Crime Newswire

Alleged MS-13 member sentenced in Chelsea murder
Boston.com
Santos Portillo, 22, of Chelsea received a life sentence in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years for second-degree murder, along with a concurrent 4½-to-5-year sentence for illegally possessing the gun used to fatally shoot 38-year-old ...

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NEW YORK — Lawyers for a New York City police officer charged with seeking to kill and eat women want potential jurors to see kinky... AP http://www.huffingtonpost.com/inae-oh/

America's unique level of gun violence is not something to scratch our heads at as if it is a bolt from the blue -- it is partially the expected outcome of immoral and ineffective government policies. Trevor Burrus http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trevor-burrus/

An editorial in today's Houston Chronicle called for DNA testing in the case of Texas death row inmate Larry Swearingen, who is facing a February 27 execution date. The Houston Chronicle writes:

You'd think that granting that petition would be a no-brainer: Texas, where DNA has exonerated 48 people convicted of serious crimes, leads the nation in the number of wrongful convictions that such science has exposed; and Swearingen, convicted on circumstantial evidence and shaky eyewitness accounts, is supported by the Innocence Project, which has argued that it's "nearly impossible" that he could have committed the crime of which he's accused.

The current DNA testing statute was expanded by the Texas Legislature in direct response to Swearingen's unsuccessful requests for testing. A Montgomery County District Court Judge is conducting a hearing today to determine whether to grant Swearingen's request for DNA testing of the ligature used to strangle the victim, her fingernail scrapings, clothing and other evidence.

Read the full editorial.

More on Swearingen.