Outgoing Mississippi Governor and putative candidiate for president Haley Barbour opened the gates of the prisons in Mississippi and pardoned a bunch of people. Barbour granted conditional and unconditional pardons.
Rumpole says: Our number one complaint against the american justice system is the length of sentences. Our second complaint is the utter lack of hope any inmate has for a reduction of his/her sentence. Rehabilitation for those serving ten or twenty years or beyond is meaningless to an inmate who has little incentive to anything. The liberal use of pardons for those who earn it is a very good start.
Just before the new year the Becker-Posner blog tackled the question of whether America imprisons too many of its citizens. It's worth a read. From Judge Posner's post:
Some statistics: the incarceration rate had been 118 per 100,000 in 1950, and actually fell in 1972 to 93 per 100,00. By 2000 it had reached 469 and only since the advent of the economic crisis has it begun to decline as states try to reduce expenditures. Between 1950 and 2000 the white imprisonment rate increased by 184 percent and the black imprisonment rate by 355 percent; today 40 percent of prison and jail inmates are black, although blacks are only 13 percent of the overall population. Even though the U.S. crime rate fell by a third in the 1990s (and by two-thirds in many large cities)— the murder rate by more than 40 percent—the inmate population continued growing during this period, an increase that cannot be explained by population growth, since the population grew by much less than a third in the 1990s.
TRISCADECAPHOBIA
Today is Friday the 13th. Did you know the original plans for the REGIB included thirteen floors? *
The number 13 is the sixth prime number. It is also a fibonacci number. Thirteen turns are required to make a hangman's noose. And there were thirteen disciples at the last supper. Dan Marino wore number thirteen as did Shaq in the 1996 olympics.
Roy Black on the use of snitches and the federal cooperation scheme.
Anybody in trial on anything good?
Cold front coming. It's already hit Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Philly. Meanwhile its a toasty sixty in Denver and much of the midwest.
See You In Court.
*Not really, but it sounds interesting.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble. Congressman John Lewis
JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG
WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.
29 comments:
First! Its been a long week. When can Icall the shumie for this three day weekend?
As Ron Paul sez, The Govt has no right NOR Reason to criminalize personal drug use ( outside of DUI). Stop locking up guys ( almost all poor, most black) for use or possession of drugs. Stop protecting people from drugs by making them convicted felons and imprisoning them.
Tax recreational drugs. Like Alcohol Prohibition, the War on Drugs has FAILED. It has only created organized crime. Those 25 arrested Thursday in Dade for hydroponic labs are just urban farmers.
DS
From http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/01/12/justice-stevens-grades-his-predecessor/
Justice Stevens saves his greatest ire, however, for Justice Douglas’s most famous opinion, Griswold v. Connecticut, which in 1965 struck down a ban on sale of contraceptives to married couples. The ruling is based on a constitutional right of privacy Justice Douglas inferred from “penumbras” and “emanations” from “specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights.”
“It’s a terrible opinion,” Justice Stevens says, fueling “a perception that the court was making up a lot of stuff out of whole cloth.”
Justice Stevens says the outcome was correct, but should have been based instead on the 14th Amendment’s due process clause—an approach advanced at the time in the concurring opinions of Justices John Marshall Harlan and Byron White.
Had the majority “correctly analyzed the liberty interest in the 14th Amendment, they would have written a much more straightforward opinion in the contraceptive case,” he says, “and also would have written a much better opinion in Roe against Wade,” the 1973 opinion recognizing abortion rights
DS..........Are you telling us that Miami judges are locking up your clients for simple possession on a regular basis? Are you telling us that Miami judges are adjudicating turning your clients into convicted felons on simple possession cases? Really? If that's true than they need a different lawyer.
Then only people in Miami getting locked up for simple possession are those with mile long rap sheets (other than your clients, apparently). The only people being turned into felons on simple possession are those who have been arrested time and again (excepting your clients, of course).
BTDT
Dear Barrister of Ballantrae:
I played your golf course in Port St. Lucie and it was a great track.
BTDT
Yes to your questions. Even CTS represents time in custody at almost $100 a day ( in Dade). And yes guys get convicted. To get out with 21 days CTS and adjudication is an outrage for something as simple as possession or purchase.
For Me even sales should be legal and Taxed. All that can be grown w/ out import should be legal and that imported drugs only the importer should go to prison, NEVER Users or Possessors nor Buyers.
Dont waste your time trying to convinve me to change my mind. Nothing in a Quarter Century at MJB has shown me otherwise.
Bad Laws that the People disrespect and constantly ignore undermines respect for the Law.
Please dont say than Robbers and Murders say the samething, Cause laws against Robbery and Murder are not bad, but Good Laws that the Public respects .
DS
ST at 2:23! I'm outta here. Long weekend baby.
PS \
BTDT
The wrongness of Drug Laws are not wiped out by the fact clients have priors. Even guys with long rap sheets should not be arrested for possession, use, purchase. The fact that they have lots of Drug and nuicense crimes as priors does not justify continuing enforcing wrong head, bad, laws that create organize crime and punish everyday people for getting high.
Only Driving While Impared should be illegal and related types of crimes ( Planes, Firearms, Boats).
DS
DS.......I'm not taking issue with your position on legalization (I disagree, but it's all good and we'll never convince each other). I'm just having a very difficult time believing that your clients are being CTS'd (adjudicated) on simple possession charges and/or going to prison on simple possession charges when all I see are withholds for first and even second time offenders (and no prison time, rare jail time for multiple offenders).
BTDT
Jeezee...I'm a pD working till 5. Can't call the shumie before 4 I object.
No limit texas holdem is the cadillac of poker. And if there wasn't a river, there wouldn't be any fish, eh? Am I right Rumpole? Right?
