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Tag: prisons and jails

  • Possible deal to free American prisoners in Iran called for shuttle diplomacy — from hotel to hotel | CNN Politics

    Possible deal to free American prisoners in Iran called for shuttle diplomacy — from hotel to hotel | CNN Politics


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Closing in on a deal to free five Americans detained in Iran, US and Iranian delegations gathered in separate hotels in Doha – within sight of each other, but not within earshot – as Qatari diplomats shuttled back and forth trying feverishly to broker an elusive agreement between the two.

    None of the conversation played out in face-to-face meetings between the US and Iran over more than a year of on-and-off hotel meetings in the Qatari capital, a US official familiar with the negotiations told CNN.

    Instead, Qatari officials relayed messages back and forth, with some of the logistical work happening in the most discreet way possible, according to a US official familiar with the negotiations – via text thread between the Qataris and the US diplomats.

    The indirect talks were part of a two-year process that brought about the deal announced this week, a potential diplomatic breakthrough between bitter adversaries who don’t even talk to each other.

    The overall contours of the deal’s roadmap began to crystallize in Doha about six months ago, after two-and-a-half years of intensive on-and-off indirect discussions between Washington and Tehran. And on Thursday, those intense efforts yielded the first sign of payoff, when Iran released four Americans who had been detained in the notorious Evin Prison and moved them into house arrest.

    “It’s a positive step that they were released from prison and sent to home detention. But this is just the beginning of a process that I hope and expect will lead to their return home to the United States,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the transfer was announced.

    If that plays out as agreed, the intricate diplomacy will have produced a momentous agreement between long-time adversaries whose relationship has been strained by Iran’s growing nuclear program and its alleged human rights abuses.

    Befitting the relationship, the path has been thorny, according to accounts shared with CNN by several sources familiar with the talks. The United States and Iran don’t have diplomatic relations, and public overtures by Washington to engage directly with Tehran on the matter were rebuffed.

    Instead, the US had to pursue indirect avenues, relying on partners in the Middle East and Europe including Qatar, Oman, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, all of whom served as interlocutors for the two sides over the course of the past two and a half years.

    US officials approached the negotiations with the understanding that there were “no guarantees” with the Iranians, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. But as things seemed to fall into place, the US government began reaching out to Congress and to family members.

    It was not until a couple of days before the transfer to house arrest that the American side realized the plan was going into motion. A fifth American was already under house arrest.

    On Wednesday, the US had “what (appeared) to be concrete information” that the first step in the deal – moving the four Americans out of Evin Prison and into house arrest – would be taken on Thursday, the source familiar with the negotiations said.

    Still, officials were wary.

    “There are certainly elements of the Iranian system that do not want this to happen,” the source warned.

    When Thursday came, US officials had a direct line to the Swiss Ambassador in Iran for updates as to progress on the ground, the US official said. Swiss diplomats serve as the protecting power – the eyes and ears on the ground – for the US in Iran.

    Early in the afternoon Thursday Washington time, National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson announced the White House had “received confirmation that Iran has released from prison five Americans who were unjustly detained and has placed them on house arrest.”

    The path forward now has been described as a step-by-step process, and American officials stress that the indirect negotiations are ongoing and sensitive.

    One component of the deal is an expected prisoner swap between the US and Iran, and another involves making $6 billion in Iranian funds that have been in a restricted account in South Korea more readily available for “non-sanctionable trade” of goods like food and medicine by moving them to restricted accounts in Qatar. Sources tell CNN the funds came from oil sales that were allowed and placed into accounts set up under the Trump administration.

    One source briefed on the agreement said the process to transfer the funds to Qatar is likely to take 30 to 45 days, and two sources said the money would go through Switzerland before getting to Qatar.

    The implementation won’t be easy. The US Treasury will be heavily involved, as the transfer of Iranian funds to Qatar is expected to take weeks to complete particularly because the US is not lifting any sanctions in order to facilitate the transfer, sources said.

    The indirect negotiations involved officials from across the Biden administration, including the State Department and the White House, and they closely involved the US Treasury Department, the official said. Treasury’s involvement made the process more arduous at times, but was necessary to be sure that any agreement would maintain strict oversight of the Iranian funds, the official added.

    The process to get to this point – with the end goal of securing the Americans’ release – has been a long road for Biden administration officials. Sources said that bringing the Americans back home had been a priority from the outset of President Joe Biden’s tenure.

    The three Americans publicly known to be in the deal – Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi – had been imprisoned for years before Biden took office, with Namazi being arrested when Biden was vice president and left behind in a deal secured under the Obama administration.

    Now, US officials say the work continues, but they are cautiously optimistic that the five could be coming home.

    “My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare and the nightmare that their families have experienced,” Blinken said.

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  • Trump expected to be booked at Fulton County jail, sheriff says | CNN Politics

    Trump expected to be booked at Fulton County jail, sheriff says | CNN Politics


    Atlanta
    CNN
     — 

    Former President Donald Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton County jail, the local sheriff said Tuesday in a statement, along with the other 18 co-defendants charged on Monday in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case.

    Trump, who was charged with 13 counts including racketeering, has not publicly indicated when he intends to surrender ahead of the August 25 deadline imposed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The statement from the Fulton County sheriff’s office addressed the key question of where the former president would be arrested and processed as a criminal defendant.

    “At this point, based on guidance received from the district attorney’s office and presiding judge, it is expected that all 19 defendants named in the indictment will be booked at the Rice Street Jail,” the statement said.

    “Keep in mind, defendants can turn themselves in at any time. The jail is open 24/7,” the news release states. “Also, due to the unprecedented nature of this case, some circumstances may change with little or no warning.”

    Most defendants charged in Fulton County are typically booked at the Fulton County jail. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat previously suggested he wants to treat the defendants charged in the Trump election subversion case the same as any other defendant would be treated.

    “Unless someone tells me differently we will be following normal practices. It doesn’t matter your status we will have mug shots ready for you,” Labat said earlier this month on CNN.

    The sheriff will now have to negotiate with Secret Service and Trump’s attorneys about the logistics of Trump’s surrender. Defendants who are not immediately arrested upon indictment – as was the case for Trump and his associates – usually negotiate bond if applicable, as well as other terms of release with the district attorney’s office.

    Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer who is also charged in the case, said Tuesday on WABC talk radio that he would pick a day next week to surrender to authorities, adding, “There has to be bail, I imagine. Kind of silly for me to have bail, I mean I showed up there voluntarily and testified.”

    The 41-count indictment unsealed Monday night lays out a sweeping investigation led by Willis into some of the most egregious efforts by Trump’s allies to meddle in the 2020 presidential election. It accuses the former president of being the head of a “criminal enterprise” that was part of a broad conspiracy to overturn his electoral defeat in Georgia.

    Charges in the indictment include: False statements to and solicitation of state legislatures; false statements to and solicitation of high-ranking state officials; the creation and distribution of false Electoral College documents; the harassment of election workers; the solicitation of Justice Department officials; the solicitation of then-Vice President Mike Pence; the unlawful breach of election equipment; and acts of obstruction.

    Former Trump lawyers, John Eastman and Giuliani, as well as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, are among the defendants. The indictment also included an additional 30 unindicted co-conspirators in addition to the charged defendants.

    Trump is now facing 91 charges across four separate indictments at the same time that he’s running for president in 2024. He denies any wrongdoing and has slammed the cases as politically motivated.

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  • Pennsylvania police capture escaped prison inmate on the run for over a week | CNN

    Pennsylvania police capture escaped prison inmate on the run for over a week | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Michael Burham, the inmate with survivalist skills who escaped a prison in Pennsylvania, has been captured in a wooded area near Warren after more than a week on the run, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

    A Warren County official told CNN they “are preparing an isolation cell at Warren County Jail” for Burham but do not intend to keep him past Sunday. It is unclear where Burham will be transferred after that.

    Burham broke out of Warren County Prison in northwestern Pennsylvania shortly before midnight on July 6 using tied-up bedsheets and elevating himself on exercise equipment, according to a county spokesperson.

    Authorities described him as a “dangerous” inmate with military experience and survivalist skills after his escape from the 140-capacity facility that holds inmates awaiting trial or who are sentenced to two years or less behind bars.

    During the weeklong search, police found stockpiles of supplies, including clothing, food and other items in a wooded area near the city of Warren that they said they believed were used by Burham, authorities said Thursday.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Former Manson family member Leslie Van Houten released from California prison, official says | CNN

    Former Manson family member Leslie Van Houten released from California prison, official says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Leslie Van Houten, a former Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer, was released from a California prison on Tuesday, a prison spokesperson told CNN.

