Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Supreme Court: DNA analyst not needed for trial
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the expert who examined DNA evidence does not necessarily need to testify at trial. In Williams v. Illinois, 10-8505, the court upheld the conviction of Sandy Williams even thought the expert who testified at his trial played no role in the tests that extracted genetic evidence from the victim’s sample, reported the Washington Post.
No one from the company that performed the analysis testified at trial and therefore was not subject to cross-examination concerning the the handling of the evidence or the actual analysis.
According to the Post, the court has previously ruled that defendants have the right to cross-examine the forensic analysts who prepare laboratory reports used at trial.
In this case, the state of Illinois said that the DNA expert who matched the two samples played the critical role — even though she did not actually extract the DNA samples and conduct the tests — and that she testified and was subjected to a thorough cross-examination.
The court split into three factions in this case. Four justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy — joined in a strong opinion that would give prosecutors more leeway in using lab reports without having to put the analysts who prepared them on the witness stand, reported the Post.
Four others — Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Antonin Scalia and Sonia Sotomayor — said the Constitution does not permit the use of the lab analysis that helped convict Williams.
To read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-upholds-rapists-conviction-despite-questions-over-dna-evidence-used-at-trial/2012/06/18/gJQAwQYKlV_story.html
Monday, June 18, 2012
Elderly prison population soaring
The American Civil Liberties Union issued a recent report on the incarceration of the elderly. There are nearly 125,000 inmates aged 55 or older now behind bars. This represents an increase of over 1,300 percent since the early 1980s costing states and the federal government more then $16 billion annually.
Here are excerpts from the report:
To read more: https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/elderlyprisonreport_20120613_1.pdf
From 1980 to 2010, the United States prison population grew over 11 times faster than the general population. During this time, the general population increased by 36%, while the state and federal prison population increased by over 400%. The number of elderly people in our prisons is growing even faster. The graying prison population has become a national epidemic afflicting states around the country—from California to Missouri to Florida—further burdening already strained state budgets. According to the National Institute of Corrections, prisoners age 50 and older are considered “elderly” or “aging” due to unhealthy conditions prior to and during incarceration. This report uses that definition and finds that that there are 246,600 elderly prisoners behind bars across the country. To the extent possible, this report provides data for prisoners age 50 and older; in a few cases when data for this age group is not readily available, this report provides data on the next closest age range.
In 1981, there were 8,853 state and federal prisoners age 55 and older. Today, that number stands at 124,900, and experts project that by 2030 this number will be over 400,000, amounting to over one-third of prisoners in the United States. In other words, the elderly prison population is expected to increase by 4,400% over this fifty-year time span. This astronomical projection does not even include prisoners ages 50-54, for which data over
time is harder to access.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
California judges rally to stop funding cuts
Recently in California about 20 Superor Court judges chanted the old Cesar Chavez slogan, loosely translated to mean "Yes, we can," in a noontime rally where they joined defense, prosecution and civil lawyers, as well as courthouse employees, to voice opposition to state omposedthe court budget cuts, reported the Sacramento Bee.
Speaker after speaker envisioned legal doomsday if the cuts go through. They said divorces will not be filed, small claims matters will go unheard, battered spouses seeking restraining orders will not get them, and children in need of foster care services will be left at risk.
Already in Sacramento, court officials have sent layoff notices to 48 employees, mostly low-seniority workers in the interior reaches of the clerks' offices. Local officials have prepared to shut down small claims court four days a week, reported the Bee. New court filings are likely to be dumped in a drop box and stamped only when a clerk is available, posing a risk of delay in the processing of the legal documents.
"The crisis in court funding threatens our justice system to a degree that none of us has ever seen before in our lives, to such an extent that the very rule of law is imperiled," State Bar President Jon Streeter told the Bee.
Streeter said the crisis is "escalating by the hour." With a glance over his shoulder, Streeter announced, "We are looking at these doors being shut." It appears, he said, "We are abandoning our dedication to justice."
According to the Bee, the proposed court-funding reductions had adversaries sitting side by side at Wednesday's rally at the top of the steps overlooking the courthouse fountain on Ninth Street. The District Attorney and Public Defender shared space, as did the president of the Consumer Attorneys of California and the president of the California Defense Counsel, which takes up the cause of business and corporate interests in civil litigation.
To read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/14/4560707/judges-lawyers-employees-decry.html#storylink=cpy
Speaker after speaker envisioned legal doomsday if the cuts go through. They said divorces will not be filed, small claims matters will go unheard, battered spouses seeking restraining orders will not get them, and children in need of foster care services will be left at risk.
Already in Sacramento, court officials have sent layoff notices to 48 employees, mostly low-seniority workers in the interior reaches of the clerks' offices. Local officials have prepared to shut down small claims court four days a week, reported the Bee. New court filings are likely to be dumped in a drop box and stamped only when a clerk is available, posing a risk of delay in the processing of the legal documents.
