What A Day - Crime And Capital Punishment

Episode Date: December 8, 2020

A bipartisan relief bill that had some momentum last week hit a snag after two senators said they won’t support the proposal. We explain. Plus, an update on coronavirus restrictions in New York.The Trump administration has five executions planned between now and January 20th, including that of Brandon Bernard, whose sentence many are fighting to commute. Biden is against the death penalty and said he will work to end it as president. And in headlines: police shooting of 23-year-old Casey Goodson in Ohio, the Trump admin passed on extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and one weird trick pandas use to stay warm.Show Links:https://www.helpsavebrandon.com/"Brandon Bernard Awaits Execution Amid Calls for Clemency"https://theintercept.com/2020/12/05/federal-executions-brandon-bernard/

It's Tuesday, December 8th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What The Day, where we are now willing to let Trump reverse the results of the election in Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. Yeah, the truth is it won't change anything, but maybe he'll just shut up long enough to let us get on with our lives. Yeah, sir, your consolation prize is Omaha. I heard it's lovely in the summer. On today's show, a look at why Trump is ratcheting up federal executions and what Biden can do to end the death penalty. Then some headlines.

But first, the latest. I think it could be even more of a challenge than what we saw with Thanksgiving. So I hope that people realize that and understand that as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify, if not essentially shut down their holiday season. But we are in a very critical time in this country right now. We've got to not walk away from the facts and the data. This is tough going for all of us. That was Dr. Anthony Fauci talking about Christmas and our COVID nightmare world. His concern is that the end of the year holidays could be more dangerous than Thanksgiving because gatherings are more prolonged. So here's

the big picture on the pandemic right now. Hospitalizations are still breaking records. The seven-day average in cases is around 200,000, and daily deaths are averaging over 2,000 as well. There's some evidence that states in the Midwest dealing with out-of-control outbreaks like the Dakotas and Iowa have seen some improvement, though we still haven't seen the full effects of Thanksgiving. In any case, those small improvements unfortunately are being offset by the coasts, where in California and New York, the governors have been warning about hospital capacity. We talked about California's new shutdown metrics on yesterday's show, but what did we learn about New York? Yeah, so Governor Cuomo is kind of approaching the situation in a similar way to Governor Newsom, and that is using these hospitalization metrics to determine regional

shutdowns across the state. So basically, according to Cuomo, if any of the state's regions are expected to hit 90% capacity within three weeks, the region shuts down besides essential services like grocery stores. Cuomo also made hospitals in the state increase bed capacity by 25%. And according to the Wall Street Journal, he wants retired medical professionals to actually return to work to assist with what he expects will be more people hospitalized with COVID over the next month or so. Then, also according to the state's figures, about 81% of hospital beds in New York City are currently being used, and that is based on the seven-day average of hospitalizations. But that, though, doesn't account for this new expansion that Cuomo was talking about. Yeah, and also in New York,

if things get worse, we could see indoor dining shut down, right? Yes. That could be triggered as soon as next week. And meanwhile, yesterday marked the first day back for elementary school students in the city. So to put a bow on the trilogy of stories we've done recently on all this decision making in New York, first the schools closed while dining remained open, leading to a lot of pushback. Then some schools reopened, and now it appears that indoor dining could likely close next. Well, I hope the kids enjoy their probably one week of school in person. Then one of the other big storylines going into the holidays for people around the country is the continued lack of federal financial support. We talked about this new bipartisan proposal last week that seemed like it was an option, if only a temporary one.

So what's the latest on that? Well, as with most things in Congress, they are hitting a bit of a snag. At least they're consistent on that. To backtrack for just a moment here, the first sign that there were going to be some people in opposition to this new package came at the end of last week. Senator Bernie Sanders said on Friday that he wouldn't support it in its current form. And the major hangups for the left have been that the package had included these liability shields, basically protecting some businesses from COVID related lawsuits, and the lack of stimulus checks in the bill. As a reminder, since this whole entire pandemic started, there has only been one direct payment of $1,200 to people. So if you were behind on rent or mortgage payments at the moment, even just one more of those might not actually

make up the difference. This problem, of course, has been compounded over months and months of no action. And then it got even more interesting. Senator Josh Hawley, the Republican from Missouri, yes, that one, made a similar case about the direct payments and actually told President Trump directly to veto the bill if it doesn't include them. That's according to Politico. So a very weird overlap occurring there. Honestly, let this be the last thing that these two have in common. Do not let that friendship go any further. Yeah. And that brings us to this week where Congress also has to figure out how to fund the government. That is right. So on that front, it seems like they're going to try to buy more time, which in turn would also hypothetically help figure out the COVID relief. There would

be a government shutdown triggered by this Friday if no deal is reached. So in the meantime, Congress is set to vote on a measure that would keep the government open for a week to figure out these minor details. According to the Washington Post, the problems in negotiations have been the same as they have been for months. Republicans want those liability shields. Democrats want the state and local funding. And for now, at least, Republicans don't seem to want to do the latter without the former being there. And maybe buying another week's time will solve all the ills of our largely anti-democratic Senate, but we're going to have to see. In other news, Biden's transition continues. According to reports, he is expected to nominate retired General Lloyd J. Austin III to be his defense secretary. If confirmed, Austin would be the first Black

