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Madison County Coroner Ned Dunnichay said late Saturday morning he ruled the death of convicted killer Simon Rios as a suicide by asphyxiation due to hanging. Rios, convicted by an Allen County jury last year in the deaths of his wife and three daughters after he pleaded guilty in Delaware County to killing a 10-year-old Fort Wayne girl, was found hanging in his cell Thursday morning at Pendleton Correctional Facility. He was serving five consecutive life sentences. Rios, 37, was convicted of strangling his wife, Ana Casas, and their daughters, 4-year-old Katherinne Rios, 20-month-old Thannya Rios and 10-month-old Liliana Rios...

Jurors were supposed to begin hearing arguments this morning on why they should save convicted killer Rejon Taylor’s life, but a series of “inflammatory” phones calls Mr. Taylor made to his family within the last two weeks prompted the judge to continue the case until next Monday. “We’re going to be asking the jury to sentence (Mr. Taylor) to death, and this is one of the reasons why,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Neff told U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier Tuesday, trying to persuade him to let the jurors hear the contents of the phone conversations. According to some of...

I just recieved my required reading list for some of my teaching courses, and i have since picked up all of my books. Upon opening the first book, i was shocked to see the name William Ayers. Apparently he is the series editor for a series called teaching for social justice. I dont object to him editing a book, however, i have some reservations about paying for a book, where the money is going to a known terrorist. Though he didnt author the book, he did act as editor and he is acknowledged as an inspiration for the author as...

<p>DALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.</p> <p>Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”</p>

TRANSCRIPT By Keith Morrison Correspondent NBC News updated 9:09 p.m. CT, Mon., June. 11, 2007 This report aired on Dateline Monday, June 11 HOMER, ALASKA - It was the question that wouldn’t go away. The question that haunts many people even now. Lary Kuhns: People would ask, ‘Hey, whatever happened to that case with the lady on the cliff?’ Her name was Wanda — “the lady on the cliff.” Jay Darling: Everybody asked what happened. And everybody seemed to scratch their head when I said, ‘I don’t know’. Farrah Tittle: I dreamed about Wanda every single night. And in several...

(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave instructions Wednesday to begin the process of demolishing the home of Ala Abu Dheim, the lone gunman who slaughtered eight young students at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem earlier this year. Abu Dheim, a familiar face in the neighborhood of the yeshiva who used to drive local children to and from school, carried out the attack just hours before the boys were to begin a party to celebrate the joyous holiday of Purim. After quietly carrying his weapons and ammunition into the school in a cardboard box, he burst into the library, and...

Last Wednesday's pageantry in Beirut celebrating the return of Samir Kuntar marked a black day for Lebanon. It is hardly the first time an Arab terror outfit has held a street party for murderers - sweets were handed out in plenty of Arab capitals on 9/11. Still, it was surprising to see the participation of many members of Lebanon's pro-democracy March 14 movement, like Prime Minister Fouad Siniora who has become a significant US ally over the last three years. Now, Lebanon's friends in the international community, especially in Washington, who backed March 14's struggle and looked to it as...

We should every year remember the true story of Mary Jo's death, and how it revealed the true "character" of one Edward M Kennedy.

James Tramel went from convicted murderer to priest while in prison, a transformation that the Episcopal Church used to successfully lobby for his parole and celebrate him before politicians and the press. But the church is now grappling with the sexual abuse of a parishioner under his care. Tramel has been suspended for sexual misconduct, temporarily stripped of his priestly authority and left searching for a new job. The San Francisco-based Episcopal Diocese of California now faces questions of whether, in its haste to proclaim Tramel's story, it redeemed and promoted him too quickly. Convicted of second-degree murder in a...

Japan hangs 3 convicted murderers By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press writer 9 minutes ago A serial killer who mutilated the bodies of four young girls and reportedly drank the blood of one of his victims was among three convicted murderers executed in Japan on Tuesday for crimes an official called indescribably cruel. Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, whose rash of grisly killings in the late 1980s triggered calls for tighter restrictions on violent pornographic videos, was hanged at a detention center in Tokyo, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said. Miyazaki burned the body of one 4-year-old and left her bones on her parents'...

