Search Results for: Felons

The Court of Appeals of the Second Appellate District of Texas threw out a voter fraud conviction Thursday that would have put a Texas woman accused of voting while on supervised release after being convicted of a felony behind bars for five years. Texas does not allow those convicted of a felony to vote in [...]

The US prides itself on being a nation built on freedom, justice, and individual rights. And yet the evolution of its system of mass incarceration — a system that cannot be defined without reference to shocking racial disparities — seems to directly contradict these founding principles. The US prison population dwarfs those of nearly every other [...]

Chinese music student Xiaolei Wu was convicted Thursday on charges that he harassed a democracy activist at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Wu was convicted following a four-day jury trial of one count of cyberstalking and one count of interstate transmissions of threatening communication. The incident leading to Wu’s arrest began on [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case challenging a Mississippi felon voter disenfranchisement law. Several voters who were previously convicted of felonies challenged the law on the basis of it being an unconstitutional example of cruel and unusual punishment under the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The [...]

A Kentucky House committee approved a bill Thursday that establishes tougher penalties for various criminal offenses. One of the main components of House Bill 5 is its three-strikes provision, which would have people convicted of three violent felonies face life in prison. The bill also toughens penalties for the distribution of fentanyl, classifies carjacking as [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear United States v. Erlinger on Monday to decide if the US Constitution places a requirement under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) for “a jury trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt to find that a defendant’s prior convictions were ‘committed on occasions different from one another.'” United [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed on Thursday to reconsider a decision from August that a provision of the Mississippi Constitution that permanently prevents people convicted of certain felonies from voting is unconstitutional.  The court agreed to rehear the case involving Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution after Secretary of State [...]

The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that an 1890 state constitutional provision permanently preventing people convicted of certain felonies from voting, Section 241, is unconstitutional. Judge James Dennis writing for the majority, discussed the racial history of the Mississippi Constitution that was ratified in 1890, writing, “From the outset, the object of [...]

Niger Foreign Minister Massoumi Massoudou told France 24 on Thursday that the administration is attempting mediation with members of Niger’s military who conducted a coup of President Mohamed Bazoum’s administration. His statement comes only hours after Niger’s military announced they supported the coup carried out by military members of Bazoum’s elite guard on Wednesday. Colonel [...]

The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a case asking whether banning firearms from people subject to domestic-violence restraining orders violates the Second Amendment. The case is an appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.The lawsuit specifically asks whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8) violates the Second Amendment. According to [...]