Scripps Study Reveals Potential Work of Serial Killers

Youngstown, Ohio Begins Review of Unsolved Homicides

A Scripps Howard News Service study based upon computer records of 525,742 homicides committed from 1980 to 2008 has pointed to the possibility of serial killers at work in several regions across the U.S.

The FBI provided most of the data. But Scripps supplemented the data using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain detailed records of 15,322 killings that local police did not disclose to the federal government's entirely voluntary crime reporting system.

The study identified 161 clusters in which 1,247 women of similar age were killed through similar means. At least 75 percent of the cases in each cluster were unsolved at the time they were reported under the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report program.

The Scripps study prompted police in Youngstown, Ohio to begin a fresh review of decades-old files and evidence storage boxes related to several homicides.

"In the early 1990s, we thought we had a serial murderer running around. Yes, we definitely thought we had one," Captain Rod Foley of the city's homicide squad told Scripps.

Foley is contacting other police departments, looking for any physical evidence from a series of suspected rape-murders in his area that could be shipped to Ohio authorities for DNA analysis.

"We had a suspect back then," Foley told Scripps. "We thought he had a pattern. He would rape them. Sometimes he'd shoot them or do some other things to them."

Many killings go unreported and remain missing persons. Sometimes victims are not even reported missing. Homeless, drug addicted, mentally ill men and particularly woman engaged in risky behavior never make it onto police investigation reports. Crime victim surveys and the FBI crime report may not be providing a true picture of violent crime, specifically homicide.

To read more: http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/serial-killings-study-prompts-police-launch-investigations

NYC: Violent Crime on the Rise

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), New York City's overall crime rate—calculated by totaling seven so-called index crimes: murders, rapes, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and auto thefts—dropped 1.26% from a year earlier. The "drop" is attributable to a reduction in property-crime complaints, most notably fewer grand larcenies. However, hidden in the "drop" in crime is the fact that all four violent crimes are projected to show increases at year's end, including 15% hikes in both murders and rape.

Eli Silverman, a professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and co-author of a study challenging the accuracy of the NYPD's statistics, has a different explanation. He told the WSJ the police department is manipulating statistics by downgrading many property crimes to minor offenses that don't show up in the official crime rate. Violent crimes are much harder to downgrade and may be being reported more accurately, he says.

"They've made it [low crime] symbolic for all their achievements," Silverman told the WSJ, "They've made it a selling point for tourism and business….They made it a narrative, a story and they can't deviate from that story. They're stuck in that story."

New York City is the latest major city to reveal and up-tick in violent crime. The sputtering economy has had a dramatic impact on state and local government budgets. The budget crisis has resulted in fewer police officers, early release of prisoners, cuts in programming and fewer employment opportunities. All of this contributes to higher violent crime rates.

Policymakers seem content to balance the budget on the back of public safety cuts. What would John Q. Public pay for the safety and security of his family?

To read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703567304575628580735588388.html

Court Authorizes Substitute Drug for Oklahoma Executions

Federal Court Rules Animal Sedative is Appropriate for Lethal Injection

Oklahoma received the green light to substitute pentobarital for sodium thiopental during executions. Oklahoma uses a three-drug cocktail to carry out lethal injection. The federal judge's ruling will allow Oklahoma to be the first state to use a sedative other than sodium thiopental.

According to the Daily Oklahoman, death-row inmate Jeffrey Matthews had his execution stayed while his attorneys and the state's attorneys argued over which sedative to use. Matthews execution will now be rescheduled by the state Court of Criminal Appeals. Earlier this month fellow death-row inmate John David Duty, whose execution is scheduled for December 16th, joined the request to delay the executions.

The thrust of the inmates' objection is a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, which is one of three execution drugs administered during lethal injection in most states. In Ohio and Washington state sodium thiopental is the only drug used for lethal injection. Oklahoma officials will now use pentobarbital, a drug usually used for animal euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.

According to the Oklahoman, Matthews was convicted of killing his great uncle during a 1994 McClain County home-invasion. Duty strangled his cellmate in 2001while in was in prison for armed robbery, first-degree rape and shooting with intent to kill.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-gets-ok-to-use-substitute-drug-for-execution/article/3516319#ixzz15vZnHla9

Canadian PM Ratchets Up Crime Rhetoric

Crime Rates Continue to Fall Across Canada

Charles Pascal, a professor at the University of Toronto and a former Ontario deputy minister, wrote a recent op-ed in the Toronto Star taking Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to task for his crime policies.

The policies do not differ much from fear mongering polices proposed and enacted by American politician. At times the policies are more about being "tough-on-crime" than instituting meaningful public safety policies.

One example cited by Pascal is a Harper supported law eliminating a two-for-one credit for time served in remand custody. If someone served 30 days while awaiting a chance at justice (this would be akin to an American inmate unable to post bond) and was then convicted, he used to get credit for 60 days when it came to sentencing. Why? Because conditions in remand are the worst of the worst. And because remand time is “dead time,” not considered when calculating release dates. The effect of this new law will be disproportionate for marginalized populations, especially aboriginal peoples.

Pascal wote in the Star, on the face of it, it appears to be a good idea (tough-on-crime) to scrap the two-for-one credit, the kind of superficial bumper-sticker policy that was opposition-proof. Then, after the bill’s passage, Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page did an analysis of costs, concluding that the bill to taxpayers will amount to a minimum of $5 billion over five years for this single piece of legislation — about what would be required for a national early-learning and care program that would, among so many other things, reduce the illiteracy that is so highly correlated with crime.

