Charles' Crime / Punishment Blog December 2006 Archive

The State Bar of North Carolina has filed ethics charges against Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case, for making misleading and inflammatory statements to ... Read More

Police are looking for a young clean-cut, well-dressed black man who is apparently stalking young men in upscale Texas neighborhoods before he rapes and robs them at gunpoint or knifepoint. His victims ... Read More

A five-day statewide manhunt ended in Santa Ana Wednesday when a police shootout killed a man suspected in the shooting of two Long Beach police officers last week. The ... Read More

A former law enforcement officer --who raped his own 10-year-old daughter, videotaped it and distributed it on the Internet -- has been added to the U.S. Marshals' 15 Most ... Read More

The top crime stories which got the biggest headlines in 2006 include one crime that may never have taken place, a confession in a sensational cold case that turned out to ... Read More

A former Black Panther, who was sentenced to death for the 1981 shooting of a Philadelphia policeman, has appealed for a new trial based on the claim that the ... Read More

Police twice had a chance to arrest a Louisiana man, who claims he killed 23 men, before he began his 10-year killing spree, according to news reports. Accused serial killer Ronald ... Read More

Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller has rejected another defense motion that would have delayed the start of the trial of Brian Nichols, who is charged with shooting his way ... Read More

An Idaho man who was arrested after his wife's head bounced out of the back of his pickup truck when he collided head-on with another vehicle, killing the driver ... Read More

District Attorney Mike Nifong dropped rape changes against three members of the Duke University lacrosse team today, but they still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges in the ... Read More

A bullet that lodged in the middle of a 17-year-old's forehead is evidence, police say, that proves that he tried to kill the owner of a Texas used car ... Read More

Ron Goldman's father has filed another lawsuit against O.J. Simpson, this time seeking any money he received from a book deal that was later cancelled. The lawsuit claims Simpson ... Read More

Three former college students have pleaded guilty to federal arson charges in connection with the burning of nine churches in four Alabama counties in February 2006. Matthew Cloyd, Benjamin Nathan Moseley and ... Read More

A man who is accused of using his father-in-law's gun to kill his wife and infant daughter before fleeing to his parents' home in England, has been denied a request for ... Read More

Yes, Virginia, Santa could be a pervert. A South Carolina man, dressed as Santa Claus with a stuffed Rudolph in his motorcycle sidecar, took an eight-year-old girl from a ... Read More

Brain David Mitchell, accused of the kidnapping and sexual assault of Elizabeth Smart, has again been ruled incompetent to stand trial after he once again disrupted his court hearing by shouting ... Read More

The news media will often give criminals nicknames based on an element related to the crimes they commit. Sometimes it may be based on where the bodies of the victims are ... Read More

Four family members of the woman, who accused members of the Duke University lacrosse team of raping her at a team party March 13, said she gave birth to a baby ... Read More

Two brothers from Aruba, twice arrested in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, filed a lawsuit this week in Los Angeles against talk show host Dr. Phil, opening themselves up ... Read More

Attorneys for the Duke University lacrosse team players accused of raping a stripper at a team party, have filed a motion accusing prosecutors of withholding DNA evidence that clears their clients. ... Read More

A woman, who was charged with first-degree murder in the drowning deaths of her three children, was found guilty instead of child endangerment by an Illinois jury. Her boyfriend ... Read More

An Ohio man, who is being held on criminal sexual assault charges against children, has been named as a suspect in the "Oakland County Child Killer" case of the ... Read More

Although 3,254 inmates in the United States were awaiting execution in 2005, only 128 of them were moved to death row during the year, the lowest number of inmates put on ... Read More

Juries are less likely to return guilty verdicts against men accused of rape if the victim was drunk at the time, even if the intoxication was involuntary, according to ... Read More

A woman, who is accused of the kidnapping of Salt Lake City teenager Elizabeth Smart and who has been ordered to take antipsychotic drugs in an effort to make her competent ... Read More

A man who hid a five-year-old neighbor's body in his cellar while hundreds of Salt Lake City searchers looked for the missing child has pleaded guilty to her kidnapping and murder ... Read More

A 20-year-old cheerleader and pre-nursing student at Sam Houston State University was shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend in her apartment while three of her sorority sisters listened in ... Read More

The body of a 19-year-old Boston woman has been found buried on a hillside near an elementary school 10 years after she was killed to prevent her from talking ... Read More

A man who walked off a Tennessee work release program in 1968 while serving a sentence for second-degree murder has been captured by the U.S. Marshals in Dothan, Alabama ... Read More