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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's governor pardoned country star Jelly Roll on Thursday for his criminal past in the state, acknowledging th…
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A court in Romania has sentenced American rapper Wiz Khalifa to nine months in jail on drug possession charges. The ruling on Thursday came more than a year after he took part in a music festival in the Eastern European country. Khalifa was stopped by Romanian police in July 2024 after allegedly smoking cannabis on stage at the festival in Costinesti. Prosecutors said the rapper was found in possession of more than 18 grams of cannabis and that he consumed some on stage. The Constanta Court of Appeal handed down the sentence. The decision is final. It isn’t clear whether Romanian authorities will seek to file an extradition request since Khalifa is a U.S. citizen and doesn’t reside in Romania.
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Imprisoned former Jeffrey Epstein girlfriend and longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is asking a federal judge to set aside her sex trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence, saying “substantial new evidence” has emerged to prove constitutional violations spoiled her trial. Maxwell maintained on Wednesday in a habeas petition she has promised to file since August that information that would have resulted in her exoneration at her 2021 trial was withheld and false testimony was presented to the jury. She said the cumulative effect of the constitutional violations resulted in a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
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Nick Reiner, son of Rob Reiner, appeared in court as he faces charges of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents. The 32-year-old did not enter a plea as he appeared Wednesday from behind the glass wall of a custody area. He was in shackles and wearing a jail suicide prevention smock. The 78-year-old actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead from stab wounds in their Los Angeles home Sunday. The couple's other two children, Jake and Romy Reiner, released a statement saying they are feeling unimaginable pain at the loss of parents who were also their best friends.
AP Wire
A doctor who pleaded guilty in a scheme to supply ketamine to actor Matthew Perry has been sentenced to 8 months of home confinement. A federal judge in Los Angeles has sentenced Dr. Mark Chavez of San Diego to 3 years of supervised release on Tuesday. The “Friends” star died from an overdose in 2023 from ketamine, which can be used legally as a treatment for depression. Chavez had acquired the ketamine and given it to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who sold it to Perry. Plasencia was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison earlier this month.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation to El Salvador has become a significant issue in the Trump administration's immigration policies. Despite having no criminal record, he was held in a brutal prison there. His lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, says Abrego Garcia is still fighting for justice. Last week, a federal judge in Maryland ordered his release and temporarily barred the government from detaining him again. Abrego Garcia has options like applying for asylum or a green card, but challenges loom with those options. His priority is avoiding a return to the El Salvador prison where he says he was was tortured.
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Pope Leo XIV has criticized prison overcrowding during a special Mass for detainees, guards and their families. The Vatican said an estimated 6,000 people signed up to participate in the weekend pilgrimage dedicated to prisoners that marks the final big event of the 2025 Holy Year. Among them were some inmates who received authorization to participate, according to the Italian penitentiaries chaplain’s association. Sunday's Mass closed out the Jubilee year that Pope Francis inaugurated on Dec. 24, 2024, which had as its main thrust transmitting a message of hope especially for those on society’s margins.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has been released from a Belarusian prison after more than four years. He was freed on Saturday as part of a deal with the U.S., which lifted some of the sanctions on Belarus. Bialiatski, a veteran human rights advocate, spoke to The Associated Press in Vilnius, Lithuania. He described “inhumane” conditions in the penal colony, including limited medical care. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has faced Western sanctions for its human rights record and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 while imprisoned.
Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski tells AP of his ordeal in a Belarus prison in first interview after release.
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Prosecutors say fired University of Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore threatened to kill himself in front of a woman with whom he had been having an affair after she broke off the relationship and reported it to school officials. He was charged Friday with stalking and home invasion. The university fired the 39-year-old Wednesday, saying he had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. He was subsequently arrested and spent two nights in jail. Moore appeared virtually on a television monitor at the arraignment on Friday.