The Indiana Supreme Court decided Thursday that the death penalty phase for cop killer Zolo Azania could move forward, reversing a lower court ruling that too much time had passed. According to a Post-Tribune article by Jon Seidel, Azania was convicted of murdering a Gary city Indiana police Lt. George Yaros in 1981 and has been resentenced twice, first for Ineffective assistance (1993) then due to a computer glitch which may have tainted the jury pool in 1996. .

The Boston Federal Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence for triple-murderer Gary Lee Sampson, who claimed that the trial judge erred by allowing photos of the victims and the crime scenes. The court sealed the decision for one week in order to allow attorneys to object to any material that should not be made public. Sampson is the first person in Massachusetts sentenced to death sentence under federal statute. An Associated Press story gives more details .

An accused rapist has gone free because Massachusetts law does not define intercourse by fraud or deceit as rape. AP writer Denise Lavote reports the victim's claim that Alvin Suliveres impersonated her boyfriend (Suliveres' brother) and initiated a sexual encounter with her. For the past half century Massachusetts law has defined rape as accomplished only through means of "force against the will of the victim." The court cited a similar case from 1959 and mentioned that the state legislature has had "ample opportunity" to amend the law to include fraud or deceit.