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Susan Reinert
Jay C. Smith (June 5, 1928 – May 12, 2009) was an American high school principal in the Pennsylvania who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1979 murder of one of his school's teachers, Susan Reinert, and her two children, Karen and Michael. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1992, based on findings of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. Formative years Born on June 5, 1928, Smith grew up during the Great Depression. He enlisted with the United States Army as a private in 1946 and rose up through the ranks to become a senior-level officer. In 1962, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Later commissioned as a lieutenant colonel, he transferred to the United States Army Reserves (Reserves) and was subsequently appointed as unit commander of the 183rd U.S. Army Terminal Station "based on both his qualifications and his demonstrated ability to command," and was described by his superiors as someone who was "unusuall ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine United States Minor Outlying Islands, Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in Compact of Free Association, free association with three Oceania, Pacific Island Sovereign state, sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Palau, Republic of Palau. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders Canada–United States border, with Canada to its north and Mexico–United States border, with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the List of ...
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Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptists, Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Baptist Temple. On May 12, 1888, it was renamed the Temple College of Philadelphia. By 1907, the institution revised its institutional status and was incorporated as a research university. As of 2020, about 37,289 undergraduate, graduate and professional students were enrolled at the university. Temple is among the world's largest providers of professional education (law, medicine, podiatry, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering and architecture), preparing the largest body of professional practitioners in Pennsylvania. History Temple University was founded in 1884 by Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia and its pastor Russell Conwell, a Yale-educated Boston lawyer, orato ...
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The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the 17th largest in the United States as of 2017. Founded on June 1, 1829 as ''The Pennsylvania Inquirer'', the newspaper is the third longest continuously operating daily newspaper in the nation. It has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes . ''The Inquirer'' first became a major newspaper during the American Civil War. The paper's circulation dropped after the Civil War's conclusion but then rose again by the end of the 19th century. Originally supportive of the Democratic Party, ''The Inquirers political orientation eventually shifted toward the Whig Party and then the Republican Party before officially becoming politically independent in the middle of the 20th ce ...
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Dallas, Pennsylvania
Dallas is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,692 at the 2020 census. The local government describes the borough as the "Pride" of the Back Mountain (a 118 square mile region in northern Luzerne County). The area includes the townships of Dallas, Franklin, Jackson, Kingston, Lake, and Lehman. The region also includes the boroughs of Dallas and Harveys Lake. Dallas is in the vicinity of Misericordia University and Dallas State Correctional Institution (which holds 2,150 inmates). History Dallas was first settled in 1797. It was later incorporated as a borough on April 21, 1879, from land entirely within Dallas Township. Bradsby, Henry C.History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, 1893/ref> The township had been formed in 1817 and was named for Alexander J. Dallas, who was the 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury and the father of George M. Dallas, the vice president of James Polk. Geography Dallas is located at . According ...
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Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Luzerne County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 325,594, making it the most populous county in the northeastern part of the state. The county seat and largest city is Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre. Other populous communities include Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Hazleton, Kingston, Pennsylvania, Kingston, Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, Nanticoke, and Pittston, Pennsylvania, Pittston. Luzerne County is included in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Wyoming Valley, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a total population of 555,426 as of 2017. On September 25, 1786, Luzerne County was formed from part of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Northumberland County. It was named ...
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Joseph Wambaugh
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937), is a best-selling American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Several of his early novels were set in Los Angeles and its surroundings and featured Los Angeles police officers as protagonists. He has been nominated for four Edgar Awards (winning three), and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Early life The son of a police officer, Wambaugh was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 and married at 18. Wambaugh is of Irish and German descent. Police career Wambaugh received an associate of arts degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1960. He served for 14 years, rising from patrolman to detective sergeant. He also attended Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned BA and MA degrees. Writing career Themes Wambaugh's perspective on police work led to his fir ...
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Double Jeopardy
In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being Trial, tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases Prosecutorial misconduct, prosecutorial and/or Judicial misconduct, judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law. In Civil law (common law), civil law, a similar concept is that of . Variation in common law countries is the peremptory plea, which may take the specific forms of ('previously acquitted') or ('previously convicted'). These doctrines appear to have originated in ancient Roman law, in the broader principle ('not twice against the same'). Availability as a legal defence If a double-jeopardy issue is raised, evidence will be placed before the court, which will typically rule as a preliminary matter whether the plea is substantiated; if it is, the projected trial will ...
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made official in 1722 upon its reorganization as an entity separate from the control of the royal governor. Today, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania maintains a discretionary docket, meaning that the Court may choose which cases it accepts, with the exception of mandatory death penalty appeals, and certain appeals from the original jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Court. This discretion allows the Court to wield powerful influence on the formation and interpretation of Pennsylvania law. History The Original Pennsylvania constitutions, drafted by William Penn, established a Pro ...
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Death Row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ("being on death row"), even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists. In the United States, after an individual is found guilty of a capital offense in states where execution is a legal penalty, the judge will give the jury the option of imposing a death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. It is then up to the jury to decide whether to give the death sentence; this usually has to be a unanimous decision. If the jury agrees on death, the defendant will remain on death row during appeal and ''habeas corpus'' procedures, which may continue for several decades. Opponents of capital punishment claim that a prisoner's isolation and uncertainty over their fate constitute a ...
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LNP Media Group
LNP Media Group owns and publishes '' LNP'', a daily newspaper based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and ''LancasterOnline'', its online affiliate with monthly readership of over one million. ''LNP'' traces its roots to ''The Lancaster Journal'', first published in 1794. LNP Media Group publishes three other local newspapers in Lancaster County: ''The Lititz Record Express'', ''The Ephrata Review'' and '' The Elizabethtown Advocate''. Additionally, LNP Media Group owns and publishes three specialty publications: ''Lancaster Farming'', ''La Voz Lancaster'' (formerly ''La Voz Hispana''), and ''Fly After 5'' (formerly ''Fly Magazine''). Specialty publications ''Lancaster Farming'' is a farm newspaper for the mid-Atlantic region with paid circulation of over sixty thousand. ''La Voz Lancaster'' is a bi-monthly publication covering the Hispanic community in Lancaster County. ''Fly After 5'' is a bi-monthly newspaper covering Lancaster County nightlife and entertainment. Steinman ...
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Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspapers and broadcasters. The AP has earned 56 Pulitzer Prizes, including 34 for photography, since the award was established in 1917. It is also known for publishing the widely used ''AP Stylebook''. By 2016, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters, English, Spanish, and Arabic. The AP operates 248 news bureaus in 99 countries. It also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributing members of the cooperative. As part of their cooperative agreement with the AP ...
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Philadelphia Daily News
''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. The ''Daily News'' began publishing on March 31, 1925, under founding editor Lee Ellmaker. By 1930, the newspaper's Newspaper circulation, circulation exceeded 200,000, but by the 1950s the news paper was losing money. In 1954, the newspaper was sold to Matthew McCloskey and then sold again in 1957 to publisher Walter Annenberg. In 1969, Annenberg sold the ''Daily News'' to Knight Ridder. In 2006 Knight Ridder sold the paper to a group of local investors. The ''Daily News'' has won the Pulitzer Prize three times. History ''Philadelphia Daily News'' began publishing on March 31, 1925, under founding editor Lee Ellmaker. In its early years, it was dominated by crime stories, sports and sensationalism. By 1930, daily Newspaper circulatio ...
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