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In Louisiana, Odds of a Death Sentence 97% Higher If Victim is White

A recent study conducted by Professors Glenn Pierce and Michael Radelet published in the Lousiana Law Review showed that the odds of a death sentence in parts of Louisiana were 2.6 times higher for those charged with killing a white victim than for those charged with killing a black victim. The study examined 191 homicides in East Baton Rouge Parish between 1990 and 2008 involving a charge of first-degree murder.

Even after considering other variables such as the number of aggravating circumstances, the number of concurrent felonies and the number of homicide victims, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for those whose victim was black.

The authors of the study suggested that one reason why the victim’s race was an important factor was because “prosecutors’ offices, jurors, judges, investigating police officers, and others involved in constructing a death penalty case are (consciously or unconsciously) not as outraged or energized, on average, when a black is murdered as when a white is murdered.”

The authors said “death penalty cases are expensive, and choices need to be made on how often the death penalty can be sought and in which cases”and that “the social status of the victim and the family of the victim, including his or her race, increases [a case's] importance.”

Former Ohio Corrections Chief Calls for End of Death Penalty

Terry Collins, former director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, recently urged the state to replace capital punishment with life in prison without parole.

In an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch, Collins said he personally observed the execution of 33 men from 2001 to 2010, and questioned whether it was the right thing to do all 33 times: “Had all the reviews and appeals got this case right? Did the process make certain, absolutely, there was no mistake or error? I wondered that because I had previously walked people out of prison who were found not guilty after years of incarceration. What if we got it wrong for those we executed?”

Collins also addresses the high costs of the death penalty, both fiscally and those borne by victims’ families. He said, “An increasing number of families ask the state not to pursue the death penalty so that they are not faced with the painful task of attending appeals hearings, and so they can achieve closure. Life imprisonment without parole offers justice that is swift, certain, effectively severe and perhaps more sensitive to the needs of healing victims' families.”

Collins also noted that death sentences have drastically reduced since life without the possibility of parole became an option in Ohio, adding “Many in our society have deemed this alternative to be a reasonable measure and a way to keep Ohio communities safe, something every member of the law-enforcement community values. We can have confidence knowing that when necessary, we can safely incarcerate offenders for life.”

APD, AISD, Travis County Join Forces to Track Gang Members

From KVUE.com:

Local law enforcement has joined forces to keep tabs on gang members.

There are 1,000 documented gang members in the Austin Police Department's database.

Last spring a KVUE crew rode along with the gang unit to see just how the documentation process works. They look for nine criteria including tattoos, dress, or admission of membership. As the crew found out, it is not difficult to find.

Commander Chris Noble says if a person meets the criteria, their name is added into the system. He says gang membership is not a crime, but often the information collected leads to solving cases.

"There is a direct connection between gang membership and crime. So that gives us a place to start or assist in other investigations,” Noble said.

Currently, only a select few APD officers have access to the database. The people on it do not just live in Austin. Some walk the halls of our schools.

Just this week a juvenile judge sentenced a 15-year-old for the robbery and murder of an elderly Austin woman in a gang initiation. His accomplice, 17-year-old Jonathan Anthony Contreras, was a documented gang member.

"Prime example," Noble said. "That goes back to a curfew violation at school and gang membership."

It is why Noble is opening up the department's database to AISD gang officers and Travis County Sheriff's deputies.

A new software system called the CopLink Gang Tracker will make it happen. Every agency will be able to submit names.

Noble says having access to that information is critical.

"They may have a piece of the puzzle to a crime we may be looking for,” Noble said. “The quicker we can get a violent member off the street the better.”

The software will be up and running by the summer. Noble says other departments across the state are also getting the software. Pretty soon our local police may be able to connect to cities like Houston.

Need News From Egypt? Try Twitter:

Full article here:

Update: Egypt’s Internet is suffering major outages, the Associated Press is reporting. A major Internet provider in the country is saying no Internet traffic is going in or out of the country.

Protests in Egypt are expected to intensify with opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei’s return to Cairo, and reports of Twitter and Facebook being blocked inside the country by Egyptian authorities continue to surface through the social networks themselves, and according to HerdictWeb. Users are also reporting that SMS – short message service – is being blocked as well.

Though it does appear that both Twitter and Facebook are still being blocked, many users are bypassing the blocks through proxy servers and third-party apps. Here is how they’re doing it.
Mobile & Third-Party Apps

Social mobile applications like Blackberry for Twitter or UberTwitter are still working for users in the country. Also, users are employing third-party apps like TweetDeck and HootSuite to update their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

HootSuite Chief Technology Officer Simon Stanlake said that though prior users are able to access Twitter and Facebook from their site, new users wouldn’t be able to authenticate new accounts because it requires hitting Twitter.com. He said their iPhone application doesn’t require a web authentication, so new HootSuite users are accessing the site through their mobile app.

Defense says Police Burned W. Pa. Drug Evidence

(AP) - A federal public defender wants drug charges thrown out against a Pittsburgh woman, claiming local authorities mistakenly burned more than 14,000 stamp bags of heroin in evidence.