"The crisis in court funding threatens our justice system to a degree that none of us has ever seen before in our lives, to such an extent that the very rule of law is imperiled," State Bar President Jon Streeter told the Bee.
Streeter said the crisis is "escalating by the hour." With a glance over his shoulder, Streeter announced, "We are looking at these doors being shut." It appears, he said, "We are abandoning our dedication to justice."
According to the Bee, the proposed court-funding reductions had adversaries sitting side by side at Wednesday's rally at the top of the steps overlooking the courthouse fountain on Ninth Street. The District Attorney and Public Defender shared space, as did the president of the Consumer Attorneys of California and the president of the California Defense Counsel, which takes up the cause of business and corporate interests in civil litigation.
To read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/14/4560707/judges-lawyers-employees-decry.html#storylink=cpy
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Pennsylvania House passes wiretap changes
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently passed a package of changes to the state wiretap law that would allow victims to record offenses against them and allow police to secretly respond to texts if they suspect the communications are crime-related.
With a wiretap law that has not been updated since 1998, state police have been outpaced by criminals who can slow an investigation simply by switching cell phones, Rep. Ron Marsico, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"Our statute is stuck in the days of Princess rotary phones," he said on the House floor. "It is time to move to the day of the iPhone."
The problem of disposable phone numbers would be addressed under the bill by allowing courts to authorize wiretaps for a person, rather than a particular phone number. Mr. Marsico also described situations where recordings that showed evidence of crimes could not be used in court because of the current wiretapping restrictions, reported the Post-Gazette.
The legislation has won a long list of supporters, according to Marisco's office, including the attorney general, the state police, the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the state victim advocate, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the state associations of police chiefs, district attorneys and school boards.
To read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/house-oks-overhaul-of-pa-wiretapping-law-640328/#ixzz1xoVB7zZR
Friday, June 15, 2012
The Cautionary Instruction: The economy’s impact on crime has yet to play out
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
June 15, 2012
Many experts predicted that a sour economy would usher in an increase in crime. Yet the recession did not result in out-of-work, law abiding citizens desperately resorting to crime to make ends meet. Crime continued to fall.
However, the economy’s impact on crime has not yet played itself out. State and local governments are still in decline -- government budgets have been adjusted with policing, corrections and the courts taking a hit.
The effect of the economic downturn on law enforcement agencies may be felt for years to come, or worse, permanently. The permanence of this change will be driven not just by the economy, but by the realization that it is no longer feasible for local government officials to allocate a significant portion of the general fund budgets for public safety.
More than 50 percent of police departments nationwide have reported personnel layoffs. Communities across the country are beginning to feel it. No more so than in New Jersey.
Police layoffs in Newark, which took effect December 1, 2010, seemed to have had an immediate effect on arrests. Between January and June of 2011, police recorded nearly 4,000 fewer arrests than they did during the same period in 2010.
The Economic Policy Institute reported there is more to cost-cutting than meets the eye. Cuts to the police force of five high-crime cities in New Jersey, including Newark, actually cost 12.9 times more than the budgetary savings of eliminating the officers, when the cost of rising crime was factored into the equation. Public safety cuts are not only dangerous, they’re bad business.
The reality of fewer policing resources has caused police departments to re-evaluate priorities. Although, cash strapped departments have pledged that emergency response will not be diminished -- there will inevitably be a change in the way police departments handle non-emergencies. The response time, if there is a response, for crimes like burglary, theft and vandalism -- quality of life crimes -- will be impacted.
That might not seem like a big deal, but New York City, the shining example of crime control, began their crusade against crime in the early 1990s by following James Q. Wilson’s Broken Windows theory. Wilson suggested vigorously cracking down on nuisance crimes and violent crime rates will drop. In 1990 there were 2,245 murders in NYC -- in 2011 there were 515.
The new economic reality may limit resource-driven crime control efforts like NYC’s, and that portends disaster. Professor James Alan Fox recently sounded the alarm. From July through December 2011 several crime categories showed an increase, including a 1.9 percent increase in murder.
Fox wrote in the Boston Globe, "Whatever the final data show, it would seem that the long-term downturn in crime has slowed, and may even have bottomed out … If we fail to invest sufficiently in crime prevention and crime control -- both personnel and programs, we may someday look back at 2011 and consider them the 'good old days.' "
Visit Ipso Facto
June 15, 2012
Many experts predicted that a sour economy would usher in an increase in crime. Yet the recession did not result in out-of-work, law abiding citizens desperately resorting to crime to make ends meet. Crime continued to fall.
However, the economy’s impact on crime has not yet played itself out. State and local governments are still in decline -- government budgets have been adjusted with policing, corrections and the courts taking a hit.
