A district judge in Texas has granted a temporary restraining order, blocking the Thursday execution of Robert Leslie Roberson III after a bipartisan coalition of state House members unanimously voted to subpoena him. Roberson’s scheduled execution would mark the first time a death sentence has been imposed for a case related to shaken baby syndrome, a once widely accepted diagnosis that bolstered criminal prosecutions but has come under increasing scrutiny with evolving science.
Joyce Hens Green, who helped blaze a trail for women in the law while serving as a Washington attorney and federal judge, presiding over high-profile cases involving the BCCI bank fraud scandal and the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, has died. She was 95.
The Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for a Biden administration plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants burning fossil fuels, denying an emergency appeal by more than two dozen Republican-led states, utilities and others.
TD Bank pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges Thursday, agreeing to pay more than $3 billion in fines for enabling drug traffickers and other criminals to open accounts and transfer money through the bank. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the agreement and said the bank is the first in American history to plead guilty to conspiring to laundering money.
Sean “Diddy” Combs appeared in Manhattan federal court as a judge set a May 5 trial date in the music mogul’s racketeering and sex trafficking case.
A federal judge on Thursday approved the public release of redacted source documents that helped inform special counsel Jack Smith’s explosive 165-page legal brief arguing that Donald Trump can still face prosecution for trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election, but gave the former president seven days to take steps to block the disclosure.
The Supreme Court appeared closely divided Wednesday over whether to order a new trial for Oklahoma death-row inmate Richard Glossip, whose case has attracted support from across the political spectrum after independent investigations revealed prosecutorial misconduct.
The Supreme Court seemed poised on Tuesday to uphold a major gun regulation imposed by the Biden administration that requires background checks, serial numbers and sales records for the nearly untraceable firearms known as ghost guns.
In September 2018, as allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett M. Kavanaugh threatened his confirmation to the Supreme Court, President Donald Trump vowed that the FBI would have “free rein” to vet the claims. But the White House never authorized the agency to independently probe the sexual misconduct allegations, which Kavanaugh staunchly denied.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to require doctors in Texas to perform certain emergency abortions when the procedure would conflict with the state’s strict abortion ban.
