Administration says increased immigration enforcement led to fewer homicides, but they have been on the decline since Joe Biden’s term

Over the last year and a half, the US has seen a historic drop in homicides. Researchers and reporters are still puzzling through the complex set of reasons why - from the easing of pandemic-era stressors and the Biden administration’s investments in community-based violence prevention to policing and other factors.

But for the Trump administration, there’s one easy explanation: increased immigration enforcement. As the midterm elections approach, the White House has been doubling down on this message, saying its crackdown against immigrants is why US crime rates are now falling.

Officials investigating missing persons case find bodies in remote area of Lancaster, north of Los Angeles

Law enforcement officials are looking for additional victims after two bodies were found on Tuesday in a remote area of Lancaster, California, a small city about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Authorities found the bodies in a shallow grave while they were investigating a missing persons case, according to KTLA. Outside of the sheriff’s department investigating the discovery of the remains as a homicide, little is known about the two people who were found in the shallow grave.

Group of officers known as ‘riders’ in 2000s prompted longest arrangement of its kind in US history

After 23 years, a district judge has released the Oakland police department (OPD) from federal oversight, marking the end of the longest arrangement of this kind in US history.

In the early 2000s, a group of police officers known as the “riders” were exposed for offenses like planting evidence, falsifying reports and using excessive force against primarily young Black men. These actions led victims to file more than 100 civil lawsuits against the department. In 2003, as a part of the settlement of these cases, OPD was put on a federal court-ordered reform program.

Douglas Carter, 71, who has spent more than four decades on death row, released on bail until new trial begins

A Utah man who has spent more than four decades on death row was released from jail after newly analyzed DNA evidence showed that he was not connected to a 1985 homicide.

Douglas Stewart Carter, now 71, walked out of the Utah county jail late on Monday night after a judge ordered his release on bail. He will have to wear a GPS monitoring device until a new trial begins.

Police arrest couple in their 70s after Jonathan McKinsey, 40, found dead in park in Bay Area city of Dublin

A married couple in their 70s have been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing their son-in-law, a New York Times engineer, in broad daylight at a suburban Bay Area park.

A police officer found Jonathan McKinsey, 40, lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in a park in Dublin, California, a small city about 35 miles (56.3km) east of San Francisco. Around the time the officer discovered him, 911 calls began pouring in from witnesses reporting the shooting.

Lawyers for Christa Pike, 50, convicted of killing classmate in Knoxville in 1995, ask supreme court to grant stay

Christa Pike, a woman who was convicted of murder 30 years ago, is set to be put to death on Wednesday after her request for clemency was denied by Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, on Monday. If the execution goes through, she will be the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.

Pike, who is now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, one of their classmates at Knoxville Job Corps in 1995.