Shawn Thorpe
Michael Minor is chief deputy secretary of the Division of Juvenile Justice at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It’s his job to help shape the future for this department that’s potentially on the budget chopping block. KALW’s Holly Kernan spoke with Minor about what the role of the Division of Juvenile Justice.
CDCR
Sodium thiopental is one of three drugs used in California's lethal injection procedure.
The Federal District Court in Washington D.C. today ruled that execution drugs obtained by U.S. prisons from foreign suppliers are illegal and will have to be returned to the Food and Drug Administration.
A number of states purchased sodium thiopental–an anesthetic used in lethal injections–from a company in the United Kingdom amidst a U.S. shortage of the drug in 2010. California is among those states, having bought 514.5 grams, in theory, enough for 171 executions.
By Nicole Jones
Last week, three UC Berkeley students an alumnus were issued orders to stay away from the UC Berkeley campus when not attending class. The orders come after thousands participated in an Occupy Cal protest last year, resulting in dozens of arrests.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Seeman issued stay away orders for 8 of the 13 protesters arrested on the November 9 protest. Most of 13 were charged with resisting arrest and obstructing a public place and a few were charged with battery on an officer.
Over the weekend, Pasadena Police shot and killed a burglary suspect. Meanwhile, the dead suspect’s alleged conspirator is being held on suspicion of felony murder–in connection with his co-suspect’s death. Here’s the description of the incident from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:
The incident began when an unidentified victim was robbed at gunpoint by two suspects near a taco truck at Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard, the lieutenant said.
Pasadena police officers responding to the scene spotted McDade, who was running north on Fair Oaks, Ibarra said. The officers, who were not identified, tried to detain him.
“The suspect put his hands in his waistband at some point,” Sanchez said. “Both officers fired striking the suspect.”
No weapon was found at the shooting scene Sunday, though police continued combing the area, Ibarra said.
McDade was taken to a local hospital where he died, according to police and coroner’s officials. A second suspect, identified as a 17-year-old Pasadena boy, was arrested nearby without incident.
The teen was booked on suspicion of murder under the legal theory that he committed a felony that resulted in the death of a co-suspect, Ibarra said.
California’s felony murder rule allows a suspect to be charged with murder if a death happens during the commission of a felony–whether or not the person charged anticipated or directly caused the death. Apparently, it’s been invoked before in the case of officer-involved shootings. For example, in 1984 in the case of People v. Caldwell at the California Supreme Court, justices determined that two men involved in a police shootout could be charged with felony murder after one of their accomplices was killed in the shootout.
Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012–exactly one month ago. Yet outrage over the tragedy is just hitting its peak in the news cycle. Why didn’t the media, public officials, and the FBI care about this issue sooner?
CNN took up that question over the weekend. According to CNN’s Howard Kurtz, “it took a few days for the major Florida papers to cover that news. And it wasn’t until 10 days later that the killings drew a bit of national media attention from the A.P. and Reuters, The Huffington Post, and CBS This Morning. Then a bit more coverage, BET, HLN, CNN, Good Morning America. And then nearly three weeks had passed before the first article in New York Times.”
The documents (after the jump) have been served and Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is officially suspended without pay. The key to Mayor Ed Lee’s case for removing the sheriff from office–which now must go before the Ethics Commission and the Board of Supervisors–is an allegation that Mirkarimi’s ability to do his job has been fundamentally compromised by his conviction for false imprisonment:
Sheriff Mirkarimi’ s actions undermine the integrity of the Office of Sheriff. He misused the power and status accompanying his public office. He committed unlawful acts of violence and falsely imprisoned his wife -ultimately resulting in his own imprisonment. This misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with holding the Office of Sheriff, the chief elected law enforcement officer in the City and County of San Francisco and constitutes official misconduct under Section 15.105 of the Charter.
Interestingly, the charges of domestic violence and child endangerment–for which Mirkarimi was not convicted–are mentioned as reasons for his removal alongside his guilty plea to false imprisonment.
CDCR
An ACLU report released today asks whether prison realignment is fixing the overcrowded prison system--or simply pushing California's reliance on incarceration to the local level.
The ACLU of California released a report today, “California at a Crossroads,” detailing 53 California counties’ realignment plans. Prison realignment began in October of 2011 as a way to quickly reduce California’s prison population–and get the state into compliance with a federal court order to relieve the state’s overcrowded prisons. Reform advocates had hoped that counties, which are slated to take over some 33,000 offenders from the state over the next couple of years, would use their realignment dollars in innovative rehabilitation programs. Instead, the ACLU report says, many counties are choosing to add more jail beds to incarcerate those who would have previously gone to state prison.
Usually in this space, we talk a lot about what’s wrong in the criminal justice system. So in this three-part series, we’re looking outside of the Bay Area for examples of what works. On Monday, we spoke with UC-Berkeley Professor Franklin Zimring about New York City’s massive crime decline over the last two decades. And yesterday, we looked at a method police are using to predict crime before it happens. Today, we’re in Santa Cruz, examining why the county has become a national model for keeping kids of out jail.
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