Attorney Generals' offices press releases: on Crime

Ken Salazar: Limit post-conviction appeals, allow more restitution

On Attorney General Ken Salazar's legislative agenda and priorities for consideration by the 2000 General Assembly:
• Limit post-conviction appeals
• Enhance the ability of victims to receive restitution from criminals through changes in the restitution laws.
• Expand Colorado's identity theft laws to target those in possession of materials used in committing identity theft.
• Revise Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) laws to allow reciprocal law enforcement agreements

Ken Salazar: Establish rights for crime victims

"This legislation recognizes that violent crime victims, just as criminal defendants, are due certain guarantees and fairness in our criminal justice system," Salazar said. [The bill establishes]:

• The right to be reasonably protected from the accused.
• The right to notice of any public proceeding involving the crime or of any release or escape of the accused.
• The right to be reasonably heard at any public proceeding involving release, plea, or sentencing;
• The right to confer with the attorney for the Government in the case.
• The right to full and timely restitution as provided in law.
• The right to be treated with fairness and with respect for the victims' dignity and privacy.

Ken Salazar: Greater access to sex offender registration information

On Attorney General Ken Salazar's legislative agenda and priorities for consideration by the 2004 General Assembly:
• Greater access to sex offender registration information. Amend current laws to allow for universal access to already existing sex offender registries and to provide greater flexibility to local law enforcement agencies in providing such information.
• Assisting at-risk victims of crime. Authorize a trial judge to appoint in his or her place an active or senior district or county court judge to preside over a deposition of an at-risk criminal victim in order to ensure the victim's testimony.
• Additional protections for victims of identity theft. Legislation is expected to be introduced to establish a judicial process providing for a civil determination of the innocence of a victim of ID theft, to give legal protection to the victim as they deal with restoring their credit rating or disputing wrongful credit charges.

Ken Salazar: Heinous crimes deserve the ultimate sanction

"These two defendants abducted, tortured, raped and murdered two young women. We exhausted all reasonable efforts to see that they received the appropriate sentences for their crimes," Salazar said. "These heinous crimes committed by Woldt and Martinez deserve the ultimate sanction of law. While we are disappointed in the disposition announced on their death sentences, the outcome is that these individuals will be in prison for the rest of their lives without the possibility of parole," said Salazar.

Ken Salazar: Streamline Colorado's criminal sentencing statutes

On Attorney General Ken Salazar's legislative agenda and priorities for consideration by the 2002 General Assembly:
• Streamline Criminal Justice Sentencing Statutes. Enact certain changes to begin the overhaul of the criminal justice sentencing provisions within the Colorado Revised Statutes. An interim legislative committee has been working on this issue and recommendations are expected to be introduced.
• Overhaul of Sex Offender Registry. Enact changes to Colorado's sex offender registry system.
• Rural Law Enforcement Relief. Provide continuing law enforcement education to the State's smaller law enforcement agencies that lack the local resources to fund ongoing training of their officers through the establishment of a minimal surcharge on registered motor vehicles and administered through the Peace Officers Standards and Training Board (POST).

Mark Brnovich: Seeks to carry out first executions in Arizona since 2014

Mark Brnovich: Reject misguided antics in appeals to delay death penalty

Martha Coakley: Enhance victim compensation assistance

"With the 25th anniversary of the Massachusetts Victim Bill of Rights, it is imperative that we continue to build upon the progress that has been made in this area. In drafting this legislation, we were careful to balance the diverse needs of victims who come to our office for help with the fiscal realities faced by Commonwealth," said Coakley. "The amendments proposed in this legislation are important and necessary updates that will enable our office to continue to adequately respond to the needs of victims of violent crimes and their families without requiring additional funding from the General Court."

Shannon Liss-Riordan: Will protect consumers from scams and corporate fraud

Shannon Liss-Riordan: A firm advocate for meaningful criminal legal reform

Xavier Becerra: Committed to combatting sexual violence

Josh Stein: Protecting the people of this state has to be job one

Kamala Harris: Reduce recidivism: reform revolving door prison system

'It is often said that a good prosecutor wins convictions. But a great prosecutor has convictions. In the coming four years, we are going to do whatever it takes in the cause of protecting and defending the lives and livelihoods of all officer for the state, Harris plans to focus on reducing recidivism and on reforming the state's revolving door prison system. A major priority of her office will be to lead a renewed collaborative effort against transnational gangs and organized crime.

Kamala Harris: Cutting recidivism saves state $233 million annually

"If a business had a failure rate of that number, we would reorganize, we would reexamine and we would guide our approach by a well proven method which thinks about what is the return on our investment," Harris said. Instead, she said, the system's been all about "business as usual," meaning that it is dependent on imprisoning repeat wrongdoers, at a cost of about $47,000-per-year, per prison inmate. Harris said cutting the recidivism rate by just 10 percent could save the state $233 million annually.

DOJ staff will also help local law enforcement agencies find grants to develop technology to bring law enforcement into the digital age. "You'd be shocked at how obsolete we are," Harris said.

Kamala Harris: Fulfill Proposition 69: fast analysis of all DNA samples

Officials whittled down the backlog by shifting cases among the state's seven crime labs that handle DNA testing. In addition, robotics helped reduce part of the process for analyzing sexual assault evidence from two days to two hours. Last year the labs analyzed 5,400 evidence samples, up from 4,800 in 2010 and 4,100 in 2009, according to the department.

The state's crime labs came under increasing pressure in January 2009, when Proposition 69 began requiring authorities to collect DNA samples from any adult arrested for a felony. But Jill Spriggs, who oversees the state forensic system, said that backlog is also gone. "That's been eliminated for almost a year now," she said.

Kamala Harris: Charge online brothels with money laundering, if not pimping

Harris had charged Backpage executives with 13 counts of pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. Harris said the new charges were based on new evidence. A judge threw out pimping charges against the men on 9 December, citing federal free-speech laws.

In the latest case, Harris claims Backpage illegally funneled money through multiple companies to get around banks that refused to process transactions. She also alleged that the company used photos of women from Backpage on other sites without their permission, to increase revenue, and knowingly profited from the proceeds of prostitution.

"By creating an online brothel--a hotbed of illicit & exploitative activity--[Backpage.com] preyed on vulnerable victims, including children, and profited from their exploitation," Harris said.