Free Republic

The mayor’s new judicial panel reveals the radical direction in which New York’s criminal and family courts may be headed. Last month, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced 18 new appointees to a “revitalized” judicial panel. Known formally as the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, the panel has a say in who becomes a judge in the city, evaluating and recommending candidates for mayoral appointment to the criminal and family courts, as well as interim appointments to civil courts. Established by Ed Koch in 1978 by executive order—before then, judges were appointed by the mayors themselves, who would...

A woman who listed her home address as a local bar while running for Stockton City Council has dropped out of the race after she was arrested on multiple felony charges. Desiree Lynch, who was running for the District 5 seat, withdrew from the race Monday, effective immediately, according to her attorney, Allen Sawyer, KCRA News 3 reported. “Today Ms. Lynch resigned and withdrew from the race effective immediately,” Sawyer said in a statement. “In light of the legal process she is facing, there will be no other comment on this matter. Ms. Lynch is focused on taking care of...

A man spent 76 years locked up for a murder he swore he didn’t commit — dying at 101 without ever getting a fair shot at proving his innocenceEight times they strapped him in for execution, eight times something stopped it — even the cop who arrested him later said he wasn’t sure this man was even thereThe other suspect took a plea deal after police allegedly beat him into fingering Smith, then recanted everything — but our justice system let an innocent man rot anywayFrancis Clifford Smith died in his sleep this past June at a Connecticut nursing facility....

This is Grammy-winning artist Pras Michel shaking hands with Barack Obama in 2012. Just officially reported to prison to begin a 14-year federal sentence after prosecutors proved he helped funnel millions in illegal foreign money into Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.The operation: Prosecutors proved Michel accepted more than $100 million from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho in a covert influence scheme tied to influencing U.S. elections. The laundering network: Michel used straw donors to secretly route foreign cash into Obama’s 2012 campaign, bypassing federal election laws designed to prevent foreign influence in American elections. The verdict: A federal jury convicted him...

DUBAI — Iran’s parliament approved on Sunday the general principles of a bill that ​would criminalize interviews and other communications with media deemed hostile to the ‌Islamic Republic, including US or Israeli media and outlets financed by either country, Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported. Osman Salari, a member of parliament’s judicial and legal commission, said the individual provisions of the bill, ​which is aimed at countering foreign intelligence influence, have yet to be ​debated and approved. Reports about the bill’s details should not yet be ⁠considered final, Salari told the Mizan news agency. Under the proposed bill, interviews or participation ​in...

A Georgia financial advising CEO was sentenced Friday to 20 years behind bars for masterminding a $380 million Ponzi scheme to fund his lavish lifestyle of yachts, private jets and luxury shopping. Todd Burkhalter, the founder of Atlanta-area Drive Planning LLC, orchestrated one of Georgia’s largest schemes and stole millions from over 2,000 investors in the years-long con. Burkhalter, 59, was ordered to serve two decades in federal prison by US District Court Judge Tiffany R. Johnson, while two of his executives were sentenced to less than five years for their roles this week. Burkhalter’s attorneys had asked for a...

Bill Gates’ “nepo baby” daughter Phoebe Gates, 23, has been accused of “cookie stuffing” at her multibillion-dollar startup, Phia – an illicit practice that comes with a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, according to reports. Phia – a digital personal shopping assistant co-founded by Gates with fellow Stanford alum Sophia Kianni – reacted with shock in July following reports that it was dropping more web “cookies” than it should, taking undue credit for online sales at retail partners. The company released a statement that it had only learned of the issue “within the last 24 hours,” pledging...

Two baby-faced Westchester arsonists who admitted to torching a beloved Hudson River lighthouse will get to avoid jail time thanks to a plea deal that allows them to buy their freedom. Elvin Ayavaca, 19, and Richard Joseph Barrero, 20, both pleaded guilty on Monday in exchange for a sweetheart deal that allows the arsonists to dodge any time in prison — as long as they cough up nearly $81,000 each and stay out of trouble for the rest of the year, according to the Westchester DA’s office. If the pair, who caused roughly $100,000 in damage to Westchester’s historic Tarrytown...

The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday issued an interim order temporarily blocking the state's plan to transfer Nile crocodiles to Ketzi'ot Prison, suspending an initiative promoted by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman. The decision came just hours after the animal welfare organization Let Animals Live filed an administrative petition and an urgent request to halt the project. Judge Avraham Rubin ruled that, until further notice, the state may not locate the crocodiles or prepare them for transfer. The order will remain in effect until the court rules on the request for a longer-term injunction...

