criminal justice

A district court judge in Pawnee county said there was probable cause for the case against Walter Roy "Bunky" Echo-Hawk Jr. to move forward after he was arrested last year and charged with one count of lewd or indecent acts to a child under the age of 16 and one count of producing, distributing and possessing juvenile pornography.

Both Malcolm Alexander and Frederick Clay were exonerated after spending decades in prison. Clay has received financial compensation for his wrongful conviction, while Alexander still waits.

Although Virginia law does not set a minimum age for criminal prosecution, the traditional principles of criminal justice "don't really apply" when the offender is so young, one legal expert said.

Maurice Hastings spent nearly four decades behind bars for a 1983 murder and two attempted murders. He was released after long-untested DNA evidence pointed to another person, the L.A. County DA said.

Without explanation, the United States Supreme Court recently denied two State of Oklahoma petitions seeking to define who is an Indian. It was an attempt by the state to claw back more jurisdiction over crimes in the wake of the high court's ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), a law that protects thousands of women from domestic violence and abuse. The law is especially important for Indigenous women, who have some of the highest rates of domestic violence in the nation.Last summer's Supreme Court ruling in Castro-Huerta v. Oklahoma means abusers can face prosecutors in tribal, federal and now state court.

Oklahoma voters will not get to vote on recreational cannabis this November. A state Supreme Court ruling means the ballot measure will have to wait.

Roughly 2,500 people were exonerated in the United States between 1989 and 2019. In roughly half of all cases, the withholding of key evidence was the reason why.

Local district attorneys are preparing to pick up more criminal cases, but the need for more federal funding for tribal law enforcement hasn’t gone away.

Attorneys for Oklahoma death row inmates are fighting a legal challenge against the state's controversial three-drug lethal injection protocol. A district court ruled it constitutional on Monday.