Sentencing/Post Conviction

Federal court partners with bank, college and drug treatment center to help felons

A federal court in Pennsylvania aims to help ex-convicts reintegrate into society by getting them loans, an education and drug treatment. The new initiative by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania is part of a program established in 2009 to help former offenders adjust to life…

Jun 11, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

DOJ investigates online posts about life sentence in Silk Road case that implied a threat to judge

Did online commenters mean it when they implicitly threatened the federal judge who last month gave Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht a life sentence? Or were the Reason.com posts simply trollish statements intended to get a rise out of readers? In either case, the comments, which have since been removed,…

Jun 10, 2015 1:39 PM CDT

Youth who endured solitary and assaults while awaiting theft trial kills himself after his release

A 22-year-old Bronx man who inspired efforts to eliminate solitary confinement for youths imprisoned in Rikers Island committed suicide on Saturday, about two years after his release from the prison. Kalief Browder had spent three years in Rikers Island, almost two of them in solitary confinement, while awaiting trial on…

Jun 9, 2015 10:42 AM CDT

The great escape: Using power tools, two murderers burrow one block to exit NY prison

Two convicted murderers cut through a steel wall in their adjacent cells, climbed down catwalks and burrowed underground for more than the length of a city block to escape from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility through a manhole over the weekend. Officials said Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34,…

Jun 8, 2015 2:15 PM CDT

8 of 10 men accused in shooting of teen Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai are acquitted

News reports earlier this year said 10 men charged in the 2012 shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl who subsequently became a Nobel laureate had been convicted and sentenced to life terms. In fact, only two of the 10 were convicted and eight were acquitted in the attack on Malala Yousafzai,…

Jun 5, 2015 2:10 PM CDT

ABA asks SCOTUS to overturn Florida law allowing divided juries to recommend death penalty

The American Bar Association filed an amicus brief (PDF) on Thursday asking the nation’s top court to overturn Florida law allowing a jury to recommend the death penalty by majority vote. The U.S. Supreme Court appeal concerns the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, a man his lawyers say has limited…

Jun 5, 2015 2:04 PM CDT

Lawyer spends a night in jail over his attitude about being selected for jury duty

All a Nevada lawyer said was “thanks a lot” as he headed past the courtroom’s attorney tables after being selected for jury duty on Monday morning. But that was enough to get Kurt Smith in hot water with District Judge Ron Israel, who overheard the remark, the Las Vegas Review-Journal…

Jun 5, 2015 1:05 PM CDT

Closing attorney gets 12 months for his role in mortgage-fraud scheme

A disbarred New Jersey lawyer was sentenced Thursday to a 12-month federal prison term for his role in a mortgage-fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors said Amedeo Gaglioti, 60, issued two sets of closing documents to conceal what was really happening in real estate transactions for which he served as a closing…

Jun 5, 2015 11:05 AM CDT

Despite claim of innocence, longtime inmate of death row in Texas is executed

Lester Bower had no criminal record until he was found guilty of the 1983 slayings of four men in an airplane hangar. On death row in Texas for 31 years, the former chemical salesman insisted he was innocent of the murders. A witness came forward after his conviction and said…

Jun 4, 2015 12:10 PM CDT

Judge grants retrial in Chandra Levy murder case; defense claimed information was withheld

The man convicted of killing federal intern Chandra Levy has won a retrial after his lawyers argued prosecutors withheld information in the case. Judge Gerald Fisher granted a new trial on Thursday to Ingmar Guandique, who was convicted in 2010 for the 2001 slaying, the Washington Post reports. Guandique’s lawyers…

Jun 4, 2015 9:57 AM CDT

City settles 10th suit over claimed cop corruption for $30K, less than the cost of defending it

More than two years after three suburban Chicago police officers were arrested on corruption charges, the fallout continues for the village that employed them. Without admitting liability, Schaumburg recently settled the 10th lawsuit linked to a claimed conspiracy by the police trio to steal money and drugs from offenders while…

Jun 3, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Man who bicycled to work at hockey game is convicted of DUI for operating Zamboni while drunk

Is an ice-resurfacing machine a motor vehicle as defined by the city code of Fargo, North Dakota? A defense lawyer said it isn’t, but a municipal court judge disagreed. He convicted Steven James Anderson, 27, on Tuesday of driving under the influence for operating a Zamboni while drunk earlier this…

Jun 3, 2015 10:15 AM CDT

Claimed mastermind of Silk Road drug-sale website gets life without parole, is ordered to pay $183M

The claimed mastermind of a hidden website that the feds said generated some $213 million in drug sales over little more than two years was sentenced Friday to a life prison term with no possibility of parole. Ross Ulbricht, 31, who at least at one point was known as the…

Jun 1, 2015 12:30 PM CDT

Judge offers pepper-spraying woman a choice between jail and a shot of her own medicine

A judge known for his creative sentences told an Ohio woman who pleaded guilty to assault with pepper spray that she had a choice: She could go to jail for 30 days or she could let the victim spray her with the chemical. During her sentencing for assault last Thursday,…

Jun 1, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Faith and fiscal responsibility cause many conservatives to change their view of the death penalty

If ever there was a case for the death penalty, the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie in rural North Carolina in 1983 surely was it for those who supported capital punishment. The girl’s battered and unclothed body was found in a soybean field near her home. The community…

Jun 1, 2015 5:20 AM CDT