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High Court Blocks Suit Against CA Officers Over Defective Warrant

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:58:43 -0500

California police officers cannot be sued because they used a warrant that may have been defective to search a woman’s house, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today, 6 to 3, according to the Associated Press. The court threw out the lawsuit against Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Curt Messerschmidt and other police officials. They were sued after searching Augusta Millender’s house looking for her foster son, who shot at his ex-girlfriend with a sawed-off shotgun.

The warrant said the police could look for any weapons on the property and gang-related material. The weapon and the shooter were not found but police confiscated Millender’s shotgun. Millender contended that the lawsuit was overbroad. Lower courts let her sue officers personally despite their claims of immunity. The high court reversed that ruling in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts; the court's three female members dissented.

School Crimes: 17 Student Homicides, 359,000 Violent Cases in Year

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:24:33 -0500

A new federal edition of school crime indicators says that of the 33 violent deaths in schools in the year ending June 30, 2010, there were 25 homicides, five were suicides, and three were "legal interventions." The cases included 17 student homicides and one student suicide.

In 2010, students ages 12-18 were victims of about 828,000 nonfatal victimizations at school, including 470,000 thefts and 359,000 violent victimizations, 91,400 of which were serious violent victimizations. In 2009, 31 percent of grade 9-12 students said they had been in a physical fight in the previous year.

IL Gov. Quinn Calls for Prison Closings, Including Super-Max

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:42:04 -0500

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn will deliver a bad-news budget today, suggesting that the state close numerous prisons, mental health centers and social service offices, and other cuts, says the Chicago Tribune. The problem is the same as it's been for years: there's not enough money coming in while costs are rising.

The governor will suggest closing the controversial Tamms super-max prison in far southern Illinois, the women's prison in Dwight and juvenile justice centers in Joliet and downstate Murphysboro. Shutting down the super-maximum prison already is drawing plaudits from critics who contend the conditions at Tamms are so harsh that it qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. John Maki of the John Howard Association, said Tamms is "overly harsh" on prisoners, who are kept in near-isolation. The prisoners face psychological damage that can make behavior worse, he said. While it would be cheaper to house super-max inmates elsewhere, Maki said, it "doesn't make sense" to close the women's prison at Dwight and it doesn't address cells that are "seriously overcrowded."

NYC Underage Drinking Cases Up, Enforcement Down

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:33:13 -0500

At a time when New York state’s booze patrol has downsized to its lowest level in 15 years, city hospitals have seen an alarming jump in emergency room cases stemming from underage drinking, reports the New York Daily News. The number of bombed teens in ERs has nearly doubled as the State Liquor Authority’s depleted staff has scaled back its routine enforcement to focus on bars and businesses with the worst records for alcohol infractions.

“The SLA says that they have zero tolerance when it comes to selling liquor to minors. I’d like them to put their money where their mouths are,” said City Councilman James Vacca. He said the agency’s skeletal staff depends on tips from the New York Police Department to root out establishments serving alcohol to minors or violating other rules of their liquor license. “If it wasn’t for the NYPD, there’d be an explosion of illegal sales,” said Vacca. “The NYPD is picking up the slack for the SLA.” Binge drinking by teens has become such a crisis that the city Health Department launched a $200,000 ad campaign in 2011 warning of the perils of alcohol abuse.

Supreme Court Limits Need for Miranda Warnings to Jailed Suspects

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:24:41 -0500

The Supreme Court yesterday limited the circumstances in which prisoners must be told of their rights before they are questioned, the New York Times reports. The question was whether an inmate's confession to a sex cime should have been suppressed because he didn't get Miranda warnings before he was questioned. The answer turned on whether he was in custody at the time.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote tor the 6-3 majority that “custody” for these purposes “is a term of art that specifies circumstances that are thought generally to present a serious danger of coercion.” The inmate, Randall Fields, was in a Michigan jail for disorderly conduct when he was taken to a conference room and questioned for five to seven hours by armed deputies who used a sharp tone and profanity. He was told he was free to return to his cell but was not given Miranda warnings. The key inquiry, Justice Alito said, was whether a reasonable person in those circumstances would have felt free to end the questioning and leave. He said the fact of imprisonment did not by itself provide the answer. On balance, Alito said, Fields was not in custody, and so no warnings were required.

