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Newsorga

Criminal justice

Criminal-justice picks span policing, prosecution, prisons, and reform debates when legal process or incarceration—not only a single trial headline—is the spine.

8 Newsorga stories grouped around “Criminal justice”, published from 2026-05-09 through 2026-05-13. Most pieces are in Politics, Culture, and World. Newest first below.

8 stories in this view · page 1 of 1

2 stories
Classical courthouse columns—illustrative imagery for Newsorga’s report on the South Carolina Supreme Court’s Murdaugh ruling (not the Columbia courthouse or parties in the case).

Politics

Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions overturned by South Carolina Supreme Court

In a unanimous May 13, 2026 ruling, the state’s highest court vacated Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh’s 2023 double-murder convictions—faulting Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill’s jury communications and sharply limiting how financial-crime evidence may shape a retrial—while prosecutors vowed to try the killings again and stressed Murdaugh remains imprisoned for massive fraud sentences.

11 min read

1 story
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi site in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka (Wikimedia Commons, Free Art License 1.3) — illustrative imagery for coverage of the May 9, 2026 arrest of the Venerable Pallegama Hemarathana Thera, Atamasthana chief prelate and custodian of the sacred tree, over allegations of sexual abuse of an 11-year-old at an Anuradhapura temple in 2022.

World

Sri Lanka arrests Atamasthana chief prelate Pallegama Hemarathana over alleged child abuse, remanded to May 12

Sri Lankan police on Saturday May 9, 2026 arrested the 71-year-old Venerable Pallegama Hemarathana Thera — chief prelate of the Atamasthana, custodian of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura and chief incumbent of eight of the country's most revered Buddhist temples — at a private hospital in Colombo, in what police describe as the highest-profile clergy child-abuse case the country has prosecuted; an additional magistrate visited the hospital, ordered him transferred to a prison or government hospital and remanded until May 12, with the case to be heard in Anuradhapura. The child's mother was arrested separately on aiding and abetting charges and remanded until May 15, after the National Child Protection Authority filed the underlying facts before the Anuradhapura Magistrate's Court on Friday May 8.

7 min read

5 stories