CrimProf Blog

Money for future Dallas DNA testing lost in Madoff scandal

Panic ensued at the Innocence Project of Texas when a powerful Wall Street investor was arrested this month and accused of swindling investors out of $50 billion.

One of the organizations that had invested with Bernard Madoff was the JEHT Foundation, which funds post-conviction DNA tests for Dallas County inmates who claim they are innocent. Without the funding, the Innocence Project would be faced with trying to raise capital in a bad economy and those seeking tests could face indefinite delays, if the testing could be done at all.

Panic ensued at the Innocence Project of Texas when a powerful Wall Street investor was arrested this month and accused of swindling investors out of $50 billion.

One of the organizations that had invested with Bernard Madoff was the JEHT Foundation, which funds post-conviction DNA tests for Dallas County inmates who claim they are innocent. Without the funding, the Innocence Project would be faced with trying to raise capital in a bad economy and those seeking tests could face indefinite delays, if the testing could be done at all. [Mark Godsey]

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Feds consider searches of terrorism blogs

Homeland Security Department may soon start scouring the Internet to find blogs and message boards that terrorists use to plan attacks in the USA.

The effort comes as researchers are seeing terrorists increasingly use the Internet to plan bombings, recruit members and spread propaganda. "Blogging and message boards have played a substantial role in allowing communication among those who would do the United States harm," the department said in a recent notice.

Homeland Security officials are looking for companies to search the Internet for postings "in near to real-time which precede" an attack, particularly a bombing. Bombings are "of great concern" because terrorists can easily get materials and make an improvised-explosive device (IED), the department said.

"There is a lot of IED information generated by terrorists everywhere — websites, forums, people telling you where to buy fertilizer and how to plant IEDs," said Hsinchun Chen, director of the University of Arizona's Artificial Intelligence Lab. Chen's "Dark Web" research project has found 500,000,000 terrorist pages and postings, including tens of thousands that discuss IEDs.

Chen and others aren't sure how helpful blogs and message boards will be in uncovering planned attacks.

"I just can't envision a scenario where somebody posts to a message board, 'I'm getting ready to launch an IED at this location,' and the government will find that," said terrorism analyst Matt Devost. A lot of postings about attacks are "fantasy, almost role-playing," Devost said.

Internet searches are used routinely by government agencies, such as the Defense Department, in gathering intelligence, said Chip Ellis of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.

The searches use methods similar to a Google query and can be helpful in uncovering the latest IED technology, Ellis said.

Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American Scientists, praised Homeland Security for "trying to develop innovative approaches" and said its effort would not jeopardize privacy because the department would be scanning public websites. [Mark Godsey]

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How To Prosecute a Shoe-Thrower

Muntadar al-Zaida, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George W. Bush, will stand trial Dec. 31, the BBC reported Monday. He's being charged with "aggression against a foreign head of state," which carries a prison term of between five and 15 years. If a reporter here in the United States flung his footwear at, say, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, would he do time?

This editorial page has been uncompromising in its criticism of the Bush administration's flouting of international and domestic law. The administration was wrong to evade courts in seeking warrantless surveillance of Americans, wrong to establish the Guantanamo Bay detention center, heinous in its acceptance of torture. But we are wary of either the criminal prosecution of administration officials or some South-Africa-style process.

The former model is reminiscent of the Watergate scandal, in which several officials -- including President Nixon -- broke identifiable criminal statutes by obstructing the investigation of a burglary motivated by partisan politics. From there, of course, Watergate expanded into a web of criminal violations, from break-ins to the use of the IRS to punish political enemies of the Nixon White House. It's conceivable that individuals in the Bush administration violated criminal law. But if they did so as part of a post- 9/11 response to terrorism, it would be all but impossible to prosecute them successfully.

Besides, the scandal of the Bush administration wasn't a matter of individual, politically motivated violations of law. Rather, it was a systemic failure to take seriously the spirit as well as the letter of this country's commitment to the humane treatment of prisoners or the privacy rights of Americans secured by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

That's a failure in which Congress must share culpability with the administration. It was the administration that, with the help of compliant legal counsel, rationalized the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, humiliation and the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners of war and suspected terrorists. But, as the vice president argued recently, Congress at first either acquiesced in, or offered muted objections to, the administration's policies. That the failures were collective rather than individual makes them no less appalling, but it does suggest that a criminal prosecution will not remedy them. [Mark Godsey]

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Border Patrol grows and so do concerns

Shortly after riding a U.S. Border Patrol dune buggy in Arizona's high desert 2½ years ago, President George W. Bush initiated a beefed-up border-security policy that some say has infringed on civil liberties -- and led to crackdowns around Port Angeles and Bellingham.

"We want our borders shut to illegal immigrants, as well as criminals and drug dealers and terrorists," declared Bush, who ordered the Border Patrol to hire 6,000 more agents by the end of this year.

In Blaine, at the U.S.-Canada border, the Border Patrol has nearly quadrupled in size -- from about 50 agents eight years ago to about 190 today. It's using its wealth of manpower to throw up roadblocks on highways and search buses dozens of miles from the nearest border.

They're searching for terrorists, drug dealers and illegal immigrants, a mission the Border Patrol says it has the right to do within 100 miles of the border. In Western Washington, that means roadblocks could be set up at least as far south as Seattle.

Agents make daily checks on the Olympic Peninsula of an intercity bus line at its Discovery Bay stop, said Mike Bermudez, a supervisory agent and spokesman.

"The agents ask everyone on the bus what their citizenship is," he said. "No one on the bus but the driver can escape that question."

The owner of the bus line has no problem with the patrol boarding his buses.

"They're very good at what they do," said Olympic Bus Lines President Jack Heckman, who hasn't heard any complaints. "They come on the bus, announce who they are. It does not delay us at all."

The patrol had been questioning bus passengers sporadically for years, Heckman said, but now "it's at least a weekly occurrence."

It's unclear how effective the tactic is at stopping terrorists. The patrol refuses to release any information about such arrests or investigations, citing national security considerations.

Eight undocumented people have been arrested as a result of bus boardings on the Olympic Peninsula since fall 2007, Bermudez said. In Bellingham, 13 people have been arrested in bus and train boardings during the same period.

Roadblocks, which the patrol calls "tactical traffic checkpoints," have garnered more arrests. [Mark Godsey]

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Jewish group leader complains about Rubashkin treatment

A leader of one of the country’s most prominent Jewish groups complained to the U.S. attorney general Wednesday about the treatment of a former Iowa meatpacking executive.

The complaint centers on the government’s decision to deny bail to Sholom Rubashkin, the longtime leader of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Ia.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote a letter about the case Wednesday to Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Foxman complained about prosecutors’ successful argument that Rubashkin should be denied bail, partly because as a Jew, he is eligible for Israeli citizenship.

Prosecutors have noted that Israel has a “Law of Return,” which allows Jews from around the world to settle there.

Rubashkin is facing federal charges of bank fraud and conspiring to hire undocumented workers at the plant. Foxman stressed that his organization has no position on the facts of that case. But he asked Mukasey to “set clear policy” for federal prosecutors, saying that they should not use the Law of Return as a reason to deny bail to Jews.

“The Law of Return is not ‘de facto’ citizenship for Jews in Israel, and it should not be used to hold Jewish defendants who do not exhibit some credible threat of flight to Israel,” Foxman wrote. “It is unconstitutional to argue in this – and in future cases – that Jewish defendants are to be held to a different standard of detention than non-Jewish defendants.”

Foxman said people of Irish or Indian ancestry also could seek citizenship in their families’ homelands. He said that fact should not be held against them, either.

Justice Department spokespeople were not available for comment Wednesday afternoon. Federal prosecutors have denied that their argument is unconstitutional.

They say they have legitimate reasons to fear Rubashkin could flee to Israel if released from jail. They note that two other former Agriprocessors managers, one of whom is Jewish, are believed to have done so.

Federal Magistrate Jon Scoles agreed with prosecutors and has ordered Rubashkin jailed until his trial, which is set for September. [Mark Godsey]

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Is the Bush administration criminally liable for its lawlessness?

Whatever its other legacies, the Bush administration will be remembered for its contemptible disregard for the law in the post-9/11 war on terrorism. From the wiretapping of Americans without a court order to the waterboarding of suspected terrorists to the refusal to abide by the requirements of the Geneva Convention, many of the administration's policies can fairly be described as lawless.

But were they also criminal? Should officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, be put on trial, either in a court of law or in a forum like South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission? As the Bush administration nears its end, calls for such a reckoning are coming from civil libertarians and some supporters of President-elect Barack Obama. Some even argue that President Bush should be indicted.

