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Today In Criminal Justice
Why Closing the Forensic Commission Hurts Crime Victims
Two Arkansas Inmates Try To Block Executions Tomorrow Cleveland Killer 'Weaponized' Social Media Homeland Security Chief Vows Marijuana Enforcement Some Police Experts Dispute Trump's Immigrant-Gang Link When Will Trump Replace 93 U.S. Attorneys?
Why Cleveland Killer Weaponized Social Media Policymakers Divided on Health Jobs For Ex-Offenders CO Pair Cleared in Sex Crimes Can Get Court Fees Back
Teen Detentions Longer In Some Places, Advocate Reports
Three Whites Killed in Alleged CA Racial Attack
Ex-NFL Star Aaron Hernandez Hangs Himself in Cell
DOJ Will Keep Enforcing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
How 'Closed' Homicide Case Data Can Mislead
Federal Agents Deported 'Dreamer' in February Top Story
Why Closing the Forensic Commission Hurts Crime VictimsThe decision to shelve the 40-member commission and abandon DOJ’s Forensic Science Discipline Reviews is a “troubling” step backwards in efforts to apply scientific knowledge to trial evidence, warns former commission member John F. Hollway. The Crime Report Two Arkansas Inmates Try To Block Executions TomorrowLawyers for two Arkansas inmates condemned to die tomorrow insist they are innocent, and one of them says advanced DNA techniques could show he didn’t kill a woman in 1993. Their strategy to win stays of execution differs from the first two inmates who faced the death chamber this week. They were spared Monday by arguing they should not be put to death because of mental health issues, the Associated Press reports. Arkansas officials are vowing to press ahead with tomorrow’s executions despite the setback to plans to resume capital punishment after a 12-year hiatus.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson originally set out an aggressive schedule of eight lethal injections in 11 days that would have marked the most inmates put to death by a state in such a short period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The state set the compressed schedule because its supply of one lethal injection drug expires at the end of April. One inmate set to die, Stacey Johnson, says advanced DNA techniques could show that he didn’t kill Carol Heath, a 25-year-old mother of two, in 1993. The other inmate scheduled to be executed tomorrow, Ledell Lee, argued unsuccessfully yesterday in a Little Rock courtroom that he be given a chance to test blood and hair evidence that could prove he didn’t beat 26-year-old Debra Reese to death during a 1993 robbery. Associated Press Cleveland Killer Weaponized Social MediaSteve Stephens used a pistol to kill Robert Godwin Sr. on Easter Sunday. He used a cellphone and a Facebook account to weaponize the name of his estranged girlfriend in a misguided and public attempt to regain control over a woman and a life that had escaped him, reports Cleveland.com. The crime prompted a nationwide manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officers that ended yesterday morning, when Stephens shot himself as state troopers in Erie, Pa., approached his car.
Joy Lane, who Stephens described in a Facebook Live video before the Godwin shooting as “the love of my life,” would be subjected to death threats and even driven to apologize to the public, as if she, and not the gunman, is to blame. Though Stephens’ crime and videotaped manifestos shocked the world, they fell into a framework familiar to Jane Granzier of Cleveland’s Frontline Services, who argues that personal issues, perhaps untreated mental illness and a broken heart combine in a whirlwind of powerlessness to drive a man to unleash violence, blame the woman that he lost and take his own life. Also at play, Granzier said, is a societal stigma that makes people, particularly men, feel ashamed and less manly for seeking help for mental health treatment, a theory known in academic circles as “toxic masculinity.” “When you exacerbate that sense of helplessness by feeding yourself this narrative that you’re weak if you ask for help, it makes the problem worse,” she said. “On the contrary, it takes real strength to call somebody and ask for help.” Cleveland.com Homeland Security Chief Vows Marijuana EnforcementTwo days after downplaying the role of marijuana in drug enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly changed course, saying his agency would continue to arrest and investigate those who traded in it in violation of federal law, McClatchy Newspapers reports. “Let me be clear about marijuana: It is a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs,” he said in his first major speech. “Its use and possession is against federal law and until that law is changed by the United States Congress, we at DHS, along with the rest of the federal government, are sworn to uphold all the laws that are on the books.”
