Court Watch

As we await the jury’s verdict, I will save you the suspense, this case has been over for a long time, and during District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s brilliant closing, he buried Marco Topete.

After three years of waiting, and three months in trial, then a conviction of first degree murder with four special circumstances, the jury in the Topete case now has the unenviable task of determining whether Marco Topete should spend life in prison without parole or get the death penalty.

Last spring at Picnic Day, the Vanguard decided that one of the best ways to follow what was going on was to drive around, spot law enforcement vehicles pulling people over and film the encounters.

Texas Inmate Scheduled to Die Despite Untested DNA Evidence

This past summer Governor Rick Perry of Texas signed into law a simple measure that would require the state to test DNA evidence if it is available.  But as Governor Perry struggles on the Republican presidential campaign trail, he has thus far denied Hank Skinner, a death row inmate, a DNA test that has the potential to prove his innocence, or at leats remove any doubt as to his guilt.

It was presented as a seminal case to illustrate the threat that the Broderick Boys  presented for the community of West Sacramento.  In April of 2007, three defendants – Austen Nunes, Pauliton Nunes, and Daniel Bonge went with several others to the train tracks in West Sacramento to drink some stolen beer.

Just over six months ago, 43-year-old Maurice Caldwell walked out of the San Francisco Jail a free man, for the first time since his conviction of second-degree murder in a fatal shooting of an individual named Judy Acosta at the Alemany Public Housing Project on June 30, 1990.

For nearly a month now, Occupy Sacramento activists have been cleared from the park on a nightly basis.  Now three Sacramento area attorneys are representing them, led by Mark Merin, who will receive an award on Thursday night from the Vanguard in Woodland, as Vanguard Outstanding Attorney of the Year.

Last week a Twin Rivers School District police officer was shot four times and the suspect wound up dead in the custody of police.

Natasha Minsker – Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California

Ms. Minsker began her career at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, spending the first year as a research attorney in the Capital Defense Unit and the remaining four years as a Deputy Public Defender, handling all types of misdemeanor, felony and juvenile cases.

In an interview, she described her first day working the public defender’s office.

In June of 2009, Tracie Olson took over as public defender for Yolo County when Barry Melton retired. At the time of his retirement, Melton said, “Tracie is a fine lawyer, a talented administrator, a deeply compassionate human being, and a true public servant.”

AB 109 and realignment have the potential to change the way that we do business at the county level and the state level.  Thus, it is disappointing that despite the fact that the process in Yolo County brought the stakeholders together, the plan became less about getting things right and more about protecting one’s funding source and thus one’s turf.

In 2006, embroiled in an ugly and polarizing controversy, Police Chief Jim Hyde abruptly left for greener pastures but not before firing some parting shots at the City of Davis and the Human Relations Commission, chaired at the time by my wife, Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald.

One of the big problems facing the AB 109 budgeting process, at the county level, is that it takes a 4/5th’s vote of the Board of Supervisors to block the implementation of budget and recommendations put forth by the Community Corrections Partnership, made up of the various stakeholders in the process.

Over the weekend, Tyrone Smith, 32 was arrested after being suspected of shooting a Twin Rivers Unified School District Officer multiple times during an attempted traffic stop.

On November 3, Yolo Judicial Watch will focus its attention, at its annual Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony Event, on the issue of preventing wrongful convictions.

The real question, as we are now moving toward a month into realignment, is how California counties will decide to deal with realignment – do they change the way they handle a number of cases or do they simply try to add jail space?

After a morning of good discussions and reasoned discourse at last week’s realignment dialogue, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley became unhinged.  Mr. Cooley had actually been an innovator, someone who pushed for change in the charging of third strikes to avoid sending the pizza thieves and cheese bandits to prison for the rest of their lives.

On November 3, Yolo Judicial Watch will focus its attention, at its annual Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony Event, on the issue of preventing wrongful convictions. This event will feature, among others, Linda Starr, the Legal Director of the Northern California Innocence Project, which has played a strong role in a number of recent exonerations.

As we discussed on Thursday in the first installment of this series on the UC Davis School of Law Program on “Crime and Punishment Revisited,” the application of AB 109, commonly known as realignment, figures to change the nature of the criminal justice system, but no one knows for sure just how.

Public Officials Explain Realignment, Why We Need It, and Express Concerns About How It Will Be Implemented –

The application of AB 109, commonly known as realignment, figures to change the nature of the criminal justice system, but no one knows for sure just how.  On Wednesday, UC Davis School of Law had a program featuring policymakers, prosecutors, academics and other experts who discussed and debated just what AB 109 will mean and what will happen going forward.