11 Jan 2012

January 11, 2012

Supreme Court Won't Provide New Eyewitness ID Safeguards

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The Supreme Court today refused to extend constitutional safeguards against the use of some eyewitness testimony at criminal trials, reports the Associated Press. The court voted 8-1 to reject an appeal from a New Hampshire man, Barion Perry who was convicted of theft. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only dissenter.

Perry argued that courts should be able to exclude eyewitness testimony when identifications are made under suggestive circumstances, even when there is no evidence of manipulation by the police. Judges already have the power to bar testimony when police do something to influence a witness to identify a suspect. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court that in cases with no police misconduct, juries can weigh the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Associated Press/U.S. Supreme Court


Police Trainer After Deaths: Stop Knocking on Doors in Drug Cases

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A recent surge in fatal police shootings is weighing heavily on law enforcement trainers, some of whom are calling for a reassessment of high-risk fugitive and drug raids that have resulted in a number of deadly ambushes, reports USA Today. "It's time to change our thinking," says Pat McCarthy, who advises police agencies. "Cops are exposing themselves to increasing danger many times over, and it's just not necessary." Harvey Hedden of the International Law Enforcement Trainers and Educators Association is urging his 4,000 members to "look at everything" in an effort to avoid potentially dangerous complacency on the streets.

"Police work can be 99% boredom and 1% panic," he said. "Routine can be the most dangerous of all. We need to go back to the basics." Federal and local officials have been troubled by the rise in firearms-related fatalities. Gun-related fatalities last year were up 15 percent from 2010. Last week, a Utah officer was killed and five others were wounded when they tried to serve a drug-related search warrant. McCarthy said the case underscores a need for police to rethink tactics. "The days of knocking down doors in drug cases should be over. Given what's going on now, you have to consider other options," he said. This month, the Justice Department will host a meeting of researchers and law enforcement officials to discuss tactics and training.

USA Today


Texas Teen's Fatal Shooting Points to Confusion Over Fake Guns

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Last week in a Brownsville, Tx., middle school, administrators noticed that Jaime Gonzalez Jr., a 15-year-old eighth grader, had a gun tucked into the waistband of his pants, says the New York Times. It was a high-powered BB gun that resembled a black Glock semiautomatic handgun that can be bought on the Internet for $60. School officials announced a lockdown and called 911. In a confrontation, officers shot the boy dead.

The death was only the latest in a series of shootings involving realistic-looking BB guns and pellet guns. In recent years, dozens of police officers in Texas, California, Maryland, Florida, and elsewhere have shot children and adults armed with what they believed were handguns but that were determined later to be BB guns or other types of air pistols. In addition, the gun replicas have killed or injured thousands of children in cases in which the victims were accidentally shot by relatives or friends. The weapon in the Texas case was a Umarex SA177, was a .177-caliber, carbon dioxide-powered gun that shoots steel BBs and that has a metal slide with a plastic frame. "When I looked at that gun, there is no doubt that looking at it from a distance it's absolutely real," said Carl Montoya, the superintendent of the Brownsville Independent School District and a reserve constable in the city.

New York Times


New Owner of Controversial WI Gun Store Vows Changes

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The new owner of a Milwaukee gun shop long under fire because of its high number of crime gun sales, including those used to wound police officers, plans to make the store more selective, not selling certain cheap guns and asking buyers tough questions, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The new owner is the brother of the previous owner of Badger Guns, whose license was revoked for breaking federal law.

Badger Guns and its predecessor, Badger Outdoors, were top sellers of crime guns recovered by Milwaukee police for more than a decade, according to police data obtained by the Journal Sentinel. In two years, six Milwaukee police officers were wounded with guns sold by Badger Guns or Badger Outdoors. A study came out this week showing that crime gun sales spiked at Badger Outdoors shortly after Congress passed legislation that made gun store records and trace information largely secret and further handcuffed ATF's ability to regulate gun dealers. "This shows how scrutiny and oversight of gun dealers can affect how guns get in the hands of criminals," said Daniel Webster of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, the study's chief author.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel


CA Gov. Brown Again Proposes to Close State Youth Rehab Units

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For the second time in a year, California Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed permanently closing the state Division of Juvenile Justice, a move that would make California the first state to eliminate its youth prison system and shift responsibility for the most dangerous young offenders to counties, reports the (San Francisco) Bay Citizen. When Brown first proposed the plan, county prosecutors and probation officers protested, arguing that counties were unprepared to handle murderers and violent sex offenders.

Last week, Brown offered $10 million to help counties prepare for the new inmates. At the same time, he blocked $70 million in cuts to the agency. The proposal to end state-level incarceration of juveniles first gained momentum in 2007 when California lawmakers prohibited counties from sending nonviolent offenders to state facilities. County juvenile halls and programs now care for more than 90 percent of youth offenders, and Brown has been looking to shutter the state system - which costs taxpayers almost $250 million a year - since his first month in office.

Bay Citizen (CA)


High Court Voids New Orleans Murder Conviction Over Prosecution Failure

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The Supreme Court yesterday reversed the murder conviction of Juan Smith of New Orleans because prosecutors failed to reveal that the sole eyewitness to the crime had earlier said he could not identify the killer, USA Today reports. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented in an 8-1 ruling. The case illustrates problems of prosecutors' hiding evidence and the guarantee, stemming from a 1963 Supreme Court decision, that the government must turn over evidence favorable to a defendant.

"Evidence impeaching an eyewitness may not be material if the state's other evidence is strong enough to sustain confidence in the verdict," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts. "That is not the case here." Smith was charged with killing five people in a 1995 armed robbery of a home. A single eyewitness, Larry Boatner, connected Smith to the killings. On appeal, Smith obtained files that showed that Boatner had told police on the night of the killings that he "could not ID anyone because (he) couldn't see faces." Prosecutors had not turned over a detective's report of that information to Smith before trial.

