j u s t c r i m

4.27.2012

This is a brief exploration of the evolving blogger site. The current iteration of justcrim continues at justcrim.typepad.com

4.28.2010

PORTALS

VIII

2006 Supplement: Cases Decided to June 29, 2006
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
2008 Supplement: Cases Decided to June 26, 2008
Senate Document No. 110-17 NOTE: Certain documents from the 2002 Edition have been supplemented in the 2008 Supplement
Constitution of the United States: EIGHTH AMENDMENT, Analysis and Interpretation: 2002 Edition
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
CRS/LII Annotated Constitution Eighth Amendment
Intro to the 8th Amendment (CDN)

PRISON LEGAL SERVICES

CRIMLAW

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CASEBOOK

Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
CRS/LII Annotated Constitution Eighth Amendment. Cruel and Unusual Punishments
Prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress

SENTENCING

6.09.2009

juvenile justice

ACLU BLOG -- Let’s End Juvenile Life Sentences Without Parole Now! [from ACLU Blog by Nahal Zamani, Human Rights Program]

"Today at 3:00 pm [EST], the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will convene a hearing on H.R. 2289, the "Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009.” This legislation would deny funding to states that refuse to offer a parole option to juvenile offenders and authorize state grants to improve legal representation for youths charged with life sentences.

It’s hard to believe that the United States still sentences children as young as 13 to spend the rest of their lives in prison without any opportunity for release. Right now, there are approximately 2,570 children serving juvenile life sentences without parole in the U.S. — the only country that allows this cruel punishment to happen..."

6.08.2009

aclu on sotomayor

ACLU BLOG -- "The ACLU today released a report summarizing the civil liberties and civil rights record of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The report was prepared in accordance with ACLU policy, and will be made available to the public and members of the Senate.

The ACLU does not endorse or oppose candidates for elective or appointive office. The full text of the report is online at: www.aclu.org/scotus/2008term/39769pub20090608.html.

6.05.2009

sotomayor data point

Conservative Group Criticizes Sotomayor on Death Penalty Memo [Washington Post, Opening Arguments, By Jerry Markon, June 5, 2009] -- "A conservative group is criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for signing a 1981 memo that opposed the death penalty and said 'capital punishment is associated with evident racism in our society.'’’

6.03.2009

The Voldemort of higher education ... U.S. News & World Report

Chronicle of Higher Education - Researcher Offers Unusually Candid Description of University's Effort to Rise in Rankings [By Martin Van Der Werf, Wednesday, June 3, 2009] - "Clemson University is run in an almost single-minded direction, with nearly all policies driven by how they will help the land-grant institution rise in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings, according to a university official whose candid comments stirred debate among conference-goers here on Tuesday.

maybe gloss a few?

I'm fairly certain Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will at least gloss a few Sotomayor opinions, just for fun, " ... before [they] end this."

Sotomayor Visits Lawmakers on Capitol Hill [By Shailagh Murray, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, June 2, 2009] Washington Post -- "Reid took a similar view of Sotomayor's towering case file. 'I understand that during her career, she's written hundreds and hundreds of opinions," he told reporters today. "I haven't read a single one of them, and if I'm fortunate before we end this, I won't have to read one of them...'"

["... No matter how good the researcher is, there is no substitute for reading the opinion yourself ... Crime & Consequences blog, "Don't Confuse Us With The Facts," June 3, 2009 | Posted by Lauren Altdoerffer]

capital punishment costs | people v. burgener

Professor Shaun Martin neatly sums up the fiscal realities of capital punishment in California @ his California Appellate Report blog - "People v. Burgener (Cal. Supreme Ct. - May 7, 2009)" (Posted Tuesday, May 19, 2009):

"I'm telling you this right now: Michael Burgener will die in prison, but it won't be from an antiseptic needle in the arm. At this point, it'll be 40+ years after the conviction before there'd actually be an execution. And the justice of such a penalty -- though understandable in all its individual components -- seems far from clear.

Burgener shot and killed a 7-11 clerk an emptied the cash register of $50. He's not a nice man. He deserves to live the remainder of his life behind bars, and that's what will happen. Why -- at this point -- we're spending the millions and millions of dollars I'm sure is being spent to keep this one going is beyond me.

I know the counterarguments. They're not frivolous. I appreciate them. I truly do. But this one, in my view, you let go."

sotomayor | point counterpoint | chemerinsky somin

LATIMES.com Sotomayor Debate -- "Do race and gender matter for the Supreme Court?" "Today's topic: Much has been made of the fact that Sonia Sotomayor would be the first Latina justice, and sitting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said she feels "lonely" as the only woman on the bench. How much, if at all, does the ethnic and gender diversity of the Supreme Court bench matter?

