The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/)
A study released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) revealed that 14 percent of state and federal prisoners and 26 percent of jail inmates reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD).
Treating minor gun crimes as future homicides has helped to cut down on violence in Houston, and a key tool for investigators is the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, now much improved from the original program first introduced by the feds in 1999.
Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown shot Sylville Smith last Aug. 13. After the verdict, the dead man’s kin called for racial unity, and the prosecutor noted the difficulty of self-defense cases.
Juries in recent days have acquitted two more cops involved in controversial fatal shootings of black men. One criminologist says jurors are reluctant to convict: “They just don’t want to second-guess officers in those life-or-death decisions.”
In partnership with a California security firm, U.S. Girl Scouts will now be able to explore the fundamentals of cyber security skills. Officials say the move will help instill “a valuable 21st century skill set” in members of an organization best known for cookie sales.
A new report finds that the former archbishop of Canterbury helped shield Peter Ball, a bishop accused of sexually abusing 18 boys and young men from 1977 to 1992. The report concludes, “The church appears to have been most interested in protecting itself.”
Missouri joins a growing list of states that have sued pharmaceutical firms. State Attorney General Josh Hawley says their “campaign of fraud and deception” led to the opioid crisis. The suit names the pharmaceutical firms Endo, Purdue and Janssen.
The case involved a woman whose citizenship was revoked after it was learned that she lied when she told immigration officials that her husband had not served in the Bosnian Serb military.
An industry research group says data shows a 2.7 percent increase in collision claims since recreational marijuana sales began in 2014 and 2015 in Colorado, Washington and Oregon.
Rewards totaling $141,000 were offered for the apprehension of two inmates accused of killing two Georgia prison officers during an escape. But parsing who gets how much is often a contentious process, as Californians discovered following the 2013 manhunt for accused cop-killer Christopher Dorner.
Reuters say says websites based in Europe that purport to sell such items as maps and flags are part of a multinational system to disguise payments for the $40 billion global online gambling industry.
Wisconsin justices voted 5-2 to close the doors on its administrative meetings, with the conservative majority outvoting the two liberal members.
Texas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma have accounted for 90 percent of the 122 executions carried out in the U.S. over the past three years. One expert says criminal justice processes and incentives make those states capital punishment outliers.
Fran and Dan Keller served 21 years in prison for one of Austin’s most notorious and lurid cases — the alleged sexual abuse of children in their daycare center in 1991. They were freed in 2013 based upon errors in physical evidence used against them but had awaited the official declaration of innocence that came this week.
Joe Colello, who managed tax credit sales for the Oregon Department of Energy, pleaded guilty to bribery, tax evasion and other crimes for accepting 52 separate checks from a Seattle energy consultant who is also under indictment.