Successive Petitions and Federal Prisoners

by · Mar 25, 2020 1:48 pm

In the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Congress cracked down on prisoners making repeated collateral attacks on their convictions and sentences. AEPDA included a very strict rule for successive petitions by state prisoners in 28 U.S.C. §2244(b)(1)&(2). A less stringent rule for federal prisoners was added to the end of the separate section for federal-prisoner collateral review, §2255, language that is now designated subdivision (h) of that section.

Does the rule for state prisoners also apply to federal prisoners? Of course not. I’m surprised anyone ever thought it did. Yet it appears that six federal courts of appeals have so held. On Monday, the Supreme Court turned down a case attempting to raise the issue, but Justice Kavanaugh noted the Court should address it soon. Continue reading . . .

Texas Court Delays Execution

by · Mar 25, 2020 11:33 am

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has postponed the execution of murderer Tracy Lane Beatty due to the corona virus.  Blake Holland of KLTV reports that Beatty was scheduled to be executed today for the 2003 murder of his 62-year-old mother.  The Texas Daily Independent reported that Beatty had previous convictions for drug possession, theft, weapons possession, a brutal assault against a child under two years of age, and prior assaults against his mother, a correctional officer, and others. While incarcerated, Beatty had a physical altercation with a corrections officer and was found with a shank. He had also joined a prison gang.

Continue reading . . .

Colorado Legislative Cowards Block People’s Right to Review Their Decision on Death Penalty

by · Mar 24, 2020 11:17 am

Today the Governor of Colorado signed the bill repealing the death penalty. Repeal is a subject that reasonable people can and do disagree on. However, in a shameless act of legislative cowardice, the Legislature put a patently false declaration in the bill for the sole purpose of defeating the power of referendum that the people of Colorado have reserved to themselves. For that, every legislator who voted for this bill deserves to be defeated at their next election. Continue reading . . .

An Insanity Debate Goes to the Dogs

by · Mar 23, 2020 3:57 pm

This morning I noted the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kahler v. Kansas, upholding a Kansas statute that limits the insanity defense to inability to know what one is doing, omitting the traditional alternative of inability to know that what one is doing is morally wrong. There are many interesting aspects of the debate between Justice Kagan’s opinion for the Court and Justice Breyer’s dissent, but for this post I will focus on just one. The hypothetical that Justice Breyer invokes repeatedly in his argument makes no sense.

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Runoff Likely in LA DA’s Race

by · Mar 23, 2020 11:24 am

Three weeks after California’s March 3rd primary election, the outcome of several races across the state remains uncertain due to the state’s multiple “election reform” laws.  Motor Voter, Jungle Primary, provisional balloting and ballot harvesting have turned the state election process into a template for incompetence, corruption and fraud, where the final vote count is not known for several weeks and its accuracy never confirmed.    With several million mail-in and provisional ballots uncounted the day after the election some contests that were not even close on March 4, may completely change weeks later.

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Constitution Does Not Require Morality-Based Insanity Defense

by · Mar 23, 2020 7:47 am

The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected the claim that the Constitution requires a State to recognize an insanity defense based on the defendant’s inability to know his conduct is wrong. It is sufficient, if a State so chooses, to limit the defense to the defendant’s inability to know what he was doing. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the opinion of the Court in Kahler v. Kansas, No. 18-6135.

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Frivolous Pleadings for Murderers at Taxpayer Expense

by · Mar 20, 2020 2:20 pm

Adam GomezRaymond MataRaymond Mata is very justly sentenced to death for the murder of 3-year-old Adam Gomez. (I have reserved the stomach-turning facts for the end of the post.) He has the right to government-paid counsel to make his defense, but shouldn’t the government insist on some kind of threshold of non-frivolousness before it forks over taxpayers dollars? Do we really need to pay for complete garbage? That is exactly what Nebraskans have paid for in Mata’s latest petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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AG Probing Cyber Attack on HHS

by · Mar 18, 2020 10:24 am

Attorney General William Barr told reporters Tuesday that the Justice Department is investigating a reported cyber incident directed at computers at the Department of Health and Human Services.  Michael Balsamo of the Associated Press reports that a “denial of service” attack was attempted on HHS computer networks but the networks were not penetrated.  This came days after federal officials identified an effort by a foreign entity to spread misinformation about a nationwide quarantine in response to the coronavirus.  The Attorney General said the FBI and other agencies are investigating both incidents and threatened severe action for any foreign government behind disinformation campaigns attempting to spread panic among Americans.

Philadelphia U.S. Attorney Calls Out D.A.

by · Mar 17, 2020 4:35 pm

William McSwainWilliam McSwain, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia, issued a remarkable statement yesterday:

“Last Friday, Philadelphia Police Corporal and SWAT team member, James O’Connor, a proud 23-year veteran of the Department from a family of police officers, was gunned down in the City’s Frankford section while trying to arrest Hassan Elliott, who was wanted for murder. Elliott was on the street for one reason: because of District Attorney Krasner’s pro-violent defendant policies. Those policies – which include permissive bail conditions for violent offenders, failing to pursue serious probation and parole violations by violent criminals, offering lenient plea deals for violent offenses, and outright withdrawing cases against violent felons – put dangerous criminals like Elliott on the street.”

Continue reading . . .

Triple Murderer’s Execution Delayed

by · Mar 16, 2020 3:11 pm

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced today that the state will delay the execution of triple-murderer John Hummel for 60 days due to the health crisis caused by the coronavirus.  Jerry Lambe of Law and Crime reports that, according to state prosecutors, Hummel’s attorneys offered “no evidence whatsoever” that the concerns about the virus would threaten prison employees or cause any impediment to the execution.  Hummel was sentenced to death in 2011 for the stabbing murder of his pregnant wife and the baseball-bat beating deaths of this 5-year-old daughter and his father-in-law, before setting fire to their home.  Hummel’s execution had been scheduled for Wednesday.