Amanda Knox 'Saddened' By Guilty Verdict

The sentencing in the Amanda Knox trial is a shock for some, while others feel it is justified. There still remains a lack of evidence against Knox. Read the article for a full explanation of the entire situation.

Amanda Knox said Thursday she is "frightened and saddened" by the guilty verdict handed down Thursday in the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher.

"Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system," Knox said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post by her spokesman, David Marriott.

"The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," the statement continues. "Rather, nothing has changed. There has always been a marked lack of evidence. My family and I have suffered greatly from this wrongful persecution."

Knox said it's also important to recognize that there is no consolation for the Kercher family. "Their grief over Meredith's terrible murder will follow them forever," she said. "They deserve respect and support."

Thursday's verdict followed a four-month trial, the result of prosecutors' request for a new trial after a prior guilty verdict against Knox was overturned.

Anne Bremner, a Seattle attorney and spokesperson for the Friends of Amanda Knox organization, said she is shocked. "I and the Friends of Amanda Knox are confident that if the facts had been fairly viewed, [she would have] been acquitted. There is no justice ... in Italy in this case."

Moments after the verdict was announced by an Italian court, thousands took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the matter.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/amanda-knox-verdict-reaction_n_4697609.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Sheila Eddy Murdered Skylar Neese Because She 'Didn't Want To Be Friends With Her Anymore'

This is a terrible tragedy and I can only hope that someday the victim's parents find some peace and closure. The girls killed this 16 year old because they didn't want to be her friend anymore. Read the article below for more details. 

A West Virginia teen has pleaded guilty tomurdering her high school classmate and former best friend.

Sheila Eddy, 18, was slated to face trial next week in the death of 16-year-old Skylar Neese, whom she and another girl, Rachel Shoaf, stabbed to death in July 2012. Eddy was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years.

The victim's father, Dave Neese, tearfully addressed the court Friday, saying, “We are no longer a family. You can see the faces of the killer, but you can’t see Skylar’s face. You can’t imagine how Mary and I now feel.”

According to a statement by Shoaf, she and Eddy killed Neese because they "didn’t want to be friends with her anymore," West Virginia Metro News reported.

“It was a conspiracy to rid themselves of their friend,” Monongalia County prosecuting attorney Marcia Ashdown said, according to the publication. Ashdown said that Eddy and Shoaf plotted to kill Neese because they feared she would "divulge their secrets," but did not elaborate on what those secrets may have been.

According to the paper, the prosecutor implied that the murderers may have had a lesbian relationship.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/25/sheila-eddy-murdered-skylar-neese_n_4664833.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Kenneth Eugene Hogan Executed; Convicted In 1988 Stabbing Death

This man claimed that he stabbed and killed a close friend in self-defense. He is the second person this year to die by execution in Oklahoma. Read the following article for more details.

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man who was convicted of stabbing a close friend to death more than a quarter-century ago was executed Thursday.

Kenneth Eugene Hogan, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after he received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Hogan admitted to stabbing 21-year-old Lisa Stanley but said he did so in self-defense after she lunged at him with a knife. Prosecutors said Hogan stabbed the woman more than 25 times in the back, neck and chest in January 1988, then knocked over several objects in her Oklahoma City apartment to make it appear as though she had been robbed. When interrogated, he gave police inconsistent statements.

The state Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for Hogan this month by a 4-1 vote. Hogan is the second person to be executed in Oklahoma this year.

Hogan's initial conviction was overturned in 1999 by an appeals court that said the jury should've been allowed to consider a verdict of manslaughter.

"By denying the jury the option to convict him on a lesser, noncapital offense supported by the evidence, thus leaving only a choice between conviction of capital murder and acquittal, Oklahoma may have encouraged the jury to convict for an impermissible reason — its belief that the defendant is guilty of some serious crime and should be punished," the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held.

Oklahoma appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2000 refused to reinstate Hogan's conviction. A different jury in 2003 convicted him again and sentenced him to die.

