California Insists That Victim Suffering Must Continue Decades After The Crime

by · Nov 4, 2021 1:14 pm

Guest Post by David Boyd

Our California Constitution guarantees victims of crimes the following right (among others): “To a speedy trial and a prompt and final conclusion of the case and any related post-judgment proceedings.” In explaining the need for this right, our constitution says, “Victims of crime are entitled to finality in their criminal cases. Lengthy appeals and other post-judgment proceedings that challenge criminal convictions, frequent and difficult parole hearings that threaten to release criminal offenders, and the ongoing threat that the sentences of criminal wrongdoers will be reduced, prolong the suffering of crime victims for many years after the crimes themselves have been perpetrated. This prolonged suffering of crime victims and their families must come to an end.”

This right, and its foundational basis, is being routinely violated in its spirit if not its letter. Within the last several years our Legislature as well as our Governor through the secretary of the Department of Corrections has ignored our constitution. Instead of passing laws preserving finality, they have instead created new laws and programs to reopen tens of thousands of cases statewide, thus creating the very suffering that that the constitution directs must end. Continue reading . . .

Bring Back the Death Penalty in Virginia?

by · Nov 3, 2021 12:22 pm

Yesterday saw a small revolution in Virginia politics.  For the last few years, the Democrats have controlled both the Governor’s chair and both houses of the state legislature.  With that alignment, they repealed the state’s death penalty on an almost (but not quite) straight party line vote.  But with yesterday’s election, things have changed.  Is there now a way to restore the death penalty? Continue reading . . .

Landslide in Seattle

by · Nov 3, 2021 10:53 am

Voters in the famously left-leaning city of Seattle rejected the defund/woke candidates by wide margins in yesterday’s local election. Alec Regimbal has this story for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In the race to become Seattle’s next mayor, former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell is triumphing over M. Lorena González, the council’s current president.

Harrell’s decision to appeal to residents who are fed up with homelessness, as well as the way he distanced himself from a city council that vowed to cut the police budget in half last year, appears to have paid off. Harrell has secured 84,975 votes — 65% — while González has won 46,046 votes, just 35%.

Wow. A 2-to-1 landslide in a bastion of progressiveness. Continue reading . . .

Does AAIDD Have the Power to Amend the Constitution?

by · Nov 1, 2021 4:05 pm

The President cannot amend the Constitution. Congress cannot by itself. The legislatures of the States cannot, by themselves. Only 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures (or convention alternatives) can do that, according to Article V of the Constitution. The Founders made it very difficult on purpose, as our fundamental law should rarely change, and only if there is a genuine consensus to change it.

But does the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), a private organization that the people have no voice in selecting, have the power to amend the Eighth Amendment by itself and widen the class of people that amendment (the Supreme Court says) exempts from capital punishment regardless of how horrible the crime or how clearly premeditated it was? That is one possible interpretation of the Supreme Court’s misguided 2017 decision in Moore v. Texas. See this post. The Supreme Court today turned down a case, over the dissent of Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan, presenting that question. Continue reading . . .

Crime Policy on the Ballot Tomorrow

by · Nov 1, 2021 3:06 pm

“Issue one, two, three in this election is crime and violence,” said former and possibly future Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, quoted in this article in the WSJ by Cameron McWhirter. As Bill noted yesterday, we are seeing shifts in public opinion and political campaigns as the country slowly sheds its “woke” delusions and recognizes the reality that softness on crime means more crime. Continue reading . . .

Reality Can’t Be Hidden Forever

by · Oct 30, 2021 6:14 pm

The headline in today’s Washington Post story is:  “In a setback for Black Lives Matter, mayoral campaigns shift to ‘law and order’.”

Yes, it’s all true.  When violent crime surges, the public demands protection.  Who woulda thunk it?

Continue reading . . .

Restore the “Rigid Order of Battle Rule” for Qualified Immunity Cases?

by · Oct 28, 2021 3:00 pm

When the complaining party in a lawsuit must clear multiple hurdles in order to obtain relief, does the judge need to decide them in any particular order? The answer is “sometimes.” See pages 20-23 of CJLF’s brief in Brown v. Davenport, presently pending in the U.S. Supreme Court.

In cases where a public employee (very often a police officer) is claimed to have violated someone’s rights and asserts qualified immunity, there was for eight years a “rigid order of battle rule.” The Supreme Court decided in Saucier v. Katz (2001) that judges must decide whether the plaintiffs’ allegations, if true, would amount to a constitutional violation before deciding whether that rule was “clearly established” so as to defeat the claim of qualified immunity. In Pearson v. Callahan (2009), the Court decided unanimously that the rule was a bad idea and dumped it. See this post.

John Ketchum has this article in the City Journal calling for the return of the Saucier rule. Though I supported dumping the rule, Ketchum does make some interesting points. Continue reading . . .

Oklahoma to Resume Executions

by · Oct 28, 2021 1:53 pm

In a 5-3 decision today the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution for Oklahoma murderer John Grant.  Sean Murphy of the Middletown Press reports that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals had granted a stay yesterday for Grant’s scheduled execution today.  Today’s action by SCOTUS makes it likely that the execution will be carried out.  It will be the first execution in Oklahoma since 2015.  Grant was serving a 150-year sentence for several armed robberies when in 1998, he dragged a female prison cafeteria worker into a closet and stabbed her 16 times with a homemade shank.  Along with Grant, four other condemned Oklahoma murderers lost their federal District Court suit last week seeking to block their pending executions, arguing that the state’s three drug protocol might cause pain in violation of  the 8th Amendment bar against cruel and unusual punishment.

Update:   Grant was executed on Thursday night.

Are Criminal Justice Reforms Making Us Safe?

by · Oct 27, 2021 11:05 am

The answer is yes, according to a Los Angeles Times OpEd by former Los Angeles District Attorneys Ira Reiner and Gil Garcetti and former federal prosecutor Miriam Aroni Krinsky.   Their piece “Stop obstructing criminal justice reforms.  It’s making us less safe,”  cites evidence-based polices like the ones progressive LA District Attorney Gascon “is implementing in Los Angeles hold people accountable without relying on extreme sentences, and they save taxpayer dollars that could be invested in things that actually have an impact on crime, such as public health, housing, education and violence prevention.”  The trio point to the 1980s and 90s when, “California embarked on a disastrous social experiment…….that ratcheted up punishment in criminal cases.  The negative impact of these policies overwhelming fell on poor, Black and brown communities.”   Let’s take a look at that negative impact.

Continue reading . . .