This editorial page has been uncompromising in its criticism of the Bush administration's flouting of international and domestic law. The administration was wrong to evade courts in seeking warrantless surveillance of Americans, wrong to establish the Guantanamo Bay detention center, heinous in its acceptance of torture. But we are wary of either the criminal prosecution of administration officials or some South-Africa-style process.

The former model is reminiscent of the Watergate scandal, in which several officials -- including President Nixon -- broke identifiable criminal statutes by obstructing the investigation of a burglary motivated by partisan politics. From there, of course, Watergate expanded into a web of criminal violations, from break-ins to the use of the IRS to punish political enemies of the Nixon White House. It's conceivable that individuals in the Bush administration violated criminal law. But if they did so as part of a post- 9/11 response to terrorism, it would be all but impossible to prosecute them successfully.

Besides, the scandal of the Bush administration wasn't a matter of individual, politically motivated violations of law. Rather, it was a systemic failure to take seriously the spirit as well as the letter of this country's commitment to the humane treatment of prisoners or the privacy rights of Americans secured by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

That's a failure in which Congress must share culpability with the administration. It was the administration that, with the help of compliant legal counsel, rationalized the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, humiliation and the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners of war and suspected terrorists. But, as the vice president argued recently, Congress at first either acquiesced in, or offered muted objections to, the administration's policies. That the failures were collective rather than individual makes them no less appalling, but it does suggest that a criminal prosecution will not remedy them. [Mark Godsey]

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New NYPD system alerts officers on the mentally ill

A day after the NYPD used a stun gun on an emotionally disturbed man, Iman Morales, volunteers meticulously cleaned blood from the sidewalk. Morales died when he fell from the second floor ledge in Brooklyn. (Newsday Photo / Ari Mintz / September 25, 2008)

The New York Police Department has a new alert system that lets officers know if they are responding to locations where police have previously been sent to deal with the mentally ill, an initiative sparked by the fatal 2007 shooting of a man who confronted officers with a broken wine bottle.

Under terms of the month-old initiative, a 911 dispatcher handling a "triggering incident" -- anything from a "shots fired" call to an assault in progress -- checks the address to see if it has been the scene of three previous incidents involving an emotionally disturbed person in the preceding 365 days, according to an internal NYPD order.

If so, the dispatcher tells responding officers about the previous incidents and sends to the scene an ambulance and the Emergency Service Unit, whose officers are best-trained to deal with the mentally ill.

A police patrol supervisor, who is usually armed with a portable Taser, is also sent to the scene. [Mark Godsey]

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As Economy Dips, Arrests for Shoplifting Soar

Recently laid off from a job building trailers in Elkhart, Ind., Mr. Johnson came up a dollar short at Martin’s Supermarket last month when he went to buy a $4.99 bottle of sleep medication. So, “for some stupid reason,” he tried to shoplift it and was immediately arrested.

“I was desperate, I guess,” said Mr. Johnson, 25, who said he had never been arrested before. As the economy has weakened, shoplifting has increased, and retail security experts say the problem has grown worse this holiday season. Shoplifters are taking everything from compact discs and baby formula to gift cards and designer clothing.

Police departments across the country say that shoplifting arrests are 10 percent to 20 percent higher this year than last. The problem is probably even greater than arrest records indicate since shoplifters are often banned from stores rather than arrested.

Much of the increase has come from first-time offenders like Mr. Johnson making rash decisions in a pinch, the authorities say. But the ease with which stolen goods can be sold on the Internet has meant a bigger role for organized crime rings, which also engage in receipt fraud, fake price tagging and gift card schemes, the police and security experts say.

And as temptation has grown for potential thieves, so too has stores’ vulnerability.

“More people are desperate economically, retailers are operating with leaner staffs and police forces are cutting back or being told to deprioritize shoplifting calls,” said Paul Jones, the vice president of asset protection for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

The problem, he said, could be particularly acute this December, “the month of the year when shoplifting always goes way up.”

Two of the largest retail associations say that more than 80 percent of their members are reporting sharp increases in shoplifting, according to surveys conducted in the last two months.

Compounding the problem, stores are more reluctant to stop suspicious customers because they fear scaring away much-needed business. And retailers are increasingly trying to save money by hiring seasonal workers who, security experts say, are themselves more likely to commit fraud or theft and are less practiced at catching shoplifters than full-time employees are.

