It was 4 o’clock in the morning. There was a tremendous noise coming from our front door. I jumped out of bed and saw a dark shadowed figure smashing my stained glass front door with a two-by-four from the wooden post of my neighbor’s mailbox.
I immediately told my wife to call 911, and I took a flashlight and my legally owned pistol and cautiously approached this wild individual. I shined the flashlight in his face and shouted, “You better get out of here or I’ll kill you.” Upon having that and seeing my pistol, he dropped the two-by-four and ran away.
I believe if I was not armed my wife and I would have been seriously injured or killed. The pistol saving us is the positive part of the story. The tragic part of this story is the criminal justice and mental system breakdown.
The police, upon arriving at my house, had this individual in the back of their cruiser. They had picked up this individual in our gated community. My wife was so devastated it took more than a year of special counseling to return to what may be called normal. The story does not end here.
Read more here.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
New victim advocate has at least one virtue
How typical that the opposition to Governor Malloy’s nominee to become state government’s victim advocate was based on what may have been his greatest qualification. That is, the nominee, Garvin Ambrose, an assistant prosecutor and legislative liaison for the state’s attorney’s office in Cook County, Illinois, represented that office before the Illinois legislature in opposing a “victims’ rights” amendment to the Illinois Constitution. Ambrose was approved last week by the General Assembly’s Legislative Nominations Committee but four members of the Republican minority voted against him in part because of the amendment issue.
A “victims’ rights” amendment was added to Connecticut’ Constitution in 1996 but it was just phony posturing. The amendment leaves “victim” to be defined by the legislature, perhaps because in the context of criminal justice the term is a misnomer to begin with. For in court nobody is a victim until a judgment is rendered; there are not victims but accusers. To designate a victim prior to a judgment is prejudicial and unconstitutional.
Read more here.
A “victims’ rights” amendment was added to Connecticut’ Constitution in 1996 but it was just phony posturing. The amendment leaves “victim” to be defined by the legislature, perhaps because in the context of criminal justice the term is a misnomer to begin with. For in court nobody is a victim until a judgment is rendered; there are not victims but accusers. To designate a victim prior to a judgment is prejudicial and unconstitutional.
Read more here.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Andre Thomas: Mental Health, Criminal Justice Collide
WARNING: This article contains violent and graphic descriptions.
Andre Thomas was the type of kid who could memorize entire Bible stories, who would shoot his eager hand in the air before his Sunday school teacher could even finish her question. He wanted to know how everything worked -- a "tinkerer," his dad called him -- constantly taking things apart just to figure them out.
The fourth of six brothers born to Rochelle Thomas in abject poverty in Sherman, Thomas performed well in school as a young boy despite a difficult home life. Neither Rochelle Thomas, nor his father, Danny Thomas, was around much, so he and his brothers often fended for themselves, spending much of their free time at the Harmony Baptist Church just down the street from their unkempt home, which often lacked electricity.
By the time he was in high school, Thomas was a talented artist, sketching intricate drawings of the cars he planned to design one day. "We definitely saw him doing great things," said Rachel Kallas, Thomas' sister-in-law, "but he definitely didn't go down that road."
Thomas, now 29, veered sharply down a different path, committing a brutal triple murder in 2004 that shook the quiet North Texas city of Sherman to its core and sent him to death row.
Read more here.
Andre Thomas was the type of kid who could memorize entire Bible stories, who would shoot his eager hand in the air before his Sunday school teacher could even finish her question. He wanted to know how everything worked -- a "tinkerer," his dad called him -- constantly taking things apart just to figure them out.
The fourth of six brothers born to Rochelle Thomas in abject poverty in Sherman, Thomas performed well in school as a young boy despite a difficult home life. Neither Rochelle Thomas, nor his father, Danny Thomas, was around much, so he and his brothers often fended for themselves, spending much of their free time at the Harmony Baptist Church just down the street from their unkempt home, which often lacked electricity.
By the time he was in high school, Thomas was a talented artist, sketching intricate drawings of the cars he planned to design one day. "We definitely saw him doing great things," said Rachel Kallas, Thomas' sister-in-law, "but he definitely didn't go down that road."
Thomas, now 29, veered sharply down a different path, committing a brutal triple murder in 2004 that shook the quiet North Texas city of Sherman to its core and sent him to death row.
Read more here.
