Death Penalty

Raghunandan Yandamuri pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of first-degree murder and 11 other charges in a bizarre kidnap-and-ransom case that turned deadly in a King of Prussia apartment complex last October. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty against Yandamuri, 27, of Upper Merion, in the deaths of 10-month-old Saanvi Venna and her grandmother. County Court Judge Steven T. O'Neill accepted the 13 not-guilty pleas from Yandamuri's court-appointed lawyer, Stephen G. Heckman, as the defendant sat quietly next to his attorney.

Ark. approves abortion limit LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas lawmakers overrode a veto Wednesday and gave the state the most restrictive abortion law in the country - a near-ban on the procedure from the 12th week of pregnancy onward that is certain to end up in court. A day after the GOP-led Senate voted to override Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto, the GOP-controlled House voted 56-33 to do the same. Only a simple majority was needed in each chamber. The ban would prohibit abortions from the point when a fetus' heartbeat can typically be detected using an abdominal ultrasound.

BEIJING - In an unusual action that quickly sparked debate online, Chinese authorities showed a live broadcast Friday of four foreign drug smugglers in their last hours before execution for killing 13 fishermen. A shocking and apparently unprecedented form of reality TV for China, the program on state-run television featured all the staples of modern current events coverage - experts, pundits, instant analysis. It cut away as the convicted men were being led from their cells, hands tied up with rope, toward their lethal injections.

PHOENIX - Jodi Arias has been on the witness stand for more than a week, recounting one intimate detail of her life after another. Salacious revelations of sexual antics. Tales of deviance, betrayal, and bad decisions. An abusive childhood. Dead-end restaurant jobs, high school boyfriends, movies, and cooking. But after six days, she still hasn't mentioned the killing of her onetime boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008, how she repeatedly stabbed and slashed him, slit his throat, then shot him in the head.

The Kaboni Savage racketeering and murder trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia. Savage, 38, a convicted drug dealer, is on trial on charges he ordered a deadly firebombing attack to retaliate against a cooperating witness, and plotted to retaliate against other witnesses. He could face the death penalty if convicted. On Thursday, Savage's lawyer, Christian J. Hoey, cross-examined FBI Special Agent Kevin Lewis. The agent admitted he had "no idea who shot Mr. Savage" at a recreation center in March 2001, when Savage was on house arrest.

AS A FEDERAL prosecutor on Monday laid out a chilling case against Kaboni Savage, a once-feared North Philadelphia drug kingpin now on trial for 12 murders, some jurors looked pained by what they heard during the first day's proceedings. Savage, who could receive the death penalty, at times smiled as he whispered to his attorney, Christian J. Hoey. Savage, 37, jotted pages of notes on a yellow legal pad as Assistant U.S. Attorney David Troyer told the jurors of the murders the defendant had allegedly committed, of the slayings he's accused of ordering and of the threats he'd allegedly made against the lives of his enemies.

No one was awake - not the 57-year-old grandmother, her niece, or the four children - when the two men carrying red cans full of gasoline climbed the porch of the North Sixth Street house in the predawn darkness. One kicked the door in and fired gunshots up the stairs to keep everyone frozen in their bedrooms. Then the men lit the cloths that plugged the gas cans like wicks and tossed the makeshift bombs inside. In seconds, fire engulfed the house, killing all the occupants. The October 2004 attack shook the city as one of the grimmest examples of witness retaliation.

FORT HOOD, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage still faces the death penalty if convicted in the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation, a judge ruled Wednesday. The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, was expected to rule later on Maj. Nidal Hasan's request to plead guilty to 13 counts of premeditated murder in the 2009 attack on the Texas Army post. However, Army rules prohibit a judge from accepting a guilty plea in a death-penalty case, so her earlier ruling Wednesday indicates he would not be allowed to plead guilty as long as that punishment option remains on the table.