Senior U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond gave public defender Marketa Sims two weeks to file motions on behalf of 31-year-old Tiona Jones after a hearing Tuesday.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the case turns on whether city detectives saw the drugs bulging out of Jones’ purse during a May 2008 traffic stop or whether police found the drugs in Jones’ closed purse during a search Sims claims was illegal.

Sims says the drugs were destroyed because city police and Allegheny County prosecutors mistakenly believed the case had been closed when, in fact, it had simply been taken over by federal prosecutors.

2011 NDIA National Conference

This year the 2011 NDIA National Conference will be held at:

The Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency
21500 Pacific Coast Highway
Huntington Beach, California 92648
Telephone: 714/698-1234
Fax: 714/845-4990
http://www.huntingtonbeach.hyatt.com/

Expert: Public Defenders More Effective In Representing Poor Defendants

From WBUR:

Gov. Deval Patrick wants to overhaul the public defenders system in Massachusetts. Currently, the state pays private attorneys to represent indigent defendants. They’re hired under the Committee for Public Counsel Services, in the judicial branch.

Patrick is proposing a new state agency under the executive branch. It would be called the Department of Public Counsel Services, which would hire 1,000 staff attorneys.

Anthony Benedetti, head of the public counsel services committee, opposes the idea. He said the issues associated with the new plan are far greater than just whether full-time public defenders are less educated or skilled than their private counterparts.

“Not the cream of the crop. I’m talking about meeting minimal constitutional requirements. All you need to do is Google ‘public defender’ and look at what has been going on around the country, and in state after state you have systems which are underfunded, public defenders who are overworked, and so they are not able to provide effective representation,” Benedetti said.

Radha Iyengar, who teaches at the London School of Economics, joined Morning Edition Tuesday to compare public defender systems across the country. She said the findings show that public defenders are more effective in representing indigent defendants.

“The findings are, in summary, that public defenders are better able to secure shorter sentences, better negotiate pleas and in general seem to produce quicker outcomes for their clients than do their contract attorney’s counterparts,” Iyengar said.

New Report Regarding Effect on Bail on Low Income People

When a person is arrested, usually a bail is set at an initial appearance or arraignment. What happens if the person cannot afford the bail? He or she remains incarcerated for weeks, months, even years while the case is prepared. The Human Rights Watch recently issued a report that includes some interesting statistics and information that can be of use when challenging pretrial detention:

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice, 62 percent of the nation's jail population consists of unconvicted detainees, and in the nation's 75 largest counties, 37 percent of felony defendants are held on bail until case disposition.[48] The Pretrial Justice Institute estimates it costs $9 billion annually to incarcerate defendants held on bail.

Texas: DNA Evidence Clears Man After 30 Years

From the New York Times:

Thirty years after Cornelius Dupree Jr. was imprisoned for rape and robbery, prosecutors in Dallas declared him innocent on Monday in light of new DNA evidence. Mr. Dupree, 51, has served more years in a Texas prison for a crime he did not commit than any of the other 41 people exonerated in the state in recent years. In 1980, Mr. Dupree was convicted along with a second man, Anthony Massingill, of robbing a couple and then kidnapping and raping the woman. But DNA tests completed last year on traces of semen showed that neither man committed the rape. Mr. Dupree was released on parole last summer, weeks before the DNA tests were done. Mr. Massingill, who was convicted in another sexual assault, remains in prison.

Washington Death Penalty Assistance Center

Washington Death Penalty Assistance Center exists primarily to support attorneys defending capital cases in Washington. The Center does not represent individual clients. The Center has a substantial volume of information on the practicalities of capital defense, briefing on legal issues, mitigation investigation, expert consultants and witnesses, and will try to help with the myriad of legal, ethical, and strategic challenges that may arrise for counsel�in the course of defending a capital case.

In addition to Center Director, Katie Ross, who has spent a large part of her thirty years of practice representing clients in death penalty cases, the Center is able to put counsel in touch with other colleagues who have experience in all phases of capital lititgation for informal discussions and the airing of ideas.

Attorneys involved in defending capital cases are encouraged to contact WDPAC by calling or e-mailing Katie Ross, Director, (206) 447-3900, ext. 774, e-mail: WDPAC@AOL.COM.

Tragedy in Arizona: Complaint Filed By United States Attorney

Everyone is still reeling in the shock of the events of Saturday morning where a gunman attempted to kill U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords while she was at a Safeway Store in Tucson, Arizona presenting a "Congress on your Corner" event, and did kill Chief Judge John Roll, Giffords' staff member Gabriel Zimmerman, a nine year old girl, and three other people as well as injuring several others. The United States Attorney's Office has filed a five-count complaint against Jared Lee Loughner. The press release from the US Attorney's Office is available here.

Also of interest in these tragic events is the press conference held by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik who denounced the "vitriolic rhetoric we hear day in and day out" and the effect it is having on our youth. Here is the video: