Tag Archives: crime

Top Ten Crime Stories of 2013

There were 16 school shootings that claimed 88 lives in the US in 2012, including the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. According to a recent Daily Beast investigation, 25 school shootings that claimed 18 lives have occurred since Newtown, including the most recent on December 12, 2013 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, which means the U.S. is experiencing about one school shooting every two weeks.

Thank goodness schools are closed for the year, and students are on vacation.

Still, the number of school shootings––and the country’s failure to address the issue with any meaningful legislation––ranks as one of my Top Ten Crime Stories of 2013.

My other top crime stores of 2013 are listed below in no particular order.

On April 15, two pressure-cooker bombs exploded at the crowded finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 183 others. Twenty-six-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his 20-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, were accused of carrying out the bombing. Tamerlan died during a shootout with police days after the incident. Dzhokar was caught and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked secret documents indicating that NSA surveillance extends into some of the personal communications of Americans and our overseas allies. The 30-year-old computer specialist fled the U.S. and now resides in Russia.

Ariel Castro was sentenced to life plus more than 1,000 years after pleading guilty to 937 counts including the kidnapping and rape of three women who he held captive for a decade. He committed suicide months after the conviction by hanging himself in his jail cell.

George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Martin was shot while walking home late at night from his father’s house in a gated community in Sanford FL. Under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Zimmerman argued, he was justified in using lethal force to save his life.

Jody Arias was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2008 killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. He had been stabbed multiple times, had his throat slashed, and was shot in the face. But jurors deadlocked on whether Arias should be executed or face life in prison.

John Beale, the EPA’s highest-paid employee and a leading expert on climate change was sentenced to 32 months in prison for defrauding the agency out of nearly $900,000 in unearned pay and bonuses. Beale, who convinced his bosses, friends, and even his wife that he was a spy, admitted to missing more than 2½ years of work at the EPA over the last decade, during which time he claimed to work for the CIA on missions that kept him away from his job as a senior adviser in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.

In August, Aaron Hernandez, tight end for the New England Patriots, was indicted by a grand jury for the June murder of Odin Lloyd and five weapons charges. Hernandez is also under investigation for murders in both Florida and Massachusetts. In September, Hernandez was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, he faces life in jail without parole.

Former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner killed four people, including three police officers, in a shooting spree before fleeing. The search for Dorner spanned a week and two borders.
He was found dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head when authorities finally hunted him down and surrounded the cabin near Big Bear Lake, California, where he had taken refuge.

JPMorgan Chase, the poster child for Wall Street corruption and the two-tiered justice system, is under eight separate investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice. Investigations involve potentially criminal matters ranging from allegations of hiring well-connected family members to get business in Asia; turning a blind eye to fraudulent transactions that Bernard Madoff ran through his business bank account; rigging the Libor interest rate index; manipulating energy trading markets; gambling in London with insured deposits (London Whale episode); to improper credit derivatives and mortgage bond sales. Having paid out $13 billion in fines, it is still an open question as to whether any of the top executives at the bank, including CEO Jamie Dimon, will ever be tried for fraud and convicted.

2012 Best Crime/Suspense Movies

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This year’s crop of my ten best crime/suspense movies is notable for having only one foreign film on the list. But what a film it is! Hollywood has definitely had a good year when it comes to crime movies. I encourage those of you who love them to see the films listed below. They are in no particular order.

Skyfall is the best Bond ever. Visually stunning with the summit of a glass tower in nighttime Shanghai, a luxurious gambling den floating off the shore of Macau; a battered and abandoned ghost-city on a forgotten island in the South China Sea. Add a villain played brilliantly by Javier Bardem and terrific performances by Daniel Craig and Judi Dench and you’ve got a great movie.

A wonderful movie that’s based on a historical incident, Argo is an edge of your seat thriller and clearly one of the best films of 2012. Ben Affleck does a great job as a director building tension even though we know the ending. The movie has a superb supporting cast and is terrifically entertaining.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are terrific in End of Watch, a gritty, realistic portrayal of police officers who discover a secret that makes them the target of a dangerous drug cartel. A wonderful screenplay written by David Ayer, who also wrote Training Day.

In Arbitrage, Richard Gere––in his best role in years––plays a New York hedge-fund manager trying to sell his empire to a major bank before his fraud is discovered. Susan Sarandon, as his wife, and Brit Marling, as his daughter, are excellent in supporting roles. What starts as a Wall Street movie turns abruptly into a complex thriller and character study.