"Kenneth Eugene Hogan was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers for the heinous stabbing of Lisa Renee Stanley, who was a young wife and a promising student," Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said in a statement Thursday. "My thoughts and prayers are with Lisa's family and friends."

Randy Bauman, Hogan's attorney, declined to comment this week.

To read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/kenneth-eugene-hogan-exec_n_4655364.html?ref=topbar

Brian Fanelli, Police Chief, Arrested For Possessing Child Porn

The irony of this situation is that the police chief started out teaching sex abuse classes. He didn't enter a plea and refused to comment so we only know what it is stated in this article.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A suburban New York police chief who taught sex-abuse awareness classes to children has been charged with downloading child pornography.

Mount Pleasant Chief Brian Fanelli was arrested Thursday by Homeland Security agents.

In a complaint filed with the court, an agent says Fanelli told investigators that he first viewed child pornography as research for the sex-abuse awareness classes he was teaching at two schools.

According to the complaint, he then began viewing the pornography "for personal interest."

To read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/brian-fanelli_n_4655129.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Priest Sex Abuse Victims Demand Internal Church Documents

This scandal is being revealed by attorneys and victims as a much bigger cover-up than originally thought. I hope that all of the victims get what they are seeking. The article goes further into detail.

CHICAGO (AP) — Victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests vowed to keep pushing for more information on how allegations were handled by the Archdiocese of Chicago and other Catholic orders, and are encouraging other victims to come forward.

More than 6,000 pages of internal church documents posted online Tuesday by attorneys showed how officials at the highest level of the nation's third-largest archdiocese tried to contain the scandal, including by moving accused priests from parish to parish while hiding their histories from the public.

But the documents, released through settlements between attorneys for the archdiocese and victims, cover only 30 of the at least 65 clergy members for whom the archdiocese says it has substantiated claims of child abuse.

St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson said he will push for documents involving the other 35 archdiocese priests.

"This is a great step, but what is settled is far from what we're shooting for," Anderson said Tuesday at a news conference. Archdiocese officials have said they'll review and develop a process to release documents on those 35 other cases.

Angel Santiago, who was abused in the 1980s by one of the 30 priests singled out in the documents, said he hopes more victims of abuse come forward.

"These files here represent a lot for us survivors. For some of us it will be answers, for some of us it will be peace of mind ... for all of us, it's a start," Santiago said. "And the more that we find more survivors, the stronger we get and we can get more files out of the archdiocese."

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/priest-sex-abuse-documents_n_4643542.html?ref=topbar

Police 'Like' Wanted Suspect Anthony Lescowitch's Facebook Post

This criminal was not very smart, and he was caught after gloating on Facebook. The cop's reaction is actually pretty funny. Read the article for more information...

FREELAND, Pa. (AP) — Police in one northeastern Pennsylvania town really "liked" this Facebook post.

Officers in Freeland arrested 35-year-old Anthony Lescowitch on Monday night, less than two hours after he shared a wanted photo of himself and taunted police for not being able to find him, the (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader (http://bit.ly/1bg0cOK ) reported Tuesday.

Lescowitch shared the wanted bulletin minutes after Freeland police posted it on the department Facebook page Monday night, authorities said. He was being sought on assault-related charges.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/anthony-lescowitch-facebook_n_4643239.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/anthony-lescowitch-facebook_n_4643239.html

California Mother Loses 2 Sons To Gun Violence, 19 Days Apart

This is a very tragic story, my thoughts go out to the mother of these victims. Read the article for further details...

The shootings of two brothers within three weeks of one other has left a California mother mourning the loss of her only children.

Dinyal New, 41, admitted that she didn't have the strength to positively identify both of her sons, instead asking relatives to do so for her, SFGate reports.

On Dec. 31, 2013, New's younger son, 13-year-old Lee Weathersby, was shot dead while he was walking home from the Oakland Boys & Girls Club. Nineteen days later, her older son, Lamar Broussard, 19, died when the car he and a friend were in was sprayed with bullets, KGO reports.

