A top human rights advocacy group on Friday denounced what it claimed were the overnight executions of nine prisoners in Gambia, calling President Yahya Jammeh's stated intent to clear death row after a decades-long moratorium "a step back."
Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in a bomb attack and gun rampage just over a year ago, was judged to be sane by a Norwegian court Friday, as he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Gambia plans to execute all death row prisoners by September, the president said this week, sparking condemnation from human rights groups worldwide.
Anderson Cooper examines the nuances of a former housekeeper willing to hold onto one of John Lennon's teeth.
Mark David Chapman, the man convicted of killing former Beatle John Lennon, has been denied parole for a seventh time, according to the New York Department of Corrections.
Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's convicted killer, was making his seventh try at parole Wednesday.
Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's convicted killer, is up for parole for the seventh time and may be questioned as early as Tuesday, authorities said Friday.
The infamous "Onion Field" cop killer whose 1963 crime was chronicled in a best-selling book and a movie has died, officials said Monday. He was 79.
A woman who admitted to stealing a 19-day-old infant from a Manhattan hospital in 1987 was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison.
Philadelphia's district attorney calls verdict in the priest abuse case a historical victory for victims.
The highest-ranking Catholic Church cleric charged and convicted in the landmark Philadelphia child sexual abuse trial was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in prison Tuesday.
Chinese officials concluded that the controversial death of a high-profile Chinese dissident who had spent more than 20 years in jail for his support of the Tiananmen Square protests was the result of suicide, a state-controlled news agency reported.
A Thai-born American is sentenced to prison in Thailand for insulting the country's monarchy. CNN's Anna Coren reports.
An Argentinian court Thursday found two former dictators guilty of stealing dozens of babies during the country's dirty war.
Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla admits that thousands of people "disappeared" during his regime.
The United States leads the world in the rate of incarcerating its own citizens. We imprison more of our own people than any other country on earth, including China which has four times our population, or in human history. And now, a new Pew report announces that we are keeping even nonviolent inmates behind bars for increasingly longer terms.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that two men convicted of killings committed when they were 14 cannot be sentenced to life in prison without at least the possibility of parole.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday struck down the state law governing how death-penalty inmates are executed by lethal injection.
A series of recent fires in at least five detention centers around the country has raised questions about living conditions in Turkey's prison system.
Dharun Ravi was sentenced for 30-days in jail for bullying gay roommate. Paul Callan says it's a 'shoplifting sentence.'
Seven months in the Los Angeles County jail have taken a physical toll on Conrad Murray, the doctor convicted in Michael Jackson's death, his lawyer told CNN Monday.
Criminologist Casey Jordan on if old audio tapes of serial killer Charles Manson could lead LAPD to solve cold cases.
The parole hearing for one of killer Charles Manson's followers, Bruce Davis, was continued Wednesday to an undetermined date after Davis became sick, a corrections spokesman said.
One of infamous killer Charles Manson's followers, Bruce Davis, is scheduled to have a California parole hearing on Wednesday, two years after parole had been granted to him but was overturned by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, officials said.
The girlfriend of James "Whitey" Bulger was sentenced to eight years in federal prison Tuesday for identity fraud and helping the reputed mob boss avoid capture for 16 years.
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of protesters.
In Tuesday's front lines, Fmr. Rutgers student, Dharun Ravi apologizes for spying on student who committed suicide.
Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student who was found guilty of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate, heads to jail Thursday to begin a 30-day term.
Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student convicted of bias intimidation, appeared in court Wednesday, one day after he apologized for spying on his roommate with a webcam.
A 68-year-old California inmate on death row in San Quentin State Prison was found dead hanging in his cell, authorities said Tuesday.
Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student convicted of bias intimidation by use of a hidden webcam, apologized for his behavior and said he plans to submit to his impending jail sentence on Thursday.
Schapelle Corby, the Australian serving time in a Bali, Indonesia, prison on a conviction of drug smuggling, has had her jail term cut by five years.
A tribal court sentenced a Pakistani doctor to 33 years in jail for treason for helping the U.S. find Osama bin Laden.
Prosecutors will appeal a 30-day jail sentence handed down Monday against Dharun Ravi, the ex-Rutgers student convicted of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate, who then killed himself by jumping off New York's George Washington Bridge.
