Federal courthouses are crumbling around the country, Congress turns a blind eye

Judges across the country have been complaining that their courthouses are in a dire state of disrepair, and that the G.S.A. is not doing enough to respond, reported The New York Times. The extent of the problem was highlighted in interviews with chief judges of district courts as well as in a list of maintenance issues compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which coordinates operations across the judiciary.

For years, the chief judge overseeing the federal courts in Chicago had been trying to fix the water inside the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. A study had found that the water flowing to the building’s showers, sinks and drinking fountains most likely contained elevated levels of Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease.

A judge in Oklahoma worked beside a trash bin to catch water falling from a leaking ceiling, before the problem became so severe that she was forced to move to temporary chambers for more than a year. A century-old courthouse in Asheville, N.C., is plagued by mold and a dilapidated heating system, requiring some court services to move off-site. Judges from other courthouses say the G.S.A. has been slow to address problems with critical HVAC systems, falling ceiling tiles and termites.

In the Middle District of Florida, the G.S.A. has been slow to respond to repeated leaks in Jacksonville and has taken more than two years to fully repair a fence that secures a parking lot for judges in Ocala, Chief Judge Marcia Morales Howard said in an interview. She criticized the agency for failing to take into account the impact of courthouse shutdowns on jurors, litigants and the rule of law. “G.S.A. gets paid their rent no matter what,” she said. “And we can’t move. So there’s just no urgency in getting the repairs done.”

The problems with the nation’s courthouses are one facet of a crisis over the federal government’s longstanding inability to maintain its own buildings. Edward C. Forst, the G.S.A.’s administrator, has blamed a requirement that the agency get congressional approval in advance of major projects. As for courthouses, he has argued that the $1.3 billion the judiciary pays each year in rent is a bargain compared with the cost of repairs. He has also cited a report from the Government Accountability Office that found the judiciary’s own guidelines for the design of its courthouses will lead to higher costs.

But for judges the problem is especially frustrating because they must rely on the G.S.A., part of the executive branch, to persuade Congress to address their needs.

G.S.A. control of courthouse repairs is inconsistent with the nation’s tradition of separation of powers, said Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr., the director of the Administrative Office.

“We ought to be responsible for our own buildings. We ought not to be reliant upon an agency of the executive branch to manage our buildings,” Judge Conrad said in an interview. “Judicial independence, conceptually, is more important today than it has ever been.”

After years of frustration, Judge Conrad said the judiciary is now asking Congress to give it control of courthouses in 10 of the country’s 94 judicial districts — a pilot that could eventually lead to a more substantial handover. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, mentioned the possibility of legislation that would transfer control of some courthouses to the judiciary in a hearing on Tuesday.

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Acting AG Blanche meets with Epstein victims, they were not impressed

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met  accusers of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following a request to do so by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose support is crucial to advancing his nomination to lead the Justice Department, reported CBS News.

Epstein accuser Annie Farmer said in a statement following her meeting with Blanche that she feels "even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States' Attorney General."

Farmer alleged that Blanche was "abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors," which she described as "a marked contrast" from his testimony at Wednesday's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Dani Bensky, whose name and personal information were mistakenly made public in documents related to the federal investigation into Epstein that were released by the Justice Department last year, testified before the committee earlier Thursday before taking part in the meeting with Blanche. 

Bensky said in a statement that Blanche treated the meeting "as a mere 'check-the-box' exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation."

Bensky said that Blanche "danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust." She said she believes Blanche "is not qualified to serve as attorney general."

"He did not adequately account for the release of materials that exposed survivors' identifying information and images, and he offered no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability beyond" Epstein and longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, she said.

The political firestorm over Epstein has been a persistent headache for the Trump administration, which released millions of investigative documents over the last year about the disgraced financier's crimes and connections to high-profile people. 

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Florida's machinery of death keeps on churning

 The 17th Execution of 2026

Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was one of three older inmates scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation’s busiest death penalty state, reported The Associated Press.

Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting the 18-year-old woman at a New Year’s Eve party.

Sochor was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up at the 6 p.m. execution time. Asked by the warden if he had any last words, Sochor said he did.

He apologized several times to the Gifford family, saying he was “deeply sorry” and also thanked his own loved ones for their support over the years. Then he commended his spirit to Jesus Christ shortly before the drugs began flowing at 6:03 p.m.

Sochor underwent about a minute of heavy breathing and then some seconds of sputtering. After two minutes in which Sochor appeared to go still, the warden looked into his eyes, shook his shoulders and yelled his name without getting a response. A medic was summoned at 6:14 p.m., soon after pronouncing Sochor dead.

Another 74-year-old inmate just a week younger than Sochor at the time of execution was put to death last month. And later this month, the state is preparing to execute an 80-year-old, the state’s first octogenarian facing a lethal injection.

The execution plans highlight the aging death row population in the U.S. and the busy death chamber in Florida, which has now carried out 10 of the 16 executions conducted in the nation this year — more than every other state combined.

Marilyn Gifford, Patricia’s sister, said after witnessing the execution that Sochor’s death brings some closure to the family, but it’s bittersweet since her body has never been found. She encouraged anyone with information that could lead to the remains to contact authorities.

“He had 45 years to return Patty’s remains to us, but he cruelly chose not to,” Gifford said, reading from a statement. “We never got a chance to lay her to rest in God’s arms. Without closure, every happy memory of Patty is immediately crushed by the tragedy of her murder.”

Gifford also pointed out that Sochor got to live more than twice as long on death row as her sister lived her entire life. “Tonight’s execution was appropriate because Dennis Sochor was a lifelong brutal and sadistic man,” she said.

It’s unclear why Florida scheduled the executions of the three prisoners consecutively.

Maria DeLiberato, legal director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, noted that in Florida the governor has practically sole discretion when it comes to scheduling executions. In many other death penalty states, the scheduling is up to the courts.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office did not respond to emailed requests for comment about the recent pace of the executions.

A New Year’s Day killing

According to court records, Gifford was celebrating the upcoming New Year with a friend at a Fort Lauderdale area bar when they met Sochor and his brother.

The four spent hours talking, but after the friend became ill and went to sleep in her car, Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. But instead of going for food, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford, according to investigators.

Sochor was later arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida. Sochor’s brother told police Sochor was responsible for Gifford’s disappearance, and Sochor himself confessed on tape to choking Gifford and disposing of her body. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to death.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sochor’s final appeal without comment.

Oldest inmates executed in Florida

On June 25, Florida executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer for the killing of his wife Karen. Until Tuesday, Spencer was the oldest inmate executed in Florida.

According to Florida Department of Corrections records, the oldest inmates previously executed by the state were both 72: Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting of a state representative, Charles Schuh Jr.

Meanwhile, Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.

If executed as planned, he would become the second oldest prisoner known to be put to death in modern U.S. history after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. Moody was executed in Alabama in 2018 for killing a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney during a wave of Southern mail bombs.

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CREATORS: How Does The 25th Amendment Protect Democracy?

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
July 15, 2026

A 2016 article in Psychology Today explored whether having a mental illness would make it difficult for a candidate to get elected president. The author, Guy Winch, Ph.D., cited a study by Jonathan Davidson of Duke University Medical Center that found that of the first 37 U.S. presidents, "half of those men had been afflicted by mental illness — and 27% met those criteria while in office, something that could have clearly affected their ability to perform their jobs."

The study found that 24% of presidents met the diagnostic criteria for depression, including James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, and Calvin Coolidge.

Davidson and his team also found evidence of anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence among sitting presidents.

Although the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution can prevent an incompetent president from remaining in office, the amendment was not created specifically for that purpose.

The 25th Amendment addresses what happens to the presidency and vice presidency if the president and/or vice president dies, resigns or becomes incapacitated or disabled.

