Crime and punishment: pity the poor murderer
Point and counterpoint:
This story is about a man whose green card was revoked because he'd been convicted—not accused, but *convicted*—of murder, armed robbery, and forcible theft with a deadly weapon. https://t.co/goz0lcLGNo
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 25, 2025
From the Newsweek article linked in that tweet:
Orville Etoria, a Jamaican national, held a green card that was revoked after being convicted of multiple serious felony offenses, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon, armed robbery, and forcible theft with a deadly weapon, DHS said. …
Etoria served 25 years for his crime and was issued a final removal order by an immigration judge in 2009. Upon his release in 2021, immigration officials allowed him to stay, provided he completes annual check-ins, according to The New York Times. On July 17, 2025, he was deported. …
In a press release, DHS criticized The New York Times for publishing a “sob story” about Etoria, expressing concern about media focus on the deportee rather than his offenses or the victims.
“Why does the New York Times continue to peddle sob stories of criminal illegal aliens? When will they finally shed light on their victims?”
Etoria was among a group of five men with criminal convictions who were deported under President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies. The group was sent to a prison facility in Eswatini, a southern African nation, where none of them are citizens.
Etoria’s aunt, Margaret McKen, told The New York Times that he should have been deported to Jamaica, where he holds a valid passport. …
Margaret McKen told The New York Times: “He paid the penalty for what he did. Why is he in prison again?”
When I read that, I thought that yes, he probably should have been deported to Jamaica. But then I noticed the date of the Newsweek story – it’s from early September. It turns out that not long after that, Etoria was sent to Jamaica, where he now resides. I’d like to know the circumstances of the murder, why he was set free after serving 25 years, how he got his green card status, why it was decided in 2021 not to deport him, and a host of other details. Perhaps the information is available behind various paywalls; perhaps not.
And speaking of New York, there’s this from Mamdani:
NYC Mayor-elect Mayor Zohran Mamdani claimed on the campaign trail he no longer wants to “defund the police,” but a lefty political strategist he tapped to oversee his transition team is an impassioned supporter of the anti-cop movement.
Elena Leopold, executive director of an all-female transition team, was among the more than 230 past and present staffers of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio who signed an June 2020 “open letter” to de Blasio demanding “radical change” on criminal justice policies – especially at the NYPD.
Then again, Mamdani has retained Jessica Tisch as Police Commissioner. She is somewhat more traditional in her approach.
Should be interesting.
It is good to see a Community Note attached to that post on X. I can write and vote on them. I voted for that one. Most never reach the needed concenus to get posted..
Jessica Tisch is an extraordinary Police Commissioner.
She loves NYC, which is lucky to have her along with its all-too-often under-appreciated “Finest” working crazy hours to do a very difficult job.
As for Madmani, he’s lying again. (He has to play to his base so count on him to talk out of both sides of his mouth.)
NYers had better get used to it; and because of it I’d be very surprised if the Commish will feel able to stick it out for very long.
Hope I’m wrong. The city sorely needs people of her caliber.
Good luck!
It’s “complicated” is the usual reply.
I believe his sentence was 25 to life, held at Sing Sing, so a NY crime. I thought NY had reformed the old sentence for murder, I guess not. David Berkowitz got 25 to life as the death penalty was null and void. He is actually eligible for parole, but he has become a Christian and doesn’t seek that. He’s helping new inmates adjust to prison.
I do think the Boston marathon bomber should lose his U.S. citizenship.
Progtrash don’t think this man is a problem. They think ordinary people are the problem.
Jessica Tisch will certainly clash with the Mayor and his team. I don’t think she will last very long. Either she is fired or she quits.
More legal “stuff”…
“BYRON YORK: The road to the Chicago train fire attack.”—
https://instapundit.com/758744/
+ Related:
“THE ABOLITION OF BRITAIN: Britain’s Plan to Abolish Most Jury Trials Should Make Us Grateful for the Constitution.”—
https://instapundit.com/758738/
Curious graf:
Gosh, someone sure hasn’t been paying attention to what the Democrats have said time and time again about what needs to be done about the Constitution…AND about packing the Supreme Court…
rbj1 I think the Boston marathon bomber should face the death penalty, He is on death row in a federal prison. So it may happen.
Pity the poor [former jihadi]….
(As though there weren’t enough problems…even if this particular one was, nonetheless, entirely foreseeable…)
“Built with Gulf money, staffed by Jihadis: The lie of Syria’s new army;
“The greatest threat to regional stability is no longer Syria’s collapse, but its successful institutionalization.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/418361
Opening grafs:
[Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
…Though the view that the current former-jihadi-in-charge (along with his patrons in Turkey and Qatar) is an “unwitting sponsor” is, in my view, entirely wrongheaded and a surprising mis-statement by an analyst who, in my view, is generally pretty sharp.
Under NY law, the harshest possible penalty for what we call second degree murder (intentional murder of a non-police officer — it would be called first degree murder in most states) is 25 years to life. After 25 years, the prisoner is eligible for parole, no matter how vicious the crime. The parole boards are now quite liberal in granting parole to murderers; the courts have held that the boards cannot consider the heinousness of the crime, only the prison record and whether the person appears to have been “rehabilitated.” So that is why the convict in this story was released after 25 years. No mystery there.
I didn’t keep the link, but I just saw a clip on X of another member of Mamdani’s new team talking to what I believe was a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America. This man is a professor somewhere, and he was explaining that they want to defund the police because they expect that the police would be the ones who would be able to stop them from implementing their (socialist/revolutionary) goals.
Not even hiding it anymore, and so few people understand that the wolves are explaining exactly what’s going to be on the menu once they are in power.
DJF: Good explanation! The interesting thing to me is, why wasn’t his Green Card revoked when he was released from prison? What are the standards? And what could possibly be better grounds for deportation than murder?