Will Russia Reinstate the Death Penalty?
Published November 02, 2009 @ 08:14PM PT
Russia is at a crossroads on capital punishment.
Ten years ago, the Russian Constitutional Court introduced a moratorium on death sentences until the country made the switch to the jury system. The country's leaders also pledged to abolish the practice as they were joining the Council of Europe, and the jury delay was seen as a step toward abolition.
The switch to juries is nearly complete, and human rights advocates and death penalty abolitionists are watching Russia's next steps on capital punishment.
The CSI Effect, Fact or Fiction?
Published November 02, 2009 @ 06:39AM PT
The overwhelming popularity of crime and forensics TV shows like CSI, Law & Order and NCIS is having a profound impact on how our society views crime, but the storied effect of these shows on juries may be a myth.
A new study shows that watching these shows leads us to drastically overestimate the frequency of violent crime in our country.
The new research, from Purdue University, finds that frequent TV crime viewers estimated that the number of murders was 2-3 times higher than it is in reality. But true-crime junkies also think cops and lawyers are everywhere. They guessed that each group made up more than 16 percent of the American workforce. They're really less than one percent each.
So how does this altered perception of crime translate to the courtroom?
Our Morally Unacceptable Criminal Justice System
Published November 01, 2009 @ 03:31PM PT
In an excellent new article in the New York Review of Books, author and law professor David Cole delivers a broad, thoughtful condemnation of the American criminal justice system as grossly inefficient and morally unacceptable. This piece should be required reading for members of Congress and state lawmakers.
Looking at new books by three leading thinkers on these issues, Cole focuses much of his story on the glaring racial disparities in our prison system and the role of race and socioeconomic inequality in our government's refusal to act. “If white male babies faced anything like such prospects, the politics of crime would look very different,” he writes.
Let the Naked Pumpkinheads Run
Published October 31, 2009 @ 08:16AM PT
It's Halloween hysteria in Boulder.
Police in the idyllic Colorado city have said they are committing to stopping tonight’s 11th annual naked pumpkin run. And if anyone insists on running naked through the street with a pumpkin on their head, the cops will charge all participants as sex offenders.
The run sounds silly and it’s surely offensive to some - but it’s a prank (or, to those inclined to give a big benefit of doubt, it's performance art). For a decade now, drunk college students and other Boulderites sprint through the city's downtown in their birthday suits, with a pumpkin on their head. It’s scheduled for 11 p.m. so there won’t be (many) kids around. Adults can handle seeing their neighbors anonymous and naked. To invoke the sex offender registry is beyond ridiculous.
The Boulder city council, the mayor and the local district attorney have all expressed concern with the police plan. The ACLU, of course, advocates for the right of runners to run. One lawyer -- maybe stretching just a bit -- compared the anticipated police action to recent events in Tehran.
This story makes the problems with our sex offender registry system as clear as can be. The Boulder police don't think the pumpkin runners are dangerous criminals, they're using the tools at their disposal to prevent an event they don't like. And this is a pervasive problem with the registry --for example, this post shows how countless kids are now on the registry for "Romeo and Juliet" or show-me-yours-I'll-show-you-mine incidents.
Penn. Court Tosses 6,500 Juvenile Convictions After Scandal
Published October 30, 2009 @ 07:31AM PT
It was one of the most upsetting, egregious judicial corruption stories in recent memory. Two former Pennsylvania judges are awaiting trial for allegedly accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from private detention facilities to convict juveniles and send them to be incarcerated.
To Pennsylvania's credit, though, the state is taking appropriate action to rectify the damage caused by these evil, greedy former judges -- Michael Conahan (left) and Mark Ciavarella (right). The state supreme court yesterday dismissed thousands of convictions heard by Ciavarella. A juvenile justice advocacy group said more than 6,500 juveniles were affected and most won't be retried.
Smart on Crime in North Carolina
Published October 30, 2009 @ 06:19AM PT
A few years ago, the West End neighborhood of High Point, North Carolina, had a serious crime problem. Drug dealers controlled entire blocks, gun shots rang out at night. But now the streets are safer. Violence is down. And locals say a targeted, community-based approach to drugs and crime brought the change they needed.
A great story last week in the Economist checks in on High Point and finds solid evidence that the 'smart-on-crime' approach works.
High Point Police Chief Jim Fealy tells the Economist that his department did the normal thing for years, where officers would “come rolling in like an occupying army" and descend upon West End's rough blocks. It didn't work.
On Judicial Diversity, I'm with Clarence
Published October 29, 2009 @ 07:16AM PT
In a talk last week at the University of Alabama, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he wants to see more diversity (geographic diversity, at least) on the Supreme Court, and presumably, on lower courts throughout the land.
"My goal is to have a court that is fair, and I think it's fair when we are fair in selecting people from all parts of the country, from all walks of life," Thomas said. He went on to say that he prefers to hire clerks from modest backgrounds.
It's an odd sentiment to hear from the mouth of an outspoken opponent of affirmative action.
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