FBI, BJS Launch Online Tool For Analyzing Crime Data

The U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI have launched an online data tool, aimed at making it easier to research and analyze crime data. The data tool lets users perform queries on custom variables like year, agency, and type of offense. Until now, making comparisons of Uniform Crime Report data required searching annual reports and manually crunching the numbers. The new tool aims to make it easier for users to make use of the raw numbers, the FBI says.

BJS developed the UCR data tool for the FBI as part of a collaboration between the agencies to improve crime data accessibility. The ucrdatatool.gov replace sa long-standing data BJS online tool that presented crime trends from the FBI’s UCR. More information about the methodology and best practices for using the new tool are available on the site.

Link to online data tool

from The Crime Report blog

When does a person become a convicted felon?

This a tricky question, though important for figuring out collateral consequences of a plea.  The Supreme Court of Kentucky in Thomas v. Com., 95 S.W.3d 828 (Ky. 2003) has held that a person becomes a convicted felon as soon as they enter a plea of guilty.  In Thomas, the Court’s rationale was that once a person enters a plea of guilty freely, knowingly, and intelligently, they are convicted.  In the Thomas case, the question was whether a guilty plea equaled a conviction if the case was supposed to be diverted at a later date.  The court held that a person in that situation is a convicted felon until such time that the diversion was successfully completed and the case dismissed.  This also applies to cases where a plea is entered but the case has not received a final judgment yet.  In Grace v. Commonwealth, Ky.App., 915 S.W.2d 754 (1996), the Court ruled that a person is considered to be convicted from the time guilt is determined which is at the entry of the plea of guilty.

Contributed by La Mer Kyle-Griffiths, Juvenile Post Disposition Branch Manager

New OJJDP Report Provides Detailed Look at Juveniles in Placement

OJJDP has released findings from its “Survey of Youth in Residential Placement,” an examination of more than 7,000 young people in secure placement around the country during 2003.


Among the most significant findings:

  • Youth of color are overrepresented in residential placement: 32% of youth in residential placement are African American, and 24% are Latino.
  • Over 1,200 youth in residential placement are under 13 years old.
  • 57% of the detained youth are incarcerated for a nonviolent offense.
  • Despite evidence that girls have not become more prone to offending over the past decade, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of girls in residential placement. For some offenses, such as status offenses and assaults, girls are nearly twice as likely as boys to be in placement.
  • 25% of the youth were not raised by either parent.
  • 20% of young people in residential placement are either parents or expecting (compared to a national average of 2-6%)
  • 30% of the respondents report that they have a learning disability (compared with 5% of the general population). They have also experienced high rates of suspensions (57%), truancy (53%), and disenrollment from school (24%)
  • 30% of youth have not been informed of any post-release plan for them.

Practice Tip - Padilla related

Criminal defense attorneys should ask in all initial interviews the birthplace of the defendant.   Don't fall into the trap of doing this only in cases in which the client doesn't "look" like an American citizen.

For more Padilla Practice tips see:

Practice Advisory: Duty of Criminal Defense Counsel Representing an Immigrant Defendant after Padilla v. Kentucky (April 9, 2010) (237K PDF). This practice advisory, prepared by the Immigration Defense Project for the Defending Immigrants Partnership, provides initial guidance on the duty of criminal defense counsel representing an immigrant defendant after the Supreme Court's Sixth Amendment right to counsel decision in Padilla v. Kentucky (U.S. March 31, 2010). In this decision, the Court held that, in light of the severity of deportation and the reality that immigration consequences of criminal convictions are inextricably linked to the criminal proceedings, the Sixth Amendment requires defense counsel to provide affirmative, competent advice to a noncitizen defendant regarding the immigration consequences of a guilty plea, and, absent such advice, a noncitizen may raise a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.

ABC news reports on cost of the death penalty

Could Abolishing the Death Penalty Help States Save Money?," at ABC News.  There is video at the link.

California has a $25 billion deficit and almost 700 inmates on death row. According to a 2008 report issued by the California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, maintaining the criminal justice system costs $137 million per year, but the cost would drop to $11.5 million if it weren't for the death penalty. A 2010 study from the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union found that California would be forced to spend $1 billion on the death penalty in the next five years if the state does not replace capital punishment with permanent imprisonment.

California is not the only state where cost has become an argument for abolishing the death penalty.

And:

Illinois Democratic State Rep. Karen Yarbrough, a sponsor of the bill, said she had been working on the issue of abolishing the death penalty for four years, and this is the closest the vote has ever come in the legislature for this measure. Yarbrough said she needs one more vote to call the bill to the Illinois House floor for a vote in January.

