June 05, 2013
Eve Carson's Killer Re-Sentenced
A 22-year-old man has been sentenced a second time to life in prison without parole for the murder of a popular University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student body president in 2008. Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. was again given the no-parole sentence for his part in the murder of Eve Carson. The re-sentencing was ordered by an appeals court after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding sentencing of juveniles. Read more...
June 03, 2013
Van der Sloot Seeks Reduced Sentence
Joran van der Sloot, convicted of murdering of a woman in Peru and long-suspected in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, is aiming to reduce his murder sentence from 28 years in prison to 20. His lawyer says Van der Sloot plans to marry behind bars. Van der Sloot's lawyer, Maximo Altez, filed a motion to reduce his client's sentence, claiming Van der Sloot worked with authorities during the investigation and that his rights were violated by police during his arrest. Read more...
May 20, 2013
Bulger Girlfriend Loses Sentence Appeal
The woman who was convicted of helping a fugitive mobster stay on the lam for more than 16 years has failed in an attempt to have her sentenced reduced. A federal appeals court rejected Catherine Greig's unfair sentence claim for her conviction of helping Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. Greig is serving 8 years in federal prison for conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. Read more...
O.J. Simpson Close to Freedom?
The latest high-stakes court hearing for O.J. Simpson in the glitzy capital of big gambles has come to a close with the former football star's defense team feeling confident that their client is closer to getting out of prison. The last time Simpson was in a Las Vegas courtroom, he was convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery. Now, with a new team of attorneys on his side, he has mounted a cool, methodical case that his former lead lawyer botched the 2008 trial so badly that a new one should be granted. Read more...
May 18, 2013
Former Lawyer Contradicts O.J.
A former attorney for O.J. Simpson took the stand and said the former football player knew two companions would be armed with guns when they went to a Las Vegas hotel room to retrieve memorabilia that he claims was stolen from him. Simpson, 65, is serving nine to 33 years after being convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping for the 2007 confrontation. In seeking a new trial, Simpson's claims are that he didn't know a weapon was used and he got bad legal representation at his trial. Read more...
Bulger Girlfriend's Sentenced Upheld
The longtime girlfriend of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger lost her bid to reduce the eight-year prison sentence she received for helping Bulger during his 16 years as a fugitive. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that it found no basis to change the sentence that Catherine Greig received after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. The panel included retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Read more...
May 16, 2013
O.J. Simpson Takes Stand
O.J. Simpson, making a long-shot bid for a new trial, testified he had no idea that any of his companions were armed when they went to a Las Vegas hotel room to retrieve memorabilia that he claims was stolen from him. "I would not have imagined in my wildest dreams that these guys would have guns," Simpson said on the stand during a court hearing that will determine if he gets a new trial. Read more...
'Freed' Man Back in Prison
After two years of freedom, a Montana man is back in custody after a state Supreme Court ruling that could send him back to prison for the rest of his life for the 1979 slaying of a teenager. A spokesman for the attorney general said Barry Beach was taken into custody without incident Wednesday morning by the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office. "It was hard enough to be innocent to begin with," Beach said. "But to be going back still innocent for the second time is just unbelievable." Read more...
May 13, 2013
O.J. Simpson Gets Court Hearing
O.J. Simpson will return next week to the Las Vegas courthouse where he was convicted of leading an armed sports memorabilia heist to ask a judge for a new trial on the grounds that his lawyer botched his case. Simpson will take the witness stand to testify that the Florida lawyer who collected nearly $700,000 is to blame for his armed robbery and kidnapping conviction in 2008 and his failed appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court in 2010. Read more...
April 29, 2013
Court Will Hear George Huguely Appeal
The former University of Virginia lacrosse player who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend will have his appeal heard by the state Court of Appeals. George W. Huguely V is serving a 23-year sentence for the slaying of fellow student Yeardley Love, a suburban Baltimore woman who was also a U.Va. lacrosse player. The decision this week by a single judge can be challenged by either party. Among the issues the court may examine is whether Huguely was denied the right to counsel when one of his attorneys became sick during the trial. Read more...
April 27, 2013
Michael Skakel Slams Former Lawyer
Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel slammed the attorney who represented him at his murder trial, portraying an overly confident lawyer basking in the limelight while making fundamental mistakes. In his latest appeal, Skakel argued trial attorney Michael Sherman failed to competently defend him when he was convicted in 2002 of killing his Greenwich neighbor in 1975 when they were both 15. Skakel blamed Sherman for making poor jury picks and failing to track down and call witnesses, including singer Michael Bolton and actor Harrison Ford. Read more...
Rasberry Williams' Sentence Commuted
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has granted a commutation request for Rasberry Williams, offering a chance of parole for a man convicted of killing his neighbor outside a pool hall in 1974. Branstad commuted Williams' sentence to life with the possibility of parole. The governor last month held an unusual public hearing on the case to hear from those who supported commutation. The victim's family told Branstad they've forgiven the now 67-year-old Williams. Read more...
April 26, 2013
Man Declared Innocent in 1993 Murder
An Illinois man who spent more than 13 years in prison before his murder conviction was thrown out was formally declared innocent Thursday in the 1993 slaying of a college student. After a judge agreed to his motion for a declaration of innocence, Alan Beaman calmly walked out of an Urbana courtroom and told reporters he was relieved but that he had expected the outcome. "It's over," Beaman said. Read more...
April 23, 2013
Expert Casts Doubt on Skakel Confessions
An expert on coerced confessions is casting doubt on testimony that Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel (SKAY'-kul) confessed to a 1975 murder, saying the statements were made at a reform school where he was subject to beatings and humiliation. Richard Ofshe said in Rockville Superior Court that the testimony was not reliable because of the environment. He also said one of the accounts contained details at odds with the crime. Read more...