    Van Houten was released to parole supervision, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said in a statement. She will have a three-year maximum parole term with a parole discharge review occurring after one year, Xjimenez said.

    Van Houten, now in her 70s, was 19 when she met Manson and joined the murderous cult that came to be called the “Manson family.”

    Prior to her release on Tuesday, she was serving concurrent sentences of seven years to life after she was convicted in 1971 for her role in the killings of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, at their Los Angeles home.

    CNN has reached out to Van Houten’s attorney for comment.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Friday announced it would not challenge a state appellate court’s panel ruling in May that opened the possibility of parole for Van Houten, clearing the path to her release.

    “More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal offenses, the victims’ families still feel the impact, as do all Californians. Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten’s parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court,” Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for the governor, said in a statement Friday.

    “The Governor is disappointed by the Court of Appeal’s decision to release Ms. Van Houten but will not pursue further action as efforts to further appeal are unlikely to succeed. The California Supreme Court accepts appeals in very few cases, and generally does not select cases based on this type of fact-specific determination,” the statement added.

    Van Houten and her team were “thrilled” with the announcement, Nancy Tetreault, Van Houten’s attorney, told CNN Friday.

    Following 53 years in custody, Van Houten will participate in a transitional housing program to help her with employment training, teach her how to get a job and support herself, Tetreault told CNN last week.

    “If you think about it, she’s never used an ATM, never had a cell phone,” said Tetreault. The attorney told CNN she and her client have discussed the likelihood of her being overwhelmed as she transitions back to routine daily activities, such as going to the supermarket.

    Following her conviction, Van Houten was sentenced to death, but the death penalty was overturned after California abolished capital punishment, and her sentence was commuted to life in prison. She first became eligible for parole in 1977 and a California parole board panel first recommended her release in 2016 after she made 22 appearances before the board, CNN reported.

    That decision, however, was blocked five times by the state’s governors – twice by former Gov. Jerry Brown, who cited the horrific nature of the murders and Van Houten’s eager participation, and three times by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    In 1994, Van Houten described her part in the killings in a prison interview with CNN’s Larry King.

    “I went in and Mrs. LaBianca was laying on the floor and I stabbed her,” said Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the murders. “In the lower back, around 16 times.”

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  • Alabama death row inmate cannot be executed due to intellectual disability, appeals court rules | CNN

    Alabama death row inmate cannot be executed due to intellectual disability, appeals court rules | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    An appeals court has ruled the state of Alabama cannot execute man with an intellectual disability who was sentenced to death for murdering a man in 1997, upholding a lower court’s decision.

    The US Eleventh Court of Appeals’ decision on Friday means that 53-year-old Joseph Clifton Smith cannot be executed unless the decision is overturned by the US Supreme Court.

    In a statement released after the appeals court decision, Amanda Priest, communications director for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, said, “Smith’s IQ scores have consistently placed his IQ above that of someone who is intellectually disabled. The Attorney General thinks his death sentence was both just and constitutional.”

    “The Attorney General disagrees with the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling, and will seek review from the United States Supreme Court,” the statement concluded

    In 2021, a US District Court judge ruled that due to his intellectual disability, Smith could not “constitutionally be executed,” and vacated his death sentence.

    The judge referenced the district court’s finding that Smith’s “intellectual and adaptive functioning issues clearly arose before he was 18 years of age,” according to the 2021 appeals court ruling, which agreed with the lower court.

    Smith confessed to murdering Durk Van Dam, whose body was found “in an isolated area near his pick-up truck” in Mobile County in southwest Alabama, according to the court’s Friday ruling. Smith “offered two conflicting versions of the crime,” the ruling says – first admitting he watched Van Dam’s murder and then saying he participated but didn’t intend to kill the man.

    The case went to trial and the jury found Smith guilty, the order states. During his sentencing proceedings, Smith’s mother and sister testified that his father was “an abusive alcoholic,” according to the ruling.

    Smith had struggled in school since as early as the first grade, the order says, which led to his teacher labeling him as an “underachiever” before he underwent an “intellectual evaluation,” which gave him an IQ score of 75, the court said. When he was in fourth grade, Smith was tested again and placed in a learning-disability class – at the same time as his parents were going through a divorce, the court said.

    “After that placement, Smith developed an unpredictable temper and often fought with classmates. His behavior became so troublesome that his school placed him in an ‘emotionally conflicted classroom,’” the ruling states.

    Smith then failed the seventh and eighth grades before dropping out of school entirely, the ruling says, and he then spent “much of the next fifteen years in prison” for burglary and receiving stolen property.

    One of the witnesses in Smith’s evidentiary hearing held by the district court to determine whether he has an intellectual disability was Dr. Daniel Reschly, a certified school psychologist, the ruling says.

    The court ultimately determined that Smith “has significant deficits in social/interpersonal skills, self-direction, independent home living, and functional academics,” the ruling says.

    In its conclusion, the appeals court wrote: “We hold that the district court did not clearly err in finding that Smith is intellectually disabled and, as a result, that his sentence violates the Eighth Amendment. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment vacating Smith’s death sentence.”

    “This case is an example of why process is so important in habeas cases and why we should not rush to enforce death sentences—the only form of punishment that can’t be undone,” the office of Smith’s federal public defender said in a statement after the appeals court decision.

    “Originally, this same District Court denied Mr. Smith the opportunity to be heard, and it was an Eleventh Circuit decision that allowed a hearing that created this avenue for relief,” the statement said.

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  • NYC bike path terrorist set to be sentenced to life in prison after avoiding death penalty verdict at trial | CNN

    NYC bike path terrorist set to be sentenced to life in prison after avoiding death penalty verdict at trial | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A terrorist convicted of striking and killing eight people with a rented truck on a New York City bike path in an attack for ISIS is scheduled to be sentenced to serve life in prison Wednesday.

    Sayfullo Saipov effectively learned his sentence in March, when the jury in the penalty phase of his trial in Manhattan federal court told a judge it was unable to reach an undivided decision favoring the death penalty on any of the nine capital counts against him.

    The capital counts each carry a mandatory life imprisonment sentence by law after the jury didn’t unanimously vote for the death penalty.

    Saipov’s case was the first death penalty case under the Biden administration.

    About 25 surviving victims and family members of those killed in the attack are expected to give victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing Wednesday morning, according to court filings.

    Of the eight people killed in the attack, five were from Argentina, two were Americans, and one was from Belgium. The majority of those participating in the Manhattan federal court hearing are traveling from Argentina and Belgium, the prosecutors said in a memo.

    The convicted terrorist will have an opportunity to address the court before he is sentenced, but it is unclear if he will do so.

    On Halloween in 2017, Saipov drove a rented U-Haul truck into cyclists and pedestrians on Manhattan’s West Side bike path, then crashed the vehicle into a school bus, authorities said.

    After leaving the truck while brandishing a pellet gun and paintball gun, he was shot by a New York City Police Department officer and taken into custody, officials said.

    The jury convicted Saipov in January of all 28 counts against him for the fatal attack.

    Those counts included murder in aid of racketeering activity, assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, provision of material support to ISIS, and violence and destruction of a motor vehicle.

    Saipov is expected to serve his life sentence at the Federal Bureau of Prisons ADX facility in Florence, Colorado, in solitary confinement at least 22 hours a day, his attorneys said during trial.

    Federal prosecutors who say Saipov deserves no leniency want District Judge Vernon Broderick to sentence Saipov to the fullest extent of the sentencing guidelines for his 28-count conviction; eight consecutive life sentences, a consecutive term of 260 years’ imprisonment and two concurrent life sentences.

    “Because Saipov deliberately committed the most abhorrent crime imaginable for which he has expressed no remorse, he deserves no leniency. Only the maximum punishment on each count of conviction will reflect the unimaginable harm inflicted and send the appropriate message that terrorist attacks on innocent civilians will be punished as harshly as the law allows,” prosecutors said in a pre-sentencing court filing.

    The harshest sentence, prosecutors wrote, would be “an exercise of such discretion to hold the defendant fully accountable for his crimes, and to send the appropriate message to the defendant, the public, and any others who might contemplate an attack on U.S. soil.”