Marijuana advocates, who are watching to determine whether the Trump administration will deal a blow to state-level legalization efforts, said Kelly was defying science in taking a hard line on pot. Eight states – Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana in some form and another 20 permit the sale of pot for medical purposes. DHS should stick to security and leave the science to the scientists,” said Mason Tvert of the Denver-based Marijuana Policy Project, told McClatchy. “This is a knee-jerk reaction among a certain generation of people that still think of marijuana as this vile, horrific substance and have yet to accept the fact that it is actually less harmful than alcohol.” Legalization advocates say Kelly’s claim that marijuana is a “gateway drug” has been thoroughly debunked by scientific studies. McClatchy Newspapers Some Police Experts Dispute Trump's Immigrant-Gang LinkThe law enforcement community is divided over the Trump administration claim that illegal immigrants are helping fuel a crime wave. Yesterday, it singled out a Central America-based international gang, MS-13, that it said had flourished under the Obama administration. In rapid succession, President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly all promoted a crackdown on illegal immigration they said would improve public safety, reports the Wall Street Journal.
But while some officers welcome stricter immigration enforcement, others are concerned a crackdown could deter undocumented residents from cooperating with police. President Obama’s backers sharply dispute the notion that his policies were weak, illegal or contributed to crime. Some criminal justice advocates say the Trump administration is exaggerating the threats to public safety. Crime rates remain near historic lows, despite surges in violence in a handful of large cities, and some studies show immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans. Wes McBride of the California Gang Investigators Association, a law enforcement group, agreed that tighter border security would curb gang activity, though he was hesitant to blame the Obama administration for growth of MS-13. Former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne disputed the administration’s efforts to link illegal border crossings and crime. “It has nothing to do with lax [border] enforcement,” he said. “Once gangs are here, they recruit new members locally. They don’t immigrate.” Wall Street Journal When Will Trump Replace 93 U.S. Attorneys? Attorney General Jeff Sessions is making aggressive law enforcement a top priority, but he does not have a single U.S. Attorney in place to lead his tough-on-crime efforts, the Washington Post reports. Last month, Sessions abruptly told the dozens of remaining Obama administration U.S. attorneys to leave immediately. Neither the 47 who have already left nor the remaining attorneys have been replaced. “We really need to work hard at that,” Sessions said when asked yesterday about the vacancies as he opened a meeting with federal law enforcement officials. The 93 unfilled U.S. attorney positions are among the hundreds of critical Trump administration jobs that remain open.
Sessions is also without the heads of his top units, including the civil rights, criminal and national security divisions, as he tries to reshape the Justice Department. U.S. attorneys, who prosecute federal crimes from offices around the nation, are critical to implementing an attorney general’s law enforcement agenda. Former Justice Department officials say that acting U.S. attorneys do not operate with the same authority when interacting with police chiefs and other law enforcement executives. “It’s like trying to win a baseball game without your first-string players on the field,” said Ronald Weich, who ran the Justice Department’s legislative affairs division during Obama’s first term, adding that the Trump administration “is clearly way behind in achieving that goal.” Rod Rosenstein, Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general, is not on board. He is expected to be confirmed by the Senate this month. Washington Post Cleveland Killer 'Weaponized' Social MediaSteve Stephens used a pistol to kill Robert Godwin Sr. on Easter Sunday. He used a cellphone and a Facebook account to weaponize the name of his estranged girlfriend in a misguided and public attempt to regain control over a woman and a life that had escaped him, reports Cleveland.com. The crime prompted a nationwide manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officers that ended yesterday morning, when Stephens shot himself as state troopers in Erie, Pa., approached his car.
