Death Penalty

In the state's first decision involving juries and social media, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has called on judges to better police jurors' use of the Internet to make sure they do not discuss cases online, and thus risk a mistrial. The court said judges need to do more to explain to jurors that refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, common practice in today's technology-driven world. "Jurors must separate and insulate their jury service from their digital lives," the court said in a ruling involving a Plymouth Superior Court...

A thump and then a chorus of screams are heard in an audio recording of an attempted escape from court by a man accused of kidnapping and killing an Alaska barista. Israel Keyes was quickly subdued with a stun gun in the federal courtroom in Anchorage after he somehow broke his leg irons Wednesday. But for a few moments, people can be heard screaming and shouting, "Get him!" One woman shouted, "Kill him!" U.S. Marshals said the 34-year-old Keys either tried to leap over the bar separating the public from the defendant's table or his momentum carried him over it. Either way,...

PRICES WERE out of control at the end of third-century Rome, and the Emperor Diocletian was determined to rein them in. In AD 301 he issued his famous Edict on Prices , a complex piece of legislation that banned speculation and established price ceilings for a wide range of goods and services. But the ambitious law failed. Though violators could be punished with death, inflation and speculation persisted. Goods were hoarded, or sold on the black market. The economic crisis worsened.

A prosecutor in northeast Ohio is ready to argue that a 17-year-old charged in the school shooting deaths of three students should face trial as an adult. Geauga (jee-AW'-guh) County Prosecutor David Joyce is scheduled to outline the case against T.J. Lane at a hearing Thursday. The decision rests with Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Grendell. Lane could face life in prison if he's tried in adult court and convicted. Minors are not eligible for the death penalty in Ohio.

A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced to death three Mexican brothers and two other people for drug trafficking, rejecting the defense argument that evidence was tampered with. The Mexicans are from Sinaloa state, the cradle of their country's drug trade, but have no criminal record at home. They were arrested at a secluded drug-making factory in 2008 and claimed they had been cleaning the place, not making drugs. Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zawawi Salleh convicted the five men, ruling that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The US attorney's office says it wants to appeal a federal court judge's ruling that entitled Gary Lee Sampson to a new sentencing trial, indicating that the government wants to pursue the death penalty for the confessed killer. It would be the first death penalty handed out in a federal court in Massachusetts and the first resulting from a crime in the state in more than a half-century. Federal prosecutors said in court documents yesterday that they have received permission from the US Office of the Solicitor General to pursue the appeal of the decision by US...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui are searching for the perfect jury, poring over hundreds of questionnaires from potential jurors and looking for clues to their perceptions of the case. Jury selection will be particularly difficult for the defense. The team must find an unbiased panel for a man who prosecutors say could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, just a few miles from the courthouse where the trial takes place.

WICHITA, Kan. - An activist abortion opponent was charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the death of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions. The prosecutor said the evidence rules out the death penalty. Scott Roeder, 51, was shown in court via a video link from the Sedgwick County Jail. He fiddled with documents on a podium in front of him and said "OK" three times as Judge Ben Burgess read the charges and explained the court process. Burgess ordered Roeder held without bond and said he is not allowed to communicate with Tiller's family or with...

A lawyer for Governor Lincoln D. Chafee of Rhode Island argued before a federal appeals court panel in Boston yesterday that the state had a right to refuse to turn over a defendant charged with murder to federal authorities, a move intended to protect the man from the death penalty. "The governor exercised his discretion on a public policy basis and refused the request," Claire Richards, Chafee's chief legal officer, told the three-member panel of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A judge agreed yesterday to reconsider all previous rulings on motions made in the case of a paratrooper charged in a deadly grenade attack on his own troops in Kuwait. Attorneys for Sergeant Hasan Akbar have said there were no witnesses to the March 2003 attack, and that Akbar was accused because he is Muslim. Prosecutors objected to reviewing all of the rulings, but a new judge hearing the case, Colonel Stephen Henley, agreed to reconsider 42 motions previously ruled on by another judge, who has been transferred to...

