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December 2, 2008 10:34:50 PM CST

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11 Stories

8-Year-Old Murder Suspect to Go Home for Turkey Day

Experts say video won't stand up in court

CNN CNN Nov 20, 08 9:20 AM CST
(Newser) - There’s good news for the 8-year-old boy police believe killed his father and another man. The third-grader, whose shocking video confession made national headlines, will be allowed to leave jail for 48 hours to spend Thanksgiving with his mother, a judge ruled yesterday. Another, perhaps bigger, break: Legal experts tell CNN that said video confession can’t possibly be used in court. More »

 What Edwards Was Trying to Tell Us—and Not Tell Us

Jack Flack reads between the lines of scandal-speak

Portfolio Portfolio Aug 9, 08 8:50 AM CDT
(Newser) - John Edwards employed classic damage control methods in finally confessing his affair yesterday—ie, announcing it late on a Friday so it would fade over the weekend, and giving an exclusive interview to ensure a sympathetic questioner and avoid a feeding frenzy. Jack Flack, writing in Portfolio, parses Edwards’ statement for efforts to own up manfully while portraying the transgression as brief, meaningless, and, most important, old news. More »

More about:  John Edwards • affair • Rielle Hunter • adultery • confession

Imposter Priest Confessor Nabbed at Vatican

'Strange behavior'
tipped off authorities

BBC BBC Jul 6, 08 8:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - A phony priest was stopped just as he was about to hear confessions in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the BBC reports. The man had on the right clothes and produced valid-looking priestly documents and Vatican ID—"but the expert eye of our personnel didn't need much to sense something strange in his behavior," said a Vatican judge. More »

More about:  crime • Vatican • priest • confession • imposter

Evangelicals Turn Back
to Ritual

Some adopt previously shunned  confession, communion, Lent

Washington Post Washington Post Mar 8, 08 12:51 PM CST
(Newser) - Evangelical Christians are increasingly turning to long-shunned traditions as a means of practicing their faith, reports the Washington Post . In a trend some call “worship renewal,” some are reviving Catholic customs such as fasting for Lent, going to confession, and weekly communion. “Evangelicalism is coming to point where the early church has become the newest staple of its diet,” says a theology professor. More »

More about:  Christianity • evangelicals • Catholicism • Catholics • Christians • confession • traditions • communion • ancient customs • monasteries • Lent

Police Question Holloway Suspect Again

Van der Sloot says he was stoned during taped confession

ABC News ABC News Feb 9, 08 1:54 PM CST
(Newser) - Joran Van der Sloot, the elusive top suspect in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, told Dutch police he was stoned when he confessed to a reporter that he was involved in her death, reports ABC News. Police picked him up for questioning after the apparent confession was caught on a hidden camera and shown on 20/20 last week. Aruban prosecutors said he steadfastly disavowed the confession and said he'd been smoking pot at the time. More »

More about:  Natalee Holloway • Aruba • confession • Joran Van der Sloot • hidden camera

Aruba May
Bust Holloway Suspect Again

Dutch teen claims
he lied about dumping her body after sex

CNN CNN Feb 1, 08 11:04 PM CST
(Newser) - Aruban police may rearrest a Dutch teen after he admitted on camera to dumping the body of Natalee Holloway, CNN reports. Joran Van der Sloot claimed today that his confession was a lie, but Aruba's main public prosecutor has reopened his probe and awaits a judge's ruling on the arrest this weekend. Officials had closed the case for lack evidence until a Dutch reporter showed them the video. More »

More about:  murder • crime • judge • Natalee Holloway • Aruba • confession • prosecutor • Joran Van der Sloot

Shunning Makes a Comeback
in US Churches

Pastors resurrect old practice to tame black sheep in their flocks

Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal Jan 20, 08 10:08 AM CST
(Newser) - In an effort to reclaim their churches' role as moral authority, many Protestant ministers have reinstated the all-but-lost practice of shunning unrepentant sinners from their congregations. And while nobody's yet had to pin a scarlet "A" to their Sunday best, the consequences of the puritanical revival have weighed heavy on some so-called sinners, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

More about:  confession • megachurches • pastor • Protestants • Baptists • churchgoers • moral authority

Daughter & Lover Confess to Killing 6 in Family: Cops

She 'felt unloved,'
says relative

Associated Press Associated Press Dec 28, 07 3:53 AM CST
(Newser) - The daughter of a murdered couple and her boyfriend have confessed to killing the young woman's parents and four other relatives, according to police. Michele Anderson, 29, and her live-in lover gunned down Anderson's parents Christmas Eve at their home outside Seattle, police said. When Anderson's brother, his wife and two young children arrived, they were also shot dead to eliminate witnesses. More »

More about:  murder • Christmas • Washington • Seattle • confession • Carnation, Wash. • Joseph McEnroe

Boat Slayings Suspect Blabs
in Prison

Inmate says man confessed to aiding
in four murders

Associated Press Associated Press Dec 20, 07 4:52 PM CST
(Newser) - A jailhouse confession could doom two suspects in the murder of four people in the Joe Cool fishing boat case, the AP reports. A fellow inmate says suspect Guillermo Zarabozo came clean about the September killings, claiming that accomplice Kirby Archer shot the victims and that Zarabozo dumped the bodies overboard. The killings came after the boat's captain refused to take the pair to Cuba, the inmate said. More »

More about:  murder • Cuba • pirates • extradition • confession • missing boater

Lay Judges
to Join Bench
in Japan

Will citizens temper Japan's courts, where 99.9% are found guilty?

Bloomberg Bloomberg Aug 25, 07 8:38 AM CDT
(Newser) - Japan will give citizens the gavel in an effort to counteract its judicial system’s prejudice for presuming guilt. Six citizens and three trained jurists will sit on criminal cases, and the majority will rule, Bloomberg reports. The new system follows a clamor of criticism about forced confessions, inhumane treatment of death row inmates and Japan’s 99.9% conviction rate. More »

More about:  United Nations • Japan • human rights • judge • execution • conviction • death row • confession • Council of Europe

Tehran to Air 'Confessions' of US Scholars

Prisoner pair
caged for months

Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Jul 17, 07 5:08 AM CDT
(Newser) - Two Iranian-American scholars arrested for espionage in Iran appear to have made videotaped confessions after months of interrogation, the Los Angeles Times reports. Iran's state-run television is airing excerpts of the statements  to promote the confessions to be broadcast tomorrow. On tape, Haleh Esfandiari 67, of  the Woodrow Wilson Center, appears pale and wears a black chador. More »

More about:  Tehran • confession

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