Results on Ballot Crime Measures

by · Nov 6, 2024 6:05 am

See yesterday’s post for a description of the ballot measures. Here are the results as of 8 ET / 5 PT the morning after:

California‘s Proposition 36, partially rolling back the disastrous Prop. 47 of 2014, passed by a landslide 70-30. Much closer is the deceptive measure to forbid compelled work for prisoners, being sold as an “anti-slavery” measure in a state that forbade slavery at its birth 175 years ago. With no opposition funding or advertising and not even an opposition ballot argument, it is still going down 45-55. Give the voters credit for seeing through it on their own.

In Colorado, Amendment I, making an exception to the right to bail for first-degree murder cases, is sailing through 69-31. Proposition 128, a truth-in-sentencing law requiring service of 85% of the sentence before parole eligibility for murder-2, sexual assault, and some other violent crimes is also passing by a landslide, 62-38. Proposition 130, a police funding measure, is ahead 53-47.

In Arizona, Proposition 311, also a funding measure, is passing handily, 64-36. In Missouri, though, a measure for funding via fees is going down by a similar margin, 39-61. Continue reading . . .

Woke DAs Routed in California

by · Nov 6, 2024 5:34 am

Voters in three major California counties continued the rejection of so-called “progressive” prosecutors yesterday. The results below are as of 5 am PST:

In Los Angeles, voters ousted George Gascón in favor of Nathan Hochman by a landslide 61-39.

In Alameda County (Oakland and vicinity), voters recalled Pamela Price by an even larger margin, 65-35.

In San Francisco, voters reelected Brooke Jenkins, who replaced the previously recalled Chesa Boudin. She was challenged by Ryan Khojasteh, one of the prosecutors she fired shortly after taking the reins. Khojasteh tried to soft-pedal his links to the “progressive” prosecutor movement, but he was endorsed by all the usual suspects: Gascón, Philly’s Larry Krasner, and California’s thug-hugging Gov. Newsom. See this story in the SF Chron Saturday. The vote at this time is over 2-to-1: 67-32. Continue reading . . .

Crime Measures on the Ballot

by · Nov 5, 2024 11:59 am

National Public Radio has this article by Meg Anderson on crime-related measures on the ballot in various states. And of course, because it is NPR, the article lists to the left. Even so, it does have some interest.

California’s Proposition 36 is described as ” a proposition that would undo changes made a decade ago that lessened the punishments for certain crimes.” That is potentially misleading. It doesn’t repeal 2014’s Proposition 47, but rolls back some of its more poorly thought-out provisions. “Among other changes, the proposed proposition would turn some misdemeanors – certain kinds of theft and drug crimes – into felonies, and lengthen some prison sentences. It would also require people facing certain drug felonies to go through treatment.” That’s a decent quick summary. Continue reading . . .

SCOTUS’s Unclear Reversal of Capital Case It Deems “Unclear”

by · Nov 4, 2024 10:31 am

The U.S. Supreme Court has finally acted on Alabama’s petition in the case of murderer Joseph Clifton Smith. The high court’s repeated relisting of this case for consideration in an unprecedented number of conferences has drawn considerable speculation as to what was going on.

The high court did not take the case up for full briefing and argument but instead sent it back to the Eleventh Circuit for a do-over. That is most unfortunate, because they failed to clean up a mess of their own creation.

In the 1989 case of Penry v. Lynaugh, the Supreme Court ruled correctly that its precedent in Lockett v. Ohio requires capital sentencing juries to consider mental retardation (as it was then known) as a mitigating circumstance. (Whether Lockett itself was correctly decided is another question. See this article.) In 2002, the high court decided that wasn’t good enough, and it made mental retardation (as it was still known then) a categorical exclusion. Along with the constitutional problems, there is a huge practical problem. The Court tried to draw a bright-line rule with a paint roller.

Intelligence is a continuous spectrum, and the breakdown into categories is entirely a human construction. There are no natural dividing lines set by objective science. The lines are therefore subject to manipulation, as discussed in this post. Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court Takes Up Drug Smuggler Deportation Case

by · Nov 4, 2024 9:11 am

The U. S. Supreme Court issued an orders list today, taking up one case, Riley v. Garland, No. 23-1270. Pierre Riley is a citizen of Jamaica, caught eight years ago smuggling over a metric ton of marijuana. Upon his release from prison, the immigration authorities began deportation on the ground that he had committed an aggravated felony.

An immigration judge granted Riley’s application for asylum, but the Government appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which reversed and reinstated the deportation order.

The case involves technical questions regarding the jurisdiction and timing for a federal court of appeals to review immigration decisions. Continue reading . . .

Early release program for aging inmates helps clear out California prisons, but at what cost?

by · Oct 28, 2024 4:39 pm

Joe Nelson has this Oct. 21 article in the San Bernardino Sun, now mirrored without the paywall at the East Bay Times.