About two years after the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, Congress recommended a succession amendment. On Feb. 23, 1967, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor, who, by the way, may have suffered from bipolar disorder, signed the 25th Amendment into law.

Imagine in 1867 or 1967 if the president made a profane-laced statement in reference to Iran that "a whole civilization will die tonight," or a president who frequently naps at meetings took on the Pope as "WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy." Is an 80-year-old, at times rambling, president with — as noted by The Hill — dark, unexplained bruising spanning the back of both hands — appropriate for the 25th Amendment consideration?

Succession has been a problem since the infancy of America. The original Constitution allowed for the vice president to become acting president if the president died.

That wasn't good enough for John Tyler who became "Vice President Acting President" in 1841 when former President William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office. Tyler moved into the White House and assumed full presidential powers, including giving an Inaugural Address.

The first few sections of the 25th Amendment are straightforward. First, if the president dies or resigns — think Richard Nixon — the vice president takes over. Second, if the vice president dies or resigns — think Spiro Agnew — the president appoints a replacement approved by Congress.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment is a little trickier.

Whenever the vice president and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the vice president shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as acting president.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment has never been used, although officials considered invoking the section after the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan.

However, like impeachment or indictment, the president has Due Process rights. The president can challenge the declaration of incapacity. If he or she does, the vice president and other administration officials must reassert the claims or the president resumes his authority.

If the claim is reasserted, Congress must decide the issue. Within 21 days of assembling, Congress must vote with a two-thirds majority of both houses that the president is unable to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities as president.

If the two-thirds super-majority is not met in both houses of Congress, "the president shall resume the powers and duties of his office."

For now, there is little chance of invoking the 25th Amendment. The President is Republican, the House is Republican, the Senate is Republican and the Vice-President is a sycophant. There are other options — the midterms are just months away ... a dramatic power shift is not out of the question.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book, "The Executioner's Toll," 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

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Clock is ticking on PA legislature's responsibility to address felony murder sentences

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled life in prison for felony murder unconstitutional in March. The court’s decision affected all convictions going forward but left it to the state Legislature to decide by July 24 how it would impact past convictions, leaving more than 1,100 others in limbo, reported the Prison Journalism Project.

A bill authored by Senate Republicans, which passed the chamber on June 25, would impose a minimum sentence of 35 years for second-degree murder except in cases where the defendant meets a strict set of guidelines proving they had no intention, knowledge or participation in the murder itself, in which case they could be sentenced to 10 to 40 years. The bill still allows for life sentences in certain cases.

A competing bill in the Democrat-led House caps sentences at 50 years and expands eligibility for parole after 25 years based on the defendant’s culpability in the crime and consideration of public and victim safety. That bill remains in committee.

If lawmakers cannot reach a consensus, the fate of those convicted of second-degree murder will go back to the court system for resentencing. The uncertainty for the women is exacerbated by limited access to information.

“I feel like there is a lack of information, even conflicting information,” said Tequilla Fields, 53, who has served 21 years in prison for second-degree murder charges stemming from a crime she committed when she was 18. “No one seems to know what’s really going on, not even the people outside. That makes it hard to know what to believe.”

Fields said the mandatory minimum of 35 years imposed by the Senate-led bill is too harsh. 

“Thirty-five years? It doesn’t seem fair, right or logical — it doesn’t make any sense,” Fields said. ”It’s too much time for someone who had no intention to kill anyone, or who didn’t kill someone at all. I do not trust the justice system at all. They don’t care about us. We’re not human beings to them.” 

Tameka Flowers, 51, who has been incarcerated for 31 years for second-degree murder, said a minimum sentence of 35 years serves the same function as a life-without-parole sentence.

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“It is a blessing to have the opportunity to leave prison, but a minimum sentence of 35 is still a death sentence for most,” Flowers said. “They’re trying to sentence people as if they had the intent to kill when they didn’t.” 

Despite her anxiety over her own release, Reyes said she understands the reasoning behind the Senate bill’s 35-year minimum. 