April 19, 2013
Skakel's Temper Kept Him Off Stand
A Connecticut trial attorney has defended his decision not to have Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel testify at his 2002 murder trial, saying he has a temper. Attorney Michael Sherman says he wasn't worried Skakel would "blow up," but he was concerned he could show anger and the jury would see that. Sherman says Skakel agreed he probably shouldn't testify. Skakel's current attorney says he wanted to testify. Read more...
April 17, 2013
Skakel Trial Lawyer Slammed
The former attorney for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was accused of getting caught up in the media spotlight surrounding his client's high-profile murder trial and making fundamental errors from jury selection through closing arguments. Skakel's latest appeal trial began with his former lawyer defending himself against accusations he failed to competently defend Skakel when he was convicted of murder in 2002. Skakel, the 52-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel, is serving 20 years to life in prison for the 1975 golf club bludgeoning of Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley when both of them were 15. Read more...
DNA Prompts New Trial for 1989 Rape
A judge in Cheyenne has granted Wyoming's first retrial based on DNA evidence. Andrew J. Johnson has served more than 23 years of a life-in-prison sentence after being convicted of breaking into a Cheyenne woman's apartment and raping her in 1989. Laramie County District Judge Thomas Campbell granted Johnson a new trial. Recent testing shows Johnson was not the source of male DNA taken from the victim after the attack. Read more...
April 15, 2013
Skakel's Attorney Files Another Appeal
Michael Skakel has once again appealed his conviction for the 1995 murder of his Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley. Skakel, who is the nephew of Ethel Kennedy and who apparently has access to unlimited legal resources, is claiming he had inadequate counsel at his trial. Skakel claims Michael "Mickey" Sherman should have conducted more extensive investigations into the evidence presented against him. Read more...
April 12, 2013
More Twists in the Chandra Levy Case
The Chandra Levy murder mystery twisted again and again, as defense attorneys asked pointed questions about a "blood-curdling scream" allegedly heard in Levy's apartment building on the day she disappeared. And for the first time, the judge made public the name of the prosecution witness whose credibility has been called into question in recent months. The witness, former Fresno gang member Armando Morales, was the key to the prosecution's successful case against Salvadoran immigrant Ingmar Guandique, who was convicted of Levy's murder. Read more...
March 26, 2013
Court Tosses Knox Acquittal
Italy's highest criminal court overturned Amanda Knox's acquittal in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial, prolonging a case that has become a cause celebre in the United States. Knox called the decision "painful" but said she was confident in the truth. The Court of Cassation ruled that an appeals court in Florence must re-hear the case against the American student and her Italian ex-boyfriend for the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. The exact issues that have to be reconsidered won't be known until the court releases its full ruling within 90 days. Read more...
Amanda Knox Trial Decision Postponed
Italy's highest court says it will issue a decision Tuesday morning on whether to overturn American student Amanda Knox's acquittal in the murder of her roommate. The court heard six hours of arguments on Monday before going into deliberations. After several hours, it announced it would issue the decision at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) Tuesday, an unusual but not unprecedented move. The high court normally issues the decisions the same day it hears arguments. But prosecutor general Luigio Riello told reporters that `'in very complex cases, it happens" that the court takes another day. Read more...
March 22, 2013
Convicted Rabbi Killer Freed
A man who spent more than two decades behind bars was freed by a judge on Thursday after a reinvestigation of his case cast serious doubt on evidence used to convict him in the cold-blooded shooting of a Brooklyn rabbi. "I'm overwhelmed. I feel like I'm under water, swimming. Like I said from the beginning, I had nothing to do with this case," David Ranta said after leaving state court in Brooklyn. Emotional relatives gathered around Ranta, including a daughter who was an infant at the time of his conviction but is now pregnant. Read more...
March 13, 2013
Judge Vacates Andrew Luster's Sentences
A judge vacated the 124-year sentence received by convicted rapist Andrew Luster in 2003 and ordered an April 4 hearing to determine a new sentence. Luster, a great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor, was convicted on 86 counts of rape and drug charges after a jury viewed videotapes he made of himself engaging in sexual acts with three women rendered unconscious by GHB, a "date-rape" drug. Read more...
March 11, 2013
Magistrate Says Prisoner, 72, Should Be Freed
A federal magistrate has ruled that a California prisoner serving life without parole for a triple murder should be freed because his defense lawyer provided in incompetent representation at his trial. U.S. Magistrate Michael Seng ruled this week that George Souliotes, 72, should be released because his lawyer failed to adequately defend him in a "fundamentally unfair" trial. In his 93-page ruling, Seng criticized the "unprofessional" performance of Souliotes' attorney, who promised jurors he would call certain witnesses but then failed to summon them without explanation. Read more...
March 08, 2013
Court Overturns Murder Conviction
The California Supreme Court unanimously overturned the first-degree murder conviction of a man who stole appliances and caused a fatal accident an hour later when a stove fell off his truck. Cole Allen Wilkins of Long Beach was convicted under the "felony-murder rule," which says a defendant may be convicted of first-degree murder if someone dies while the suspect is committing a felony, such as a burglary or rape. Intention to kill is not required for conviction. Read more...
March 04, 2013
Van der Sloot Seeks Reduced Sentence
Convicted killer Joran Van der Sloot has written a letter to a Peruvian court in which he apparently takes responsibility for the death of Stephany Flores and says he hopes some day her family can forgive him. Van der Sloot also said he was continuing his therapy in hopes of becoming "a better human being." In the letter, he also seeks a reduced sentence. Read more...
