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As the news comes to our attention, it seems as if open season has been declared on our children. The latest incident from California, the teen allegedly getting gang raped outside a school dance http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_13640320?source=rss&nclick_check=1, just proves that not enough is being done in foresight to prevent these heinous acts. But the Indiana House is taking steps to protect our most precious commodity. They have enacted HB 1511. This is mainly a custody/guardian law. One of the stipulations in the enacted bill either denies custody/guardianship.....

Parole was denied Tuesday for a Fresno man who went to a co-worker's home, killed him, and then cut out his heart and kept it in his pocket. Theodore Allen LeLeaux Jr., who is serving 16 years to life in prison for killing 25-year-old Kenneth Carlock in 1984, asked for his freedom during a 5 1/2-hour hearing inside the California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo. The parole board rejected LeLeaux's bid and told him to try again in three years, said attorney T. Worthington Vogel of the Fresno County District Attorney's Office. During the hearing, LeLeaux didn't explain why he...

Cost-Cutting Move Criticized By Political Challenger Dan Hynes CHICAGO (STNG) ― In another byproduct of Illinois' fiscal woes, Gov. Quinn Friday signed off on the early release of 1,000 non-violent prison inmates who will be sent home this fall. Quinn's move is expected to save the state $5 million annually. "We're doing this because of the budget crisis as well as to enforce Gov. Quinn's prison-reform efforts. We believe these low-level, non-violent offenders…can be better served in the community where there are more resources and services available than at IDOC," said Januari Smith, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of...

The vote was unanimously against her. She was at the hearing, rolled into the room on a bed, and she slept through most of the proceedings, after she read Psalm 23 as her statement.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Susan Atkins, a follower of mass killer Charles Manson convicted nearly four decades ago in some of the most notorious murders in U.S. history, lost her 18th bid for release on Wednesday. Atkins -- terminally ill with brain cancer and, according to her attorney, paralyzed over much of her body -- was denied her freedom by the California Parole Board after a hearing at the prison where she is being held. Now 61, Atkins was convicted in 1971 of taking part in seven "Manson Family" murders, including that of heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife...

When Phillip Craig Garrido was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 1977 for kidnapping a South Lake Tahoe woman so he could rape her in a Reno storage unit, the prosecutor who put him away figured that was one sexual predator who was gone for good. Under sentencing guidelines now in place, Garrido would have been behind bars for more than two decades - and wouldn't have been free in 1991 when 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was snatched off the street in South Lake Tahoe, not far from where Garrido kidnapped Katie Callaway Hall in 1976. But under 1970s-era...

Some wonder why Phillip Garrido, accused of taking Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, served only 11 years of a 50-year federal sentence for a similar 1976 crime.As details continued to emerge about Jaycee Lee Dugard's alleged kidnapper, questions intensified Monday over how Phillip Garrido could have served only 11 years in prison after a 1976 rape and kidnapping for which he had been given a 50-year federal sentence as well as a life term in Nevada. Garrido was convicted of kidnapping in federal court for abducting Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe on a November night nearly 33 years ago...

What shocked you most about Jaycee Lee Dugard's story? Was it the fact that she was abducted in plain sight, waking to a bus stop when she was 11 years old? Or the fact that she was still alive when discovered this past week, 18 years after disappearing? Was it the fact that for most of those 18 years, she was forced to live in a backyard of a couple's home in California, surrounded by fences, tents and sheds? Or the fact that nobody noticed? Was it the fact that she was allegedly raped repeatedly by her abductor, even though...

Cruel to Be Kind? by: Brittany Fortier, August 27, 2009 One of the more controversial trends in the criminal justice system today is the lobbying effort currently underway to abolish life-without-parole for juvenile offenders. Anti-incarceration activists seek to extend the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roper v. Simmons, which prohibited the death penalty in the cases for juveniles. If they are successful, the “cruel and unusual punishment” analysis used in Roper will be applied to life-without-parole sentences. A panel of legal experts discussed this issue at the Heritage Foundation on August 17, 2009. Paul Wallace, Chief of Appeals at the Delaware...

In a case that's been widely ignored by the mainstream media, justice prevailed today as Letalvis Cobbins was found guilty of the vast majority of charges, including that of first-degree murder. Cobbins was one of a group of thugs who carjacked, then raped, tortured and murdered two Knoxville residents. For more on the story, see the Knoxville News-Sentinel. http://digg.com/d311xYc

FORT WORTH, Texas – The Charles Manson follower convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford was released Friday from a Texas prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars, a prison official said. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was just 26 years old when she pointed a semiautomatic .45- caliber pistol at Ford in September 1975 in Sacramento, Calif. Secret Service agents grabbed her and Ford was unhurt. Fromme, now 60, left the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth at about 8 a.m. Friday, spokeswoman Dr. Maria Douglas said in a statement.