CORONA, Calif. (AP) — Former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, convicted in the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate, could soon be released from prison because she is near death, authorities said. Atkins, 59, is terminally ill and being considered for so-called "compassionate release," state corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. She gave no details of Atkins' illness, but said a doctor had determined she had less than six months to live. The corrections department was reviewing the request, which if approved would then be passed to the state Board of Parole which has the power to release Atkins under state...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Los Angeles man's last remaining challenge to his death sentence for the murder of a student librarian in 1978, one of the oldest cases on California's Death Row. Stevie Lamar Fields had won a reversal of his sentence in 2000 from a federal judge, who ruled that he should get a new penalty trial because the jury foreman cited biblical passages to his fellow jurors after a majority had voted in favor of a life sentence. But a federal appeals court reinstated the death sentence last year, and the high court denied...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Barack Obama is drawing gasps from pro-life advocates today over comments he made during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania over the weekend. The leading Democratic presidential candidate appeared to back a potential decision by his daughters to seek an abortion saying he wouldn't "punish" them with a baby. Obama's remarks are likely to add another reason to the list pro-life advocates are developing as to why he won't get their vote this November.

Pachino Hill sentenced to probation, church By Ann McGlynn | Thursday, March 20, 2008   With a lengthy and violent criminal record to his name, Pachino Hill is going to church. Hill, 29, of Davenport was sentenced Wednesday by Scott County Associate Judge Christine Dalton to a counseling program offered by Third Missionary Baptist Church. She also ordered him to attend church there eight consecutive Sundays, to pay a fine and be on probation for one year. If he doesn’t comply, he faces up to two years in prison for eluding and driving while barred. The charges are the...

Fidel Castro Steps Down...

GALVESTON — The father of a 3-month-old boy who was found dead near the Galveston seawall is being held on capital murder charges in Pennsylvania, after police said he admitted Friday to killing the infant by repeatedly stomping on his head. Travis Mullis, 21, who lived in Alvin, was being held in Pennsylvania at the request of Galveston officials on $1 million bail, Galveston District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said. "He calmly walked in and said he wanted to talk about some things that happened in Texas," said Annie Almendarez, a sergeant with the Galveston Police Department. Mullis told Philadelphia police...

Ruling near on Abu-Jamal jury A U.S. court is weighing race and other issues in death sentence. By Emilie Lounsberry Inquirer Staff Writer In the nearly 26 years since his conviction for the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner, the international tempest over Mumia Abu-Jamal has fixed primarily on this question: Did he do it, or was he framed by Philadelphia police? Yet inside the chambers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Abu-Jamal's innocence or guilt is not the issue. Since May, three judges have been weighing whether to reinstate his death sentence, overturned in 2001....

To this day, only one person truly knows what happened on a lonely Massachusetts bridge on the night of July 18, 1969. Sometime that evening, a car driven by US senator Ted Kennedy plunged into the icy water below. While the politician survived, his passenger, a 28-year-old aide, was not so lucky. Mary Jo Kopechne died on the road from Chappaquiddick that Friday night. In the ensuing scandal, the presidential hopes of the last of the Kennedy brothers were destroyed. Now the senator has signed a £4million deal to write his memoirs, due out in 2010, raising hopes he is...

A wealthy Los Altos Hills businessman who has been in prison since 1986 for murdering his wife should be paroled, a state appeals court has ruled, rejecting arguments by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that the gravity of the case ought to keep the killer behind bars. John Dannenberg, 66, has repeatedly been denied parole since he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder in the May 1985 slaying of his wife, Linda. In 2005, after the state Supreme Court barred his release, the state parole board reversed course and decided that he could be freed. Schwarzenegger...

A convicted murderer who was deported earlier this year after serving more than two decades in prison was arrested Tuesday after trying to come back into the country. Juan Crisantos-Ramos, 46, a Mexican citizen, was taken in to custody at the Dennis DeConcini port of entry in Nogales after he attempted to enter the United States using an immigration document that belonged to someone else, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The incident occurred late Tuesday when an officer was screening people and began asking routine questions of a passenger in a car, the release...