February 26, 2013
Hinckley Asks for More Time at Home
The man who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan has been spending too much time at a psychiatric hospital and should instead spend more time at his mother's Virginia home, his lawyer said. Barry Levine made the remarks on the first day of a hearing to determine whether Hinckley will be allowed to spend additional time away from the hospital where he has lived since being found insane at the time he shot Reagan in 1981. Hinckley has been gradually given more freedom from Washington's St. Elizabeths Hospital, and at the end of 2005 he was given permission to start making overnight visits to his mother's home in Williamsburg, Va. The visits now last 10 days. They are carefully planned, and Hinckley is sometimes trailed by the Secret Service. Read more...
February 20, 2013
Defense Wants New Trial in Chandra Levy Case
Attorneys for the man convicted of killing Chandra Levy plan to ask for a new trial after a problem surfaced with one of the witnesses in the original murder trial. Lawyers for Ingmar Guandique claimed in court papers unsealed today that his prosecution was "predicated on a lie." The unsealed documents originated from closed hearings held in connection with the case during the past three months. Read more...
Peterson Hearing Ends With No Ruling
Drew Peterson was in a Will County court trying to prove to a judge he deserves a new trial, but the judge recessed without making a decision. His defense team argued that one of his former lawyers, Joel Brodsky, botched his defense. The former Bolingbrook police sergeant was found guilty in September of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Brodsky left the courthouse in Joliet shaking his head, saying the new defense team came up short in blaming him for the conviction. Read more...
February 18, 2013
Conviction Overturned in Mobile Bridge Deaths
An Alabama appeals court has thrown out the 2009 conviction and death sentence of a Vietnamese immigrant tried for killing four small children by tossing them off a coastal bridge, ruling that publicity surrounding the case made it impossible for the suspect to have a fair trial in Mobile where the crime occurred. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for Lam Luong, whose wife testified he laughed when he told her their children -- whose ages ranged from 3 years to just 4 months -- would never be found. Read more...
February 15, 2013
New Skakel Trial Hangs on Latest Appeal
Michael Skakel's chance at another trial now rests in the hands of a Superior Court judge. During a 45-minute hearing in state Superior Court, Judge Samuel Sferrazza heard a prosecutor's arguments as to why the Kennedy cousin's latest appeal of his 2002 murder conviction should be dismissed. Skakel's attorney Hubert Santos also presented arguments, claiming Michael Sherman, Skakel's attorney at the time of the 2002 trial, was not competent in defending Skakel, 52. Read more...
February 12, 2013
Judge Frees Texas Man Convicted in '81
A 58-year-old Texas man who spent half his life in prison for a murder conviction has been freed after DNA testing pointed to another suspect. Randolph Arledge was allowed to go free by a judge in Corsicana, about 50 miles southeast of Dallas. Arledge was convicted in 1984 of stabbing a woman more than 40 times and leaving her body on a dirt road. He was given 99 years in prison. Read more...
January 30, 2013
Police Captain Exonerated of Ex-Wife's Murder
A former Ohio police captain who has spent nearly 15 years in prison in his ex-wife's killing was exonerated Tuesday by a judge who said that new DNA tests proved his innocence and that no reasonable jury that saw the test results would have convicted him. Doug Prade, 66, should be set free because the new DNA results are "clear and convincing," said Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter in Akron. Read more...
January 28, 2013
Two Casey Anthony Convictions Tossed
A federal appeals court has overturned two of the four convictions of a Florida woman found guilty of lying to investigators about the whereabouts of her 2-year-old daughter. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Casey Anthony's attorney that two of the convictions amounted to double jeopardy. The appeals court rejected Anthony's claim that all the statements she made to police should not have been admitted in court because she had not been read her Miranda rights at the time. Read more...
January 23, 2013
George Huguely Appeals for New Trial
A former University of Virginia lacrosse player who was convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend to death is asking for a new trial. Attorneys for George Huguely V have appealed is conviction for killing Yeardley Love in a drunken rage in May 2010. Huguely's attorneys argued that the judge's instructions to the jury were inadequate. Read more...
January 16, 2013
Questions Still Haunt Chandra Levy Case
A new layer of secrecy enveloped the Chandra Levy murder mystery, underscoring the crucial questions now confronting the court: Who is the prosecution witness whose credibility is now in question? Could the potential credibility problem undermine the November 2010 conviction of accused killer Ingmar Guandique? And did prosecutors meet their obligations to share information with defense attorneys, who say the Salvadoran immigrant did not kill Levy on May 1, 2001, shortly before she was to return to her Modesto, Calif., home? Read more...
January 15, 2013
Court Denies Entwistle Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to review the case of a Massachusetts man who was convicted of killing his wife and daughter then fleeing to London. The court voted not to hear the appeal of Neil Entwistle, who was convicted of killing his wife Rachel and daughter Lillian in 2008. The case was one of several listed on the court's website that were not granted certiorari. Read more...
January 14, 2013
New Trial Sought in Chandra Levy Case
The attorneys for the man convicted of killing former congressional intern Chandra Levy have asked a D.C. Superior Court judge for a new trial, arguing that prosecutors withheld key information about a witness, officials said. The new information about the witness was passed to local prosecutors from prosecutors in California, where the witness had lived, according to an official with knowledge of the case. Prosecutors went to Judge Gerald I. Fisher with the new information, but defense lawyers are alleging that the government had already had it during trial, officials said. Read more...
January 10, 2013
Casey Anthony Appeals Convictions
A Florida appeals court has been asked to overturn the misdemeanor convictions of Casey Anthony for lying to authorities during the investigation into the disappearance of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. Anthony told investigators that Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny named Zenaida Gonzales. Casey Anthony did not appear at the appeals court hearing in Daytona Beach. Read more...