PA Judge: Court-Appointed Capital Lawyer Pay "Grossly Inadequate"

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:03:34 -0500

A report to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concludes that the pay for court-appointed lawyers in Philadelphia death-penalty cases is "grossly inadequate" and "unacceptably increases the risk of ineffective assistance of counsel," says the Philadelphia Inquirer. Last year, The Inquirer reported that scores of death-penalty cases had been reversed by appellate courts or sent back for new hearings because of serious errors by defense attorneys. Low pay is a key reason, critics say.

In Philadelphia, fewer than 30 of 11,000 lawyers are willing to take capital-case appointments for indigent clients and also meet minimum state requirements for doing so. Philadelphia pays less than any other county in Pennsylvania, according to defense lawyers who petitioned the Supreme Court to increase the fees or halt death-penalty cases until that happens. The high court said more information was needed and asked Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner, who oversees homicide cases in Philadelphia, to determine if the pay for court-appointed lawyers was "so inadequate that it can be presumed that court-appointed counsel are constitutionally ineffective." Lerner found that, the compensation of court-appointed capital defense lawyers in Philadelphia is grossly inadequate, both as to the dollar amount of the compensation and as to the compensation schedule provided by the present fee system.

How Informants Help FBI Break Major Terrorism Cases

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:43:25 -0500

An increasingly active informant pool is helping the FBI identify suspects involved in alleged plots against the U.S. from within, says USA Today. Since the 9/11 attacks, when virtually no anti-terror intelligence network existed, federal authorities have tapped into a vast network of informants — many in the Muslim community — who have assisted in the arrests of suspects. Civil rights advocates and defense lawyers have complained that the tactics smack of a disproportionate focus on Muslims.

"We are getting regular calls from people across the country who are being approached by the (federal government) to act as informants," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American Islamic Relations. "And we are concerned about what kind of pressure is being used to get that cooperation." FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said, "We do not investigate people based solely [ ] on their race, ethnicity, national origin or religious affiliation," In the complaint last week in a plot to bomb the U.S. Capitol, FBI agent Steven Hersem noted that the informant not only brought the suspect to the FBI but accompanied the suspect and the undercover agent Friday on the drive toward the Capitol where the suspect was arrested.

Judge Strikes Down LA Law Banning Sex Offenders from Social Media

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:10:53 -0500

A federal judge has struck down a Louisiana law that banned sex offenders from using social media sites, ruling that the law was overly vague and violated free-speech protections, reports The Hill. The law prohibited registered sex offenders who had been convicted of child pornography or another similar crime from using "social network websites, chat rooms and peer-to-peer networks."

The law defined the prohibited sites broadly. A "chat room" was defined as "any Internet website through which users have the ability to communicate via text and which allows messages to be visible to all other users or to a designated segment of all other users." Judge Brian Jackson noted that the law seems to ban offenders from using email, news sites that allow reader comments, Amazon, eBay and even government sites like Louisiana's official hurricane preparedness site or the website for the federal court. Lawyers for sex offenders said their clients were afraid to access the Internet at all, including to research safety and technical information related to their jobs.

Ohio's Capital Punishment System Could be On Its Own Death Watch

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:14:00 -0500

Ohio's capital punishment system could be under its own death watch as scrutiny over how the state executes prisoners has led to calls for significant changes of the death penalty, if not an outright repeal, says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Despite the issues plaguing the state's execution process, Ohio officials say they are are getting this call on life-or-death right. "I feel that we have a solid protocol, and I know that we have the professionally trained staff to execute that protocol," said state corrections director Gary Mohr.

Mohr knows there are plenty of people from judges to former prison officials to anti-death penalty activists who have heavy concerns about the death penalty. They question why some criminals land on death row and others do not, whether the state's execution procedures are legal and whether the system can be revamped to restore waning public trust. Ohio has botched one execution, which had to be postponed, and had two others with lengthy delays, including one in which the inmate, while strapped to the gurney in the execution chamber, cried out, "This isn't working." Under legal duress, the state switched from a three-drug concoction to a one-drug dose for lethal injection, a change that is the subject of a lawsuit.

