Free Republic

A French national detained in Cambodia, who has been linked to the scandal surrounding China's deposed politician Bo Xilai, will not be extradited, a minister said on Friday. Patrick Henri Devillers will, however, remain in custody. REUTERS - The French architect linked to China’s biggest political scandal in two decades and detained in Cambodia will not be extradited to any country, a minister said, adding another twist to a high-profile case already shrouded in mystery. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong gave no details on what grounds China had requested the arrest of Patrick Henri Devillers, whose whereabouts is unknown, but...

(from left to right) Darryl Worthen, Dejaun Worthen, and Darion Harris.Three Indianapolis men face federal charges in connection with the robbery and murder of a Jennings County gun store owner. Darryl Anthony Worthen, 25, Dejuan Andre Worthen, 23 and Darion Dashon Harris, 20, were arrested in September following the death of 61-year-old Scott Maxie, who owned Muscatatuck Outdoors, a gun store located at 8485 W. County Road 200 S. in North Vernon, Ind. U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced federal charges in the case Friday. Maxie was found dead in September 2014. He’d been shot in the head and killed...

SELMA, AL (WSFA) - The Selma Police Department has arrested and charged two suspects with capital murder after the suspects shot a victim in the face while allegedly breaking into a vehicle. Police officers responded to the 500 block of Dallas Avenue at 10:15 p.m. on Saturday in reference to a person being shot. When officers arrived at the scene, they discovered a 28-year-old male suffering from a single gunshot wound to the face in an alley next to the residence. The victim was stabilized and transported to a nearby hospital by ambulance. A witness to the shooting said that...

A Google News search at 3 p.m. Eastern Time today for stories published in March about "Eva Carmichael" (in quotes; sorted by date) returned only 11 items. Who is Eva Carmichael? She is a 94 year-old woman who was murdered in Meridian, Mississippi on March 1. Based on the complete lack of press coverage outside of the immediate area, it's reasonable to believe that the nation's journalists don't think, in the popular parlance, that "her life mattered" all that much. And why is that? A March 6 Meridian Star story (HT to NewsBusters commenter "noncom") reported that "Four teenagers have...

In a 'very rare' move, judge kicks Orange County D.A. off case of Seal Beach mass shooting killer Scott Dekraai SANTA ANA – A Superior Court judge removed the Orange County District Attorney’s Office from the case against the deadliest killer in county history, saying Thursday that the defendant’s right to a fair trial had been violated by false testimony and the withholding of evidence. Judge Thomas M. Goethals, however, refused to block a potential death sentence for confessed mass murderer Scott Dekraai, whose penalty trial is scheduled to start March 30 for killing eight people at a Seal Beach...

A Texas teen has been arrested for fatally shooting an Iraqi refugee watching his first-ever snowfall, police said. Nykerion Nealon, 17, was arrested early Friday after gunning down Ahmed al-Jumaili outside his Dallas apartment complex March 4, Maj. Jeff Cotner told reporters alongside the victim's father-in-law Friday. Al-Jumaili was shot in front of his wife and brother, three weeks after fleeing Iraq to be in a safer place and reunite with his wife, who had moved to America a year earlier.

The triggerman in the Pamela Smart murder trial was granted parole Thursday, nearly 25 years after he killed his school instructor's husband and launched a global spectacle packed with lurid details of sex and manipulation. William Flynn was 16-year-old "Billy" in 1990 when he and three teenage friends carried out what prosecutors said was Pamela Smart's plot to murder Gregg Smart. Flynn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years to life in prison, minus time served before trial. The trial was a media circus and one of the first high-profile cases about a sexual affair between...

The murder of an Iraqi migrant has Muslims in Texas looking for answers just weeks after three Muslim students were killed in North Carolina. Dallas police said that Ahmed Al-Jumaili, 36, was shot and killed outside his apartment last week as he watched his first snowfall. No motive has been determined, but a local Muslim group is working closely with police. On Monday, the group offered a $7,000 (£4,630) reward to solve the case. Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said there was not enough evidence to say whether the shooting...

Justice has been served. After fighting a murder conviction for more than 30 years, Cathy Woods has finally had the charges against her dropped. She has been living with her brother since having her conviction overturned last September, but she still had murder charges against her, and was supposed to have a trial this summer. That changed on Friday, March 6, 2014. Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks announced he is filing a motion to dismiss the case against Woods because DNA evidence has made it clear that Woods didn't kill 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell in 1976. It's a day Cathy...

