I’m suprised this even went to court – can’t they read the Illinois constitution?
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Friday that former Gov. George Ryan was within his authority in commuting the sentences of all prisoners on the state’s death row.
The governor may grant reprieves, pardons and commutations on his own terms, and the decisions are “unreviewable,” the court said. [New York Times]
David Gurley dodged the spiked strips officers set out to stop his speeding Buick — but three sheriff’s cars didn’t Monday morning and flayed their tires.
Even so, after fleeing police for almost an hour, Gurley wasn’t in the clear. The chase began, police said, after a deputy noticed the license plates on Gurley’s car didn’t match the vehicle.
Then ahead of Gurley on I-70 waited a truckers’ rolling roadblock, police reports said. In an effort to swerve around the big rigs, Gurley ended up mired in a Clark County field, where he was arrested at 5:30 a.m.
Gurley, 33, 3000 block of Forest Avenue, was brought back to Indianapolis after the chase. He is being held on $30,000 bail at the arrestee processing center, facing preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement, operating a vehicle with a suspended license and as a habitual offender, criminal recklessness, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia. [Indianapolis Star]
Trooper Scott A. Patrick, 27, was shot in the neck when he stopped to check a vehicle with flat tires on an expressway exit ramp in Gary, according to the Indiana State Police.
As Patrick approached the driver, who was walking away from the car, the man pulled a pistol and shot Patrick above his bulletproof vest, police said. Patrick died at North Lake Methodist Hospital in Gary.
[…]
Patrick was the 42nd trooper to die on duty since 1933 and the fourth Indiana police officer to die on the job this month. The last trooper killed on duty was Jason E. Beal, struck by a vehicle on Jan. 15, 2000, in Kosciusko County.
What a horrible tragedy… I would not want to be the person or persons that did this – the FBI is going to tear that town up to solve this.
Rest in Peace, Jonathan.
Federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna was stabbed 36 times in a furious fight for his life before drowning in a Pennsylvania creek, investigators said Friday as they worked to reconstruct his final hours.[MSNBC.
I don’t want much. I just want sentences to be tough, judges to be lenient where the circumstances require it – which shouldn’t be very often – and for serious crimes to get serious time.
I don’t believe in parole. Lock them up.
Last week, John Ashcroft, the tough-on-crime attorney general, gave federal prosecutors orders to all but eliminate plea bargaining with defendants and, almost without exception, prosecute the most serious charges they can prove.
Meanwhile, from Connecticut to California, legislatures and governors are, with a few exceptions, eagerly finding new ways to reduce, rethink or eliminate prison sentences for crimes within their jurisdictions.
The result is a somewhat contradictory national crime-fighting agenda: as the Ashcroft Justice Department demands the harshest prison terms and goes out of its way to track federal judges who do not give them, state lawmakers are openly advocating less time for the same crime and giving judges more discretion in choosing punishments. [New York Times]
Michael Moore is a communist. Why does anyone listen to him?
I will never spend a penny to watch this film – or any other film that he makes.
I just finished watching Bowling for Columbine. First, I wonder why the hell anyone ever talks to Michael Moore EVAR. [Kerri Hick’s Weblog]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Violent and property crimes dipped in 2002 to their lowest levels since records started being compiled 30 years ago, and have dropped more than 50 percent in the last decade, the Justice Department reported Sunday.
The annual survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics identified about 23 million crime victims last year, down slightly from the year before and far below the 44 million recorded when studies began in 1973.
The rate of violent crimes — rapes, robberies and assaults — was about 23 victims for every 1,000 U.S. residents 12 or older last year. That compares with 25 victims per 1,000 in 2001 and 50 in 1993.
For property crimes such as burglary and car theft, the rate was 159 crimes per 1,000 last year, down from 167 the previous year and 319 in 1993.
The study examined property and violent crimes except murder, which is measured separately by the FBI. Preliminary FBI statistics for 2002 released in June — based on reports from police across the country — reported a 0.8 percentage point rise in the murder rate compared with 2001.
The Justice Department survey, however, found continuing decreases in every major property and violent crime, crossing all household income, racial and ethnic lines. Crime is down in cities, suburbs and rural areas. [New York Times]