Disinformation on the Facts of Major Cases

by · Oct 28, 2020 3:46 pm

Appellate court opinions and news reports about cases often begin with a brief statement of the facts of the case. Too often, though, those “facts” are not facts at all. Sometimes they are merely allegations in a case that has not yet been tried, assumed by the court due to the procedural posture of the case. Sometimes they are representations by an attorney on one side. The public is often left with a seriously distorted view of what really happened in the case.

Jones v. Mississippi, to be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on election day, is a widely misreported case. The brief by Jones’s lawyers recite his own self-serving testimony about the circumstances of his murder of his own grandfather as if they were actual facts. Continue reading . . .

Police Across U.S. Prepare for Post Election Riots

by · Oct 27, 2020 3:31 pm

As the national election nears, police in cities across the country are preparing for the possibility of rioting and violence.  Mark Berman of the Washington Post reports that “with the anxiety and toxicity across the country” many fear that the election could give way to potential violence.   The article cites police officials in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York,  Madison, Wis., Phoenix, Portland, Los Angeles, D.C., Charlotte, and Miami-Dade which are ramping up for violence following next Tuesday’s vote.   Business owners in many cities are boarding up their store fronts in anticipation of a continuation of the earlier rioting following the death of George Floyd, by groups angry with the outcome of the election.

Continue reading . . .

DNA evidence solves another cold case

by · Oct 23, 2020 1:51 pm

On July 31, 1979, a 45-year old mother of four named Dolores Rocha Wulff mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night with only the clothes she was wearing from her home in Woodland, Yolo County, California.  Five weeks later, a torso was discovered by two fishermen 50-miles away in the Benicia Bay.  Given the limited scientific technology at the time, the torso was never positively identified.  She became known as “Jane Doe 16.”

Immediately after Dolores vanished, the close knit Rocha family searched for her extensively.  They knew that she would not have simply walked out of her children’s lives on her own accord.  Her husband, Carl Wulff Sr., was looked at as the prime suspect.  He was the last one to see her alive and a search of his car produced a bloodstained blanket.  Almost five years after she disappeared without a trace, Carl Sr. was charged with her murder.  But, his case was subsequently dismissed for a lack of evidence.  Carl Sr. died in 2005. Continue reading . . .

To Pack or Not to Pack, That Is the Question

by · Oct 22, 2020 4:56 pm

That may be the question, but Joe Biden won’t be giving us the answer.  Instead, he’s going to create a commission to “study” the issue of court packing, and other supposed judicial “reforms,” and get back to us.

Creating a commission is one of the oldest dodges in DC, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Mr. Biden would recur to it  —  he having been in this town since the War in Vietnam.  But it’s still just a dodge. Continue reading . . .

Is the United States “Incarceration Nation”?

by · Oct 22, 2020 12:45 pm

Kent discussed here the recently released BJS Report showing that the prison population in America declined again last year.  “Reform” advocates are likely to use the report as evidence that declining incarceration does not result in more crime.  As Kent explains, this is so much sleight of hand.  Part of the overall decrease in crime rates over the last decade stems from the trend in some large states to simply refuse to label more and more anti-social behavior (e.g., retail theft, small-time drug use) as crime, and part results from systemic delay, to wit (1) the delay between cause and effect, and (2) the delay between the commission of crime, its adjudication, its collection in crime statistics, and the statistics’ publication.

Still, it’s worthwhile looking at the BJS statistics themselves.  Even with their shortcomings, they tell a very different story from the one you’re going to hear from “reform” advocates. Continue reading . . .

Imprisonment Rate Down, But Why?

by · Oct 22, 2020 11:09 am

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has released its annual report on prisoners for 2019. The “imprisonment rate,” defined as number of sentenced prisoners per 100,000 population, continued to decline, as it has since peaking in 2007.

While many people obsess about the imprisonment rate, I consider it to be a statistic of little value, at least by itself. Why is it down? Is it down because crime is down? Because legislatures lowered statutory penalties? Because prosecutors use their discretion not to charge every crime a defendant has committed more often? Because judges use their discretion in sentencing more leniently? Continue reading . . .

Pursuit, Arrests, and Homes

by · Oct 21, 2020 4:49 pm

This term the Supreme Court seems to be interested in the law of arrests. Last week, the Court held oral argument in the case of Torres v. Madrid on the subject of what is a “seizure.” (My FedSoc podcast is here.) The common law rules on what is an “arrest” figured prominently in the argument, although there is some question of whether an arrest is necessarily a seizure.

On Monday, in an order that attracted little notice among more politically hot potatoes, the Court took up the case of Lange v. California, No. 20-18. Lange raises the question of whether a person evading arrest for a misdemeanor can thwart the pursuit, at least for the time being, by running into his home.
Continue reading . . .

The Consequences of Tolerating Theft

by · Oct 21, 2020 10:59 am

Tessa McLean reports in the SF Chronicle:

Another Walgreens is permanently shutting down in San Francisco.

The drugstore at 790 Van Ness Ave. had been dealing with rampant shoplifting, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, amounting to up to $1,000 in lost merchandise every day. Thefts were often brazen and carried out in broad daylight. Continue reading . . .

San Francisco Drug Overdoses Far Exceed Covid 19

by · Oct 21, 2020 10:44 am

A person living in San Francisco is almost three times more likely to die from a drug overdose than from Covid 19, according to this story by Heather Knight from The San Francisco Chronicle.  The city medical examiner handles roughly 2 drug overdose deaths per day, and the 468 who had died so far this year already exceeds the 441 deaths for all of 2019.  The city’s Covid 19 deaths currently total 123.   As the reporter notes, “We’re a city that freaks out about a jogger running past without a mask, but doesn’t blink at someone injecting themselves in the neck on a Tenderloin sidewalk.”  Over 2/3 of the overdoses have been from Fentanyl.

Continue reading . . .