LEFTIST leaders and sympathisers marked the 40th anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Ernesto Che Guevara today in Cuba, where he is buried, and Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. Cuba's Acting President, Raul Castro, led the main event under a giant bronze statue of the guerrilla fighter in the town of Santa Clara, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of Havana. Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 81, was absent, but a homage he penned was read in public. The Argentine-born doctor-turned-guerrilla was "a flower torn up prematurely by the stem. I bow my head to pay tribute...

As Hillary Clinton rises in the polls, her nose grows longer and longer. To be sure, she has never had any shame about making stories up out of thin air. After 9/11, Clinton appeared on national TV and claimed that when the two airplanes hit the World Trade Center, her daughter Chelsea was going to jog at Battery Park near the towers, where she heard and saw the catastrophe unfold. Clinton’s arrogance was so profound that she did not coordinate the story with Chelsea, who wrote an article for Talk in which she described what she had been doing that...

Handyman Says O.J. Simpson Threatened To Kill Him New York Post Reports Incident Happened Last July Police Described It As A 'Verbal Dispute' Peter D'Oench Reporting (CBS4) O.J. Simpson’s legal troubles in Las Vegas apparently are not the only run in with the law the former football star has had this year. The New York Post is reporting that last July Simpson accused a handyman he had hired to work on his Kendall home of sleeping with his girlfriend Christie Prody. The paper reports on July 29th, Simpson and Prody drove to the home of 42-year old Janos Gonzalez to...

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. -- A woman who killed her minister husband with a shotgun can begin supervised visits with her three young daughters on Sept. 29, a judge ruled Wednesday. Judge Ron Harmon said he will draw up rules and locations for the visits within a few days and Mary Winkler can phone her children every other day. The visits will be supervised because of worries about Winkler's mental health, Harmon said, and physical security for the children will also be provided if needed. Winkler, 33, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in April for shooting husband Matthew Winkler, a Church of...

KINGSTON — Jennifer Hyatte was sentenced today to life in prison without a chance for parole for the 2005 murder of a prison guard and the wounding of another guard in an attempt to free her husband, George Hyatte. Before she was led out of the courtroom, Jennifer Hyatte tearfully apologized to the family and friends of her victims. “For all of the hurt and pain that I have caused you all … I can’t ask you to forgive me, because what I’ve done is unforgivable,” Hyatte said in Criminal Court at the Roane County Courthouse. The former prison nurse...

John Ziegler has an exclusive interview with Alfred Beardsley - the guy held up by OJ. Listen at www.kfi640.com

Tennessee's electric chair is to be used to execute a prisoner despite warnings from the chair's designer the voltage is too low. Daryl Keith Holton, 45, is scheduled to die at 1 a.m. Wednesday in Nashville for the 1997 killings of his three young sons and his ex-wife's 4-year-old daughter, USA Today reported Tuesday. It would be Tennesse's first execution by electric chair in 47 years. Holton chose the chair rather than lethal injection, as was his right under state law, despite warnings the chair's voltage is too low from modifications made in the 1990s, the newspaper said. Fred Leuchter,...

A NEW video purportedly featuring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared on the internet today - the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, CNN reported. The video reportedly shows a still image of Bin Laden with a voice identified as his praising September 11 hijacker Walid al-Shehri, who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 which crashed into the World Trade Centre. The authenticity of the video was not immediately confirmed, the television network said, adding that the video did not appear to show any moving images of bin Laden. Bin Laden appeared in a video on...

KENNESAW, Ga.--Is the history of our great nation important to you? Union Gen. William T. Sherman said of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, "After all, I think Forrest as the most remarkable man our 'Civil War' produced on either side." This came from a man who was once a foe of Forrest on the field of battle. Why do some folks attack America's heritage? Several years ago, attempts were made to change the name of Forrest Park in Memphis, Tenn. Now, there are people trying to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Fla. But was...

Once upon a time, Ted Kennedy could count on his daily dose of veneration. The right wing hated the Massachusetts Democrat, but progressives honored him as a defender of old-school liberalism. In a remarkable turnaround, liberals are now heaping scorn on the 73-year-old senator. Young audiences boo at his name, and the leftish "Daily Show" on Comedy Central makes fun of him. The source of unhappiness is Kennedy's efforts to kill an offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was to be the first such project in the United States and a source of pride to environmentally minded New...

