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fromAbove the Law
9 hours agoIn America, Even Judges Have To Take Matters In To Their Own Hands - Above the Law
Judges are increasingly carrying guns for self-protection due to rising threats and inadequate security measures.
The appellate judges repeatedly voiced skepticism over the Manhattan sentencing judge's decision to hold the trial's ample evidence of coercion and force against Combs in sentencing.
Together, they made the case that executing a 75-year-old man who didn't pull the trigger while the man who did the shooting died in prison with a life sentence was simply wrong.
The case against Alexander Villa has long been contested, with troubling questions about how his conviction was secured, including confessions that were later recanted and evidence that appears shaky or missing.
The Department of Justice offered a startling confession to a court on Tuesday, acknowledging that it repeatedly made a 'material mistaken statement of fact' while defending Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of noncitizens at immigration court.
Victims' Commissioner Claire Waxman expressed her delight at the government's decision, stating that the change is long overdue and acknowledges the years of campaigning led by bereaved families like Tracey Hanson, who sought justice following the tragic death of her son Josh.
The open-ended sentences, which were scrapped in 2012 and have been described as psychological torture by the UN, have left thousands trapped in jail for up to 22 times longer than their original tariff. This includes many who were children at the time of their offence and handed a type of IPP sentence for under-18s called a Detention for Public Protection (DPP) jail term.
If you are a lawyer, are interested in being an AUSA, and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda, DM me. We need good prosecutors. And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the mission and do good for our country.- Chad Mizelle (@chad_mizelle) January 31, 2026
On Friday a federal judge dropped two of the four charges against Luigi Mangione the man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson making his case no longer eligible for the death penalty. Mangione is accused of killing Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024 on a street in midtown Manhattan as he was walking to his hotel for UnitedHealth Group's annual investor conference.
"What's most problematic is that the extraordinary has become ordinary. It's just a matter of course now that when you issue an opinion that some people don't like, you're going to get threats, you're going to get death threats, and that is obviously problematic on many levels."
Bishop was found guilty on 24 counts of committing lewd acts on three minor victims, all described in court documents as victims under the age of 14. The span of these offenses covers multiple years. Evidence admitted at trial showed that Bishop possessed more than 600 images of child sexual abuse material depicting two of the minor victims.
Drawing from years in public defense and her work co-founding Partners for Justice, she explains why the criminal legal system often punishes instability rather than crime - and how policy choices, not individual morality, frequently determine who enters the system.