More than $35 million in merchandise is stolen each day nationwide, and about one in 11 people in America have shoplifted, according to the nonprofit National Association for Shoplifting Prevention.

“We used to see more repeat offenders doing it because of drug addiction,” said Samyah Jubran, an assistant district attorney in Knoxville who for 13 years has handled the bulk of the shoplifting cases there. “But many of these new offenders may be doing it because of the economic situation. Maybe they’re hurting at home, and they’re taking a risk they may not take otherwise.” [Mark Godsey]

Continue Reading "As Economy Dips, Arrests for Shoplifting Soar"

Is the Bush administration criminally liable for its lawlessness?

Whatever its other legacies, the Bush administration will be remembered for its contemptible disregard for the law in the post-9/11 war on terrorism. From the wiretapping of Americans without a court order to the waterboarding of suspected terrorists to the refusal to abide by the requirements of the Geneva Convention, many of the administration's policies can fairly be described as lawless.

But were they also criminal? Should officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, be put on trial, either in a court of law or in a forum like South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission? As the Bush administration nears its end, calls for such a reckoning are coming from civil libertarians and some supporters of President-elect Barack Obama. Some even argue that President Bush should be indicted.

This editorial page has been uncompromising in its criticism of the Bush administration's flouting of international and domestic law. The administration was wrong to evade courts in seeking warrantless surveillance of Americans, wrong to establish the Guantanamo Bay detention center, heinous in its acceptance of torture. But we are wary of either the criminal prosecution of administration officials or some South-Africa-style process.

The former model is reminiscent of the Watergate scandal, in which several officials -- including President Nixon -- broke identifiable criminal statutes by obstructing the investigation of a burglary motivated by partisan politics. From there, of course, Watergate expanded into a web of criminal violations, from break-ins to the use of the IRS to punish political enemies of the Nixon White House. It's conceivable that individuals in the Bush administration violated criminal law. But if they did so as part of a post- 9/11 response to terrorism, it would be all but impossible to prosecute them successfully.

Besides, the scandal of the Bush administration wasn't a matter of individual, politically motivated violations of law. Rather, it was a systemic failure to take seriously the spirit as well as the letter of this country's commitment to the humane treatment of prisoners or the privacy rights of Americans secured by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

That's a failure in which Congress must share culpability with the administration. It was the administration that, with the help of compliant legal counsel, rationalized the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, humiliation and the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners of war and suspected terrorists. But, as the vice president argued recently, Congress at first either acquiesced in, or offered muted objections to, the administration's policies. That the failures were collective rather than individual makes them no less appalling, but it does suggest that a criminal prosecution will not remedy them. [Mark Godsey]

Continue Reading "Is the Bush administration criminally liable for its lawlessness?"

NYPD's "Operation Impact" Credited with Success in Tough Precincts

Along Linden Boulevard in East New York, the officers of Operation Impact patrol the Pink Houses with all the rigor of a military patrol, a clannish band of partners whose uniforms shout authority even when they do not speak.

They tread the maze of eight-story buildings, inspect the interior staircases, aim their flashlights into the nighttime darkness of rooftops and — on a recent frigid night — coat their lips with layers of ChapStick.

The police officers in this outpost in the eastern end of Brooklyn are part of a mini crime-suppression operation, one reliant on money, manpower and labor. They are the tip of the New York Police Department’s crime-fighting spear.

“We feel really proud of the job we’re doing here,” Officer Kevin Martinez, 24, said as he walked his beat in the Louis H. Pink Houses, a public housing project of 1,500 apartments in 22 buildings.

“When they see us here, they feel safe,” he said.

A similar story can be told in 19 other precincts using Operation Impact, the broad anticrime program devised by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, in which rookie officers join with supervisors to flood the city’s toughest neighborhoods. By focusing on such high-crime plateaus, the Police Department is poised to end another year with even less overall crime.

Yet a stormy economy is not receding.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is tightening budgets and warning of tough financial times. Joblessness is up. Homicides have increased slightly; after dropping to 496 last year — the lowest number in more than four decades — the city hit that number last week. By 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the city had 502 homicides, the police said.

At the same time, the Police Department, with 94 percent of its $4 billion operating budget devoted to personnel costs, is facing budget reductions of $45.4 million for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends in June, and $167 million in the 2010 fiscal year. On top of that, City Hall wants the department to find ways to save $285.7 million more.

