Another state approves death penalty for child rape

Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill last week that authorizes the death penalty for aggravated rape of a child by an adult.

May 16, 2024 2:14 PM CDT

Prosecutors excluded Jewish people from juries in one California county for decades, review suggests

Several prosecutors in Alameda County, California, excluded Jewish people from juries in past decades, according to the Alameda County district attorney.

May 14, 2024 3:16 PM CDT

Lawyer’s true-crime book explores how he defended a neurodivergent client charged with murder

Updated: In 1997, in the small town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia, a reclusive man was accused of keeping his wife captive in his home and murdering her. A local politician-turned-defense attorney took on the case.

May 13, 2024 4:00 PM CDT

Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election

A lawyer who pressed election fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election is facing new criminal charges alleging that she and a township clerk allowed an unauthorized computer examiner to access voter data that included nonpublic information.

May 9, 2024 2:53 PM CDT

Former McElroy Deutsch CFO pleads guilty to embezzling more than $1.5M from firm

The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the law firm over a six-year period and failing to pay more than $22,000 in state income taxes.

May 9, 2024 9:27 AM CDT

Accused getaway driver, aka ‘Block Da Foo Foo,’ was prejudiced by rap video evidence, Texas court says

A trial judge should not have allowed prosecutors to introduce an accused getaway driver’s rap videos at trial in an effort to show that he was more sophisticated than he claimed to be, the top criminal court in Texas has ruled.

May 9, 2024 9:05 AM CDT

Former lawyer will be retried for murder after top Georgia court overturns conviction

Prosecutors are planning to retry a former Atlanta lawyer after his murder conviction was overturned Tuesday by the Georgia Supreme Court.

May 6, 2024 9:26 AM CDT

Lawyer’s new book traces today’s true-crime fascination to salacious 1800s murder trial

The case of Polly Bodine is the subject of Alex Hortis’ new book, The Witch of New York. But a whodunnit is only part of the story that Hortis, the associate university counsel at the University of Maryland Baltimore, sets out to tell. The book’s subtitle shares the rest: “The cursed birth of tabloid justice.”

May 2, 2024 2:16 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: SCOTUS winds up term with rulings expected on major cases about government power, accountability

The Supreme Court heard the last oral arguments of the term on April 25, and now we wait for the decisions with the expectation of the usual flurry of rulings at the end of June. In thinking about the pending cases, a significant number involve the scope of government power and how to hold the government accountable.

May 1, 2024 12:08 PM CDT

‘In the Shadow of Liberty’ shines light on American immigration history

Ana Raquel Minian uses the personal experiences of four immigrants to walk readers through the history of immigrant detention in the United States in In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States.

May 1, 2024 9:00 AM CDT

Former general counsel failed to file federal tax returns while earning $54M, he admits in guilty plea

The former general counsel for the Moody’s Corp. pleaded guilty last week to willfully failing to pay tax returns during a four-year period in which he earned $54 million in total gross income.

Apr 30, 2024 9:30 AM CDT

Lawyer shot while allegedly trying to rob armored car

An Arkansas lawyer was taken to the hospital Wednesday after he was allegedly shot by an armored car employee during an attempted robbery, according to Little Rock, Arkansas, police.

Apr 29, 2024 10:51 AM CDT

Lawyer suspended after he’s accused of plying teens with alcohol and touching one of them sexually

The Ohio Supreme Court has suspended a lawyer who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault after being accused of touching his stepdaughter’s 18-year-old friend in a sexual manner during a sleepover in which she became sick from drinking the alcohol that he supplied.

Apr 25, 2024 3:21 PM CDT

Takeaways from the Supreme Court argument on Trump’s criminal immunity

The Supreme Court spent hours Thursday morning debating former president Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for allegedly conspiring to undo the results of the 2020 election. The ruling, which could come in June, could do far more than chart the course of Trump’s case; it may forever alter the boundaries of presidential power.

Apr 25, 2024 2:00 PM CDT

Lawyer who argued Nixon-Watergate case fears SCOTUS might expand presidential immunity for Trump

Philip Lacovara, counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor, spoke with the ABA Journal about his experience with U.S. v. Nixon and his concerns about Trump v. United States. “When the Nixon case was decided, I thought that while it would give subsequent presidents the opportunity to claim executive privilege, which was not an established doctrine, I never thought it would lead to a former president claiming immunity from criminal prosecution. Yet here we are.”

Apr 23, 2024 11:19 AM CDT