Clergy in the Execution Chamber Whack-a-Mole Continues

by · Feb 12, 2021 11:00 am

The game of “whack-a-mole” with clergy being in the execution chamber when a murderer finally gets his just deserts has popped up again.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to lift a stay of execution imposed by the Eleventh Circuit on the ground that Alabama will not allow non-employees, including clergy, in the actual execution room. Four of the Justices concurring in this order purport to instruct the States how they can easily comply with the requirements and proceed with long-overdue justice. We’ve been there, done that. That’s how we got here. Continue reading . . .

An Evil Prosecution of the George Soros Kind

by · Feb 11, 2021 7:54 pm

This story from the NYT is making the rounds on the Internet today.  The headline is:  “The Vaccine Had to Be Used. He Used It. He Was Fired.”  The subhead is, “Ten doses of the Covid-19 vaccine would expire within hours, so a Houston doctor gave it to people with medical conditions, including his wife. What followed was ‘the lowest moment in my life,’ Dr. Hasan Gokal said.”

The lowest moment was not just that he was fired from his hospital.  He was criminally charged by the Harris County District Attorney, Kim Ogg, for “stealing” the vaccine.

Now you might wonder, as I did, how a prosecutor could be so brain-dead as to charge a doctor for “stealing” this life-saving medicine when the alternative was to pour it down the sewer.  And you might think, again as I did, that it was just a case of terminal hubris and stupidity.  But it seems to have been more than that, and worse.  A lot worse.

Continue reading . . .

Defunding Police May Be Hazardous to Your Health (Not to Mention Property)

by · Feb 10, 2021 1:37 pm

Eric Piza of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Vijay Chillar of Rutgers School of Criminal Justice have published an article in Justice Evaluation Journal titled The Effect of Police Layoffs on Crime: A Natural Experiment Involving New Jersey’s Two Largest Cities. The published version is behind a paywall, but a post-publication manuscript version is available here.

“Our findings indicate that sudden and drastic reductions in police force size via police officer layoffs can generate significant crime increases.” The results “translate[] to approximately 108 … additional violent crime incidents per month resulting from the layoffs. Using a similar equation, the police layoffs resulted in approximately 103 additional property crime incidents per month in Newark.” Continue reading . . .

Another Stacked Commission, Another Slanted Report

by · Feb 10, 2021 12:22 pm

Last year, the California Legislature created a committee to study revision of the Penal Code. Unlike, e.g., the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the statute made no effort whatever to achieve balance or bipartisanship. Yesterday, the committee issued its first report. See this article by Don Thompson for AP. Unsurprisingly, the report reflects a 100% pro-perpetrator viewpoint. Every change proposed is to move the law in the direction of reducing the consequences of criminals’ choices to violate the law and, in most cases, to violate the rights of other people. The possibility that some of the changes of the last decade have already gone too far and need to be rolled back does not appear to have even been considered. Continue reading . . .

The Scourge of Progressive Prosecutors

by · Feb 10, 2021 12:18 pm

The election, in recent years, of several so called “progressive” district attorneys (or state’s attorneys depending upon where you live) is confusing pheonomina that seems to defy common sense. “The prosecutors’ campaigns have been funded by the bogeyman of the Right, billionaire leftist George Soros, and animated by extreme left-wing political movements such as Black Lives Matter. The politicization of what was, in its origins, an apolitical law-enforcement function will have serious consequences for public safety and order,” notes Craig Trainor in his recent City Journal article.

Continue reading . . .

Catch-and-Release Has a Cost — It Just Gets Pushed Behind the Curtain

by · Feb 9, 2021 11:41 pm

But the curtain will get pulled back in this space.  Here’s the story’s opening paragraph:

Jerry Lyons, 31, had spent his entire adult life committing crimes. He had dozens of arrests in California — attempted robbery, burglary, evading police, driving a stolen vehicle, weapons charges, drug charges, shoplifting, trespassing, etc. — but kept getting turned loose until Thursday, when he finally killed somebody. Sheria Musyoka, 26, was an immigrant from Kenya who had graduated from Dartmouth and moved to San Francisco with his wife and three-year-old son. Lyons was behind the wheel of a stolen car when he killed Musyoka.

It doesn’t get any better.

Continue reading . . .

By All Means, Let’s Bring Back Parole…….

by · Feb 9, 2021 11:13 pm

…..or maybe not.  Here’s the headline from People Magazine:  “Mom Allegedly Left Newborn in Toilet After Giving Birth While on Parole for Role in Death of Another Baby.”  The sub-head is also informative:  “Denette Williams allegedly told police she did not know she was pregnant when she felt cramps and heard a ‘plop’ in the toilet.”

Ah yes, loving motherhood.  What better way to enter the world than as “a plop in the toilet.”

Continue reading . . .

Did Woke Policing Result in Double Murder?

by · Feb 9, 2021 3:59 pm

The claim that America’s criminal justice system is systemically racist is not new.  It was the basis of the 1991 riots in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers caught on video beating a black man named Rodney King.  The video was damning, but it did not show King, who was drunk and just one year out of prison for robbery, leading police on a 117 mph chase through Los Angeles.  It did not show King’s two passengers obey officer’s orders and remain unmolested, nor King’s refusal to comply and actually charge one of the officers.  The riot resulted in 63 deaths and $1 billion in damage.  Whatever had been done to close the racial divide in the years following the Rodney King riots seems to have evaporated in recent years.

Continue reading . . .

LA Superior Court Enjoins Many Gascón Policies

by · Feb 8, 2021 11:39 am

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant granted most of the preliminary injunction sought by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County (ADDA) against recently elected District Attorney George Gascón. Among other matters, the DA is enjoined from requiring deputies to violate the mandatory charging aspect of California’s Three Strikes Law.

Here is the operative paragraph of the order: Continue reading . . .

LA DA Mythology on Parole Hearings and Victims

by · Feb 5, 2021 11:19 am

Bill Melugin of Fox 11 LA, has posted on Twitter the LA DA’s message to the media in response to the Sheriff’s letter on attendance at parole hearings, noted here Wednesday. One can only wonder what alternate reality these people are living in.

“When heart-wrenching crimes occur, victims and their families are changed forever. That is why District Attorney Gascón has directed our office’s victim advocates, who are trained to provide trauma-informed care, to support victims during parole hearings. They are available to attend any hearing where victims want them present. Sheriff’s deputies, like prosecutors, do not have all the pertinent facts and evaluations at their disposal. The Parole Board does — and its sole purpose is to objectively determine whether someone is suitable for release.” — Alex Bastian, Special Advisor to District Attorney George Gascón

Where do we begin? Continue reading . . .