Free Republic

Imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal is in intensive care for treatment of diabetes and is “not doing well,” his family said Tuesday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Abu-Jamal, 60, was taken from the Pennsylvania state Correctional Institution in Mahanoy to Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville Monday after passing out, his wife Wadiya Jamal said outside the hospital. She says prison officials told her he is in diabetic shock. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: His blood sugar level was very high – 779 – when he arrived at the hospital and remains at more than 300, she said....

A 53-year-old death row inmate died of natural causes Tuesday morning at San Quentin State Prison, according to prison authorities. Frank Manuel Abilez, who was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder and sodomy of his 68-year-old mother in Los Angeles County, was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday morning, said Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Lt. Sam Robinson.

The Justice Department has informed former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) that the government has ended a six-year investigation of his ties to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to DeLay's lead counsel in the matter, Richard Cullen, chairman of McGuireWoods. The investigation lasted through two presidents and four attorneys general. Its demise provides a stark footnote to the lobbying scandals that helped Democrats regain the House majority they held for 40 years and lost in the Republican revolution of 1994, which eventually made the pugnacious DeLay one of Washington’s top power brokers.

AIG Bailout: How American Taxpayers Saved European Banks by: Prieur du Plessis January 28, 2010 While the AIG (AIG) controversy rages and the enquiry into the bailout gathers momentum, Professor Linus Wilson of the University of Louisiana (via Clusterstock) has put together a helpful chart showing exactly how the bailout was constructed and indicating which banks got how much. Two things stand out: The Treasury’s overpayment for preferred stock was a crucial part of the bailout, and though Goldman Sachs (GS) is usually held up as the bad guy here, SocGen (SCGLY.PK) received $2.5 billion more, remarked Clusterstock. Fascinating stuff,...

Nearly a million poor people continue to be denied representation in the nation’s courts because legal aid clinics lack sufficient financing, a federally supported legal agency reported Tuesday. “There still exists a substantial justice gap in this country,” said Helaine M. Barnett, president of the nonprofit agency, the Legal Services Corporation, which receives appropriations from Congress to support more than 900 legal aid offices for low-income clients in civil cases across the country.

Unsettled closure: Judge scolds jury on reduced verdict for Jeffrey Scott; victim's family not satisfiedSecond-degree murder conviction, 25-year sentence draw emotional reactionsIt was a case that can -- and did -- make a grown man cry. Jimmy Wayne Pittman wanted a life sentence for Jeffrey Scott, the man who beat to death the daughter he adopted as a small child in Bossier City, La. "This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me, physically and mentally," said Pittman as tears rolled down his cheeks and into his white beard. "This is always going to be hard. I loved...

  I need people to hear my side and accept I am innocent 8:08am Monday 15th September 2008Following a false rape accusation against him, Terry Harrison was remanded in custody and spent months trying to clear his name. Catherine Priestley reports. TERRY HARRISON lost his home, had his freedom curtailed and rarely saw his two daughters while under police investigation. The 34-year-old missed family birthdays and a funeral and turned to alcohol and sleeping pills because of the ordeal. He said: “It was hell. I felt lower than low and at times I honestly felt like killing myself. “Now...

Justice Denied has uncovered documents that have been deleted or altered to obsure Congressman Arcuri from what may be a possible association with the Spitzer scandal.

He saved my life, daughter says Judge accepts jury's call for 10-year term A tearful Jadah Walker said yesterday her father, Kim Walker, will always be her hero after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of her drug-dealer boyfriend. The verdict, which the defence plans to appeal, comes with a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. But Justice Jennifer Pritchard made Walker eligible for parole in a decade, the minimum time allowed, as recommended by the eight-woman, four-man jury. James Hayward, 24, bled to death from five gunshot wounds on March 17, 2003, after Walker...

The Supreme Court on Monday moved to reinstate the death penalty for a California man convicted of murdering a 19-year-old woman during a burglary. Justices reversed an appeals court ruling that threw out Fernando Belmontes' death sentence because the trial judge misled jurors who were considering whether to give Belmontes the death penalty or life in prison. The 5-4 decision was the court's first since starting its new term in October. Justice Anthony Kennedy said it was implausible to conclude that jurors failed to take all the evidence into account before settling on a sentence of death. Belmontes beat Steacy...

CNN Breaking News ALL charges against Debra Lafave have been dropped. Devoloping

(San Juan, Puerto Rico-AP, Jan. 12, 2006 10:49 AM) _ A Connecticut man has been arrested in Puerto Rico for charges stemming from a fatal accident in New London. Twenty-four-year-old Kevin Martinez was arrested by U.S. Marshals yesterday. Authorities said that Martinez was robbed on December 1st in New London by an 18-year-old man with a gun. Martinez is then believed to have gotten in his car, chased and ran over the alleged robber, killing him. DaShaun Stewart died while being transported to a hospital by helicopter. New London police have not confirmed there was a mugging. Martinez is waiting...

San Francisco -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would consider granting clemency to Crips co-founder and convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams. After a private hearing with Williams' lawyers at his Sacramento office, Schwarzenegger said he would meet again on Dec. 8 with the lawyers, Los Angeles County prosecutors and others involved. As governor, he has the authority to commute a death sentence to life without parole. He is not legally obligated to hold a public or private hearing. Schwarzenegger decides clemency requests on a "case-by-case basis," . . .

Just breaking...

Book: Kennedy Cousin Skakel Covered in Blood Night of 1975 MurderBy John Christoffersen Associated Press Writer Published: Oct 10, 2004         STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - A new book on convicted killer Michael Skakel says the Kennedy cousin described being covered in blood the night of his neighbor's murder. Skakel, who was convicted in 2002 of Martha Moxley's 1975 murder, allegedly made the incriminating comment to a counselor at Elan School, a reform school in Maine where he was sent in the late 1970s. Skakel, like his victim, was 15 at the time of the killing. In...

5 minutes ago FAIRFAX, Va. - A judge dismissed an indictment Friday against convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, ruling that the state waited too long to try him for capital murder in the death of an FBI (news - web sites) analyst who was shot in a store parking lot. Muhammad is already on Virginia's death row for one of the killings in the October 2002 sniper shootings in the Washington area.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush's request that an independent advocate continue watching out for Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a life-and-death legal battle, was turned down Friday by the chief circuit judge for Pinellas County. Chief Judge David Demers said in an order that he would not reappoint a guardian ad litem to the case, citing pending litigation over the constitutionality of the law which called for the independent advocate. Terri Schiavo, 40, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state, has been the subject of a long legal battle between her husband, who...

Clara Harris, a Texas woman who was convicted of murdering her husband in March, was just granted joint custody of her twin five year-old boys. The ruling validates what fathers' and children's advocates have been saying for years -- when it comes to children, many courts believe that mothers can do no wrong. While Clara Harris' murder conviction was not enough to deprive her of equal rights to her children, hundreds of thousands of fathers have been thrown out of their homes and driven out of their children's lives by unfounded accusations of domestic violence. According to Washington family law...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 8, 2003 Contact: Elizabeth Keys, 202-224-2928 ***MEDIA ADVISORY *** UPDATE: MAJORITY LEADER FRIST TO JOIN SEN. CORNYN, GRASSROOTS GROUPS RALLY FOR JUDGES: "DEMOCRAT OBSTRUCTION DAY" Washington, D.C.- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will make an important announcement regarding the Senate judicial confirmation process on Friday, May 9, at 12 p.m., Upper Senate Park/Russell Park (Rain Site - Capitol LBJ Room, S-211). The Majority Leader will join Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and a broad coalition of more than 75 grassroots organizations seeking an end to the Democrats' filibuster of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees at a...