Give MySpace Hoaxer Probation: Lawyer

Missouri mom accused of bullying neighborhood teen with fake persona

(NEWSER) - Lori Drew’s fate is in the hands of a California jury as the case of the “MySpace bully” goes into deliberations, Wired reports. After forceful closing arguments yesterday, the jury will decide whether the mother committed computer fraud by creating a false online identity used to bully a neighborhood teen into suicide in 2006. More»

Trial opens in nation's first cyber-bullying case

(NEWSER) - A mother tearfully recalled in a Los Angeles court yesterday how her 13-year-old daughter hanged herself shortly after receiving a hateful online message from a neighbor woman posing as a teenage boy, AP reports. Lori Drew allegedly created a MySpace persona named Josh to first woo then harass Megan Meier, prosecutors argued as the nation's first-ever cyber bullying case got underway. More»

(NEWSER) - Five black students accused of beating a white classmate in Louisiana pleaded no contest to misdemeanor civil battery today, ending a trial that triggered a huge civil rights demonstration, the Alexandria Town Talk reports. Critics said that the so-called "Jena Six," originally charged with attempted murder, were treated harshly for being black. A judge fined them $500 each and sentenced them to a week of unsupervised probation. More»

My client was drunk, stupid, sleazy—oh, and black, argues Jefferson's lawyer

(NEWSER) - What do you say when you’re defending William Jefferson, on trial for allegedly taking $100,000 in bribe money and hiding it in his freezer? Pretty much whatever the heck you can think of, writes Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. The lawyer for the then-Congressman opened his defense yesterday with a crack about “frozen assets” before arguing that his client was sleazy and stupid, but not technically guilty. More»

Ahmed Ghailani to be tried for bombing US embassies

(AP) - The first Guantanamo Bay detainee has landed on US soil, landing in New York to face trial on charges of bombing US embassies, the Justice Department said today. Ahmed Ghailani arrived in the early morning, to be held in law enforcement custody until his trial in federal court in lower Manhattan; his first court appearance is expected later today. More»