Friday, February 15, 2013
School plot involving boys 10 and 11 vexes officials
The effort to prosecute two boys, ages 10 and 11, for allegedly bringing weapons to a Colville school in a plot to kill a classmate is posing legal challenges because the suspects are so young. The state's criminal justice system presumes that children below the age of 12 do not have the capacity to understand they are planning to commit crimes, Stevens County Prosecutor Tim Rasmussen said Thursday.
A judge can allow prosecutors to pursue criminal charges in juvenile court for children between the ages of 8 and 12, but only if prosecutors can show the youths understood the difference between right and wrong.
"Is it the kind of thing everyone would know is wrong?" Rasmussen said of the legal burden.
Read more here.
A judge can allow prosecutors to pursue criminal charges in juvenile court for children between the ages of 8 and 12, but only if prosecutors can show the youths understood the difference between right and wrong.
"Is it the kind of thing everyone would know is wrong?" Rasmussen said of the legal burden.
Read more here.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Rough justice: Victims had a bigger trial to face with Henderson
The right of a criminal to confront his accusers is fundamental in our criminal justice system. It's never easy on the victims, but the nature of such courtroom confrontations is rarely as harrowing as it was during the recent trial of Arthur Henderson.
The 39-year-old man was convicted Feb. 11 of raping three women in a three-day period in January 2012; two attacks occurred in Ross and one in Hopewell.
Rape cases can be particularly traumatic for victims, who must sit just a few feet from their attacker in a courtroom, repeat details of sexual violence in a public forum and, as often occurs, answer very personal questions intended to undermine their credibility and make them look bad.
Read more here.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Bills aimed at lowering criminal penalties
FORT WORTH -- State lawmakers are being asked to reclassify criminal offenses, including marijuana possession and prostitution, in an attempt to reduce the state's prison population and cut costs of appointed attorneys for poor criminal defendants.
The American Bar Association, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union say prison time should be removed as a punishment for some crimes, while others believe that an overhaul of the entire Texas Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure is long overdue.
Besides saving the cost of paying for someone to be held in prison, reclassification could save taxpayers money because county officials would not have to appoint attorneys for indigent residents charged with crimes because being held behind bars is not a punishment alternative.
"Throughout the 90s the whole philosophical bent was to put people in prison and throw away the key," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D- Fort Worth. "We have far too many people serving prison terms for nonviolent offenses instead of trying to become productive people in society. We can no longer afford to do this."
Read more here
The American Bar Association, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union say prison time should be removed as a punishment for some crimes, while others believe that an overhaul of the entire Texas Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure is long overdue.
Besides saving the cost of paying for someone to be held in prison, reclassification could save taxpayers money because county officials would not have to appoint attorneys for indigent residents charged with crimes because being held behind bars is not a punishment alternative.
"Throughout the 90s the whole philosophical bent was to put people in prison and throw away the key," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D- Fort Worth. "We have far too many people serving prison terms for nonviolent offenses instead of trying to become productive people in society. We can no longer afford to do this."
Read more here
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Mental Illness Soars In Prisons, Jails While Inmates Suffer
Armando Cruz tied a noose around his neck and hanged himself from the ceiling of his prison cell. He left a note that ended in two chilling words.
“Remember me.”
His mother Yolanda, who was shown the note after her son's death, wants to make sure no one forgets.
“They took away my only son,” she says, her voice breaking.
Cruz killed himself on Sept. 20, 2011, during his incarceration at California State Prison in Sacramento, after a long history of mental illness. His story, first reported by the blog Solitary Watch, is an example of how the criminal justice system is ill-equipped to handle people with mental health issues. Cruz spent years in solitary confinement and died while locked in a tiny solitary cell. The rates of suicide in solitary confinement tend to be higher than in the general prison population.
Read more here.
“Remember me.”
His mother Yolanda, who was shown the note after her son's death, wants to make sure no one forgets.
“They took away my only son,” she says, her voice breaking.
Cruz killed himself on Sept. 20, 2011, during his incarceration at California State Prison in Sacramento, after a long history of mental illness. His story, first reported by the blog Solitary Watch, is an example of how the criminal justice system is ill-equipped to handle people with mental health issues. Cruz spent years in solitary confinement and died while locked in a tiny solitary cell. The rates of suicide in solitary confinement tend to be higher than in the general prison population.
Read more here.
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