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  • Border detention facilities reach capacity amid spike in migrants | CNN

    Border detention facilities reach capacity amid spike in migrants | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Detention facilities along the US-Mexico border have surpassed capacity as a growing number of migrants cross into the United States leading up to the May 11 expiration of a Covid-era border restriction known as Title 42, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.

    As of Saturday morning, there were more than 20,500 migrants in US Customs and Border Protection custody along the US southern border, the official said, stressing the number of people in custody fluctuates throughout the day.

    The Rio Grande Valley sector, which encompasses south Texas, had nearly 7,000 migrants in custody as of Saturday morning, the Homeland Security official said. The majority are Venezuelans.

    Officials have seen an uptick in migrants crossing the US-Mexico border in anticipation of the expiration of Title 42, which was invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and has allowed border authorities to quickly expel certain migrants. There have been around 7,000 daily encounters on the US southern border in recent days, a number expected to rise in the coming weeks.

    Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley sector, is dealing with a surge of migrants.

    “I want to say the first two weeks of April, we were averaging about maybe 1,700 Venezuelan nationals entering illegally into the country through that particular area in Brownsville,” said Gloria Chavez, Border Patrol Chief for the Rio Grande Valley Sector. “And then two weeks later, towards the end, here the last eight days, we saw an uptick of over 15,000 Venezuelans.”

    Chavez said the Border Patrol’s holding capacity in the Rio Grande Valley is about 4,000, and Friday afternoon, about 7,500 migrants were in custody.

    Chavez added Title 42 is still in place and her agents will be applying the order.

    On May 11, when the nation’s coronavirus public health emergency ends, the Covid-era border restriction known as Title 42 is also expected to expire, meaning border authorities will no longer be able to quickly expel certain migrants south of the border.

    Instead, US immigration authorities will return to decades-old protocols at a time of unprecedented mass migration in the Western hemisphere, raising concerns within the Biden administration about a surge in the immediate aftermath of Title 42 lifting.

    Behind the scenes, administration officials have been racing to set up new policies to stem the flow of migration, but even with those put in place, officials recognize they could face an overwhelming number of people at the border who have been anticipating the end of Title 42, which has been the primary enforcement tool since 2020.

    A senior Customs and Border Protection official told CNN the agency estimates “several thousand” migrants are waiting in northern Mexico to cross the border. El Paso, Texas – which Biden visited in January – and the Rio Grande Valley are among the areas expected to see an influx of migrants, officials said.

    The return to traditional protocols includes restoring legal consequences for migrants who try to repeatedly cross the US-Mexico border, which officials expect may deter crossers. Under Title 42, the number of repeat crossers shot up amid little to no consequence.

    The administration is also setting other plans in motion to try to manage the flow of migration, including rolling out a new rule, which would largely bar migrants who traveled through other countries on their way to the US-Mexico border from applying for asylum in the US, restarting a policy to expedite asylum screenings, and assigning more US Citizenship and Immigration Service employees to help interview migrants who ask for asylum.

    Still, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said this week the department is preparing for what he described as a challenging few weeks ahead when the Title 42 authority lifts and as smugglers distribute misinformation to migrants.

    The City of Brownsville has declared a state of emergency due to the recent influx of migrants, according to city Commissioner for District 1, Nurith Galonsky Pizana.

    “On April 27, as mayor pro tem I signed a disaster declaration. These migrants who are making their way through Brownsville, they are not here to stay. They have a final destination outside of Brownsville and we will manage this with due process as these individuals seek asylum and eventually move on to their final destination,” Galonsky Pizana said during a news conference.

    Many of the Venezuelans who have crossed into Brownsville illegally had been waiting across the border in Matamoros, Mexico, and have been trying to get appointments through the CBP One app, Chavez said.

    The application allows migrants to get appointments to enter the US legally through a port of entry under an exception to Title 42. But appointments are hard to come by and migrants are apparently losing patience.

    Chavez said the Border Patrol is using decompression measures to help manage the influx. Decompression is a term used by Border Patrol when migrants are transported from a sector at capacity to a sector with processing space.

    “We are in partnership with the Laredo Border Patrol and the Del Rio Border Patrol. They are absorbing buses that are going now to Laredo and buses that are going to Eagle Pass, which is part of the Del Rio Sector. Those are on a daily basis and we are continuing to decompress as quickly as possible,” Chavez said.

    Chavez said so far this year, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley have encountered migrants from 72 nationalities, including a recent uptick in Chinese nationals.

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  • Death row inmate Richard Glossip has a parole board hearing Wednesday and the attorney general is asking for clemency | CNN

    Death row inmate Richard Glossip has a parole board hearing Wednesday and the attorney general is asking for clemency | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    In an unprecedented move, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond will recommend clemency for Richard Glossip, who is set to be executed on May 18 on a capital murder charge.

    In a letter to the state’s Pardon and Parole Board – which will meet Wednesday – Drummond wrote, “For there to be public faith in our criminal justice system, it is incumbent on me as the State’s chief law enforcement officer to not ignore evidence and facts.”

    The state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board will decide the fate of Glossip, who has spent more than 24 years on death row and had three reprieves or stays of execution. In another unusual move, the attorney general will attend the hearing, according to his office.

    “I am not aware of an Oklahoma Attorney General ever supporting a clemency application for a death row inmate,” Drummond wrote in the letter dated Monday. “In every previous case that has come before this board, the state has maintained full confidence in the integrity of the conviction. That is simply not the case in this matter due to the material evidence that was not disclosed to the jury.”

    Glossip, a former motel manager, was convicted of murder for ordering the killing of his boss, Barry Van Treese, in 1997.

    Another employee, then-19-year-old Justin Sneed, admitted to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat at the Oklahoma City motel. But in 1998, prosecutors told jurors Sneed killed Van Treese in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Glossip. Sneed received a life in prison sentence in exchange for his testimony as the key witness.

    Glossip, 60, has insisted he was not involved in the killing of Van Treese.

    Drummond, a Republican who took office in January, also cited in his letter the results of a recent special investigation he commissioned, writing the findings were “troubling.”

    Among the evidence included in the special counsel report was paperwork showing Sneed wanted to recant his testimony, writing to his attorney: “There are a lot of things right now that are eating at me. Somethings I need to clean up.”

    The report concluded Glossip’s murder conviction should be vacated and that he be granted a new trial.

    The attorney general wrote in his letter he believes the evidence shows Glossip is guilty of accessory after the fact and that he might be guilty of murder, but the current record doesn’t support that he is guilty of that crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

    In a separate clemency request filing, Glossip’s defense team writes, “Richard Glossip is an innocent man who has been the victim of a massive breakdown in the justice system that would have been disturbing had it occurred even in a minor case … This Board should recommend that he be allowed to live.”

    Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Kim Kardashian tweeted support for Glossip’s case, urging her followers to call the state’s Pardon and Parole Board and Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. Kardashian is not working alongside Glossip’s defense team.

    Three years after Glossip was first convicted of capital murder the decision was overturned because of ineffective defense counsel. He was again convicted in 2004 and again sentenced to death.

    In 2015, Glossip was more than an hour past his execution time when then-Republican Gov. Mary Fallin issued a stay based on the constitutionality of the state’s execution protocols.

    His execution date has been scheduled nine times.

    On April 6, the attorney general asked the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Glossip’s conviction and the case to be returned to the district court. But in a 5-0 decision last week, the judges denied all requests.

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  • Former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter released from prison after serving time for deadly shooting of Daunte Wright | CNN

    Former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter released from prison after serving time for deadly shooting of Daunte Wright | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Former Minnesota officer Kimberly Potter has been released from prison after serving 16 months of a two-year sentence in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, whom she shot after mistaking her gun for a Taser during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

    Potter was released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee at 4 a.m. on Monday, the department said, noting the early hour was due to safety concerns and the potential for violent protests outside the facility.

    Potter was convicted of two counts of manslaughter in the killing of 20-year-old Wright, an unarmed Black man, during a 2021 traffic stop near Minneapolis. Wright was pulled over for having expired tags and for a hanging air freshener.

    Potter will be on supervised release for the remaining third of her sentence, in accordance with Minnesota law, which doesn’t provide time off for good behavior, the corrections department said. Potter’s supervised release expires in December.

    Potter’s attorney, Earl Gray, told CNN the former officer with 26 years of experience has no plans to return to Minnesota and will live in Wisconsin.

    Wright’s mother, Katie, said she was “dreading” Potter’s release and is struggling to find peace. She said she suffered a stroke that left her temporarily with blurred vision following the stress of Potter’s trial and conviction.