January 09, 2013
Casey Anthony Appealing Convictions for Lying
Lawyers for Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2011, will be back in a Florida court on Tuesday to appeal her four convictions for lying to the authorities. The convictions stemmed from claims Anthony made after her toddler disappeared in 2008, triggering a nationwide search that drew widespread media attention. Caylee Anthony's body was eventually found dumped in the woods near the Anthony home. Read more...
January 02, 2013
Edgar Ray Killen Seeks New Trial
Edgar Ray Killen has until Jan. 8 to file documents with a federals appeal court to support claims he deserves a new trial in the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers. U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate on Nov. 14 denied Killen's request to pursue an appeal. Wingate ruled that Killen failed to prove he was denied constitutional rights in his trial. Killen was convicted of manslaughter in 2005, 41 years after the killing of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Read more...
December 21, 2012
Woman Convicted of Murder Wins New Trial
A New York appeals court ordered a new trial for a woman facing murder and assault charges, finding that her lawyer should have moved to suppress statements she made to police during a lengthy interrogation. In a 4-1 decision, the Appellate Division, Third Department, found that Ashley Carnevale's admission that she helped her husband, Anthony Carnevale, plan to kill two people was "the crucial evidence" in her case and should have been challenged by her trial lawyer, David Butler. Read more...
December 20, 2012
Conrad Murray Seeks Bail During Appeal
The doctor convicted of causing Michael Jackson's death asked an appeals court this week to let him out of jail while the judges decide whether they will overturn his conviction. The judge who presided over Conrad Murray's trial last year denied bail in a February hearing, saying his lawyers had not proven he was not a risk to flee the state or harm someone else with his questionable medical practices. Jackson died of an overdose of a surgical anesthetic and sedatives in his home while under Dr. Murray's care on June 25, 2009. Read more...
December 19, 2012
Charges Dropped in 1995 Fire Death
Prosecutors in Indiana have dropped charges against a woman whose murder conviction in her son's 1995 death was overturned, but they say the case isn't closed. The Indiana Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Kristine Bunch in March after finding that evidence used to convict her was outdated, weak and wrongly withheld from the defense. Read more...
December 14, 2012
Debra LeFave Loses Probation Appeal
A former Tampa teacher convicted of having sex with a student was denied by the Florida Supreme court to be taken off probation. An appellate court in August reversed a trial judge's decision to end Debra LaFave's 10-year non-prison sentence four years early. LaFave appealed to the Supreme Court in October and last week asked the justices to let her remain off probation until they rule. Read more...
December 06, 2012
Henderson Granted New Trial in Baby's 1994 Death
Cathy Lynn Henderson, once just two days from execution for the 1994 death of an infant she was baby-sitting in her Pflugerville-area home, was granted a new trial by a sharply divided Court of Criminal Appeals. The 5-3 ruling tossed out Henderson's capital murder conviction and death sentence, returning the case to Travis County, where prosecutors will determine what charge she will face — and whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison if it's capital murder — in a retrial likely to begin sometime next year. Read more...
November 27, 2012
Court Backs Off Insanity Defense Issue
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down an opportunity to consider whether states can ban the insanity defense in criminal cases. Most states permit a defendant to claim the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity. It's not a medical term, it's a legal one, generally meaning that a person could not understand the difference between right and wrong and was, therefore, unable to act with criminal intent. Though long permitted, it has never been popular. Read more...
November 26, 2012
No New Trial for Killer Teacher
A federal appeals court has overturned a two-year-old decision that granted a new trial to a Detroit-area teacher who hacked her husband to death with a hatchet before she went to school. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman in October 2010 said Nancy Seaman's attorney didn't do enough to develop her claim as a battered spouse. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals this week ruled that Friedman's view of the case was too broad. Seaman, 60, killed Robert Seaman in 2004 by striking him with a hatchet 16 times and stabbing him at least 21 times in their garage in Farmington Hills. She is serving a life sentence. Read more...
November 15, 2012
Whitey Bulger's Girlfriend Files Appeal
The longtime girlfriend of former Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger has filed an appeal aimed at shaving time off her prison sentence for helping him while he was a fugitive. Catherine Greig pleaded guilty to charges related to helping Bulger stay on the run for 16 years. She's serving an eight-year sentence at a low-security federal prison in Minnesota. Her lawyer said people who claim their relatives were killed by Bulger shouldn't have been allowed to speak at her June sentencing. Read more...
November 14, 2012
Attorneys Seek New Trial of Teenage Killer
When Cyntoia Brown was 16 years old she shot and killed a 43-year-old man who had picked her up for sex. Brown claims she was afraid of Johnny Allen, who she said was behaving strangely and had a house full of guns. Prosecutors in Nashville say Brown killed Allen in order to steal from him — she left with his pants, containing his wallet, and some guns. At her 2006 trial, the jury sided with prosecutors, convicting Brown of first-degree murder and sentencing her to life in prison. But since then, a documentary shown on public television about Brown's life has stirred sympathy for her. Read more...
November 09, 2012
Man Convicted in 1962 Murders Freed
The metal mesh door at the state prison complex in Phoenix slid open and a tall man shuffled through. Relatives of William Macumber, who were gathered in the lobby of the prison, cheered his first steps as a free man. He had spent 37 years in prison. He had been convicted of a murder he insisted he did not commit. But Macumber, who was found guilty of shooting a young couple to death in the desert north of Scottsdale in 1962, pleaded no contest to charges of second-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to walk free the same afternoon. Read more...
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Convicted Killer Gets New Trial
The Arkansas Supreme Court says a man convicted in the 2009 shooting deaths of five people deserves a new trial because his previous trial wasn't fair. Samuel Lee Conway was convicted last year on five counts of capital murder plus other charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The high court on Thursday reversed Conway's convictions and sentences and ordered a new trial. Read more...
