Spring is springing here at Wayfarer’s Refuge. We started up the chlorinator on our pool last weekend in preparation for getting back in the water. We’ve had a couple of almost record highs recently, hitting 90° at least once. The pool has been in the low 70s for several days, too. I’m probably getting the lawnmower out this week, too.
And for those of you who read my WWBC post this week, I owe you an apology. That was actually last week’s topic, not this week’s, which was supposed to be about A Genre I Want to Read More of This Year. Whoopsie.
Handwriting
I’ve mentioned in the past that I’ve handwritten big chunks of two books. My handwriting style is mostly a sloppy manuscript, though I’ll occasionally slip and connect some letters. I remember not being a fan of the handwriting lessons we got in grade school. I’d often prop my head up with my left hand as I scribbled my way through a writing lesson with my right.
Both of my parents had an elegant script, honed no doubt by decades of writing letters by hand to friends and family. My brother’s handwriting looked a lot like my dad’s, though he and my mom both had little hitches in their letters that my dad didn’t.
It was my dad’s handwriting that broke the Santa myth, too, when I realized “Santa’s” handwriting was just like Dad’s.
I handwrote a letter to an acquaintance a few years ago, and he told his wife that he could only make out about half of what I wrote.
There’s been lots of talk over the last few years about asking schools to bring back cursive writing. Proponents talk a lot about how it’s faster.
Turns out that may not be the case. Interesting reading, to be sure.
More on Felony Murder
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania just dropped a potentially huge ruling regarding felony murder.
The legal doctrine known as felony murder allows a murder charge against someone who wasn’t directly involved in the killing. I’ve written about it before.
The case in Pennsylvania involved a 2014 home invasion in Pittsburgh. Derek Lee and Paul Durham entered a home and robbed the occupants. Durham later shot and killed Leonard Butler during a struggle for Durham’s gun.
Both men were later arrested and convicted. Durham received life without parole for second-degree murder. Lee received life without parole for felony murder, even though the victim’s partner said he wasn’t the killer. He was also convicted of criminal conspiracy for which he received a sentence of 10 to 20 years.
The Commonwealth has previously ruled that “the malice necessary to make a killing, even an accidental one, murder, is constructively inferred from the malice incident to the perpetration of the initial felony.” In other words, it doesn’t matter if you meant to kill someone as long as you meant to rob them, for example.
Lee appealed on Eighth Amendment and Pennsylvania Constitution grounds, claiming that a life sentence was cruel and unusual because the severity of the punishment outweighed the severity of his crime. The trial court denied his appeal, as did the Superior Court. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which rendered its decision Thursday.
This isn’t a get-out-of-jail card for Lee. He’s still got at least some portion of his conspiracy sentence to serve, and I couldn’t tell if it was concurrent or consecutive. The Supreme Court stayed its order for 120 days, so nothing will happen for him until late July at the earliest. Considering that he’ll be resentenced, he may well stay in prison for another decade or more.
Still, it’s a big change, and it could affect the other four states with mandatory LWOP sentences for felony murder.
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