David Brown

2 weeks ago | statecourtreport.org | Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot |Gene Downing |David Brown |Rex Bossert

The court has perhaps never been friendlier to criminal justice reform. This month, the Michigan Supreme Court announced that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for people under the age of 21 violate the state constitution’s ban on cruel or unusual punishment. The court also held, based on a separate recent decision, that this rule applies retroactively. These decisions are the latest from a court that’s been steadily carving out a path against excessive sentencing.

Oct 22, 2024 | thetimes.com | David Brown

An MP has called for the government to discuss the return from Pakistan of the siblings of Sara Sharif, the Surrey schoolgirl allegedly murdered by her parents. Will Forster, the Liberal Democrat MP for Woking, on Tuesday asked Hamish Falconer, a minister in the Foreign Office, if he would speak to the Pakistan government about the children’s safety or secure their return.

Oct 13, 2024 | thetimes.com | David Brown

A reconstruction of the murder of a British family in the Alps will be staged on Thursday as part of a cold case review 12 years after they were shot. The killings of Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, remain one of France’s most notorious unsolved crimes. Each victim was shot three times, all at least once in the head, as they sat in their car near the village of Chevaline overlooking Lake Annecy in September 2012.

Oct 11, 2024 | thetimes.com | David Brown

A City executive claims she was forced out of an exclusive private members’ club because she challenged its “old boys” culture. The Lansdowne Club, based in Mayfair, central London, was riven with boardroom politics and a clash of cultures, the High Court was told on Friday. Gina Mok was allegedly expelled after telling a member of the club’s ruling council, who was a senior government health official, that she had breached coronavirus travel restrictions.

Sep 5, 2024 | thetimes.com | David Brown

The identification last week of remains found frozen in an American cave nearly half a century ago made headlines worldwide. Known as the “Pinnacle Man”, the body has now been identified as Nicholas Paul Grubb. It was only the local newspapers in Pennsylvania that reported the victim was born in London and was the grandson of the eminent British missionary Norman Grubb, who was one of the 20th century’s most influential evangelists.