Joy Lane, who Stephens described in a Facebook Live video before the Godwin shooting as “the love of my life,” would be subjected to death threats and even driven to apologize to the public, as if she, and not the gunman, is to blame. Though Stephens’ crime and videotaped manifestos shocked the world, they fell into a framework familiar to Jane Granzier of Cleveland’s Frontline Services: personal issues, perhaps untreated mental illness and a broken heart combine in a whirlwind of powerlessness to drive a man to unleash violence, blame the woman that he lost and take his own life. Also at play, Granzier said, is a societal stigma that makes people, particularly men, feel ashamed and less manly for seeking help for mental health treatment, a theory known in academic circles as “toxic masculinity.” “When you exacerbate that sense of helplessness by feeding yourself this narrative that you’re weak if you ask for help, it makes the problem worse,” she said. “On the contrary, it takes real strength to call somebody and ask for help.” Cleveland.com Policymakers Divided on Health Jobs For Ex-OffendersWith unemployment falling and workers hard to find, a growing number of health care employers are following the lead of Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital and giving people with criminal records a second chance, hiring them mainly into entry-level jobs in food service, janitorial services and housekeeping, reports Stateline. Studies show that employees with records stay in their jobs longer and are no more likely to commit workplace crimes than hires without them. This year, Illinois began allowing people with some felony convictions to petition for professional licenses in health care. In 2015, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court struck down down a decades-old law that had prohibited people with certain offenses — from theft to murder — from working in long-term care facilities, home care agencies or adult day centers.
Hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s offices care for people in the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Citing public safety concerns, some states have gone in the opposite direction, passing laws to keep people with criminal records out of clinical jobs. A Colorado proposal would require doctors, nurses, dentists and other health care professionals to submit a fingerprint-based background check before they can be licensed. A new Indiana law expands background checks for people who work at home health agencies. Roughly one in four U.S. residents has a criminal record. As the health care sector continues to add jobs, state lawmakers and health care employers will have to decide whether ex-offenders will be allowed to fill them. Stateline CO Pair Cleared in Sex Crimes Can Get Court Fees BackA man and a woman in Colorado who were cleared of charges in different sex crimes are entitled to a refund of thousands of dollars in court fees and costs, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today. The high court ruled in favor of Shannon Nelson and Louis Madden. Nelson's convictions of sexual assault against children were reversed, but she was ordered to pay $8,193, mostly in victim restitution. Madden's sex-crime convictions were also reversed, and he was told to pay $4,413, including a fee for genetic testing of sex offenders.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that "due process does not require a refund of costs, fees, and restitution when a defendant’s conviction is reversed," but the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. Writing for the court's majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that Colorado requires defendants whose convictions were reversed to file a civil suit to recover their money. That violates the Constitution's guarantee of due process of law, she said. Justice Samuel Alito concurred in the result, and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. The Crime Report Teen Detentions Longer In Some Places, Advocate ReportsNate Balis, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group, has sounded an alarm about a slowing of progress and an increase in the length of time youth are being incarcerated in some of the 300 sites of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, reports the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. Speaking at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Foundation-sponsored initiative (JDAI), Balis noted that much of the rapid growth in reducing youth incarceration happened between 2002 and 2012, but that progress is slowing.
The average length of detention has increased in some sites by 40 percent or more. “These days, most detention facilities have empty beds, so the need to move kids out can feel less urgent. That’s understandable, but it’s not consistent with [the initiative’s] values.” The project “works much better when law enforcement is actively involved,” Balis said, adding that, “In many sites law enforcement leaders are not. That needs to change. … Most importantly, law enforcement is the key player at the stage of the system where racial and ethnic disparities are by far the greatest. If we are ever going to make wholesale improvements in racial equity, law enforcement just has to be actively at the table.” Juvenile Justice Information Exchange Three Whites Killed in Alleged CA Racial AttackThree men were having a seemingly ordinary day in downtown Fresno, California, before they were singled out at random and killed by a black gunman targeting white victims, police said. The men happened to be on the same block, but had no known connection to each other or to the shooter, Kori Ali Muhammad, who told police he wanted to kill as many white people as he could before he was captured, reports the Associated Press.
A 34-year-old father of two preschoolers was on the job when he was shot yesterday in the passenger seat of a Pacific Gas & Electric utility truck. The driver wasn’t hit and sped toward the police department, but his partner couldn’t be saved. A 37-year-old man had just picked up a bag of groceries at a Catholic Charities building when he was gunned down. The third victim, a 59-year-old man, was gunned down in the parking of the Catholic Charities building. “These were unprovoked attacks,” said Police Chief Jerry Dyer. Muhammad, 39, is in custody and is expected to be charged with four counts of murder, for yesterday’s three victims and 25-year-old Motel 6 security guard, Carl Williams, another white man Muhammad shot last week. Associated Press Ex-NFL Star Aaron Hernandez Hangs Himself in CellConvicted killer and ex-New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez committed suicide in prison, the Boston Herald reports. Hernandez was found hanging in his cell by correction officers at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley at 3:05 a.m. "Mr. Hernandez hanged himself utilizing a bed sheet that he attached to his cell window," said Correction Department spokesman Christopher Fallon. "Mr. Hernandez also attempted to block his door from the inside by jamming the door with various items."
