Michigan has to close prisons to save money. California's are bursting at the seams.
The U.S. Supreme Court delayed a decision on whether to accept an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate who has gained international support for his claims of innocence in the the murder of a Savannah police officer two decades ago.
When Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison this morning, the spotlight shifted -- briefly but inevitably -- to Denny Chin, the federal judge who determined the term of the Ponzi scammer's incarceration. Because Madoff eschewed a trial and instead pleaded guilty, on March 12, to 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, theft, and perjury, Chin avoided the attention that would have come if he had been ruling on objections and refereeing courtroom dust-ups day after day.
When Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff is sentenced on Monday, he'll be sent to a real prison with real bars and violent offenders, not a "country club" for white collar crooks, consultants say.
Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and for legalized segregation.
Grammy-winning music producer Phil Spector, 69, has been moved to a California prison to serve his sentence of 19 years to life for killing actress Lana Clarkson, corrections officials said.
The lawyer for Bernard Madoff, the confessed Ponzi scammer who faces a maximum of 150 years in prison, requested a 12-year sentence from the judge set to mete out his sentence on Monday.
Convicted Ponzi scammer Bernard Madoff will probably spend the rest of his life in jail.
My 3-year-old daughter scampers into my lap. "You are a silly goose ball, Daddy," she says laughing, delighted with her characterization of her father, who she thinks is a president just like Obama .
More than 100 police officers and others were searching Friday in a southeastern Louisiana parish for a murder suspect who escaped from jail with three other inmates, a law enforcement official said.
Michigan has to close prisons to save money. California's are bursting at the seams.
The U.S. Supreme Court delayed a decision on whether to accept an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate who has gained international support for his claims of innocence in the the murder of a Savannah police officer two decades ago.
When Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison this morning, the spotlight shifted -- briefly but inevitably -- to Denny Chin, the federal judge who determined the term of the Ponzi scammer's incarceration. Because Madoff eschewed a trial and instead pleaded guilty, on March 12, to 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, theft, and perjury, Chin avoided the attention that would have come if he had been ruling on objections and refereeing courtroom dust-ups day after day.
When Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff is sentenced on Monday, he'll be sent to a real prison with real bars and violent offenders, not a "country club" for white collar crooks, consultants say.
Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and for legalized segregation.
Grammy-winning music producer Phil Spector, 69, has been moved to a California prison to serve his sentence of 19 years to life for killing actress Lana Clarkson, corrections officials said.
The lawyer for Bernard Madoff, the confessed Ponzi scammer who faces a maximum of 150 years in prison, requested a 12-year sentence from the judge set to mete out his sentence on Monday.
Convicted Ponzi scammer Bernard Madoff will probably spend the rest of his life in jail.
My 3-year-old daughter scampers into my lap. "You are a silly goose ball, Daddy," she says laughing, delighted with her characterization of her father, who she thinks is a president just like Obama .
More than 100 police officers and others were searching Friday in a southeastern Louisiana parish for a murder suspect who escaped from jail with three other inmates, a law enforcement official said.
If there's anything Oprah Winfrey knows for sure, it's what the love of a dog can do for your life. "There is nothing in the world like puppy love," Oprah says.
Former major league outfielder Mel Hall was sentenced to 45 years in prison Wednesday after being convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl he coached on an elite basketball team.
Two Pennsylvania teens will serve time in a county jail for participating in a brawl that left a Mexican immigrant dead last July.
Michigan officials said Friday that the state is closing three prisons and five prison camps in hopes of narrowing a $1.4 billion budget gap for fiscal 2010.
A California man convicted of the 2006 arson murders of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters was sentenced to death Friday.
In the black market of prison life, cell phones have become perhaps the hottest commodity. Now, Texas is among a growing number of state governments going after them.
Rapper T.I., who was sentenced to a 366-day prison sentence in March, reported Tuesday to a federal prison complex in Forrest City, Arkansas, according to CNN affiliate WSB-TV.
"Get yourself together." Mary Williams repeated those three words often to her 28-year-old daughter, who served three years in a Kansas prison for a 1988 armed robbery.
Ten years ago, teen Daniel Giddings shot a man during an attempted robbery and was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison.
Asia is a major source of opium and heroin for the world market, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Consequently, across Asia, most countries have adopted a severe stance against drug-related crime, and heavy penalties -- including capital punishment -- have been widely adopted.
The Supreme Court will decide whether it is cruel and unusual punishment for young criminal offenders to be sentenced to life in prison with parole.
At 33, Joe Sullivan is serving a life term without the possibility of parole in a Florida prison while confined to a wheelchair.
A federal appeals panel has rejected the application of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis for a new trial.
It began as horseplay, with two teenage stepbrothers chasing each other with blow guns and darts. But it soon escalated when one of the boys grabbed a knife.
If one California lawmaker has his way, his cash-strapped state may have an arresting real estate listing on the market: San Quentin State Prison.
