The Pentagon wrote in 2007 that Blackwater Worldwide contractors in Iraq are not subject to U.S. civilian criminal laws. That position undercuts the Justice Department's effort to prosecute five Blackwater security guards for manslaughter.The letter highlights the uncertainty prosecutors face...

A 21-year-old bystander who police mistakenly believed was a robbery suspect was killed by officers during a shootout at a pizza parlor, authorities said Monday.Officers and two armed robbers exchanged gunfire at a Papa John's Pizza outlet on Sunday night...

Sleepy judges answering last-minute appeals by phone. Bleary-eyed family members shuffling into witness rooms. Protesters' faces illuminated by candles outside prison fences.These images of midnight executions, ingrained though they are by Hollywood and TV crime shows, have become outdated.Many states...

Even before President Barack Obama moved to close the infamous Guantanamo Bay lockup, several communities were engaged in a furious game of hot potato over who will inherit the prisoners.Now, members of Congress are tossing the spuds _ at each...

A new large study challenges the idea that mental illness alone is a leading cause of violence.Researchers instead blame a combination of factors, specifically substance abuse and a history of violent acts, that drives up the danger when combined with...

President Barack Obama wants the government back in the policing business, big time.Obama's huge stimulus plan includes about $4 billion to resurrect grants that put tens of thousands of police on the streets during the 1990s. The programs were all...

U.S. Border Patrol agents working about 100 miles north of the Mexican border allege that they have been given arrest quotas at odds with agency practices and threatened with punishment if they fail to meet the number.Agents stationed in Riverside...

The sergeant and I crept up the stairs toward the apartment door, our leather gear squeaking with every step. Even these small sounds echoed loudly in the stairwell. Funny, movie cops never seem to make a sound. We had already...

The impact of crime on innocent victims can be a life-transforming event in many ways, but particularly for those who become physically injured as a consequence. From one moment to the next, as individuals innocently go about their lives, they...

September 9, 2005, was another beautiful day in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I was working the north end of town, which was known as Beat 16. I had been transferred to the day shift only a couple of months before...