Dharun Ravi has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for spying on Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi.
A nationwide shortage of a commonly used imported drug used in capital punishment has prompted 15 states on Monday to urge the U.S. Justice Department to intervene.
Nearly one of every 10 state prisoners is sexually victimized during confinement, according to a Justice Department study released Thursday.
There is no reason Marissa Alexander should spend the next 20 years in prison.
As the first week of the John Edwards federal criminal trial comes to an end, where the former Democratic senator and presidential candidate is accused of using hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations to conceal his affair with a campaign videographer without reporting the money to federal authorities, we wanted to take a look back at some statistics about other politicians in trouble.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill into law Wednesday that abolishes the death penalty, making his state the 17th in the nation to abandon capital punishment and the fifth in five years to usher in a repeal.
A North Carolina judge set aside the death sentence of a convicted killer after concluding Friday that race played a role in the case, a landmark ruling that may call into question a number of death row cases in the state.
For the last decade, Carolyn LeCroy has been helping children stay connected to their incarcerated parents through video messages.
Holly Robinson Peete spends a day with 2008 CNN Hero Carolyn LeCroy, who helps inmates send messages to their kids.
Three men convicted in a London gang shooting that left a little girl paralyzed were sentenced to life in prison Thursday, the Metropolitan Police said.
Notorious killer Charles Manson, 77, was denied parole Wednesday after a California parole panel "could find nothing good as far as suitability" for his being paroled, a commissioner said.
Charles Manson is up for parole again. One of his most famous victims was Sharon Tate. Her sister spoke with CNN.
Connecticut's governor says he will sign a bill abolishing the death penalty, making it the 17th state to abandon capital punishment.
Lawmakers in Connecticut's House of Representatives are expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that would abolish the state's death penalty, one week after the bill passed the state Senate.
The lawyer who prosecuted notorious killer Charles Manson says he's still a danger to society and shouldn't get paroled.
When a two-member panel holds a California parole hearing for notorious murderer Charles Manson on Wednesday, he will be represented by state-appointed attorney DeJon R. Lewis, who will urge the state to put Manson in a mental hospital, Lewis told CNN.
A Chinese court on Tuesday sentenced a disabled lawyer who defended tenants' rights to more than two years in jail for "picking quarrels" and fraud, a local human rights advocacy group said.
The Petit family addresses the media after learning a jury sentenced Joshua Komisarjevsky to death
The Connecticut Senate on Thursday voted to repeal the death penalty, setting the stage for Connecticut to join several states that have recently abolished capital punishment.
Lawmakers in Connecticut are grappling with a bill that would do away with the death penalty and make their state the fifth in five years to abolish capital punishment.
A federal judge Wednesday sentenced five former New Orleans police officers to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for the shootings of unarmed civilians in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, prosecutors said.
Lindsay Lohan's convoluted path through the legal system, which began with a drunken driving arrest nearly five years ago, reached a resolution Thursday as a judge ended her formal felony probation.
Max Foster talks to human rights advocate, Bianca Jagger, about Amnesty International's report on capital punishment.
Only 10% of countries carried out executions last year, but those employing the death penalty are doing so at an alarming rate, a new report says.
The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday, speaking in somber tones, when confronting one of its toughest criminal sentencing questions: whether two men convicted of killings committed when they were 14 deserve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
There are more than 2,500 people serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed when they were juveniles. Some were as young as 13 when they were sent to prison.
Pushpa Basnet doesn't need an alarm clock. Every morning, the sounds of 40 children wake her up in the two-story home she shares with them.
Pushpa Basnet started a children's center in Nepal to help care for children of incarcerated parents.
A Georgia judge Thursday sentenced Hemy Neuman to life in prison without the possibility of parole after jurors convicted him of fatally shooting a father outside a suburban Atlanta day care center.
A Georgia jury found Hemy Neuman guilty of murder but mentally ill in the shooting death of a dad outside of a day care.
How does injustice influence America's identity? Public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson explains.
I'm an attorney and I represent incarcerated people, both in my home state of Alabama and across the United States.
