Death Penalty

A federal judge on Monday replaced the lawyer for Linda Ann Weston, the Philadelphia woman who could face the death penalty after being accused of running a ring that kidnapped, tortured, and enslaved mentally disabled people to collect their government benefit checks. U.S. Magistrate Judge L. Felipe Restrepo told Weston that lawyer George S. Yacoubian Jr. "has been doing very noble work without a fee," but that she needed attorneys with experience in capital cases. Restrepo appointed Patricia L. McKinney, and said he might add a second lawyer.

A federal judge today replaced the lawyer for Linda Ann Weston, the Philadelphia woman who could face the death penalty after being accused of running a ring that kidnapped, tortured and enslaved mentally disabled people to collect their government benefit checks. U.S. Magistrate Judge L. Felipe Restrepo told Weston that lawyer George S. Yacoubian Jr. "has been doing very noble work without a fee," but that she needed attorneys' with experience in capital cases. Restrepo appointed lawyer Patricia L. McKinney, who has such experience, and said he will consider adding a second lawyer to the defense team.

CAIRO - Clashes broke out in the Egyptian coastal city of Port Said on Saturday, leaving at least 30 dead and several hundred injured, following a court verdict imposing death sentences on 21 people for killings during a soccer riot in the city last year. It was the second day of violence in Egypt after tens of thousands of protesters marking the two-year anniversary of their revolution clashed with police in cities across the country Friday, leaving at least nine people dead in the city of Suez and more than 260 others injured nationwide, according to state officials.

LINDA ANN WESTON, the alleged ringleader of a "family" of violent con artists accused of holding disabled people captive in a Tacony basement to bilk them out of their Social Security checks, was charged federally Wednesday and may face the death penalty, authorities announced. Weston, 52, looking confused and wearing a dark sweat suit, stumbled into court Wednesday to hear the charges against her, which are contained in a 196-count indictment. She is charged with two murders, two counts of sex trafficking, forced human labor and multiple counts of fraud, kidnapping, racketeering and several other offenses.

Federal authorities on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping racketeering indictment against the Philadelphia woman who allegedly enslaved mentally disabled adults to steal their benefit checks, adding hate-crime and murder charges that could expose her to the death penalty. The crimes outlined in the 196-count indictment against Linda Ann Weston and four others include much of the same depravity and sadism that first emerged when police found the dirty, emaciated victims locked in a Tacony basement in October 2011.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty against Raghunandan Yandamuri, accused of killing a baby and her grandmother in King of Prussia last year. "We filed the notice to seek the death penalty today," said Kevin R. Steele, first assistant district attorney and the chief prosecutor on the case. Charges against Yandamuri, 25, include two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, and kidnapping for ransom. On Oct. 22, 2012, the body of Satayrathi Venna, 61, was found with knife wounds to her neck and chest on the floor of her son's apartment in the Marquis Apartment Complex on West DeKalb Pike.

David Warren Wycoff, 56, of South Philadelphia, a Philadelphia public defender who fought on behalf of prisoners on death row, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday, Jan. 5, at Pennsylvania Hospital. For 20 years, Mr. Wycoff worked for the Federal Public Defender's Capital Habeas Unit in Philadelphia. Mr. Wycoff "was very proud to be a public defender," said his wife, Deborah Freedman, herself a lawyer. "He believed strongly that the death penalty was not just. " One of the highlights of his career occurred in 2005, when he argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, unsuccessfully challenging a homicide conviction, his wife said.

Israeli ordered held in Egypt EL-ARISH, Egypt - Egyptian security officials said that a former sergeant in the Israeli army has been ordered detained for 15 days for investigation into his illegal entry from Israel into the Sinai Peninsula. The authorities said the 24-year-old unarmed Israeli has been in custody since Friday. Officials said Tuesday he is under investigation in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for allegedly trying to reach the Gaza Strip through Sinai. They have identified him as Andrew Yaacoub Cheteko.

Fla. puts more on death row ORLANDO, Fla. - A report by a national nonprofit group that studies the death penalty found that Florida put more people on death row in 2012 than any other state. The Death Penalty Information Center's report says nine states executed prisoners this year. Texas, with 15, executed the most. Florida executed three; there were none in Pennsylvania and one in Delaware. New Jersey does not have the death penalty. Florida far exceeded other states in new death sentences: 21 were sentenced to die in Florida through mid-December, the report says.