Pascal turned to Paula Mallea, a lawyer and research associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who wrote a report suggesting that Harper’s agenda has more to do with rehabilitating his “tough guy” image and zero to do with rehabilitating either offenders or his $54 billion deficit.

Some of the tough-on-crime rhetoric doesn't seem to be consistent with reports in Canada, just as those in the U.S., that crime continues to go down across the country, with violent crime moving clearly down, according to the new Crime Severity Index.

To read more: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/891822--harper-tough-on-crime-but-soft-on-facts

Liptak: High Court’s Judicial Craftsmanship Questioned

Adam Liptak of the New York Times takes the U.S. Supreme Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, to task for the Court’s sweeping and politically polarized decisions. More importantly Liptak raises concern about the quality of the Court’s judicial craftsmanship.

Liptak writes that the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), the towering 1954 decision that held segregated public schools unconstitutional, managed to do its work in fewer than 4,000 words. When the Roberts Court returned to just an aspect of the issue in 2007 in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, 551 U.S. 701 (2007), it published some 47,000 words, enough to rival a short novel. In more routine cases, too, the Court has been setting records. The median length of majority opinions reached an all-time high in the last term.

Critics of the Court’s work are not primarily focused on the quality of the justices’ writing, though it is often flabby and flat. Instead, they point to reasoning that fails to provide clear guidance to lower courts, sometimes seemingly driven by a desire for unanimity that can lead to fuzzy, unwieldy rulings.

Liptak wrote that the opinions in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 130 S.Ct.876 (2010), the January decision that lifted restrictions on corporate and union spending in candidate elections, spanned 183 pages and more than 48,000 words, or about the length of “The Great Gatsby.” The decision — ninth on the list of longest majority opinions — was controversial, but the questions it addressed were not particularly complicated.

In May, the Court struck down life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders who did not kill anyone. In Graham v. Florida, 650 U.S. ___ (2010), the Court said only that states must provide “some meaningful opportunity to obtain release.” In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas wondered what that could possibly mean, wrote Liptak.

There are a number of the other examples of the Court either rambling on or being ambiguous with regard its decision. Anyone interested in getting a glimpse into the workings of the Roberts Court should read this article.

Liptak's article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/us/18rulings.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Erie: Alleged Child Killer Mentally Retarded?

Attorneys Argue Death Penalty Should Not Apply

In August, Aaron Noyer was charged with criminal homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary in the death of two-year-old Elizabeth Neimeic of Erie, Pennsylvania.

According to Dave Lohr of AolNews.com, crime scene investigators found Noyer's finger- and palm prints inside the Neimeics' home, authorities said. When Noyer was brought in for police questioning, he allegedly told police he had climbed through the girl's bedroom window to burglarize the home.

During the burglary, Noyer allegedly abducted Elizabeth and took her to a nearby area. There, next to a pair of railroad tracks, he removed her clothing and sexually assaulted and strangled her, authorities said. Afterward, Noyer threw the child to the ground at least twice, police said.

Noyer has an extensive criminal record. He was charged with arson as an 11-year-old. He has had a PFA filed against him for threatening a girlfriend. Now his lawyers say he is mentally retarded and therefore cannot face the death penalty.

Noyer filed a motion Tuesday, challenging Erie District Attorney Jack Daneri's intention to seek the death penalty. According to the Associated Press, Daneri says three aggravating factors qualify Noyer for the death penalty: the victim was younger than 12; the killing allegedly happened as part of another felony; and Noyer has a history of violent crime.

The Erie Times-News says Noyer's IQ has been tested at 57. His attorneys argue that he should be exempt him from execution under the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). In Atkins, the Court ruled 6-3 that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban against cruel and unusual punishments. Although the Supreme Court did not establish a bright line rule regarding IQ and mental retardation, some suggest that an IQ under 70, may be indicative of mental retardation.

To read more: http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/pa-police-make-arrest-in-toddlers-abduction-slaying/19578258

Public Opinion Poll: 83 Percent of Americans Support the Death Penalty

The Crime Report, an online site for news and multimedia information and networking resource for journalists, practitioners, researchers, and the general public, recently posted two very different opinion polls regarding the death penalty.

Last week, The Crime Report posted that Angus Reid Public Opinion found that most Americans support the death penalty in murder cases, but are divided on whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent for potential criminals. The online survey of a representative sample of 1,006 adults found that 83 percent of respondents support punishing homicide with the death penalty, while 13 percent are opposed.

A majority would also use capital punishment to punish rape (62%) and kidnapping (51%), but not armed robbery (40%). While 39 percent think capital punishment acts as a deterrent, 35 percent disagree.

Interestingly, four-in-five respondents (81%) believe innocent people have been executed in the U.S.; only six per cent think that this has never happened. There are no known incidents of an innocent person being executed in the United States since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976.

Yesterday, The Crime Report posted a national poll of 1,500 registered voters conducted on behalf of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) by Lake Research Partners. The DPIC claims growing support for alternatives to the death penalty.

The DPIC found that 61 percent of voters would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder, including life with no possibility of parole and with restitution to the victim’s family (39 percent), life with no possibility of parole (13 percent), or life with the possibility of parole (9 percent). The DPIC is opposed to capital punishment.

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said cost was a very or somewhat convincing argument against the death penalty. Voters ranked emergency services, creating jobs, police and crime prevention, schools and libraries, public health care services, and roads and transportation as more important budget priorities than the death penalty, said the survey. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed would favor replacing the death penalty with life with no possibility of parole if the money saved were used to fund crime prevention programs, according to The Crime Report.

To read more: http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/2010.11.09_Death_USA.pdf

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/pollresults