Sentencing/Post Conviction

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

Probe finds no evidence lawyer coached condemned inmate to fake suffocation during execution

An investigation has not found any wrongdoing by a criminal defense lawyer claimed to have coached his now-executed client to fake symptoms of suffering as he was put to death. Ohio Public Defender Tim Young told colleagues of Rob Lowe in an internal memo that a probe found “no wrongdoing”…

Jan 27, 2014 9:35 PM CST

Kosher food in demand among gentile Florida prisoners; $4 daily cost worries officials

Florida prison officials have seen an uptick in kosher meal requests, many of them from gentiles, since a federal judge’s December ruling on the issue. The state is concerned because the meals cost more than traditional prison food, according to Michael Crews, who appeared before a state senate committee considering…

Jan 23, 2014 11:50 AM CST

Lawyer who reviewed messages while driving gets parole after serving a year in hit-and-run case

Brought down by his lies about a hit-and-run accident that occurred while he was reading emails or texts while returning from a county bar association event, a New Jersey criminal defense attorney had his law license temporarily suspended and was sentenced to six years in prison after taking a plea…

Jan 22, 2014 10:30 PM CST

Feds seek 10 years for man who admits he sold drugs to judge, 18 months for jurist

Federal prosecutors are seeking a 10- to 11-year prison term for a man who admittedly sold heroin to a downstate Illinois judge and 18 months for the jurist in a heroin possession and weapons case. But a federal district court judge presiding over the drug cases appears poised for a…

Jan 22, 2014 6:30 PM CST

Documentary on legal battle over T. rex bones kicks off Sundance Film Festival

The stunning discovery in 1990 of a largely complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton near an Indian reservation in South Dakota led to an epic legal battle as multiple parties argued over ownership of the 65-million-year-old bones. The skeleton of the enormous, long-dead dinosaur, known as Sue, was confiscated by the feds…

Jan 21, 2014 9:48 PM CST

Federal appeals court says state must pay for inmate’s sex-change operation

In what is being billed as the first such decision by a federal appeals court, the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed with a trial court judge that the state of Massachusetts must pay for an inmate’s sex-change operation. Upholding a 2012 decision by U.S. District…

Jan 18, 2014 12:32 AM CST

Woman gets 5 years for making false rape report

A 38-year-old Michigan woman was sentenced Friday to five years in prison after being convicted last month of making up a story that two men had entered her home about 80 miles from Detroit and raped her. The two men, who attended the same church as Sara Ylen’s ex-husband, likely…

Jan 17, 2014 6:30 PM CST

Lawyer gets 3 years in $1.35M investment fraud; some of the money helped him run for judicial office

A onetime Georgia judge was sentenced Friday to more than three years in federal prison for defrauding investors of $1.35 million. Authorities say former part-time DeKalb Recorder’s Court Judge Michael Rothenberg used the money to fund an unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the DeKalb County Superior Court, as well…

Jan 16, 2014 5:15 PM CST

Beanie Babies founder gets probation

Beanie Babies founder Ty Warner was sentenced on Tuesday to two years of probation for hiding money in a Swiss bank account. Prosecutors had sought prison time for the 69-year-old Illinois billionaire, who failed to pay taxes of about $5.6 million on the undeclared income. But U.S. District Judge Charles…

Jan 15, 2014 3:17 PM CST

Should violent rap lyrics be admissible in a criminal trial? New Jersey supremes to decide

The New Jersey Supreme Court will consider next week whether violent rap lyrics written by a criminal defendant should be admissible in his trial for attempted murder. Vonte Skinner contends the lyrics should not have been allowed into evidence at his 2008 trial for the shooting, according to a New…

Jan 15, 2014 11:45 AM CST

Drew Peterson appeals murder verdict on basis that his own witness shouldn’t have been allowed

A former suburban Chicago police officer found guilty in 2012 of killing his third wife is blaming both the trial judge and his former lawyer for allowing attorney testimony that helped convict him in the high-profile Illinois murder case. In a filing mailed Monday that seeks to overturn his conviction,…

Jan 14, 2014 7:54 PM CST

Pimp convicted of stomping customer sues Nike over lack of warning label on shoes

Disruptive in court when he was convicted and sentenced last year for robbery and violent crimes against a prostitute and a customer who tried to avoid paying her, a 26-year-old former pimp has now found a way to maintain a high profile as he serves a 100-year prison sentence in…

Jan 14, 2014 6:30 PM CST

Only a handful of states allow conjugal prison visits; which one is dropping its program?

A rally is planned in Jackson, Miss., this Friday to protest plans to end conjugal visits in the state’s prisons. Prisoner commissioner Christopher Epps has said he plans to end the visits on Feb. 1 because of the cost and “the number of babies being born possibly as a result,”…

Jan 13, 2014 1:02 PM CST

In wake of crime lab scandal, ACLU asks top state court for dismissal of 40,000 cases

Instead of putting the burden on defendants to challenge convictions in over 40,000 Massachusetts criminal cases linked to a rogue chemist who falsified results while working at a state evidence laboratory, all of the cases should be dismissed, a civil rights group says. More than two years after the faked…

Jan 9, 2014 10:40 PM CST