A Virginia man pleaded no contest to capital murder on Tuesday in the death of his girlfriend and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Roanoke County officials said.
The man who smuggled a bomb in his underwear aboard a commercial airliner on Christmas Day in 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison, months after he pleaded guilty for his role in what officials later determined was an al Qaeda plot.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab gets life in prison for attempting to blow up a plane in 2009.
In central Honduras, more than 300 inmates burned or suffocated to death in a prison. One can only imagine the cries of those trapped in their cells, while no one could find a key to let them escape the flames. We can only try to comprehend the agony of the prisoners' parents, children, relatives or friends as they saw the images on television, wondering whether their loved ones survived or, if they died, how much they suffered in their final moments.
A human rights group expressed alarm Thursday at the pace of executions in Iraq and called for Iraqi authorities to abolish the practice.
A Utah death row inmate, convicted of beating a man with a tire jack and puncturing his liver with an inserted tire iron, has requested that he be allowed to die by firing squad, officials said Thursday.
A Norwegian court sentenced three people Monday for their roles in a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
The number of aging men and women in U.S. prisons is growing rapidly, Human Rights Watch said Friday, and it expressed concern for their care behind bars.
A prison guard was fatally stabbed Friday afternoon in eastern Arkansas by an inmate already serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
The Supreme Court gave an Alabama death row prisoner another chance Wednesday to appeal his conviction after a mailroom mistake and other circumstances initially left him unable to pursue further claims in court.
Delaware's governor commuted the death sentence Tuesday of a convicted murderer who was set to be executed later this week.
Civil rights lawyers demanded the death penalty for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday, joining prosecutor's calls for him to be executed.
The Europe Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton demanded Friday that Iran halt the pending executions of a woman sentenced to die by stoning and a Christian pastor convicted of apostasy.
Prosecutors in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak formally requested a penalty of death by hanging for Mubarak and several of his fellow defendants Thursday, an attorney at the court said.
Nearly nine years, thousands of attorneys' hours and reportedly more than $50 million of taxpayer money later, Barry Bonds has finally received his punishment for distorting the truth (he was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice).
California's use of a three-drug combination in executing prisoners was declared invalid Friday by a Marin County judge, who ruled that a one-drug method should have been considered.
Legal expert Sunny Hostin says it's a big win for Barry Bonds' defense team that he received two years probation.
Death sentences plunged this year and the number of executions continued a steady decline as a result of "growing discomfort" felt by many Americans on the application of capital punishment.
A jury recommended Friday that Joshua Komisarjevsky receive the death penalty for his role in a deadly Connecticut home invasion in 2007.
California officials are investigating why correctional officers fired seven lethal rounds to quell a prison riot in Sacramento this week in which one inmate was shot in the leg, authorities said.
A federal judge sentenced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to 14 years in prison for corruption Wednesday.
Philadelphia prosecutors have dropped their pursuit of the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of shooting a police officer three decades ago.
A former top elected official for Prince George's County, Maryland, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and fined $100,000 Tuesday after pleading guilty to federal extortion and evidence-tampering charges.
Dr. Conrad Murray was sentenced Tuesday to four years in the Los Angeles County jail -- the maximum sentence allowed under the law -- in the death of Michael Jackson. He may serve no more than two, however.
Dr. Conrad Murray's defense attorney Michael Flanagan says he's not surprised by Murray's four-year jail sentence.
Some found it shocking when Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber granted convicted double-murderer Gary Haugen a reprieve Tuesday, setting aside Haugen's scheduled December 6 execution. Haugen, who killed another prisoner while serving a life sentence for a previous murder, had waived all appeals.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber blocked the execution of a death row inmate on Tuesday and said no more executions will take place in the state as long as he is governor.
A New York man was sentenced Thursday to life without parole for killing four people at a Long Island pharmacy in June.
In the latest case of government belt-tightening, a Southern California county is charging prisoners for the daily cost of their stay.
One of Conrad Murray's former patients is outraged at a jury's decision to convict Murray in Michael Jackson's death.
Three top Pakistani cricketers were jailed Thursday after being convicted of plotting to cheat and to take bribes in a match against England last summer, in a scandal that rocked the international sport.
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