Point Erwin Chemerinsky [Dean, UCI School of Law]

Counterpoint Ilya Somin [Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason U School of Law; Volokh Conspiracy blogger]

"an honest conversation"

ACLU BLOG: "An Honest Conversation about the Death Penalty " - "California remains on track to spend over $1 billion on the death penalty in the next five years, in the midst of the worst financial crisis in nearly a century. Incredibly, even as state officials announce that they must fill a deficit of $21.3 billion this year, and contemplate drastic cuts in the most basic services, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to support funding to pursue capital prosecutions — a breathtakingly expensive and ineffective policy that does nothing to promote public safety..."

redesign ! scotus website long overdue

redesign ! scotus website long overdue

Sunlight Foundation: "Redesigning the government: the U.S. Supreme Court" (Jen 2, 2009)

"President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sotomayor has brought increased attention to the U.S. Supreme Court. It also has led us to reexamine the Court’s web site, which is long overdue for an overhaul. In its current form, its web design is suggestive of the 1990s, and its functionality is similarly dated.

The Justices appear to agree. They’ve recently ask Congress for money to move control of the site in-house, taking over responsibility from the GPO. This move would allow them, in their words, to “better control and manage the web site and to be able to expand the data and services provided by the site more efficiently.”

The current web site has many shortcomings. It doesn’t contain briefs by the parties and omits all but a few relatively recent Court opinions. Its navigation is a nightmare and its design fails to incorporate modern techniques such as RSS feeds and XML. Much information is unnecessarily locked in PDFs. And yet, in January 2009 the nine-year-old site received 18 million hits.

To help the Court update its web presence, the Sunlight Foundation has put together the following mock-up..."

Federal Justice Statistics, 2006 - Statistical Tables:

Federal Justice Statistics, 2006 - Statistical Tables: "Describes criminal case processing in the federal justice system, including arrest and booking through sentencing and corrections. These statistical tables present the number of suspects arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals Service, suspects in matters investigated and prosecuted by U.S. attorneys, defendants adjudicated and sentenced in U.S. district court, and characteristics of federal prisoners and offenders under federal supervision.

Data are from the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP), which collects comprehensive information describing suspects and defendants processed in the federal criminal justice system, and annual data on workload, activities, and outcomes associated with federal criminal cases. The data presented in these tables were collected from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

The Urban Institute prepared these tables under the supervision of Mark Motivans, Ph.D., of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The tables were prepared under BJS grant number 2005-BJ-CX-K004. The BJS-sponsored Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center (FJSRC) provides online access to the federal justice database. Users may download data from the federal justice database for independent analysis or use the online query system to obtain customized statistics..."

3.20.2009

clemency power should be exercised

Sentencing Law and Policy has a great post on clemency - So why is Obama "... already among the slowest presidents to tend to this constitutional duty?" [Personally, I think he's busy, though not so busy as to justify neglecting clemency]

"President Obama is about to begin his third month in office still without having made any use (or any mention) of his clemency powers. As I spotlighted in a post here a few weeks ago, P.S. Ruckman in this post has documented that the new guy "is already among the slowest presidents to tend to this constitutional duty." As Ruckman has noted, the vast majority of Presidents have used their clemency power within their first month in office..." [more]

2.10.2009

california prison system must reduce overcrowding ...

New York Times - Court Orders California to Cut Prison Population By SOLOMON MOORE (Published: February 9, 2009) -

The California prison system must reduce overcrowding by as many as 55,000 inmates within three years to provide a constitutional level of medical and mental health care, a federal three-judge panel tentatively ruled Monday.

Relying on expert testimony, the court ruled that the California prison system, the nation’s largest with more than 150,000 inmates, could reduce its population by shortening sentences, diverting nonviolent felons to county programs, giving inmates good behavior credits toward early release, and reforming parole, which they said would have no adverse impact on public safety. The panel said that without such a plan, conditions would continue to deteriorate and inmates might regularly die of suicide or lack of proper care.

“The evidence is compelling that there is no relief other than a prisoner-release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions,” the panel said in its tentative ruling.

The California attorney general, Jerry Brown, vowed to appeal the ruling.

“This order, the latest intrusion by the federal judiciary into California’s prison system, is a blunt instrument that does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals, many of whom are deeply disturbed,” Mr. Brown said in a statement.

“The court’s tentative ruling is not constitutionally justified,” he said. “Therefore, the state will appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court when the final order is issued.”

The court supported its argument by citing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own support for prison reforms, which he has said would reduce the population by about 40,000 inmates.

“We cannot believe that such support would exist if the adoption of such measures would adversely affect public safety,” the court ruled.

The panel, which is composed of a federal appeals judge for the Ninth Circuit and two federal district judges, estimated the state could save $803 million to $906 million annually if it were to reduce its prison population. It also said it could use that money to shore up local agencies that would serve parolees or probationers diverted from prison.

The ruling left the door open for still more negotiations between the thousands of imprisoned plaintiffs and the state in the court proceedings, part of a series of class-action lawsuits accusing the state of failing to provide adequate health care to prisoners.

Federal judges have already ruled that the state’s failure to provide medical and mental health care is killing at least one inmate every month and has subjected inmates to cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the Constitution.

In their ruling on Monday, the judges ruled that reducing overcrowding was the only way to reform the prison health care system and encouraged plaintiffs’ and state lawyers to negotiate a way to cut the prison population. The judges also indicated that they would mandate a prison population cap of about 120 percent to 145 percent of the state’s designed capacity.

