Hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants were summarily deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador last weekend. Federal authorities relied on President Trump’s executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in removing the immigrants without due process protections. The administration stated that the immigrants were members of a violent gang, Tren de Aragua, and that their alignment with the Venezuelan government and entry into the U.S. constituted an invasion by a hostile nation. Advocates for the deported Venezuelans deny their involvement with the gang and stress that the three previous times that the AEA was invoked, it was during clear times of war (the War of 1812, WWI, and WWII).
Judge James Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington, had ordered that the flights carrying the immigrants be turned around, but this did not occur, and the court is now engaged in an inquiry to determine whether the Trump administration should be held in contempt. After Trump called for the impeachment of the judge, Chief Justice John Roberts of the United States Supreme Court made a public statement that the appellate process, rather than impeachment, is the proper way to address adverse court rulings.
Read on for more criminal law news.
New educational prospects on death row. The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (DAC) is taking steps to provide new educational opportunities to those on death row. An existing policy requires that incarcerated people who test below a tenth-grade achievement level enroll in at least six months of high school equivalency (HSE) educational programming. However, those on death row have historically been excluded. Apparently spurred in part by the advocacy of Marcus Mitchell, who has been on death row for 27 years, the Department of Adult Corrections is now “working in earnest” to bring an HSE program to death row.
Wake Technical Community College initially agreed to provide the programming. However, the school reversed course, citing a lack of dedicated funding and federal regulations requiring that those with release dates within five years be prioritized. Despite this setback, DAC engaged with tutors and provided self-paced programming on electronic tablets. Neither formal HSE classes nor an equivalency test are yet available to those on death row, but proponents of the new programming are hopeful that more will be provided in the future.
Criminal case against founder of Telegram. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was allowed to leave France and travel to Dubai as a criminal case against him works its way through the French courts. Prosecutors allege that the manner in which Mr. Durov managed his online messaging platform made him complicit in criminal activity by a variety of actors. Prosecutions of those who create and manage online platforms are rare, although a few have been prosecuted before, such as the creator of the Silk Road online black market, which was used extensively for international drug trafficking, and the founder of Binance, a cryptocurrency platform used for money-laundering. In Mr. Durov’s case, French authorities contend that he failed to remove illegal content such as child pornography after being notified of specific activity, and that he further failed to cooperate with investigators on an array of cases. Some commentators view the prosecution as a natural consequence of Mr. Durov’s failure to provide appropriate moderation of the content on Telegram, whereas others are concerned that the prosecution could be a precedent for authoritarian governments to bring criminal charges against tech executives.
Potential resentencings in Alabama. A bill is moving forward in Alabama allowing for those serving life in prison for nonviolent offenses to be resentenced. Governor Kay Ivey endorsed the “Second Chance Act” bill and it passed 17-8 in the state Senate. If passed, the law would provide an avenue for approximately 200 of the 20,000 people in Alabama state prisons to receive a resentencing hearing. Those eligible were sentenced under a 1977 habitual offender law that has been revised. They have served more than 25 years in prison for offenses in which no one was physically injured.
Backlog of appeals at California crime victim fund. California was the first state to create a victim compensation fund 60 years ago. Victims of crime can apply to the program to receive financial relief from medical bills, funeral expenses, and other costs relating to harm from a crime. Recently, controversy has arisen over the question of whether the compensation’s board has been inappropriately denying claims on the basis of the written record rather than allowing for an in-person hearing. A judge ruled last August that the regulation the board was relying on to deny hearings was contrary to law and thus invalid. The board is now seeking additional funding to support 17 employees to address a large backlog of appeals. Around one-fourth of the approximately 40,000 applications filed last year were denied.
New podcast episodes. The criminal law faculty here at SOG are regularly releasing new podcast episodes on matters of interest to readers of this blog. The most recent episode from NC Criminal Debrief came out yesterday. Phil Dixon discusses recent cases appellate cases on cannabis, Second Amendment challenges, units of prosecution, and sentencing issues. And on Turning State’s, Joe Hyde and Jonathan Holbrook discuss recent North Carolina appellate cases, such as Hicks, Davenport, and Lacure in their latest episode.
Have a good weekend and see you on Monday.