Lynette Fromme, convicted of the attempted assassination of President Ford in '75, has been released from prison, a prison spokeswoman says.

These days, it is difficult to recognize the face of Susan Atkins, a notorious murderer from the Charles Manson cult. Still imprisoned, she's now gravely ill with brain cancer and asking for mercy that she did not give her victims. It was Atkins who held down pregnant actress Sharon Tate while she was stabbed 16 times. Atkins described the crime in blood-curdling detail at a parole hearing 16 years ago. "She asked me to let her baby live," Atkins said at the time. " I told her I didn't have mercy for her." Manson ordered Atkins and other "family" members...

Family, friends gather to remember Lily Burk The ceremony was intended as 'something to honor such a creative soul.' The 17-year-old Oakwood student was killed last month. By Corina Knoll and Margot Roosevelt August 9, 2009 On a hill overlooking a misty downtown skyline, hundreds gathered in the afternoon sun today to celebrate the life of Lily Burk, cut short by a brutal murder last month. Students from Oakwood School, where the 17-year-old Burk was a fun-loving and academically successful senior, spread blankets beside a white canopy shading hundreds of folding chairs in Bardsdall Art Park. Programs were handed out...

A repeat criminal whose case inspired calls for longer prison stays in Maryland was sentenced Wednesday to life without the possibility of parole for shooting a Montgomery County woman in the back of the head last year, a killing he committed after serving barely half of a previous sentence for armed robberies in which he slashed two of the victims' throats. In addition to the life term on charges of first-degree murder and robbery, Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Terrence J. McGann also gave Shawn M. Henderson 20 years for a gun charge and told him that he would have given...

Kelsey Grammer wasn't able to attend a parole hearing today for the man who raped and murdered his sister back in 1975 -- so he sent this powerful letter which was read aloud. Grammer -- who missed the hearing in Colorado Springs this morning due to rain delays at JFK airport -- pleads with the court not to release the man who "abducted ... raped ... savaged ... butchered" his little sister Karen. Grammer described his sister as "smart and good and decent," and said "I can never escape the horror of what happened" to her ... "Please do not...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has outlined a plan to save $1.2 billion in prison spending. In all, the governor says, the plan would reduce the California prison population of 167,700 by about 27,000 inmates. Some details: Felony no more: Petty thefts, writing bad checks and receiving stolen property will no longer be charged as felonies. Vehicle thefts: Stealing a car won't automatically be considered a felony anymore. Grand theft: Stealing an item valued at more than $400 won't automatically be considered grand theft. Alternative custody: Certain prison inmates deemed low-risk offenders would be eligible to serve their sentences outside of prison....

A Waukegan man is in stable condition after being shot by the store owner he is charged with robbing. Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Patricia Fix said officials are reviewing the details of the Sunday night shooting of Demitrius Newbill, 29. Newbill, who was shot in the chest, is at Vista East Medical Center. Fix said Newbill, of the 500 block of Poplar Street, entered the Pasteleria Panaderia, 701 Yeoman St., about 8:15 p.m. The owner of the bakery told police Newbill had his left hand under his shirt and asked for a piece of paper and a pencil, Fix...

The man who took five lives in six days in a small Cherokee County town should have been in jail, according to South Carolina officials who have examined his criminal record. Patrick Tracy Burris, who allegedly murdered five Gaffney residents ranging in age from 15 to 83, was a habitual felon with a 25-page rap sheet that included an eight year stint in North Carolina prison. Police say Burris should have never been released from prison, and now they are demanding answers. “When you have that many crimes you shouldn’t get parole,” said South Carolina Law Enforcement Chief Reggie Lloyd...

Manson follower Susan Atkins, with six months to live, granted parole hearing June 5, 2009 Last year, doctors diagnosed Susan Atkins with terminal cancer, prompting a failed bid by the convicted murderer and Charles Manson follower to receive a "compassionate release" from state prison. But Atkins, who gained infamy for her role in the 1969 slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and others in a bloody two-night rampage in Los Angeles, may get one last chance to convince state parole officials she should no longer be kept behind bars. Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Thursday...