USA Today


GA Gov. Deal Seeks More Prison Funding, Focus on Drug Treatment

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Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has asked state legislators to treat nonviolent drug addicts as an alternative to sending them to expensive and overcrowded prisons, reports the Associated Press. The annual legislative session begins this week. "While these reforms require an initial investment, they will increase public safety, and ultimately save money by creating a more effective corrections system that rehabilitates people, closing the revolving door," Deal said.

He asked lawmakers to spend more than $15 million to create substance abuse treatment centers in the prison system. He also asked to fund specialized courts designed to offer troubled addicts and veterans an opportunity to stay out of prison if they seek treatment. Deal also wants $35 million to pay for new beds in the prison system for those offenders who are deemed a threat to public safety. "We must make this investment," Deal said. "If we fail to treat the addict's drug addiction, we haven't taken the first step in breaking the cycle of crime - a cycle that destroys lives and wastes taxpayer resources."

Associated Press


CO Ponders "Financial Cooperative" For Medical-Marijuana Industry

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Colorado's medical-marijuana industry, already subject to the most comprehensive cannabis-business regulations in the U.S., might soon have another national first to its credit: a bank, of sorts, reports the Denver Post. Two state legislators will propose to allow a "financial cooperative" to provide banking services to medical-marijuana businesses. The cooperative would work like a credit union, with membership limited to industry members. It would be free of the kinds of federal insurance requirements that exist with banks and credit unions and that have made those institutions reluctant to work with medical-marijuana businesses.

State Sen. Pat Steadman said the cooperative would plug a hole in state medical-marijuana regulations. "The inability to have a financial institution to do their banking with really hinders regulatory enforcement," Steadman said. "So it's in everybody's interest that these people don't have piles of cash lying around [ ] and, instead, there's a paper trail." The bill is expected to be the major focus of medical-marijuana-related lobbying at the state Capitol during this year's legislative session, which starts today.

Denver Post


Miss. Gov. Barbour's Pardons Stir Controversy As He Leaves Office

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Yesterday, his last day in office, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour granted pardons to 193 criminals - an unusually high number for the state, and one that is likely to inflame controversy about his pardon practices, the New York Times reports. Barbour's pardons attracted an outcry when he pardoned five people last week who had been convicted of murder and at worked at the governor's mansion while in custody, performing odd jobs.

Recent Mississippi governors issued many fewer pardons. Barbour's actions are "really inexplicable," said Brandon Jones, a former Democratic state representative who had tried to pass legislation that would have added some oversight to the pardoning process. "I think that in some ways he has broken the mold." Having inmates perform tasks like waiting on tables at the governor's mansion is not unique to Mississippi. In Georgia, while inmates work at the mansion, the governor does not have the power to pardon; in Louisiana, the governor can do so only if four out of five members of the state's pardon board agree.

New York Times


Maine Makes Probationers' Records Public; Some Advocates Worry

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Thirty-six convicted murderers and 24 kidnappers live on probation in Maine communities, says a new database created for the Maine Department of Corrections. The website allows people to search through the database of state's 9,160 adult prisoners and probationers, reports the Bangor Daily News. The goal is to allow victims to track their abusers and to reduce the workload for corrections staff members who typically handle information requests.

Prisoner advocates say the new database is a scary tool that might prevent probationers from integrating into their communities. The database can paint a frightening picture, says the newspaper. The Bangor area has 1,888 convicts on probation. Of them, there are 370 drug offenders, 36 arsonists, 202 sex offenders, 20 people convicted of manslaughter, four kidnappers and one man who was convicted of criminally using explosives. "Knowing offenders are running around might change the way people think about where they live," said Judy Plummer, Maine Department of Corrections director of special programs. "This puts an awareness out there that people released from prison are out there." Prisoner advocates worry about how the new database will affect the lives of people who are now on the right path.

Bangor Daily News


Detroit Police In Compliance With 80% of Federally-Mandated Reforms

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The Detroit Police Department said it is 80 percent compliant on implementing policies developed as part of federally mandated reforms, the Detroit Free Press reports. Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. provided an update yesterday during a Community Command Accountability Meeting on reforms the department agreed in 2003 to implement, including curbing excessive force.

Godbee said the progress is significant compared with two years ago, when the department was only 29 percent compliant with implementing policies. Federal monitor Robert Warshaw said, "This is an important milestone." Officials reviewed areas where the department has not been in compliance. Among those, the monitor found that detainees on suicide watch were not being constantly monitored and there was confusion about when constant monitoring is necessary. Officials said training has been conducted, but Godbee said the response has to be swift.

Detroit Free Press


L..A. County Jailers More Likely to Use Force Against Mentally Ill Inmates

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Los Angeles County jailers are more likely to use force against mentally ill inmates than other prisoners, says a Sheriff's Department report quoted by the Los Angeles Times that acknowledges the lockups need specially trained staff to reduce the violence. About one third of the 582 deputy use-of-force cases in the jails last year involved inmates with mental health histories. About 15 percent of the 15,000 inmates are classified as mentally ill.

The numbers provide a more detailed picture of the confrontations between deputies and inmates, an issue that has sparked intense scrutiny over the last few months and prompted a heated debate yesterday between Sheriff Lee Baca and some L.A. County supervisors. Federal authorities are investigating specific allegations of deputy misconduct and excessive force and last year even smuggled a cellphone into the jail as part of the probe. The disproportionate number of mentally ill inmates involved in altercations with deputies is a new element in the jail controversy.

Los Angeles Times