Recent Updates

  • Court: Release or Retry Death Row Inmate

    Court: Release or Retry Death Row Inmate

    Criminal Law 09/11/2007

    A death row inmate convicted of setting a fire that killed five children must be released or retried because his constitutional rights were violated when his confession was used at trial, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.The 6th U.S. Circu...

  • Five found guilty in Chicago mob trial

    Five found guilty in Chicago mob trial

    Criminal Law 09/10/2007

    [##_1L|1058937077.jpg|width="120" height="88" alt=""|_##]A jury found four aging Chicago mobsters guilty on Monday of operating a decades-long criminal conspiracy that included 18 unsolved gangland murders, including two gruesome slaying depicted in ...

  • Boston police officer pleads guilty to drug charges

    Boston police officer pleads guilty to drug charges

    Criminal Law 09/10/2007

    1 of 3 Boston police officers facing federal drug charges pleads guilty.Carlos Pizarro was arrested in Miami last year along with two colleagues, Robert Pulido and Nelson Carrasquillo. Prosecutors allege the police officers went to Miami to collect $...

  • Teacher pleads guilty to having sex with student

    Teacher pleads guilty to having sex with student

    Criminal Law 08/29/2007

    [##_1L|1173564309.jpg|width="120" height="80" alt=""|_##]A former Cyprus High School teacher admitted Tuesday to having sex with one of her students. Christy Brown, 33, pleaded guilty as charged to three counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-de...

  • W.Va.: Ex-Senator, Husband Plead Guilty

    W.Va.: Ex-Senator, Husband Plead Guilty

    Criminal Law 08/08/2007

    [##_1L|1215127031.jpg|width="90" height="119" alt=""|_##]A former West Virginia state senator pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal mail and tax fraud charges. Lisa Smith admitted that she failed to pay the IRS more than $86,000 withheld for taxes from h...

  • Suspect Pleads Guilty in Ohio Mall Plot

    Suspect Pleads Guilty in Ohio Mall Plot

    Criminal Law 08/01/2007

    [##_1L|1363664888.jpg|width="120" height="101" alt=""|_##]A Somali immigrant the government says plotted to blow up an Ohio shopping mall pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Nuradin Abdi, 35, entered his pl...

  • Doctor's wife guilty of murder-for-hire

    Doctor's wife guilty of murder-for-hire

    Criminal Law 07/06/2007

    [##_1L|1035566424.jpg|width="120" height="88" alt=""|_##]A woman accused of offering her younger lover a share of her doctor husband's multimillion-dollar estate to entice him to kill the 69-year-old was convicted Friday of murder-for-hire and other ...

  • Not-guilty pleas in police beating case

    Not-guilty pleas in police beating case

    Criminal Law 07/03/2007

    Three Chicago police officers accused of beating four businessmen in a bar pleaded not guilty. The incident was one of several videotaped confrontations that have led to criticism of the city's Police Department. Sgt. Jeffrey Planey and Officers Paul...

  • Two plead guilty in horse doping case

    Two plead guilty in horse doping case

    Criminal Law 06/28/2007

    [##_1L|1294141386.jpg|width="142" height="117" alt=""|_##]A father and son accused of trying to fix races by injecting harness horses with substances designed to deaden pain or improve performance pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony charges. William B...

  • Shelton pleads guilty to attempted murder of teen

    Shelton pleads guilty to attempted murder of teen

    Criminal Law 06/18/2007

    [##_1L|1092838015.jpg|width="120" height="101" alt=""|_##]A former Metro East teacher pleaded guilty to attempted murder today and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for an attack that left a teenager clinging to life in a Belleville park. Samson Sh...

  • Three MS-13 Leaders Charged with Racketeering

    Three MS-13 Leaders Charged with Racketeering

    Criminal Law 06/06/2007

    A federal grand jury in Greenbelt, Md., has charged leaders of the violent street gang known as MS-13 with federal racketeering crimes, including two men who allegedly ordered murders inside the United States from their prison cells in El Salvador, A...

  • Homeless man pleads guilty in manhole slayings

    Homeless man pleads guilty in manhole slayings

    Criminal Law 05/31/2007

    A homeless man accused of killing four other homeless men and placing their bodies in manholes in a dispute over scrap metal pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of murder.   Daniel J. Sharp entered the plea as part of an agreement with prose...