Topics: Crime - 199 results

Jodi Arias’s jury agreed with the prosecutor on May 15, finding that her murder of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander was “especially cruel” – one of the aggravating factors that now makes her officially eligible for a spot on Arizona’s death row. The trial moves on to the sentencing phase on May 16, with the jury hearing evidence about whether Arias should get death by lethal injection or life in prison.   Suffering Debate Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder on …

A jury awarded $8.8 million to the family of a man shot three times and killed by police while getting out of his car. Police in Culver City, Calif., pulled over 27-year-old Lejoy Grissom in a parking lot in the middle of the day on April 25, 2010, because they suspected he had robbed a nearby electronics store. Four more officers and a supervisor arrived as back-up and drew their guns as they ordered Grissom out of the car. Moments …

Was Amanda Knox naïve before she was arrested for murder in Italy? Yes. Was her behavior often flaky, clueless and inappropriate for her situation? Yes. Was her youthful attractiveness a liability with the media and at trial? Maybe. Was she a killer who stabbed her roommate? No way. In her new memoir, “Waiting to Be Heard,” Amanda Knox of Seattle, Wash., describes the nightmare of her 43 hours of interrogation over three days, an 11-month trial and four years in …

Towards the end of their sentences, inmates and parolees can be sent to halfway houses. These are also called community corrections centers or residential reentry centers. Halfway houses are supposed to help prisoners reenter society by providing supervision and transitional services. Some are run by government agencies or nonprofits, but many are large operations run by private companies. Halfway-house programs are offered by federal, state and local penal systems. A person in a halfway house is still considered a prisoner. …

O.J. Simpson wants out of jail. The former football star-cum-celebrity murder defendant, who is serving a 33-year sentence for a 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction, is hoping to win a new trial by claiming his lawyer at the last one was incompetent. Among other allegations, Simpson, 65, claims that attorney Yale Galanter didn’t tell him about a plea bargain opportunity, and created a conflict of interest before the robbery ever took place by telling him he was within his …