    “Some say I should forgive to be at peace but how can I? I am so angry. She is going to be able to watch her kids have kids and be able to touch them,” Katie Wright told CNN. “I am always scared I am going to forget my son’s voice. It gave us some sense of peace knowing she would not be able to hold her sons. She has two. I can’t hold my son.”

    She said Potter not being able to serve as a police officer again, due in part to her conviction, has given her “a sense of peace.”

    “She will never be able to hurt anybody as a police officer again,” Katie Wright said. “That is the only sense of peace we get as a family.”

    Potter wept when she testified during her 2021 trial, apologizing and insisting she “didn’t want to hurt anybody.”

    “I was very distraught. I just shot somebody. I’m sorry it happened,” Potter cried as a prosecutor asked her about her behavior moments after the fatal shooting. Potter testified she had been trained with a Taser since 2002 and testified she received a new model days before the April 11, 2021 shooting.

    The city of Brooklyn Center agreed to pay a $3.25 million settlement to the family of Daunte Wright in June 2022. The Wright family said the payment still has not been distributed due to other unrelated legal disputes but they are “hopeful” to receive payment in the next 90 days.

    Part of the settlement agreement requires Brooklyn Center Police officers undergo implicit bias training. The city’s newly elected mayor, April Graves, confirmed that training still hasn’t happened, though, she says, it’s in the works.

    Wright was killed just as the high-profile trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was ultimately convicted of murdering George Floyd, was underway only about 10 miles away. Floyd’s death spurred outrage across the country with protests in many major cities – as well as some international locales – to decry police brutality and racial injustice.

    Soon after Wright’s death, the Brooklyn Center City Council approved “The Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution,” which said the city would create an unarmed department to handle “all incidents where a city resident is primarily experiencing a medical, mental health, disability-related, or other behavioral or social need.”

    The resolution, which passed in 2021, was also named after Kobe Dimock-Heisler, a 21-year-old man living with autism, was also killed by Brooklyn Center Police after his family called 911 for help in 2019.

    The measure also said officers would not be able to make arrests or conduct searches for many lower-level offenses, including stops for non-moving traffic infractions.

    It was introduced by the city’s former mayor, Mike Elliott.

    “It was easy to get it passed but we still haven’t implemented anything and here we are two years later,” Katie Wright said. “It is roadblock after roadblock.”

    Mayor Graves told CNN the city is moving forward but “not as fast” as some in the community would like. She said the resolution “was crafted and written by the former mayor without the input of any staff or council members.”

    Daunte Wright

    Graves, who was a city council member when the resolution passed in 2021, said the city council, which now has two new members since the killing of Wright, will vote on new recommendations for the policy changes in May. She added that last year the city held two town halls on policy recommendations. Another town hall was held Saturday.

    “There were some things within that resolution that just weren’t feasible,” Graves said, noting they only have about 35,000 residents and while they have “big city problems,” the council is working with a “small city budget.”

    “Creating three new departments was just not conceivable,” Graves added. “One of those departments that he called for was around a department of violence prevention or something along those lines. Our new office of community prevention, health and safety is aligned with those things.”

    Meanwhile, Graves said if the proposed traffic stop changes and consent searches are approved by the city council, officers would not be allowed to pull people over solely for minor traffic offenses, like invalid or expired registration, excessive window tints, and broken headlights or tail lights. She also said the current recommendations allow officers to pull someone over if a minor traffic offense could lead to serious damage.

    “I think if we’re able to actually vote on and approve these recommendations around consent searches and pre-emptive stops … it would bring down the likelihood of having these issues come up again,” Graves said, adding “community feedback is important.”

    In the last 18 months, Graves said the city has seen turnover in the police department and other city offices. The department, now led by its first Black chief, Kellace McDaniel, has 42 sworn police officers on patrol. Graves said the department is fully staffed at 49 officers. The city also “lost six out of seven department directors” but was able to rehire for those roles, including an equity and human resources director, Graves said.

    “When I first started, it was difficult to even have a resolution around racial equity but now, we have funding and staff trying to do that work internally and externally with the community,” Graves said. “I see definite changes. Government is slow. There’s definitely still a lot of obstacles, people’s fear and misunderstanding and, yes, bias getting in the way, but I think we have the right people in place to keep it moving forward.”

    Katie Wright and her husband, Aubrey, say they will continue to push for change. A red urn holding their son’s ashes sits above a fireplace in their living room.

    “Changing traffic stops is the only thing that is going to keep people safe. We need it in every city,” Katie Wright said. “I am not going to be quiet.”

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  • Supreme Court clears way for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to try to use DNA to prove innocence | CNN Politics

    Supreme Court clears way for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to try to use DNA to prove innocence | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The Supreme Court cleared the way on Wednesday for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to seek post-conviction DNA evidence to try to prove his innocence.

    Reed claims an all-White jury wrongly convicted him of killing of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old White woman, in Texas in 1998.

    Texas had argued that he had waited too long to bring his challenge to the state’s DNA procedures in federal court, but the Supreme Court disagreed. Now, he can go to a federal court to make his claim.

    The ruling was 6-3. Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the court and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

    Since Reed’s conviction, Texas courts had rejected his various appeals. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Rihanna have expressed support, signing a petition asking the state to halt his eventual execution.

    The case puts a new focus on the testing of DNA crime-scene evidence and when an inmate can make a claim to access the technology in a plea of innocence. To date, 375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row, according to the Innocence Project, a group that represents Reed and other clients seeking post-conviction DNA testing to prove their innocence.

    Kavanaugh, in his opinion Wednesday, said that the court agreed to hear the case because federal appeals courts have disagreed about when inmates can make such claims without running afoul of the statute of limitations. Kavanaugh said Reed could make the claim after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately denied his request for rehearing, rejecting an earlier date set out by the appeals court.

    “Significant systemic benefits ensue from starting the statute of limitations clock when the state litigation in DNA testing cases like Reed’s has concluded,” Kavanaugh said.

    He noted that if any problems with a defendant’s right to due process “lurk in the DNA testing law” the case can proceed through the appellate process, which could ultimately render a federal lawsuit unnecessary.

    Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

    Alito, joined by Gorsuch in his dissent, said Reed should have acted more quickly to bring his appeal. “Instead,” Alito wrote, “he waited until an execution date was set.”

    Alito charged Reed with making the “basic mistake of missing a statute of limitations.”

    Reed has been on death row for the murder of Stites.

    A passerby found Stites’ body near a shirt and a torn piece of belt. Investigators targeted Reed because his sperm was found inside her. Reed acknowledged the two were having an affair, but says that her fiancé, a local police officer named Jimmy Fennell, was the last to see her alive.

    Reed claims that over the last two decades he has discovered a “considerable body of evidence” demonstrating his innocence. Reed claims that the DNA testing would point to Fennell as the murder suspect. Fennell was later jailed for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody and Reed claims that numerous witnesses said he had threatened to strangle Stites with a belt if he ever caught her cheating on him. Reed seeks to test the belt found at the scene that was used to strangle Stites.

    The Texas law at issue allows a convicted person to obtain post-conviction DNA testing of biological material if the court finds that certain conditions are met. Reed was denied. He came to the Supreme Court in 2018 and was denied again. Now he is challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law arguing that the denial of the DNA testing violates his due process rights. 

    But the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals held that he waited too long to bring the claim. “An injury accrues when a plaintiff first becomes aware, or should have become aware, that his right had been violated.” The court said that he became aware of that in 2014 and that his current claim is “time barred.” 

    Reed’s lawyers argued that he could only bring the claim once the state appeals court had ruled, at the end of state court litigation. In court, Parker Rider-Longmaid said that the “clock doesn’t start ticking” until state court proceedings come to an end. He said Texas’ reading of the law would mean that other procedures in the appellate process are “irrelevant.”

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Murder charge dropped against co-defendant in case of killer accused of faking his own death in South Africa | CNN

    Murder charge dropped against co-defendant in case of killer accused of faking his own death in South Africa | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    South African prosecutors have dropped a murder charge against Zolile Sekeleni, the father of the girlfriend of high-profile convicted murderer Thabo Bester, who is accused of escaping from a South African prison after faking his own death in a fire, officials told CNN Monday.

    Sekeleni’s daughter, Nandipha Magudumana, a prominent medical doctor and personality in South Africa was arrested on April 7 while on the run in Tanzania with Bester.

