In an AP interview, the next Los Angeles DA says he'll go after low-level nonviolent crimes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The incoming district attorney for Los Angeles County, Nathan Hochman, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his first task upon taking office is to eliminate the “pro-criminal blanket policies” of one of California’s most high-profile progressive...

Justice Department says jail conditions in Georgia's Fulton County violate detainee rights

ATLANTA (AP) — Jail officials in Georgia's most populous county are violating the constitutional rights of people in their custody by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force and holding them in filthy and unsafe conditions, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday. ...

Outgoing North Carolina governor grants 2 pardons, 6 commutations

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted what have been lengthy sentences served by six criminal offenders in state prisons — five of whom were convicted of murder — and granted pardons to two others. Those pardons of innocence that the outgoing...

Justice Department finds that Georgia’s Fulton County fails to adequately protect jail inmates from violence

Former West Virginia jail officer pleads guilty to civil rights violation in fatal assault on inmate

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former correctional officer in southern West Virginia pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal civil rights violation in the death of a man who died less than a day after being booked into a jail. Mark Holdren entered a plea agreement in U.S. District Court...

Judge sets date for 9/11 defendants to enter pleas, deepening battle over court's independence

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. military judge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has scheduled hearings in early January for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants to enter guilty pleas in exchange for life sentences despite Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's effort to scuttle the...

Death toll of riot in Ecuador's largest and most dangerous prison rises to 17

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The number of inmates killed in a riot in Ecuador’s largest and most dangerous prison rose to 17, authorities said Wednesday, a day after the goriest prison episode under the watch of President Daniel Noboa broke out. Noboa handed control over the most...

Imprisoned Belarus activist Maria Kolesnikova is considering asking for a pardon, her father says

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova is considering asking the country's authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko for a pardon after more than four years behind bars, her father said Wednesday. Alexander Kolesnikov spoke to The...

At least 15 inmates killed in a fight in Ecuador's largest prison

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A fight among inmates in Ecuador’s largest and most dangerous prison left 15 dead and 14 wounded, authorities said Tuesday, in the bloodiest prison episode faced by President Daniel Noboa’s government. Authorities attributed the outbreak to internal...

Trump ally Steve Bannon blasts 'lawfare' as he faces New York trial after federal prison stint

NEW YORK (AP) — After spending four months in federal prison for snubbing a congressional subpoena, conservative strategist Steve Bannon had a message Tuesday for prosecutors in cases against him and President-elect Donald Trump. “You wait. The hunted are about to become the...