The effect of the economic downturn on law enforcement agencies may be felt for years to come, or worse, permanently. The permanence of this change will be driven not just by the economy, but by the realization that it is no longer feasible for local government officials to allocate a significant portion of the general fund budgets for public safety.
More than 50 percent of police departments nationwide have reported personnel layoffs. Communities across the country are beginning to feel it. No more so than in New Jersey.
Police layoffs in Newark, which took effect December 1, 2010, seemed to have had an immediate effect on arrests. Between January and June of 2011, police recorded nearly 4,000 fewer arrests than they did during the same period in 2010.
The Economic Policy Institute reported there is more to cost-cutting than meets the eye. Cuts to the police force of five high-crime cities in New Jersey, including Newark, actually cost 12.9 times more than the budgetary savings of eliminating the officers, when the cost of rising crime was factored into the equation. Public safety cuts are not only dangerous, they’re bad business.
The reality of fewer policing resources has caused police departments to re-evaluate priorities. Although, cash strapped departments have pledged that emergency response will not be diminished -- there will inevitably be a change in the way police departments handle non-emergencies. The response time, if there is a response, for crimes like burglary, theft and vandalism -- quality of life crimes -- will be impacted.
That might not seem like a big deal, but New York City, the shining example of crime control, began their crusade against crime in the early 1990s by following James Q. Wilson’s Broken Windows theory. Wilson suggested vigorously cracking down on nuisance crimes and violent crime rates will drop. In 1990 there were 2,245 murders in NYC -- in 2011 there were 515.
The new economic reality may limit resource-driven crime control efforts like NYC’s, and that portends disaster. Professor James Alan Fox recently sounded the alarm. From July through December 2011 several crime categories showed an increase, including a 1.9 percent increase in murder.
Fox wrote in the Boston Globe, "Whatever the final data show, it would seem that the long-term downturn in crime has slowed, and may even have bottomed out … If we fail to invest sufficiently in crime prevention and crime control -- both personnel and programs, we may someday look back at 2011 and consider them the 'good old days.' "
Visit Ipso Facto
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Mississippi executes man for 2001 killings
The 21st execution of 2012
Mississippi executed Jan Michael Brawner for fatally shooting his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her parents. Brawner, 34, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. on June 12, 2012 after receiving a chemical injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Brawner had admitted to the killings and said he didn't deserve to live after shooting his daughter, Paige, his ex-wife, Barbara Craft, and her parents, Carl and Jane Craft, at their house on April 25, 2001, reported the Associated Press.
In his final statement, Brawner said he wished to apologize to the victims' family, adding he could not change what he had done. "Maybe this will bring you a little peace. Thank you," he said as he lay strapped to a gurney, reported the AP.
When the drugs were administered, he appeared to take a deep breath. His mouth opened wide for a moment and then his head tilted to the side.
Before the execution, Brawner appeared talkative and said he deserved to die for what he'd done, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps told the AP.
Court records based on Brawner's testimony and statements to police, as reported by the AP, describe the killings and the series of events leading up to them like this:
He shot his ex-wife's mother first, then shot his ex-wife. She had wounds to her hands from trying to protect herself.
He walked across the room to his former mother-in-law and "put her out of her misery." Then he shot his ex-wife again.
The child had blood splatter on her from the shootings and said, "Daddy, you hurt me."
He took his daughter to a bedroom and told her to watch television, but decided she could identify him as the killer. He shot her in the chin and head. He killed Carl Craft when he arrived from work.
To read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Man-executed-in-deaths-of-daughter-ex-in-laws-3628835.php#ixzz1xg9CDsuq
Mississippi executed Jan Michael Brawner for fatally shooting his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her parents. Brawner, 34, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. on June 12, 2012 after receiving a chemical injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Brawner had admitted to the killings and said he didn't deserve to live after shooting his daughter, Paige, his ex-wife, Barbara Craft, and her parents, Carl and Jane Craft, at their house on April 25, 2001, reported the Associated Press.
In his final statement, Brawner said he wished to apologize to the victims' family, adding he could not change what he had done. "Maybe this will bring you a little peace. Thank you," he said as he lay strapped to a gurney, reported the AP.
When the drugs were administered, he appeared to take a deep breath. His mouth opened wide for a moment and then his head tilted to the side.
Before the execution, Brawner appeared talkative and said he deserved to die for what he'd done, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps told the AP.
Court records based on Brawner's testimony and statements to police, as reported by the AP, describe the killings and the series of events leading up to them like this:
He shot his ex-wife's mother first, then shot his ex-wife. She had wounds to her hands from trying to protect herself.
He walked across the room to his former mother-in-law and "put her out of her misery." Then he shot his ex-wife again.
The child had blood splatter on her from the shootings and said, "Daddy, you hurt me."
He took his daughter to a bedroom and told her to watch television, but decided she could identify him as the killer. He shot her in the chin and head. He killed Carl Craft when he arrived from work.
