East Bay Murderer Gets Death Penalty: Paul T. Rosynsky reported in the Mercury News that former Navy sailor Anthony McKnight smiled and openly laughed as he was sentenced to death for killing and raping five women in 1985 by an Alameda County Superior Court judge. McKnight's rampage began in October 1985 and ended four months later when the body of Beverly Bryant, 24, was found brutally beaten and raped in the courtyard of Howard Elementary School in Oakland. McKnight, was serving a 63-year prison sentence for assaulting six women from 1984 though 1986, will now be transported to the state's Death Row.

Ohio Murderer Executed: Gregory Bryant-Bey was executed today after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a 60-day reprieve as reported by AP writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins. He died by lethal injection at 10:41 a.m. EST at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Bryant-Bey was the second inmate put to death in Ohio since the end of last year's unofficial national moratorium on executions. He was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of a collectibles store owner in Toledo. A previous post on the case is here.

A MetroCard Saves Murder Suspect: A story from the NY Times by Benjamin Weiser reports that a man named Jason Jones was arrested for a fatal shooting in the Bronx in May but was able to use his MetroCard to show that he was nowhere near the crime scene. The card showed that it had been used on a bus, and later on a subway roughly five miles from the shooting. Weiser reports that in an era before plastic MetroCards, which track and store data on where and when the cards are used in a central computer system, this type of investigation would not have been possible. In at least one instance, MetroCard's "electronic evidence" resulted in a conviction. Federal prosecutors also charged Jones' older brother, Corey, in the shooting. Both brothers have been released on bond for now, an unusual step in a federal murder case, while prosecutors continue to investigate.

Obama Expected To Appoint A Woman To The Supreme Court: An article by LA Times reporter David Savage predicts that a shift to the left on the Supreme Court is unlikely since none of the conservative justices are expected to retire in the next four years. While President Elect Obama has called former Justices Warren, Brennan and Marshall his heroes, many expect his first appointment to be a woman since there is currently only one woman on the Supreme Court. Some of the candidates include Judges Diane Wood Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit; and Elena Kagan dean of Harvard Law School. The story suggests that Obama's background as a law professor, makes it unlikely that he will rely heavily on advisors to select his appointments for the high court.