NRA Claims "Massive Obama Conspiracy" Against 2nd Amendment

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:52:00 -0500

Gun sales have skyrocketed since Barack Obama became president, says Bloomberg Business Week blogger Joshua Green. During that time, the stock of gunmaker Sturm Ruger (RGR) has outperformed gold. Analysts aren’t sure what’s causing the trend. Many anticipated a boost in sales from gun owners fearful that Obama might outlaw assault weapons — the “fear trade.” They expected a brief spike, no more. Instead, gun sales kept rising, and they’ve continued to rise even since last fall. Ruger, up 400 percent at the time, is now up more than 500 percent.

Despite the fact that Obama hasn’t made the slightest feint toward regulating guns, firearms enthusiasts have whipped themselves into a paranoid frenzy, convinced that this is all just part of some elaborate conspiracy. National Rifle Association executive director Wayne LaPierre told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) two weeks ago of a "a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term." The website ammo.net has a graphic on just why Obama is, as they put it, the “greatest gun salesman in America”

Meth Busts Up 7% in Missouri; Database Gets Some Credit

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:49:00 -0500

Methamphetamine lab busts in Missouri increased 7 percent in 2011 but declined in areas where decongestants containing the key ingredient are available only by prescription, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Missouri finished 2011 with 2,096 lab seizures. Illinois, with twice Missouri's population, raided 584 meth labs. St. Louis saw one of the biggest jumps, a sixfold increase to 24 labs from four. City police already have seized eight meth labs so far this year, said Lt. Adrienne Bergh. "It's because a lot of the outlying areas are requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine products and it's still not a requirement in the city to have a prescription," she said.

A database financed by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the pharmaceutical industry, began tracking purchases of pseudoephedrine on Jan. 1, 2011. The system blocked 49,000 consumers from topping monthly or annual sales limits. The association's Elizabeth Funderburk said the database may account for the increase in raids. "In terms of labs being on the increase, law enforcement has an effective tool to find methamphetamine labs and it stands to reason that when you have a good tool, you will find more labs — just like if you have a radar gun, you will catch more speeders," she said.

Newspaper: Give LA DA's Discretion to Avoid Mandatory Minimums

Ted Gest — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:07:00 -0500

No state in the nation, and no country in the world, sends people to prison at Louisiana's high rate. That's counterproductive in many cases, particularly nonviolent crimes by first-times offenders, says the New Orleans Times-Picayune in an editorial. The state also can't afford it. The inflexibility politicians added in recent decades to sentencing laws has contributed to the large prison population. Mandatory minimums throughout the criminal code eroded much of the discretion prosecutors and judges once had.

The state sentencing commission, after spending months forging law enforcement consensus, wanted to restore some of that discretion by recommending that district attorneys be allowed to seek sentences below the mandatory minimum for all crimes except murder and aggravated rape. Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration objected. At the request of the governor, the commission excluded all violent crimes and all sex crimes from its proposal to give district attorneys more discretion. Legislators should consider the sentencing commission's original proposals and give the justice system more discretion than what Gov. Jindal favored, the newspaper says.

Teen Dating Violence Often Part of a Pattern of Victimization: Report

Lisa Riordan Seville — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:31:00 -0500

Teen victims of dating violence are overwhelmingly more likely to have been victims of other forms of violence, such as sexual violence and child abuse, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center.

The research from national sample of more than 1,600 teens shows teen dating violence is typically part of a pattern of victimizations rather than a stand-alone phenomenon.

"We thought there would be overlap but had no idea that all dating violence victims are dealing with other forms of violence and abuse as well,” said UNH Crimes against Children Research Center research associate Sherry Hamby, lead author of the study and research associate professor at Sewanee, the University of the South.

Read the full report here.

2012 Harry F. Guggenheim Conference on Crime in America

Cara Tabachnick — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:33:35 -0500

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy led a blue-ribbon list of speakers from the White House, leading police departments, think tanks, and universities for two days of discussions and briefings at the 7th Annual Harry Frank. Guggenheim foundation Symposium on Crime in America, on Feb. 6th and 7th, 2012 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Twenty journalists from around the nation joined participants from the criminal justice community to explore his year's topic,""The Problem That Won't Go Away: How Drugs, Race and Mass Incarceration Have Distorted American Justice (and What To Do About It)." There were six public panels, with 27 speakers, For an agenda of the conference, see HERE.

