Firefighters who put out a smoldering fire in the living room of a Columbus, Mississippi, house in February, 1992, found Georgia Kemp, 82, lying dead on her bedroom floor, a bloody butcher knife on her bed.
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Celebrities, Texas lawmakers, millions of petitioners seek halt to Reed’s execution
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Texas lawmakers, the European Union, celebrities and more than two million petitioners have asked Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the November 20 execution of inmate Rodney Reed, amid growing evidence of his innocence.
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Diverse group begins lobbying circuit judges for seats on Cook County bench
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After sharp criticism a year ago that the associate judge contests resulted in only one new black candidate winning a seat, Cook County court officials made a point to emphasize the diversity of finalists for the 15 seats to be filled by a vote of the county’s circuit judges.
Unrequited Innocence
Walter Ogrod: Mentally-disabled man gives confession to detectives with tainted record
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Four years after the naked and battered body of Barbara Jean Horn was found in a trash bag in Philadelphia, the police had made no arrests despite having a series of suspects.
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Tyrone Noling: Despite recantations, remains on death row
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The bodies of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, both 81, were found on the kitchen floor of their rural Ohio home in 1990, along with ten .25-caliber shell casings. Police found open jewelry boxes in the bedroom that had been rifled through.
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Judges order Oklahoma inmate, once sentenced to die, released from prison after 34 years
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Two appellate judges ordered Monday that Oklahoma inmate Karl Allen Fontenot, originally sentenced to die after he was convicted of a 1984 murder, be released on bond next month as significant evidence has emerged that cast doubt on his and a codefendant’s guilt.
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Even as Illinois court permits detaining pre-teens, across U.S. fewer youth being held
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Calling “backward” the United States treatment of juveniles, Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli said she plans to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse an Illinois Appellate Court decision last week that permits holding pre-teenagers in custody.
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St. Louis top prosecutor ‘not authorized’ to appeal case of man she says was framed, state attorney says
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The filing marks the latest clash in an increasingly fraught battle between St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and the Missouri Attorney General’s office over Gardner’s effort to correct what her office has concluded is the wrongful conviction and ongoing incarceration of Lamar Johnson.
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Suburban judicial candidate accused of leaving headless duck on woman’s porch
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Fake blood, a headless duck and false accusations are at the heart of a no-contact order given to a circuit court candidate in a northwest Chicago suburb last week.
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Illinois appellate court rejects ordinance banning detention of 10-12 year olds
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A Cook County judge’s decision to buck a county ordinance by ordering the confinement of a 12-year-old child in a juvenile detention facility was upheld by the Illinois Appellate Court this week. Appellate court judges wrote that a conflicting state law makes the ordinance “unenforceable.”
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Texas lawmen join chorus citing doubts of Rodney Reed’s guilt
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Thirteen Texas law enforcement officers joined a growing call to halt the scheduled execution November 20 of Rodney Reed, noting “serious doubts” about his guilt in a 1996 murder.