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+2 +1
To Help A Criminal Go Straight, Help Him Change How He Thinks
More than half of prisoners released from prison are rearrested within a year. Cognitive therapy can help prisoners change the thinking that gets them in trouble, like “I’ll never back down.” By Jack Bush.
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+2 +1
Man convicted of burning down topless coffee shop wants new trial
Raymond Bellavance Jr., 55, is serving a 30-year sentence for burning down the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro in 2009.
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+43 +1
This Guy Trains Computers to Find Future Criminals
Richard Berk says his algorithms take the bias out of criminal justice. But could they make it worse? When historians look back at the turmoil over prejudice and policing in the U.S. over the past few years, they’re unlikely to dwell on the case of Eric Loomis. Police in La Crosse, Wis., arrested Loomis in February 2013 for driving a car that was used in a drive-by shooting. He had been arrested a dozen times before. Loomis took a plea, and was sentenced to six years in prison plus five years of probation.
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+18 +1
Two Men Wrongfully Convicted Of 1993 Murder To Go Free
A Cook County judge has ordered the immediate release of two men who spent 23 years in prison, after prosecutors agreed to dismiss all charges against them. Jose Montanez, 49, and Armando Serrano, 44, were convicted in the 1993 murder of Rodrigo Vargas, whose body was found in a van parked near a Chicago elementary school, but the two have long contended they are innocent. Attorneys from the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago said Montanez and Serrano were framed by Chicago Police Det. Reynaldo Guevara.
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+24 +1
Slow-motion replays can distort criminal responsibility
Slow-motion video replays of crimes shown in courtrooms may be distorting the outcomes of trials, according to a US study. Researchers found that slowing down footage of violent acts caused viewers to see greater intent to harm than when viewed at normal speed. Viewing a killing only in slow motion made a jury three times more likely to convict of first degree murder. The research has been published in the journal PNAS. The importance of video evidence in courtrooms has grown in tandem with its supply in recent years.
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+24 +1
Two guys in a Connecticut jail cell helped change the way America does drugs
A chance meeting at Danbury prison would help start one of world's most powerful drug cartels. By Christopher Woody.
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+29 +1
Can we predict who will turn to crime?
Is it possible to predict whether someone will commit a crime some time in the future? It sounds like an idea from the 2002 science-fiction movie Minority Report. But that's what statistical researcher Richard Berk, from the University of Pennsylvania, hopes to find out from work he's carried out this year in Norway.
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+54 +1
Justice to end use of private prisons
Deputy AG issues new policy after critical inspector general report
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+19 +1
The Latest: Judge to ex-NFL star: Can't ignore damage
The federal judge who more than doubled former NFL star Darren Sharper's prison sentence told him that courts cannot ignore the damage he inflicted on women and on society at large. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo (TREESH mil-AH-zoh) had rejected a multistate plea agreement's 9-year sentence as too short. She sentenced Sharper on Thursday to 18 years and four months, and a $20,000 fine. Before handing down the sentence, the judge told him she could never understand "how you arrived at this place," since he is educated and obviously grew up "in one of the most loving households."
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+29 +1
Texas man serving life sentence innocent of double murder, judge says
A central Texas man serving a life sentence for a double murder in 1992 is innocent, as are three codefendants no longer in prison, a state judge has found. Retired district judge George Allen ruled Friday that Richard Bryan Kussmaul, 45, should be free. His three codefendants each received 20-year sentences and have already been released. DNA evidence not available two decades ago shows the four weren’t involved in the fatal shootings of 17-year-old Leslie Murphy and 14-year-old Stephen Neighbors at a home near Moody, south of Waco, Allen said in a four-page opinion.
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+9 +1
Italy: Public masturbation not a crime
Italy's highest court has ruled that masturbation in public is not a crime, as long as it is not conducted in the presence of minors.
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+24 +1
Man Who Shot At George Zimmerman Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison
A Florida judge has sentenced a man who shot at George Zimmerman during a confrontation to 20 years in prison. Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 in a case that struck a chord nationwide. He was later acquitted of all charges. "A jury in Florida's Seminole County found Matthew Apperson guilty of second-degree attempted murder in the shooting — which happened as Apperson and Zimmerman were driving in separate vehicles," NPR's Greg Allen tells our Newscast unit.
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+11 +1
Judge who gave Montana man no prison for incest, rape conviction under fire
An online petition with more than 14,000 signatures calling for the impeachment of a Montana judge over the sentencing of a 40-year-old man to 60 days in jail in an incest case involving a 12-year-old girl has been sent to the state’s governor and other officials. The man was sentenced to the jail time, plus a 30-year suspended prison term last week as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. The man also was ordered to complete community-based sex-offender treatment and register as a sex offender.
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+5 +1
Kenyan president commutes all death sentences to life in prison
President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted all death sentences in Kenya to life jail terms on Monday, removing 2,747 convicts from death row in a nation that has not executed anyone for about three decades. In addition to commuting the sentences of 2,655 men and 92 women, Kenyatta also signed pardon warrants to release 102 long-term serving convicts, the presidential State House said. Such pardons are granted to prisoners deemed reformed and rehabilitated, and found to be deserving of early release.
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+3 +1
Pennsylvania man who lied about Marine service for lighter sentence gets more prison time
A Pennsylvania man who pretended to be a decorated ex-Marine sniper so he'd receive less time for theft and weapons crimes is now getting more prison time. Shane Sperow, 43, was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months to five years in state prison, beyond the six to 23 months he's serving for a simple assault conviction, The Reading Eagle reported.
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+25 +1
When a Sibling Goes to Prison
Over 5 million kids in the United States currently have or have had a parent in prison. That works out to about one in 14 American children—a majority of whom are under age 10. Broken down by state, children with incarcerated parents can represent 3 to 13 percent of the population, according to “A Shared Sentence,” a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The unusually intense stress that these children face has been well documented and studied.
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+20 +1
The man who squeezes muscles
For three decades, a bizarre offender has racked up dozens of court appearances and several spells in prison over a strange fetish that drives him to touch young men's muscles.
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+37 +1
Quarter of inmates could have been spared prison without risk, study says
A quarter of the US prison population, about 364,000 inmates, could have been spared imprisonment without meaningfully threatening public safety or increasing crime, according to a new study. Analyzing offender data on roughly 1.5 million US prisoners, researchers from the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that for one in four, drug treatment, community service, probation or a fine would have been a more effective sentence than incarceration.
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+7 +1
A three-second laser strike cost Barry Bowser everything
“I have no one and nothing but the clothes I was given when I was released from prison.”
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+10 +1
10-year prison sentence for ex-drug squad chief Jari Aarnio
The Helsinki District Court has handed down a 10-year prison sentence to former Helsinki drug squad chief Jari Aarnio. Aarnio stood accused of a raft of drug-related and official misconduct offences that allegedly took place while he lead the specialised crime unit.
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