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Friday, July 30. Bloodstain pattern analysis is now off-limits in North Carolina (see news clips.) Yet somehow the practice endures, with experts running around the country testifying about a technique that the National Academy of Sciences said is replete with “enormous uncertainties.”
No surprise here. As nearly everyone expected, the Supreme Court’s 2005 Booker decision, which made adherence to sentencing guidelines optional, has led to growing disparities in Federal sentences, most notably in cases of child pornography and major fraud. DOJ has asked the Sentencing Commission to investigate, but since their opinions don’t much count anymore, it’s unclear what that could accomplish. Check news clips for links...
Thursday, July 29. “...reported crime in the eight major categories tracked by the FBI has decreased for 10 consecutive quarters in Milwaukee - every quarter since Police Chief Edward A. Flynn took over the department in 2008.” So says the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Interestingly, this is the same chief who, to conserve on manpower, discontinued sending officers to every call (see July 26 blog entry)...
Law enforcement isn’t happy, but Congress has approved reducing the Federal disparity between powder and crack cocaine. More crack will have to be sold or possessed for sale (28 grams instead of just 5) to trigger a mandatory 5-year minimum sentence. (Powder remains at 500 grams.) There will be no mandatory minimum for simple crack possession. Whatever the equity issue, slapping crack dealers with a minimum will be more difficult, as they’re going to have to be caught holding a far larger amount...
Wednesday, July 28. With the heart of Arizona’s immigration law on hold, the battle moves to the appellate courts...
Recent accounts of crimes committed by inmates granted early release (see news clips) are causing some to rethink the wisdom of saving money by dumping large numbers of convicts on the streets or exempting them from supervision. Unless we adequately fund the system so that parole agents have manageable caseloads and parolees get suitable reentry assistance all we can do is keep persons locked up as long as possible and hold our breaths once they’re released...
Prior entries
WHAT’S MORE LETHAL THAN A GUN?
Officers have more to fear from accidents than from criminals
POSTED 7/4/10 -- May and June were terrible months for the California Highway Patrol. On May 7 Officer David Benavides lost his life when his patrol aircraft crashed...More
DOJ: TEXAS EXECUTED
AN INNOCENT MAN
Before a national audience, experts
confirm what was long suspected
POSTED 6/20/10 -- “It was a crock.” That’s how renowned fire expert John Lentini characterized the official investigation of a 1991 Corsicana house fire that killed...More
BIGGER GUNS
AREN’T ENOUGH
Cops need protection from rifle rounds,
not just the ability to shoot back
POSTED 5/30/10 -- Five days after a father-and-son duo of right-wing extremists opened fire during a traffic stop, killing West Memphis police sergeant Brandon Paudert...More
CLOSING THE
“TERROR GAP”
Concerns about gun rights
trump worries about terrorism
Moderator to panelists (at 17:50): Should people on the no-fly watch list be able to purchase a gun? Mr. Campbell?
Tom Campbell (pauses, then whimsically): No!
POSTED 5/23/10 -- One would think that a five-term Republican congressman with an economics Ph.D and a Stanford law degree (he’s currently a visiting professor at Chapman Law School) would know better than to push that button. More
TOO MUCH OF A
GOOD THING?
NYPD’s expansive use of stop-and-frisk
may threaten the tactic’s long-term viability
POSTED 5/16/10 -- “These are not unconstitutional. We are saving lives, and we are preventing crime.” More
DNA: PROCEED
WITH CAUTION
Subjectivity can affect the
interpretation of mixed samples
“It’s an irony that the technique that’s been so useful in convicting the guilty and freeing the innocent may wind up leading to wrongful convictions in mixture cases, especially those with very low amounts of starting DNA.”
POSTED 4/18/10 -- Some might consider these words unduly alarmist. After all, no less an authority than the National Academy of Sciences has declared DNA to be the gold standard...More
IS THIS WHAT THE
FRAMERS INTENDED?
Economic woes and inflammatory rhetoric feed a resurgence of extremism
POSTED 4/4/10 -- With the arrest of nine top members, including “Captain” David Brian Stone and his son, David Stone Jr. on Federal charges ranging from seditious...More
NOT ALL COPS ARE BLUE
Internal strife besets two well-regarded
police departments
POSTED 3/22/10 -- Nestled against foothills northeast of Los Angeles lie the twin cities of Burbank and Glendale. Home to cadres of upwardly-mobile young professionals...More
A COP’S DILEMMA
When duty and self-interest collide,
ethics can fly out the window
POSTED 3/7/10 -- Protecting public officials may not be the primary mission of the New York State Police, but there’s no denying that the Executive Services Detail...More
A TICKING TIME-BOMB
Twenty-four years after being
let off the hook, a murderous woman
goes on a rampage
“I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop... ”
POSTED 2/21/10 -- Chief Frazier’s thoughts were echoed by current Norfolk County D.A. William Keating. Minutes after “accidentally” killing her brother with a shotgun blast...More
THE GREAT DEBATE
(PART II)
Violence is the problem.
Is harsh sentencing the solution?
POSTED 2/7/10 -- Who said that? Here are three possibilities: (1) the ACLU president, (2) the ACLU executive director, or (3) Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, addressing a gathering of lawyers...More
TINKERING WITH THE
MACHINERY OF DEATH
Academics prove that the
death penalty works. And that it doesn’t.
POSTED 1/24/10 -- When ASC members opened the November 2009 issues of the society’s two publications, stodgy old Criminology and the supposedly more real-world Criminology and Public Policy, they must have felt dizzied...More
IT’S NOW L.A.’S PROBLEM
A cop’s tragic fumble turns into a cause célèbre. What will happen if he’s acquitted?
POSTED 1/10/10 -- In a few weeks the murder trial of former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle will get underway. As we reported earlier, Mehserle, who shot passenger Oscar Grant to death...More
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