Supreme Court nixes Alabama request for nitrogen execution, which lower court ruled unconstitutional
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to let Alabama execute a man with nitrogen gas. The justices refused to lift an injunction blocking the state from carrying out the nation’s ninth execution by that method. They declined to set aside lower court findings that it is unconstitutional. The decision caps a heated legal fight over the humaneness of the method. Alabama had planned to put 49-year-old Jeffery Lee to death Thursday using nitrogen. Lee was convicted of killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998.
A jury has convicted the brother of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell of sexually assaulting women while posing as a rideshare driver. Alvin Campbell was found guilty of 21 out of 22 counts for assaults from 2017 to 2019. The jury was deadlocked on one rape charge. Campbell faces up to life in prison when sentenced on June 29. Prosecutors say he targeted women outside bars. His sister, Andrea Campbell, became the first woman of color to win statewide office in Massachusetts in 2023. She has previously spoken about her family's troubled history.
A Texas teenager who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old athlete from a rival track team has been found guilty of murder. Jurors on Tuesday convicted 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony and sentenced him to 35 years in prison in the death of Austin Metcalf. The killing last year stunned the booming Dallas suburb of Frisco. Both teens attended different schools there. Prosecutors accused Anthony of egging on a confrontation after being asked to leave the tent of Metcalf's team. Anthony’s attorney claimed the stabbing was self-defense. The case drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts about race. Anthony is Black. Metcalf was white. But prosecutors and defense attorneys said the case had nothing to do with race.
Jury convicts Texas teen of murder in fatal stabbing of 17-year-old athlete from rival team at a high school track meet.
Lawyers have delivered opening statements in the trial of a former Texas high school athlete who is accused of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old competitor from a rival team at a track meet. A prosecutor described it as a “sneak, surprise attack.” The killing last year stunned a Dallas suburb where the teenagers attended school and quickly drew wider attention, in part because of social media posts about race. The accused, Karmelo Anthony, is Black and the victim, Austin Metcalf, was white. Anthony's lawyer says the teen was defending himself.
Arizona Supreme Court rejects prosecutor’s appeal, ensuring fake elector case goes back to the grand jury.
The top federal prosecutor in Chicago is defending his appearance before a grand jury last year when it returned an indictment against critics of the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps. It’s a rare admission of interference with the secretive grand jury process. Andrew Boutros says he appeared solely to remind jurors of their obligation to hear evidence and be fair. Critics say it was highly unusual and improper for Boutros to ask that grand jurors raise a hand if they couldn't set aside certain feelings. The government’s case against the protesters has been dismissed for other reasons.
A South Carolina jury has found a store owner not guilty of murder in the 2023 shooting of a Black 14-year-old. The jury returned the verdict Monday for Chikei Rick Chow. Chow shot Cyrus Carmack-Belton in the back after chasing him from his store in South Carolina. Prosecutors said Chow wrongly thought the teen had stolen four bottles of water and then shot him in the back. Defense lawyers maintained Chow fired to defend his son after the teen pointed a gun at him. The killing sent waves of anguish and grief through the African American community in Richland County, where nearly half the population is Black.
South Carolina jury finds store owner not guilty of murder in killing of Black teen.
The former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll has been battling President Donald Trump in court for nearly seven years over her allegation that he sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a fancy Manhattan department store in 1996. One jury found Trump liable for attacking her and a second awarded her tens of millions of dollars in damages for Trump's public attacks on her credibility. Now, numerous news organizations have reported that Trump’s Justice Department, led by the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago, has opened an investigation into whether Carroll lied under oath. The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois has denied those reports, which cited anonymous sources.