Crimes and Trials News

WICHITA, Kan. - Seemingly contradicting his own public statements, an attorney for the man accused of gunning down a Kansas abortion provider has argued in court documents that his client has an "absolute right" to present a defense that argues the killing was justified to stop abortion.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The number of US hate crime victims rose slightly last year to nearly 9,700 from 9,500 in 2007, with most people targeted because of their skin color, the FBI said Monday.

NEW YORK - The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said.

FORT WORTH, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood will be confined until his military trial, initially staying in a hospital where he is recovering from gunshot wounds, his attorney said Saturday.

SAN ANTONIO - A military judge in Texas has found a former Air Force nurse accused of killing three terminally ill patients not guilty of murder.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An elderly US couple charged with spying for Cuba for almost 30 years has pleaded guilty in the conspiracy, with the husband agreeing to serve a life sentence, the US Justice Department said.

PERUGIA, Italy (AFP) - American student Amanda Knox exclaimed "I was her friend!" as Italian prosecutors Saturday demanded she be jailed for life for the 2007 murder of her British housemate Meredith Kercher.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio - The jury in the trial of an Ohio police chief accused of breaking into the home of a woman who carried twins for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick ended five hours of deliberations Friday without a verdict.

HONOLULU - A Maui man accused of spying for China is difficult to work with and makes wild exaggerations but is legally able to stand trial, a federal prosecutor asserted Friday.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Two congressional Republicans say federal prosecutors rushed into a settlement with a nonprofit operated by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson that had been accused of misspending government grants.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Two former county judges accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send juveniles to private detention facilities are partially immune from civil lawsuits, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Friday.

SAN DIEGO - A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to killing a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times while chasing suspected illegal immigrants in the mountains east of San Diego.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The army psychiatrist accused of a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood military base in Texas will have his first pre-trial court hearing Saturday in his hospital room, his lawyer's office told AFP.

SUFFERN, N.Y. - Cable television newsman Dominic Carter, an influential reporter on New York politics, was convicted Friday of an attempted assault on his wife.

SAN FRANCISCO - A judge's decision to move Johannes Mehserle's murder trial to Los Angeles County is a setback for the former transit police officer charged with gunning down an unarmed man on New Year's Day.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Reuters) - Minnesota businessman Tom Petters made a final push on Friday to convince a federal jury he was not responsible for a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme that bankrupted his company.

NEW YORK - A prison system official says a New York City man is free after spending nearly two decades behind bars for murder before a judge declared him innocent.

ATLANTA - Wesley Snipes' attorneys asked a federal appeals court Friday to review an "unreasonable" three-year prison sentence for the film star, who was convicted a year ago on federal tax charges.

PARIS (Reuters) - Roman Polanski will not agree voluntarily to being extradited to the United States over a 1970s child sex case, the film director's lawyer said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro published on Friday.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.

NEW YORK - A U.S.-trained scientist accused of shooting at FBI agents and helping al-Qaida vowed Thursday to boycott her January trial.

BALTIMORE - A judge in Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's theft trial told jurors they must stop deliberating and asking questions after he dismisses them for the day.

NEW YORK - Promising "you haven't seen the last of me," a 70-year-old disbarred lawyer convicted in a terrorism case surrendered to U.S. marshals Thursday to begin serving her prison term after a New York appeals court upheld her conviction.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Gov. Rick Perry refused to spare a man facing execution Thursday evening for his role in a fatal robbery, rejecting a parole board recommendation that the death sentence of 34-year-old Robert Lee Thompson be commuted to life in prison.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Several family members who say they were sexually abused as children by adult relatives remember being taken to various locations and photographed with naked men, police investigators said in a search warrant released Thursday.

FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. - A man charged with fatally stabbing and beating six people in Tennessee and Alabama asked a responding deputy to let him hug his 4-year-old daughter — the only person spared in the attack, the deputy testified Thursday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Three teenagers accused of setting a 15-year-old south Florida boy on fire have pleaded not guilty to attempted second-degree murder.

NEW YORK - Jurors at the racketeering trial of John "Junior" Gotti raised the specter of a fourth mistrial in the case, telling a judge Thursday that they were deadlocked on murder and other charges against the son of the infamous mob boss.

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia jury has convicted a confessed cop killer of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a police officer on Halloween 2007.