Recent Updates
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Priest with gambling habit facing prison in Vegas
Criminal Law 01/13/2012A lawyer planned to ask a federal judge on Friday to reject a call for almost three years of prison time and instead give probation to a Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to siphoning $650,000 over eight years from his northwest Las Vegas pari...
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Court papers: NYC officer shooting suspect sorry
Criminal Law 01/05/2012The man charged with murder in the shooting death of a police officer during a botched break-in apologized and said he didn't mean to fire the gun, according to court papers released Wednesday. Lamont Pride, 27, and four others have pleaded not guilt...
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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...