Obama seeks low-level offenders for possible clemency

In what the New York Times characterizes as an “unprecedented move,” the Justice Department on Thursday asked defense lawyers to help identify low-level offenders who were sentenced under tough drug laws during the crack cocaine epidemic. “There are more low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who remain in prison, and who would…

Jan 31, 2014 12:00 PM CST

Another guilty verdict for American Amanda Knox in Italian roommate-murder case

Updated: Convicted again—along with her Italian ex-boyfriend—Thursday by an Italian court in the 2007 slaying of her former roommate in that country, onetime American exchange student Amanda Knox wasn’t there to hear the verdict. Knox, 26, has awaited the outcome of the retrial here in the U.S., and she has…

Jan 30, 2014 10:05 PM CST

No immunity for prosecutor accused of misconduct

Hollywood couldn’t come up with a better script than this. A gang member was convicted in 1986 of double murder by two prosecutors who are now accused of coercing witnesses into giving false testimony against him; and he was sentenced to death by a judge who had taken a bribe…

Jan 28, 2014 10:00 PM CST

Woman lost in system serves 154 days instead of 48 hours; prosecutor filed motion to get her out

Ordered to spend 48 hours in jail in August for violating test rules for her drug program, an Indiana woman was released last week, 154 days later, after becoming lost in the judicial system. A series of mistakes led to what the special judge who released Destiny Hoffman last week…

Jan 28, 2014 2:25 PM CST

State AG joins prosecutors’ call for SC supreme court justice to be recused from criminal cases

South Carolina’s attorney general says he will ask a state supreme court justice to recuse himself from criminal cases, after the justice told a group of prosecutors in a speech that they had “been getting away with too much for too long,” and said that unethical prosecutors would be held…

Dec 20, 2013 11:49 PM CST

Penn State GC’s testimony says ex-president tried to cover up Sandusky scandal

As the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal unfolded at Penn State University, the school’s general counsel went from being a close adviser to school officials tasked with managing the unfolding crisis to being a key witness against them. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Patriot-News, a judge presiding over…

Dec 20, 2013 7:45 PM CST

NSA phone-data collection program likely unconstitutional, judge says

A National Security Agency program that collects information from nearly all telephone calls made to or from the United States is probably unconstitutional, a federal judge held Monday. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., said the NSA program appears to run afoul of the…

Dec 16, 2013 8:50 PM CST

3rd Circuit agrees to en banc rehearing in GPS vehicle tracking case

A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear en banc a panel’s decision requiring police to obtain a warrant to attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling (PDF) Thursday, set the case for a rehearing before the full…

Dec 16, 2013 8:00 PM CST

Fox reporter covering Colo. movie-theater slayings will not have to reveal sources in court

A Fox News reporter who broke a story involving a graphic, personal journal belonging to James Holmes, the man accused of gunning down moviegoers waiting to see The Dark Knight Rises at an Aurora, Colo., theater in 2012, will not have to reveal the identities of her sources. In a…

Dec 10, 2013 10:45 PM CST

After four years without an execution, Tennessee seeks dates for 10 lethal injections

Tennessee has executed only six inmates since 1960 and none since 2009. Now its attorney general wants execution dates set for 10 condemned killers. Attorney General Robert Cooper asked the state supreme court to set the dates in “an unprecedented push to carry out the death penalty,” the Tennessean reports.…

Dec 5, 2013 1:33 PM CST

S.C. prosecutors seek recusal of supreme court justice from all criminal cases for critical remarks

Thirteen of South Carolina’s 16 state prosecutors are seeking the recusal of South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Donald Beatty from all criminal appeals for remarks he allegedly made at a conference of prosecutors in September. Beatty allegedly told the audience of prosecutors that they had been “getting away with too…

Dec 4, 2013 7:35 PM CST

Prosecutor says judge secretly dismissed cases, seeks court OK for 10-year review

A prosecutor has asked for court permission to review a Michigan judge’s caseload for the past 10 years, contending that he secretly dismissed misdemeanor cases without an OK from her office. In a 238-page complaint filed last week, Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper says 52nd District Judge Brian W. MacKenzie…

Dec 4, 2013 6:54 PM CST

Prosecutors target BMW buyers seeking to profit from resales to China

Federal prosecutors are trying to put a damper on private sales of BMWs to China, where the cars can fetch nearly three times their U.S. sticker price. Prosecutors have seized dozens of the cars at ports and millions of dollars held in related bank accounts, the Wall Street Journal (sub.…

Dec 3, 2013 1:41 PM CST

Prosecutors battle the wall of silence around sex assault in religious communities

Dec 1, 2013 11:30 AM CST

California begins to release prisoners after reforming its three-strikes law

Dec 1, 2013 10:00 AM CST