1. LOS ANGELES — A former top college football prospect was cleared of rape charges after his accuser said that she lied and the conversation was recorded. Brian Banks had served five years in prison after pleading no contest to one count of forcible rape and spent five years behind bars. Banks spent nearly five years as a registered sex offender before a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge cleared his name. Banks is now trying out for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
2. SACRAMENTO — County jails showed a slight increase during the last quarter of 2011. The jail population went from 71,293 to 72,132. Maximum-security detainees rose from 22,478 to 23,339, according to corrections authorities.
3. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California’s use of its “three strikes” law to increase prison sentences for defendants who had convictions as juveniles is legal. The case is Staunton vs. California, 11-8851.
4. SAN FRANCISCO — Carl Wade was granted a compassionate release from prison because he is confined to a wheelchair, needs oxygen to breathe, and is terminally ill. After prison officials and the parole board granted his release, a Lake County judge disagreed and said Wade belongs in prison for his 1986 murder. The state appeals court overruled the Lake County judge and ordered Wade’s release.
5. AUSTIN, TX — State officials were ordered to pay about $2 million to Billy Frederick Allen, who spent 26 years on a murder conviction that was overturned.
6. SAN QUENTIN — A Death Row prisoner committed suicide in late May, prison officials report. James Lee Crummell, 68, was found hanging in his cell at San Quentin State Prison.
7. SACRAMENTO — A federal judge rejected the state’s request to retake control of the prison system’s medical delivery system. Judge Thelton Henderson ruled the state did not show they are ready to retake control of the system.
8. FLORENCE, AZ — At least seven prisoners died from drug overdoses in the past two years. State officials classified the deaths as suicides, according to The Republic.
9. FLORENCE, CO — After spending more than six years in one of the most isolated prisons in the United States, Jose Martin Vega was found hanging in his cell, according to The Atlantic. Vega had a long history of psychiatric problems, prison officials told Fremont County Deputy Coroner Carlette Brocious. The prison’s mental health practices and policies are now subjects of a new federal lawsuit.
10. PENNSYLVANIA — With state prison spending becoming the state’s fastest-growing expense,
Gov. Tom Corbett congratulated a think-tank for providing ways that the state could focus on rehabilitation, efficiencies in the system and reinvesting money in public safety to bring down prison costs, reported Donald Gilliland in the Patriot-News. “The proposals would send millions to counties for improved policing and probation at the local level, and offer millions more to counties that reduce the number of people they send to prison with less than one year to serve.”
11. KANSAS CITY, MO — A shortage of the state’s death-penalty drug was resolved when they decided to use a single drug instead of the three-drug method to implement capital punishment. The drug, propofol, is the same one that killed Michael Jackson.