(CNN)—An Iraqi man watching his first snowfall in his new American hometown was shot and killed by an unknown assailant, according to Dallas police. Authorities have stepped up patrols in the neighborhood where Ahmed Al-Jumaili lived -- and died -- in their effort to find whoever killed the 36-year-old early Thursday as he and his brother watched the snow while Al-Jumaili's wife took photos.

Increased gun control measures would go a long way toward cutting down on America’s homicide rate, President Obama said during a town-hall event on Friday. “Our homicide rates are so much larger than other industrialized countries, by like a mile,” he said during a speech at Benedict College in South Carolina. “Most of that is attributable to the easy, ready availability of firearms, particularly handguns.” Obama’s made a hard push for increasing gun control measures during his presidency, specifically toughening background checks and banning certain assault weapons. He tried to gin up congressional support for those policies after a man...

Live Science reported in January on research being done by scientists at Ganogen, Inc., a biotech company in California, that transplants organs from aborted babies into lab rats with the goal of growing them for use in patients who need organ transplants. “Researchers say they have developed a new technique that will get more kidneys to people who need transplants, but the method is sure to be controversial: The research shows that it is feasible to remove a kidney from an aborted human fetus, and implant the organ into a rat, where the kidney can grow to a larger size,”...

The mother-daughter murder victims of the early morning triple shooting in eastern New Orleans are 25-year-old Walesha Williams and 8-year-old Paris Williams, grieving family members said Tuesday (March 3). Mercedes Brown said the victims were her niece and great niece, and that she notified her brother, Walter, the victims' father and grandfather who lives near Houston.Police said the mother and daughter were shot early Tuesday at at 14535 Duane Rd. in eastern New Orleans. Police said a 39-year-old woman was also shot multiple times at the house and is hospitalized and expected to survive. Williams' relatives said the woman is...

The execution of the only woman on Georgia's death row has been postponed at the last minute for a second time in less than a week - because the drug used in the lethal injection she was scheduled to receive was 'cloudy'. Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, was due to be given an injection of pentobarbital at a prison in Jackson at 7pm on Monday in retribution for plotting the murder of her husband in 1997. But after officials observed the drug to be used in the execution had a 'cloudy' appearance, they postponed her death until a future, unspecified date...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - North Carolina prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man who police say kept detailed notes on parking at his condominium complex before gunning down three young Muslims in a neighboring unit, according to documents released on Monday. Craig Hicks, 46, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 10 shooting deaths of a newlywed couple and the wife's sister about two miles from the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill.

Preliminary autopsy results say 20-day-old Justice Rees, whose tiny body was found Wednesday at a remote slough near Knights Landing, may have drowned or died of hypothermia. In an interview Thursday, Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto said authorities have no evidence the infant was a victim of homicide.

The good thing about a book like Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America is that it's real reportage about murder in the African American ghetto; it's not just narrative from the usual social justice warriors. Author Leovy's angle is that routine murder in African American ghettos is invisible, in the sense that individual murders don't get a write-up in the paper. So she decided to do something about it, The Homicide Report, a blog that documents each and every murder in LA. Each murder, routine as it is, devastates a family, but the cops only arrest a suspect...

A top political nemesis of President Vladimir Putin was shot and killed early Saturday in central Moscow, Russian police said, one day before an opposition rally was scheduled to take place. Boris Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking on a bridge just outside the Kremlin. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Alexeyeva told reporters on the scene that Nemtsov was walking with a female acquaintance, a Ukrainian citizen, when a vehicle drove up and unidentified assailants shot him dead. The woman wasn't hurt.

A prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death as he walked through Bangladesh's capital with his wife, police said Friday. The attack Thursday night on Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, occurred on a crowded sidewalk as he and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University. Ahmed, who is also a blogger, was seriously injured. It was the latest in a series of attacks on secular writers in Bangladesh in recent years. A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility for the attack, Assistant Police...

Nine people are dead Friday morning after a string of murders in Texas County, Mo. Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed that an investigation is on going into the deaths of these individuals, which includes the alleged shooter. Eight people were found dead in Texas County and one was found dead in Shannon County. According to police, there were at least four crime scenes with a fifth and sixth possible, the Houston Herald reports.