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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Driver won't get death penalty in Texas smuggling case

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Truck in San Antonio, TX
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (KTRK) -- The federal government will not seek the death penalty against a 60-year-old driver at the center of a human smuggling case that killed 10 people in San Antonio, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

James Bradley Jr. will not be sentenced to death, according to U.S. Attorney General Richard Durban, Jr., but will face additional charges in the case after a grand jury returned a superseding indictment Wednesday.

The indictment also charged 47-year-old Pedro Silva Seguara, an undocumented alien, in connection to transporting and harboring undocumented aliens for financial gain resulting in serious bodily injury. Segura faces life imprisonment or the death penalty.

In July, authorities were called to the Walmart store near Interstate 35 in San Antonio. According to the criminal complaint, Bradley told police the trailer he was hauling had been sold and he was "unaware" of its contents. He said he stopped at the Walmart and exited the vehicle to relieve himself when he heard "banging and shaking" in the trailer.

Survivors told authorities people began passing out, hitting trailer walls and making noise to get the driver's attention.

Bradley has also been charged with transportation of undocumented aliens resulting death, transporting undocumented aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

He faces up to life imprisonment for the conspiracy and transportation-resulting-in-death charges and up to ten years in federal prison for the firearm charge.

Source: KTRK-TV, Sept. 20, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: San Antonio, TX, USA
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