No, she’s not planning to attend a fundraiser for the president . . . Sara Jane Moore, who in 1975 attempted to assassinate then President Gerald Ford, is out on parole after serving 32 years in prison. Asked by Matt Lauer on Today this morning what she would say to people who think that an attempted presidential assassin should spent the rest of her life in jail, her response began with this cryptic remark: “Well, I’m going to go to the Obama thing.” View video here.

(CNN) -- Susan Atkins is terminally ill; Charles "Tex" Watson is an ordained minister. They and other members of Charles Manson's murderous "family" now shun him. After three decades behind bars, Manson family members Atkins, Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten have repeatedly been described as model prisoners who have accepted responsibility for their crimes. Parole boards, however, continue to reject their bids for release, and a debate rages over whether the four should ever be freed. The release of Manson's prison photo recently rekindled public interest in slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in a...

Oakland officers embodied courage and bravery Oakland police shooting: The mourning afterMar 21: Devastated police force, weary city grapple with tragedy, unite in griefThree police sergeants dead, suspect killed in East Oakland gunbattlesLovelle Mixon, a parolee on the run, already had shot Oakland police Sgt. Mark Dunakin and Officer John Hege. Then, as the two men lay on the ground, Mixon stood over them and fired again. But the ex-con wasn't done. He ran around the corner to his sister's apartment and waited — SKS military assault rifle ready — for the officers he knew would come after him. Those...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Oakland police say the parolee who killed three Oakland police officers and left a fourth brain-dead had been linked by DNA evidence to a rape the day before the shootings. Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason has confirmed a report on the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site that DNA from an unsolved rape in Oakland earlier this year matched that of Lovelle Mixon.

Murderous Trend Similar To Killings In PhiladelphiaSaturday’s killing of three police officers — leaving the fourth brain dead — in Oakland, Calif., shares a disturbing thread with the murderous trend that has been occurring in Philadelphia over the past several years: The murderer was a parolee with an extensive criminal history, including violent felonies. The three officers were killed by the parolee in two separate, but related, shootouts Saturday afternoon. The alleged murderer, Lovelle Mixon, who was killed in the second shootout, was wanted on a no-bail warrant for violating his parole on a conviction for an assault with a deadly...

Olson took part in two bank robberies to help fund the SLA, according to court documents. During the Carmichael robbery, Olson "entered the bank with a firearm and kicked a nonresisting pregnant teller in the stomach. The teller miscarried after the robbery," the documents said. In August 1975, Los Angeles police found homemade bombs under two squad cars. They were designed to explode when the car moved, but neither device detonated. Authorities cast the attempted bombings as payback for the bloody shootout that left Atwood and other SLA members dead. A probe into the gunbattle helped police arrest Hearst, the...

PATERSON — Citing the cruelty of the crime and the defendant's extensive criminal background, a state Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced a Newark man to 35 years in prison for his role in the robbery and throat slashing of a Lodi man who survived the attack but killed himself nine months later. The judge also sentenced two other men in the crime against Jason Zabotinsky, which occurred in December 2005.  Drake Primus, 38, of Newark, who received the longest sentence of 35 years, was convicted of aggravated assault, armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon. Zabotinsky's blood...

Rosemarie D'Alessandro came face-to-face with every mother's darkest fear in the spring of 1973 when her 7-year-old daughter, Joan, was raped and strangled by a teacher as she delivered Girl Scout cookies in her quiet Hillsdale neighborhood. Joseph McGowan, then a 26-year-old chemistry teacher, admitted to abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering the blue-eyed, pony-tailed girl. D'Alessandro fought for years to pass a law in her daughter's memory. Her crusade culminated in landmark legislation that denies parole to anyone serving a life sentence for molesting and killing a child under 14. Thirty-five years after Joan's murder, D'Alessandro is still fighting. But...

More to come about this http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/02/17/news/local_state/doc499a54832a9b2004701569.txt

A man who raped women as an on-duty Los Angeles police officer, threatening them with arrest and jail if they did not submit, was hired by Los Angeles County as an X-ray technologist after he got out of prison, even though the job would leave him working alone and unsupervised with female patients. His hiring at County-USC Medical Center a decade ago was not an oversight. The man -- whose actions cost the city of Los Angeles nearly $300,000 in settlements for his victims -- disclosed his criminal history in his county job application. Both the head of hospital human...

