The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/author/stephenh/)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is seeking changes that weren’t included in the latest version of the bill. Opponents will try to exclude some inmates from qualifying for reduced sentences. Democrats may abandon the bill if that amendment prevails.
Florida executed Jose Antonio Jimenez, 26 years after he viciously stabbed a woman to death during a burglary. It was the fifth execution in the state since the lethal injection protocol was changed.
House Democrats are planning to vote next year on bills that address gun violence as a public health concern. Legislation to fund more research on gun injuries and death faces an uncertain future in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Russia, admitting she worked for more than two years to forge relationships with conservative activists and leading U.S. Republicans. The National Rifle Association was one of her leading targets.
Detectives often wait weeks for an analysis of DNA samples, but a “Rapid DNA” machine can analyze the DNA in a swab and produce a profile in less than two hours. The FBI is starting a project to connect “Rapid DNA” machines to its national DNA database.
The House followed the Senate in approving a five-year reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), handing a win to youth advocates who have fought to update the legislation for 16 years. “It’s huge,” says Marcy Mistrett of the Campaign for Youth Justice.
“We were unable to stop this tragedy from occurring,” says the Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. is holding almost 15,000 immigrant children in nearly full detention facilities.
Threatening emails were sent to at least 30 locations demanding ransom in the form of bitcoin. Messages said $20,000 “is the cost for your life.”
As the Catholic Church faces a wave of federal and state attorney general investigations into its handling of sex abuse, bishops are naming priests in their areas who have been credibly accused of sex abuse.
As of 2016, Texas prisons were providing dentures only to 71 inmates of a population of 149,000. Now, the state will become what’s believed to be the first in the U.S. to 3-D-print dentures for inmates on site.