After the next cut is made, the Police Department’s uniformed force will have shrunk by 4,400 officers, from a peak strength of 40,800 in 2001. The incoming Police Academy class in January will have 250 recruits; the department had previously anticipated hiring 1,100. An additional 1,100 officers set to graduate on Dec. 30 will join the 1,300 officers already in Operation Impact posts — effectively doubling their strength.

But if promotions and retirements create dangerous shortfalls in some precincts, some Impact officers may have to be moved to other spots, Mr. Kelly said. “We’ve had contracting and expanding numbers of cops in Impact, so the concept will remain,” the commissioner said in an interview last week. “But the numbers may vary.”

When asked if New York could ever return to crime levels seen in the late 1980s, he said: “Never. We’d never let that happen.”

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

Actor Lillo Brancato Acquitted of Felony Murder

A slain cop's sister cried junk justice last night after a Bronx jury acquitted actor-turned-junkie Lillo Brancato of murdering Officer Daniel Enchautegui.

"I'm disappointed, I'm disappointed," a shocked Yolanda Rosa said. "What message is this sending out to the New York City police officers today?"

Rosa said she was baffled that Brancato was found guilty only of trying to burglarize his buddy's house - the crime that sparked the confrontation that left her brother dead.

"Oh my God," Rosa said. "I waited three long years for this. ... It's wrong."

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said Brancato was just as guilty as his accomplice, Steven Armento, who shot Enchautegui at point-blank range.

"This would not have happened if not for this animal's drug habit," said Lynch. "The only good thing is that this skunk is not walking out to spend Christmas with his family. The sad part is that neither is Daniel."

Brancato, 32, faces from 3-1/2 to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 9, and prosecutor Terry Gottlieb said she will ask for the max.

"He's going to jail for a very long time," Gottlieb said.

Don't count on it, countered Brancato's lawyer Joseph Tacopina, who said his client has already spent three years in jail awaiting trial and could walk with time served.

"The worst is behind Mr. Brancato," he said. "He's very relieved."

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

How Effective is Drug Rehab?

Their first love might be the rum or vodka or gin and juice that is going around the bonfire. Or maybe the smoke, the potent marijuana that grows in the misted hills here like moss on a wet stone.

But it hardly matters. Here as elsewhere in the country, some users start early, fall fast and in their reckless prime can swallow, snort, inject or smoke anything available, from crystal meth to prescription pills to heroin and ecstasy. And treatment, if they get it at all, can seem like a joke.

“After the first couple of times I went through, they basically told me that there was nothing they could do,” said Angella, a 17-year-old from the central Oregon city of Bend, who by freshman year in high school was drinking hard liquor every day, smoking pot and sampling a variety of harder drugs. “They were like, ‘Uh, I don’t think so.’ ”

She tried residential programs twice, living away from home for three months each time. In those, she learned how dangerous her habit was, how much pain it was causing others in her life. She worked on strengthening her relationship with her grandparents, with whom she lived. For two months or so afterward she stayed clean.

“Then I went right back,” Angella said in an interview. “After a while, you know, you just start missing your friends.”

Every year, state and federal governments spend more than $15 billion, and insurers at least $5 billion more, on substance-abuse treatment services for some four million people. That amount may soon increase sharply: last year, Congress passed the mental health parity law, which for the first time includes addiction treatment under a federal law requiring that insurers cover mental and physical ailments at equal levels.

Many clinics across the county have waiting lists, and researchers estimate that some 20 million Americans who could benefit from treatment do not get it.

Yet very few rehabilitation programs have the evidence to show that they are effective. The resort-and-spa private clinics generally do not allow outside researchers to verify their published success rates. The publicly supported programs spend their scarce resources on patient care, not costly studies.

And the field has no standard guidelines. Each program has its own philosophy; so, for that matter, do individual counselors. No one knows which approach is best for which patient, because these programs rarely if ever track clients closely after they graduate. Even Alcoholics Anonymous, the best known of all the substance-abuse programs, does not publish data on its participants’ success rate.

“What we have in this country is a washing-machine model of addiction treatment,” said A. Thomas McClellan, chief executive of the nonprofit Treatment Research Institute, based in Philadelphia. “You go to Shady Acres for 30 days, or to some clinic for 60 visits or 60 doses, whatever it is. And then you’re discharged and everyone’s crying and hugging and feeling proud — and you’re supposed to be cured.”

