Criminal Justice

June 11, 2013 - Georgia and South Carolina are among the states with the highest rates of sexual assault of juvenile detainees, and most of the abuse involves the very staff members charged with supervising and counseling the troubled youngsters.

June 7, 2013 - North Carolina lawmakers this week voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act, a groundbreaking state law that allows death row inmates to have their sentences commuted to life without parole if they can prove racial bias played a role in their cases.

May 31, 2013 - Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled a plan this week to automatically restore voting rights to nonviolent felons in a state where one in five African-American adults is disenfranchised due to an unusually harsh law. Civil rights advocates praised the move, but some say the governor should go further.

May 28, 2013 - Amid a shortage of drugs used for executions, some states are searching for new suppliers and different drugs. Others -- including Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee -- have amended public records laws to keep the names of suppliers and manufacturers of alternative drugs secret.

May 2, 2013 - In the world of abusive prosecutors, Ken Anderson stands out: Anderson, a Texas prosecutor who abused his authority to help send an innocent man to prison for decades, now faces 10 years behind bars for his misconduct.

April 8, 2013 - The New Orleans mayor is fighting a consent degree aimed at improving the abysmal conditions inside the Orleans Parish Prison, arguing it would adversely affect people who aren't incarcerated. But in a city that incarcerates more of its residents than anywhere else in the world, will this "us vs. them" strategy work?

March 28, 2013 - A watchdog group has compiled a list of banking's "dirty dozen" corporate criminals, and Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America makes the cut with billions paid out in penalties and settlements for various crimes.