Crime News

An Arkansas man is found guilty of capital murder in the death of a television anchorwoman. Anne Pressly was attacked in her home on Oct. 20, 2008. She was beaten so badly that her face was shattered. A jury must now decide whether 29-year-old Curtis Lavelle Vance should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Steve Nunn, a former state representative and the son of a former Kentucky governor, is indicted in the September shooting death of his ex-fiance, Amanda Ross. The grand jury's action means the prosecutor could seek capital punishment if Nunn is convicted.

The suspect in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood is unlikely to be executed in a military justice system that has not killed anyone since 1961. Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist alleged to have gunned down 13 people, might also gain from unique protections the military provides defendants. "Our military justice system is not bloodthirsty," said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale.

A prison official in southern Virginia says John Allen Muhammad, the sniper who terrorized the Washington, D.C., area with a young accomplice in 2002, seemed "quiet and relaxed" before being put to death by lethal injection Tuesday night.

As the hour of John Allen Muhammad's execution draws near, the families of his victims reflect on what they have lost -- and on the elusive idea of closure. Bob Meyers, whose brother Dean was among those slain by the sniper, will attend the execution, but he denies any sense of victory: "I feel a responsibility to go out of loyalty to my brother, that our family be represented."