Death row inmates and what they did

Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark., had been in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport Hospital on Sept. 20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled together and who had been given nothing stronger than Tylenol all day, begged, according to court papers, to have the shackles removed. Though her doctor and two nurses joined in the request, her lawsuit says, the guard in charge of her refused. "She was shackled all through labor," said Ms. Nelson's lawyer, Cathleen V. Compton. "The doctor who was delivering the baby made them remove the shackles for the actual delivery at the very end." Despite sporadic complaints and occasional lawsuits, the practice of shackling prisoners in labor continues to be relatively common, state legislators and a human rights group said. Only two states, California and Illinois, have laws forbidding the practice. The New York Legislature is considering a similar bill. Ms. Nelson's suit, which … [Read more...] about Prisons Often Shackle Pregnant Inmates in Labor

AAP and BJP councillors clashed on Friday over a dispute regarding BJP councillor and presiding officer Satya Sharma’s decision to administer the oath of 10 aldermen at the first meeting of the newly elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi House. The MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) House meeting was initially adjourned for an hour after four aldermen had taken their oaths. However, chaos ensued during the meeting soon after Sharma was administered the oath as presiding officer for the elections to the posts of MCD mayor and deputy mayor. After Sharma invited alderman Manoj Kumar to take oath, AAP MLAs and councillors began to protest against administering oaths to the alderman, and not the elected representatives, first. The BJP accused AAP councillors of throwing mics and chairs. According to PTI reports, AAP councillors raised slogans and stood on the tables, including those of the presiding officer. The MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) House meeting was later announced … [Read more...] about Delhi Mayor Polls: Who Are ‘Aldermen’ & Why Did Their Appointment Lead to AAP-BJP Clash? Explained

A Missouri man is facing execution on Tuesday for the 2004 killings of his girlfriend and her three children. Leonard Taylor, 58, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on February 7. Police officers found the bodies of Angela Rowe, her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley. All four were found shot inside their home in Jennings, Missouri, on December 3, 2004, after Rowe's relatives asked police to go to her home as they had not heard from her for several days. Taylor, Rowe's live-in boyfriend, who had a criminal record for drug and fraud-related offenses, was arrested in Kentucky a few days later. He was convicted in 2008, but maintains he was thousands of miles away at the time of the killings. In January, Taylor's attorney Kent Gipson sought a hearing on his client's innocence claim under a provision in Missouri law that allows a prosecutor to file a motion asking for a hearing before a judge if there is … [Read more...] about Who Is Leonard Taylor? Missouri to execute man over 2004 murders

An Alzheimer’s care center in Iowa was fined $10,000 after mistakenly declaring a patient dead, according to a report from the state’s Health Department. The patient, a 66-year-old woman who was not named in the report, was declared dead by staff members of the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Urbandale, Iowa, on Jan. 3, and transported to a funeral home, according to the report. But when staff members at the funeral home unzipped the body bag, she was alive and gasping for air, according to a citation from the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals . The woman was admitted to the special care center in December 2021 with early onset dementia, anxiety and depression. She entered hospice care in late December 2022 with senile degeneration of the brain and was treated with the anxiety drug lorazepam and morphine, a painkiller, according to the report. Starting around last month, her vital signs and responsiveness worsened. She refused meals and had … [Read more...] about A Patient Declared Dead Is Found in a Body Bag Gasping for Air

A young Michigan woman who was pronounced dead in August, only to be found alive at a funeral home hours later, has died, her family’s lawyer said. The woman, Timesha Beauchamp, 20, died on Sunday at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit after about eight weeks in a coma, said Geoffrey Fieger, the lawyer. Ms. Beauchamp’s ordeal began on Aug. 23, when her family called 911 for help at their home in Southfield, Mich., because Ms. Beauchamp, who was born with cerebral palsy, was having trouble breathing. Four paramedics responded to the call and spent 30 minutes trying to revive her, but Ms. Beauchamp did not show signs of life, Chief Johnny L. Menifee of the Southfield Fire Department, which sent the paramedics, said at a news conference in August. The paramedics then called an emergency department physician, who pronounced Ms. Beauchamp dead based on information provided over the phone, the Fire Department said . Later, Ms. Beauchamp was taken to the James H. … [Read more...] about Michigan Woman Found Alive at Funeral Home Dies 8 Weeks Later