October 25, 2012
Michael Skakel Denied Parole
The nephew of Robert F. Kennedy who was convicted of killing Martha Moxley in 1975 when they were both 15 years old has been denied parole. A unanimous Connecticut parole board turned down a parole bid by Michael Skakel, who was not convicted of the murder until 2002. Skakel will not be eligible for parole again until 2017. Read more...
October 20, 2012
Judge Grants O.J. New Hearing
A Nevada judge will take testimony and evidence on former football star O.J. Simpson's claim that he was so badly represented in his Las Vegas armed robbery and kidnapping trial that he should be freed from prison and get another trial. Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell dismissed four of 22 grounds on which Simpson's appeals lawyer seeks his release. But the judge agreed to consider 18 claims, including whether trial lawyer Yale Galanter had a conflict of interest and shouldn't have handled Simpson's case. Read more...
October 12, 2012
Drew Peterson Attends Mother's Funeral
A former Illinois police officer convicted in September of killing his third wife was given the opportunity to attend his mother's wake by jail officials. Drew Peterson was able to spend a few minutes by his mother's casket at a Darien funeral home. Betty Morphey, Paterson's mother, died Monday. She was 84. Read more...
September 26, 2012
MacDonald Murder Case in Judge's Hands
Was Helena Stoeckley in the house on the morning of the MacDonald murders in 1970 at Fort Bragg? Did a prosecutor in Jeffrey MacDonald's 1979 trial threaten Stoeckley with arrest to keep her from telling that to a jury? Do three unidentified hairs belong to a group of drug-crazed hippies, one of whom was a woman in a floppy hat chanting "Acid is groovy. Kill the pigs," that MacDonald says slaughtered his wife and two young daughters? Has an innocent man been convicted? A federal judge in Wilmington is pondering these questions following a seven-day evidentiary hearing where MacDonald claimed his constitutional right to due process was violated 33 years ago by an overzealous prosecutor and a shoddy Army investigation. Read more...
September 24, 2012
Man to Be Released After Witness Recants
A man who has spent 19 years in prison for murder is expected to be ordered freed after the sole eyewitness, a survivor of the drive-by shooting, recanted his testimony. John Edward Smith, who was an 18-year-old gang member when he was accused of the murder, was tried and convicted with less than five hours' testimony and three hours' deliberation in 1994, and later sentenced to life in prison. Nearly two decades later, when Smith's new attorneys contacted witness Landu Mvuemba, he recanted within minutes and said police had pressured him at the time to identify Smith. Read more...
September 20, 2012
MacDonald Prosecutor Denies Coercion
The lead prosecutor in the Jeffrey MacDonald trial 32 years ago acknowledged from the witness stand Wednesday that he had committed crimes and told lies – even as a lawyer. "I basically shot my legal career in the head," Blackburn said. But Blackburn adamantly denied that he coerced a woman whom the MacDonald defense team had considered a key witness in his 1979 trial. Read more...
September 19, 2012
Witness Backs Jeffrey MacDonald's Story
"As sure as I'm sitting here, Jeffrey MacDonald is innocent!" Sara McMann cried out in court. McMann described how she and her husband invited a troubled woman and her infant child to stay in their home back in 1982, a couple months after meeting them through a church friend's prayer request. According to McMann, the mother, Helena Stoeckley, later confided that she had witnessed an infamous crime 12 years before, accompanying three men into MacDonald's Ft. Bragg, N.C. apartment during the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 17, 1970, when his pregnant wife and two daughters were murdered. Read more...
September 18, 2012
'Fatal Vision' Hearing Opens
For the first time since his 1979 trial, a former Green Beret doctor convicted of killing his wife and two daughters will get the opportunity to present all of the evidence in the case in a federal court. Attorneys for Jeffrey MacDonald began making their case for his innocence before a federal judge in Wilmington, North Carolina. Read more...
September 17, 2012
Jeffrey MacDonald Gets New Hearing
Forty-two years ago, the wife and daughters of a handsome young Green Beret doctor, Jeffrey MacDonald, were stabbed and bludgeoned to death at the family home in military housing at Ft. Bragg, N.C. MacDonald, now 68, is serving three life sentences for the crime, which spawned a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," a hit TV miniseries and decades of speculation over whether MacDonald is a sadistic killer or a victim of injustice. In federal court Monday in Wilmington, N.C., the case will play out once again with all its lurid details. Read more...
September 04, 2012
Court Upholds Murder Conviction
An appellate court upheld the murder conviction of a man who helped his older brother murder and cut up the body of a 16-year-old girl living next door in 2005. But James Zarate — who was 14 at the time of the crime — will have nine years of his sentence reduced because time on a weapons will now run concurrently with the murder conviction, the appellate court decided last week. James Zarate was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison plus 14 years. Read more...
September 01, 2012
Wrongly Convicted Man Gets $500K
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning apologized to an 80-year-old man wrongfully convicted in the 1955 killing of his wife, and asked a judge to approve a $500,000 award from the state. Bruning announced that his office would no longer fight a lawsuit filed by Darrel Parker seeking damages for the nearly 14 years he spent in prison. The award is the maximum amount allowed under a 2009 state law that entitles wrongfully convicted people to compensation from the state. Parker filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the state after lawmakers approved the 2009 law. Parker, who now lives in Moline, Ill., broke down while speaking at a news conference. Read more...