The judges have been reluctant to order specific reforms, however, and several times during final arguments they asked lawyers for the state what their plans were to reduce the prison population and whether the court had the authority to impose specific remedies.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Don Specter, said the judges, all of whom are known for their liberal rulings, may be reluctant to give specific reforms to the state, preferring the state arrive at its own reduction plan, because the judges’ decision might otherwise be overturned by the United States Supreme Court, which would hear any appeal.

One judge on the panel, Thelton E. Henderson, already appointed a federal receiver to take over the prison health care system. The receivership, which has demanded billions of dollars for new medical facilities, has repeatedly clashed with the strapped state, which recently demanded the dissolution of the court-appointed office.

The California prison system has doubled its design capacity, and some facilities are even more packed than that. Prison gymnasiums and classrooms are packed with three-tier prisoners’ bunks, and lines for prison health clinics often snake 50 men deep. Rehabilitation programs, recreational facilities and health care facilities are all compromised by the crowds of felons.

Lawyers for the prisoners said that despite California’s exceptionally poor conditions, the ruling could have a national impact on prison reform if other inmate lawsuits seek population caps on other overcrowded facilities.

The ruling is also an important success for inmates since the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which made it harder for prisoners to bring lawsuits and limited court remedies for allegations of prison abuse.

2.02.2009

goodbye exclusionary rule?

Justices Step Closer to Repeal of Evidence Rule ... NEW YORK TIMES (BY Adam Liptak) - In 1983, a young lawyer in the Reagan White House was hard at work on what he called in a memorandum “the campaign to amend or abolish the exclusionary rule” — the principle that evidence obtained by police misconduct cannot be used against a defendant.

The Reagan administration’s attacks on the exclusionary rule — a barrage of speeches, opinion articles, litigation and proposed legislation — never gained much traction. But now that young lawyer, John G. Roberts Jr., is chief justice of the United States.

This month, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority in Herring v. United States, a 5-to-4 decision, took a big step toward the goal he had discussed a quarter-century before. Taking aim at one of the towering legacies of the Warren Court, its landmark 1961 decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states, the chief justice’s majority opinion established for the first time that unlawful police conduct should not require the suppression of evidence if all that was involved was isolated carelessness. That was a significant step in itself. More important yet, it suggested that the exclusionary rule itself might be at risk....

1.28.2009

innocence project @ scotus

"In March, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in an Innocence Project case seeking DNA testing for a client in Alaska who was convicted of rape and attempted murder 15 years ago.

The Innocence Project filed its brief with the Supreme Court this week, arguing that the U.S. Constitution allows prisoners access to DNA testing that could prove their innocence. In the vast majority of cases, prisoners are granted DNA testing under state law or because prosecutors consent to DNA testing without a court order — but Alaska is the exception. It is one of only six states without a law granting access to DNA testing, and it is the only state in the nation with no known cases of prisoners receiving DNA testing, either through a court order or a prosecutor’s consent.

Suing in federal court is the only option for Innocence Project client William Osborne to get the DNA testing he says will prove his innocence. Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that Osborne had the right to testing, but the state of Alaska appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld will argue the case on March 2."

"corrections funds vanish in madoff scandal"

Stateline.org Where Policy & POlitics Click - Corrections funds vanish in Madoff scandal [By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer. (Wednesday, January 28, 2009)

The $50 billion Ponzi scheme that Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff is accused of orchestrating has stunned many state corrections officials — and not simply because of the magnitude of the alleged crime.

Among the funds lost in the scandal, it has emerged, were millions of dollars earmarked for corrections-related projects in the states, ranging from post-conviction DNA testing for inmates in Texas to housing assistance for ex-convicts in Kansas.

The money belonged to the JEHT Foundation, a New York-based charity that has provided tens of millions of dollars in grants to state and local governments, nonprofit organizations and other groups working for progressive corrections reforms.

The 9-year-old foundation, whose name stands for Justice, Equality, Human dignity and Tolerance, invested heavily with Madoff, and will shut its doors at the end of the month, its chief executive announced in a brief statement posted on the charity’s Web site.

Madoff was arrested by federal authorities in December amid allegations he carried out the largest individual financial fraud in history. The former money manager is accused of paying off existing investors with funds collected from new ones, rather than with actual returns.

The foundation’s sudden collapse has rocked the criminal justice reform community, from those advocating for looser criminal sentencing laws to those promoting expanded opportunities for inmates who have already served their time.

california prison health care in the news

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown will ask U.S. to end oversight of California prisons: Officials say receivership has become a government unto itself. Overseer says such action would prolong unnecessary deaths and suffering among inmates [By Michael Rothfeld (Los Angeles Times. January 28, 2009)]

1.27.2009

grisham on the prison industrial complex

A Law Blog Q&A with John Grisham (WSJBlog posted January 27, 2009) " ... We have 2.5 million people in prison in this country. We’re not thinking. We’re warehousing these young black kids, we grind them through the mill for minor drug charges – or even, you know, more serious drug charges – and we spend $40,000 a year to incarcerate them. But we spend only $8,000 a year to educate them. We’re not using our heads. It’s costing a fortune and nobody’s talking about it..."

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