In a neighborhood where interests in real estate, crime and education sometimes border on obsession, the conflict might seem inevitable: A private school, outgrowing its classic Brooklyn Heights building, rented space in 1 Pierrepont Plaza, a nearby office tower, for four classrooms and a computer lab. A federal probation office, after watching the deterioration of the building on Clinton Street that it had occupied for decades, took out a $30 million, 10-year lease in the very same office tower, starting this month. Parents were alarmed. Blogs buzzed. Elected officials were enlisted, and, this week, Raymond J. Dearie, chief judge of...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, convicted 25 years ago of the stabbing deaths of his pregnant wife and two daughters, will seek parole but will continue to proclaim his innocence, one of his attorneys said Monday. MacDonald, eligible for parole since 1991, has declined to seek his freedom because he said he would have to admit guilt for the slayings at the family's Fort Bragg apartment Feb. 17, 1970. MacDonald remarried a few years ago and has more reasons to want a life outside of prison, said his attorney, Tim Junkin of Potomac, Md. "He doesn't have...

Just saw it on AP. She's been hospitalized since March, has only one leg, has terminal cancer and a few months to live, and was denied a "get out of jail" card by the California Board of Prison Terms. Thank you, Board of Prison Terms commissioners. You did the right thing.

The district attorney says despite Atkins' terminal brain cancer, the Charles Manson follower's crimes warrant denying a 'compassionate release.'Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has strongly urged state prison officials to reject former Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer Susan Atkins' request for "compassionate release" because of a terminal illness. In a July 11 letter to the chairman of the state Board of Parole Hearings, Cooley said Atkins' "horrific crimes alone warrant a denial of her request" to be released because she is dying of brain cancer. The board is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday to consider Atkins'...

Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot* Bond MeasureProposition 1 SB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.** **Note: The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century was originally scheduled to appear on the November 2, 2004, General Election ballot. Subsequently, Senate Bill 1169, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2004, provided that it appear on the November 7, 2006, General Election ballot. However, most recently, Assembly Bill 713, Chapter 44, Statutes of 2006, provides for the submission of this Act on the November...

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former Manson family member Susan Atkins has requested a "compassionate release" from prison because she has less than six months to live, a California prisons spokeswoman said Friday. Susan Atkins, Califorina's longest-serving female inmate, is shown in her most recent mug shot. 1 of 2 Atkins, 60, was convicted in the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and four others. She had been incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California. But Atkins, the state's longest- serving female inmate, has been hospitalized since March 18 and is listed in serious condition, state corrections...

CORONA, Calif. (AP) — Former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, convicted in the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate, could soon be released from prison because she is near death, authorities said. Atkins, 59, is terminally ill and being considered for so-called "compassionate release," state corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. She gave no details of Atkins' illness, but said a doctor had determined she had less than six months to live. The corrections department was reviewing the request, which if approved would then be passed to the state Board of Parole which has the power to release Atkins under state...

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, along with Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, announced May 21 that the Gun Violence Task Force (GVTF) seized and intends to seek the forfeiture of a 2003 Hummer owned by one Gary Jackson. Mr. Jackson and an individual by the name of Ronald McBeth were arrested by the GVTF for allegedly making a straw purchase of a handgun. Mr. Jackson is a paroled felon and is not legally permitted to own a gun, so he used Mr. McBeth, who has no criminal record, to buy two handguns and ammunition. Mr....

... Nunez, 14, and co-defendant Jose Diego Perez, 29 – both members of the violent 18th Street gang in Los Angeles – were arrested April 25, 2001, after they kidnapped Delfino Moreno, 34, from in front of his Santa Ana home. The kidnappers demanded $100,000 in ransom plus a kilogram of cocaine, Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told an Orange County jury in 2003. But Moreno's family alerted Santa Ana police instead of agreeing to pay. And when the defendants spotted undercover officers, they took off in an Oldsmobile sedan. Witnesses testified that Nunez blasted away at chasing officers with...

Changes since the last update: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1310. (07-0081) Nonviolent Offenders. Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation. Statute. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election 1326. (07-0094, Amdt. #1S) Criminal Penalties and Laws. Public Safety Funding. Statute. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election 1304. (07-0066, Amdt. #1S) Renewable Energy. Statute. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election 1298. (07-0068) Limit on Marriage. Constitutional Amendment. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot Bond MeasureSB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the...

Cesar Mojica Carmona could be eligible for parole in about 30 years. Friday, May 09, 2008 SAN MARCOS — Cesar Mojica Carmona took a deep breath and swallowed hard Thursday morning as he heard the sentence a Hays County jury had given him: fourteen concurrent life sentences and a $140,000 fine for what officials say was the worst case of child abuse in county history. Mojica Carmona, 24, was convicted last week on 14 counts of injury to a child for starving, biting and otherwise abusing his three children. Hewill be eligible for parole after about 30 years. Mojica Carmona...