August 23, 2012
Murder Convict Released After DNA Results
A Long Island man convicted in 1995 of killing his wife while on vacation in Vermont was released from prison Wednesday, a day after a judge vacated his sentence and ordered a new trial because DNA from an unknown man was found on her body. John Grega, 50, formerly of Lake Grove, N.Y., was released around 5 p.m., corrections officials said. He had been serving a sentence of life without parole for the sexual assault and strangulation death of his wife, Christine Grega, while they were vacationing at a West Dover condominium nearly 18 years ago. Read more...
Mom Convicted in Son's Death Could Be Freed
An Indiana woman convicted of setting a 1995 fire that killed her 3-year-old son could taste freedom for the first time after 16 years in prison, but her release could be short-lived. A Decatur County judge is expected to set bail for Kristine Bunch, 38, while she awaits a new trial on murder and arson charges stemming from a mobile home fire that some experts now say appears to have been accidental. Read more...
August 16, 2012
Debra Lafave Ordered Back on Probation
A former Florida middle-school teacher whose affair with a 14-year-old student shocked the nation, not to mention her then husband, has been ordered back on probation by a state appeals court. Debra Lafave was released early from probation last year by Judge Wayne S. Timmerman over the objections of the prosecution. Lafave's original seven-year probation sentence was scheduled to end in November 2015. Read more...
August 15, 2012
Longest-Serving Female Inmate Wins Parole
The nation's longest-serving female inmate has been freed, nearly half a century after killing an Arizona toddler she was baby-sitting. Betty Smithey, now 69, reportedly entered prison a fresh-faced, but troubled, 20-year-old with psychotic tendencies. Following Monday's parole board hearing, held nearly 50 years after her trial, she walked out of Perryville State Prison with a wrinkled face, gray hair and a cane. Read more...
August 07, 2012
1985 D.C. Murder Convictions Will Stand
Seven men who sought to have a judge overturn their convictions for the high-profile 1984 murder of a Northeast D.C. woman failed to prove their innocence during a series of hearings that reexamined the case earlier this year, a judge ruled. The ruling by D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick H. Weisberg means that six of the men — Kelvin Smith, Levy Rouse, Clifton Yarborough, Timothy Catlett, Russell Overton and Charles Turner — will serve out their sentences from their 1985 convictions on charges of felony murder in the beating death of Catherine Fuller. A seventh man already has been released from prison. Read more...
August 01, 2012
Judge Overturns Brothers' Murder Convictions
Two Michigan brothers jailed for murder might be set free 25 years after claiming their innocence, all thanks to an old friend's Facebook post. In 2009, Mary Evans wrote a message about her former classmates Raymond and Thomas Highers, on the Northeast Detroit Alumni page on the social network. "All I said was it's too bad or it's sad that the Highers brothers are in prison for life, and that there just started this domino effect," Evans told Fox Detroit. The men were sentenced to life behind bars in 1987 for the murder of Robert Karey, who was shot dead at his home, near the back door from which he sold pot to neighborhood teens. Read more...
July 31, 2012
Fla. Appeals Ruling Voiding 'Docs vs. Glocks' Law
Florida officials are appealing a federal judge's ruling striking down a Florida law that restricted doctors from talking with patients about gun ownership. Gov. Rick Scott announced the appeal Monday. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled earlier this month in the case known as "Docs vs. Glocks." Cooke agreed with physicians who contended the law violates free speech rights. Read more...
Court Likely to Take Maryland DNA Case
Chief Justice John Roberts says the Supreme Court will probably consider and may reverse a Maryland case that blocked police from collecting DNA samples from people arrested for certain crimes. Roberts had previously temporarily blocked the ruling from going into effect. Then he wrote in a four-page order that Maryland would be allowed to continue DNA collection until the court decides what to do with the case. Roberts said that Maryland, in asking that the ruling be blocked, showed a "reasonable probability" that the court would take the case. Maryland began collecting samples from people arrested for violent crimes in 2009. Read more...
July 18, 2012
Court Upholds Aiding Suicide Conviction
The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of a former nurse who hunted for suicidal people in online chat rooms and encouraged two to kill themselves, saying his actions were not protected speech. William Melchert-Dinkel, 49, of Faribault, was convicted in 2011 of two counts of aiding suicide. He acknowledged that what he did was morally wrong but argued that he merely exercised his right to free speech. The appeals court disagreed. Read more...
July 07, 2012
Scott Peterson Appeals Death Sentence
Scott Peterson filed the automatic appeal of his 2004 death sentence to the California Supreme Court, maintaining as he always has that he had nothing to do with the murders of his wife Laci and unborn son Connor. Peterson's attorney, noted death penalty lawyer Cliff Gardner, filed the 423-page document eight years after a San Mateo County jury found the former fertilizer salesman guilty of suffocating a Laci and dumping her in the San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002. Peterson has been on Death Row since March 17, 2002. Read more...
DNA Frees Man After 30 Years in Prison
A Chicago man who spent more than 30 years behind bars before DNA evidence helped overturn his conviction in the rape and killing of a 3-year-old girl was released from prison late Friday, just hours after prosecutors dropped the case against him. An Illinois appeals court in March had ordered a new trial for 50-year-old Andre Davis after tests found that DNA taken from the scene of the 1980 killing of Brianna Stickle wasn't his. The girl was attacked in Rantoul, about 20 miles north of Champaign. Read more...
July 02, 2012
Man Freed After 17 Years
A North Carolina man who spent nearly 17 years in prison for a murder case in which law officers and prosecutors hid key details is going free. Superior Court Judge Joe Turner ordered the release of 62-year-old LaMonte Armstrong. Armstrong was convicted of the 1988 killing of Ernestine Compton, one of his former professors at North Carolina A&T State University, and sentenced to life in prison. Read more...
