Current high profile trials

For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. NBC News Logo. Covid Politics U. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. Search Search. Follow NBC News. Judge allows release of police bodycam video in Jason Walker shooting case.

The convicted paedophile killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in August while awaiting further sex trafficking charges. Now that same alleged victim, who is using a pseudonym to protect her identity, told court about her experiences in graphic detail.

She spoke loudly and clearly. When asked about her memories of alleged abuse, she took a deep breath and raised her eyebrows before answering. She denies the charges. By this point, the financier had take his own life in prison.

The former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein is facing a total of eight charges - including six counts of enticing minors and sex trafficking over a year period. The charges involve four alleged underage victims and multiple locations over a year period between and The youngest alleged victim was 14 years old at the time.

Maxwell has said under oath she did not "recall" whether Epstein possessed sex toys, and also claimed she was unaware of Epstein having sex in the s and s with anyone apart from her, and two women with whom they had threesomes.

Maxwell also denied ever giving anyone a massage. In her opening statement on behalf of Maxwell, her lawyer Ms Sternheim said: "Ever since Eve has been blamed for tempting Adam with an apple, women have been blamed for things men have done. She insisted that Maxwell is "not anything like Jeffrey Epstein", adding that he was the "proverbial elephant in the room". Ms Sternheim said the case was about "memory, manipulation and money" and argued that the four alleged victims of Epstein have received multimillion-dollar payments from a settlement fund set up by his estate, and have changed their stories over the years.

Alleged victims of sexual abuse in the US are not automatically entitled to lifelong anonymity as in the UK. Justice Department announced last year that it would not bring federal criminal charges, saying the quality of video of the shooting was too poor for prosecutors to conclusively establish what had happened.

Michael Slager, a white South Carolina police officer, shot Walter Scott in the back as the unarmed year-old Black man fled following a traffic stop.

In , a mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked over a verdict in Slager's murder trial. Slager was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is now appealing his punishment, saying his lawyer never told him about a plea offer from prosecutors that could have cut years off his sentence.

Freddie Gray, a year-old Black man, died after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a Baltimore police van, sparking weeks of unrest across the city. Three officers were acquitted and prosecutors dropped the remaining state cases in July Department of Justice announced in that it wouldn't bring federal charges against the six officers involved in the arrest, saying it did not find enough evidence to prove the officers willfully violated Gray's civil rights.

Philando Castile, a year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, was shot five times by a St. In the Arbery case, the defendants Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer, his son, Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, 52, are accused of trying to make a citizens' arrest when Travis McMichael allegedly shot the unarmed Arbery three times with a shotgun, killing him.

Travis McMichael is also expected to claim self-defense, arguing the use of deadly force was justified when the year-old Black man violently resisted a citizens' arrest under a law that existed at the time. The pre-Civil War-era law that was repealed in May primarily due to the Arbery killing gave civilian vigilantes the power to arrest someone they "reasonably suspected" of trying to escape from a felony.

Gregory McMichael, according to his attorneys, claims he thought Arbery, who was jogging past his house, matched the description of a neighborhood burglary suspect. Both he and his son allegedly brandished firearms while chasing Arbery in Travis McMichael's pickup truck that prosecutors allege had a vanity plate featuring a Confederate flag. Bryan recorded a cellphone video of the confrontation that partly captured Travis McMichael shooting Arbery during a struggle and is expected to be the key evidence prosecutors plan to present at trial.

Bryan's lawyer claims he was just a witness to the incident, but prosecutors alleged he was an active participant in "hunting down" Arbery. Prosecutors also allege that Bryan told investigators he overheard Travis McMichael yell a racial slur at Arbery as he lay dying in the street, an allegation the younger McMichael denies. Prosecutors say the evidence will show Arbery was just out for a Sunday jog when he was allegedly murdered. All three men have pleaded not guilty to state charges of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment stemming from the Feb.

The three men were also indicted on federal hate crime charges in April and have all pleaded not guilty. Video evidence expected to be presented in the Kenosha case could prove favorable in the defense of Rittenhouse, Obear said. Cellphone videos played at earlier court hearings, partly captured two confrontations the teenager was involved in.