In Death, a Martyr's Smile Foretells Victory August 10, 2007 The Denver Post Opinion The world has seen nothing like it. When Majid Kavosifar was hanged in public in Tehran for killing criminal judge Hassan Moghadas, no one expected to see the expression they saw on his face the day of his execution. As Kavosifar was jostled through the crowd by the regime's demonic henchmen in ski masks - and even as he was hoisted onto the platform that he was to be hanged from - he wore a triumphant, almost joyful smile on his face. If there were ever...

Darrell Grayson was put to death by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility this evening for the Christmas Eve 1980 murder of 86-year-old Montevallo widow Annie Laura Orr. The 46-year-old Grayson, pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., had been adopted by activists as an example of the need for a state law mandating DNA testing for Death Row inmates. The Innocence Project, a New York-based non-profit that represents the condemned, had argued that DNA tests not available at the time of Grayson's trial might have proved him innocent. The U.S. Supreme Court in a two-sentence order this afternoon denied a request...

MIAMI (AP) - A federal bankruptcy judge Friday awarded Ron Goldman's family the rights to O.J. Simpson's cancelled book, "If I Did It," ruling that Simpson tried to hide his profits. Goldman was slain along with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson. The Goldmans want the book's proceeds included as part of a nearly US$33.5 million civil jury award they have been trying to collect from Simpson for almost a decade. Simpson was acquitted of criminal charges in 1995 following a highly publicized murder trial. The Goldmans want to rename the book "Confessions of a Double Murder." The company that currently...

Year after year we’ve had borders that aren’t secure and a system that is broken Year after year we’ve had people dying in the desert because they want a better life for themselves and their families. Year after year we’ve had millions of people living in fear day after day – worrying that they could be deported like the hundreds of people were in New Bedford. Year after year we’ve had an underground economy that hurts American workers and abuses hard working families. Year after year we’ve heard talk about reforming our system. We’ve heard the bumper sticker solutions, the...

ANTIOCH: Police say undocumented immigrant was drunk during fatal accident and had four DUIs An undocumented immigrant arrested in the traffic death of an Antioch father of five was impaired by drugs and alcohol, had four prior DUI convictions and may be charged with murder, according to the Highway Patrol and the Solano County Sheriff's Office. Jose Pena, 26, was booked into the Solano County Jail after he was released from John Muir Medical Center, a week after the March 31 death of Kent Boone, 33, in a head-on crash on Highway 12 in Solano County. Pena, who the...

Baghdad - Radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made a scathing attack on the United States in a statement issued on Friday, blaming it for Iraq's woes and calling for a mass demonstration on April 9 to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall. The statement was the first by al-Sadr since March 14, when he called on his supporters to resist US forces in Iraq through peaceful means. Al-Sadr has been said, by US and Iraqi officials, to be in neighbouring Iran. His aides insist he is still in Iraq. The latest statement was read to worshippers during Friday prayers...

CLIFTON — The allegedly drunk driver of an SUV made an obscene gesture at Colorado State Patrol troopers as they tried to stop him on Interstate 70 moments before he plowed at 120 mph into the back of a passenger car and killed two college students, authorities said today. Patrick Strawmatt, 42, a former officer with the Lafayette police department, was jailed for investigation of vehicular homicide and DUI. He had to be extricated from the wreckage and during the process, "He resisted and attempted to spit on" firefighters, patrol Trooper Ron Greasley said. Jennifer Kois of Brighton and Jacob...

Fifty years ago Edgar Smith shattered the rural serenity of northern Bergen County when he bludgeoned a 15-year-old girl to death with a baseball bat and a rock.  The March 1957 crime changed Ramsey forever and began a strange odyssey that is still taxing the judicial system today.Smith was sentenced to death -- then won his freedom with the help of William F. Buckley. But he was soon back behind bars after he kidnapped and stabbed a California woman.  Now, the 73-year-old killer is again up for parole.  "I'll do anything I need to do to keep him in prison,"...

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year. Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement. Cortez, of Barstow, California, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

Buffalo -- An anti-abortion extremist defending himself in a federal trial sat on the witness stand Monday to explain why he killed a doctor. "I don't like killing. I don't like the thought of it," James Kopp said as he asked and answered a series of questions from his seat next to the judge. "The plan was to keep everyone alive at the end of the day." Kopp, charged with violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act by killing Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998, is serving a 25-year-to-life for a state conviction on second-degree murder in the...

