Thursday, August 24, 2006

People v. Stanley (Cal. Supreme Ct. - Aug. 24, 2006)

There are many reasons not to visit Oakland. Raiders fans being only one of them.

The first ten pages of this opinion, which discuss Darren Stanley's violent crime spree in that fine city during Christmas 1988 (and the three weeks thereafter), add yet another reason. Not a place, or time, that I'd want to be in Oakland.

P.S. - I especially like the last sentence of the second paragraph of the California Supreme Court's opinion: "We affirm the convictions and judgment of death but order defendant’s determinate sentence reduced by two years." In other words: "I've got some good news and I've got some bad news. The bad news is that, yes, we're indeed going to kill you while you're in prison. But the good news is that you're going to get out of prison two years early." Hurray!