Alex Murdaugh talks with his defense attorney Jim Griffin during a jury-tampering hearing at the Richland County Judicial Center, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via , Pool)

ALEX MURDAUGH:

HARD-BOILED DRAMA: Murdaugh ‘egg juror’ fights to crack open jury tampering investigation with records in court clerk scandal

STAKES RAISED: Murdaugh defense plans alternate suspect push as DNA questions loom over retrial

DEFENSE BLITZ: Murdaugh sues court clerk after murder conviction overturned over jury tampering accusations

SCALES TIPPED: Becky Hill’s ‘disgraceful’ comments and book ambitions unraveled Murdaugh’s murder conviction: Docs

LUIGI MANGIONE:

Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare, pears in State Supreme Court in Manhattan during an evidence suppression hearing in his case on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 (Curtis Means for Daily Mail via Pool)

BLIND SPOT: New York’s ‘wrong-headed’ defendant-friendly laws helped toss Mangione evidence: retired cop

DECISION DAY: Mangione evidence ruling could determine what jurors see at his September murder trial

TYLER ROBINSON:

Tyler Robinson, accused of the murder of Charlie Kirk, pears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via Pool)

COURTROOM CLASH: Robinson’s defense team fights to seal evidence and punish prosecutors in Charlie Kirk’s assassination

SEALED LIPS: Robinson asks for more secret hearings after losing fight over cameras in court

NANCY GUTHRIE:

Authorities in Arizona are still searching for clues in the Nancy Guthrie case. The 84-year-old was last seen at his Tucson home on Jan. 31. ()

HACKER’S TOOLBOX: ‘Wrench attack’ theory ratchets up fears of organized criminals in Guthrie case

COLD CASES:

Charles Berry, 66, of Newington, Connecticut, was taken into custody Monday in connection with the 1986 re and murder of Roberta Walls, the Newington Police Department said in a statement. (Newington Police Department)

LONG OVERDUE: DNA cracks 40-year cold case mystery with arrest in library worker’s savage slaying: police

CAUGHT CHEWING: Cold case killer who chewed cops’ undercover DNA bait faces survivor, families in courtroom showdown

DECADES LATER: Teen vanished from home decades ago – now feds hope new image and shifting loyalties reveal truth

FAMILY TIES:

Gabriela Gonzalez faces attempted murder and conspiracy charges after prosecutors accused her of participating in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme targeting Jack Avery. (LA County Sheriff’s Office)

‘MOST SINISTER WAY’: Influencer mom, lawyer dad accused of dark-web murder plot against boy-band baby daddy

DYNASTY DRAMA: Mango clothing tycoon’s son arrested in death of billionaire whose brand stretches across US

DOUBLE LIFE EXPOSED: Oklahoma woman discovers husband was a Canadian man who faked his death 37 years earlier in a barn fire

The execution of a Tennessee death row inmate convicted of kidnping and killing three people was called off Thursday after the execution team tried and failed for over an hour to establish an intravenous line.

The state won’t try to execute Tony Carruthers for at least a year, Gov. Bill Lee announced. The Tennessee Department of Correction said medical personnel had quickly established a primary IV line but were unable to find a suitable vein for a backup line, which is required by the state’s execution protocol.

After efforts to insert a central line also failed, officials called off the execution. Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers, said she saw him “wincing and groaning” while officials attempted to find a vein, calling it “horrible” to watch.

At the time of the governor’s reprieve, DeLiberato was addressing reporters and began crying upon hearing the news.

TN ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTION METHOD THAT COULD ALLOW STATE TO RESUME EXECUTIONS AFTER LAST ONE HALTED IN 2022

Tonya Carruthers closes her eyes in prayer with other protesters against the execution of Tony Carruthers at the Tennessee Citol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, May 18, 2026. Carruthers’ execution was halted Thursday after the execution team tried and failed for over an hour to establish an intravenous line. ( Images; )

“That’s amazing!” she said. “I’m so grateful!”

Carruthers was sentenced to death for the 1994 kidnpings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker in Memphis. At trial, he was forced to represent himself after he repeatedly complained about his court-pointed attorneys and threatened to harm several of them.

Carruthers’ “paranoia and delusions” prevented him from being able to cooperate with court-pointed counsel, but the trial judge viewed this behavior as willful, his current attorneys said.

The conviction was based primarily on the testimony of individuals who claimed to have heard Carruthers confess to or discuss the crimes. No physical evidence tying him to the murders was presented at trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Anderson was a drug dealer and that Carruthers was attempting to take over the drug trade in his Memphis neighborhood. The witnesses who claimed to have heard Carruthers confess included a man who was later revealed to be a police informant, who subsequently told the media he was paid for his testimony.

EXECUTION SCHEDULED FOR TEXAS DEATH ROW INMATE CONVICTED IN ‘SHAKEN BABY’ CASE AS LAWYERS MAINTAIN INNOCENCE

Tori Carruthers and Latobiya Carruthers close their eyes in prayer with other protesters against the execution of Tony Carruthers at the Tennessee Citol in Nashville, Tenn., on May 18, 2026. ()

James Montgomery, a co-defendant, was originally sentenced to death alongside Carruthers, but was later resentenced and released from prison in 2015, according to court filings.

In their petition, Carruthers’s attorneys argued that he was sentenced to death largely because a medical examiner testified that the victims were buried alive. That claim was later withdrawn, and subsequent experts have stated it was false.

