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Sara Kruzan
Sara Jessimy Kruzan (born January 8, 1978) is an American activist and survivor of child sex trafficking. In 1995, at the age of 17, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of her trafficker, George Gilbert Howard, who began to groom her for the sex industry at the age of 11. She was initially sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, but was later both paroled and pardoned. Early life Sara Kruzan was born on January 8, 1978. She was raised by her mother in Riverside, California, where she was an honor roll student at school. During her childhood, she met her father only three times because he was serving prison terms. During her childhood, Kruzan experienced severe depression, resulting in numerous hospitalizations. "Her mother admitted bashing Kruzan's head on the floor. Kruzan was placed in foster care for a time after bruises were discovered. Kruzan was molested for the first time at age 5 by her mom's boyfriend. Successive boyfriends did the same." Killing of Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder (United States Law)
In the United States, the law for murder varies by jurisdiction. In many US jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first-degree murder and felony murder are the most serious, followed by second-degree murder and, in a few states, third-degree murder, followed by voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter which are not as serious, followed by reckless homicide and negligent homicide which are the least serious, and ending finally in justifiable homicide, which is not a crime. However, because there are at least 52 relevant jurisdictions, each with its own criminal code, this is a considerable simplification. Sentencing also varies widely depending upon the specific murder charge. "Life imprisonment" is a common penalty for first-degree murder, but its meaning varies widely. Capital punishment is a legal sentence in 27 states, and in the federal civilian and military legal systems, though 8 of these states and the federal gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lying In Wait
In criminal law, lying in wait refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill or inflict serious bodily harm to that person. Because lying in wait involves premeditation, some jurisdictions have established that lying in wait is considered an aggravating circumstance that allows for the imposition of harsher criminal penalties. History Scholars have traced the origins of this doctrine as far back as 1389, when the English Parliament passed a law that denied the right of pardon to individuals who killed while lying in wait. In the United States In 1794, Pennsylvania passed a law that defined first degree murder as " l murder which shall be perpetrated ... by lying in wait". In the United States of America, some states modeled their penal codes after the Pennsylvania law, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century, only four states identified "lying in wait" as a "death qualifying act".H. Mitchell Caldwell''The Prostitution of Lying in Wai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chrystul Kizer
Chrystul Kizer was arrested at age 17 for the murder of Randall Phillip Volar III. During her arrest, she claimed Volar was her sex trafficker. On June 5, 2018, she allegedly shot him twice while he was sitting in a chair, set his house on fire, then stole his car. Kizer was arrested and incarcerated at Kenosha County Detention Facility to await trial. Kenosha County prosecutors charged her with first degree intentional homicide using a dangerous weapon, and four other felonies. They contend the killing was premeditated. If convicted, she would face a mandatory life sentence in prison. Kizer's lawyers claim that she was a child trafficking victim acting in self-defense against her sex trafficker. Her case received renewed notoriety in December 2019 after ''The Washington Post'' interviewed her, and after the George Floyd protests. Community activists posted her $400,000 bond, and she was released in June 2020. A trial date is not set. Renewed interest in her case followed the Kyle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyntoia Brown
Cyntoia Brown Long (née Brown; born January 29, 1988) is an American author and speaker who was convicted of murder and robbery at the age of 16. Brown, who was a victim of child sex trafficking at the time of the incident, claimed that Johnny Allen had paid her $150 to have sex with him, and that she feared for her life during their encounter, leading her to shoot him. Prosecutors argued that Brown killed Allen while he was sleeping in order to rob him. Brown was found guilty of robbing and murdering Allen and was sentenced to life imprisonment. She would have been eligible for parole at the age of 67. After renewed interest in her case in 2013, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam commuted her original sentence to 15 years and Brown was released on August 7, 2019. Her story is detailed in the 2011 documentary '' Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story'' and in her memoir, ''Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System''. Her fight for freedom from prison is docu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source Premier database. Dan Frank was Editorial Director from 1996 until his death in May 2021. Lisa Lucas joined the imprint in 2020 as Senior Vice President and Publisher. Overview Bertelsmann, the German company that also owns Bantam Books, Doubleday Publishing, and Dell Publishing, acquired Random House in 1998, along with its imprints Pantheon Books, Modern Library, Times Books, Everyman's Library, Vintage Books, Crown Publishing Group, Schocken Books, Ballantine Books, Del Rey Books, and Fawcett Publications,Miller, M. C. (March 26, 1998)"And then there were seven" Opinion, ''The New York Times'', p. A.27. making Bertelsmann the largest publisher of American books. In addition to classics, international fiction, and trade paperback ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cori Thomas