    Dubbed “The Facebook rapist” in South Africa, Bester was serving a life sentence for the murder and rape of a model in 2012.

    Bester, 35, allegedly faked his death by placing the charred remains of another man in his prison cell, officials said.

    The couple were arrested with a Mozambican national by Tanzanian authorities last week in the border town of Arusha after fleeing South Africa and was subsequently deported to South Africa.

    Magudumana’s father Sekeleni, 65, was arrested on April 8 alongside a former prison warden and a former security camera technician, with the trio accused of being accomplices in Bester’s escape, according to the police and prosecutors.

    He had initially been charged with “defeating the ends of justice, fraud, murder, and arson,” but that has now been dropped, a spokesperson for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Phaladi Shuping, told CNN.

    A murder investigation by authorities had earlier concluded that the burned body found in Bester’s cell had died before the fire began.

    An autopsy report also found that the deceased had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.

    Shuping said the murder charge was dropped in light of new evidence, but added Sekeleni, a former educator, would face other charges.

    “The state will no longer be proceeding with a charge of murder against Zolile Sekeleni because new evidence came forth, which made us take this decision. He will still face charges of assisting an inmate to escape, defeating the ends of justice and fraud,” NPA spokesperson Shuping said.

    He added that “Sekeleni was released on bail of R10,000 ($550) due to compelling circumstances that were considered by the prosecution, relating to his health.”

    Sekeleni will make another appearance in court on May 16, while a bail hearing for his daughter Magudumana as well as other accused will be held early next month.

    CNN has reached out to his and Magudumana’s lawyer for comment.

    Magudumana was charged with murder and fraud, including aiding and abetting Bester’s escape.

    According to police, he faces new charges of escaping from lawful custody, defeating the ends of justice, violation of a dead body and fraud.

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  • Fulton County, Georgia, jail leadership resigns after inmate’s death and accusations of unsanitary conditions | CNN

    Fulton County, Georgia, jail leadership resigns after inmate’s death and accusations of unsanitary conditions | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Three officials at the Fulton County, Georgia, jail have stepped down amid an investigation into the death of an inmate whose family said was housed in a filthy, bug-infested cell that “was not fit for a diseased animal.”

    The Fulton County Jail’s chief jailer and two assistant chief jailers submitted their resignations at the request of Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat during an executive staff meeting over the weekend, a statement from the sheriff’s office said without naming them.

    “It’s clear to me that it’s time, past time, to clean house,” Labat said in the Monday statement announcing “sweeping changes” at the facility.

    The resignations come as the family of Lashawn Thompson demands a criminal investigation into his September 2022 death at the jail in Atlanta and for a new facility to be built.

    Thompson’s family said his death was the result of unsanitary conditions at the jail and complications from insect bites. “The cell he was in was not fit for a diseased animal. This is inexcusable and it’s deplorable,” family attorney Michael Harper said at a news conference last week while holding photos that purportedly showed the conditions of Thompson’s jail cell.

    “The manner and cause of death was listed as ‘undetermined’ by the county medical examiner. A full investigation was launched into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Thompson’s death,” the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday.

    Due to health privacy regulations, the sheriff’s office couldn’t share any information about Thompson’s health condition when he was arrested, “or what decisions he made regarding his right to accept or refuse medical care,” the statement said.

    Labat asked for the jail officials’ resignations after reviewing preliminary evidence gathered during the internal investigation, he said in the Monday statement.

    “Collectively, the executive team that’s been in place has more than 65 years of jail administration and law enforcement experience. When leveraged at its very best, that experience can be invaluable. However, it can also lend itself to complacency, stagnation & settling for the status quo,” the statement read.

    Additionally, the sheriff’s office is “reviewing all legal options to change medical vendors and enter into a new contract with a provider that can effectively, consistently and compassionately deliver the best standard of care,” the statement said.

    On Friday, the sheriff’s office said “several immediate actions” had already been taken, including a $500,000 emergency expense “to address the infestation of bed bugs, lice and other vermin” within the jail. A process to transfer more than 600 inmates to other counties “in an effort to help relieve overcrowding, at an average cost of approximately $40K/day,” had also begun, the sheriff’s office said.

    Thompson had been at the jail for about three months prior to his death and was housed in the psychiatric wing because he suffered from mental health issues, Harper, the family attorney said. He was being held on a misdemeanor assault charge.

    The 35-year-old was born in Winter Haven, Florida, and had been living in Atlanta off and on in recent years, his brother, Brad McCrae, said at the news conference. Thompson loved listening to music and cooking, McCrae said.

    When asked by a reporter what he thought when he saw images of his brother’s body and the conditions of his cell, McCrae said, “It was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. Nobody should see that. But the first thing that entered my mind was Emmett Till.”

    The internal Office of Professional Standards investigation and one being conducted by the Atlanta Police Department, which was the responding agency, are underway, the sheriff’s office said Monday. “Once those investigations are completed, the full investigative package will be handed over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations for review,” the statement read.

    “The final investigative report will not ease the family’s grief or bring their loved one back, but it is my hope and expectation that it provides a full, accurate and transparent account of the facts surrounding Mr. Thompson’s death so that it provides all of the answers they are seeking and deserve,” Labat said in the statement.

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  • He was free for 2 years. Now Crosley Green is back in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit | CNN

    He was free for 2 years. Now Crosley Green is back in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Florida man who served three decades behind bars for a murder he says he didn’t commit returned to prison Monday after spending the past two years building a life outside prison walls.

    Since his conditional release in 2021 amid appeals, Crosley Green, 65, had held a job at a machine grafting facility, attended church and spent time with his grandchildren. He even fell in love.

    “I’ve been with this man for two years,” his fiancée, Kathy Spikes, told CNN. “To not be able to have a 5 o’clock phone call to say, ‘I’m home,’ for me to say, ‘What do you want for dinner,’ that’s what I’m anxious about.”

    His return to prison came about two weeks after US District Judge Roy Dalton ruled he must turn himself in to the authorities by April 17 to resume his life sentence.

    Green surrendered to Florida’s Department of Corrections at 5 p.m. Monday, according to his attorneys. He was accompanied by Spikes, family members and his lawyers Keith Harrison and Jeane Thomas, who have represented him pro bono for 15 years.

    Green was allowed to leave prison on conditional release in 2021, about three years after a federal court in Orlando overturned his conviction. The state of Florida appealed that decision and won last year, and Green’s conviction was reinstated. Dalton allowed Green to remain free while he exhausted his legal options. Green’s legal team petitioned the US Supreme Court, but in late February the court declined to hear his case.

    “I can’t be angry at no one,” Green told CNN. “I don’t want no one else to be angry at no one. Anger isn’t going to take you nowhere. Ain’t going to do (anything) but harm you. I’m happy. I’m not happy about going back. I’ve got my future wife, I’ve got my friends that came up here with me. I’ve got my family.”

    Green was convicted in the 1989 shooting death of 21-year-old Charles Flynn. Green, who is Black, was sentenced to death by an all-White jury, then resentenced to life in prison in 2009 due to a technicality related to the sentencing phase of his trial.

    In 2018, Judge Dalton ruled prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence that police at one point suspected someone else was the shooter. But late last year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and reinstated Green’s conviction, saying the withheld evidence was not material to the case.

    Green’s only options for remaining out of prison now are clemency or parole, according to his legal team.

    “We think he’s an outstanding candidate for parole,” Thomas said. “He’s demonstrated that in the last two years he’s been under supervised release. He’s been an incredibly successful person on the outside with his work, his church and his family.”

    Thomas has pointed out that clemency is not the same as exoneration. She says it is just a mechanism through which the state decides someone has served enough time behind bars to be released.

    Since his release, Green has worn an ankle monitor and been “a model citizen,” according to Thomas.

    “For 15 years now, we have believed wholeheartedly, 100 percent in the innocence of our client,” Thomas said. “As lawyers, we have to believe that the justice system will get it right. We’re going to keep fighting. This is a grave injustice. And we just believe that eventually we will get it right.”

    Despite the latest ruling, Green remains optimistic in his fight to prove his innocence. In a statement shared by his lawyers with CNN, he said, “To me, it’s just another part of what I’m going through now to get my freedom. That’s all it is.”

    He further attributed his perseverance to his faith in comments to CNN.

    “If everyone can just believe in themselves the way I believe in myself, with the Lord, then you can understand and say the things that I can say by not letting anything come between you and your faith,” he said.

