Newser - Crime & Courts
Updated: 26 min 43 sec ago
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 08:26
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a campaign finance law that limits how much an individual can give to political campaigns. The justices today decided to hear an appeal from Shaun McCutcheon of Alabama and the Republican National Committee. They're arguing that the "aggregate limit" is unconstitutional. Said...
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 08:01
At least three people are dead in a series of shootings along two Southern California freeways. Police got their first call at about 5:20am from a home in the Tustin area, where they found one woman's body. The suspect, a man in his 20s, fled in an SUV, police...
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 07:28
After being slapped with a lawsuit , a pair of Texas parents have agreed in court that they won't demand their 16-year-old daughter have an abortion. "We just achieved an agreed order," the daughter's lawyer says. No one can be forced to have an abortion, even if the person is a...
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 05:37
Millions of dollars in diamonds have been stolen from a plane at Brussels' international airport yesterday in a daring heist, the AP reports. Police say the jewels were lifted by eight masked men who, though armed, never fired their weapons. How did they pull it off? By cutting a hole...
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 05:18
As Reeva Steenkamp's family paid their final respects today, Oscar Pistorius doubled down on his claim that he thought he was shooting a burglar through his bathroom door, reports the AP . "We were in our bedroom. She was doing her yoga exercises. I was watching television," he said in an...
Tue, 02/19/2013 - 02:44
Oscar Pistorius put on his artificial legs to walk to the bathroom where girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp had fled after an argument and then fired into the locked door, hitting her three times, a prosecutor said at a dramatic court hearing today. Pistorius sobbed uncontrollably at the bail hearing as the...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 17:12
Who knew make-up kissing could be so dangerous? An Illinois man who tried to appease his angry girlfriend with a kiss got half his tongue bitten off in return, Gawker reports. Prosecutors say Elaine Cook, 51, had an argument with her 47-year-old boyfriend after they came home from a Valentine's...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 16:41
Adam Lanza drew motivation from Norway's most notorious mass murderer when he opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, CBS News reports. Officials briefed in the investigation say Lanza considered himself in competition with Anders Breivik, who bombed and gunned down 77 people in July of 2011. Wanting to out-kill...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 15:33
A defense lawyer for alleged 9/11 attackers is crying foul after spotting hidden listening devices in cells used to meet with her clients at Guantanamo Bay, the Guardian reports. And the response from Gitmo's commander—that the bugs were set up by secret agents, yet no eavesdropping is underway—didn't...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 13:07
Unsurprisingly, a series of much more minor "Oscar + guns" stories are coming out of the woodwork. Today's entry: Not long before killing his girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius nearly shot a friend in an upscale restaurant by mistake, AFP reports. Pistorius was checking out a friend's revolver when it got caught...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 12:35
Police are investigating a South African mayor over allegations that he sent pornographic images to his deputy—including one of his penis covered in cream (whipped, we assume) and topped with a strawberry, the Independent reports. Cederberg municipality mayor Jonas White also allegedly offered to take deputy Lorna Scheepers on...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 11:52
Vernon Hugh Bowman, a 75-year-old Indiana farmer, is taking on agribusiness heavyweight Monsanto in a case hitting the Supreme Court tomorrow. Monsanto says Bowman, who has been using Monsanto's soybean seeds happily for years, is infringing its patents when he plants a second crop of soybeans each year. The breakdown,...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 11:37
Christopher Dorner, the ex-cop who died last week after allegedly killing four people, tried to escape to Mexico, NBC News reports. On Feb. 5, just two days after he allegedly killed his first two victims, fishermen at San Diego's Driscoll Wharf say he approached them and tried to find someone...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 06:33
Police in Lancashire are asking the public for help and urging them to be careful after a canister containing a small amount of Iridium 192 was stolen from a van there this weekend. The pilfered material—which is housed in a foot-long yellow canister and is used in cancer-fighting radiotherapy,...
Mon, 02/18/2013 - 00:14
Oscar Pistorius' running days are over for now even if he is granted bail. "I have decided that following these tragic events that we have no option but to cancel all future races that Oscar Pistorius had been contracted to compete in," his agent said after a visit to his...
Sun, 02/17/2013 - 23:22
A Chicago woman was gunned down just hours after her 14-year-old sister sat on a stage behind President Obama as he made a speech at her high school about gun violence. Janay McFarlane, the mother of a 3-month-old boy, was shot dead while visiting friends and family in the suburb...
Sun, 02/17/2013 - 13:00
Adam Lanza's mother struggled to raise her hypersensitive, Asperger's-diagnosed child and seems to have made a couple of fatal mistakes along the way, reports the Hartford Courant . In a joint investigation with PBS—which plans a week of shows on Newtown—the Courant draws a portrait of a woman juggling...
Sun, 02/17/2013 - 12:20
Dozens of protesters rallied outside Los Angeles police headquarters yesterday in support of Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD officer and suspected killer of four who died after a shootout and fire this week at a mountain cabin following one of the biggest manhunts in recent memory. Protesters told the LA...
Sun, 02/17/2013 - 08:32
The case against Oscar Pistorius darkens: Police are now investigating a bloodied cricket bat recovered from the Olympian's house, reports South Africa's City Press . Cops theorize that Pistorius may have used the bat to bludgeon girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp—in addition to her bullet wounds, her skull was apparently crushed—or...
Sun, 02/17/2013 - 07:31
Some people might celebrate a lottery win by, say, buying a new car or taking a vacation. But that is entirely too mundane for a pair of as-yet unnamed brothers in Wichita, who scored a $75,000 win and decided to truly live it up on Friday and go for...
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