A bill making its way through the Oklahoma Legislature would allow jails to use a “Rapid DNA” analysis system for people booked in, allowing law enforcement to enter an arrestee’s DNA profile into databases maintained by the FBI and OSBI to check for involvement in other crimes.
Last week, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed an appeal from the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office asking that the court overturn a ruling by a Tulsa County judge that David James Miller is immune from prosecution under Oklahoma’s Stand Your Ground law.
The town of Sayre says CoreCivic breached its contract by failing to pay the city money based on the number of prisoners held at the North Fork Correctional Facility there.
For law enforcement agencies, a positive alert from a certified narcotics-detecting dog can give an officer probable cause to search a vehicle without a search warrant. But, records show, an alert does not always mean drugs are present.
Authorities say lax security and a lack of programs at the halfway house allowed inmates to come and go as they pleased. Now some of those inmates are facing accusations that include murder, rape and armed robbery.
Randa Ludlow, 19, was ordered to be freed immediately from the Washington County jail after the Supreme Court voided the contempt order of District Judge Curtis DeLapp and granted Ludlow’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
The shifting piles of mining waste, collapsing mines, sinking grounds and toxic streams near the Tar Creek Superfund site ensure that change in the area is constant. One northeastern Oklahoma organization is hoping to see change for the better.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections opted to hire a private law firm in the $11 million lawsuit after Attorney General Mike Hunter issued an opinion on jail costs “which conflicted with the position of DOC.”