He added: “It doesn’t really matter if you’re a movie star going to some resort by the sea or a homeless person. The system doesn’t work well for what for many people is a chronic, recurring problem.”

In recent years state governments, which cover most of the bill for addiction services, have become increasingly concerned, and some, including Delaware, North Carolina, and Oregon, have sought ways to make the programs more accountable. The experience of Oregon, which has taken the most direct and aggressive action, illustrates both the promise and perils of trying to inject science into addiction treatment.

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

States putting criminal records online

Worried your daughter's new boyfriend might have a nefarious past? Want to know whether the job applicant in front of you has a rap sheet?

Finding out can be a mouse click away, thanks to the growing crop of searchable online databases run directly by states. Vermont launched its service Monday, and now about 20 states have some form of them.

The Web sites provide a valuable and time-saving service to employers and businesses by allowing them to look up criminal convictions without having to submit written requests and wait for the responses. And they're popular: Last month alone, Florida's site performed 38,755 record checks

But the Internet debut of information historically kept in courthouses in paper files can magnify the harm of clerical errors, expose states to liability for mistakes and spell new headaches for people who've long since done their time, only to have information about their crime bared anew.

"It's unfortunate in that it threatens what I see as the uniquely American ideal of being able to start over, after you've paid your penance, to go to a new community without the blemish of your crime and starting a new life," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based group focused on civil liberties online.

Vermont's system, which costs $20 to query one person's records, includes information on criminal convictions dating to the 1940s. It taps into the Vermont Criminal Information Center database used by law- enforcement agencies, which state officials claim has fewer mistakes than courthouse records or the data sold by private information brokers working off those records.

All you need to make an inquiry is a person's name and date of birth, and a credit card to pay the fee.

If the query finds a record, the system lists the date of conviction, charge, sentence and venue. It won't show the original charge filed, or give information about the victim or the circumstances of the crime.

Also inaccessible, according to officials, are records that have been expunged or sealed. And people can report mistakes in the records on them and ask for changes.

Allen Gilbert, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Vermont chapter, opposed the state's move, in part because it sets up a two-tiered system of records - one set at the courthouse and another online. The online system gives only a slice of information about the cases, he said. [Mark Godsey]

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Is Texas Changing Its Mind About the Death Penalty?

Texas has executed prisoners with a regularity and in record numbers that has earned the state worldwide attention. But, while Texas still led the U.S. in executions in 2008, juries in the state appear to have began to turn away from the ultimate punishment even for the most heinous crimes.

Ten men and one woman were sentenced to death in Texas in 2008, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. It was the lowest annual figure since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. Texas handed out more than 20 death sentences in each of 2003 and 2004. In 2005, the number fell to 14, and it has not risen above that annual figure since. "The need for revenge, for vengeance is being curbed, the appetite is no longer there," contends Robert Hirschorn, a nationally known Texas attorney and jury consultant who has helped pick juries for many prominent clients, including, most recently, millionaire real estate mogul Robert Durst, who was found not guilty of killing and dismembering his neighbor. 

"The tide has changed," Hirschorn says. "It used to be fashionable to say, 'I support the death penalty.' It used to be unfashionable to say, 'I am against the death penalty.'"

Nationwide, and particularly in Texas, anti-death penalty sentiment has usually been centered on college campuses and within the Catholic Church, Hirschorn says, but is expanding beyond those communities — a trend he sees reflected in his jury questionnaires as well as in nationwide political polls.

The number of people sentenced to death has been falling nationally since a peak of about 300 a year in the 1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, to 115 people in 2007. The reduction comes as more states, such as New York, New Jersey and Illinois have passed death penalty moratoriums; while some, like Maryland, are considering whether to abolish executions altogether. [Mark Godsey]

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Facial recognition software gives Pierce County help in tough cases

The forgery and theft case had victims, a witness and decent surveillance images from an ATM. What it didn't have were any leads on who committed the crime. But instead of being tossed aside, as happens in so many property crime cases, the ATM images were e-mailed to Steve Wilkins at the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

Wilkins, the department's forensic services supervisor, picked the clearest image and used new facial recognition software to compare it with 16 years' worth of prisoner mug shots taken at the Pierce County Jail.

Within 15 minutes he'd found a match.

Detectives followed the new lead and eventually arrested Susan Bennett, who was charged in October with 11 crimes in connection with the ATM thefts. She pleaded guilty Dec. 11 and was sentenced to 9 1/2 years. Half of that will be served in prison, and half in community custody under Department of Corrections supervision.