Less than two years ago, Italy's prison system faced a crisis: Built to hold 43,000 inmates, it was straining to contain more than 60,000. So the government crafted an emergency plan. It swung open the prison doors and let more than a third of the inmates go free. Within months, bank robberies jumped by 20%. Kidnappings and fraud also rose, as did computer crime, arson and purse-snatchings. The prison population, however, fell so much that for awhile Italy had more prison guards than prisoners to guard. In Italy, it sometimes seems that no bad deed goes unpardoned. The nation's legal...

'91 KILLER FREE SOON - PAROLED IN SLAY OF RAPIST By DAREH GREGORIAN nypost.com March 31, 2008 -- A Queens man who shot and killed the serial sex predator who raped his girlfriend is finally getting out of prison. John Valverde will have served 16 years of a 10-to-30-year prison sentence by the time he's released on May 6. He was denied parole his first three times before the parole board, despite an exemplary record behind bars.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised a Sunday decision by a U.S. Supreme Court justice to keep a convicted killer behind bars. Justice Anthony Kennedy put a hold on a federal court's decision ordering the release on parole of Fred McCullough, who was convicted of second-degree murder in Los Angeles in 1983. McCullough is serving a term of 15 years to life. "The governor's top priority is public safety," said spokeswoman Lisa Page, who said Schwarzenegger will continue to seek to deny McCullough parole. The state parole board twice before recommended McCullough for parole, citing his good behavior. In 2002, then- governor...

Clerical errors led to attacker's release, says suit against state - The family of a teenage girl who was stabbed and nearly killed last year by a high-security inmate wrongly paroled from San Quentin State Prison has sued the state. The suit claims Scott Thomas, who was suffering from bipolar disorder, was never treated during his months in solitary confinement in San Quentin. After he was released without supervision on May 18, 2007, Thomas randomly stabbed Loren Schaller, now 16, and 60-year-old Kermit Kubitz at a bakery near Miraloma Park. Thomas, 26, who was sent to prison nine times for...

Statement from Lois Davidson, Mother of Killer's Victim, in Response to Huckabee Lois Davidson, whose daughter Carole Sue Shields was raped and killed in 2000 by a criminal whose release from prison was championed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, issued the following statement today in response to Huckabee's contention in a television interview that her story was being "exploited" for political purposes: "Last night, Mike Huckabee accused me of being exploited and used for political purposes. I assure you, Mr. Huckabee, I am not being exploited. I am fully aware of the actions I have taken in attempting to...

(Martin Tankleff in a TV interview.) (Tankleff's adopted parents, Arlene and Seymour.) Convicted of killing his wealthy parents after confessing 19 years ago, Martin Tankleff moved closer to freedom Friday when an appeals court said there's enough new evidence to convince a jury he's innocent. A four-judge appellate panel unanimously overturned his conviction and said it's "probable" a second jury would acquit him because cops tricked him into confessing and his lawyers have uncovered new evidence. "It appears the [Suffolk] County Court never considered the cumulative effect of the new evidence created a probability that had such evidence been received...

One of the women who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate President Ford 32 years ago was released on parole Monday from a federal prison in California, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokesman. Sara Jane Moore was released in the morning from the federal women's prison in Dublin, outside San Francisco, according to Mike Truman of the Bureau of Prisons. There was no immediate comment from the prison facility itself, where Moore had been Inmate No. 04851180. Officials said she had a recent parole hearing, but did not know what prompted her release at this time. Nor was it clear what...

Last year, a group of violent felons sued the administration of Gov. George E. Pataki, charging that the state was ignoring the law by categorically denying them parole. They figured their chances would improve under his successor, Eliot Spitzer, even though Mr. Spitzer was a tough former prosecutor who supported the death penalty. In the spring, they were heartened when Mr. Spitzer’s new chairman of the State Parole Board, George B. Alexander, reminded his fellow commissioners that they were obligated to consider the potential for rehabilitation, remorse and recidivism as well as the severity of the original crime. By fall,...

It is indeed possible that a man can change for the better while spending 35 years in prison, but it is inescapable that, strive as he might, a murderer will never balance the scales of justice. Shuaib Raheem would like to convince the world otherwise. He seeks to be freed from further punishment for the death by gunshot to the head of 29-year-old NYPD Officer Stephen Gilroy. And he has managed to talk an inexcusably lax Parole Board panel into agreeing that he deserves to be released from behind bars. The vote by Thomas Grant and Debra Loomis to free...