June 30, 2012
Murder Convict Ordered Freed on New Evidence
A North Carolina man who spent nearly 17 years in prison for a murder case in which law officers and prosecutors hid key details is going free. Superior Court Judge Joe Turner ordered the release of 62-year-old LaMonte Armstrong. Turner says it's probably the closest to knowing he's doing justice he'll experience. Armstrong was convicted of the 1988 killing of Ernestine Compton, one of his former professors at North Carolina A&T State University. Key to the case was testimony from a convicted felon who now says police pressured him to accuse Armstrong. Read more...
June 26, 2012
Court Nixes Life Without Parole for Juveniles
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitional regardless of how heinous the crimes they commit. The court said to treat juveniles the same as adults was unconstitutional because it amounted to unusual punishment. Read more...
June 16, 2012
Kidnapper in Chowchilla Case Wins Prison Release
After more than 35 years in prison, one of three men who kidnapped a busload of California schoolchildren in a ransom attempt that captured the nation's attention will soon be released. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that it would release Richard Schoenfeld later this month at an undetermined location. Read more...
June 06, 2012
Van der Sloot Extradition Delayed
Joran Van der Sloot has apparently successfully delayed extradition to the United States until after he serves his sentence in Peru for the murder of Stephany Flores. The Peruvian Supreme Court ruled that Van der Sloot must first serve his 28-year sentence in Peru before being sent to the U.S. where he faces extortion charges. But the court's decision on Van der Sloot's status may not be the final word. Read more...
June 02, 2012
Rockefeller Impostor Challenges Mass. Conviction
A lawyer for a German man who pretended to be a member of the storied Rockefeller family argued that his client's conviction for kidnapping his daughter should be thrown out because his trial was marred by the "evisceration" of his insanity defense. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who used the name Clark Rockefeller as one of his aliases after moving to the United States in the 1970s, was convicted in 2009 of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit after he and his wife divorced. He also was convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for instructing his hired driver to speed away after he snatched his daughter, injuring a social worker supervising the visit. Read more...
May 26, 2012
Former Top Football Prospect Exonerated
First he cried. Then Brian Banks — exonerated of a rape conviction that cost him five years in prison — walked outside the courthouse and seized the moment of freedom he had dreamed of for so long. "This is the first step in reinventing my life," he said after a judge issued his ruling Thursday, promising to pursue the interrupted dream of playing pro football. It was the plan he left outside a prison door when he pleaded no contest to a childhood friend's false accusation of rape in 2002, a claim she has now recanted. Read more...
May 23, 2012
Murder Conviction Overturned After 32 Years
A man who spent decades in jail after he was wrongfully convicted of killing a Washington, D.C., cab driver has spoken for the first time about how it ruined his life. Santae Tribble was jailed in 1980 for the murder of John McCormick after an FBI agent testified a hair found inside a stocking mask matched Tribble's. Read more...
May 22, 2012
Study: 2,000 Convicted Then Exonerated
More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities. There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled. Read more...
May 15, 2012
Van der Sloot to Fight Extradition
After a Peruvian judge approved provisional detention for convicted killer Joran Van der Sloot, the main suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway announced his plans to fight extradition to the United States. Van der Sloot faces extortion and wire fraud charges in the U.S. in connection with the Holloway case. Van der Sloot has been indicted in the U.S. for taking $25,000 from Beth Holloway in exchange for telling her where she could find Natalee, which he never did. Read more...
May 12, 2012
Joran Van der Sloot to Fight Extradition
The prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American Natalee Holloway, Joran Van der Sloot, told a judge that he will fight extradition from Peru to the United States, where he faces extortion and wire fraud charges in connection with Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot faces an indictment in the U.S. for allegedly accepting $25,000 in early 2010 in exchange for an unfulfilled promise to lead Holloway's mother's lawyer to the body after her disappearance in Aruba. Read more...
Nebraska Court: Woman Must Testify in Rape Case
A woman can be sent to jail for refusing to testify against the man she has accused of sexual assault, the Nebraska Supreme Court said, although it suggested that might not be the best way to address her reluctance to take the stand. The ruling came in the case of a Kansas woman who was found in contempt after refusing to testify against a 63-year-old Nebraska man who was charged with sexually assaulting her 17 years earlier when she was 7 years old. In April 2011, Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt ordered the woman to testify or face 90 days in jail, saying the case hinged on her testimony, which outweighed any shame she might feel. Read more...
May 02, 2012
Judge Urges New Trial in 1990 Missouri Farm Death
A Missouri judge ruled that a man twice convicted in the 1990 slaying of a local farm wife was the victim of "a manifest injustice" and that no jury would have convicted him had investigators done their jobs. Boone County Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler, who was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to review the case, said prosecutors failed to turn over key evidence to Mark Woodworth's lawyers and overlooked numerous conflicts of interest among prosecutors, a judge and law enforcement. Read more...
Man Convicted in Colorado Freed by DNA Evidence
Robert Dewey was 33 when he went to prison for the 1994 rape and murder of a Colorado woman. The 51-year-old walked away free, after new testing of DNA evidence pointed to someone else as the suspect. At a court hearing, a judge dismissed charges against Dewey and declared him a free man. Dewey flashed a small smile through his trim beard. He told reporters he just wants to kick back, ride his motorcycle and spend time with his family. Read more...
April 16, 2012
Mountain Man Abductor Seeks Parole
A notorious "mountain man," who abducted a world-class athlete in 1984 to keep as a wife for his son, once wrote that blame for the "incident" lies with her and a would-be rescuer whom he shot and killed. Don Nichols undoubtedly will need to be more contrite later this month in front of the historically stern Montana Parole Board. Read more...