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  • New York man sentenced to life in prison for ordering murder-for-hire hit on his brother and mob-linked father | CNN

    New York man sentenced to life in prison for ordering murder-for-hire hit on his brother and mob-linked father | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A man convicted for ordering a murder-for-hire hit on his brother and Mafia-associated father in the Bronx, New York was sentenced to life in prison Friday, federal prosecutors said.

    Anthony Zottola Sr., 45, and co-conspirator Himen Ross, 37, were each sentenced to mandatory life sentences plus 112 years in federal prison after a jury found them guilty in 2022 of hiring gang members to murder Zottola’s 71-year-old father, Sylvester, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Sylvester Zottola was fatally shot in October 2018 as he waited for a cup of coffee at a McDonald’s drive-thru, authorities said.

    Federal prosecutors say the shooting was the third attempt on Sylvester Zottola’s life as part of his son’s scheme to take control of the family’s real-estate business. Prosecutors had previously said Sylvester Zottola was an associate of the Luchese family, one of the five mob families that historically dominated New York, and worked with another known mobster, Vincent Basciano.

    In November 2017, Sylvester Zottola was menaced at gunpoint by a masked person, and in December 2017, three men invaded his home, struck him on the head with a gun, stabbed him and slashed his throat. He survived the first two attempts on his life, prosecutors said.

    In the final murder attempt – which led to Sylvester Zottola’s death – a tracking device had been placed on his car that allowed Ross, who carried out the shooting, to track him to the McDonald’s restaurant, prosecutors said.

    “Over the course of more than a year, the elderly victim, Sylvester Zottola, was stalked, beaten, and stabbed, never knowing who orchestrated the attacks. It was his own son, who was so determined to control the family’s lucrative real estate business, that he hired a gang of hit men to murder his father,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “For sentencing his father to a violent death, Anthony Zottola and his co-defendant will spend the rest of their lives in prison.”

    Separately, the defendant’s brother, Salvatore Zottola, was shot in the head, chest and hand in front of his home in July 2018, authorities said. He survived the attack and testified at the trial, CNN previously reported.

    One of Anthony Zottola’s attorneys previously placed blame for the attacks on the Bloods gang.

    “A violent street gang preyed upon Anthony and his family and caused their tragic ruin. We will appeal this verdict to prevent Anthony from becoming another victim of the Bloods gang. He is not guilty of these violent crimes,” defense attorney Henry E. Mazurek said in October.

    Sylvester Zottola held a residential real estate portfolio valued at tens of millions of dollars, and prosecutors said Anthony Zottola, who helped manage the properties, plotted to kill his father and brother to take control of the business.

    The additional 112 years of imprisonment added to Zottola and Ross’ sentences represents the combined ages of Zottola’s father, 71, and brother, 41, when they were shot, the US Attorney’s Office said.

    Ilana Haramati, another of Zottola’s attorneys, said her client will “vigorously pursue an appeal to vindicate his innocence.”

    “Anthony Zottola is a loving father and husband,” Haramati told CNN Saturday. “His sentence to death by incarceration will only compound the trauma that the Zottola family has already suffered.”

    Lawyers for Ross have not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment.

    Six other defendants have pleaded guilty for their roles in the murder-for-hire conspiracy, the US Attorney’s Office said.

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  • 600-plus inmates to be transferred as Fulton County, Georgia, jail deals with overcrowding and outbreak of bedbugs and vermin | CNN

    600-plus inmates to be transferred as Fulton County, Georgia, jail deals with overcrowding and outbreak of bedbugs and vermin | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Fulton County, Georgia, Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat on Friday announced measures “to address an outbreak of infectious illnesses” at the county jail – including moving more than 600 inmates to other counties, a statement said.

    The measures are the result of a “preliminary investigation” into the death of Lashawn Thompson – an incarcerated man who died in the jail last year, the announcement posted on Facebook said. Thompson’s family says his death was the result of unsanitary conditions at the facility and complications from insect bites, CNN has reported.

    The sheriff said Friday that “an emergency expenditure of $500,000” has been approved to address the jail’s “infestation of bed bugs, lice and other vermin.”

    The sheriff said protocols for security rounds will also be updated to help mitigate the outbreak as well as “transferring more than 600 inmates to other counties in an effort to help relieve overcrowding, at an average cost of approximately $40K/day.”

    It’s unclear where or when the incarcerated persons will be moved.

    The announcement began with the sheriff’s office expressing condolences to Thompson’s family and saying the sheriff has launched “a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.”

    Lashawn Thompson in a family photo.

    On Thursday, Thompson’s family held a news conference to demand a criminal investigation into his death and for the jail to be closed.

    Thompson died while in custody last September. His family’s attorney, Michael Harper, blamed unsanitary conditions and complications from insect bites for Thompson’s death.

    Holding up photos purporting to show conditions in Thompson’s jail cell, Harper said, “The cell he was in was not fit for a diseased animal. This is inexcusable and it’s deplorable.”

    Harper said that Thompson had been in custody on a misdemeanor assault charge since June of 2022 and was housed in the psychiatric wing of the jail because he suffered from mental health issues.

    Brad McCrae, Thompson’s brother, told reporters Thompson was 35 years old, was born in Winter Haven, Florida, and had been living in Atlanta on and off over the last couple of years.

    When asked by a reporter what he thought when he saw images of his brother’s body and the conditions of his cell, McCrae said, “It was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. Nobody should see that. But the first thing that entered my mind was Emmett Till.”

    The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday, “The manner and cause of death was listed as ‘undetermined’ by the county medical examiner. A full investigation was launched into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Thompson’s death.”

    The statement went on to say that the results of that investigation would determine if any criminal investigation is warranted.

    The sheriff’s statement acknowledged the “dilapidated and rapidly eroding conditions” at the jail and said that Labat continues to call for the building of a new jail.

    The family has not filed a lawsuit at this time.

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  • Ex-cop, a former prison cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein, convicted for murdering 4 men | CNN

    Ex-cop, a former prison cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein, convicted for murdering 4 men | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A former New York police officer and cellmate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found guilty Thursday of killing four men in 2015, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced.

    Nicholas Tartaglione, who is described by US Attorney Damien Williams as “a former police officer-turned drug dealer,” faces a possible life sentence in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of killing Martin Luna, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago and Hector Gutierrez, according to a Thursday news release.

    In 2015, Tartaglione suspected Martin Luna had stolen money from him and planned to confront him during an in-person meeting, to which Martin brought along his nephews, Miguel Luna and Urbano and his family friend Gutierrez, the release said. But the meeting was a “deadly trap,” according to Williams, and the events that came thereafter “could only be described as pure terror.”

    Tartaglione tortured Martin and then forced one of Martin’s nephews to watch as he strangled him to death with a zip-tie, according to the US Attorney’s Office statement.

    The former officer and two of his associates then brought Miguel Luna, Urbano and Gutierrez to a remote wooded location, forced them to kneel and fatally shot them in the back of the head before burying their bodies in a mass grave, the release said.

    The three men were “simply at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Williams said.

    The four bodies were found in December 2016 on a property belonging to Tartaglione, located about an hour north of New York City, according to the Chester Police Department.

    Tartaglione pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment charging him with the four murders and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, CNN previously reported.

    Lawyers for Tartaglione have not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

    “Tartaglione’s heinous acts represent a broader betrayal, as he was a former police officer who once swore to protect the very community he devastated,” Williams said in a statement.

    Tartaglione shared a prison cell with Epstein at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City and had been moved before Epstein’s suicide in August 2019, CNN previously reported.

    The former officer was one of the first people FBI agents sought to interview after Epstein, 66, was found dead in the special housing unit of the prison. Epstein was awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of operating a sex trafficking ring from 2002 to 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and his Palm Beach estate in which he paid girls as young as 14 for sex.

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  • Death row inmate Richard Glossip’s murder conviction could be vacated after he avoided execution 3 times | CNN

    Death row inmate Richard Glossip’s murder conviction could be vacated after he avoided execution 3 times | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Oklahoma’s attorney general is asking for a new trial in the case of death row inmate Richard Glossip, who has spent a quarter of a century in prison for the death of his boss in 1997.

    “While the State has previously opposed relief for Glossip, it has changed its position based on a careful review of the new information that has come to light,” Attorney General Gentner F. Drummond wrote in a motion filed Thursday in an Oklahoma appeals court.

