Criminal Justice

WASHINGTON -- On April 15, 2013, two Chechen-American brothers planted a pair of homemade pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. At approximately 2:49 p.m. that Monday afternoon, the bombs detonated 14 seconds apart, killing three... Read More

MIAMI, Fla. - Three individuals and two companies have been permanently enjoined from operating an international mail fraud scheme offering unwary consumers psychic, clairvoyant or astrological services, the Justice Department said on Friday. Robert Lhez, Mireille Dayer and Julie Poulleau,... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A former Georgetown University tennis coach plans to plead guilty to participating in the college admissions cheating scandal known as Varsity Blues.  Gordon Ernst is admitting to accepting about $2.7 million in bribes to help children of wealthy... Read More

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights  are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Tuesday at a hearing that could also address some pretrial motions. A federal grand jury indicted Derek... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A 44-year-old California man was arrested early Monday morning near the Democratic National Committee headquarters after U.S. Capitol Police discovered he had multiple knives and a machete in his truck. “This is good police work plain and simple,”... Read More

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Tony Evers granted 71 pardons Tuesday, putting him on pace to pardon more people in his first term than any governor in contemporary history. In all, Evers has pardoned 263 former inmates, since his pardon advisory... Read More

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The Arizona man who wore a fur hat with horns and decorative body paint as he joined the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge and could serve... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld Dylann Roof's conviction and death sentence for the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation, saying the legal record cannot even capture the "full horror"... Read More

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A group of more than 100 former and current prosecutors and law enforcement officials is calling on President Joe Biden to prioritize criminal justice reform and make good on his campaign promise to form a task force... Read More

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who pressured former President Donald Trump to pay a settlement to a stripper, was sentenced to 30 months in prison yesterday for trying to extort millions of dollars from sportswear company Nike Inc. He is scheduled... Read More

Derrick Johnson had a makeshift mask. He had the spray bottle of bleach and extra soap that corrections officers provided. But he still spent every day crammed in a unit with 63 other men in a Florida prison, crowding into... Read More

MINNEAPOLIS - Former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison on Friday for the widely publicized murder of George Floyd outside a Minneapolis bodega. The sentence, delivered by Judge Peter Cahill of... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is on the brink of success in her yearslong campaign to get sexual assault cases removed from the military chain of command. But getting over the finish line may depend on whether she can... Read More

The ACLU of Illinois held a media availability this week with Christine Finnigan, who continued to receive her 'medically, necessary physician-prescribed methadone treatment' in DuPage County Jail following a lawsuit brought against the DuPage Sheriff's Office by the American Civil... Read More

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order Friday instituting a forensic science task force as an advisory body within the Michigan Department of State Police.  The task force’s role will be to provide recommendations to improve... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Arrests of Jan. 6 insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol are continuing this week even as the zeal to throw the defendants in prison with severe sentences begins to subside or run into stumbling blocks of criminal law. In... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  As is their custom, the justices did not explain their rationale for taking up the appeal filed by the... Read More

The failure of the prison system to provide adequate mental health care is causing people to kill themselves at high rates, according to a new report.  The report, published in February in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, reviewed data from... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in the Commonwealth. The legislation now heads to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he will sign it into law, making Virginia... Read More

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday to end the Justice Department's use of private prisons. The order tells the Justice Department not to renew contracts with the corporations that incarcerate more than 120,000 people in the... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. - A Virginia General Assembly bill introduced last week to abolish the death penalty has the added backing of the governor in a state that has led the nation in the number of convicts given capital punishment. At... Read More

WASHINGTON - The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have increased the reward for information that could help identify a suspect who placed pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committee offices Jan.... Read More

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor is facing federal fraud charges after allegedly lying about transferring nanotechnology research to organizations associated with the Chinese government. On grant applications and tax forms, MIT professor Gang Chen allegedly did not disclose that... Read More

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a comprehensive package of criminal justice reform bills Monday that stemmed from policy recommendations by the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration.  The year-long study from key stakeholders and... Read More

Less than a month before he is sworn in, President-elect Joe Biden has not yet selected his attorney general, a key role given how politicized the department became under President Donald Trump and while federal officials are investigating Biden’s son.... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to... Read More

RICHMOND, Va, - Virginia’s General Assembly passed a jury sentencing reform bill this week that is revolutionary for the state but is already being done nearly everywhere else. The bill allows juries to decide whether a criminal defendant is guilty... Read More

DALLAS — The Pakistani immigrant was desperate. COVID-19 was spreading through the Prairieland compound, an isolated immigrant detention center about an hour southwest of Dallas. The diabetic man’s time in the facility became too much. He made a tough decision:... Read More

After nearly 20 years of disappointment and dead ends, authorities charged two men with murder in the cold-case killing of hip-hop pioneer Jam Master Jay, who was gunned down in his Queens music studio in 2002 during what prosecutors described... Read More

WASHINGTON - In a few days, the U.S. Justice Department is set to resume federal executions after what has essentially been a 17-year moratorium. The men scheduled to die by lethal injection starting next week at a prison in Terre... Read More