Tagged: Law and Justice

Four Idaho reporters watched as an execution team inserted I-V's into convicted murderer Richard Leavitt today . This was the first time witnesses were allowed to watch what happens as soon as the condemned is wheeled into the death chamber on a gurney. the Idaho Department of Correction would not have changed its ways without a lawsuit.

The Associated Press and other Idaho news organizations sued the state to view Richard Leavitt’s entire execution. They won last Friday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 1985, a jury convicted Richard A. Leavitt of the brutal first-degree murder of Danette J. Elg a year earlier. Elg of Blackfoot, Idaho had been stabbed more than a dozen times and her body was mutilated. The state will execute 53 year-old Leavitt Tuesday by lethal injection unless there’s a last minute stay. .

Male death row prisoners are housed in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, or Idaho Max. Guards moved Leavitt to a lone cell last month after the state Department of Correction served him with a death warrant.

Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies say they’ve swept up more than 200 violent felons in Eastern Washington. So-called 'Operation Scattergun II' focused on wanted offenders in the Spokane, Tri-Cities and Yakima regions last week. Beatrice Bravo is a Deputy U.S. Marshal based in Spokane. She says the felon roundup took a lot of advance planning.

The online classifieds website Backpage.com filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington Monday. It’s over a bill passed by the legislature this year, which aims to reduce sex trafficking.

Village Voice Media owns the national online classifieds site Backpage.com. The company also owns the Seattle Weekly, and they run their online classifieds through Backpage. Seattle police say they have caught pimps selling underage girls…at Backpage.com.

Now, the company is suing Washington state.

Seattle city leaders are praising a hero who prevented more victims in Wednesday’s shooting.

Asst. Police Chief Jim Pugel described what he saw from a video that captured the shooting at Café Racer. He says the hero was sitting next to the suspect when he started firing at people.

Pugel: "The hero picked up a stool and threw it at the suspect, hit him. Picked up another stool, and hit him, this time, suspect is pointing at him.  During that time two or possibly three people made their escape and the suspect was between them and the door."

A federal judge in Eugene heard arguments Tuesday for the release of a man charged in the fire bombing of a Corvallis mosque in 2010. Cody Crawford is currently in jail awaiting trial.

Government lawyers argued victims of the mosque bombing were not given enough notice of Cody Crawford's motion for release. Despite this, Judge Thomas Coffin allowed the defense to make their arguments.

Crawford's attorney presented a psychologist's opinion that his client has Aspergers syndrome, and would not be dangerous if released.

The Associated Press and other news agencies sued the state of Idaho yesterday to view prisoner executions from start to finish. Reporters want to be able to observe and report any complications that might come up.

AP reporter Rebecca Boone is among those fighting to see the entire execution.

Rebecca Boone: "This is the most powerful action that the courts and government can take, it’s killing a person. So if we don’t know what happens for half of that process, then it’s impossible to have an educated and vital debate about it."