Free Republic

A Bronx man was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the brutal beating death of his manager at a trendy Manhattan restaurant. Lerome Hilson, 29, had pleaded guilty to the killing of Timothy Moore, who managed Pop restaurant in the East Village section. He was sentenced Thursday in Manhattan State Supreme Court. Moore was found dead in a pool of his own blood in the basement of the restaurant last May. He had been bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher. Hilson was on parole at the time of the killing and had been working at the...

A nine-man three-woman jury in Contra Costa County today recommended that confessed murderer Glenn Taylor Helzer receive five death penalties for the five murders he committed during the summer of 2000. This is third death penalty recommendation in the Bay Area this week following Monday's death sentence for double murderer Scott Peterson in San Mateo County and Tuesday's finding for triple murderer Stuart Alexander in Alameda County. Helzer, 34, admitted in early March to killing 22-year-old Selina Bishop, the daughter of blues guitarist Elvin Bishop; Bishop's mother Jennifer Villarin, 45, of Novato; Villarin's friend, James Gamble, 54; and elderly Concord...

In the past year, the Supreme Court has heard three appeals from inmates on death row in Texas, and in each case the prosecutors and the lower courts suffered stinging reversals. In a case to be argued on Monday, the court appears poised to deliver another rebuke. Lawyers for a Texas death row inmate, Thomas Miller-El, will appear before the justices for the second time in two years. To legal experts, the Supreme Court's decision to hear his case yet again is a sign of its growing impatience with two of the courts that handle death penalty cases from Texas:...

A man accused in the execution-style slaying of two undercover detectives could get the death penalty under new charges announced Monday by federal authorities. Ronell Wilson, 21, was indicted along with four other alleged members of a gang that authorities said dealt crack and illegal weapons out of a Staten Island housing project and carried out a string of robberies and drive-by shootings. The gang "culminated its reign of terror with the execution of two courageous police officers," said U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf. Wilson already had pleaded not guilty in state court to first-degree murder. Authorities began to weigh possible...

<p>The Supreme Court, which two years ago abolished executions for the mentally retarded, said Monday it will now consider ending the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. The court said it will reopen the question of whether executing very young killers violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." Currently, states that allow the death penalty may impose it on killers who were 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes.</p>

Controversy over how to prosecute Saddam Hussein intensified Monday as President Bush said the United States will work with Iraq to develop a way to try him, and members of Iraq's Governing Council insisted that the former dictator will be tried in public by an all-Iraqi war crimes tribunal as early as March. While some council members want to see Saddam put to death, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opposes any proceedings that had the death penalty as an option. And Iraq's neighbors clamored for their own proceedings against the captured former dictator. "He has to be tried by the tribunal...