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Justice (courts/crime/law)
Analysis paints picture of killers, victims
Jo Craven McGinty of The New York Times analyzed homicide records over the past three years to provide a detailed description of New York killers and their victims. From 2003 through 2005, 1,662 murders were committed in New York. With crimes that were solved, men and boys were responsible for 93 percent of the murders.…
Read MorePolice use homeland security grants to keep tabs
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report identified nearly a dozen cases in which city and county police, in the name of homeland security, have surveilled or harassed animal-rights and antiwar protesters, union activists, and even library patrons surfing the Web. The inquiry found federal officials have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars…
Read MoreStudents often call police about peers’ parties
Brian Charlton and Don Jordan of The State News at Michigan State University analyzed noise and party violations from 2004 and 2005, including 1,025 noise, 41 unlawful party and two nuisance party violations, and found student neighborhoods were saturated with violations. The most ticketed areas were student apartment complexes, a finding that surprised police who…
Read MoreJudicial nominee violated ethics law
Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting, writing for Salon.com, reviewed the financial filings of Judge Terrence W. Boyle, a key circuit court nominee touted by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, to show that he ruled in multiple cases involving corporations in which he held investments. For instance, Boyle bought…
Read MoreHealth agency ignores sexual misconduct complaints
Julia Sommerfeld and Michael J. Berens of The Seattle Times used state records to show that Seattle’s Health Department has dismissed — without any investigation — 461 sexual-misconduct complaints against health-care professionals in the past decade, or nearly one-third of the 1,494 complaints received. “These complaints include counselors accused of molesting clients, nurses suspected of…
Read MoreS. Fla. judges put cases on secret docket
Patrick Danner and Dan Christensen of The Miami Herald investigated more than 100 cases kept hidden on a secret docket in Broward since 2001 and found that three Broward Circuit Court judges failed to follow the law by “sealing” cases — closing off all the information in them — without giving public notice or showing…
Read MoreMalicious hackers get sneakier
Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz of the USA Today used court records and interviews with regulators, security experts and independent investigators to illustrate the mindset of the growing fraternity of hackers and cyberthieves born after 1985. “They also provide a glimpse of Cybercrime Inc.’s most versatile and profitable tool.” The arrests of three young men…
Read MoreForce used for minor offenses in boot camp
Carol Marbin Miller of The Miami Herald used juvenile justice records and found that force was used against teenage boys in spite of nonviolent behavior at a Florida sheriff’s boot camp. “In only eight of the 180 instances documented since January 2003 were the teenagers described as hitting guards, fighting with other youths, threatening to…
Read MoreClerk reports erroneous juror response rates
Carl Jones of the Daily Business Review in South Florida analyzed Miami-Dade County juror response rates and found the county actually had about a 25 percent response in 2004-05 — rather than 54 percent as reported by the Office of the State Courts Administrator. And its true average monthly percentage for the last six months…
Read MoreRestraining orders fail to offer protection
Monica Rhor of The Orange County Register surveyed all 58 California counties and found widespread discrepancies in how the state’s restraining order laws are being enforced. The system has become a legal labyrinth in which rules aren’t the same as reality, procedures differ from courthouse to courthouse, and violators often benefit more than victims. “Eleven…
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