California to release nonviolent inmates to reduce prison crowding News
California to release nonviolent inmates to reduce prison crowding

[JURIST] California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] has announced a plan to release some prisoners convicted of nonviolent crime [press conference video/transcript] to alleviate the burden on California’s overcrowded prison system [JURIST news archive]. The move comes in response to various federal actions, including one as recently as last week by US District Judge Thelton E. Henderson [official profile] of the Northern District of California [official website], that could establish federal oversight of California’s prison system if the overcrowding problem is not solved. The California system has more than 171,000 inmates living in facilities that combined were designed for 100,000. Schwarzenegger’s press office has indicated that felons will not be eligible for early release.

Earlier this week a California state judge ruled that a plan to transfer prisoners out of state violated state law [JURIST report]. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to death on November 16, 1849 over his involvement in the progressive Petrashevsky Circle of intellectuals. Dostoevsky and his codefendants were scheduled to be executed on December 22 of that year, but their execution was stayed by Tsar Nicholas I after the execution ritual had been carried out. Dostoevsky was sent to Siberia instead to serve a four-year sentence. Learn more about the mock execution of Dostoevsky.

Canada executed Metis leader for treason

On November 16, 1885, the Canadian government executed Metis leader Louis Riel for high treason in the wake of the "Northwest Rebellion" that had pitted the Metis (descendants of French traders and native tribes) in what is now Saskatchewan against Canadian troops. Although Riel has lately been rehabilitated as an Indigenous francophone patriot of the Canadian West, his trial and execution remain sore points between English and French Canada.

US President Nixon signs Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act

On November 16, 1973, US President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act into law. In addition to creating an oil pipeline across the state, the Act also quashed all environmental-legal challenges regarding its construction.