Sandra Hemme, a Missouri inmate wrongfully convicted of murder, was released from prison on Friday after a protracted legal battle with the state’s attorney general. Hemme’s release marks the end of a 43-year ordeal, stemming from a conviction based on withheld exculpatory evidence. Legal Battle for Release The process leading to Hemme’s release involved a…
On Friday, a Russian court found U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony. The Wall Street Journal, his employer, condemned the verdict as a “disgraceful sham conviction.” Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American who denied any wrongdoing, went on trial last month in Yekaterinburg, accused of…
Harvey Weinstein could face a retrial on rape charges in Manhattan on Nov. 12 after a judge set a tentative trial date at a Friday court hearing. Judge Curtis Farber expressed openness to an earlier start date in September, depending on the progress of pretrial discovery. Weinstein’s lawyers indicated their desire to proceed as soon…
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday referred a judicial misconduct investigation of a federal judge in Alaska to its internal watchdog. This investigation concerns conflicts prosecutors who appeared before the judge may have faced. The department revealed the referral after Alaska’s top federal public defender, Jamie McGrady, requested that the Justice Department’s inspector general…
On Thursday, Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, moved to dismiss his criminal conviction on gun charges and a separate tax evasion case, arguing that the special counsel prosecuting him was unlawfully appointed. Biden’s lawyers cited a federal judge’s decision on Monday to dismiss the criminal case against former President Donald Trump for…
A U.S. appeals court vacated a ruling that had struck down a federal ban on felons owning firearms, prompting a conservative judge to accuse his “Left Coast” colleagues of attempting to “subvert” the U.S. Supreme Court’s expansion of gun rights. On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced that a majority…
A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from continuing to implement a new student debt relief plan aimed at lowering monthly payments for millions of Americans. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by seven Republican-led states to put on hold parts of the U.S. Department…
A U.S. federal prosecutor faces disciplinary charges for allegedly using deceptively edited videos as evidence against people arrested during protests at Republican President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Jennifer Kerkhoff Muyskens edited videos recorded by a conservative activist group to remove footage that could have helped clear the protesters of criminal charges, according to a complaint…
U.S. prosecutors appealed on Wednesday a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the criminal case Special Counsel Jack Smith brought against Donald Trump. Smith’s office filed a notice requesting the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive the case and overturn Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling. On Monday, Cannon ruled that Attorney…
Federal prosecutors in Alaska have identified 23 criminal cases where attorneys appearing before a federal judge, who resigned last week amid sexual misconduct accusations, may have had undisclosed conflicts of interest. A top federal prosecutor sent the list in an email on Friday, which Reuters reviewed. This occurred four days after the 9th Circuit Judicial…