AZ: I sent an Arizona man to prison for 290 years. His case still haunts me

Source: azcentral.com 8/26/24 I sent plenty of people to prison during my career as a judge. Now I’m working to get one man out, and not because I think he’s innocent. I participated in hundreds of sentencing hearings in my 44-year career as a prosecutor and as a judge. Most of the sentences imposed were within the range I thought reasonable given the crime committed and the defendant’s background.  Occasionally, the law mandated an excessive sentence, which I had to impose. By far the most egregious example of an excessive…

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Restricting Freedom of Movement Is a Favorite Tool for Repressive Regimes

Source: reason.com 8/26/24 Needing permission to travel hands a dangerous tool to authoritarians. When you don’t like the rules—or rulers—where you live, and trying to change things isn’t worth the time, effort, or danger, one good response is to get the hell out. Find someplace that’s more to your taste by voting for something different with your feet. But what if the local powers-that-be don’t want dissidents to go and limit paths to exit? A new report says that’s exactly what many governments around the world are doing with restrictions…

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Janice’s Journal: We Did It!

Thanks to almost 50 individuals, we did it!  We raised $10,175 for the matching grant program in about two weeks.  As a result, ACSOL has a total of $20,175 to apply toward significantly increasing the number of registrants who are eligible to petition for removal from the registry.   This is not the first step, but it is an important step, in a multi-step process that began about 18 months ago when ACSOL made a presentation to the CA Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB).  During that presentation, ACSOL identified several improvements…

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