NEW YORK — Michael B. Jordan doesn’t usually get star struck. Bryan Stevenson had a different effect on him. Stevenson, whom Jordan plays in the legal drama “Just Mercy,” has led one of the most successful efforts to combat mass incarceration and racial injustices in the United States legal system....
Program to Erase Old Pot Charges Aids 58 California Counties
SACRAMENTO — Every California county prosecutor can now use new technology to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 old marijuana convictions after voters broadly legalized the drug in 2016. Code for America, a San Francisco-based nonprofit tech organization, announced Thursday it is making its computer algorithms available for free to...
Australian Court Upholds Sex Abuse Verdict of Cardinal Pell
MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian appeals court Wednesday upheld convictions against Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic to be found guilty of sexually abusing children, in a decision cheered by scores of abuse survivors and victims' advocates demonstrating outside the court. A unanimous jury in December found Pope Francis'...
Ninth Circuit Court Upholds Keith Foster's Drug Convictions
In a ruling filed last week, the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the 2017 heroin and marijuana trafficking convictions of then-Fresno Deputy Police Chief Keith Foster. Foster's legal team made four claims in arguing his felony convictions should be overturned: — Insufficient evidence to convict. —...
Mariska Hargitay: Haven't Been in Touch With Linda Fairstein
NEW YORK — "Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay says she hasn't been in touch with friend Linda Fairstein since the former "Central Park Five" prosecutor was dropped by her publisher, though the actress acknowledged Fairstein resigned from the board of a charity she founded. In an interview with...
Community Programs for California Inmates Bring More Escapes
SACRAMENTO — California's attempt to ease inmates back into the community is coming at a price: more prisoners, some with violent convictions, walking away before their time is up. Fifty of the state's more than 126,000 prisoners absconded last year, almost half of them from a program that allows male...
Cash From NY, Feds Tests 100K Rape Kits, Leads to 1K Arrests
NEW YORK — Languishing evidence in over 100,000 sexual assault cases around the country has been sent for DNA testing with money from a New York prosecutor and federal authorities, spurring over 1,000 arrests and hundreds of convictions in three years, officials said Tuesday. It's estimated that another 155,000 or...
California Bill Would Seal 8 Million Criminal Convictions
SAN FRANCISCO — A Northern California lawmaker and district attorney announced Thursday a proposed law that would automatically clear some 8 million criminal convictions eligible for sealing but that remain public records. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and state Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco said the bill...
California Revisits Three-Strike Life Sentences
SACRAMENTO — Up to 4,000 California inmates serving life sentences for nonviolent convictions will have a chance at parole following the state's decision to let stand a judge's ruling saying those prisoners are eligible for freedom under a voter-approved law. The state will craft new regulations by January to include...