Recent Updates
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Rick Perry indictment goes before Texas' top criminal court
Political and Legal News 11/18/2015Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants the state's highest criminal court to dismiss felony charges against him that the Republican has partly blamed for his failed 2016 presidential bid. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will hear arguments Wedn...
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Court: Therapy dog didn't sway jury against sex offender
Focused Practice 11/04/2015A therapy dog used to calm a testifying young victim did not influence the jury during the trial of an Ohio man who was convicted of having sex with a minor and providing drugs to another, an appeals court ruled.The Akron Beacon Journal reports the r...
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California appeals court rejects right-to-die lawsuit
Court News 11/04/2015A California appeals court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by three terminally ill patients that sought to clear the way for doctors to prescribe fatal medication to them and others like them who want the option of taking their lives.A state law that ...
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Chinese woman pleads guilty in college test-taking scheme
Legal Review 11/04/2015A Chinese woman pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to have two other women take college admissions examinations in her place to help her get accepted to Virginia Tech. Yue Zou acknowledged having her boyfriend contact a China-based test-taki...
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Supreme Court troubled by DA's rejection of black jurors
Legal Interview 11/04/2015The Supreme Court signaled support Monday for a black death row inmate in Georgia who claims prosecutors improperly kept African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman. Justice Stephen Breyer likened the chief prosec...
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Supreme Court considers if Pistorius guilty of murder
Political and Legal News 11/04/2015South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal grilled Oscar Pistorius' attorney and a prosecutor on Tuesday as it weighed whether to convict him of murder for killing his girlfriend, uphold a lower court's manslaughter conviction or order a retrial. P...
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Lawyer tried to keep Somali rape victim in Australia
Legal Review 10/19/2015A lawyer for a pregnant Somalia refugee rape victim said Monday that he wanted to seek a court order keeping her in Australia before the government suddenly flew her to Nauru without providing the abortion she had requested.The case of the 23-year-ol...
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'Whitey' Bulger's lover heads to court on contempt charge
Political and Legal News 10/19/2015The longtime girlfriend and fugitive companion of James "Whitey" Bulger is expected in federal court to face a contempt charge for refusing to tell whether other people helped the Boston mobster during his 16 years on the run. Catherine Greig i...
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Suspect in some Phoenix freeway shootings pleads not guilty
Practice Legal News 10/12/2015A man accused in some of the freeway shootings that put Phoenix drivers on edge for weeks pleaded not guilty Thursday as his defense lawyers questioned the strength of the evidence against him.Attorneys for Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., 21, who was arrai...
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Arkansas court tosses conviction in woman's meth case
Legal Review 10/12/2015The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after giving birth to a baby with methamphetamine in his system. Melissa McCann-Arms, 39, was convicted by a jury in Polk County ...
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Connecticut court stands by decision eliminating execution
Political and Legal News 10/12/2015The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday stood by its decision to eliminate the state's death penalty, but the fate of capital punishment in the Constitution State technically remains unsettled. The state's highest court rejected a request by p...
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Georgia man accused in hot car death to appear in court
Political and Legal News 10/12/2015A Georgia man accused of killing his toddler son by leaving him in a vehicle on a hot day is set to appear in court for a hearing.Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley is set to hear arguments on pretrial motions Monday in the case of Justin R...