Thirty years ago, before he was sentenced for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old niece in Moreno Valley, Cody Klemp told a probation officer that if he was ever released from custody he would kill the girl for reporting him.

It seemed like he would never get that opportunity when a judge sentenced him to 170 years in prison.

Now, however, Klemp awaits a parole hearing Thursday, Oct. 24, that could free him under a program designed to reduce California’s prison population and slash medical costs by releasing aging, often infirm inmates. The Elderly Parole Program offers parole hearings for those at least 50 years old who have served 20 continuous years of incarceration — even murderers and violent sex offenders.

Klemp’s status page on the California prison department site indicates he was denied parole for five years. But the Board of Parole Hearings has the authority to move that date up any time it feels like it. They are supposed to consider the victims in such decisions, but I have not yet seen any indication that they actually do.

And yes, you read that right. The California Legislature actually defined “elderly” as over 50. Continue reading . . .

Voting Fraud

by · Oct 28, 2024 3:48 pm

Yes, voting fraud does exist, despite what you may have read. WGAL reports from Lancaster, Pennsylvania:

Thousands of voter registration forms that are suspected of being fraudulent were dropped off at the Lancaster County Board of Elections Office, according to officials.

The Lancaster County Board of Elections, county commissioners and District Attorney Heather Adams held a news conference at the county administration building Friday morning….

Detectives in the DA’s office are investigating the fraudulent voter registration forms. Adams said they stem from a canvassing operation in the summer at various shopping centers, parking lots, parks and other areas. The investigation involves around 2,500 voter registration applications dropped off last week at two separate times, shortly before Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline.

Adams said of the applications that have been examined, 60% were fraudulent. She said the remainder should be examined by the end of Friday.

“Staff noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting (and) were filled out on the same day,” Adams said. “The confirmed indicators of fraud that detectives came across were inaccuracies with the addresses listed on the applications, fake and false personal identification information, as well as false names. Also, applications that had names that did not match the provided Social Security information.”

Continue reading . . .

The Unraveling of George Gascón

by · Oct 28, 2024 3:40 pm

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón threw a “hail Mary” last week announcing that he will seek the resentencing and release of the Menendez brothers.  Phil Helsel and Antonio Planas of NBC news report that at a press conference last Thursday Gascón told reporters, “I believe that they have paid their debt to society.”  Gascón has stated several times that no criminal should spend more than 20 years behind bars.

The cold-blooded shotgun murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 by their two sons Erik and Lyle, who were 21 and 18 years old, was among the most notorious murder cases in Los Angeles history. Erik and Lyle snuck into their parents’ house with shotguns and came up behind them while they were watching television, shooting Jose 8 times and Kitty 10 times.  The brothers initially claimed that they discovered their parents’ bodies and suggested that burglars killed them. They later admitted the killings but claimed self defense due to their father’s alleged sexual abuse. The brothers were tried twice for the murders.  At the second trial a jury sentenced them to life-without-the-possibility-of-parole.

Continue reading . . .

Prosecutors Taking a Dive

by · Oct 28, 2024 9:51 am

The Anglo-American system of justice has always depended on having adversarial advocates to present both sides of any controversy. But what happens when a prosecutor “takes a dive” and joins a convicted defendant’s efforts to overturn his conviction? U. Utah Law Professor Paul Cassell has this op-ed in The Hill on that subject. He focuses particularly on the Glossip case from Oklahoma presently before the Supreme Court, in which he represents the victim’s family. See this post.

This is not to say that confessions of error are always inappropriate. Sometimes they are the right thing to do. The problem arises when political or ideological considerations enter into the picture. There is a strong basis for suspicion that is happening in the Glossip case, where the AG’s investigator never even asked the trial prosecutor about the meaning of cryptic notes that lie at the heart of the present case. In other cases, there is no doubt at all. Continue reading . . .

Recall of East Bay DA

by · Oct 25, 2024 4:06 pm

The big news in “progressive” prosecutor elections is in Los Angeles, but northern California also has a race worth watching. The East Bay Times has this editorial endorsing the recall of Alameda County DA Pamela Price. (Alameda Co. is Oakland and a number of other cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay.)

It’s not surprising that Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has tried to shake things up. That’s what she promised in 2022 when she campaigned as a criminal justice reformer.

But her actions have gone far beyond reform. Price has punished opponents, hired allies with questionable credentials including her own boyfriend, insisted on disturbing leniency for violent criminals, undermined public disclosure laws, demonstrated prosecutorial bias about cases and even, it is now alleged, made racist comments and tried to extort money from a political rival.

The EBT is part of the same media group as the San Jose Mercury-News, which is definitely not a conservative paper.

If the recall succeeds, the county board of supervisors will choose a temporary replacement to serve until the next general election in 2026. Continue reading . . .