A pro can batch a bad card, go on tilt and lose every chip they have.
Like Papa Wallenda said- "life is on the wire. The rest is just waiting."
hey Rumpole .... when are you back out here in Truckee? the snow is getting good right about now...
Lay back with a wee bit of Drambuie, and consider this foolishness
On Florida's West Coast,
The Naples Dailey News reports that : The Lee County Sheriff's Office reports that Dana Robert St. John of North
Fort Myers died of injuries suffered after crashing the 2007 Yamaha motorcycle
on Wednesday evening.
Lee deputies report St. John had just purchased the motorcycle and it had
been delivered to his residence earlier that day. It is believed he had no
formal training or previous experience on any type of motorcycle before
attempting to ride it in front of his home.
St. John drove the motorcycle over the roadway in front of his home and back
into his yard before striking his own home near the front door. The impact
caused him to be vaulted from the motorcycle and to strike his head against the
home. St. John was not wearing a helmet and the impact caused him to sustain
serious head trauma that proved to be fatal. St. John was transported to Lee
Memorial hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
As Amarillo Slim often said: You can shear a sheep many times, Rump, but skin him only once. eh, am I right or am I right?
What about all the police manpower, time and money being wasted on all those buy-bust operations? Or where the cops watch a seller deal to numerous buyers and only arrest the buyers? Ridiculous! I've also been a defense attorney in the REG bldg for 20 years, and yes a lot of convictions being given for mere possession. That also suspends drivers license, which leads to DWLS, and inevitably to HTO DWLS. The cops would have a lot more resources to focus on violent crime if drugs were decriminalized.
BTDT
First time Withhold, One Day Probation, Second time Adjudication, Third time 60 to 90 days and Adjudication or maybe inhouse long term treatment, it goes up from there in 2-10. How I miss Pinero and Margolius. If those two and I can see things similarly, at least on this isue, then perhaps I do have a point, or a string or a membrane. But then again.....
Open up its Dave
No Dave's not here...
DS
A few observations:
DS does not work. Instead he is always posting on the blog. Maybe that's why his clients get shit offers on drug cases?
But that does not make DS wrong. He's correct. The drug laws are fucking insane. Legalize it.
DS
60 to 90 on a third possession? LOL. You pissing off the your judge and prosecutor? That never happens.
You're a good lawyer, I ain't buying it.
BTDT
Definitely ST now. At Monty's and lots of young sexy female la students. Lord these tight jeans make my head spin with they show a little bit of stomach.
Target rich environment.
to hold em hal
you know what makes me feel better
rolled up aces over kings and check raising stupid tourists
Why I just had breakfast at the Jax Diner the other day.
Legalize pot, tax it and regulate it a la alcohol. While I haven't smoked it in years (I'm in my early 40s), I'd say at least 80% of the people I know have used it. Even Newt Gingrich has admitted to toking up at least a few times.
Many cops think marijuana busts are a waste of time. One retired cop told me that, other than some stoners trying to drive, he never had a problem with someone who was high on pot. Only problem was they laughed and were hungry. Let the police spending their time stopping violent crime and catching violent criminals who truly deserve to be in jail or prison.
Don't like pot? Don't smoke it. I think it should be legalized (a la booze and cigarettes), but I wouldn't use it if it were.
wow rump ... i thought i saw you at JAX at the TRACKS. don't you love the crab cakes and sweet potato fries? best in Truckee ... next time i am going to come over to say hi. miami needs a place like JAX ... maybe in the Justice Bldg. --- do you want to go partners? you, me and kenny w.?
Yum Yum 25 million Gallons a Day; Care for a Dip in the Ocean?
Report: Sewage pipe in sorry shape.
Miami-Dade’s plan to replace an aging sewage main below Government Cut is on hold after analysis found pipe sections are dangerously brittle.
An aging pipeline carrying 25 millions gallons of raw sewage a day under Government Cut has at least three sections so brittle that a consultant has warned Miami-Dade County that it could potentially rupture under normal working conditions.
Read more :www.miamiherald.com
Up in West Palm
The Herald reports: An 83-year-old man was sentenced to 21 years in prison Friday morning for the October 2010 beating death of his 77-year-old longtime girlfriend.
That's the sentence Assistant State Attorney Andrew Slater asked Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp for this morning, reiterating the argument he made to jurors in Infosino's case that the former attorney had acted out of rage on the morning he killed his companion.
Infosino's attorney Michael Schutt asked Rapp for a sentence that would allow the ailing Infosino to live with his sister. Schutt said an impairment with one of Infosino's feet requires surgery to amputate it, but his heart is so weak that doctors believe he would die if they operated.
Who's the new creep on the blog?
Another yo-yo.
Out in Las Vegas for the CES. I'll say this for the people at the show- they are intelligent, motivated and for the most part conscious of their appearance and health. And even though Las vegas is known as a city of excess consumption, the spas and he exercise rooms are more than adequate and I saw lots of people exercising. And as for those bloated fools in the casinos pumping coins into machines as they smoke while their oxygen tanks are at their side on wheels, you can pretty much ignore them. Like creatures, they stay in their cages for the most part. You don't see them at the better restaurants out here. I am sure they are wallowing in the all you can eat buffets which thankfully are no longer the only places to eat in Vegas.
As for the CES, there are loads of new health related electronics coming out. Many forms of person computer devices that measure all sorts of metrics while you exercise. From heat rate to calories to METS, I even saw some that measured blood sugar and one that you blow into and it measures max 02 rates.
All in all there's still hope for us.
Violent offenders should have marijuana smoking as a special condition of probation to mellow them out.
New Blogger contributes little to the blog. Is he the really old public defender who wears bugs bunny ties?
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