The prosecution of a military tribunal demanded the death penalty for Tunisia's former dictator over his role in the deaths of protesters during the popular uprising that overthrew him a year ago. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is being tried in absentia by both military and civilian courts in Tunisia for alleged crimes committed during his 23-year iron-fisted rule of the North African country. The state news agency reported late Wednesday that Ben Ali is now on trial for the deaths of protesters in the four southern towns of Thala, Kasserine, Kairouan and Tajerouine, during the early...

A San Francisco-based federal appeals court ruled in 2002 that every aspect of an execution should be open to witnesses, from the moment the condemned enters into the death chamber to his final heartbeat. The ruling established what was expected of the nine Western states within the court's jurisdiction. A decade later, five of the states have kept part of each execution away from public view, according to an Associated Press review and death penalty experts. Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Montana and Nevada have conducted 15 lethal injections since the ruling, and half of each...

The Canadian government says it is pleased that a high-profile Chinese smuggler who had been extradited from Canada has received a life sentence, and not the death penalty. Foreign Affairs and International Trade spokeswoman Patricia Low-Bedard says China lived up to its assurance that Lai Changxing would not receive the death penalty upon conviction. Lai, once considered China's most-wanted fugitive, was sentenced to life in prison Friday for smuggling and bribery in a lurid corruption case that involved a decade-long extradition fight.

A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced to death three Mexican brothers and two other people for drug trafficking, rejecting the defense argument that evidence was tampered with. The Mexicans are from Sinaloa state, the cradle of their country's drug trade, but have no criminal record at home. They were arrested at a secluded drug-making factory in 2008 and claimed they had been cleaning the place, not making drugs. Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zawawi Salleh convicted the five men, ruling that the prosecution had proven its case beyond...

PRICES WERE out of control at the end of third-century Rome, and the Emperor Diocletian was determined to rein them in. In AD 301 he issued his famous Edict on Prices , a complex piece of legislation that banned speculation and established price ceilings for a wide range of goods and services. But the ambitious law failed. Though violators could be punished with death, inflation and speculation persisted. Goods were hoarded, or sold on the black market. The economic crisis worsened.

A man on Connecticut's death row for the murder of a suburban mother and her two daughters says he believes the only way he will be put to death is if he volunteers for the lethal injection. Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was condemned to die for a brutal 2007 home invasion, told The Associated Press in an interview that he considers volunteering to be executed on his darkest days, but not on other days. In the last half-century, Connecticut has executed only one inmate — a serial killer who was put to death in 2005 after voluntarily waiving his appeals.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Nearly 100 potential jurors in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial began answering questionnaires yesterday about their views on the death penalty and their opinions on extramarital affairs. The judge started the day by introducing the defendant. "This is Mr. Peterson," said Judge Alfred A. Delucchi as the prospective jurors sat in the courtroom gallery. "Hello, good morning," said Peterson with a slight smile as he stood to greet them. The nearly 30-page questionnaire given to the prospective jurors also includes such questions as whether they read...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - A New Hampshire jury convicted a man yesterday of the murder of a police officer, in a case that could result in the state's first execution in nearly 70 years. Michael Addison, 28, showed no emotion as he was convicted of capital murder in the 2006 death of Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs, 35, whose wife and two young sons were in the courtroom. The verdict followed 12 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days. Many police officers who were present burst into tears or let out a sigh of relief when they heard the verdict.

PROVIDENCE - Governor Lincoln Chafee and defense attorneys asked an appeals court in Boston Friday to delay issuing an order in a tug-of-war over a Rhode Island inmate facing a possible death-penalty prosecution so that the Supreme Court can decide whether to review the case. The request filed with the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit says there is at least a "fair prospect" that the Supreme Court would side with Chafee and Jason Pleau, 34, who is at the center of a custody battle between Rhode Island and federal authorities.

A federal judge has authorized prosecutors to appeal his decision to order a second hearing on whether serial killer Gary Lee Sampson should be executed for carjacking and killing two people in 2001. US District Judge Mark Wolf granted prosecutors' request for an interlocutory appeal -- an appeal lodged before legal proceedings end -- to the First US Circuit Court of Appeals. Wolf rejected arguments by Sampson's lawyers that prosecutors could not appeal until the sentencing hearing was over.