by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 15, 2020 1:30 pm
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, twice reversed for halting federal executions, has halted them yet again. Her 18 page opinion finds a probability of success on one claim, based on the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and she concludes without analysis of any depth that the public interest in having this claim litigated outweighs the interest of justice in carrying out very long overdue sentences for heinous crimes.
by Bill Otis · Jul 15, 2020 11:19 am
The “school-to-prison pipeline” is a favorite phrase of sentencing reform advocates. It’s meant to imply that the real problem with thieves, drug pushers and con artists, etc., is not the choices they make, but the callous and woeful treatment society gives them as school kids. Because society is to blame, it’s unjust to punish the individual — indeed, it’s no longer that the criminal owes a debt to society; it’s that society owes a debt to him! We see this theme in dozens if not hundreds of academic proposals to water down (or, better, eliminate) punishment in favor of social programs to cater to those who, in that wonderfully opaque phrase, “interact with the criminal justice system.”
In a sense, there may indeed be a “school-to-prison pipeline,” but the way it operates is not exactly what we’ve been led to believe. It might have more to do with what sort of “education” is going on in the classroom. The Los Angeles teachers’ union seems to want to help us understand.
by Bill Otis · Jul 15, 2020 6:03 am
Former Attorney General and US Senator Jeff Sessions yesterday lost his bid to return to the Senate when he was defeated in the Alabama Republican primary. In my view, Sessions was one of the very best members of Congress in standing up for sober criminal justice policies. He did this for most of his public life, starting in 1975 when he became an Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him to be US Attorney; in 1994, he was elected Attorney General of Alabama, and two years later, he handily won a Senate seat. He served in the Senate until President Trump appointed him Attorney General in February 2017. He resigned, at the President’s insistence, 20 months later.
Although Sessions’ contributions to sound criminal justice policy were substantial to say the least, they are not, in my view, the reason for which his public service should best be remembered.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 14, 2020 8:38 am
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 13, 2020 4:13 pm
The appeal in the Eighth Amendment challenge to the federal exection protocol is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in case No. 20-5199, In the Matter of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Execution Protocol Cases: Roane v. Barr. See Mike’s post this morning. In her ruling, Judge Chutkan states, “The last-minute nature of this ruling is unfortunate, but no fault of the Plaintiffs.” She is partly correct in that, if in little else. The last-minute nature of the ruling is primarily the fault of Judge Chutkan herself. The Court of Appeals should not only vacate the stay, it should boot her off the case.
by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 13, 2020 10:49 am
Not surprisingly given its prior narrow interpretations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on the sanctuary city grant issue. That is, the federal government cannot deny federal law-enforcement grants for a state’s refusal to inform immigration authorities when they release a deportable alien from prison and related matters. However, the court vacated the nationwide aspect of the injunction, limiting it to California.
by Michael Rushford · Jul 13, 2020 9:29 am
Today’s execution of triple murderer Daniel Lee was stayed by a federal district judge as reported by Ronn Blitzer and Bill Mears of Fox News. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled this morning that the Department of Justice was trying to rush through the process to execute Lee and two other federal murderers set for execution later this week. A quick appeal of the judge’s ruling is likely.
by Bill Otis · Jul 10, 2020 7:05 pm
The President today commuted Roger Stone’s 40-month prison sentence, which he was to start serving shortly. As I noted in my earlier post on the Stone sentencing, Mr. Stone seemed to me to be a lifelong blowhard and bully. He was convicted on ample evidence of witness tampering. The line prosecutors (members of the Mueller team) recommended a sentence of seven to nine years. Their superiors at DOJ thought that excessive, and changed the recommendation to roughly three to four years. The sentencing judge, an Obama appointee, apparently agreed with the superseding, more lenient recommendation.
There was much debate about whether the lighter recommendation was merely political genuflection to the President’s wishes, or was instead, and as I believe, justified on the merits of the Department’s assessment of the Sentencing Guidelines. But that debate will seem tame compared to the one about to begin about today’s commutation.
by Katherine.Stiplosek · Jul 10, 2020 12:57 pm
After nearly 2 decades of postponement, white supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee is scheduled to be executed on Monday. As reported in the Washington Free Beacon, this will be the first Federal execution in 17 years. Should it proceed as planned, Lee’s execution will mark the culmination of continued efforts by Attorney General William Barr to restart the death penalty.
Lee is facing the death penalty for the 1996 murder of the Mueller family, including husband and wife William and Nancy Mueller, and their eight-year-old daughter, Sarah. Lee, and his accomplice Chevie Kehoe were members of a white supremacist group that envisioned the a white ethnostate as the future of the US, supporting their cause with the proceeds of their killing spree. The duo suffocated William and Nancy before torturing and murdering their daughter, later dumping the bodies in a bayou and joking the family was now on a “liquid diet”.
by Michael Rushford · Jul 10, 2020 11:49 am
While many local papers, television and radio news broadcasts have been reporting widespread increases in violent crime in most large U.S. cities this year, the focus of the national media has been on the dominant issues of the liberal narrative. These include systemic racism, particularly in law enforcement, horror stories about the pandemic, particularly in states where Republican Governors have ended lockdowns, and endless criticism of the President and anyone who supports him. Yesterday NBC news broke ranks, and actually reported on the spike in shootings, but still managed to spin it to fit the narrative.
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