"Illinois has spent over $100 million in 10 years and hasn't put anyone to death," Yarbrough said. "It's time to put this barbaric practice to rest."

Yarbrough's bill would take the money saved from the death penalty and put it toward solving cold cases in the state, and training law enforcement officials.

"We have a $13 billion shortfall in the budget," she said. "We want to be pennywise and be able to put this money into something substantial."

And:

A typical cost per year for the death penalty ranges from $10 million to $20 million in states that have one or fewer executions per year, according to Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center. This number does not take into account states that have extreme numbers of executions or death row inmates, such as Texas or California.

"There have been quite a few studies in various states," Dieter said. "And the studies have all concluded that the death penalty is more of a burden on taxpayers than if the same defendant receives a life sentence."

A study by a Duke University economist in 2009 of North Carolina's death penalty costs found that the state could save $11 million a year if it abolished the death penalty.

In 2008, an Urban Institute study of Maryland found that a death penalty trial costs $1.9 million more than a nondeath penalty trial. The study also estimated that the state's taxpayers had paid at least $37.2 million for each of the five executions the state had carried out since 1978.

The Tennessee Comptroller of the Currency estimated in 2004 that death penalty trials cost an average of 48 percent more than trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.

A 2003 legislative audit in Kansas concluded that capital cases are 70 percent more expensive than comparable nondeath penalty cases.

Every part of a death penalty case is longer and requires more legal time, since capital punishment is on the table, Dieter said.

Hearing Delayed in Texas Death Penalty Case

A Texas hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty was delayed today when the state's highest criminal court issued an order staying proceedings for at least 15 days while defense attorneys and prosecutors submit briefs on their positions.

More on today's stay is here.

The hearing, in the case of John Edward Green, was the first in Texas history to examine the substantial risk of wrongful convictions in a Texas capital trial.

Early reporting on hearing regarding constitutionality of death penalty in Texas

Houston judge on Monday began a hearing on the legality of the death penalty in Texas, which executes more convicts than any other U.S. state

John Green, 25, is awaiting trial after being charged with murdering a woman during a robbery in Houston in 2008. He says he is innocent.

His lawyers have challenged the constitutionality of Texas' death penalty, claiming that there is a high probability of wrongful convictions and executions under current trial rules. Their effort is predicated on Texas rules that allow defendants to challenge the legality of potential punishments even before trial begins.

The state has executed 464 inmates over the last three decades -- far more than any other U.S. state. But death penalty opponents cite two prominent Texas cases in which significant exculpatory evidence has come to light years after inmates' sentences were carried out.

During roughly two weeks of testimony, state District Judge Kevin Fine will hear arguments from prominent death penalty opponents, who will shine a spotlight on the legal processes and evidentiary support used in Texas' capital punishment trials, which critics say are error-prone....

County prosecutors said they will "stand mute" during the hearing, after citing 19 reasons why it should not proceed. Prosecutor Alan Curry told Judge Fine he would "respectfully refuse to participate" in the hearing. Fine later told Curry, "I expect your participation."

Fine evoked the ire of Texas Governor Rick Perry in March when he granted a request by Green's lawyers to declare the state's death penalty as unconstitutional, a common request in capital murder cases that Texas judges routinely deny. Fine rescinded the ruling after pointing to evidence that "we execute innocent people," and called for the hearing.

Fine is a Democrat who presides in Harris County, which has sentenced more prisoners to death than any other Texas county. Texas is a predominantly Republican state where support for the death penalty runs high.

Louisiana Resource for Public Defenders Representing U.S. Veteran Clients


A Resource for Public Defenders Representing U.S. Veteran Clients

The Louisiana Public Defender Board, in collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, has developed a guide for public defense attorneys who are representing Veterans. This is a great tool that could fairly easily be replicated in every state in the country.  It would help indigent defense attorneys to identify the resources available to assist their veteran clients.

Kentucky Supreme Court Criminal Law Related Oral Argument Schedule

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010

10:00 a.m. LAPRADD V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY (2009-SC-214-DG)
"Criminal Law. Jury Instructions. Justification. Choice of Evils. At issue is whether a finding of a lack of justification based upon choice of evils should be included in the instruction for the crime itself."
Discretionary Review granted 3/10/2010
Jefferson Circuit Court, Judge Geoffrey P. Morris
For Movant: Bruce P. Hackett
For Respondent: Joshua D. Farley

Appellant's Brief
Appellee's Brief
Appellant's Reply Brief

For Kentucky Supreme Court LIVE arguments, click here on date and time of argument.