Free Republic

Benton Harbor, MI - A Benton Harbor father is charged with murdering his own daughter. Friends say there had been on-going friction between 60-year-old Albert Ellington and his 12-year-old daughter, Albertnisha for some time. Sunday night, an apparent argument ended with Albertnisha being stabbed to death. Shocking tragedy Albert Ellington just got custody of his two pre-teen daughters late last year. Friends say the meek, mild-mannered man apparently snapped after, what they say, was physical and mental abuse by his daughter. As Albert was arraigned for killing his 12-year-old daughter, those who knew of the situation inside their Hurd Street...

An HIV-positive man who admitted having sex with his 8-year-old stepdaughter over a two-month period was sentenced in a San Mateo County courtroom today to 16 years in prison. Frederick Torralva, 53, pleaded no contest today to one count of engaging in three or more acts of substantial sexual conduct with a child under the age of 14, the San Mateo County district attorney's office reported. He also pleaded no contest to the special allegation that he had knowledge that he was HIV-positive at the time of the crimes against his wife's child,

ROME - Italy's highest court ruled Friday that a man who raped the 14-year-old daughter of his girlfriend can seek to have his sentenced reduced because the girl was sexually active, news reports said. The ruling provoked an outcry across Italy, was condemned by UNICEF and prompted other justices on the court to issue a statement saying the ruling was wrong and in the future would be cited as a bad example of a high court decision, the ANSA news agency reported. The case goes back to 2001, when a court in Sardinia convicted Marco T. of sexual violence and...

t's rare for Bill DiMascio, an advocate for prisoners, to argue that a criminal sentence is too light. It's even more unusual for him to rally behind Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham - in his words, an "ultra-punitive" prosecutor. But Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford A. Means has forced him to do just that. Means has caused a furor with his handling of the sexual-assault case of Tracy McIntosh, a former University of Pennsylvania professor, who last year pleaded no contest to assaulting a graduate student and niece of a close friend. Last March, Means sentenced McIntosh, an expert...

NEW YORK - In the eyes of her stepfather, 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was an out-of-control troublemaker. She stole money from her parents and broke her siblings' toys, she stole milk from a younger sibling and broke their computer printer, he said. And when he found that she had gone into the refrigerator and taken a cup of yogurt she wasn't supposed to have, he flew into a rage. Police say Cesar Rodriguez beat the little girl to death, then tossed her on the floor of what was known in the family's apartment as the "dirty room," a rodent-infested room where...

SALT LAKE CITY (Jan. 10) - Utah's oldest inmate, 99-year-old Bert Jackson, will be paroled and serve the rest of his sentence on home confinement. Jackson has served three years of a sentence of one to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing at least two children. "I don't want you to die in prison," state Board of Pardons and Parole member Keith Hamilton told Jackson during a Jan. 3 parole hearing. The Board of Pardons decided Thursday that Jackson will be paroled Feb. 7 to live with his son and daughter-in-law. The parole hearing lasted longer than usual because...

CINCINNATI -- Police say a Cincinnati man raped a 3-year-old girl and broadcast it live on the Internet, according to Cincinnati TV station WLWT. Paul A. Kraft Paul A. Kraft was arrested Tuesday night and charged with two counts of rape and one count of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor Kraft, 31, is being held in the Hamilton County Justice Center. His bond was set Wednesday at $750,000. Kraft faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted.A tip from the Secret Service to the Regional Electronic and Computer Investigations Unit resulted in Kraft's arrest, according to the...

Three members of the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic braved the ice cold winds of the political gulag Friday night to make a public show of support for former Talon News White House Correspondent Jeff Gannon and the rights of reporters to do their jobs without fear of being destroyed by the political establishment.During the course of our hour-long freep outside Monica's Gate in front of where the TV networks do their standups, a hard pass holding member of the White House press corps stopped and spoke with us at length about the situation.The member of the press corps was...

But I do think I can offer two simple observations about the outcome. 1. Somewhere in his search for the "real killers" O.J. Simpson is thanking his high paid lawyers for not allowing this jury to sit on his case. A brief side by side of the two cases is pretty telling. In the O.J. trial - multiple samples of DNA and physical evidence. You had shoe prints that matched O.J.'s, gloves that belonged to him, and spots of his blood at the murder scene. In the Peterson trial - the last I had seen there was not one drop...

News Alert: Scott Peterson Verdict to be announced today at 4:00 Eastern Time.