellect and fair-minded outlook. We can hope, and we wish her the best as she begins her tenure on the Court.
by Michael Rushford · Jun 29, 2022 2:22 pm
Another Los Angeles County murderer is seeking to benefit from progressive District Attorney George Gascón’s policy of reducing all death sentences to life without parole. My News LA reports that Scott Forest Collins was sentenced to death for the 1996 robbery and murder of Fred Rose in North Hollywood. Now, twenty-six years later, Gascón’s hand picked deputy, former defense attorney Shelan Joseph, is partnering with the murderer’s attorney to request that Collin’s death sentence be vacated. On behalf of Rose’s widow and two daughters, former LADA Steve Cooley and former Deputy DA Kathleen Cady have petitioned the court to deny the murderer’s request.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 29, 2022 1:31 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court today decided a major case on prosecution jurisdiction in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, No. 21-429. This is an example of the Court in damage-control mode. An earlier, disruptive, and legally dubious decision has had severe impacts on criminal justice. Rather than overrule it, the Court acts to limit the damage.
Two years ago, the Court decided 5-4 in McGirt v. Oklahoma that large portions of that state were still “Indian country”* because Congress had not formally diminished or disestablished the original reservations, even though the land in question had not been part of a reservation in practice for a very long time. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Jun 24, 2022 10:26 am
An Alabama man who murdered his ex girlfriend in 1994, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection on July 28. Ivana Hrynkiw of the Birmingham News reports that Joe Nathan James, Jr. was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for capital murder during the commission of burglary. James had dated Faith Hall in the early 1990s but the relationship was volatile and Hall broke up with him. For the next several years James would stalk Hall, showing up at her home and threatening to kill her. On the day of the murder, James forced his way in to an apartment Hall was visiting, demanded information about a man she was seeing, and shot her three times when she attempted to escape. After shooting Hall in the stomach and chest, he shot her in the head as she lay on the floor. On appeal James’ claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was denied by several courts. In 2020 the Eleventh Circuit upheld his conviction and sentence, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined review.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 21, 2022 2:21 pm
When Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the first title was habeas corpus reform. It was intended to achieve the “effective death penalty” part by drastically cutting the delays in carrying out capital sentencing, at least the part attributable to the federal courts.
It did not work because it was not properly implemented. But 26 years later we may finally see that change. Today’s decision of the Supreme Court in Shoop v. Twyford, No. 21-511 is a large step in that direction. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Jun 21, 2022 11:52 am
On June 14, two El Monte police officers responding to a domestic violence call were shot and killed by a habitual felon free on probation due to the reduced-sentencing policy of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón. According to the Los Angeles Times the shooter, Justin Flores, a gang member with multiple priors, served 10 days of a 20-day sentence in county jail for a 2021 gun and drug conviction that made him eligible for a three-year prison sentence. Under Gascón’s ban on sentence enhancements for criminals guilty of multiple offenses Flores was free to kill the two officers. The County Coroner has concluded that Flores shot himself as other officers closed in on him. Eric Siddall, Vice President of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, has this post on the fallout from these two murders.
Under California law, Flores should have been in a state prison cell on the day he murdered the two officers. Instead, because of George Gascón’s policies, he was in a hotel room in El Monte beating his girlfriend until two officers responded for the call for help. Now two officers are dead.
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