Pursuances

Fraud losses cost each UK adult £621 a year, according to the National Fraud Authority (NFA). [22 January 2010] The total cost of fraud losses to the …

New figures released for last summer have revealed that the risk of being a victim of crime fell to 22%. [22 January 2010] The British Crime Survey (B…

Mystery novels by Ian Rankin, Belinda Bauer, Ian Sansom and James Thompson.

Mystery novels by Ian Rankin, Belinda Bauer, Ian Sansom and James Thompson.

Criminal justice reformers: If you were troubled by President Obama nominating then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the announcement of her first notable opinion for the Supreme Court offers no solace.

Sotomayor was a vigorous prosecutor before joining the federal bench. As a trial judge, she handed down more convictions and longer sentences than her colleagues. Serving on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sotomayor sided with prosecutors the vast majority of the time. But as a justice, reformers still wondered, how would she adjudicate criminal cases?

Today, as the Supreme Court releases Justice Sotomayor’s majority opinion in Wood v. Allen, we have the beginning of an answer. In Wood, the defendant shot and killed his girlfriend while she slept. Before the Alabama trial for his crime, he scored below 70 on a preliminary IQ test. In other words, Wood likely was developmentally disabled, which — if introduced as evidence — might have prompted a jury to recommend a more lenient sentence. Among Wood’s three public defenders, two were veteran attorneys, and one was rookie lawyer fresh out of law school. And it was this fledgling defense attorney, having never handled a capital case, who presented Wood’s case during the sentencing phase of the trial.

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Criminal justice reformers: If you were troubled by President Obama nominating then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the announcement of her first notable opinion for the Supreme Court offers no solace.

Sotomayor was a vigorous prosecutor before joining the federal bench. As a trial judge, she handed down more convictions and longer sentences than her colleagues. Serving on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sotomayor sided with prosecutors the vast majority of the time. But as a justice, reformers still wondered, how would she adjudicate criminal cases?

Today, as the Supreme Court releases Justice Sotomayor’s majority opinion in Wood v. Allen, we have the beginning of an answer. In Wood, the defendant shot and killed his girlfriend while she slept. Before the Alabama trial for his crime, he scored below 70 on a preliminary IQ test. In other words, Wood likely was developmentally disabled, which — if introduced as evidence — might have prompted a jury to recommend a more lenient sentence. Among Wood’s three public defenders, two were veteran attorneys, and one was rookie lawyer fresh out of law school. And it was this fledgling defense attorney, having never handled a capital case, who presented Wood’s case during the sentencing phase of the trial.

Read the rest of this entry »

Brothers aged 10 and 12 are being sentenced for torturing and threatening to kill two boys. [21 January 2010] The brothers led their victims to an iso…

WOODBRIDGE — Mayor John E. McCormac will announce plans to expand single-stream recycling to the entire township and tout a 22 percent drop in crime during today’s annual State of the Township address to the Chamber of Commerce, according to a draft of the speech obtained by the Home News Tribune.

Porterville’s crime rate in 2009 reached lows not seen since at least 2005. According to statistics released by the Porterville Police Department on Tuesday, five year lows were reached in the number of homicides, assaults, burglaries, thefts and…

Another round of stormy weather hit the Bay Area today, with heavy rain and winds gusting up to 60 mph in some places. High winds are expected until at least noon, along with occasional lightning, said Brian Tentinger, a forecaster with the National Weather…