UTAH KILLER WITH DEMENTIA IS COMPETENT ENOUGH FOR DEATH SENTENCE TO BE CARRIED OUT, JUDGE RULES

In addition, his legal team argued that he was incompetent and should not be executed. Carruthers believed the government was bluffing about the execution in order to coerce him into accepting a plea deal that existed only in his mind, they claimed.

Protesters gather at the Tennessee Citol in Nashville on May 18, 2026, to oppose the execution of Tony Carruthers. ()

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By doing so, Carruthers believed the government could avoid paying him millions of dollars he thought he was owed.

He was convinced that his own attorneys were part of a conspiracy against him and refused to speak with them, according to court filings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kyiv — Ukraine is implementing “enhanced security measures in the northern regions” near its border with Belarus as Russia holds joint nuclear drills with its close ally, for which Moscow says “nuclear munitions were delivered” to field storage facilities.

Kyiv announced the heightened security posture along its northern border Thursday after warning for weeks of a possible fresh attack coming from Belarus, Russia’s chief regional ally.

Kyiv has sounded the alarm that Russia may use Belarus — which it used as a springboard to launch its ongoing, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — to stage a new offensive from the north, including toward the cital Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said its units and the army were “carrying out a comprehensive set of enhanced security measures in the northern regions of our country.”

The measures — including stepped up checks and controls of individuals and properties — “will serve as an effective deterrent to any aggressive actions or operations by the enemy and its ally,” the SBU said in a statement.

The Kremlin on Monday dismissed Ukrainian allegations that it wanted to drag Belarus further into the war as “an attempt at further incitement.”

But on Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that, “as part of the nuclear forces exercise” taking place with Belarus, “nuclear munitions were delivered to the field storage facilities of the [Russian] missile brigade’s position” in the country.

A video posted Thursday on social media by Belarus’ Ministry of Defense, which peared to have been created by the Russian Defense Ministry, showed a truck driving through a forest and unloading an item said to be related to the nuclear munitions.

Russia’s military said the missile brigade in Belarus was carrying out training to receive munitions for mobile Iskander-M tactical missile launch systems, including exercises in loading munitions onto launch vehicles and moving them clandestinely in preparation for a hypothetical launch.

Speaking Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance was monitoring the Russian-Belorussian exercises and warned that it’s reaction to any Russian nuclear attack would be “devastating,” according to the Kyiv Independent.

There has been little significant change in the trajectory of the war, now well into its fifth year, in recent months, though Ukrainian forces — taking advantage of drone warfare technology — have, according to multiple reports, managed to at least slow the rate of Russia’s encroachment.

A Wall Street Journal report published this week argued that Ukraine had in fact “wrestled Russia’s much-larger army almost to a halt in recent months, having gained a tactical and technological edge,” but it cautioned that it was too soon to declare the war had reached “a strategic turning point.”

A Brooklyn woman who drowned her three children in the Atlantic Ocean near Coney Island’s famous boardwalk will spend decades behind bars.

Erin Merdy, 34, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to first-degree murder charges in the 2022 deaths of her 7-year-old son Zachary, her 4-year-old daughter Liliana and her 3-month-old son Oliver.

“No sentence can fully measure the loss of a seven-year-old, a four-year-old and a three-month-old baby, or the grief their loved ones will carry forever,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.

“We sought the strongest possible accountability in this devastating case, and while nothing can bring these children back, this sentence ensures the defendant will be held responsible for taking their lives,” he added.

JUDGE SENTENCES NEVADA MOM FOR DROWNING YOUNG SON, DAUGHTER: ‘I WILL REMEMBER YOUR CASE FOREVER’

New York Police investigators examine a stretch of beach at Coney Island where three children were found dead in the surf, Sept. 12, 2022, in New York. ( Photo/Joseph Frederick)

Gonzalez said the children’s lives were taken “in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way.”

The children were found the morning of Sept. 12, 2022, after one of Merdy’s relatives called 911 expressing concern the children might be in danger.

Prosecutors said Merdy left the beach around 1:25 a.m. and began walking toward the artment of the father of her youngest child.

COLLEGE STUDENT ACCUSED OF LETTING NEWBORN DROWN – POLICE REVEAL PHONE PHOTOS OF ‘HATED MOM’ CASEY ANTHONY

The children of Erin Merdy, 30, were found unconscious near the shoreline of Coney Island Beach during a frantic overnight search early Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via )

Authorities later found Merdy barefoot and soaking wet about two miles from where the children were discovered.

According to prosecutors, Merdy repeatedly said the children were gone and that she was sorry.

The children’s bodies were recovered hours later along the shoreline just steps from the boardwalk.

MELODEE BUZZARD’S GRANDMOTHER SHREDS POSSIBLE INSANITY DEFENSE FOR ACCUSED KILLER MOM: ‘PLANNED EVERYTHING’

A Brooklyn woman was sentenced to decades in prison in connection with the drowning deaths of her three children. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via )

The city medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides caused by drowning.

Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Merdy walking toward the ocean with the children shortly before 1 a.m.

Merdy’s mother told the New York Daily News at the time that her daughter had recently struggled with mental health issues and may have been experiencing postpartum depression.

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“I reached out to her yesterday and she said she was doing laundry and I said I wanted to speak to the kids,” Jacqueline Scott, 56, told the outlet. “I tried to call her twice on the phone after that and there was no answer.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.