Committing Crimes While In Prison:  An habitual felon currently serving time in an Oklahoma prison has plead guilty to filing fraudulent federal tax returns netting over $219,000 while in the California prison in Susanville.  Cathy Locke of the Sacramento Bee reports that Edwin Ludwig IV, has been identified as the ringleader in the tax fraud scheme which involved fellow inmates and accomplices outside of prison.  So far authorities credit Ludwig and company with 247 false tax returns between 2008 and 2011.  Under California's Realignment law, Ludwig would not have been eligible for a prison sentence if he had committed state tax fraud. 

Federal Court Denies Murderer's Appeal:   A divided panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a condemned murderer's third request to extend the deadline for filing a habeas corpus petition.   KWTX Houston reports that triple-murderer Louis Castro Perez unsuccessfully claimed that one of his appeals attorneys abandoned him, resulting in his failure to submit his federal claims before the deadline.  Perez was convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend and her roommate to death and strangling the roommate's nine-year-old daughter to death with panty hose.  The facts found by the jury are included in this District Court ruling.  
Anti-death penalty groups claim the Perez is innocent.