person in that role. And while we're keeping track of the transition to Biden, we're also keeping track of the stuff that the Trump administration is doing in its final hours, which brings us to a slate of federal executions scheduled to start this week. Akilah, fill us in. Right. So this has been flying a little bit under the radar with everything else that's going on. But basically, the Trump administration has five executions planned between now and January 20th when Biden will be sworn in. It's part of a policy shift Trump started earlier this year, back in July, when after a 17-year hiatus on executions, the federal government started to do them again. Critics have said the restart was politically motivated, an effort in an election year to strengthen Trump's law and order message. And if these executions go forward, it will mean that Trump's administration has killed 13 inmates, making him the most prolific execution president in over 130 years, according to the AP. It's super dark. And honestly, I don't think he needs to add

any numbers to his death count at this point. No. But just as a point of context, overall in the United States, executions are down, even if they're up at the federal level. And that's because states haven't been doing as many. And especially this year, because many states have paused executions are down, even if they're up at the federal level. And that's because states haven't been doing as many, and especially this year, because many states have paused executions due to COVID risks for lawyers, witnesses, and executioners. I really hope you can make that make sense. They're worried about people getting sick at the killing that they're doing. I don't get it. It's grotesque in a lot of ways. In one case that's garnered a lot of attention in recent days is that of Brandon Bernard. That's right. He's a 40-year-old man who was convicted of killing two people when he was just 18 years old, and he's been in jail ever since. The co-defendant in his case, Christopher Villalba, was executed in September.

Villalba was the first black inmate executed after Trump resumed lethal punishment earlier this year. Bernard's lawyers are asking for a stay of his sentence, and they say the government suppressed expert testimony about him playing a lesser role in the crime. A majority of the surviving jurors in his case no longer want the death penalty carried out and even admit that at least two equally culpable participants in the crime were given more lenient sentences and have already been released from prison. Bernard's execution is scheduled for Thursday, but activists, his lawyers, one of his former prosecutors, and Kim Kardashian are all trying to convince Trump to commute a sentence. This isn't the first time I've said this,

but our justice system is woefully broken if we need a reality star to appeal to another reality star just to save lives. That's right. If the execution goes ahead, Bernard will be the second Black man executed in Trump's lame duck period. On November 19th, Orlando Hall, a Black man convicted by an all-white jury, was executed. Jeez. And this would always be a terrible story, but one thing that makes it feel even worse is that Trump is doing this during his final days in office before Biden, who is against the death

penalty, takes over. Right. And typically, an outgoing president would defer to an incoming president on a policy which they differ on so starkly. But that's obviously not what's happening here. So Biden has come a long way on this issue. He used to support capital punishment and the 1994 crime bill, which he helped craft, expanded the crimes for which someone could be put to death. But as part of his campaign platform, he said that he will work to end the federal death penalty as president. There are a few ways that he could do that. One is pass legislation through the Congress. Another is simply putting a moratorium on federal executions. That's what President Obama did. But of course, that's not a lasting solution and leaves the door open for another president to come in and resume

them. Another avenue for Biden is that he could use his presidential authority to single-handedly commute all of the death sentences for federal inmates and convert them to life in prison terms. That would go a long way, but wouldn't prevent new defendants from getting death sentences. We've put some links in our show notes to read more about this issue, Brandon Bernard's case, and resources to take action. And that's the latest for now. it's tuesday wad squad and for today's tim check we're talking about how other countries are enforcing lockdown in taiwan authorities have fined a man the equivalent of 3500 u.s dollars Wow. The guy in question was quarantining in a hotel room after coming from the Philippines, and he was caught on camera briefly stepping into the hallway. Under quarantine rules in Taiwan, that comes with a heavy fine.

So, obviously in the U.S., our approach isn't this strict, but Kitty, if it was, what activity would you break quarantine to do for just eight seconds? This is tough. I, there's not a lot that you can accomplish, but I think if you're leaving a hotel room, the move is probably to try to grab something from the vending machine, like a honey bun. But that's really what you're going to do. You could do anything. That's probably the rules now. That's probably what I would do with my eight seconds. I don't trust myself to get anything else accomplished in just those eight seconds of time. So if I'm confined somewhere and I got to be fine for something, at least I'm going to have like a honey bun or something while that's happening. I mean, I guess I respect it. It

makes sense to me because eight seconds is really hard, but I don't even know if you can locate the honey bun and do the buttons in time in eight seconds. I feel like there's a lot, you know, there's a lot there. It's true. Like you'd accidentally do like F4 instead of B4 or something like that. And then like it gets stuck or something and you're pounding on the vending machine. Yeah, there are a lot of unforeseen problems here. In your eight seconds though, what are you doing?

