Judicial Sentencing in Capital Cases

by · Nov 23, 2020 11:30 am

Should sentencing in capital cases be decided by the judge or the jury? Since 1976, the Supreme Court has decided that a two-step process is required: (1) narrow the group of murderers eligible for capital punishment by finding some reasonably objective fact, and (2) decide on what the punishment is just after considering whatever aggravating factors state law specifies and practically everything the defendant wants to submit in mitigation.

Since 2002, the Court has held that the defendant has a right to a jury for step (1). However, since 1976, the Supreme Court has consistently held that step (2) may be decided by the trial judge, a panel of judges, the jury, or the judge after an advisory verdict by the jury, whichever the state chooses.  It reaffirmed that rule earlier this year in McKinney v. Arizona. See this post.

Today the Court turned down yet another attempt to toss out 44 years of solidly established precedent in McMillan v. Alabama, No. 20-193. Continue reading . . .

Acquitted Conduct Diatribe Flops Again

by · Nov 23, 2020 11:00 am

For years, the defense bar and legal academia have been pounding their chests about how grossly unconstitutional it is for a defendant to be sentenced in part based on conduct for which he was acquitted.  And as is often the mantra with these people, they are always on the cusp of victory (see, e.g., the constant chipper refrain that “the death penalty is dying” notwithstanding that the country has pretty steadily had an execution every 16 days for the last five years).

Today, the Supreme Court (without a single dissent so far as I can tell) rejected the latest effort to get it to ban district courts from basing sentencing on acquitted conduct, LUDWIKOWSKI V. UNITED STATES, No. 19-1293.

Continue reading . . .

US DOJ Schedules 3 More Well Deserved Executions

by · Nov 21, 2020 6:09 pm

Jerry Dunleavy reports for the Washington Examiner that the Department of Justice has scheduled three more federal executions at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Alfred Bourgeois, who was convicted in 2004 of abusing, torturing, and beating to death his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter in 2002 by punching her in the face, whipping her with a cord, burning her foot with a lighter, and smashing the back of her head against his truck until she died, is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 11.

Continue reading . . .

SCOTUS Takes Two Crime-Related Cases

by · Nov 20, 2020 10:38 am

The U.S. Supreme Court today took up two cases for full briefing and argument. United States v. Cooley, No. 19-1414, is an exclusionary rule case involving the authority of tribal officers to stop non-Indians on tribal land. Caniglia v. Strom, No. 20-157, is a civil suit regarding whether the “community caretaking” exception to the search warrant requirement extends to entry into a home. Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court Summarily Vacates Pro-Murderer Judge; Killer Executed

by · Nov 20, 2020 12:40 am

Mike wrote earlier today about the last minute stay of execution entered by Tanya Chutkan, a turbo-charged public defender made a federal district judge by Pres. Barack Obama.  The stay was for the benefit of Orlando Hall, who, along with his associates, kidnapped, beat, raped, tortured and then buried alive a 16 year-old girl.

The stay survived for a few hours before being summarily overturned by a 6-3 vote of the Supreme Court.  Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan dissented without opinion.  Hall received his long overdue justice shortly thereafter.

Judges like Chutkan are a disgrace to the bench.  They are not there to do justice or follow the law.  They are there to impose their personal opinions on us lesser creatures.  They should find, or be shown, another line of work.

Federal Judge Blocks Murderer’s Execution

by · Nov 19, 2020 3:46 pm

A DC District judge stayed the federal execution of rapist/murderer Orlando Hall hours before he was scheduled to be put to death today.  The Associated Press reports that in her ruling District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former public defender appointed to the bench by President Obama, was “deeply concerned” about the lethal injection Hall was to receive, which she concludes “violates federal law.”

Continue reading . . .

PA High Court Upholds Murderer’s Death Sentence

by · Nov 19, 2020 11:59 am

In an unanimous decision announced on November 18, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Melvin Knight, for the torture and murder of 30-year-old woman in February of 2010.  The Associated Press reports that Knight was one of two men sentenced to death for the killing.   The victim, Jennifer Daugherty, was mildly handicapped with the mental capacity of a child and trusted everyone she met.

Continue reading . . .

Arrests Down, Shootings Up in NYC

by · Nov 19, 2020 11:35 am

In mid-July, this article in the WSJ noted an increase in shootings in New York City as the lockdowns started to ease. Not to worry, though, Mayor de Blasio was ready with “new tactics to curb violence, including deploying additional officers to areas where shootings have taken place, and increasing efforts to foster coordination between police and communities.” Additional cops can’t hurt, but if you have a fixed number in a city deploying more one place means fewer someplace else. “Foster coordination between police and communities” sounds like the kind of vague generality that typically means nothing worthwhile will get done.

So how is it looking four months later? Continue reading . . .

Did “defund the police” deflate the “blue wave”?

by · Nov 18, 2020 6:49 pm

The past few years have been difficult for the advocates of justice. For most of the time I have been doing this work (since late 1986), the one thing we could always count on was that the people were with us. The courts might misconstrue the Constitution. The legislature might pass some harmful bills and kill all the good ones, but a solid majority of the people always had their heads on straight when it came to law and order.

That started to change when a well-funded and clever disinformation campaign convinced a large portion of the population that our prisons were chock full of harmless minor offenders who could be released without harm to anyone. That was false, but people bought it. Libertarians and many small-government Republicans climbed on board the “reform” movement, giving it a bipartisan cast.

I always knew that the tide would turn back, but how long would it take? How much innocent blood would be spilled before people realized they had been conned? We may have seen the inflection point this year. The pro-criminal crowd may have gotten so overconfident that they showed their true selves with “defund the police,” and the scales have fallen from the people’s eyes. Or at least started to. Continue reading . . .