Christopher Nolan’s final installment of his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, has plenty of action, intrigue, and a wonderful twist near the end. I’ve always thought Christian Bale has been the best Batman, and he doesn’t disappoint here. Plus, there’s a superb supporting cast with Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.

Despite the obvious comparisons to the Matt Damon Bourne movies, Jeremy Renner does an excellent job in the role of Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy. There’s plenty of action along with meditative moments that provide insights into the character. It would be great to see a fifth installment with both Renner and Damon.

I’ve been a big fan of Jennifer Lawrence ever since I saw her Oscar-nominated performance in Winter’s Bone. Once again, she brings her A-game to the role of Katniss in The Hunger Games, an intriguing and exciting film based on the bestselling book, which depicts a time in the not-to-distant future when children are chosen to fight to the death on reality TV.

If you’ve read the Reacher books by Lee Child, then you know Reacher is 6’5″ and over 200 pounds. Tom Cruise is neither, but then what actor in Hollywood is? The crime film delivers on the action front as Cruise, playing an ex-military investigator and anti-hero living off the grid, attempts to save a friend and expert sniper accused of shooting five people.

This Norwegian film illustrates why Scandinavia has been producing so many outstanding crime dramas. Instead of CGI rendered explosions, stunts and special effects, we have a thrilling story with great characters and surprising twists and double-crosses. Oh how I wish more crime dramas followed this formula.

I confess I haven’t seen this movie because it opens in mid-January in the Twin Cities. But based on its tremendous reviews, four Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture, director Kathryn Bigelow’s previous work in The Hurt Locker, and a story about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, you have all the elements of a great movie. I couldn’t leave it off my list.

Judging The Memphis Three

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Given the contamination of evidence, poor crime scene procedure, a coerced confession, shoddy detective and forensic work, and, as in many of these types of cases, an overzealous prosecutor desperate to pin the brutal murders of three young boys on anyone, it should come as no surprise that newfound DNA evidence does not support the convictions of teenagers Damian Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin, the infamous West Memphis Three, but rather Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the victims. The Arkansas Times reported that a hair consistent with Hobbs was found tied into the knots used to bind one of the victims.

As disturbing as the teen’s convictions and the eighteen years they served in prison appear to be, equally disturbing are the actions of the judge in the original trial, one David Burnett. There are allegations by Jessie Misskelley’s attorney of foreman and jury misconduct, and that Burnett made inappropriate remarks to the jurors. If true, any of these accusations should have led to an immediate mistrial.

Then, in September of 2008, Circuit Court Judge David Burnett denied Damian Echols’ request for a retrial, citing the DNA tests as inconclusive, and that the absence of evidence was not innocence. But as reported by John Brummett in the Arkansas News, the Arkansas Law Review contended that Burnett erred in denying Echols a new trial on evidence that there was no DNA linking him to the scene.

Burnett made this ruling while he was running for the state senate in direct violation of the state constitution, which says a sitting judge who seeks a non-judicial political office vacates the judgeship automatically when he files for the other office. One might conclude that ruling in favor of a Death Row inmate, might hurt a law and order judge’s chances of being elected to the senate.

Burnett retired from the law in 2009, but was subsequently appointed as a special judge responsible for post-conviction issues surrounding the West Memphis cases, though he later told a Sun reporter that he was sick and tired of it. He also said that he had regretted letting documentary filmmakers into the courtroom in 1994 because their “Paradise Lost” documentary was biased for the defendants. Both statements were obviously prejudicial and a bad sign for the three apparently innocent men sitting in prison. Burnett later apologized for his remarks, but never declined his appointment.

Fortunately for the West Memphis Three, in early December 2010, Circuit Court Judge David Laser was selected to replace David Burnett, and upon hearing the new evidence, released the three men from prison.

David Burnett is now a member of the Arkansas state senate, though I highly doubt his “judgment” has improved.

CSI Myths

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The use of forensics in television dramas has created a legal phenomenon known as the “CSI effect.” Jurors today often view forensics as gospel based on what they see on their favorite shows. The August issue of Popular Mechanics magazine attempts to dispel some myths in a cover story entitled, “The Truth About Forensics”.