The journalism fellows (see list here) proposed reporting projects centered around the conference theme.

In addition to the main theme, the Symposium examined some of the newest and most innovative developments in the areas of prisoner re-entry and early release, and recent US and New Jersey Supreme Court rulings on eyewitness identification.

Symposium highlights: Risco Mention-Lewis, Assistant District Attorney from Nassau County, and Shelia Rule, founder of Think Outside the Cell Foundation, addressed : "After Prison What? Breaking the Mold on Prisoner Reentry." Some of the nation's leading corrections chiefs, including Matthew Cate, Secretary of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and New York State Corrections chief Brian Fischer came together for a candid conversation about the state of the nation's prison systems and the impact of early release legislation.

William Black, a former top government regulator, discussed the notorious lack of prosecutions and convictions on fraud and white collar crime arising from the economic crisis. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and leading civil rights attorney Connie Rice spoke about the challenge of tackling juvenile gangs and violence.

Dr. Khalil Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Benjamin Tucker, deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy provided a perspective on America's long-running "war on drugs."

On this page you will be able to download podcasts of the panels and keynote addresses, explore some of the research material provided to participants at the Symposium, and see articles written by this year's Reporting Fellows as well as conference coverage. It will be updated as new material becomes available.

Please check it out regularly!

John Jay HF Guggenheim Prize for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting 2011-2012

Cara Tabachnick — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:27:53 -0500

Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Trevor Aaronson of Mother Jones magazine are the winners of the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim 2012 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Awards.

Trevor Aaronson of Mother Jones magazine won the 2012 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award (single-story category) for his investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 15,000 nationwide informants charged with spying on Muslim-American communities.

Read the Mother Jones magazine story,"The Informants" here.

Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won the 2012 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award (series category) for "Both Sides of the Law," a multi-part series about lawbreakers on the Milwaukee police force. During an investigation that spanned over two years, Barton identified 93 officers on the force—from street cop to captain—who had been disciplined by the department for violating the laws and ordinances they were sworn to uphold.

Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story,"Both Sides of the Law" here.

Runner-up in the single-entry category was awarded to Kelly Virella of City Limits Investigates for "Behind Bars: Love, Sex, Rape and New York's Women Prisoners," which investigated intimacy between prisoners and correction officers in New York State. Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle of the McClatchy Newspapers Washington bureau, were runners-up in the series category for "Military Injustice," which revealed troubling flaws in the military justice system.

Read the City Limits Investigates "Behind Bars: Love, Sex, Rape and New York's Women Prisoners" story here.

Read the McClatchy Newspapers Washington bureau story "Military Injustice," here.

The prize recipients were recognized at a special dinner in their honor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, Feb 6,2012, hosted by college president Jeremy Travis. Former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, now at Yale University, delivered keynote remarks.

Jurors for the John Jay Prize for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting are Ted Gest, President, Criminal Justice Journalists; Joe Domanick, Associate Director, Center on Media, Crime and Justice; Alexa Capeloto, Associate Professor, Journalism, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Mansfield Frazier, Columnist, The Crime Report; and Jordan Smith, Reporter, Austin Chronicle.

Chicago Police Horses Getting "Riot Gear" For NATO, G-8 Summits

Ted Gest — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:11:33 -0500

Horses in the Chicago Police Department’s Mounted Unit assigned to crowd control during the NATO and G-8 summits will be outfitted with riot gear, just like the officers riding them and those on the ground facing off against protesters, says the Chicago Sun-Times. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is soliciting bids for “police horse riot gear and training aids” in preparation for the May 19-21 summits expected to shine an international spotlight on Chicago.

The mounted unit has 30 horses, 30 officers and an annual budget of nearly $2.7 million.Police spokesperson Melissa Stratton said all 30 horses will be equipped with the new riot gear. She noted that the horses are “great crowd control tools” expected to provide “significant support to officers on the ground” during the summits. “This is not the first time we’ve had [riot] gear for the horses. [But] we are updating the equipment. We have had horses attacked in the past. If the horse is injured, it puts both the horse and the officer at risk. This equipment protects both the officer and the horse,” she said. An officer assigned to the Mounted Unit noted that some of the 30 horses “may not be street-ready” in time for the NATO and G-8 summits.