I mean, I'm'm just gonna run down the hallway naked okay why wouldn't i do that i'm already gonna get fined they should have to look at my butt like it's fine i feel like that's the only thing i'd get out of it is like okay well you still have to look at my butt and we all know that like right the honey bun can happen later i can post mates it over and just eat it naked on the bed while they charge me the money. Like, it's fine. This is true. Yeah, and like, I feel like you would get more points on like the international story level. Like, if

we were talking about this story and it was you and you had run down naked, people would be like, that's kind of a cool use of time and honestly very funny. Right. And, you know, I'm not saying that this is a good plan, but like, it could maybe help me get a boyfriend. That becomes the news story. Like, look at her running.

She's doing great. I think that, yeah. I mean, I think this is well thought out. And I think, you know, depending on how far you want to go down the hallway, you could get on a lot of like security cameras in eight seconds, more than maybe we think. Exactly.

There you go. We all just want more footage of ourselves, specifically from grainy hotel. I don't know. We closed circuit television, but just like that, we've checked our temps. Stay safe. Don't run down the hall naked to break quarantine. It's a bad idea. All right. We're just we're just having fun here and we'll be back with some headlines. Headlines. Police in Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a 23-year-old black man in front of his home last Friday.

According to his family, Casey Goodson was shot three times in the back while he was trying to enter his home, carrying sandwiches from Subway. The sheriff's department claimed Goodson had a gun and refused to drop it, but authorities have provided few further details about what led to the shooting. None of the deputies wore body cameras and no other law enforcement officers witnessed the shooting. Weird how that always tends to happen. Jason Meade, a member of the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, shot Goodson while conducting a completely unrelated search in his neighborhood. Meade has since been suspended from duty and is currently the subject of an internal investigation by the sheriff's office. Goodson's family disputes the sheriff's department's version of the story and believes that the police are lying.

Our nation's dealmaker-in-chief might have blown it again by passing on an offer from Pfizer to buy more doses of the company's COVID vaccine this summer. New reports indicate that the Trump administration's decision might make it difficult for the U.S. to get more of Pfizer's vaccine until late June or July because of the company's deals with other countries. The U.S. placed an initial 100 million dose order, which will let 50 million people get the two shot vaccine. Pfizer officials had urged them to purchase 200 million doses late this summer.

Trump is expected to sign an executive order today to prioritize getting domestically produced vaccines to Americans before sending them to other countries. But the impact of that order will be isn't immediately clear. There are other vaccines like the one from Moderna plus four other vaccine candidates. So it's not like everything is riding on Pfizer. Still, it would have been really nice. Yeah, could have could have been a good thing. Could have been would have settled for Pfizer would have settled big time. Oh, my God. OK. Uber's dream of having only robot drivers who like to be paid in batteries will not come true. They announced they're handing over their self driving car project yesterday after it caused huge legal and financial problems for the rideshare giant.

Self-driving car startup Aurora will take over Uber's project after Uber hands them a $400 million investment. So as a business genius, I should note that usually money goes the other direction during corporate acquisitions, but that's what makes Uber such a disruptive and innovative organization. Uber poured at least a billion dollars into their self-driving cars project and saw it as a path to profitability, but the cars led to a series of scandals. Among those included a lawsuit from Google over stolen trade

secrets that resulted in an 18-month prison sentence for a former top Uber exec, plus a pedestrian death in Arizona. Yikes. As the new owner of Uber's self-driving car project, Aurora will focus first on autonomous long-haul trucking, because when you have safety concerns about a new technology, the best approach is to give it way more wheels and make it extremely long. Oh my gosh. Well, adorable pandas are sick of being valued just for their looks,

cosign. And now they're fighting back by adopting an incredibly gross habit. Rolling in horse dung is something pandas have been spotted doing frequently in the Kinling Mountains in China. A team of researchers there studied the behavior for 10 years starting in 2007 and were mystified by it since it's a relatively high-risk activity for a wild animal with no obvious benefit. In a paper published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists proposed an explanation for this behavior. Wearing what I call a brown jacket might help pandas stay warm in the winter because of chemical compounds in the dung that interfere with cold-sensing proteins in their cells. The compounds could also inhibit pain perception or inflammation,

offering pandas more incentive to apply some oil of smell-ay. Sorry, but I have millions of these, and I'm going to use them, all right? More studies will be needed to understand this behavior. In the meantime, if you're struggling to stay warm in your drafty apartment, remember that horsepower heat is sustainable and also eco chic. Yeah. You'll be an influencer while you're covered in it. Yeah.

And everyone will absolutely socially distance themselves from your body. And those are the headlines. One last thing before we go, make sure to check out today's episode of America Dissected. Yeah, this week, Abdul is talking about the difference between public health policies at the state and federal levels. It's a very important topic. So make sure you give it a listen and subscribe to America Dissected wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review,

enjoy your eight seconds of rule breaking, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the latest in panda science like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And be careful with long robot cars. I'm just saying, you don't want to get hit and then have nobody be liable. Right. Nobody. I need to know who to sue. Okay. Which one? All trucker and not a robot. What a day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.