To read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Man-executed-in-deaths-of-daughter-ex-in-laws-3628835.php#ixzz1xg9CDsuq
Idaho carries out fully open execution
The 20th execution of 2012
Media groups had argued that Idaho's practice of hiding this first half of lethal injection executions from view violated the First Amendment rights of the public.
A week ago, no one aside from the prison officials would have seen the state's lethal injection process in its entirety. But a federal judge ordered it open, siding with more than a dozen Idaho news groups, including The Associated Press, who sued in federal court for access.
Richard Leavitt's execution this week marked the first time that the public would have access to the execution procedure from beginning to end.
The six correctional officers, wearing surgical masks and stationed three to a side like pallbearers, lifted the inmate off the gurney and strapped him to the execution table inside the Idaho state prison.
Others attached intravenous lines to Leavitt's arms and electrodes to the convicted killer's chest and stomach to measure his breathing and heart rate.
Four media witnesses watched as the 53-year-old Leavitt was wheeled, strapped to a backboard on a gurney, into the death chamber. They watched as Leavitt was moved to the table and as three members of a medical team inserted IVs into his arms.
The inmate spoke with them, though witnesses could not hear the exchanges.
They used a blood pressure cuff to enlarge the veins in his elbows, starting with the right, then the left. They cleaned his arms repeatedly with alcohol wipes to prevent infection — in case the execution was called off at the last minute.
A member of the team prodded the inside of Leavitt's arm, feeling for veins. After a moment, he slipped in the needle, sliding the thin plastic catheter that would deliver the lethal chemicals. The process was repeated on the other side.
The team leader placed a hand over the inside of his own elbow, and bent his arm back and forth, to let the executioners watching from another room that Leavitt was ready for the fatal dose of pentobarbital.
Leavitt declined to make a final statement and did not ask to see a spiritual adviser before his execution. He was pronounced dead at 10:25 a.m.
Leavitt was convicted in 1985 for stabbing and mutilating 31-year-old Danette Elg. Prosecutors said Leavitt stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-minute request to stay the execution, which cleared the way for Idaho to put to death its second inmate in 17 years. In November, Paul Ezra Rhoades died by lethal injection for his role in the slaying of three people in eastern Idaho.
Leavitt had maintained his innocence, but former U.S. Attorney Tom Moss noted that several judges examined Leavitt's case during multiple appeals and none found a reason to justify overturning his death sentence.
To read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/Idaho-executes-inmate-for-woman-s-killing-in-1984-3626482.php
Media groups had argued that Idaho's practice of hiding this first half of lethal injection executions from view violated the First Amendment rights of the public.
A week ago, no one aside from the prison officials would have seen the state's lethal injection process in its entirety. But a federal judge ordered it open, siding with more than a dozen Idaho news groups, including The Associated Press, who sued in federal court for access.
Richard Leavitt's execution this week marked the first time that the public would have access to the execution procedure from beginning to end.
The six correctional officers, wearing surgical masks and stationed three to a side like pallbearers, lifted the inmate off the gurney and strapped him to the execution table inside the Idaho state prison.
Others attached intravenous lines to Leavitt's arms and electrodes to the convicted killer's chest and stomach to measure his breathing and heart rate.
Four media witnesses watched as the 53-year-old Leavitt was wheeled, strapped to a backboard on a gurney, into the death chamber. They watched as Leavitt was moved to the table and as three members of a medical team inserted IVs into his arms.
The inmate spoke with them, though witnesses could not hear the exchanges.
They used a blood pressure cuff to enlarge the veins in his elbows, starting with the right, then the left. They cleaned his arms repeatedly with alcohol wipes to prevent infection — in case the execution was called off at the last minute.
A member of the team prodded the inside of Leavitt's arm, feeling for veins. After a moment, he slipped in the needle, sliding the thin plastic catheter that would deliver the lethal chemicals. The process was repeated on the other side.
The team leader placed a hand over the inside of his own elbow, and bent his arm back and forth, to let the executioners watching from another room that Leavitt was ready for the fatal dose of pentobarbital.
Leavitt declined to make a final statement and did not ask to see a spiritual adviser before his execution. He was pronounced dead at 10:25 a.m.
Leavitt was convicted in 1985 for stabbing and mutilating 31-year-old Danette Elg. Prosecutors said Leavitt stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-minute request to stay the execution, which cleared the way for Idaho to put to death its second inmate in 17 years. In November, Paul Ezra Rhoades died by lethal injection for his role in the slaying of three people in eastern Idaho.
Leavitt had maintained his innocence, but former U.S. Attorney Tom Moss noted that several judges examined Leavitt's case during multiple appeals and none found a reason to justify overturning his death sentence.
To read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/Idaho-executes-inmate-for-woman-s-killing-in-1984-3626482.php
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