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An attorney is accused of smuggling drugs into jail. He and three other suspects are facing charges. Investigators say the drugs were soaked into papers the attorney delivered to his client. On Instagram, attorney Joseph Anfield-El markets himself as a champion and friend to his clients, but investigators say he wasn’t just representing his clients at the jail. “He didn’t respect this facility, and in my mind he didn’t service the clients. Yeah, he serviced them, but not the way he should’ve been servicing them with legal services,” said Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens.

Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi last week imposed new restrictions that significantly limit the International Committee of the Red Cross's visits to Palestinian security prisoners, despite a High Court ruling that found the blanket ban on such occasions, imposed after October 7, 2023, to be unlawful.

The debate surrounding Karmelo Anthony’s trial has also drawn attention to his life in prison following his conviction. Anthony, 19, was convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf on June 9, 2026. He was initially booked into the Collin County Jail before being transferred the following day to the Wallace Pack Unit in Texas. Anthony is not being housed in the general prison population. Because of the high-profile nature of the case, he has remained in protective custody since his transfer to the Wallace Pack Unit. Recent reports also indicate that he is receiving special meals while in custody....

The Justice Department has announced charges in a “sophisticated” criminal operation that it says used high-powered drones to deliver weapons, drugs, cell phones and escape tools into prisons in east coast states. US Attorney Keyes the middle district of Georgia, Federal Bureau of Prisons and FBI investigators in Atlanta, say the rogue drone operation led out of a former daycare in Macon, Georgia where multiple drones were launched on covert missions to deliver the contraband by air to 10 federal prisons at night. “We’re here to announce the unsealing of an indictment that charges the most sophisticated and sprawling criminal...

Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold was arrested and booked on four counts of kidnapping and four counts of armed robbery on Wednesday, and is now facing up to life in prison if convicted. Arnold, 23, turned himself in to authorities on a warrant at the Orient Road jail in Tampa, Fla., the Detroit Free Press reported. He remained in custody as of 10:46 p.m. In a statement released through Arnold’s representative, Arnold “categorically denies any involvement in the matters underlying the allegations made against him and maintains his innocence.” The Lions released a statement that said they are aware of the...

Eight people who were found guilty of terrorism-related charges earlier this year for a 2025 attack on an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, learned their punishments on Tuesday. One member of the group, identified as the group's leader, was sentenced to a century in prison.The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas said on Monday that sentencing for the defendants would happen Tuesday morning. The verdicts, handed down in March, came as the defendants stood accused in the July 4, 2025, plot targeting the Prairieland ICE detention center following weeks of testimony from investigators, law enforcement and...

Eight members of a North Texas Antifa cell have been given decades in prison for their roles in an attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in the state in July of 2025. Sentences handed down to the group of eight militants ranged from 30 years to 100 years. Ringleader Benjamin Hanil Song received the highest sentence, with US District Judge Mark T Pittman sentencing him to 100 years, Andy Ngo reported. Song had been convicted of charges that included attempted murder and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, the most serious charges in...

Three jailed men who murdered a fellow inmate by stabbing him 25 times in his cell will never be released from prison. Mark Fellows, 45, David Taylor, 64, and Lee Newell, 57, were found guilty of killing Kyle Bevan at HMP Wakefield on 4 November, using makeshift weapons including one made from a metal part from the back of a television. Fellows and Newell were already serving whole life orders for previous convictions, with judge Mrs Justice McGowan imposing "new and separate" life terms for them at Leeds Crown Court. Taylor was given a whole life order for Bevan's death,...

Rapper Mystikal — best known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya Ass” — has been sentenced to two decades behind bars over a 2022 rape case. According to ABC affiliate WBRZ, the Louisiana hitmaker was handed down a 20-year sentence on Tuesday for third-degree rape. Per the outlet, the rapper, whose given name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, responded in court Tuesday after the victim requested the maximum sentence. “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he said. The Grammy-nominated rapper pled guilty in March in an Ascension Parish, Louisiana court — though on Friday, ahead of...

Karmelo Anthony, the Texas man convicted of stabbing a star athlete to death at a high school track meet, is asking the court to appoint a free public defender for his appeal, despite his family raising more than a half million dollars in funds for his legal fees. ... In the days following his conviction, Anthony filed a notice of appeal of the guilty verdict and requested a court-appointed public defender, claiming that he is a "penniless, destitute and indigent person" that is "too poor to employ counsel," according to court documents ... The request from Anthony comes after a...

A Rikers Island Correction captain has been arrested for forcing her subordinates to pay her, buy her gifts and drive her to restaurants and a casino while on duty, according to federal prosecutors. Latanya Brown, 51 — who was known as the “Terror of the Tombs” back when she worked at the Manhattan Detention Complex — sunk to criminal lows when she was transferred to Rikers Island in early 2024, according to a federal extortion and wage theft indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Thursday. Brown was assigned to the jail complex’s Facility Operations Department as a supervisor from July 2024 to...