Serial Rapist Released Early Attacks a New Victim

by · Jun 28, 2023 11:20 am

The notorious “pillowcase rapist” who terrorized Sacramento women in the 1980s, has been arrested in Bakersfield for attempting to abduct another victim.  The Bakersfield Californian reports  that 71-year-old Ronald Feldmeier was arrested in Kern County on Monday for kidnapping, after a woman he offered a lift jumped from his moving car to escape.  Feldmeier was convicted in 1986 by a Sacramento jury of nine counts of rape, five counts of oral copulation, sodomy, burglary and robbery, according to the Kern County District Attorney’s office.  He was sentenced to 67 years in prison for these crimes, but was released in 2019 after serving less than half of that sentence.  This was allowed by state law in 1986.

Continue reading . . .

A Mixed Bag in the Stalking/Threats Case

by · Jun 27, 2023 4:05 pm

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court decided the stalking/threats case of Counterman v. Colorado, No. 22-138. The decision is a mixed bag for the ability of government to protect people from threats and for its ability to protect people from stalking. To punish speech on the basis that it is a threat, the Court held that, at a minimum, “The State must show that the defendant consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence. The State need not prove any more demanding form of subjective intent to threaten another.”

As to stalking by speech (or other communication) the need to invoke the “true threats” doctrine under the First Amendment at all is unclear. Continue reading . . .

Retail Theft Increasing Amid Reduced Consequences

by · Jun 26, 2023 10:40 am

A recently released survey  by the National Retail Federation indicates that shoplifting and organized retail theft cost nearly $95 billion last year, doubling the losses over the past eight years.  Mike Keenan of Security Info Watch reports that while retailers are trying to address the problem by locking merchandise in cabinets and checking customer receipts at exits, state laws reducing the consequences for thieves are driving the increases.

Continue reading . . .

Calls for Audit of Cal. Prison Credits

by · Jun 23, 2023 3:19 pm

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been handing out sentence reduction credits like Halloween candy. However, Julie Watts of Sacramento’s CBS-13 reports:

For more than a year, CBS Sacramento has been working to answer the question: “Are prison reform laws in California leading to more rehabilitation and fewer felons reoffending after release?” Unfortunately, we still don’t know because, as we’ve learned, the state isn’t analyzing, or won’t release, crucial data.

In an interview with CBS-13, the chairman of the California Assembly Public Safety Committee said he would submit a state audit request to get the data that CDCR won’t even give the Legislature, and he will include the station’s unanswered questions.

The Placer County District Attorney is joining the call for an audit, the Sierra Sun reports: Continue reading . . .

The Co-Defendant Confession Conundrum

by · Jun 23, 2023 2:53 pm

Criminal defendants are constitutionally entitled to confront the witnesses against them, a right that places a limit on the admission of out-of-court statements in addition to the general, exception-riddled rule of evidence against hearsay. But witnesses, for this purpose, do not include the defendant himself. So what do we do in a joint trial when a statement of one defendant incriminates them both? The Supreme Court sallied forth “once more unto the breach, dear friends” today in Samia v. United States, No. 22-196. Here is the holding from the syllabus:

Held: The Confrontation Clause was not violated by the admission of a nontestifying codefendant’s confession that did not directly inculpate the defendant and was subject to a proper limiting instruction. Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court Narrows and Upholds Illegal Immigration Encouragement Law

by · Jun 23, 2023 8:00 am

The U.S. Supreme Court today decided United States v. Hansen, No. 22-179. The first paragraph of Justice Barrett’s opinion for the Court summarizes the decision well:

A federal law prohibits “encourag[ing] or induc[ing]” illegal immigration. 8 U. S. C. §1324(a)(1)(A)(iv). After concluding that this statute criminalizes immigration advocacy and other protected speech, the Ninth Circuit held it unconstitutionally overbroad under the First Amendment. That was error. Properly interpreted, this provision forbids only the intentional solicitation or facilitation of certain unlawful acts. It does not “prohibi[t] a substantial amount of protected speech”—let alone enough to justify throwing out the law’s “plainly legitimate sweep.” United States v. Williams, 553 U. S. 285, 292 (2008). We reverse. Continue reading . . .

The Slaughter Over Juneteenth Weekend

by · Jun 22, 2023 9:10 am

(The following article was published in the June 21 edition of the California Globe)

As many Americans celebrated the end of slavery over the weekend leading up to June 19, called Juneteenth, dozens of people were wounded or murdered in violent attacks across the country.   The Associated Press reports on over 103 shootings in mostly major urban centers causing twelve deaths.  An exception was the apparently targeted murders of four people in an apartment in the small town of Kellogg, Idaho.  A 31-year-old suspect is in police custody.   There were over 60 shootings in Chicago alone, with four fatalities.  Twenty-three of the victims were shot at a Sunday morning Juneteenth celebration.  Twelve teenagers were shot with one fatality at a party in St. Louis Saturday night.  Another Saturday night shooting at a Washington state campground left two  people injured and two dead.

Continue reading . . .

Major Victory for Finality of Judgments

by · Jun 22, 2023 8:25 am

Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major decision on the finality of judgments in Jones v. Hendrix, No. 21-857. The Court rejected an attempt by the petitioner to do “an end-run around AEDPA,” i.e., the limits on collateral review of convictions enacted by Congress in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

Even more important, the Court has finally rejected the notion that the Suspension Clause of the Constitution requires collateral review of final judgments by courts of general jurisdiction. That clause is limited to the scope of habeas corpus understood at the time, which did not include such review. Congress may authorize such review, of course, but it is fully capable of imposing such limits as deems to be good policy.

We will have more to say on this important decision later.

CJLF’s brief in this case is available here.