LONG BEACH -- Police sought the public's help Saturday as they searched for a "known thug" who shot two police officers during a traffic stop Friday on a bustling downtown street. Police Chief Anthony Batts identified the suspect as Oscar Manuel Gallegos, a 36- or 37-year-old Long Beach resident with a lengthy criminal record that includes arrests for drugs, terrorist threats and assault. Batts urged members of Gallegos' family, some of whom live in Long Beach, to cooperate with police, and had another message for the suspect at a press conference late Saturday. "Turn yourself in because we are coming...

A man wanted for attempted murder in Maricopa County was caught by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Sunday night while crossing into the United States from Mexico at the San Luis port-of-entry. Just after 11 p.m. Julian Angel Tamayo, 20, tried to enter the United States on foot, according to a press release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. When questioned by authorities, Tamayo refused to identify himself and, as he grew increasingly nervous, he asked to return to Mexico. Customs and Border Protection officers then took Tamayo into custody. After fingerprinting him they learned he was wanted for...

WAUKEGAN, Ill. - Twenty years ago, when James Ealy's conviction in the slaying of a pregnant woman and three children was thrown out on appeal, a Chicago judge warned that a menace to society was about to be turned loose. Two decades later, prosecutors believe Judge Thomas J. Maloney has been proven horribly right. Ealy, now 42, shuffled into a suburban Chicago courtroom this week, again accused of murder. Prosecutors say he strangled a Burger King employee last month with the bow tie from her uniform. The circumstances were similar to those that led to his conviction in the 1982...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One of the teenagers responsible for beating a Holly Hill homeless man to death asked a judge to reduce his 22-year prison sentence Monday. Warren Messner and three other teens pled guilty to killing the man because they were bored, but Messner said prison is too hard. Messner is a big boy. He was 15 at the time he was brought into the woods to see the homeless man his friends had been beating. Even at that young age, he outweighed the victim, Michael Roberts, by 200 pounds when he jumped on his chest, crushing his...

A minister's wife accused of killing her husband got out of jail Tuesday on $750,000 bond. Mary Winkler, 32, is charged with killing Matthew Winkler with a blast from a 12-gauge shotgun as he lay in bed at the parsonage in Selmer, about 80 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee....Defense lawyers have implied Mary Winkler was emotionally abused by her husband.

Does anyone know who the sponsors of the Simpson special are yet? Is there a list I can access? I have every intention of boycotting every sponsor that funds this piece of garbage.

LOS ANGELES — FOX plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted in a widely-watched trial, the network said. The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said. Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book publisher Judith Regan, FOX said. "O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the...

Springfield, FL (LifeNews.com) -- After he successfully won a court order to kill Terri Schiavo via euthanasia, the disabled woman's former husband Michael pledged to take on pro-life advocates and formed a political action committee to defeat them. However, the candidates Michael campaigned for during the 2006 mid-term elections didn't fare very well. In fact, every candidate Michael personally campaigned for during the election cycle went down to defeat. Michael traveled to Colorado twice to campaign against pro-life Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Colorado congresswoman. He even attended a late October debate between Musgrave and her opponent and shouted at her...

The UN on Sunday criticized the decision to sentence Saddam Hussein to death, calling upon local authorities to refuse the to hang the ex-leader. UN Human Rights Commission head Louise Arbour said that the "appeal process is reliable and a vital part of the fair judicial procedure." Army Radio reported. She said that "the results of the appeal will what they will be," and Arbour expressed hope that the Iraqi government would suspend its death sentence.

SADDAM Hussein's forces buried a Kurdish family alive in a mass grave in northern Iraq in the 1980s, a witness told the genocide trial of the ousted Iraqi leader today. The Kurdish woman, sitting to the left of the judges and speaking from behind a curtain to protect her identity, was the latest witness to give testimony about Saddam's 1988 Anfal (Spoils of War) campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq. "I know the fate of my family. They were buried alive," she told the court through a translator. "I would like to ask Saddam a question: 'What was the...