By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The good news for ex-assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Bergrin is that he won’t be facing the death penalty. The Asbury Park Press in New Jersey reports that Atty. Gen. Eric Holder has decided not to seek the death penalty against the prominent defense attorney in his pending case in which he’s…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Even if prosecutors convict suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cronies, they may not convince a N.Y. jury to put them to death. The Los Angeles Times quotes a former N.Y. federal prosecutor Paul Butler who worked major terrorism cases as saying: “It will be an uphill…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Federal prosecutors filed notice Tuesday saying they won’t seek the death penalty in the Nov. 14 slaying of Pittsburgh FBI agent Sam Hicks. In a three-paragraph filing in U.S. District Court, assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti in Pittsburg said the office would not seek the penalty against Christina Korbe, who is…
When a law enforcement person is killed a jury’s indignation always seems to be greater. In this case the indignation translated into a death penalty. By Paul Rioux New Orleans Times-Picayune NEW ORLEANS — A jury sentenced John Wayne Johnson to death Wednesday for killing an Orleans Parish sheriff’s deputy during a botched Algiers bank…
The Justice Department has intervened to stop one of two death penalty trials in San Francisco. In the one case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office had reached a plea agreement with the defendant, but the Bush Justice Department insisted on going ahead with the death penalty. It looks like the plea agreement will now stand. The…
Interestingly, the Justice Department trumped the local U.S. Attorney and decided to go for the death penalty in one of these cases even though the local U.S. Attorney had already worked out a plea agreement. The Bush Administration was not shy about pushing the death penalty, but that’s likely to change under the Obama regime….
By Anne Blythe Raleigh News&Observer GREENSBORO, N.C. — Four days before the presidential transfer of power, the U.S. attorney general authorized federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in their carjacking and firearm cases against Demario Atwater. Atwater, 22, is one of two suspects accused of kidnapping and murdering Eve Carson, the admired UNC-Chapel Hill…