“At the end of the day, we have to understand that a life was taken while we were there, even if we didn’t do it,” Reyes said. ”It’s a life sentence for them.” 

Markman said she was also thinking about her victim and their family.

“It’s hard for me to know that I might get a second chance at life, regardless of how many years from now it may be, but they will not be,” Markman said.

If lawmakers do not pass a bill by the deadline, judges will have wide latitude to impose new sentences. Some women at SCI Muncy are concerned that this scenario will result in further sentencing disparities. 

“My main worry is if a bill isn’t passed and people are kicked back to their counties for resentencing,” Markman said. “Judges will be able to sentence people however they want to, and some counties are harsher than others.” 

Flowers said smaller, rural counties will most likely impose harsh sentences while more liberal cities like Philadelphia will impose more lenient sentences. 

“The judges and attorneys will have to really dig into people’s lives prior to prison, figuring out who we were then and why we made the decisions we made,“ Flowers said. “I feel like a lot of us might get resentenced to the same amount of time.” 

Despite their concerns about how the state Supreme Court ruling will be applied, women serving second-degree sentences at SCI Muncy are hopeful that they will soon have a meaningful opportunity to be released, viewing it as a chance to contribute to society. 

”This means everything to me, and I will not waste the chance I am given,” Markman said. “I am determined to make the most of it by making a positive difference and helping other people. If I can help one person who is going through a similar situation to what I was, it will all be worth it. I have to do something to give back.”

While the state Legislature determines its next steps, the community of women at Muncy are hopeful that politicians will agree that everyone is more than the worst decisions they’ve made. 

”We are not who we were two, three and four decades ago,” Flowers said. ”We were women who were abused, used, put down and beat down. And yet, we have survived and found ourselves. We’ve learned how to aid others. We just want the opportunity to show society that we will be an asset to any community we are a part of. We want to show that change is real.”

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As substance abuse declines, so goes the murder rate

Professor James Tuttle of the University of Montana writes in The Conversation, the murder rate in 2025 was the lowest in modern American history.

Preliminary data shows the murder rate fell nearly 20% from 2024, likely making it the lowest rate since reliable national data began to be collected in 1960.

Why was the murder rate so low?

I’m a professor of sociology and criminology who studies crime trends. In my book, “Crime Wave,” I explore how homicide rates have closely followed three trends over the past decade: alcohol consumption, drug abuse and firearm purchases. Now that the drug and alcohol crises are waning and gun purchases are falling, so too is the murder rate.

The 2015-2021 murder increase

The murder rate’s previous low came in 2014, capping a decline that had been more or less continuous since the early 1990s.

The murder rate usually rises and falls alongside other crimes, so through the 2010s, with property crime and overall youth offending dropping, criminologists expected the murder trend to follow suit.

Instead, the national murder rate increased sharply in 2015 and 2016, and then by an even larger margin in 2020.

Suddenly, it appeared that violent crime was spiraling out of control. By 2021, the homicide rate hit its highest level since the mid-1990s.

Popular, but incomplete, explanations

Some researchers and commentators attributed the homicide spikes to a so-called “Ferguson effect” in 2015 and, likewise, a “Minneapolis effect” in 2020. These theories are based on the idea that law enforcement officers were reluctant to be proactive or make arrests after nationwide protests against police brutality related to the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. The evidence for these claims is mixed.

There is little consistent indication that a decline in proactive policing contributed to a crime increase in 2015, although the homicide spike in 2020 was likely exacerbated by a police “pullback”.

Still, the majority of the homicide spike took place before June 2020, when protests over Floyd’s death spread nationwide. A study published in the journal Epidemiology found that the increase began as early as October 2019, suggesting de-policing in the summer of 2020 likely worsened the rise rather than caused it.

De-policing is, at best, an incomplete explanation.

Substance abuse, guns and the ‘homicide epidemic’

As I document in “Crime Wave,” the crisis in violence was related to another crisis: deaths of despair, which include drug overdoses, suicides and alcohol-related fatalities.

