Recently in Sentencing Category

Being sloppy can net you prison time. South Carolina woman Linda Ruggles learned this lesson the hard way. She was recently jailed over her messy yard.

Ruggles, 53, was cited for a "clean lot violation" by her town. The penalty was $480.

Ruggles was unable to pay the fine. Her photography business faltered in 2008 due to the economy. She soon fell behind on her bills, including her mortgage and taxes. She also faced foreclosure.

The only suspect in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, Joran van der Sloot, was sentenced Friday to 28 years in prison for murder in Peru. But what about efforts to extradite him to the United States?

A judge in Peru today sentenced Van der Sloot for killing a Peruvian woman in 2010, Reuters reports. The murder of Stephany Flores took place five years to the day after Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba.

Aside from his murder trial in Peru, Joran van der Sloot faces federal extortion charges in the United States. But it's not clear when van der Sloot will face justice in a U.S. courtroom, if ever.

Sacramento man Robert DeShields, 55, was convicted of Chihuahua sex assault. He was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison. A judge also mandated he register as a sex offender.

DeShields is a chronic methamphetamine user. He is wheelchair bound. The owner of the dog had given him a temporary place to stay. That's when the animal abuse occurred.

DeShields strangled and penetrated the dog, named Shadow, with a foreign object. The dog required surgery. Shadow recovered, and now lives in a foster home. The Chihuahua remains fearful of men, reports the Sacramento Bee. DeShields was arrested after the dog owner made a report to police.

The death penalty in America may be dying a slow death, a new report suggests.

Fewer convicted killers are facing the death penalty than at any time since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment, according to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center. The Center is opposed to how the death penalty is currently used, The Wall Street Journal reports.

So far this year, 78 death sentences have been handed down nationwide -- the fewest in a single year since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.

Scott Huber of Naperville, Ill. is well-known for a number of things. The homeless man is kind of a local celebrity -- he poses for pictures, blogs and ran for mayor.

His downtown "protest site" (complete with an electric generator) even led to an outpouring of community concern.

But now he's in the news for something completely different. A local judge has ordered the homeless man to get a job. And if he doesn't, he may go to jail.

Former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal will no longer face the death penalty. The Philadelphia district attorney decided this week to drop their decades-long battle over Abu-Jamal's sentence.

Prosecutors made the announcement just days before the 30th anniversary of his conviction. The decision also comes down after a federal appeals court this year ordered a new sentencing hearing. The appeals court found the jury instructions given in the original case were unclear.

Abu-Jamal was convicted of fatally shooting Daniel Faulkner, a police officer, in 1982. The former Black Panther and his supporters have long argued that his conviction was the result of racial bias, according to The Washington Post.

A federal judge came down hard on former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, sentencing him to 14 years in prison on charges of corruption and lying to federal agents.

The sentence came after Blagojevich made an emotional plea for leniency. U.S. District Judge James Zagel said he gave Blagojevich credit for accepting responsibility, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Prosecutors were seeking a 15- to 20-year sentence for Blagojevich, 54. The then-governor was arrested in 2008 after being caught on tape attempting to "auction off" the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama.

For the second time in two years, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether juvenile life sentences violate the 8th Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

At issue is whether life without parole is an appropriate sentence for young juveniles whose crimes result in homicide. The Court will hear Miller v. Alabama and Arkansas' Jackson v. Hobbes, both of which involved 14-year-old defendants.

Therefore, the Court's decision will be limited to defendants aged 14 and younger.

A Texas man is facing a harsh sentence for a shoplifter. He was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for stealing a TV from a Walmart valued at around $348 in June 2010.

William Alan Kennedy, 38, knocked down 56-year-old Bruce Florence, a Walmart employee, during the shoplifting incident.

Florence hit his head and was hospitalized. He died 9 days later.

Did you know that, in Illinois, the crime of threatening a public official receives a lesser punishment than the threatening of a private individual?

Upset about his pending sex offender registration, Maurice Pennington filed a suit challenging the state's rules. In that filing, he made violent threats against Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Charged with threatening a public official, he faces a maximum of 5 years. If he had threatened a private person, he would face a maximum of 10 years.

What is threatening a public official? And why does it receive a lesser sentence?