    The request was made after a special counsel report released Thursday recommended Glossip’s capital murder conviction be vacated and that he be granted a new trial.

    Glossip, 60, has insisted he was not involved in the killing of his boss, Barry Van Treese. He has narrowly avoided death three times, as previous execution dates ended with reprieves or stays of execution.

    It’s now up to the Oklahoma Court of Appeals to decide whether to grant or deny the request for a new trial. Glossip is currently scheduled to be executed on May 18.

    Glossip, a former motel manager, has been behind bars for 26 years. He was convicted of capital murder for ordering the killing of Van Treese.

    Another employee, then-19-year-old Justin Sneed, admitted to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat in Oklahoma City. But prosecutors told jurors Sneed killed Van Treese in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Glossip.

    Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Glossip.

    But recently revealed evidence proves Glossip’s innocence, his defense team says.

    “It is now clear that it would be unconscionable for the State to move forward with Mr. Glossip’s execution when there is so much doubt surrounding his conviction,” Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said in a statement Thursday.

    “We thank (Attorney) General Drummond for his courageous decision to take a deeper look at this difficult case and urge the Court of Criminal Appeals to quickly grant the Attorney General’s request and remand Mr. Glossip’s case to the trial court for further proceedings,” Knight added.

    The international law firm Reed Smith spent more than 3,000 pro bono hours investigating Glossip’s case and published a 343-page report last year, commissioned by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers.

    The independent investigation “revealed the state’s intentional destruction of evidence before trial and an inadequate police investigation,” Reed Smith said.

    The law firm and Glossip’s attorney have since uncovered more evidence, including letters Sneed wrote in prison. The letters are part of an amendment to Reed Smith’s initial report.

    In one letter to his attorney, Sneed wrote in part, “There are a lot of things right now that are eating at me. Somethings I need to clean up.”

    In another letter, Sneed wrote, “Do I have the choice of recanting my testimony at any time during my life …”

    In a separate letter shown to CNN, Sneed’s public defender responded to one of his letters saying, “I can tell by the tone of your letter that some things are bothering you … Had you refused (to testify against Glossip) you would most likely be on death row right now.”

    The Oklahoma County public defender’s office, responsible for Sneed’s attorney at the time, has declined to comment.

    “We always suspected that Justin Sneed really wanted to, at some point, tell the truth,” said Knight, Glossip’s attorney. “But from those papers, we could tell that even though he was trying to, his lawyer at the time was telling him, ‘Don’t do it.’”

    Drummond, the attorney general, said in a Thursday news release he “cannot stand behind the murder conviction and death sentence” of Glossip.

    “This is not to say I believe he is innocent. However, it is critical that Oklahomans have absolute faith that the death penalty is administered fairly and with certainty,” Drummond said. “Considering everything I know about this case, I do not believe that justice is served by executing a man based on the testimony of a compromised witness.”

    Glossip has been on the verge of execution three times before, even being served three separate last meals, Knight told CNN earlier this year.

    Richard Glossip's attorney, Don Knight, hands over documents inside the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in July 2022 as he files for a new hearing for his client.

    He was first convicted of capital murder and sentenced in 1998, but that was overturned in 2001 because of ineffective defense counsel.

    He was convicted again in 2004 and again sentenced to death. That year, Glossip was more than an hour past his execution time when the governor issued a stay based on the constitutionality of the state’s execution protocols.

    Glossip’s decades on death row have been punctuated by a spate of reprieves and stays of execution.

    In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Glossip said he’s still anxious as each execution date nears.

    “It’s still scary, it will always be scary until they finally open this door and let me go, or remove this from over my head completely, so I don’t have to worry about, ‘Are they going to kill me next month? Or the month after that? When does time finally run out?’”

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  • Oscar Pistorius denied parole | CNN

    Oscar Pistorius denied parole | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Disgraced South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius was denied parole on Friday, according to local authorities who said he has yet to complete his minimum sentence.

    According to South African law, inmates can be considered for parole after serving half of their sentence if they meet conditions, like good behavior in prison.

    The former Olympic sprinter shot his partner Reeva Steenkamp four times through the bathroom door of his house in 2013, denying that he killed her in a fit of anger and saying instead he had mistaken her for an intruder. He was originally sentenced to 13 years and five months imprisonment.

    A spokesperson for South Africa’s Correctional Services, Singabakho Nxumalo, told CNN that Pistorius’ submission for parole was not granted because he was not yet eligible – an issue clarified by the country’s top appeals court earlier this week.

    “The parole board has granted Mr. Pistorius a further profile for August 2024 and the reason behind that is that Mr. Pistorius is yet to serve a minimum detention period as per the clarification order provided by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which was only provided to the department on the 28th of March 2023,” Nxumalo said.

    Pistorius must now continue to serve his sentence until a new parole hearing in August 2024.

    The parole board’s decision was quickly hailed by Steenkamp’s parents, who had opposed an early release, according to their lawyer.

    “While we welcome today’s decision, today is not a cause for celebration. We miss Reeva terribly and will do so for the rest of our lives. We believe in justice and hope that it continues to prevail,” their lawyer Tania Koen told CNN.

    In 2018, the athlete’s father Henke Pistorius told the UK’s Times newspaper that he ran bible classes and prayer groups for prisoners, including the jail’s most feared gang leader.

    To be eligible for parole, Pistorius had to participate in South Africa’s “Restorative Justice” process, which gives offenders the opportunity to “acknowledge and take responsibility for their actions.”

    The athlete – once feted as an inspirational figure after competing in the 2012 Olympics – became the center of a trial that was followed around the world.

    During the trial, Pistorius pleaded not guilty to one charge of murder and a firearms charge associated with Steenkamp’s killing.

    Prosecutors argued her killing was deliberate and that the shooting happened after the couple had an argument.

    He frequently broke down in court and his past behavior was closely scrutinized.

    Pistorius was convicted of manslaughter in 2014 and sentenced to five years. But a higher court overturned the conviction and changed it to murder a year later, increasing his sentence to six years in prison.

    The ruling was appealed by prosecutors who claimed the sentence was too lenient. Pistorius’ sentence was increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal in 2017.

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  • Your Trump questions answered. Yes, he can still run for president if indicted | CNN Politics

    Your Trump questions answered. Yes, he can still run for president if indicted | CNN Politics

    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    Could he still run for president? Why would the adult-film star case move before any of the ones about protecting democracy? How could you possibly find an impartial jury?

    What’s below are answers to some of the questions we’ve been getting – versions of these were emailed in by subscribers of the What Matters newsletter – about the possible indictment of former President Donald Trump.

    He’s involved in four different criminal investigations by three different levels of government – the Manhattan district attorney; the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney; and the Department of Justice.

    These questions are mostly concerned with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s potential indictment of Trump over a hush-money payment scheme, but many could apply to each investigation.

    The most-asked question is also the easiest to answer.

    Yes, absolutely.

    “Nothing stops Trump from running while indicted, or even convicted,” the University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard Hasen told me in an email.

    The Constitution requires only three things of candidates. They must be:

    • A natural born citizen.
    • At least 35 years old.
    • A resident of the US for at least 14 years.

    As a political matter, it’s maybe more difficult for an indicted candidate, who could become a convicted criminal, to win votes. Trials don’t let candidates put their best foot forward. But it is not forbidden for them to run or be elected.

    There are a few asterisks both in the Constitution and the 14th and 22nd Amendments, none of which currently apply to Trump in the cases thought to be closest to formal indictment.

    Term limits. The 22nd Amendment forbids anyone who has twice been president (meaning twice been elected or served part of someone else’s term and then won his or her own) from running again. That doesn’t apply to Trump since he lost the 2020 election.

    Impeachment. If a person is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate of high crimes and misdemeanors, he or she is removed from office and disqualified from serving again. Trump, although twice impeached by the House during his presidency, was also twice acquitted by the Senate.

    Disqualification. The 14th Amendment includes a “disqualification clause,” written specifically with an eye toward former Confederate soldiers.

    It reads:

    No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

    Potential charges in New York City with regard to the hush-money payment to an adult-film star have nothing to do with rebellion or insurrection. Nor do potential federal charges with regard to classified documents.

    Potential charges in Fulton County, Georgia, with regard to 2020 election meddling or at the federal level with regard to the January 6, 2021, insurrection could perhaps be construed by some as a form of insurrection. But that is an open question that would have to work its way through the courts. The 2024 election is fast approaching.

