Wheel of Fugitive in Florida

A Florida sheriff is putting an unusual "spin" on his department's search for wanted criminals.

Each Tuesday, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey singles out a new fugitive with his game "Wheel of Fugitive."

Here’s how it works: Ivey spins a wheel with the pictures of ten wanted criminals attached to it.

Whichever photo the wheel lands on is declared the unlucky "winner" and is the person the department will search for with help from all the Facebook users who watch the video.

Ivey says the game - which is based on the long-running game show "Wheel of Fortune" - has helped catch dozens of wanted felons.

"We basically came up with the idea because we not only wanted to get fugitives off the street, but we wanted to engage our public, our community, and help protect our areas," Ivey explained on Fox Business Network's "Risk & Reward" today.

He said that he had watched "Wheel of Fortune" for many years, so the idea just seemed to fit.

"It's worked even better than most of us thought," Ivey said, noting that 76 percent of the "Wheel of Fugitive" winners turn themselves in or are apprehended within three days.

"It's really been very engaging for the community," Ivey said. "Hardly anywhere we go, somebody doesn't say, 'I watch 'Wheel of Fugitive' every Tuesday night.'"

See more from Ivey above, and check out this week's edition of "Wheel of Fugitive" below.

Florida Career Criminal Strikes Again

                                                           

A Bradenton registered career offender is facing new charges after deputies say they pulled him over in a stolen vehicle while in possession of a stolen gun and narcotics including fentanyl packaged to sell, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Gerald Lee Williams, 37, was arrested Wednesday and charged with grand theft auto, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and four counts of sell, manufacture, deliver, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver a controlled substance. He is being held at the Manatee County jail without bond after the bonds in another pending case were revoked.

At 10 p.m., a deputy spotted Williams in a vehicle reported stolen to the sheriff’s office, according to an arrest report. The deputy followed the driver, later identified as Williams, to a Circle K gas station, 3001 First. St., and watched him exit the vehicle and go into the convenience store.

Williams was the only person in the car, the deputy reported.

The deputy went into the store and arrested Williams, charging him with grand theft auto.

Before the vehicle was towed because the owner could not be reached, the deputy searched the vehicle and found a loaded Glock handgun with eight rounds under the driver’s seat and a Crown Royal bag with narcotics packaged to sell under the passenger’s seat.

Inside the bag was 1.8 grams of fentanyl, 0.6 grams of methamphetamine, 6.5 grams of powder cocaine, 2.9 grams of crack cocaine and 10.3 grams of marijuana, the deputy reported after having weighed and tested the drugs. Inside the bag, the deputy also found Williams’ identification along with other documents that belonged to him.

The Glock was reported stolen out of Sarasota County in 2014.

Williams is a convicted felon. In 1999, he was released from prison after serving less than three years for an attempted armed robbery conviction. In 2001, Williams was sentenced to 15 years prison for a 2000 robbery conviction for which he served less than 14 years.

The court designated Williams a career offender, a designation for a habitual violent felony offender, a violent career criminal or a three-time violent felony offender, according to Florida statutes.

Williams was out on bond on a June 2016 charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and is scheduled to go to trial during the two-week trial period beginning April 3.

He was also out on bond for charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, resisting a law enforcement officer and possession of marijuana of 20 grams or less from a February 2016 arrest. That case is also scheduled to go to trial during the two-week trial period beginning April 3.

Supreme Court Denies Relief in Latest Challenge to Federal Sentencing Guidelines

In Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. ____ (2015), the Supreme Court declared the so-called “residual clause” of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), which helped define predicate crimes of violence, void because it was so vague. This meant that the residual clause could not be used to determine crimes of violence for purposes of triggering the 15-year mandatory minimum ACCA sentence.

A year later, the Supreme Court determined that Johnson had announced a “substantive” rule and thus had retroactive effect.  Welch v. United States, 578 U.S. ____ (2016).

The residual clause of the career offender guideline was identical to the residual clause of the ACCA.   The Sentencing Commission acted quickly following Johnson to remove the residual clause from the career offender guideline but declined to make the change retroactive.

Beckles v. United States sought to apply the holding in Johnson to the Career Offender guidelines.  Mr. Beckles was convicted in 2007 of possessing a firearm by a convicted felon.  The firearm he possessed was a sawed-off shotgun and under the career offender residual clause and under guideline commentary, possession of a sawed off shotgun was deemed a crime of violence.   U.S.S.G. sec. 4B1.2(a)(2).  He was sentenced to 360 months after being deemed a career offender.

After he exhausted his appeals, Mr. Beckles asked the Supreme Court to rule that Johnson invalidated the residual clause of the career offender guideline and that the ruling be given retroactive effect so that he could petition the court to vacate his career offender sentence.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument on November 30, 2016.  The Court issued its decision on March 6, 2017.  It held that the residual clause was not invalid based on the so-called “void for vagueness”constitutional doctrine.  The judgment was unanimous (though Justice Elena Kagan did not participate and two justices ruled against Mr. Beckles on different grounds).

The decision was based on the Court’s analysis under the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  That clause forbids the government from taking someone’s life, liberty or property based on a criminal law that is so vague that ordinary people do not have “fair notice” of the conduct being punished.  Courts have applied the void for vagueness test to laws that define crimes as well as laws that fix punishment – such as the ACCA.  The ACCA fixed a mandatory minimum term of 15 years and a maximum of life.

Unlike the ACCA, the guidelines that were used in Mr. Beckles’s case do not “fix” the punishment. Rather, because they are advisory, they merely guide the judge in setting the punishment within the statutory range.  The career offender range in Mr. Beckles’s case was 360 months to  life, within the otherwise applicable statutory range for his conviction under 18 U.S.C. sec. 922(g).

Because the guidelines do not fix the punishment, and because judges may sentence anywhere within the statutory framework, including below the career offender floor of 360 months, the Court said they are not evaluated under the void for vagueness doctrine.