Free Republic

Democratic lawmakers in Maryland are attempting to pass a bill to prevent criminals under 25 from being convicted of felony murder. In the state of Maryland, “Felony murder occurs when someone is killed while a felony crime, like robbery, is being committed.’ House Bill 1180 , also called the Youth Accountability and Safety Act, would ultimately prevent anyone under 25 from being charged with felony murder.

SACRAMENTO — Late in the evening on Jan. 27, 2004, four teenagers broke into an elderly neighbor’s house in the Southern California town of Perris, looking for cash. One of them, Shawn Khalifa, guarded the back door. Shawn, who had just turned 15, slipped into the kitchen and stole some chocolate candies. He briefly saw that the homeowner was seriously hurt, and he ran back outside. No one accused Shawn of laying a hand on the victim, Hubert Love, 77, but a jury convicted the teenager of first-degree murder. Mr. Khalifa, now 29 and serving a sentence of 25 years...

An Alabama teen who had turned down a 25-year sentence in a plea deal laughed and smiled in court on Thursday as he was sentenced to 65 years in prison for felony murder and other charges. The judge even overheard Lakeith Smith saying "I don’t have time for this" as he was waiting for his case to be called, according to WECT. "You got plenty of time for this," Judge Sibley Reynolds told Smith as he sentenced him to consecutive terms in an Elmore County courtroom. "When I called the case earlier you said you ain’t got time for this,...

The three teens knew the owner of the house they planned to burglarize that night in 2008 was in the hospital. They had not anticipated that his friend was asleep inside. Awakened by the breaking glass and fearful for his life, the man grabbed a gun from a dresser drawer. When one of the teens opened the bedroom door, the man fired. The youngest of the three intruders, a slight 14-year-old in a red hoodie named Travis Castle, was killed. Doyle, then 15, was charged with murder in his friend's death. Doyle did not pull the trigger and was not...

Several years ago I read a piece in The New York Times by Adam Liptak about Ryan Holle. Ryan, who had no prior record, is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole in Florida. He was convicted of pre-meditated murder, even though no one, including the prosecutor, disputes that Ryan was asleep in his bed at home at the time of the crime. This could only happen in America, because we are the only country that retains the Felony Murder Rule. What the Felony Murder Rule essentially says is if anyone has anything to do with a felony...

A Milwaukee teenager was charged Friday in a companion's shooting death, which allegedly occurred as they robbed an armed man. According to a criminal complaint, the robbery target, who was wounded, told police he holds a legally issued concealed-carry permit and that his 5-year-old son was with him when the two robbers confronted him with a gun. Jovan Williams, 18, was charged with felony murder in the Oct. 19 death of Zaire J. Burris, 18, who was shot in the 3100 block of N. 27th St.

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A fatal shooting over the weekend in Louisville has resulted in a murder charge that may be unlike any you have seen in Kentucky. Police say the homeowner who pulled the trigger acted in self-defense and is not being charged. Instead, one of three suspects who broke in is now facing the murder charge. Children played in the 1700 block of West Oak Street Sunday in front of a home where Louisville Metro Police investigated the shooting death of James Wood, Senior. Police say Wood and his two sons broke into the home. The homeowner fatally...

Ensnared in a Texas law that makes accomplices subject to the death penalty, Mr. Foster, 30, is to become the third death row inmate this week, and the 403rd since capital punishment resumed in Texas in 1982, to give his life for a life taken. But unlike most others condemned to death in this state, Mr. Foster, a former gang member and aspiring musician and now a prison poet from San Antonio, is not a murderer in the usual sense. He was convicted and sentenced to die for abetting a killing — 80 feet away — that he might, or...

A Dallas man died late Wednesday after jumping through a window to escape three robbers who burst into his apartment, north of the city's downtown area, officials said. Sansiski Daniels, 43, died about 11 p.m. at Parkland Memorial Hospital where he was taken after the home invasion in the 3200 block of Cedar Springs Road, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office said. Daniels lived long enough to tell police that three gunmen whom he knew knocked on his door about 10 p.m., then burst inside and demanded money, said Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther, police spokeswoman. Daniels chose...

Charlie Crist Let My Daughter Die by Robert Schindler, Sr. Posted Jul 31, 2006 As most Americans know, on March 31, 2005, my daughter, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of starvation and thirst after having her feeding tube removed by court order. The sad chain of events that concluded with Terri’s death ignited a media firestorm nationally and internationally. What few saw or heard was the callous inaction of aspiring governor Charlie Crist. Florida Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist let my daughter die. He had it within his authority to save her life, but he turned a blind eye to her suffering....

<p>The two men suspected of dressing as women and robbing a pair of clothing stores in Visalia last week were half brothers who had visited relatives in Kern County before they came to Visalia, the Times-Delta has learned.</p> <p>The two showed up at their aunt's house in Delano after traveling separately from Omaha, Neb.</p>