    If he was convicted of a felony – reminder, he has not yet even been charged – in New York, Trump would be barred from voting in his adoptive home state of Florida, at least until he had served out a potential sentence.

    First off, there’s no suggestion of any coordination between the Manhattan DA, the Department of Justice and the Fulton County DA.

    These are all separate investigations on separate issues moving at their own pace.

    The payment to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels occurred years ago in 2016. Trump has argued the statute of limitations has run out. Lawyers could argue the clock stopped when Trump left New York to become president in 2017.

    It’s also not clear how exactly a state crime (falsifying business records) can be paired with a federal election crime to create a state felony. There are some very deep legal dives into this, like this one from Just Security. We will have to see what, if anything, Bragg adds if he does bring an indictment.

    Of the four known criminal investigations into Trump, falsifying business records with regard to the hush-money payment to an adult-film actress seems like the smallest of potatoes, especially since federal prosecutors decided not to charge him when he left office.

    His finances, subject of a long-running investigation, seem like a bigger deal. But the Manhattan DA decided not to criminally charge Trump with regard to tax crimes. Trump has been sued by the New York attorney general in civil court based on some of that evidence.

    Investigations in Georgia with regard to election meddling and by the Justice Department with regard to January 6 and his treatment of classified data also seem more consequential.

    But these cases are being pursued by different entities at different paces in different governments – New York City; Fulton County, Georgia; and the federal government.

    “I do think that the charges are much more serious against Trump related to the election,” Hasen said in his email. “But falsifying business records can also be a crime. (I’m more skeptical about combining that in a state court with a federal campaign finance violation.)”

    One federal law enforcement source told CNN’s John Miller over the weekend that Trump’s Secret Service detail is actively engaged with authorities in New York City about how this arrest process would work if Trump is ultimately indicted.

    It’s usually a routine process of fingerprinting, a mug shot and an arraignment. It would not likely be a public event and clearly his protective detail would move through the building with Trump.

    New York does not release most mug shots after a 2019 law intended to cut down on online extortion.

    As Trump is among the most divisive and now well-known Americans in history, it’s hard to believe there’s a big, impartial jury pool out there.

    The Sixth Amendment guarantees “the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”

    Finding such a jury “won’t be easy given the intense passions on both sides that he engenders,” Hasen said.

    A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in March asked for registered voters’ opinion of Trump. Just 2% said they hadn’t heard enough about him to say.

    The New York State Unified Court System’s trial juror’s handbook explains the “voir dire” process by which jurors are selected. Those accepted by both the prosecution and defense as being free of “bias or personal knowledge that could hinder his or her ability to judge a case impartially” must take an oath to act fairly and impartially.

    We’re getting way ahead of ourselves. He hasn’t been indicted, much less tried or convicted. Any indictment, even for a Class E felony in New York, would be for the kind of nonviolent offense that would not lead to jail time for any defendant.

    “I don’t expect Trump to be put in jail if he is indicted for any of these charges,” Hasen said. “Jail time would only come if he were convicted and sentenced to jail time.”

    The idea that Trump would ever see the inside of a jail cell still seems completely far-fetched. Hasen said the Secret Service would have to arrange for his protection in jail. The logistics of that are mind-boggling. Would agents be placed into cells on either side of him? Would they dress as inmates or guards?

    Top officials accused of wrongdoing have historically found a way out of jail. Former President Richard Nixon got a preemptive pardon from his successor, Gerald Ford. Nixon’s previous vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned after he was caught up in a corruption scandal. Agnew made a plea deal and avoided jail time. Aaron Burr, also a former vice president, narrowly escaped a treason conviction. But then he left the country.

    That remains to be seen. Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent and current global head of security for Teneo, said on CNN on Monday that agents are taking a back seat – to the New York Police Department and New York State court officers who are in charge of maintaining order and safety, and to the FBI, which looks for potential acts of violence by extremists.

    The Secret Service, far from coordinating the event as they might normally, are “in a protective mode,” Wackrow said.

    “They are viewing this as really an administrative movement where they have to protect Donald Trump from point A to point B, let him do his business before the court, and leave. They are not playing that active role that we typically see them in.”

    The New York Times published a report based on anonymous sources close to Trump on Tuesday that suggested he is, either out of bravado or genuine delight, relishing the idea of having to endure a “perp walk” in New York City. The “perp walk,” by the way, is the public march of a perpetrator into a police office for processing.

    “He has repeatedly tried to show that he is not experiencing shame or hiding in any way, and I think you’re going to see that,” the Times reporter and CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman said on the network on Tuesday night.

    “I do think there’s a part of him that does view this as a political asset,” said Marc Short, the former chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, during an appearance on CNN on Wednesday. “Because he can use it to paint the other, more serious legal jeopardy he faces either in Georgia or the Department of Justice, as they’re politically motivated.”

    But Short argued voters will tire of the baggage Trump is carrying, particularly if he faces additional potential indictments in the federal and Georgia investigations.

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  • Family of Black man killed in Memphis jail demands justice | CNN

    Family of Black man killed in Memphis jail demands justice | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The family of a Black man who died in a Memphis jail in October is making a public plea for justice and say they want answers from authorities and accountability from those responsible.

    The family of Gershun Freeman, a 33-year-old who died in custody at the Shelby County Jail, spoke at a news conference Friday. They were joined by lawyers, including Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump and supporters that included the parents of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died three days after Memphis police officers repeatedly punched and kicked him after a traffic stop.

    Video footage of Freeman’s encounter with corrections officers inside the jail was made public this month.

    The video footage, released by the Nashville District Attorney, totals about 13 minutes and shows multiple angles of a violent incident between Freeman and multiple corrections officers that ended in Freeman’s death on October 5, 2022.

    Freeman had been booked into jail a week before his death on charges of domestic violence related to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by CNN affiliate WHBQ.

    In the edited surveillance camera video, corrections officers are seen handing out meals to inmates and when they open the door of Freeman’s cell, a naked Freeman lunges at officers. The video shows multiple officers punching, kicking, and using what appears to be pepper spray on Freeman as as they attempt to subdue him.

    His body appears to leave a trail of unknown fluid on the floor beneath him as he moves into a different hallway. During two separate instances, Freeman can be seen on the floor clinging to the leg of a guard, before getting up and running away.

    After officers chase Freeman to another jail floor and try to restrain him, he appears to swing at an officer. Officers eventually subdue Freeman, including by placing a knee on his back, and put him in handcuffs as he was on his stomach.

    A few minutes later, when officers try to lift him, he appears limp and unresponsive.

    Kimberly Freeman, Gershun Freeman’s mother, said she wants justice for her son, for herself, and for her granddaughter.

    “We have to see my son – her father – in a box. We didn’t plan this. My son had a lot of dreams, a lot of admiration, he cared for people in general,” she said. “We want answers.”

    In this video still, a group of guards attempts to subdue Gershun Freeman outside his cell.

    Freeman’s family and their attorneys are also calling on the Justice Department to investigate.

    Freeman was naked in the video because he had been under mental health observation in the jail and was placed in a suicide watch cell, said attorney Brice Timmons, who is representing the family.

    “I don’t know what is happening in America where law enforcement feels they can treat mental health issues like criminal issues. Especially if they are marginalized people of color. Especially if they are Black men,” Crump said during the news conference.

    A 19-page autopsy report from the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office provided to CNN by affiliate WHBQ says the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation told their office Freeman was involved in a physical altercation with corrections officers before collapsing in cardiac arrest.

    The autopsy details numerous contusions on Freeman’s body, lacerations to his scalp and multiple hemorrhages on his head and neck.

    Medical examiners found the cause of death to be exacerbation of “cardiovascular disease due to physical altercation and subdual.”

    The report also says “probable psychotic disorder” was likely a contributing condition to his cause of death. The report classifies the death as a homicide, but notes it is “not meant to definitively indicate criminal intent.”

    The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said in a Friday statement that “immediate action was taken by the Sheriff the night of the incident in October 2022. Per protocol, DA (Steve) Mulroy and TBI were contacted that night to begin the investigation,” adding that the night of the incident “all officers who had contact with Mr. Freeman were relieved of duty and remain in that status today.”

    “It’s unfortunate this case is being tried in the media before the review is complete,” Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said in the statement.

    The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident and told CNN that probe “remains active and ongoing.”

    The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office has asked the Nashville District Attorney’s Office to investigate the case.

    The Nashville District Attorney’s office told CNN Friday they were “not commenting on the video at this time.”

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