Trans Male Convict In Women’s Prison Charged With Rape

by · Jun 3, 2024 2:49 pm

A California law passed in 2021 requires that male convicts, who “identify” as female, to be transferred to a woman’s prison.  That law, SB 132 introduced by progressive San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener passed both houses of California’s democrat super-majority legislature before being signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.  It removed the previous policy of state corrections officials to make individualized assessments regarding the transfer of claimed transgender inmates, excluding inmates who didn’t have gender-reassignment surgery.  As reported by Chris Pandolfo and Michael Ruiz of Fox News, three months after SB 132 became law,  habitual felon Tremaine Carroll, serving 25-years-to-life in prison for multiple crimes, including sex offenses, began identifying as a female.

Continue reading . . .

Is Murder a Violent Offense?

by · Jun 3, 2024 2:33 pm

To anyone with common sense, the title of this post seems to be a contender for the most absurd question that can possibly be asked. Yet, believe it or not, the U. S. Supreme Court today took up a case that asks that question, Delligatti v. United States, No. 23-825.

According to the government brief on the question of whether to take the case up, defendant Salvatore Delligatti was “an associate in the Genovese Crime Family,” who was hired to murder someone and then subcontracted the job. The plot failed when the police were alerted and arrested the subs. Among other crimes, Delligatti was charged with gang-related attempted murder in violation of the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1959, and “carrying a firearm during and in relation to any crime of violence,” 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A).

Delligatti was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison, of which 5 years were for the § 924 gun charge. He argued in the trial court and on appeal that murder as defined in New York is not a “crime of violence” within the definition of § 924(c) because that definition requires physical force, and it is possible to commit murder in New York by failure to act when one has a duty to act, which does not involve physical force. Continue reading . . .

Judge Rejects Murderer’s Bid to Vacate Death Sentence

by · May 31, 2024 3:55 pm

A Santa Clara County Judge rejected condemned California murderer Richard Allen Davis’ petition to vacate his death sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.  Louis Casiano and Audrey Conklin of Fox News report that the murderer’s attorneys argued that changes in state sentencing laws under Governor’s Brown and Newsom, including Newsom’s moratorium on executions, made Davis eligible for a reduced sentence. The judge was not buying, noting that the changes in the law allowed murderers sentenced to life without parole if they were 25 or younger at the time of the killing to ask for a lesser sentence, but did not include murderers sentenced to death. Davis kidnapped Polly Klaas from her bedroom in 1993, sexually assaulted her then killed her.  She was not found until Davis was arrested two months after her disappearance and led police to her body.  The case made national headlines and helped convince state voters to adopt the Three Strikes and Your Out, ballot measure.

Unconnected Mitigation Evidence in Capital Cases

by · May 30, 2024 4:35 pm

Today the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a decision of the Ninth Circuit in a capital case, Thornell v. Jones. All but one of the Justices agreed that the panel decision was wrong. The Ninth Circuit itself refused to rehear this rogue decision over the dissents of ten of its judges. This is such a common occurrence it is hardly even news. The most newsworthy aspect of the case is that a solid majority of the Supreme Court is finally showing skepticism about the value of “background” mitigating evidence that has nothing to do with the crime. This is a most welcome development, even if over 40 years late.

Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are the weapon of choice for capital defense lawyers who want to retry their state-court cases in federal court. The most common line of attack is to find something about the defendant’s background that the trial lawyer did not present, proclaim it to be critical evidence that would have turned the whole case around, and denounce the trial lawyer as incompetent because he did not present it. The evidence need not have any substantial weight if the murderer wins the judge selection lottery and draws judges who approach every capital case as an exercise in searching for an excuse to overturn the sentence. Continue reading . . .

A SCOTUS Warning Shot on Small Juries

by · May 28, 2024 11:03 am

Historically, trial juries were twelve people. Is this number constitutionally required? The Supreme Court said no 54 years ago in Williams v. Florida. The decision was 7-1, with Justice Marshall dissenting alone on this point.

However, the Supreme Court’s views on such matters have changed, and four years ago the high court dumped a precedent approving nonunanimous juries, despite the reliance of states on that precedent. See Ramos v. Louisiana. Today the Supreme Court declined to take up a Florida case challenging the Williams precedent, Cunningham v. Florida, but Justice Gorsuch fired a warning shot across the bow of states that allow juries of less than 12 in criminal cases. Continue reading . . .

The Consequences of Early Release

by · May 28, 2024 9:58 am

Leniency to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent far too often. CWB Chicago reports yet another example. Zebedee Thomas has been charged in Cook County with rape and other crimes committed last August. A DNA match confirms identity. Thomas previously pleaded guilty to a sexual assault on a 7-year-old committed while a juvenile. In 2022, he was sentenced to four years for unlawful imprisonment in Kentucky.

Why was a repeating violent criminal who had been sentenced to four years in prison back on the street the very next year to commit yet another horrific crime? Continue reading . . .

Memorial Day 2024

by · May 27, 2024 11:53 am

Let us take a moment today to remember those who gave the last full measure of devotion in the service of our country and the cause of liberty.

Alabama to Execute Double Murderer

by · May 23, 2024 1:49 pm

An Alabama criminal convicted of the brutal 2004 murder and robbery of an elderly couple is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on May 30.  Ivana Hrynkiw of Huntsville Real-Time News reports that last week Chief U.S. District Judge Emily Marks rejected Jamie Ray Mills’ petition for a stay of execution noting that:

“The practice of filing lawsuits and requests for stay of execution at the last minute where the facts were known well in advance is ineffective, unworkable, and must stop.  The Court acknowledges that lawyers representing death row inmates set to be executed unquestionably owe a duty to their clients. However, these lawyers are also officers of the court. The act of filing a civil action and then a request for injunctive relief after unjustified delay often appears to be legal manipulation rather than genuine legal advocacy.”

UPDATE:  Mills was executed without incident at 6:26 PM on May 30.

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Portland Follow-Up

by · May 23, 2024 1:16 pm

Following up on Tuesday’s post on the Multnomah County District Attorney election, the Oregonian has called the race for challenger Nathan Vasquez over the Soros-backed incumbent Mike Schmidt. Vasquez’s margin is 8% on partial returns Wednesday afternoon and projected to be 5% in the final tally. “The Oregonian/OregonLive determined Schmidt has no statistical path to victory.” Continue reading . . .

SCOTUS Unties ACCA Hemp Knot

by · May 23, 2024 11:19 am

In the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), Congress prescribed severe punishment for people with extensive criminal records who violate federal gun laws. The priors are generally state offenses, so there is a problem matching up criminal laws from different jurisdictions. Under the “categorical” approach the Supreme Court has developed, mismatches often spring loose criminals whose actual conduct meets the definition of the crime that Congress sought to include, frustrating the intent of the law. The Supreme Court has had to decide many cases on this topic, and today’s decision in Brown v. United States is the latest installment.

This decision involves two cases, one from Florida and one from Pennsylvania. In both cases, the drug dealers in question dealt in drugs that remain illegal under federal law. Between the times of their state drug-dealing crimes and their federal weapons sentencing, though, the federal government narrowed its definitions of controlled substances so that the state and federal laws were no longer a perfect match. Should that get them off? Three justices voted for that undeserved escape on a technicality, but the majority of six did not. Continue reading . . .