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March, 2010

Death Row Inmate Eats Last Meal, Is Spared

Added: 2010-03-31 12:54:39

Earlier this week, an eleventh-hour stay of execution was granted by the Supreme Court in the case of Henry “Hank” Skinner. The court will now address the question of Skinner's appeal, which asks for the DNA testing that he claims will exonerate him. Skinner heard the news while he was eatin...

Mystery Surrounds Death of Snack Chip Heir

Added: 2010-03-30 15:07:48

The grandson of Golden Flake snack chip founder Leo E. Bashinsky has been found dead, and a note taped inside his abandoned vehicle provides no answers as to the cause of his death. Major Bashinsky, 65, disappeared in early March. His Toyota Camry was found near downtown Birmingham, AL by his ad...

High-Profile Weapons Traced Back to Memphis P.D.

Added: 2010-03-29 10:52:44

Two weapons—one used in a shooting at the Pentagon earlier this month, and another used in a courthouse shooting in Las Vegas—have been traced back to the police department in Memphis, Tennessee. According to law enforcement officials who spoke to the Associated Press, the guns were once sei...

Gang Task Force Offers Reward for Info about Recent Attacks

Added: 2010-03-26 13:01:30

Riverside, California's Hemet Gang Task Force has offered up a $200,000 reward for information about a series of booby traps intended to kill its police officer members. The first incident that drew attention was on December 31, 2009, when someone redirected the natural gas line at the task forc...

Fugitive Returns From Cuba, Pleads Guilty in 1968 Hijacking

Added: 2010-03-25 11:23:19

A man who took part in a decades-old airplane hijacking, and who has been living as a fugitive in Cuba ever since, has returned to the United States to plead guilty in the matter. Luis Armando Pena Soltren is a U.S. resident who was indicted in December 1968 on charges related to the skyjacking ...

Doctor Convicted of Poisoning Wife Gets Life Sentence

Added: 2010-03-24 10:43:32

A former doctor who sought to escape his marriage by poisoning his wife with a cyanide-laced calcium pill was sentenced recently to life in prison. After a lurid six-weel trial, in which over 60 witnesses testified to Yazeed Essa's habitual philandering, a jury found the 41-year-old Ohio man gui...

Conviction in Mississippi KKK Case Upheld By Appeals Court

Added: 2010-03-23 10:08:41

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of James Ford Seale, a suspected former KKK member who abducted and killed two black teenagers over four decades ago. The cold case dates back to 1964, when Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19, were kidnapped in a rural area near ...

Brother Goes to Bat for Detective Held On $10 Million Bail

Added: 2010-03-22 16:07:35

Los Angeles—Last December, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge set bail for Stephanie Lazarus at $10 million. Now her brother, Steven Lazarus, has broken the family's months-long silence by calling this amount “way unreasonable” and claiming that his sister is not receiving the proper c...

Santa Monica Sushi Restaurant Charged With Selling Whale

Added: 2010-03-19 09:54:31

According to federal authorities, a trendy sushi restaurant in Santa Monica has been serving its customers whale and horse meat. After being exposed by the filmmakers of an Oscar-winning documentary, the restaurant's parent company and one of its chefs will face charges. Two women involved with ...

Dating Game Killer's Photo Stash Released

Added: 2010-03-18 13:16:01

Police are asking for help in identifying the subjects of photographs which were found stashed in a storage unit used by the so-called “Dating Game Killer.” Rodney Alcala, 66, was convicted last month of murdering one young girl and four women between 1977 and 1979. He appeared on the televi...

Judge Upholds Trustee's Decision for Madoff Victims

Added: 2010-03-17 10:07:08

A United States Bankruptcy Court Judge, Burton Lifland, has upheld an earlier ruling that says investors who were swindled by Ponzi-scheme perpetrator Bernard Madoff can claim only their initial investment, minus any withdrawals they made. Trustee Irving Picard is the man charged with overseeing...

