Recent Updates
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LA arson suspect cursed US days before fires
Criminal Law 01/03/2012Harry Burkhart watched as his mother was arrested last week on fraud charges from their native Germany, and a day later he exploded in an expletive-laced rant against the U.S. at her court hearing. That's when, authorities believe, Burkhart, angry ov...
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Alleged White House shooter due in court Friday
Criminal Law 12/14/2011A federal judge has set a new court date to hear more evidence about the mental health of a man accused of firing shots at the White House in November. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho appeared Wednesday in federal court in Washington, where a ...
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Calif. salon shooting suspect due for arraignment
Criminal Law 11/29/2011A man charged with killing his ex-wife and seven others in a shooting rampage at a Southern California hair salon was due back in court Tuesday. Scott Dekraai was expected to be arraigned in Orange County Superior Court on eight counts of murder and ...
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Utah-to-Boston passenger denies child porn charge
Criminal Law 11/28/2011A University of Utah professor has pleaded not guilty to viewing child pornography on his laptop during a flight from Salt Lake City to Boston. Grant Smith, of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was ordered held on $75,000 bail Monday and told to have no unsu...
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Ind. teen who strangled brother seeks sentence cut
Criminal Law 11/14/2011An Indiana teenager who strangled his 10-year-old brother and admired a fictional serial killer should not have been sentenced to life in prison without parole because he was mentally ill, his attorney argued in appealing for a lighter sentence. Defe...
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Appeal filed in case of slain ND college student
Criminal Law 10/20/2011Lawyers for a man sentenced to death for killing a University of North Dakota student submitted a document Tuesday for what is considered the final step in the legal appeals process, claiming his trial team was ineffective and that the man is mentall...
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High court to rule on Stolen Valor Act
Criminal Law 10/17/2011The Supreme Court will decide whether a law making it a crime to lie about having received military medals is constitutional. The justices said Monday they will consider the validity of the Stolen Valor Act, which passed Congress with overwhelming su...
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Texan freed by DNA test after 25 years exonerated
Criminal Law 10/13/2011A Texas appeals court on Wednesday formally exonerated a former grocery store clerk who spent nearly 25 years in prison for his wife's 1986 beating death, reaffirming a judge's decision to set him free last week based on DNA testing that linked her k...
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US court turns down Philly DA in cop-killing case
Criminal Law 10/11/2011The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request from prosecutors who want to re-impose a death sentence on former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a white Philadelphia police officer 30 years ago. The justices on Tuesday refused to g...
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Court halts Texas execution of ex-Army recruiter
Criminal Law 09/21/2011A former Army recruiter who for the third time this year was hours away from his scheduled execution for the rape-slaying of a woman in Fort Worth nearly 10 years ago was granted yet another reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Cleve Foster...
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NC stepmom gets up to 18 years in girl's murder
Criminal Law 09/15/2011A North Carolina woman will spend up to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to murdering her disabled 10-year-old stepdaughter, nearly a year after freckle-faced Zahra Baker's disappearance and death shocked communities here and in her ...
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Ex-Mormon bishop pleads guilty to child sex abuse
Criminal Law 09/12/2011A former Mormon bishop and co-founder of a nonprofit group that helps women and children in Third World villages faces sentencing in November for sexually abusing children. Lon Harvey Kennard, 69, from Heber City, Utah, pleaded guilty this week to th...