Hernandez, who was appealing a life sentence for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd, was acquitted on double-murder charges last Friday. In what the Herald called a shocking verdict, a jury found him not guilty of murdering Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston. The verdict left Hernandez in tears. He was found guilty of illegal possession of a gun in that case. He died on the day the Patriots are set to celebrate their Super Bowl win at the White House with President Trump. Boston Herald DOJ Will Keep Enforcing Foreign Corrupt Practices ActConvicted killer and ex-New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez committed suicide in prison, the Boston Herald reports. Hernandez was found hanging in his cell by correction officers at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley at 3:05 a.m. “Mr. Hernandez hanged himself utilizing a bed sheet that he attached to his cell window,” said Correction Department spokesman Christopher Fallon. “Mr. Hernandez also attempted to block his door from the inside by jamming the door with various items.”
Hernandez, who was appealing a life sentence for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd, was acquitted on double-murder charges last Friday. In what the Herald called a shocking verdict, a jury found him not guilty of murdering Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston. The verdict left Hernandez in tears. He was found guilty of illegal possession of a gun in that case. He died on the day the Patriots are set to celebrate their Super Bowl win at the White House with President Trump. Boston Herald How ‘Closed’ Homicide Case Data Can MisleadThe Baltimore police rate of closed homicides stands at about 49 percent for the year, but that doesn’t mean half of this year’s killings have been solved. About one-quarter of killings this year have resulted in handcuffs and charges against a suspect. The rest of the cases closed are killings that occurred in previous years and for which a suspect was only arrested this year. The total also includes cases where no one was arrested at all, the Baltimore Sun reports.
FBI crime reporting guidelines call for police departments to count all cases “closed” by police in a given year — regardless of the year the killings occurred — in that year’s rate of closed cases. Half of this year’s solved cases are from killings committed in prior years. The clearance rate also include cases “closed by exception.” That’s a term for cases administratively closed when a suspect — who police believe they have enough evidence to charge — dies or is unavailable for other reasons. At least five of this year’s “closed by exception” cases involve suspects who were themselves recent murder victims. Baltimore Sun Federal Agents Deported 'Dreamer' in FebruaryFederal agents have deported a “Dreamer” to Mexico, possibly the first such documented case under President Trump’ immigration policies, The Guardian reports. Juan Manuel Montes, 23, was supposedly protected under the the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but agents detained and swiftly expelled him in February. Montes had lived in the U.S. since the age of nine and obtained de facto amnesty from an Obama-era policy that Trump has kept intact, citing his “big heart.” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers approached him on the street in Calexico, on California’s border with Mexico, and deported him three hours later without giving him a chance to fetch his active DACA permit.
“Juan Montes was the target of abusive law enforcement officers and deported from his family and home,” said Greisa Martinez of United We Dream. Trump met Dreamers before running for president, and after taking office retained DACA protections, which cover more than 750,000 undocumented immigrants, signalling they would escape his immigration crackdown. “They shouldn’t be very worried,” he told ABC News in January. “I do have a big heart.” Even so, at least 10 have been detained, says United We Dream. Montes, who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child, appears to be the first to be deported. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), who has long advocated for Dreamers, demanded that the Department of Homeland Security explain Montes’s expulsion. The Guardian | |
| | On every business day, The Crime Report (TCR) and Criminal Justice Journalists (CJJ) provide a summary of the nation's top crime and justice news stories with links, commentary, and New & Notable research in the field. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Langeloth Foundation and the Urban Institute. Today's report was prepared by Ted Gest and Victoria Mckenzie. Please send comments or questions to victoria@thecrimereport.org. | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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