Cori Thomas is an author and screenwriter of Liberian and Brazilian descent. Cori is co-writer of Sara Kruzan's memoir ''I Cried to Dream Again'', published in May 2022 by Penguin Random House. She is also an award winning playwright whose works include ''When January Feels Like Summer'', ''Lockdown'', ''My Secret Language of Wishes'', ''Pa's Hat'', “Citizens Market” and more. Early life Thomas is the daughter of a Liberian ambassador. Career The world premiere of Thomas's ''When January Feels Like Summer'' was directed by Chuck Patterson, her late husband, at the City Theatre In Pittsburgh in 2010 and won the American Theatre Critics Association Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright. It was subsequently co-produced by the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Page73 Productions in the Summer of 2014 in New York and directed by Daniella Topol. It was a Critics Pick of ''The New York Times'' and was brought back in October 2014 as a co-production between the Ensemble ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California from 2011 to 2019 and the 42nd mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. Newsom attended Redwood High School and graduated from Santa Clara University. After graduation, he founded the PlumpJack wine store with billionaire heir and family friend, Gordon Getty, as an investor. The PlumpJack Group grew to manage 23 businesses, including wineries, restaurants and hotels. Newsom began his political career in 1996, when San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appointed him to the city's Parking and Traffic Commission. Brown appointed Newsom to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors the next year and Newsom was elected to the board in 1998, 2000 and 2002. In 2003, at age 36, Newsom was elected the 42nd mayor of San Francisco, the city's youngest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of State of California in 1970; Brown later served as Mayor of Oakland from 1999 to 2007 and Attorney General of California from 2007 to 2011. He was both the oldest and sixth-youngest governor of California due to the 28-year gap between his second and third terms. Upon completing his fourth term in office, Brown became the fourth longest-serving governor in U.S. history, serving 16 years and 5 days in office. Born in San Francisco, he is the son of Bernice Layne Brown and Pat Brown, who was the 32nd Governor of California (1959–1967). After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley and Yale University, he practiced law and began his political career as a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central California Women's Facility
Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is a female-only California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison located in Chowchilla, California. It is across the road from Valley State Prison. CCWF is the largest female correctional facility in the United States, and houses the only State of California death row for women. Facilities CCWF covers . As of Fiscal Year 2006/2007, CCWF had a total of 1,205 staff and an annual operating budget of US$138 million. As of April 30, 2020, CCWF was incarcerating people at 131.7% of its design capacity, with 2,640 occupants. CCWF holds prisoners at all security levels: * Reception Center (RC) – provides short term housing to process, classify and evaluate incoming inmates Level I through Level IV are all housed together inside a 32-room housing unit. There are 256 inmates of all levels housed together with only two Correctional Officers. On the Reception Yard there are 276 inmates per housing unit of unclassified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' magazine named Schwarzenegger one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007. Schwarzenegger began lifting weights at the age of 15 and went on to win the Mr. Universe title at age 20 and subsequently won the Mr. Olympia title seven times. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, and has written many books and articles about bodybuilding. The Arnold Sports Festival, considered the second-most important bodybuilding event after Mr. Olympia, is named after him. He appeared in the bodybuilding documentary ''Pumping Iron'' (1977). Schwarzenegger retired from bodybuilding and gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action star, with his breakthrough in the sword and sorcery epic ''Conan the B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clemency
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction. Pardons can be granted in many countries when individuals are deemed to have demonstrated that they have "paid their debt to society", or are otherwise considered to be deserving of them. In some jurisdictions of some nations, accepting a pardon may ''implicitly'' constitute an admission of guilt; the offer is refused in some cases. Cases of wrongful conviction are in recent times more often dealt with by appeal rather than by pardon; however, a pardon is sometimes offered when innocence is undisputed in order to avoid the costs that are associated with a retrial. Clemency plays a critical role when capital punishment exists in a jurisdiction. Pardons are sometimes seen as a mechanism for combating corruption, allowing a parti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leland Yee
Leland Yin Yee (, born November 20, 1948) is an American former politician who served as a member of the California State Senate for District 8, which covered parts of San Francisco and the Peninsula. In 2015, Yee pleaded guilty to felony racketeering charges for money laundering, political corruption, arms trafficking, and bribery. Prior to becoming state senator, Yee was a California State Assemblyman, Supervisor of San Francisco's Sunset District, and President of the San Francisco School Board. In 2004 Yee became the first Asian American to be appointed Speaker pro Tempore, making him the second highest ranking Democrat of the California State Assembly. Yee was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on March 26, 2014 on charges related to public corruption and gun trafficking — specifically, buying automatic firearms and shoulder-launched missiles from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an Islamist extremist group located in the southern Philippines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
