CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER FACES FEDERAL CHARGES IN SHOOTING

A Chicago police officer is facing federal criminal charges for shooting two black teenagers in 2013, when he fired into a stolen car that was moving away from him in an incident that was recorded on video.

An indictment filed on Thursday and made public on Friday charges Officer Marco Proano with two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, each one carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Both of the teenagers who were shot survived. Video of the encounter, captured by a dashboard camera in the officer’s squad car, became public last year as part of a criminal case against another teenager in the car, after the city had declined to release it.

The Fraternal Order of Police, which has defended Officer Proano’s conduct, declined to comment. In a statement, the Chicago Police Department asserted that it would “have zero tolerance for proven misconduct,” and noted that the officer “was relieved of his police powers last year.”

The Supreme Court has held that the police may not use deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect unless the person poses an imminent threat.

The shooting was one in a string of events that have inflamed relations between the police and the black community in Chicago as police and political leaders have struggled to improve their damaged reputations while fighting a surge in violent crime. The most notorious case was the 2014 death of Laquan McDonald, 17, who was shot 16 times by a Chicago officer, including several rounds fired after he had fallen. He was holding a knife, but was not moving toward the officer, and did not appear to be near enough to pose a threat."

NO PROBABLE CAUSE LEADS TO BAD ARREST

From the DMN:
“Avi Adelman, a photojournalist and prominent Dallas blogger, is suing Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the transit agency police officer who arrested him as he took photos of paramedics responding to a medical emergency in a public plaza.

Adelman spent almost a day in jail in February after DART police Officer Stephanie Branch arrested him for criminal trespass as he photographed paramedics responding to a reported drug overdose in Rosa Parks Plaza downtown. The charges were dropped weeks later.

A subsequent DART police internal affairs investigation concluded that Adelman was within his rights to photograph the incident because he was not interfering, that Branch did not have probable cause to arrest him and that she also entered “false and improper information” in her report of the arrest.

A DART spokesman said the agency had not seen the lawsuit filed Thursday and could not comment. The internal affairs investigation sustained all six complaints against Branch stemming from Adelman’s arrest, but it has not been determined how she’ll be disciplined.”

 

IS THE DEATH PENALTY SLOWLY DYING OUT?

Executions may hit 25-year low.

ASSISTING SUICIDE LEGALIZED

In many states assisting a suicide is a crime.  From the New York Times:
"California is one of five states where terminally ill people may legally receive assistance to end their lives. Oregon became the first to provide the option in 1997."

"The [California] law, which took effect on June 9, allows terminally ill adults to obtain a prescription for life-ending medication if a doctor has determined they have no more than six months to live."

NEGATIVE VIEW ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

 See this article.  Have we rushed in too quickly to legalize marijuana?

TX ACCOMPLICE TO FELONY MURDER TRYING TO AVOID EXECUTION

JEFF WOOD CASE FROM TEXAS

According to the Texas Tribune:  https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/11/texas-plans-execute-jeff-wood-who-never-killed-any/

“Early on Jan. 2, 1996, Jeff Wood sat in a truck outside a Kerrville gas station while his friend Daniel Reneau went inside to steal a safe said to be full from the holiday weekend, according to court documents. When the clerk, Kriss Keeran, didn’t comply or respond to threats, Reneau shot him dead.

Reneau was sentenced to death and executed in 2002. On Aug. 24, Wood’s own execution is scheduled. He was sentenced to death under Texas’ felony murder statute, commonly known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing.

[It might be more accurate to say that Wood was sentenced to death on the basis that he was an accomplice to a felony murder for which the death penalty is an authorized punishment.  See Texas Penal Code sections 7.01, 7.02, 12.04, 12.31, 19.03  9(a)(2), 29.03). See also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule#United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule_(Texas)

Activists and Wood’s lawyers are scrambling to try to stop his execution.

I’m not aware of another case in which a person has been executed with as minimal participation and culpability as Jeff,” said Jared Tyler, Wood’s lawyer. “It’s a national first in that regard if the state does actually execute him.”

In the current efforts to keep Wood out of the death chamber, however, the law of parties plays only a small role.” [There are other issues they are arguing that they hope will save  him from the death penalty.]

” The Death Penalty Information Center has confirmed 10 cases — five from Texas — in which a person was executed under state felony murder statutes such as Texas’ law of parties. That’s less than 1 percent of all executions since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated in the United States.