The match was the first for the Sheriff's Department's six-month pilot project with Sagem Morpho Inc.'s new facial recognition software, MorphoFace.

The computer program runs with Hollywood-like ease and, with a click of a button, compares a suspect's image with a database of thousands of known Pierce County offenders.

"It's really cool," said Wilkins, who wants to buy the final version of the software when it hits the market in January and add it to his forensic tools.

Detectives and Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers officials are revisiting unsolved bank robberies, ATM scams and other crimes that have good surveillance images to see whether the program can crack the cases. [Mark Godsey]

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Crime increases in some areas as economy fails

Nothing about the failed bank robbery here earlier this month was ordinary.

The suspect, a 51-year-old woman, does not fit the typical criminal profile. The weapon, a crudely assembled fake bomb — a tangle of wires protruding from a handbag — is not often a weapon of choice. And the demand, $50,000, was relatively modest by some criminal standards.

The only thing about it that seemed to make sense to local Police Chief Robert DeMoura was Maria Oliva's explanation when she was caught a short distance from Rollstone Bank & Trust.

Frustrated by her inability to find a job, DeMoura says, Oliva told police she was pushed to the breaking point. The chief is not defending her alleged act, for which she has been charged. Yet it is only the latest in a rising number of offenses in this small northern Massachusetts city that DeMoura links to the failing economy.

Crime analysts differ over whether an economic downturn always precedes increasing crime. Since summer, when the first financial giants started to fall on Wall Street, law enforcement officials have been tracking domestic violence and property offenses — robbery, burglary and theft — for signs of trouble.

In the past 2½ months, Fitchburg has been hit by 22 robberies, an unprecedented number for any similar time period in a city where, the chief says, three or four robberies a month are the norm. Some of the targets have been stores where offenders have taken food and clothing in addition to money.

Thefts from cars have jumped by 164 from last year and car thefts have more than doubled. "This is something we've never seen before," the chief says. "There has to be some correlation" to the economy. [Mark Godsey]

Continue Reading "Crime increases in some areas as economy fails"

Man gets 13 months for molesting son

A former roving carnival worker will spend 13 months in prison for molesting his adult son, who has such severe mental and physical disabilities that he couldn't tell anyone what was happening to him.

Robert Lee Hutchinson, 41, had faced up to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of gross sexual imposition in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Neal Bronson said he gave consideration to Hutchinson's lack of a prior criminal record and that he had stepped forward to admit his guilt, as Hutchinson's lawyer, A. Aaron Aldridge, pointed out.

But Bronson said he also was concerned that "if other victims were as helpless" as this victim, it would be unlikely for anyone to know about any other possible prior offenses.

He also said he understood the sentiments of the victim's mother, who told the court that no amount of prison time would be sufficient for Hutchinson.

"I really wish (the victim) could speak out and tell you all how he feels...I just don’t feel 18 months is enough…and I don’t want to ever see Robert around Warren County again as long as I’m here," the victim's mother told Bronson.

Assistant Prosecutor John Arnold said he wished the law had allowed for more charges against Hutchinson. He had argued for the maximum sentencing, saying that evidence supported only one lower-level charge, largely because of the victim's inability to talk.

Hutchinson was charged after the victim's mother walked into a room in her Morrow home and witnessed the molestation on Sept. 14.

"We don’t have a victim that’s able to tell this court that he was harmed by this defendant on multiple occasions," Arnold said.

Further, Arnold said that Hutchinson "admitted that he got sexually turned on by looking at children" during his job as a carnival ride operator but denied ever touching children. [Mark Godsey]

Continue Reading "Man gets 13 months for molesting son"

Mistrial For Third Suspect In NYPD Murder Case

A mistrial has been declared in the case against Lee Woods for the murder of a police officer and for wounding his partner during a routine traffic stop, CBS 2 HD has learned.

Woods was the last of three men tried for their separate roles in the incident.

A juror in the trial fell ill last week during deliberation. That juror was unable to return.

At the beginning of the trial, the defense had stipulated that no alternate would be used while the jury had begun deliberating.

As a result, the judge declared a mistrial. The DA will go ahead with a new trial, and those involved will return to court on January 14.

