June Hartley (born 1967) is a California woman who faced charges for assisting in the suicide of her brother, Jimmy, after he suffered a series of strokes. [1] [2] [3]
Jimmy Hartley, a blues musician and lead singer for the Studebaker Blues Band, was found dead in his family's home in Lodi, California on December 8, 2008. A helium tank and a copy of an instructional book by Derek Humphry, the chairman of Final Exit Network, were found near his body. He had previously been left paralyzed and lost his speech and hearing after a series of strokes in 2006. [4] Over the next two years, he had repeatedly asked police and others to help him die. [4]
On February 23, 2009, San Joaquin County prosecutors charged June Hartley with assisted suicide, an offense for which she faced six years in prison if convicted. [5] She pleaded not guilty and was freed on bail on February 28, 2009. [6] She later changed her plea to guilty on a lesser charge and received a sentence of probation and community service without jail time. [7]
The case generated a response from both supporters and critics of assisted suicide. Brian Johnston, executive director of the California Pro-Life Council, stated that Hartley's case underscored the need for laws to keep "emotionally vulnerable people" from "taking lethal action" into their own hands. [1] However, Barbara Coombs Lee, the president of Compassion and Choices, defended Hartley. She explained that a case like Hartley's "cries out for humane and rational legislation, but lawmakers are unwilling to embrace it." [1] Assisted suicide advocate Jacob Appel expressed concerns that the case might have significant repercussions. He wrote that "family members and friends of similarly suffering individuals in California...may now shy away from helping their loved ones die if they fear reprisals from overzealous district attorneys." [8]
Lana Jean Clarkson was an American actress and fashion model. During the 1980s, she rose to prominence in several sword-and-sorcery films. In 2003, record producer Phil Spector shot and killed Clarkson inside his home; he was charged with second-degree murder and convicted in 2009.
The Kentucky Fried Chicken murders were an armed robbery and mass murder which took place at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, in 1983. For over two decades, it was unsolved.
Woo Bih Li is a Singaporean lawyer who has been serving as a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore since 2003.
Tay Yong Kwang is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was first appointed Judicial Commissioner in 1997, appointed Judge in 2003, and appointed Judge of Appeal in 2016. He was noted for being the presiding judge in several notable cases that shocked the nation and made headlines in Singapore. He was most recently re-appointed for a further two year term on the Court of Appeal from 3 September 2024.
Final Exit Network, Inc. (FEN) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit right to die advocacy group incorporated under Florida law. It holds that mentally competent adults who suffer from a terminal illness, intractable pain, or irreversible physical conditions have a right to voluntarily end their lives. In cases deemed valid, Final Exit Network arranges what it refers to as "self deliverances". Typically, the network assigns two "exit guides" to a client and are present when they die, but the network states, and has proven in court, that it does not provide physical assistance in anyone's death; rather, their role is that of compassionate advisors and witnesses.
Sandra Renee Cantu was an American girl who gained national attention after she disappeared from Tracy, California, on March 27, 2009. Her body was discovered ten days later inside a suitcase in a local irrigation pond. On April 10, police arrested a local woman, 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby, and charged her with the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Cantu. Huckaby pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Cantu and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2010.
Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.
The University of Washington firebombing incident was an arson which took place in the early morning hours of May 21, 2001 when a firebomb was set off at Merrill Hall, a part of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture, causing an estimated $1.5 to $4.1 million in damages. By 2012 four of five accused conspirators behind the attack admitted their guilt in plea bargains. A fifth committed suicide in federal detention while awaiting trial.
Marvin Bernard, better known by his stage name Tony Yayo, is an American rapper. He is best known as a member of G-Unit, a hip hop group he formed with his childhood friends, 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks. Yayo released his debut studio album, Thoughts of a Predicate Felon, on August 30, 2005, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. After eighteen years of not releasing a sophomore follow-up, due to his association with G-Unit and later disbandment of the group in 2022, Yayo returned with The Loyal Mixtape, which released on February 10, 2023.
The sexual abuse scandal in Canberra and Goulburn archdiocese is a significant chapter in the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Australia that occurred in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn involving individuals from the Marist Brothers and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
Colleen Renée LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane and Fatima LaRose, is an American citizen who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for terrorism-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to terrorists.
Larry McNabney was a Sacramento, California, attorney whose body was found buried in a vineyard on February 5, 2002. After a nationwide manhunt, his wife, Elisa McNabney, was captured in Florida and arraigned for first-degree murder. The case made national headlines when police learned that her real name was actually Laren Sims, and that she had served time in a Florida prison for fraud and identity theft. Before Elisa could stand trial however, she hanged herself in her jail cell. Elisa's friend Sarah Dutra was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years in prison for murdering Larry McNabney.
Bei Bei Shuai is a Chinese immigrant to the United States who became the subject of international public attention from 2011 to 2013, when the authorities of the state of Indiana charged her with murder and attempted feticide after her suicide attempt allegedly resulted in the death of the fetus with which she was pregnant. In Britain, The Guardian described Shuai's case, as well as those of other women who lose their pregnancies in cases of maternal drug addiction or a suicide attempt, as part of a "creeping criminalisation of pregnancy across America".
Barbara Rose Precht, previously known as Pearl Lady, was an American woman who was found dead in the Ohio River in 2006; she remained unidentified until 2014. Precht's cause of death is unknown; it may have been an accident, suicide or homicide. Her husband, James, was located and arrested for lying to police about his identity after she was identified.
Kylie Maria Antonia Maybury was an Australian schoolgirl from Preston, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Maybury was kidnapped, raped, and murdered on 6 November 1984, the date of the 1984 Melbourne Cup Day; and she was nicknamed in the Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial as the Cup Day Girl.
Tiahleigh Alyssa Rose Palmer was a 12-year-old Australian girl who lived in Logan City, Queensland. She was murdered on 30 October 2015. Her remains were found six days later and her foster father, Rick Thorburn, was charged with her murder on 20 September 2016. Thorburn pleaded guilty to the murder before the Supreme Court of Queensland on 25 May 2018.
Scott Russell Johnson was an American university student who was killed in Australia in 1988. Initially treated by police as a suicide, a coroner's inquest in 2017 resulted in finding "[he] died as a result of a gay-hate attack". In May 2020, Scott White, an Australian man, was arrested and charged and in January 2022, convicted in the murder of Johnson, citing homophobia as his motivation.
Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping by ransom, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, and trafficking of firearms, in addition to caning or a fine for certain offences that warrant life imprisonment.