Charges Dropped Against Man Who Kept Family Isolated
Prosecutors say the father of nine is too ill after a stroke to be tried on charges that included sexually abusing two of his children.
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fair trial
IS Bride Loses Bid to Return to UK to Fight for Citizenship
A woman who ran away from London as a teenager to join the Islamic State group lost her bid Friday to return to the U.K. to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds.
Read moreHere’s Johnny
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled a man convicted of robbing a bank is entitled to a new trial because a prosecutor improperly used a PowerPoint slide with a photo from the movie “The Shining,” featuring the “Here’s Johnny!” scene, in order to show that non-threatening language can be threatening in context.
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Human Rights Court: Icelandic Judicial Appointments Were Illegal
The Icelandic Court of Appeal was not properly established under European law because of irregularities in judicial appointments, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.
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Wisconsin Justices Analyze Inclusion of Dead Wife’s Letter in Murder Trial
The high-profile prosecution of a decades-old Wisconsin murder case was resurrected by the state high court on Tuesday as the justices scrutinized whether a dead wife’s letter blaming her husband for her murder can be used as evidence against him.
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Environmental Lawyer Facing Rare Prosecution Says His Judge Is Biased
She may not be the one who brought the charges against environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, but the federal judge tapped to preside over Donziger’s contempt trial will have to surmount bias allegations before the extremely rare court-ordered prosecution can begin.
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Turkish Lawyer Dies on Hunger Strike Demanding Fair Trial
A human rights lawyer in Turkey has died of a hunger strike she launched in prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues, an attorney’s group said.
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Second Circuit Grants Delay on Ghislaine Maxwell Deposition Release
The day after the release of dozens of files in her case, Jeffrey Epstein’s accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell scored a win Friday in her quest to delay the release of a deposition said to incriminate her.
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Georgia Bank Robber Argues Flawed Testimony Warrants New Trial
An attorney for a Georgia man sentenced to 32 years in federal prison for two armed bank robberies asked an 11th Circuit panel Tuesday to grant him a new trial based on an FBI forensic examiner’s incorrect testimony explaining DNA evidence.
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Rights Court Backs Trial Where Public Access Took Back Seat
In a rape case that sparked outrage over the ruling that a finger in the anus is no more sexual than a handshake, Croatia won a bit of save-face for protecting the victim’s privacy.
Read morePreliminary Hearings
In a dispute relating to court restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nevada Chief U.S. District Judge Miranda Du vacated a U.S. magistrate judge’s order granting the government’s motion to continue the hearings of two men charged with breaking into a hardware store and stealing firearms. Du remanded the case with instructions to immediately release the men from custody.
Read moreIrish Lotto Winner Wins Human Rights Case Over Court Delays
A lottery winner who lost all of his money on a failed Titanic-themed bar was denied his right to a speedy trial by the Irish government, the European Court of Human Rights found Thursday.
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Texas High Court Overturns $177K Sanctions Order for Pretrial Survey
A state judge erred in slapping a high-profile Dallas attorney with $177,000 in sanctions over a pretrial phone survey because the survey was not a ploy to taint the jury pool, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Read moreCoronavirus Upends US Court Systems Nationwide
Courthouses shuttered. Thousands of trials on hold. Legal deadlines pushed. The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the U.S. legal system, creating constitutional dilemmas as the accused miss their days in court.
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Child-Rape Charges Against Mexican Megachurch Leader Tossed on Technicality
A state appeals court tossed on procedural grounds a case involving charges of child rape and human trafficking against the leader of a Mexican megachurch who lived in Southern California.
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14-Year Delay of Capital Murder Trial Prompts Judge to Dismiss Indictment
A Houston man accused of beating two immigrants to death with cohorts in his human smuggling ring had his indictment thrown out Thursday by a federal judge who blasted prosecutors for delaying his trial for 14 years.
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Minnesota Justices Revive Defamation Claims Over Cop’s Murder
The Minnesota Supreme Court handed down a tempered victory Wednesday for a man suing two media outlets, ruling that a defamation case against a local newspaper and a statewide television news channel needed closer scrutiny from a jury.
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Human Rights Court Rules for Convicted Icelandic Banker
Owning stock in a collapsing Icelandic bank may have affected the impartiality of judges in a trial of one of the bank’s top executives, the European Court of Human Rights found Tuesday.
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Florida High Court Reverses Itself on Death Penalty Verdicts
Convicted murderers no longer need a unanimous jury to sentence them to death, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in a dramatic reversal.
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