Criminal Justice

WASHINGTON — In one of his last official acts on Monday, President Joe Biden released Leonard Peltier from prison, nearly 50 years after the indigenous activist was convicted of murdering two FBI officers. For decades, a number of human rights... Read More

WASHINGTON — Democrats accused Pamela Bondi of evasiveness but Republicans strongly supported her during her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday as nominee to become U.S. attorney general. By the end of the hearing, there was wide agreement on the Senate Judiciary... Read More

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is saying he will reverse his predecessor's policy that disfavors the death penalty as soon as he is inaugurated next month. President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death penalties of 37 murderers convicted in... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes... Read More

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her was executed Tuesday over the objections of the victim’s family and the prosecutor, who wanted the death sentence commuted to life... Read More

WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote a letter this week demanding an explanation from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on why he revoked plea bargains for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his accomplices. They... Read More

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s criminal sentencing on 34 felony counts will not occur until late September, if at all, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision on Monday on presidential immunity. In a brief... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is trying to decide whether to appeal a federal judge's ruling Friday that would free about 100 of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters at the Capitol earlier than anticipated. They were sentenced to prison with... Read More

WASHINGTON — A nationwide outcry against crime that hurts small businesses reached Congress Thursday, where lawmakers and congressional witnesses called for a law enforcement crackdown. Thefts cost retail stores $112 billion in 2022, according to the National Retail Federation. Preliminary... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of 11 individuals currently serving extraordinarily long prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses that are out of sync with today’s more lenient sentencing guidelines. “Due to reforms, each of these clemency... Read More

BOSTON (AP) — The American legal system is facing a crisis of trust in communities around the country, with people of all races and across the political spectrum. For many, recent protests against police brutality called attention to longstanding discrepancies in the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court returned to the bench for its December session on Monday, considering a pair of cases whose outcome could have sweeping consequences for the sentencing of recidivist offenders charged with federal crimes. The cases, which were... Read More

NEW YORK — A New York appellate court judge on Thursday temporarily lifted the gag order placed on former President Donald Trump and his attorneys in his civil fraud trial following an emergency hearing. Associate Justice David Friedman of the... Read More

CHICAGO (AP) — A day before the federal government executed a Texas man for the killing of an Iowa couple when he was 18, celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz pleaded with then-President Donald Trump — a former client — to call... Read More

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the District of Columbia Department of Corrections for failing to offer kosher meals on request from Jewish inmates. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Riley Benjamin, who has been in... Read More

WASHINGTON — The latest indictment against former President Donald Trump this week listed as co-conspirators five attorneys who are likely to have their loyalty to their client tested in court soon as he faces charges of illegally trying to overturn... Read More

WASHINGTON — It was, without a doubt, not the return to Washington, D.C., that former President Donald Trump has been dreaming about since he left the city in defeat in late January 2021. On Thursday afternoon, inside a federal courthouse... Read More

WASHINGTON — A federal judge is considering releasing a man from jail who was arrested last week near former President Barack Obama’s home with two guns and 400 rounds of ammunition in his van. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told... Read More

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A bill intended to help restore the competency of jailed individuals with mental health issues so they can stand trial has been vetoed by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. Specifically, the legislation sponsored by Republican State Sen.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The chairman and two Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee are pressing FBI Director Christopher Wray for information on the agency’s ongoing investigation into pipe bombs placed in a Capitol Hill neighborhood the night before the Jan.... Read More

NEW YORK — The criminal trial of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records is set to get underway on March 25, 2024, according to an order handed down Tuesday by a New York Supreme... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury convicted Dayonta McClinton of robbing a CVS pharmacy but acquitted him of murder. A judge gave McClinton an extra 13 years in prison for the killing anyway. In courtrooms across America, defendants get additional prison... Read More

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A judge in San Jose, California, on Friday sentenced former Theranos, Inc., Chief Executive Elizabeth Holmes to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors with phony blood-testing technology. "I regret my failings with every... Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — More than 150 years after slaves were freed in the U.S., voters in five states will soon decide whether to close loopholes that led to the proliferation of a different form of slavery — forced labor... Read More

BOSTON — A federal judge in Boston sentenced more former eBay employees Tuesday after they pleaded guilty to criminal charges from a harassment campaign against two journalists who criticized the online retailer in their blog. Prosecutors called the harassment “unimaginably... Read More

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A Maryland court set off controversy over juvenile justice by ruling Friday that a murderer convicted of killing six people must be resentenced because he was 17 years old at the time. The convict, Lee Boyd... Read More

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A cryptocurrency CEO pleaded guilty to fraud Friday, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Michael Alan Stollery, 54, of Reseda, California, was the CEO of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services Inc. TBIS raised $21... Read More

WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon is asking a Washington, D.C., federal judge to delay his trial for contempt of Congress after recent hearings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the... Read More

WASHINGTON — It began with a simple question: Do the federal government and a state have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Native Americans against Native Americans in what the federal government continues to refer to as “Indian country”?... Read More

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white man who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket made his first appearance in federal court on hate crime charges Thursday, and the judge urged prosecutors to quickly decide whether to pursue the... Read More