Crime

The Associated Press reports: Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the death penalty, as applied, violates its Constitution. The ruling Thursday makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The court was unanimous in its order that the eight people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison. Five justices said the …

The Buffalo News reports: Rep. Chris Collins’ next court date is set for Thursday, but the Republican from Clarence won’t be there. There’s nothing unusual about a criminal defendant seeking approval to miss a procedural court appearance, and nothing unusual about a judge granting that approval. But in this case, those moves have political implications. Collins is running for re-election …

The Associated Press reports: The oldest son of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will spend a year in custody after a judge ruled Wednesday that allegations of hitting a woman on the head disqualified him from a therapeutic program for veterans stemming from a separate assault case. Track Palin, 29, has been accused of three attacks on people close to …

Courthouse News reports: The former CEO of the Freedom Fighters Foundation pleaded guilty Monday to felony gun trafficking and forfeited 16 guns he’d acquired illegally. Chad Clay Kipper, 34, of Carlsbad and/or San Diego, faces up to five years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and will be prohibited from ever legally owning a gun, the U.S. …

The Military Times reports: Mailed packages suspected to contain the poison ricin that were sent to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson may be linked to a former Navy sailor, Fox News reported Wednesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials. The report cited U.S. officials saying a return address was the potential link to the former …

The New York Times reports: President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New …

NBC News reports: A Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty to starting an Arizona wildfire by shooting a rifle at a target intended to reveal the gender of his baby. Dennis Dickey, 37, of Tucson, Arizona, pleaded guilty Friday to causing the Sawmill Fire, which torched swaths of Coronado National Forest, federal land administered by the U.S. Forest Service, and caused …

The New York Post reports: The eldest son of ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was busted for assaulting an acquaintance at his Alaska home — his third domestic violence arrest in less than three years. Track Palin, a 29-year-old Army veteran, was arrested Friday night at his Wasila home on misdemeanor charges of fourth-degree domestic-violence assault, interfering with the report of …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Bill Cosby has been sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his estate near Philadelphia in 2004. He has been sentenced to “total confinement,” a judge ruled on Tuesday. Ahead of the Tuesday sentencing, Judge Steven O’Neill ruled that Cosby is a “sexually violent predator.” The …

Pope Francis today acknowledged that sexual abuse scandals all over the world are driving people away from the Catholic Church. Francis referred directly to the crisis convulsing his papacy on the fourth and final day of his Baltic pilgrimage, which coincided with the release of a devastating new report into decades of sex abuse and cover-up in Germany. Francis told …

Courthouse News reports: U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, the San Diego-area congressman facing charges of misusing campaign money, won his bid Monday to postpone his trial until after the midterm elections in November. Federal authorities indicted Hunter on 60 charges in August, involving the suspected use of $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses. Margaret Hunter, his wife and campaign manager, …

CBS News reports: The owner of a Texas company that sells blueprints to make untraceable 3-D printed guns has been arrested in Taiwan, CBS News has confirmed. Cody Wilson has been accused of having sex with an underage girl and paying her $500 afterward in Texas. Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency and Criminal Investigation Bureau confirmed to CBS News Friday that …

Well, this is a just a shame. A new third-party audit of the National Rifle Association’s finances, obtained by OpenSecrets, found the group to be in the red for the second year in a row. The audit found that after a high-spending year during the 2016 elections, the NRA has seen a sharp decrease in income from dues-paying members for …

The Associated Press reports: Taiwan said Thursday it is looking for the owner of a Texas company that makes untraceable 3-D printed guns who is wanted on an arrest warrant tied to an accusation that he had sex with an underage girl and paid her $500 afterward. The National Immigration Agency and Criminal Investigation Bureau confirmed that Cody Wilson was …

Happy holidaaaaays….. The Associated Press reports: Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has a sentencing date. A judge on Wednesday scheduled Flynn’s sentencing for Dec. 18, more than a year after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. The move comes just days after prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller said they were ready for Flynn’s case to …

The San Antonio Express reports: Cody Wilson, the owner of a controversial Austin business that distributes blueprints for untraceable 3-D printed guns, fled to Taiwan after he was tipped off about a police investigation into sexual relations between him and a 16-year-old girl, police said. He faces a charge of sexual assault of a child in Austin. “Before he left, …

The New York Times reports: Cody Wilson, whose push to post blueprints of 3D-printed guns online has made him a key figure in the national gun control debate, was charged on Wednesday with sexually assaulting a child in Texas. Mr. Wilson, 30, is accused of having sex with a girl under 17 at a hotel in Austin on Aug. 15 …

The New York Times reports: Four men who were repeatedly sexually abused as children by a religion teacher at a Catholic church in Brooklyn received a $27.5 million settlement from the Diocese of Brooklyn on Tuesday, in one of the largest settlements ever awarded to individual victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The settlement comes two weeks after …

Tulsa’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Republican state senator in Oklahoma has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on a child sex trafficking charge. Ralph Shortey was sentenced Monday in federal court in Oklahoma City. He had faced a sentence of up to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Shortey pleaded guilty in November in …

Euronews reports: Pope Francis appealed to Sicily’s Mafia on Saturday to abandon a life of crime and violence, saying the island needed “men and women of love, not men and women ‘of honor,’” using the term mobsters apply to themselves. Francis, in the Sicilian capital, said organized crime members – many of whom go to church and worship openly – …