A day after New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress received good news with an adjournment of his trial, another NFL wide receiver received terrible legal news. The Cleveland Browns' Donte Stallworth has been charged by Florida authorities with DUI manslaughter. If convicted, Stallworth would face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, although mitigating circumstances would likely lead to a much shorter sentence.
New Hampshire's state House of Representatives voted Wednesday to abolish the state's death penalty, which has not been carried out in nearly 70 years.
Almost 2,400 people worldwide were executed last year, but most countries moved a step closer toward abolishing the death penalty, Amnesty International said Tuesday.
Mumia Abu-Jamal sits on Pennsylvania's death row, perhaps the most recognized of the 228 condemned inmates at the Greene Correctional Facility, an hour south of Pittsburgh.
In his latest mug shot, Charles Manson's wild-eyed stare is gone, as is most of his hair. Except for the swastika he carved into his brow during his murder trial, he could be any gray-bearded senior citizen.
A jury in Austria has found Josef Fritzl guilty of raping and imprisoning his daughter for more than two decades and sentenced him to life in prison.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill Wednesday repealing the death penalty in his state, his office confirmed.
Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of repeatedly raping his daughter in a cellar dungeon for decades, has admitted guilt on all charges, including responsibility for the death of one of seven children he fathered by his daughter.
A verdict in the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, could come as early as Thursday, a court official told reporters Monday.
The first person ever convicted in Idaho of knowingly spreading the HIV virus is facing new charges for the same offense, authorities said Thursday.
The next big question about convicted scammer Bernard Madoff, who has been ensconced in his $7 million home for the past several months, is where he'll likely spend the rest of his life.
Two Supreme Court justices on opposite sides of the ideological aisle exchanged tough words Monday over the fate of a Florida murderer who has been on death row for 32 years.
A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.
Two former New York Police Department detectives were sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for operating as Mafia hit men while employed by the NYPD.
Brian Sanderholm thinks Justin Thurber deserves to die for raping and killing his 19-year-old daughter.
A record number of Americans served time in corrections systems across the country in 2007, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Center on the States.
An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced to death a former Iraqi general known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in putting down a uprising in Baghdad a decade ago, Iraqi state TV reported.
San Quentin Prison sits like a fortress along the bay just north of San Francisco. It is bordered by some of the most expensive residential real estate in the country. But at the edge of this scenic peninsula, 5,400 inmates are locked up.
Greek officials have suspended eight prison guards after two inmates staged a dramatic helicopter escape, the Greek Ministry of Justice said Tuesday.
A U.S. Army medic was sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering four detainees in Iraq, a U.S. military spokesman in Germany said.
On a day when Alex Rodriguez faced the media to answer questions about his admitted steroid use, Barry Bonds learned that potential jurors in his upcoming perjury trial cannot be asked their opinion of Rodriguez. Prosecutors had objected to the relevance of potential questions about Rodriguez on grounds that he bore no relationship to the legal charges against Bonds. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston agreed on Tuesday to exclude such questioning.
An improvised explosive device went off inside a federal prison in California during a search Saturday, according to federal authorities.
A man who stabbed his mother to death while on a crack-cocaine binge was spared lethal injection Thursday after Ohio's governor commuted his sentence to life in prison.
The girlfriend of a convicted hedge fund manager who disappeared last year, leading to speculation that he had committed suicide rather than report to prison, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to helping him, according to federal prosecutors.
Federal judges tentatively ruled on Monday that California must reduce the number of inmates in its overcrowded prison system by up to 40 percent to stop a constitutional violation of prisoners' rights.
A riot at a Texas detention center was ended Sunday. One prison building was heavily damaged, and about 700 inmates were going to spend the night in tents, authorities said.
Thousands of inmates rioted at the Reeves County Detention Center in Texas on Saturday, the second disturbance at the prison facility in the last two months.
A former prison secretary has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for having sex with an inmate she was supposed to be supervising, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in the District of Colorado said Friday.
Japan executed four convicted killers on death row Thursday, the government said, marking the first set of executions in the country since October 2008.
Japan executed four convicted killers on death row on Thursday, the government said, marking the first set of executions in the country since October 2008.
A judge ordered Tuesday that the man accused of killing singer and actress Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew be moved from a state prison to the Cook County jail to make it easier for his lawyer to meet with him.
Staffers at a federal prison in central Florida fired shots to break up a large-scale fight that sent eight inmates to hospital emergency rooms Sunday afternoon, officials said.
The former chairwoman of China's Sanlu dairy was sentenced to life in prison and three others received death sentences Thursday in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six infants and sickened nearly 300,000 others.
A former drug dealer was executed in Texas on Wednesday night for the murders of two reputed gang members -- 15 years to the day after the crime.
An actor who played a wannabe mobster in "The Sopranos" was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for a botched burglary that left an off-duty New York police officer dead.
A federal judge ordered a north Alabama sheriff jailed this week, saying the lawman intentionally served jail inmates "woefully insufficient" meals in order to pocket more than $200,000.