German Homeschoolers Granted Political Asylum in Tennessee

Added: 2010-03-16 11:43:10

A judge in Tennessee has granted asylum to a German family that came to the United States in order to homeschool their children. In his decision, Lawrence O. Burman, a federal immigration judge, said that the family in question would face persecution were they to return to their home country—n...

$25 Million Ticket Fraud Scheme Uncovered

Added: 2010-03-15 09:12:31

Four men have been indicted in a lucrative online ticket-hacking scheme, in which they were able to obtain tickets to popular concerts, shows and sporting events and resell them at a significant profit. The employees of Wiseguys Tickets Inc. are alleged to have hacked into the computer systems o...

Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal by Chinese Muslims Held at Guantanamo Bay

Added: 2010-03-12 13:42:21

Native Chinese Muslims who had asked to be released from Guantanamo Bay into the United States will not get their wish, says the Supreme Court. A string of appeals has made this case a tangled one. Then men, all of whom are Uyghurs—an ethnic minority from western China—have been cleared for ...

Inmate Wrongly Released, Captured in West Virginia

Added: 2010-03-11 10:10:50

Baltimore—Authorities at a Baltimore prison mistakenly set the wrong man free last week, and several people have been charged in the caper. Raymond Taylor, 26, was posing as William Johnson, another inmate at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center. Taylor was serving a life sentence for a...

Former Security Guard in Shootout with Deputies Was 'Paranoid'

Added: 2010-03-10 11:39:37

Fresno, CA—A private security guard with an extensive collection of weapons killed a Fresno County deputy sheriff and wounded two other men before taking his own life. Authorities began investigating Rick “Ricky” Ray Liles, 51, after receiving reports that shots had been fired in the small...

Conviction, Death Penalty Upheld for Bragging Killer

Added: 2010-03-09 01:16:51

A convicted murder who bragged about his crimes will not be granted a hearing, the Supreme Court has ruled. The justices rejected the appeal of Paul Warner Powell, a man who sits on Virginia's death row, after having delayed his execution last July in order to debate the claims he made about dou...

Former Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Shooting During Katrina

Added: 2010-03-08 09:48:51

New Orleans—A former lieutenant of the New Orleans Police Department, who is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, has entered a guilty plea. He is alleged of having helped cover up fellow officers' fatal shootings of two unarmed people during the chaotic period following Hurricane Katrina...

Lawsuit Filed By Prisoner Held in Solitary Confinement for 27 Years

Added: 2010-03-05 10:27:50

A convicted murderer who has lived in solitary confinement for almost three decades is awaiting trial to determine whether his living conditions constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.” Tommy Silverstein—nicknamed “Terrible Tommy”--has been isolated since 1983 from the general popula...

Appeals Court Says Witness Need Not Have Guardian in Lawsuit Judgment

Added: 2010-03-04 13:01:51

A man in the witness protection program will not be appointed a guardian to assist in the payment of a judgment, ruled a federal appeals court. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case of Michael Townley, an American citizen who worked with the Chilean intelligence service during the re...

Vehicular Homicide Case To Be Re-Opened in Light of “Toyota Defense”

Added: 2010-03-03 09:45:41

The recent recalls by auto industry giant Toyota, in which over two million vehicles have been recalled due to concerns with malfunctioning accelerator pedals, may be forcing the courts to reconsider just where the fault lies in some auto accident cases. Take, for example, the case of Koua Fong ...

Wrongly Imprisoned Man Will Receive Settlement from City

Added: 2010-03-02 13:56:22

Chicago, IL—A man who was wrongly imprisoned for a quarter of a century has been awarded a settlement by the city of Chicago, just days before a trial was scheduled to begin. Jerry Miller, who was convicted of raping a woman in a parking garage in 1981, was released from prison in 2006, and pard...

Internet Auction Scammer Sentenced to Federal Prison

Added: 2010-03-01 12:02:22

Miami, FL—Bidders on the popular Internet site eBay, working together with postal inspectors and other authorities, have helped bring down one of the auction site's biggest scammers. A Brazilian businessman whose legal name is Nilton Rossoni, but who had multiple aliases, including “Jorge C...

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