Mary Moriarty, a former public defender, became Minneapolis’s top prosecutor last year after persuading voters shaken by the murder of George Floyd that she could improve public safety by reining in police misconduct and making the criminal justice system less punitive. Turbulence quickly followed. The attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, a fellow Democrat who…
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top state prosecutor in Orlando on Wednesday, accusing her of incompetence and neglect of duty for what he characterized as lenience against violent criminals. The move was the governor’s latest aggressive use of executive power against local officials of the opposing political party. Mr. DeSantis suspended Monique H.…
WALTERBORO, S.C. — The prosecutor seeking to convict Alex Murdaugh of murdering his wife and son said in his closing argument on Wednesday that a “gathering storm” had been threatening to expose Mr. Murdaugh’s thefts of millions of dollars, leading him to kill his family in a last-ditch effort to preserve his legacy and wealth.…
WALTERBORO, S.C. — After five weeks of trial, the murder case against Alex Murdaugh narrowed on Friday to the question of what happened in a critical few minutes after the prominent South Carolina lawyer went down to his family’s dog kennels where his wife and son were found shot to death later that night. On…