April 09, 2012
Neil Entwistle's Lawyer Hinges Appeal on Cops
Sex-crazed baby killer Neil Entwistle launched his final appeal yesterday for a new trial after his lawyer argued before the state's top court that the jury pool was tainted by the press and cops illegally broke into the family's Hopkinton home before finding the murdered bodies of his wife and 9-month-old daughter. In a heavily attended 40-minute session at the state Supreme Judicial Court, justices hammered attorney Stephen P. Maidman while he pushed to overturn the betraying Brit's double-murder conviction in the 2006 homicides. Read more...
April 04, 2012
Court Okays Jail Strip Searches
If you are ever arrested, even for a minor offense such as not paying a traffic ticket, prepare yourself to be possibly strip searched at the jail. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that jailers do not need any suspicion or probable cause to strip search anyone who is being detained. The issue, the court's 5-4 majority ruled, is one of safety. Read more...
March 12, 2012
Brothers Seek to Reopen 1987 Murder Verdict
Two brothers serving life without parole for a 1987 drug house robbery and shotgun slaying in Detroit will get a chance to present a witness who says someone else committed the crimes. A judge in Detroit convicted Thomas and Raymond Highers of first-degree murder in the June 1987 death of 65-year-old Robert Karey, who was killed at his home near Detroit City Airport. Wayne County Circuit Judge Lawrence Talon is expected to hear testimony Monday from John Hielscher, who has said in an affidavit that he saw the attackers and they were black. The Highers brothers are white. Read more...
March 09, 2012
Court Rules Barbour Pardons Valid
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the pardons issued by former Gov. Haley Barbour during his final days in office, including those of four convicted killers and a robber who had worked at the Governor's Mansion. Barbour, a Republican who once considered running for president, pardoned 198 people before finishing his second term Jan. 10. Most of the people pardoned had served their sentences years ago, but crime victims were outraged and created a furor that lasted for weeks. Read more...
March 08, 2012
Feds Can Continue Loughner Medication
The Tucson shooting rampage suspect will continue to be forcibly medicated by federal prison officials after an appeals court turned down three of his appeals. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the appeals of Jared Lee Loughner to stop his forced psychotropic medication. Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges related to a Jan. 8, 2011 shooting rampage which left six people dead and wounded 12 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
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March 06, 2012
Court Rejects Skakel's Sentence Reduction
A three-judge Connecticut Superior Court panel has rejected an appeal by Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel to reduce his 20-years-to-life sentence for the beating death of Martha Moxley in 1975. The panel ruled that his original sentence was not inappropriate or disproportionate for the murder of his 15-year-old neighbor in Greenwich. Skakel's attorneys argued that he should have been tried and sentenced as a juvenile. Read more...
Loughner Loses 3 Appeals Over Forced Medication
An appeals court denied a request by the Tucson shooting rampage suspect's lawyers to stop their client's forced medication with psychotropic drugs and end his treatment at a Missouri prison facility where experts are trying to make him psychologically fit for trial. The ruling Monday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for authorities to continue to medicate Jared Lee Loughner. He has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting in Tucson that killed six people and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others. Read more...
March 03, 2012
Ex-Death Row Inmate Walks Out a Free Man
A mentally disabled man who spent nearly 30 years on South Carolina's Death Row for a stabbing death was freed from prison under a plea deal. A lawyer for Edward Lee Elmore said he maintains his innocence in the death of Dorothy Edwards, a widow he worked for as a handyman, but he pleaded guilty to murder so he could be released from prison. Edwards' body was found in a closet in her home, stabbed 52 times. Read more...
February 03, 2012
Pardoned Killer to Fight Mississippi Return
A convicted murderer who left Mississippi after being pardoned by former Gov. Haley Barbour seems poised to fight attempts to force him to return from Wyoming. Joseph Ozment's attorney, Robert Moxley, said that he will defend Ozment's freedom if he decides to try to stay in Wyoming. The 40-year-old is not a fugitive and no warrant has been issued for his arrest. Read more...
February 02, 2012
Sirhan Sirhan Appeal Opposed
California's attorney general has recommended the denial of the latest appeal of assassin Sirhan Sirhan, saying that the man long-convicted in the murder of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy hasn't proved his innocence. Lawyers representing Sirhan filed an appeal late last year alleging a bullet was switched in evidence at his trial and that new forensic details exonerated him from the 1968 killing. Read more...
Mississippi High Court Takes Ex-Gov Pardons
The Mississippi Supreme Court said Wednesday it will take up the legal challenge to the pardons ex-Gov. Haley Barbour gave out in his last days in office. State Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, wants to invalidate dozens of the 198 pardons that Barbour, a Republican, handed out before his second four-year term ended Jan. 10. Ten of the people were still incarcerated when they received reprieves. Read more...
February 01, 2012
Man Cleared of Murder Still in Prison
Attorneys for a 76-year-old Philadelphia man behind bars nearly two years after his acquittal on murder charges say his continued imprisonment is a violation of his Constitutional right to due process and a vindictive effort to have him die in prison. William Barnes shot and paralyzed police Officer Walter Barclay in 1966 but was charged with murder and jailed after Barclay died in August 2007. A jury exonerated Barnes in May 2010 but the case's lead prosecutor vowed to fight his release. His requests for parole have been repeatedly denied. Read more...
January 31, 2012
Court Reinstates Murder Conviction
The California Supreme Court reinstated a man's second-degree murder conviction for killing a well-known San Diego surfer, overturning a 2010 ruling by a state appeals court that had reduced it to voluntary manslaughter. The state's highest court said it disagreed with the decision by the 4th District Court of Appeals that cited insufficient evidence of implied malice by Seth Cravens when he delivered the single fatal punch to 24-year-old Emery Kauanui in 2007. Read more...