A jury's decision on Monday to clear a former actor on The Sopranos of killing a New York City policeman during a bungled 2005 burglary has left the victim's sister outraged.
Hollywood's disgraced private investigator to the stars shuffled in shackles into a federal courtroom Monday and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a celebrity wiretapping scandal.
A Georgia judge threw the book at Brian Nichols on Saturday, giving him four consecutive sentences of life without parole for a 2005 shooting rampage that started in an Atlanta courthouse.
Atlanta courthouse shooter Brian Nichols was spared a death sentence Friday after the jury deliberating his fate announced that it could not agree on a sentence.
Jurors in the Brian Nichols trial were ordered Thursday to resume deliberating his punishment, despite their assertion earlier in the day that they were unable to reach a unanimous agreement.
The number of executions in U.S. prisons hit a 14-year-low in 2008, continuing a downward trend and coinciding with a drop in juries handing out death sentences, according to a year-end report.
Former gridiron great O.J. Simpson will serve at least nine years in prison for his role in an armed confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel in 2007.
A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison in a deadly bank robbery plot -- described by the judge in the case as "incredibly bizarre" -- in which a pizza deliveryman died when a bomb affixed to his neck exploded.
On Oct. 3, 2008, a jury sitting before a Las Vegas district court convicted a man who many believe got away with murder exactly 13 years before. The man, of course, was O.J. Simpson, who was convicted on all 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from a poorly-planed, poorly-executed and unmistakably illegal attempt to seize possession of sports memorabilia from a room at Las Vegas' Palace Station hotel.
Former FBI agent John Connolly, whose fall from celebrated mob-buster to paid gangland flunky captivated a South Florida courtroom for weeks, broke his long silence Thursday at his sentencing hearing.
A federal judge has stayed what would be the nation's first military execution since 1961, saying the U.S. soldier -- who was convicted of rape and murder two decades ago -- should have more time to pursue a federal appeal.
The former Iraqi general known as Chemical Ali has been sentenced to death a second time, the country's official state television reported Tuesday.
Christine Beatty, chief of staff for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from their text-messaging sex scandal case and will serve four months in jail, according to the Wayne County prosecutor's office.
A former member of the now-disbanded German Red Army Faction will be released from prison in January, a court announced Monday.
"My total sentence was 55 years -- for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute," recalls Carolyn LeCroy.
Courts in Myanmar have sentenced a blogger, a poet and several dissidents to several years in jail for anti-regime activities, a court official told CNN Tuesday.
Chicago police on Wednesday found a handgun near where the body of one of actress Jennifer Hudson's three slain relatives was discovered this week.
William Balfour could have been returned to prison in June after a crack cocaine arrest
The man suspected in the slayings of singer Jennifer Hudson's family members was arrested in June on a drug charge, but authorities declined to return him to prison on a parole violation
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution Friday for a Georgia death row inmate who had been scheduled to die on Monday, his attorney said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate who has gained international support for his claims of innocence in the murder of a Savannah police officer in 1989.
An Ohio death row inmate was executed Tuesday after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute plea that he was too overweight to be put to death.
An Ohio death row inmate who says he is too overweight to be executed took his plea to the Supreme Court on Friday.
Disgraced former Olympic track star Tim Montgomery, once dubbed "the world's fastest man," was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for dealing heroin to an informant
Iraq war veteran Patrick Lett admits he made a mistake, one that sent him to jail and resulted in a criminal record.
SI.com legal analyst Michael McCann answers the key questions following the guilty verdict of O.J. Simpson on all 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping.
The Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its June ruling banning capital punishment for child rapists, rejecting Louisiana officials' argument that a "significant error" led to its conclusion that there is a "national consensus" against executing non-murderers.
A daylong riot at an overcrowded prison in the Mexican border city of Tijuana left 19 inmates dead and nearly 60 wounded, a government spokesman said.
A woman was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the chance for parole for burning her baby daughter to death in a microwave after fighting with her boyfriend
Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in federal prison Thursday for his corrupt lobbying activities, which led to the downfall of a congressman and several other Washington officials.
Jose Rivera survived two tours of duty in Iraq, but his job as a corrections officer at a high-security federal prison in California cost him his life.
While inmates in jails across New York pass the time by playing card games -- poker, gin rummy and solitaire -- they may also be helping crack cold cases.
Chante Wright was set to testify against a career criminal when she was gunned down on the streets of Philadelphia in January. Investigators believe it was a hit ordered from prison, by an inmate using a cell phone.
John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, was denied parole for the fifth time Tuesday.
John Lennon's killer was denied parole for a fifth time Tuesday by a board that said he remains a threat to the public
The United States violated international law by putting a Mexican national to death in Texas, the Mexican government said Wednesday.
Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin, whose death penalty conviction in the rape and murder of two teen girls sparked international controversy, was put to death in Texas on Tuesday night, prison officials said.
A death row inmate scheduled for execution says he's too fat to be put to death, claiming executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs
I was truly honored to participate in the CNN documentary "Black in America."
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