“Somebody’s failing these kids,” New told NBC Bay Area. “They feel like it’s OK to murder these kids. They have no remorse or understanding afterwards.”

For more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dinyal-new-california-guns_n_4636535.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Raisheem Rochwell, Teen Held In Philly School Shooting, Is Not To Blame: Lawyer

This article claims that the young man being charged for the crime is not guilty. He is being charged as an adult so if this is true, the defense lawyer has his work cut out for him.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The attorney for a 17-year-old boy charged with shooting two students inside a Philadelphia school gym says his client isn't responsible.

Police have said they charged Raisheem Rochwell based on surveillance video and witness information from the shooting Friday afternoon at Delaware Valley Charter High School. Police say one bullet from a gun Rochwell was holding hit two students, wounding each in an arm.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/raisheem-rochwell-philly-shooting-not-to-blame_n_4628042.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Private Investigator Gerald O'Donnell Gets Prison For Bribing Witness

 When someone like a private investigator falisifies testimonies it compromises the justice system, and innocent people are charged with crimes that they did not commit. The article gos further into detail about the situation...

ROCKVILLE, Conn. (AP) — A former private investigator has been sentenced to four years in prison for bribing a witness to recant testimony in a murder case, which led to convictions against two men being overturned.

The Republican-American of Waterbury reports (http://bit.ly/1kDL0ol ) that 69-year-old Gerald O'Donnell of Cheshire was sentenced Wednesday. A jury convicted him in October of giving cash and gifts to a witness who recanted her testimony against George Gould and Ronald Taylor for a 1993 New Haven murder.

To read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/gerald-odonnell_n_4608805.html?ref=topbar

Execution Of Dennis McGuire, Ohio Death Row Inmate, By Untested Lethal Injection Can Proceed

This is a very interesting article about a new method of lethal injection that has never been tried in this country before. The state claims that this man waited too long to file an appeal, so the execution will happen as originally scheduled.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio killer was preparing for his execution by a never-tried lethal injection method adopted after supplies of the state's previous drug dried up.

Death row inmate Dennis McGuire would become the first prisoner put to death in the U.S. by the two-drug combination if his execution proceeded Thursday.

Ohio officials planned to use intravenous doses of two drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, to put McGuire to death. The method has been part of Ohio's execution process since 2009, though never used in this country.

To read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/dennis-mcguire-execution_n_4608887.html?ref=topbar

Prison Guard Who Had Baby With Cop Killer May Be Deemed Sex Offender

This prison guard may now have to register as a sex offender, because of the relationship she had with an inmate. The case hasn't been decided on yet, here are the details...

An ex-New York prison guard who had a love child with a death row inmate was supposed to be sentenced today. But a judge delayed sentencing for her illegal trysts.

Nancy Gonzalez's sentence remains in limbo while a federal judge allows attorneys for both sides to argue if the former correction officer must register as a sex offender, the New York Daily News reports.

The judge overseeing the case said "there's a strong argument for federal registration" for a person who has sex with a prisoner, according to the paper.

To read more about this case:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/nancy-gonzalez-prison-guard_n_4590903.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Toshia Edmonson Stabbed 9 Times By 11-Year-Old Family Member: Cops

This is a very tragic situation, and fortunately the victim is in stable condition. This young girl needs serious help, and my thoughts go out to the victims and family members affected by this. Please read this article...

An 11-year-old girl in Dallas was arrested Saturday after she allegedly stabbed a relative 9 times.

Family friends told News 8 that the victim, 41-year-old Toshia Edmonson, was the girl's mother. Police have released Edmonson's name, but have not confirmed her relationship to the girl.

“It’s family violence. That’s all I can say,” Dallas Police Cpl Monica Cordova told the Dallas Morning News.

To Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/05/toshia-edmonson-stabbed-girl-_n_4545074.html?utm_hp_ref=crime&utm_hp_ref=crime

Maine senate candidate’s domestic violence conviction proves he has ‘guts’

This is a great example of how the law is an objective profession. This article shows that the justice system doesn't always favor politicians, especially when they are accused of something like domestic violence. In the state of Maine you do not need any evidence to charge someone with domestic violence; you just need to repeat on the stand what you already charged the offender with. 

A conservative Portland, Maine Senate candidate claims that experience he acquired while spending a decade fighting domestic abuse charges informs his “pro-family” agenda.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Erick Bennett, who is challenging incumbent Susan Collins, addressed his conviction for domestic violence against his now ex-wife. He fought the Class D assault conviction all the way to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which ruled that “sufficient evidence does exist in the record to support his conviction.”

Bennett claims he was “railroaded” by the justice system. “All that needs to be done is you have to repeat what you wrote down in the police report and that allows the victim to be viewed as a credible witness,” he said. “So basically, if someone writes something down, it doesn’t have to be true. All they have to do is repeat that on the stand. That’s grounds for anyone to be convicted of domestic violence.”

He went on to claim that the time he spent in jail for his conviction speaks to “how much guts and integrity [he] has.”

“The fact that I have been jailed repeatedly for not agreeing to admit to something I didn’t do should speak to the fact of how much guts and integrity I have,” he told the Bangor Daily News.

“If I go to D.C., I’m going to have that same integrity in doing what I say, and saying what I do, when it comes to protecting people’s rights, as well as their pocketbooks.”

Bennett came under fire earlier this month for making homophobic comments on gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud’s Facebook wall.

Watch video of Bennett discussing his criminal record below.

My Brain Made Me Do It

Here is an interesting article on the study of neuroscience criminal defense.

Criminal courts in the United States are facing a surge in the number of defense attorneys arguing that their clients’ brains are to blame for their crimes.

Nita Farahany, a law professor who sits on Barack Obama’s bioethics advisory panel, recently told a Society for Neuroscience meeting that those on trial are mounting sophisticated defense strategies that draw on neurological evidence, in an effort to show they are not fully responsible for murders or other criminal actions.

Criminal defense lawyers typically draw on brain scans and neuropsychological tests to reduce defendants’ sentences, but in a substantial number of cases, the neurological evidence was used to try to clear defendants of all culpability.

Evidence submitted to the U.S. courts ranged from accounts of head injuries to apparent structural or functional abnormalities picked up by brain scans. Defense attorneys argue that these abnormalities affected defendants’ behaviors by making them more violent, more impulsive or incapable of planning a crime.  Some defendants have escaped death sentences on the basis of neurological evidence. Others have complained of poor legal assistance when their lawyers failed to have them tested for brain impairments.

To read more about this fascinating defense strategy and the science behind it, click on the following link:

 Criminal courts in the United States are facing a surge in the number of defense attorneys arguing that their clients’ brains are to blame for their crimes.

Nita Farahany, a law professor who sits on Barack Obama’s bioethics advisory panel, recently told a Society for Neuroscience meeting that those on trial are mounting sophisticated defense strategies that draw on neurological evidence, in an effort to show they are not fully responsible for murders or other criminal actions.

Criminal defense lawyers typically draw on brain scans and neuropsychological tests to reduce defendants’ sentences, but in a substantial number of cases, the neurological evidence was used to try to clear defendants of all culpability.

Evidence submitted to the U.S. courts ranged from accounts of head injuries to apparent structural or functional abnormalities picked up by brain scans. Defense attorneys argue that these abnormalities affected defendants’ behaviors by making them more violent, more impulsive or incapable of planning a crime.  Some defendants have escaped death sentences on the basis of neurological evidence. Others have complained of poor legal assistance when their lawyers failed to have them tested for brain impairments.

To read more about this fascinating defense strategy and the science behind it, click on the following link:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/10/neuroscience-criminal-defense-emerges-my-brain-made-me-do-it/