Sentencing/Post Conviction

Want to tackle mass incarceration? Cap most sentences at 20 years, expert suggests

Life sentences have expanded exponentially in recent decades, and the result is an inflationary effect on all sentences, according to a sentencing-reform advocate. There’s a way to reverse the trend, according to Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project. Cap sentences at 20 years in prison, except in exceptional…

Mar 16, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Convicted judge is indicted again

Convicted last year on only one of the nine charges she faced concerning claimed misuse of her position, a suspended Ohio juvenile court judge is now facing a new indictment and trial concerning the charges on which the jury deadlocked. However, Judge Tracie Hunter has not been required to serve…

Mar 13, 2015 9:20 AM CDT

California judge boots Orange County DA’s office from murder case because of withheld evidence

A California judge has booted the Orange County district attorney’s office from a high-profile multiple murder case, citing a “chronic failure” to turn over prosecution evidence to the defense. Scott Dekraai last year pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in the 2011 slayings of his wife and seven…

Mar 12, 2015 3:50 PM CDT

Fatal courthouse shooting and violent spree still reverberate 10 years later

A fatal shooting and assault rampage that began at a Georgia courthouse 10 years ago, resulting in the deaths of a judge, a court reporter and two law enforcement officers, led to enhanced security measures at courthouses throughout the state. However, as the Fulton County Courthouse community on Wednesday remembered…

Mar 12, 2015 2:35 PM CDT

Utah to list white-collar criminals in first Internet registry for those convicted of fraud

Utah is poised to become the first state in the nation with a public registry listing convicted white-collar criminals, in an effort to help prevent affinity fraud among the state’s close-knit residents. A bill to require an Internet listing of those found guilty of certain financial crimes sailed through the…

Mar 12, 2015 12:00 PM CDT

Utah lawmakers approve firing squads as execution back-up method

Utah lawmakers on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill authoring executions to be carried out by firing squads if lethal injection drugs aren’t available. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has not indicated whether he will sign the bill, report Reuters and the Associated Press. Utah had allowed inmates to choose…

Mar 11, 2015 11:16 AM CDT

Manslaughter case video shows actor Wyatt Russell running for life as train hurtles toward movie set

The movie was never completed. But a video clip showing actor Wyatt Russell and crew members, who had been filming Midnight Rider, running for their lives down a train trestle high above a Georgia river in real life, as a whistle-blowing train barreled down on them at 55 mph, became…

Mar 11, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Suspended lawyer gets 5 years in money-laundering case; man who gave him the money gets 30 months

A suspended Minnesota attorney was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison for using his law firm to launder money from a brother-in-law who sold marijuana. Robert Boedigheimer, 52, needed loans to fund his lavish lifestyle. So the personal injury lawyer gave his brother-in-law, Brandon Lusk, a no-show job…

Mar 10, 2015 9:35 AM CDT

Woman who confessed to murder to get private room in mental hospital is exonerated decades later

Prosecutors are dropping a murder case against a woman who was twice convicted in a Nevada slaying based on a confession her lawyer says she made in order to get a private room in a psychiatric hospital. Cathy Woods, who is now 64, won a new trial for the second…

Mar 6, 2015 2:30 PM CST

HBO to make TV movie based on case of ex-lawyer accused of killing 2 prosecutors

The case of a former Texas justice of the peace accused of enlisting his wife to help him murder two prosecutors has provided the plot for an upcoming HBO television movie. Eric Williams was convicted last year of killing the wife of the Kaufman County district attorney and got the…

Mar 6, 2015 1:25 PM CST

Pardon convicted paleontologist who found famous dinosaur fossil Sue, Senate committee urges

Saying that he believes paleontologist Peter Larson didn’t realize he was committing any crime and was overzealously prosecuted for conduct linked to his discovery of a famous Tyrannosaurus rex fossil decades ago, a lawmaker urged the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday to call for President Barack Obama to pardon Larson.…

Mar 6, 2015 9:00 AM CST

Police award helped teen offender reinvent himself as a future law student

Once a high-school dropout and known marijuana dealer, Jonathan Reynolds, didn’t appear to be destined for career success. Despite his record as a convicted felon, the 21-year-old is now about to graduate from college and expects to start law school in August at the University of South Carolina, reports the…

Mar 4, 2015 3:10 PM CST

Sentencing for David Cassidy drunken-driving case is delayed again

A day at the Saratoga racecourse put onetime teen heartthrob David Cassidy crossways with a judge in a New York drunken-driving case, and it appears that the actor may still be paying the price. After learning from a tweet by track officials last year that Cassidy, who had asked not…

Mar 4, 2015 1:05 PM CST

California Supreme Court rules for parolees who challenged housing restrictions for sex offenders

A California law restricting housing locations for sex offenders is unconstitutional as applied to parolees in San Diego, the California Supreme Court has ruled. The 2006 law, dubbed Jessica’s Law, had barred sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools or parks. In an opinion (PDF) on Monday, the…

Mar 4, 2015 5:45 AM CST

‘Capturing the Friedmans’ defendant loses defamation suit against prosecutor

The surviving defendant in a controversial child sex-abuse case portrayed in the documentatry Capturing the Friedmans has been out of prison for nearly 15 years. However, Jesse Friedman is still seeking vindication. It remained elusive Monday, as a New York judge dismissed his defamation suit against a former Nassau County…

Mar 3, 2015 2:00 PM CST