Prosecutors argued Woods, Robert Ellis and Dexter Bostic acted as a team to shoot Officer Russel Timoshenko and now-Detective Herman Yan because they were caught with a stolen SUV and with illegal weapons in the vehicle. Prosecutors said Bostic shot and killed Timoshenko, Ellis simultaneously hit Yan, and Woods was the driver.

Bostic was convicted Friday of aggravated murder and attempted murder, days after his co-defendant Ellis was acquitted on those charges.

After deliberating two days, jurors convicted Bostic on those counts and on three counts of criminal weapons possession. He is facing life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Feb. 22.

Three separate juries heard the case because the men made statements implicating each other. [Mark Godsey]

Continue Reading "Mistrial For Third Suspect In NYPD Murder Case"

Andrew D. Leipold Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Illinois College of Law

Professor Andrew Leipold, the Edwin M. Adams Professor of Law, graduated summa cum laude in Public Relations from Boston University. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of Order of the Coif and Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, he served as clerk to Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to Justice Lewis Powell, Jr., of the United States Supreme Court. He then worked for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia.

Since joining the faculty in 1992, Professor Leipold has been voted Outstanding Faculty Member eight times, and received the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching in 2000. Most recently, he served for two and one-half years as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He has been a Visiting Professor at Boston College Law School and Duke University School of Law, where he was recognized with a Distinguished Teaching Award.

On October 1, 2007, Professor Leipold was appointed to a three-year term on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Professor Leipold recently completed Volume 1 and Volume 1A of Federal Practice & Procedure: Criminal, set for publication from West in Spring, 2008.

Professor Leipold writes in the area of criminal law and procedure, and has served as a consultant to the Illinois Criminal Law Reform Commission, the Governor’s Truth in Sentencing Commission, and the Office of the Independent Counsel for the Whitewater Investigation. His most recent publication is entitled, "The Impact of Joinder & Severance on Federal Criminal Cases: An Empirical Study" (59 Vanderbilt Law Review). In 2005, he published "How the Pretrial Process Contributes to Wrongful Convictions" (42 American Criminal Law Review 1123), "Why are Federal Judges So Acquittal Prone" (83 Washington University Law Quarterly 151), "The Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment" (Heritage Foundation Guide to the Constitution), "Strategy and Remorse in Capital Trials"(80 Indiana Law Journal 47) and Volumes 1 and 1A in Federal Practice and Procedure: Criminal (3d ed.). His essay, "The Limits of Deterrence Theory in the War on Drugs," was published in a symposium issue of The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice at the University of Iowa, and he authored a chapter in Controversial Issues in Criminal Justice and Criminology. Other articles include "The Problem of the Innocent, Acquitted Defendant" (94 Northwestern University Law Review 1297, 2001), and "Constitutionalizing Jury Selection in Criminal Cases" (86 Georgetown Law Journal 945, 1998).

In August 2002, Professor Leipold delivered invited lectures—“Organized and White Collar Crime,” and “Introduction to American Criminal Procedure”—at the Ministry of Justice, Brasilia, Brazil, and at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. [Mark Godsey]

Final arguments for release of 911 call set for Monday

A Madison police detective testified Friday that release of the Brittany Zimmermann 911 call would jeopardize the search for her killer, though a public safety expert countered that release of such information typically helps solve homicides.

Madison detective John Summers said the recordings are evidence in the Zimmermann homicide case. Therefore there is "no question" they should not be released, Summers said.

Public disclosure could lead people to come forward and give false confessions using details they learn in the media, Summers said.

Such false confessions are "not unusual" and already have occurred during the investigation of the Zimmermann case.

Summers also suggested the killer might use the audio recording as a "trophy" and he reiterated concerns expressed by the Zimmermann family about how release of the recording could be traumatic to all victims of tragedy.

He said media coverage has led to "horrible publicity" that "has not been beneficial to this case." He also said release of the audio might discourage people from calling 911.

Attorneys representing the media organizations suing the county hired William Gaut, a Florida-based consultant with 24 years experience as a Birmingham, Ala., police officer who had investigated over 1,000 homicides, though none since 1995.

Gaut testified that contrary to popular belief, law enforcement experts have found sharing more information with the public can help find a killer, particularly in cases that haven't been solved within a few days.

"Any particular piece of evidence that comes out in the course of an investigation will never jeopardize a case," Gaut said. "The more information you give to the public … the higher the rate of success." [Mark Godsey]

Continue Reading "Final arguments for release of 911 call set for Monday"