Punishment

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor gets 50 years for war crimes

Former Liberian President Charles Taylorwill likely spend the rest of his life in jail after a U.N.-backed court sentenced him to 50 years in prison for aiding and abetting war crimes. Taylor , 64, is the first former head of state to be convicted by...

Tags: Crimes, Sierra Leone, International Law, Civil Rights, Charles Taylor

R.I. governor, feds fight over who gets custody of robbery suspect

A man charged with killing a gas station manager during a robbery outside a bank is caught in the middle of an unusual custody battle between federal prosecutors and Rhode Island's governor. The latter is trying to block the accused's prosecution in...

Tags: Politics, Jose Santiago, Death Penalty, Bank Robbery, Justice System

Tapes could shed new light on Manson murders, LAPD says

Los Angeles police are hoping old recordings of conversations between Charles Manson's right-hand man, Charles “Tex” Watson, and Watson's former attorney could shed light on the infamous Manson family murders. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brenda T....

Tags: Charles Manson, Murder, Los Angeles Police Department, Sharon Tate, Judges

Unraveling the fabric of justice in the Brian Banks case

This is a corrected version of the original post; see the note below. Brian Banks spent more than five years in prison for a rape and kidnapping that, as the courts now find, he did not commit; the repercussions of how the case sorts itself out in the...

Tags: Criminals, Sex Crimes, Judges, Justice System, Prisons

Judges sentence Charles Taylor to 50 years

Associated Press

Judges at an international war crimes court have sentenced former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison following his landmark conviction for supporting rebels in Sierra Leone who murdered and mutilated thousands during their country's...

Tags: Politics, War Crimes, Sierra Leone, Justice System, Charles Taylor

San Quentin death row prisoner commits suicide

SACRAMENTO — An inmate who was sentenced to death hanged himself in his cell at San Quentin State Prison over the weekend, officials said Tuesday. The inmate, James Lee Crummel, 68, is the 20th death-row prisoner to take his own life since...

Tags: Death Penalty, Prisons, Barbara Lee, Abusive Behavior, Suicide

No verdict in sight yet for John Edwards

GREENSBORO, N.C. — For weeks, the focus of the John Edwards campaign finance trial was the former senator's adulterous behavior and his convoluted attempts to cover it up. Now, after seven tedious days of jury deliberations and no verdict in sight,...

Tags: Political Candidates, Politics, Rielle Hunter, John Edwards, Justice System

Soldier from Los Angeles is killed in Afghanistan

Former Rutgers student apologizes in roommate suicide case

Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi on Tuesday apologized for the first time for invading the privacy of his gay roommate, who later committed suicide, saying his behavior was “thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid and childish.&...

Tags: Dharun Ravi, Justice System, Prisons, Rutgers University, Human Interest

Foreclosures and resulting blight infest once-safe neighborhoods

William Perez has been waiting a long time to tell someone all the sad and crazy things he's seen. Perez runs a crew that crisscrosses Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley doing the dirty but essential job of cleaning up homes that have been foreclosed...

Tags: Hector Tobar, Criminals, Politics, Bank of New York Company, Fines

Pakistan offers little justice for victims of acid attacks

FAISALABAD, Pakistan — The cherub-faced 10-year-old girl was standing at a bus stop, saying goodbye to visiting relatives, when her mother noticed two motorcycles approaching, one coming down the street and the other from a graveyard behind them....

Tags: Arbitration, Pakistan, Judges, Justice System, Feminism

Realignment plan for California prisons causing new friction

The first four times Pamela Morris was released from prison, she would go to her state parole officers or they would occasionally make unannounced solo visits to make sure she wasn't committing new crimes. But after Morris completed a state sentence...

Tags: Laws, Zev Yaroslavsky, Law Enforcement, Los Angeles Police Department, Local Government