Prosecutors decided last month to increase the charges against former Deputy Prime Minister Radoslav Brdjanin,51, and Military Chief Momir Talic, 57, two of the highest ranking officials who are accused of organizing the expulsion of Croats and Muslims from northwestern Bosnia in 1992. The former Bosnian Serb officials pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 11 new war crimes charges, including genocide. Both are accused of masterminding one of the bloodiest campaigns of the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict, torturing, murdering and expelling thousands from the Prijedor region in northwest Bosnia in 1992.
The Supreme Court refused to revive a Pennsylvania law requiring some sex offenders be designated sexually violent predators which subjects them to lifetime registration and public notice of their address. The court rejected appeals in which prosecutors argued that the state could assume people convicted of certain crimes are violent predators unless they have proven otherwise. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court calling the
presumption constitutionally repugnant struck down the law.
While at a relatives apartment where several children were playing house, and 11-year-old has been charged with raping an 8-year-old girl. While the adult was at work, the boy allegedly covered the girl’s mouth with his hand and raped her after taking her into a bedroom. Court records showed that the middle school student has been in foster care, has five prior convictions for theft, attempted armed robbery, damage to property and other offenses.
Based on data from the Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were an average of 5.3 violent crimes for every 1,000 US residents age 65 or older each year from 1992 to 1997. The Justice Department reported that violent criminals attack Americans age 65 or older far less often than younger men and women, most likely because older people do not go out at night as much.
Alex Bartolome was convicted of sexually molesting his daughter more than 100 times between 1993 and 1995. His daughter who was 14 years old when the abuse began kept it to herself because he threatened to kill her. She eventually told her mother who then went to the authorities. Bartolome was executed Tuesday.
The United States statute passed in 1996 outlawing the possession of child pornography does not make the distinction between real and virtual porn. First Amendment advocates state that the child pornography law is infringing upon the right to free speech. H. Lewis
Sirkin, a First Amendment lawyer, was able to get the Child Pornography Protection Act in California declared unconstitutional in federal court. However, similar interpretations of the law were not upheld in two other federal court cases. Ultimately, this issue will have to be determined by the Supreme Court.
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