In real life, many forensic labs are understaffed and have a huge backlog of requests for services. Some state and city forensic departments have mishandled evidence, and since no advanced degree is required for a career in forensics, personnel with minimal credentials staff many of the labs around the country.

But a more serious issue emerged last February when the National Academy of Sciences issued a report noting that, “apart from DNA, there is not a single forensic discipline that has been proven with a high degree of certainty to be able to match a piece of evidence to a suspect.”

While DNA is considered the gold standard of identification, a debate is growing between defense attorneys and forensic experts concerning the scientific validity of fingerprints, footprints, tire tracks, bite marks, blood-splatter patterns, ballistics, hair, fiber, and handwriting analysis. Evidence such as voiceprint analysis and lead analysis of bullets already has been completely discredited.

According to the article, despite the widespread belief in the accuracy of fingerprints, “no studies have proved definitively that fingerprints are unique, and it’s unclear if prints change over time or vary depending on the amount of pressure applied.” Studies quantifying the probability of error in ballistics matching also should be done. Currently, it’s impossible to say with certainty that the marks made on fired bullets are unique to an individual gun.

Alternately, paint analysis has a relatively strong scientific backing and can provide reliable results. While fiber analysis has a foundation in chemistry, more research is needed to determine the criteria for a match. The article points out that current methodology is only sufficient to conclude that fibers could have come from the same type of garment or carpet. Research has also shown that matching hairs using subjective analysis can be highly inaccurate.

Software to help quantify the certainty of fingerprint matches is currently being developed, as well as a database of microscopic tool marks to give statistical significance to the identification of burglars’ tools. But it appears that more forensic research needs to be done. As a writer of police procedurals, forensics often plays a role in the solution of my fictional crime stories. Since I want my novels to be as accurate and believable as possible, I’ll continue to follow the latest research. Hollywood should do the same.

You can read the full article at:

Athletes and Crime

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From Michael Vick who ruined his career and lost a $130 million contract after pleading guilty to federal dog fighting conspiracy charges, to Plaxico Burress who accidentally shot himself in the leg while carrying an illegally concealed gun into a New York nightclub, to Adam “Pacman” Jones who has been arrested 10 times since his 2005 draft day and was recently “released” by the Dallas Cowboys, crimes committed by athletes appear to be on the rise. While sports apologists claim that it only seems like athletes commit more crimes because they are widely reported due to the athlete’s fame, an ESPN Sports Zone poll, reported that 83% of the public believes that college and pro athletes are committing more criminal acts now compared to 25 years ago.

So exactly how prevalent is the incidence of crimes among athletes?

According to published reports, a new incident of athlete crime emerges once every two days. Domestic violence surpasses all other athlete crimes in a number of reports. The Benedict-Crosset Study of sexual assaults at thirty major Division I universities reported that athletes commit one in three college sexual assaults. The three-year study concluded that while male student-athletes comprise 3.3% of the college population, they represent 19% of sexual assault perpetrators and 35% of domestic violence perpetrators.

A Georgetown study found that although varsity student-athletes made up just over 11 percent of Georgetown’s undergraduate population, they were arrested and charged with violent assaults by D.C. prosecutors at a rate more than double that of the general student body. But even when these athletes were charged with crimes, court records revealed that the charges were dismissed every time. National statistics reflect a similar trend. When athletes are charged with crimes, their conviction rate is only 38% compared to 80% of the general population.

Some experts suggest that athletes commit a higher number of crimes because they are taught aggression at an early age, along with the need to win. With expensive scholarships and huge salaries, many athletes see themselves as “special” and expect to get their way. Athletes often believe they are immune to the rules and laws the rest of us live by.

I participated in team sports from the time I was a child until I graduated from college. I remember repeatedly hearing that sports build character. In hindsight, perhaps it isn’t the sports themselves that build character, but the adults who coach the teams and mentor athletes. Young athletes often model the behavior and attitudes of their coaches and of the athletes they idolize. I watch fewer sports now in large part because I’ve grown tired of the showboating, the high-fives, the trash talking and the fights. A routine tackle today elicits a “celebration” that rivals the winning team’s Super Bowl celebration.

Whatever the cause in the increase of crimes perpetuated by athletes, one thing is certain. Athletes are not above the law. This is a message that should be taught and enforced at an early age. And it is incumbent upon our judicial system to ensure that student and professional athletes are treated no differently than anyone else.