*********** NOTICE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** 
============================================================================
			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 314
Topics covered in this issue include:
  1) CRIMESTRIKE: Liability Over Convicts Who Killed by NRA Alerts 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic No. 1
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 17:26:04 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: Liability Over Convicts Who Killed
Message-ID: 
                       NRA CrimeStrike's
                                
                       CrimeWatch Weekly
            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
 
Vol. 3, No. 46                               November 18, 1997
                  Two States Face Liability Over
                   Released Convicts Who Killed
     Two cases on opposite coasts last week suggest the families
of crime victims are gaining some traction in legal actions where
state agents are accused of negligence in allowing the early
release of convicted criminals who subsequently kill.
     In Washington, the state admitted liability for the death of
17-year-old Meeka Willingham as her family's suit against the
state was set to go to trial in Pierce County.
     Ms. Willingham, a high school cheerleader, was murdered in
1994.   Johnny Eggers, who had been paroled to a halfway house in
1990 despite a life sentence for assault with intent to kill,
failing a sexual psychopath treatment program and acts of
misbehavior, is serving a second life sentence for killing her. 
The state agreed to negotiate a settlement with the victim's
family.
     On the East Coast, the Massachusetts Appeals Court last week
overruled a lower court in a decision that will allow the parents
of murder victim Colleen Coughlin to proceed with their lawsuit
against the state and mental health professionals who let her
killer out of a state hospital.
     Ms. Coughlin was 21 when she was murdered in April 1992 by
Michael Kelley, a convicted rapist released from a state hospital
a year earlier.  Kelley is serving life without parole for
killing Ms. Coughlin.
                     Crime Researchers Lament
                   Colleagues' Bias On Prisons
     The reluctance of many criminologists to accept research
showing that locking up offenders reduces certain crimes clearly
rankles the authors of "The Impact of Prison Growth on Homicide,"
an article in the August issue of Homicide Studies.  The journal
is published by Sage Publications, Inc., in cooperation with the
Homicide Research Working Group.
     Thomas B. Marvel of Justec Research and Carlisle E. 
Moody of the College of William and Mary had this to say about
their own research into the prison/homicide phenomenon: "The most
obvious implication is that prison expansion has been an
effective crime-reduction strategy and presumably will continue
to be so.  It is probably a major 
reason why homicide declined after 1990."
     Their study found that homicide drops approximately 13.3%
for every 10% increase in prison population.  That result, they
say, is nearly as large as that found in a 1988 study in American
Sociological Review. They say their findings are consistent with
other studies that found a "very large" impact on other crimes
from increased incarceration, as well. 
     In their conclusion, Messrs. Marvel and Moody say: "We have
widely circulated these findings, along with the data used, to
colleagues who specialize in quantitative analysis.  The most
frequent response is that they refuse to believe the results no
matter how good the statistical analysis. . . .  The implication,
even among many who regularly publish quantitative studies, is
that no matter how thorough the analysis, results are not
credible unless they conform with prior expectations."
                  Million-Plus Women Are Stalked
     The government reported last week that more than 1 million
women are stalked annually, and one out of every 12 women is
stalked during her lifetime.  More surprisingly, according to a
Justice Department study, was a finding that an estimated 370,000
men are stalked annually, as well.
     A companion study for the National Institute of Justice said
that about 80% of females stalked by a current or former marital
or cohabiting partner were physically assaulted at some point in
the relationship.  
               NCVS Shows Violent Crime Down In '96
     U.S. Violent crime declined nearly 10% during 1996,
according to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey
(NCVS).  That drop was even greater than the 6% reported  last
month for the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 1996, the crime
measure probably best known to the public.
     Where UCR data is based on crime and arrests reports from
the nation's law enforcement agencies, the NCVS is calculated
from interviews with about 94,000 citizens age 12 and older.  The
NCVS released Saturday shows crime declining annually since 1993,
with violent crime down 16% overall and property crime rates down
17% over that time. 
                Jury Angered Over Woman's Murder 
     An angry grand jury that indicted a man for murdering his
wife has asked the FBI to investigate the failure of local
authorities to arrest the man on a domestic violence warrant
before the killing in Pikesville, Ky. 
     Billie Mitchell, 32, was slain Nov. 2 as she ate dinner,
authorities said.  Her husband, Andy Mitchell, 52, was soon 
arrested on charges of murder, first-degree rape, burglary and
stalking.
     Floyd County Sheriff Paul Hunt Thompson said he is
investigating his agency's handling of the case.  A deputy sought
to arrest Mitchell on a domestic violence warrant issued Oct. 29
after he allegedly raped his wife and threatened her life. 
Unable to find Mitchell, the deputy took two days off work and
stopped looking for him the night before the murder.
=+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
------------------------------
End of GENERAL-RKBA Digest 314
******************************
...          ******** NOTE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE ********
--- FMail 1.22
---------------