Updated Tuesday, Dec. 18 WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a bipartisan bill on Tuesday to change federal prison and sentencing laws, putting the nation on the brink of its most sweeping overhaul of the federal corrections system in decades. The proposal would allow for shorter prison terms and more judicial discretion in sentencing, unwinding some of the tough-on-crime policies that have swelled the federal prison population. But revisions in the latest version narrow the categories of inmates who could benefit from new incentives to shave prison terms. Here is some of what the legislation, called the First Step Act , would do: Federal judges would have more discretion to bypass mandatory minimums and lighten drug sentences. This would have a significant effect on African-Americans, who have faced much higher incarceration rates for drug crimes than white offenders. Under the new guidelines, the mandatory minimum sentence for serious violent crimes or serious drug offenses … [Read more...] about Shorter Sentences, More Judicial Leeway: What the Criminal Justice Bill Would Do

Some of those seeking to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system want to cut the prison population by more than a million inmates. An agreement in Washington this week, hailed as a landmark bipartisan moment, falls well short of that: about 7,000 people might get out early. The bill, endorsed by President Trump, makes shorter sentences for crack cocaine retroactive for a few thousand inmates. It increases the number of people eligible to sidestep mandatory minimum sentences, but only by a nudge. And it reduces the three-strikes penalty from life to a still-lengthy 25 years. The proposed legislation is very much a compromise, one that, at least in the short term, will do little to solve the country’s mass incarceration problem. Its name, the First Step Act, is apt as its sponsors consider it an initial attempt at reform. To many advocates, releasing 7,000 inmates — less than 4 percent of the federal inmate population — is unacceptably low given the huge number of people … [Read more...] about Just How Much of an Overhaul Is This Overhaul of the Nation’s Criminal Justice System?

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell told President Trump in a private meeting on Thursday that there is not likely to be enough time to bring a bipartisan criminal justice bill up for a vote this year, regardless of the support it has in the Senate and the White House, according to people familiar with the meeting. Mr. McConnell, who as majority leader controls the Senate floor, delivered the news in a previously scheduled meeting at the White House convened to discuss the chamber’s legislative agenda for the remaining weeks of the term. Lawmakers from both parties have been working furiously to build support for the compromise legislation that would begin to reverse some of the tough-on-crime federal policies of the 1980s and 1990s that incarcerated African-American offenders at much higher rates than white offenders. Mr. Trump enthusiastically endorsed the proposal this week, and Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, pledged to move it across the finish line in the … [Read more...] about McConnell Tells Trump a Criminal Justice Bill Is Not Likely This Year

“Gangs and drugs have taken over our streets,” President Bill Clinton said in 1994 as he signed a far-reaching anti-crime bill to bipartisan acclaim. Defending the law at the time, a frightened era of crack cocaine wars and record murder rates, Hillary Clinton, as first lady, warned about an emerging generation of “super-predators” — a notion she later repudiated. Confronted last week by protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement, Mr. Clinton defended his tough crime stance, even though he, like Mrs. Clinton, has joined in recent calls for sweeping reforms in criminal sentencing. For some critics, the 1994 crime bill has come to epitomize the late-20th-century policies that sent incarceration to record levels and ravaged poor communities, taking a particularly devastating toll on African-Americans that political leaders are only now working to reverse. History and statistics tell a more complex story, according to criminologists. The Violent Crime Control and Law … [Read more...] about Prison Rate Was Rising Years Before 1994 Law

Jehanabad - Of Love and War is the latest web series that is garnering rave reviews for its gripping story, powerful performances and an honest attempt to highlight the grotesque caste politics that has plagued the country since time immemorial. The crime-thriller show is set in the backdrop of an actual event that had taken place way back in 2005 when 372 inmates had escaped from Jehanabad jail after a Naxalites attack. As the Ritwik Bhowmik, Harshita Gaur, Satyadeep Misra, Rajat Kapoor starrer continue to get love from the viewers, Danish Kalra, who played a prominent role, talked about his character in detail. During an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Danish, who essayed Sonu, an unsuspecting and relatively good-at-heart individual in the 10-epsiodes series, talked about the challenges he faced while preparing for the same. Since he hails from Punjab, it was paramount for him to get the right texture of the local Bihari dialect. Danish revealed, “I wanted to adapt my … [Read more...] about Jehanabad Fame Actor Danish Kalra Took Help From Coach To Learn Bihari Dialect | Exclusive