Murder Trial | featured news

Prosecutors say the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting made threats and was banned from the University of Colorado after failing a key exam six weeks before the rampage.

Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Communist Party official Bo Xilai, was found guilty and given a suspended death sentence on Monday for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors made a series of blunders that prompted the judge to consider at least three defense motions for a mistrial... With no physical evidence tying Drew Peterson to the death of his third wife and so much of the case hinging on what she said before she died and what his next wife said before she vanished, it was a certainty that his trial would be unlike anything ever seen in Illinois and perhaps in the country.

The judge in the case of Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes ruled on Monday to keep nearly all relevant court documents sealed from public view, and keep a gag order in place, saying disclosure of records could damage the investigation, and the defendant’s access to a fair hearing.

Attorneys for mass murder suspect James Holmes told a district judge Thursday that their client is mentally ill, setting the stage for an insanity defense for the man charged with murdering 12 people and injuring 58 in a movie theater rampage.

The one-day murder trial of Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, concluded with prosecutors telling the court that she slipped poison into a glass of water to kill British businessman Neil Heywood after he got drunk. Gu killed Heywood, they argued, because he threatened the security of her Harvard University son.

US news media will apply at a court hearing later to weaken a gag order on the case of the man accused of last month's Colorado cinema massacre. The alleged gunman, James Holmes, 24, is expected to be present for the hearing, as more than 20 news groups ask a judge to unseal documents.

George Zimmerman will seek to have second-degree murder charges dismissed under Florida's "stand your ground" law in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, his attorney said Thursday.

A man charged with shooting his wife of 45 years in a hospital intensive care unit in what may have been a mercy killing was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder, and his attorney said the man always acted out of love.

The son of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai says he is confident the "facts will speak for themselves" when his mother stands trial for murder Thursday in the country's most sensational political scandal in decades.