NRA CrimeStrike's
                        CrimeWatch Weekly

            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
 

Vol. 3, No. 43                                   October 28, 1997

                    Domestic Violence Slaying 
                     Helps End Judge's Career

     A New York City judge who reduced bond for a domestic
violence defendant who then murdered his estranged girl friend
has been ordered stripped of his judgeship by the New York
Commission on Judicial Conduct.

     "The panel said that Judge Loren Duckman had shown a 
mean-spirited, bullying' bias against prosecutors and made 
disparaging or inappropriate remarks about blacks and women," 
among other instances of misconduct, reported the New York Times.

     Gov. George Pataki sought Duckman's removal from the bench
after the murder of 32-year-old Galina Komar by Oliver Benito,
32, in February 1996.  Benito was freed after assaulting Ms.
Komar when Judge Duckman reduced his bond over the objections of
prosecutors.

     Ironically, the judicial panel cleared Duckman for his
handling of the Benito case even though transcripts showed the
judge had been dismissive about the extent of the woman's
injuries.  Publicity from the case, however, triggered the
lengthy investigation into the judge's court conduct. Among the
finding was that he had improperly dismissed 13 criminal cases
where prosecutors would not consent to his wish for more lenient
dispositions or dismissal of charges. 

     Judge Duckman promised an appeal to the New York Court of
Appeals.  He continues to draw his $103,800 salary.

                     Pennsylvanians Voting On
                    Tougher Commutation Rules

     Pennsylvania citizens will have an opportunity Nov. 4 to
stop a repetition of the 4-1 Board of Pardons commutation vote
that led to the release of convicted killer Reginald McFadden in
1994.  The issue is Joint Resolution 1997-2.

     Charges that McFadden killed two people and raped a woman
after his release helped lead to then-Lt. Gov. Mark Singel's
defeat by Tom Ridge for the governorship that year.  Singel
served by law as chairman of the pardons board, and Gov. Robert
Casey, a fellow Democrat, granted McFadden's commutation. 
(McFadden was convicted in all three crimes in 1995 and 1996.)


     A referendum on next week's ballot will require unanimous
votes of the five-member pardons board on future commutation and
pardon recommendations to the governor for inmates serving life
sentences or under death sentences. 

     The referendum would change the membership of the pardons
board, replacing an attorney member with a crime victim, and a
penologist with a corrections expert.  The attorney general and
lieutenant general are automatically members.  A coalition that
includes the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Fight for Lifers, Inc.,
Friends Committee to Abolish the Death Penalty, Inc., and three
inmates have brought suit challenging the referendum's
constitutionality.

     Prominent among the referendum's supporters are Gov. Tom
Ridge, Atty. Gen. Mike Fisher, and Nancy Wells, chairman of the
Victim Services Advisory Committee.  State Sen. Jeffrey Piccola,
R-Dauphin, sponsored the legislation.

             Alleged Rapist Got Probation, Not Life 

     Washington, D.C., area residents used to reading about
criminals slipping through the "system" largely unpunished
recently got another reality jolt after Prince George's County
police arrested Joseph Antonio Washington, 22.  He was charged
with three counts of first-degree rape, two against 15- and 
16-year-old Maryland high school girls. 

      It wasn't Washington's first arrest for a sex offense. 
Back in 1994, he faced sex offense charges in a case in which a
15-year-old District of Columbia high school sophomore was the
victim.  Prosecutors swapped charges that could have gotten him
life for a guilty plea on others that carried six years in prison. 

     In a sentencing memorandum, an assistant U.S. Attorney
sought prison time for Washington's crimes against the child. 
Instead, newspapers report, D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert S.
Tignor gave him two years probation and 100 hours of community
service.

                  Murders Fuel Drive To Restore
                   Massachusetts Death Penalty

     Massachusetts legislators, responding to constituents
angered over a series of brutal killings and encouraged by a
petition drive that got 50,000 signatures in support of capital
punishment, could take the Bay State off the list of just 12
states that do not permit the death penalty.

     The state Senate passed a capital punishment bill last week,
as it has done several times in the past.  But this time, House
Speaker Thomas M. Finnerman, a death-penalty foe, says he will
allow a House vote on the issue this fall.

     The murder of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley by two suspected
pedophiles Oct. 1 and several other gruesome murders have helped
galvanize support for the death penalty. 
 
     Also driving the campaign is support from Acting Gov. A.
Paul Celluci and a coalition of lawmakers who have taken up
former Gov. William Weld's failed seven-year effort to restore
capital punishment.  New York became the latest state to readopt
the death penalty in 1995.

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