Crime & Consequences

A Problematic Attorney General Nomination

by · Nov 14, 2024 9:17 am

President-elect Trump has nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General of the United States. If he had intentionally set out to choose the Republican with the least chance of being confirmed, he could hardly have done better.

With a 53-47 Senate and his Vice-President having a tie-breaking vote, the 47 Democrats plus 4 Republicans can block a nominee. Mr. Gaetz is a disruptive, divisive figure, widely despised among his former colleagues in the House Republican Caucus. Can he attract unanimous support, or anything close to it, among Republicans in the upper chamber? That seems unlikely. An appeal to party loyalty and unity in support of a man who is the epitome of the exact opposite does not seem to be a winning argument. Continue reading . . .

Federalist Society Convention

by · Nov 13, 2024 9:46 am

The Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention begins tomorrow. The panel discussions will be live streamed. The agenda is here. YouTube links are here.

The Criminal Law Practice Group’s panel is “Evaluating the Progressive Prosecutor Experiment.” It is tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at 3:30-5:00 EST / 12:30-2:00 PST. California voters provided some grist for that mill last Tuesday, as noted in this post.

The speakers are Zack Smith from the Heritage Foundation, DA Ray Tierney from Suffolk County, NY (eastern Long Island), DA John Creuzot from Dallas, TX, and Prof. Carissa Hessick from UNC Law. Eleventh Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom moderates. Continue reading . . .

The Economics of Political Correctness

by · Nov 11, 2024 12:55 pm

Roland Fryer, professor of economics at Harvard, has this article in the WSJ with the above title. The subtitle is “Scholars need incentives to tell the truth, not to hide it and promote socially acceptable ideas.”

Both academic journals and campus discussions are cramped by the mandate to conform to the political and social ideas that are presently dominant in academia.

A decade ago, I still interacted with dozens of undergraduates and doctoral students who were asking important and provocative questions about race and sex in America. But now students invite me to lunch and ask if their research idea is too risky; they wonder out loud what they are allowed to “say in public,” as though they are in the situation room discussing nuclear launch strategy rather than pondering the economics of policing in an overpriced cafe. Continue reading . . .

Sorry Joe, No Midnight Justice for You

by · Nov 10, 2024 10:55 am

In 1800, Jefferson’s Republicans routed Adams’s Federalists. During the transition period, the Federalists still controlled the government. They created many new judicial positions and filled them quite swiftly. The appointees were called the Midnight Judges, which has been a term of derision for this maneuver ever since.

Some people have been calling on Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire abruptly in mid-term so that President Biden could replace her with a younger justice during the transition period. Justices rarely step down in mid term, as it would be disruptive to the workings of the Court. Doing so now would be correctly perceived as blatantly political, something the Court surely does not need.

Jess Bravin reports for the WSJ:

Despite calls from some liberal activists for Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down while Democrats can fill her seat before political power changes hands in January, she has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court, people close to the justice said. Continue reading . . .

Californians Spoke Clearly, Governor Newsom Wasn’t Listening

by · Nov 8, 2024 3:20 pm

Something remarkable happened in California on November 5.  In several of the state’s most liberal strongholds, voters rejected liberal politicians. Nearly two-thirds of Los Angles voters replaced criminal-coddlling George Gascón with a law-and-order prosecutor. In the East Bay voters recalled Pamela Price, the first black female district attorney in Alameda County history, because she refused to crack down on criminals. Oakland’s ultra-liberal Mayor Sheng Thao has also been recalled. Both votes were by a two-to-one margin. San Francisco voters fired liberal Mayor London Breed and two-thirds of them re-elected crime-fighting DA Brooke Jenkins, who had replaced progressive Chesa Boudin in 2022. Democrats make up 62% of voters in San Francisco, 59% in Alameda County and 52% in Los Angeles. A hell of a lot of them voted with republicans in these races.

Continue reading . . .

Police resources and crime solving: A closer look at clearance rate trends in California

by · Nov 8, 2024 2:20 pm

A recent report by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) tried to take a stand by exposing poor clearance rates of California law enforcement agencies. They specifically argue that police staffing levels and police spending do not translate to improved clearance rates and actually increase crime.

While clearance rates are an important metric for measuring police effectiveness, the conclusions of the CJCJ report are questionable because the analysis lacks depth and overlooks critical factors related to clearance rates. In this post, I’ll provide additional context to offer a more balanced perspective on the relationship between police resources, clearance rates, and crime rates. Continue reading . . .

Results on Drug Votes

by · Nov 8, 2024 11:31 am

Magic mushrooms didn’t have enough ballot magic to be legalized in Massachusetts, David Ovalle reports for the WaPo.

In three red states, voters opted not to legalize recreational marijuana.

In blue Massachusetts, residents rejected a plan making therapeutic use of psychedelics plants legal.

And in liberal California, voters embraced stiffer penalties for certain drug crimes.

The state ballot decisions Tuesday signal voter concerns that drug policies across the United States have drifted too far to the left, according to some policy experts and political analysts. Each ballot question featured nuances specific to their states.

Continue reading . . .

A One-Sided Battle of the Experts

by · Nov 6, 2024 5:10 pm

Following up on Mike’s post earlier today. I obtained the federal district court opinion in Grayson v. Hamm, M.D. Ala. No. 2:24-cv-00376-RAH and uploaded it here. It makes interesting reading. Here is one passage:

The evidence here presents the classic battle of the experts, and a battle where one expert (Dr. McAlary) [the inmate’s] has no supporting case studies or other supporting medical testimony while the other (Dr. Antognini) [the state’s] does. And when considering these medical experts and their opinions in the context of the evidence on which they rely, Grayson’s expert finds himself without any real foundational support other than an unsupported opinion – no supporting articles or case studies, reliance upon highly questionable hearsay witness accounts, no support in Smith’s autopsy report for an upper airway obstruction that led to negative pressure pulmonary edema, untested reliance on proposed alternatives with their own set of risks and complications, unfounded theories of risks of mask leaks or monitoring device failures, and unfounded theories that the execution team cannot adequately monitor pulse oximeter or EKG devices or make the simple interpretations intended from them. As such, the Court finds Dr. Antognini and his opinions on these subjects more credible and persuasive than those of Dr. McAlary.

I find it appalling that so many medical professionals consider it perfectly okay to testify to junk science so long as it supports the preferred narrative. Continue reading . . .

Alabama Set to Execute Another Murderer

by · Nov 6, 2024 2:01 pm

A federal district judge has rejected Alabama murderer Carey Dale Grayson’s petition to block his November 21 execution. Ivana Hrynkiw of the Birmingham News reports that Grayson will be the third murderer that the state has executed by nitrogen gas this year. His attorneys argued before District Judge Austin Huffaker that the execution method violates the Eighth Amendment bar against cruel and unusual punishment.  The judge noted that it had been used successfully and that there was no evidence that it caused any pain. Grayson at 19, was the oldest of four teens who picked up 37-year-old Vicki Lynn DeBlieux who was hitchhiking to her mother’s home in February of 1994. They took her into the woods, beat her to death then threw her body into a ravine. Like the other Alabama murderers executed by nitrogen gas, Grayson chose that method over execution via the electric chair.

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 . . .