Critics of the law of parties say the state shouldn’t be allowed to execute people who never killed anyone.”

 

EIGHTH AMENDMENT, DEATH PENALTY AND THE TISON BROTHERS

With regard to the constitutionality of the death penalty for an accomplice to a felony murder,

“The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not prohibit imposing the death penalty for felony murder. The Supreme Court has created a two-part test to determine when the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for felony murder. Under Enmund v. Florida,^[1] the death penalty may not be imposed on someone who did not kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place. However, under Tison v. Arizona,^[2] the death penalty may be imposed on someone who was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life.”  [courts have held that the death penalty for Wood does not violate the 8th Amend.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_and_the_death_penalty_in_the_United_States

There is a film about the Tison case, starring Robert Mitchum as the father of the three sons, two of whom survived and who were sentenced to death as accomplices in the father’ murder of innocent hostages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Killer_in_the_Family

An outstanding book on the prison escape, murder and Tison brothers is The Last Rampage. 

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Rampage-Escape-Gary-Tison/dp/0816519676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471108800&sr=1-1&keywords=Tison+brothers

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in this case.

Spoiler, the death sentences of the two surviving Tison brothers  (Ricky and Raymond)were later reduced to life sentences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tison_v._Arizona

 

S

JEFF WOOD CASE FROM TEXAS

According to the Texas Tribune:  https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/11/texas-plans-execute-jeff-wood-who-never-killed-any/

“Early on Jan. 2, 1996, Jeff Wood sat in a truck outside a Kerrville gas station while his friend Daniel Reneau went inside to steal a safe said to be full from the holiday weekend, according to court documents. When the clerk, Kriss Keeran, didn’t comply or respond to threats, Reneau shot him dead.

Reneau was sentenced to death and executed in 2002. On Aug. 24, Wood’s own execution is scheduled. He was sentenced to death under Texas’ felony murder statute, commonly known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing.

[It might be more accurate to say that Wood was sentenced to death on the basis that he was an accomplice to a felony murder for which the death penalty is an authorized punishment.  See Texas Penal Code sections 7.01, 7.02, 12.04, 12.31, 19.03  9(a)(2), 29.03). See also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule#United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule_(Texas)

Activists and Wood’s lawyers are scrambling to try to stop his execution.

I’m not aware of another case in which a person has been executed with as minimal participation and culpability as Jeff,” said Jared Tyler, Wood’s lawyer. “It’s a national first in that regard if the state does actually execute him.”

In the current efforts to keep Wood out of the death chamber, however, the law of parties plays only a small role.” [There are other issues they are arguing that they hope will save  him from the death penalty.]

” The Death Penalty Information Center has confirmed 10 cases — five from Texas — in which a person was executed under state felony murder statutes such as Texas’ law of parties. That’s less than 1 percent of all executions since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated in the United States.

Critics of the law of parties say the state shouldn’t be allowed to execute people who never killed anyone.”

 

EIGHTH AMENDMENT, DEATH PENALTY AND THE TISON BROTHERS

With regard to the constitutionality of the death penalty for an accomplice to a felony murder,

“The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not prohibit imposing the death penalty for felony murder. The Supreme Court has created a two-part test to determine when the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for felony murder. Under Enmund v. Florida,^[1] the death penalty may not be imposed on someone who did not kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place. However, under Tison v. Arizona,^[2] the death penalty may be imposed on someone who was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_and_the_death_penalty_in_the_United_States

There is a film about the Tison case, starring Robert Mitchum as the father of the three sons, two of whom survived and who were sentenced to death as accomplices in the father’ murder of innocent hostages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Killer_in_the_Family

An outstanding book on the prison escape, murder and Tison brothers is The Last Rampage. 

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Rampage-Escape-Gary-Tison/dp/0816519676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471108800&sr=1-1&keywords=Tison+brothers

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in this case.

Spoiler, the death sentences of the two surviving Tison brothers  (Ricky and Raymond)were later reduced to life sentences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tison_v._Arizona

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most controversial substantive criminal law issues is gun rights (Second Amendment) vs. the need for more gun control.  See this post at
http://crimelawandjustice.blogspot.com/2016/08/polarization-on-gun-contol-v-gun-rights.html