Detroit Cites Culture of Violence As Infant Dies in Gang Killing

Ted Gest — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:51:35 -0500

A toy Jeep lay among shards of broken glass in the front yard of a Detroit where a shooting left a 9-month-old boy dead and an outraged community searching for ways to stop the violence, reports the Detroit News. A woman said she was asleep in her home early yesterday when shots rang out. As her son dozed on a living room couch, bullets pierced windows and walls, striking the boy. The shooting was gang-related, said Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

The killing was the 43rd homicide in the city so far this year, up from 35 during the same period last year. It's also the second murder of a youngster in Detroit within the past three weeks. Said minister Malik Shabazz: "This culture of violence, the culture of individualism, the culture of me, myself and I must end. You're never going to resurrect Detroit until you deal with the culture of violence that exists within the people." Part of that culture is the "no snitch" attitude that has frustrated police investigating murders. Godbee said key people have refused to provide information about yesterday's killing.

Will Taser's New Tiny Police Camera Defuse Stun-Gun Controversy?

Ted Gest — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:37:34 -0500

Taser International is announcing a new a camera for police, a half-ounce unit about the size of a cigar stub that clips on to a collar or sunglasses of an officer and can record two hours of video during a shift, the New York Times reports. The information eventually is stored in a cloud-computing system that uses Taser’s online evidence management system. Taser has had its share of controversies over its electric-shock guns, which the firm says are used by 17,000 of the 18,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies.

The camera system, called Axon, is one way to defuse the controversies. Taser already has some 55,000 minicameras mounted on Tasers. But the camera is only triggered when the gun is drawn. It could do the same for police shootings. The video, however, would not capture the events leading up to that point and provides no context that might justify the weapon’s use. “One big reason to have these is defensive,” says Taser CEO Rick Smith. “Police spend $2 billion to $2.5 billion a year paying off complaints about brutality. Plus, people plead out when there is video.”

Indian Reservation Crimes 2 1/2 Times U.S. Average; DOJ Faulted

Ted Gest — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:08:55 -0500

Indian reservations long have grappled with chronic rates of crime higher than all but a handful of the nation’s most violent cities. The New York Times says the Justice Department, which is responsible for prosecuting the most serious crimes on reservations, files charges in only about half of Indian Country murder investigations and turns down nearly two-thirds of sexual assault cases, according to new federal data.

The 310 U.S. Indian reservations have violent crime rates that are more than two and a half times higher than the national average. American Indian women are 10 times as likely to be murdered than other Americans. They are raped or sexually assaulted at a rate four times the national average, with more than one in three having either been raped or experienced an attempted rape. The low rate of prosecutions for these crimes by U.S. Attorneys has been a longstanding point of contention for tribes, who say it amounts to a second-class system of justice that encourages lawbreaking. Prosecutors say they turn down most reservation cases because of a lack of admissible evidence.

Texas Rate of Medical Paroles Dropping Despite Calls to Save Money

Ted Gest — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:41:40 -0500

Despite calls to save money by releasing seriously ill and aging inmates, Texas’ parole board approves only a small portion of eligible prisoners, and the approval rate for this fiscal year is lower than usual, reports the Dallas Morning News. Inmate advocates and some fiscal conservatives cite cost savings as a reason to expand inmate medical releases. Parole board members and prosecutors say they concentrate on public safety, not cost. “We’re looking to see if that person, considering their medical condition, if they are a threat to society,” said Rissie Owens, chairwoman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Board members don’t know a prisoner’s medical care costs when making their decisions, she said. Along with the nature of the inmate’s crimes and ability for future criminal activity, the board looks at things like the prisoner’s degree of mobility, assistance needed for daily living, cognitive condition, and estimated life expectancy, Owens said. Prison officials and others couldn’t say why the rate of release approvals has dipped this year. Inmates who are terminally or seriously ill, who need long-term care or who are elderly, physically handicapped, mentally ill or mentally disabled may be eligible for the parole, technically called “medically recommended intensive supervision.” Prisoners who committed certain high-level crimes cannot be considered.