In the years leading up to the 2015 homicide spike, the prescription opioid crisis gave way to the illicit opioid crisis. As opioid use shifted toward heroin and fentanyl, it became deadlier. People were more likely to overdose, and the drug market moved from pharmacists into the hands of street dealers. It wasn’t just the pharmacological effect of drugs but the systemic nature of drug markets – disputes between dealers, buyers and users – that contributed to the spike in homicides.

At the same time, alcohol consumption began to accelerate. Alcohol is connected to homicide rates in part because it decreases inhibition, nullifying social and personal constraints. A high percentage of both homicide offenders and victims are under the influence of alcohol during a fatal assault.

Finally, amid growing distrust of the police and the government, firearm sales began to increase during 2015 and 2016, setting an all-time record in 2020. Given that assaults with a firearm are more likely to lead to the death of the victim than assaults using other weapons, confrontations became deadlier.

In my assessment, the homicide rate moved in near lockstep with trends in drug overdoses, alcohol consumption and firearm purchases, each of which increased by its largest margin in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic likely exacerbated the substance abuse crisis, and the gun-buying spree was especially pronounced at three points: in March 2020, when the U.S. declared a national emergency over COVID-19; in June 2020, following the Floyd protests; and in the months surrounding the 2020 presidential election.

With more people under the influence of alcohol, an expanding illicit drug market and more guns available, the murder rate dramatically increased.

The murder rate decline after 2021

After peaking in 2021, the murder rate began to fall. This occurred slowly at first in 2022, but the estimated declines in 2023, 2024 and 2025 have been substantial. The reversal in the homicide trend has followed a similar timeline as the substance abuse and firearm purchasing patterns, though some indicators of firearm possession, such as their use in suicides, remain elevated.

When the homicide rate was rising, it defied criminologists’ expectations, breaking away from the property crime decline of the 2010s. Now, the murder rate is falling back in line with other crime trends, many of which are also among the lowest ever recorded. As the substance abuse crises continue to wane, I expect murder rates to fall even further in the near future.

Additionally, with youth criminal involvement hitting historic lows, the next generation appears to be one of the least criminally prone in decades, which bodes well for continued reductions in the murder rate.

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New Mexico AG accuses DOJ of withholding Epstein documents

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez publicly released a letter to Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing the US Department of Justice (DOJ) of withholding unredacted copies of documents that are pertinent to New Mexico’s investigation of Zorro Ranch, which was owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reported JURISTnews.

New Mexico reopened its investigation into possible sex trafficking at the ranch in February, but Torrez has not yet announced any findings. In the letter, he summarized a series of unmet document requests, made under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, some dating back to February. Torrez wrote:

The USDOJ’s continued withholding of unredacted records is causing real and escalating harm to the NMDOJ’s criminal investigation. Every day that the USDOJ withholds these records, the foundation upon which a New Mexico prosecution could be built erodes. Witnesses relocate and become unreachable. Memories, already strained by years of trauma, fade further. Physical and documentary evidence degrades, is lost, or is rendered more difficult to authenticate with the passage of time … more than 130 days have now elapsed since the NMDOJ’s initial request. The NMDOJ views this length of time as an unreasonable delay under any rule of reason.

A DOJ spokesperson replied, “DOJ reiterates that it welcomes New Mexico(‘s) … investigation of the Zorro Ranch and stands ready to provide … assistance with New Mexico’s investigation. Should that investigation uncover potential federal crimes, the DOJ will work closely with our law enforcement partners to investigate and, as appropriate, prosecute.”

According to one of the Epstein files that has been released, conservative talk show host Edward Aragon brought a tip to the Albuquerque office of the FBI in 2019. The tipster offered Aragon “7 videos of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and the location of two foreign girls buried on Zorro Ranch for sale for one bitcoin.” In the same year, The New York Times published an article alleging that Epstein planned to impregnate multiple women at his Zorro Ranch.

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