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.
For thousands of prison inmates convicted of crack cocaine charges, the prison doors will be opening early, thanks to sentencing changes easing the disparity between the penalties for possessing or distributing crack vs. powder cocaine.
Under new rules, thousands of inmates serving time on crack charges are being released early.
The son of two of four people charged with imprisoning four mentally disabled adults in the basement boiler room of a Philadelphia apartment building called his parents "loving and caring" on Monday, adding he is "shocked" by their arrest.
White teen faces possible hate crime charges in the killing of a black man captured on video. Drew Griffin reports.
Charisse Coleman has no real compassion for the man who walked into the Thrifty Liquor Store in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1995 and put three bullets in her brother, Russell.
Philadelphia police were told nearly eight years ago about a possible kidnapping involving the alleged ringleader of a group charged last week with imprisoning four mentally disabled adults, according to a lawyer for the family of one of the captives.
Taxpayers could be bankrolling a kidney transplant for wealthy white-collar convict Raj Rajaratnam, who was recently sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for insider trading.
This week the U.S. Justice Department accused an Iranian-American, who allegedly has ties to Iran's elite Quds Force, of attempting to hire a man he thought was a Mexican cartel hitman to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States.
Raj Rajaratnam, former manager of the defunct hedge fund Galleon Group, was sentenced on Thursday to 11 years in federal prison -- a record for insider trading -- and fined $10 million.
A three-week hunger strike by some California prison inmates has ended, the Department of Corrections said Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal to get a new sentencing hearing for the killing of a Philadelphia police officer 30 years ago.
Bahrain will give a new trial to a group of 20 medical staff convicted of trying to overthrow the government, officials announced.
A stay of execution for a man scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday evening in Georgia has been upheld by the state's Supreme Court.
Thousands of California state prisoners, angry about what they call harsh treatment, have been on a hunger strike that enters its ninth day Tuesday.
Outlined below are some key cases the Supreme Court is scheduled to tackle in its 2011-12 term, which starts Monday.
CNN's Jeffery Toobin interviews retired Justice John Paul Stevens. See the rest of the interview Friday on John King USA.
Retired Justice John Paul Stevens arrives for our conversation looking dapper in a three-piece dark suit and trademark bow tie. But do not mistake the "retired" that comes with his title as a sign the 91-year-old Stevens is slowing down.
It was inevitable that the fiery politics of the death penalty would punctuate Saturday's remembrance of Troy Anthony Davis.
In a CNN exclusive, Quianna Glover talks about her testimony before the Georgia parole board on behalf of Troy Davis.
The man who prepared hundreds of last meals for those condemned to die talks about the last requests. KSAT reports.
A white Mississippi teenager accused of murdering an African-American man in a hate crime pleaded not guilty in his arraignment Friday.
A Bahrain appeals court upheld prison sentences Wednesday for 21 people convicted of trying to topple the country's government, the Bahrain News Agency reported.
Hip-hop and rap artist Petey Pablo is facing nearly three years in prison after sentencing on a guilty plea of possessing a stolen firearm, according to federal prosecutors.
Troy Davis may be dead, but his execution Thursday in the American state of Georgia has made him the poster boy for the global movement to end the death penalty.
Amnesty International's Laura Moye said the reputation of Georgia's justice system is on the line if it executes Troy Davis.
Anneliese MacPhail reacts to news that the Supreme Court has denied a last-minute appeal to halt Troy Davis' execution.
What was a somber mood following convicted cop killer Troy Davis' execution Wednesday night turned to disgust and outrage by morning.
Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in Texas Wednesday evening for his involvement in the infamous dragging death of a black man 13 years ago.
Troy Davis, whose case drew international attention, was put to death by lethal injection for the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Georgia, prison officials announced Wednesday night.
Troy Davis' pastor believes the 22-year old case raises serious questions about America's criminal justice system.
The high-profile execution of Troy Davis in Georgia has brought the death penalty back into the spotlight. Here are some facts on the current state of the death penalty, the clemency process and statistics in Georgia.
Anneliese MacPhail, the mother of a murdered police officer, reacts to the execution of Troy Davis.
The Georgia Parole Board rejected clemency for Troy Davis, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday.
Supporters of death-row inmate Troy Davis vowed Tuesday to continue fighting to stave off his scheduled execution, despite a decision by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny clemency.
The Supreme Court for the third time this year has stopped the pending capital punishment of a Texas inmate, giving lawyers for the man more time to file their appeals.
A Georgia death row inmate is in what could be the final fight for his life. Greg Black reports.
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