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Evidence

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How cold case units reopen investigations that went unsolved

Cold case units re-examine unsolved violent crimes when new DNA testing, genetic genealogy leads, or fresh witnesses give an old file a new path forward.

Isabel Duarte

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The Most Notorious Massachusetts Cases, Revisited: Why Old Trials Still Shape New England Courtrooms

A look at how the region's best-remembered prosecutions keep echoing through its rules, its courthouses, and its public memory.

Aarya Kapoor

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What predictive policing software does, and what audits found

Predictive policing software sifts past incident records to rank places for patrol attention, and named studies have tested both its usefulness and its bias.

Aarya Kapoor

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The Zodiac Killer case: why an unsolved mystery still captivates

More than fifty years on, the case remains open. What the record actually supports, and what it does not.

Aarya Kapoor

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How to read a legal docket like a reporter

A docket is the court's public diary of a case. Here is how to decode its entries, from the first filing to the final order.

Aleksandr Komarov

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Plea bargain explained — Plea bargains explained: why most criminal cases never reach a jury

A plea bargain is a negotiated guilty plea in exchange for a lighter outcome. It is the machinery behind most convictions in the United States, and it works because a trial is a risk for both sides.

Isabel Duarte

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What a criminal complaint is and how one gets filed

A criminal complaint is a written statement of the essential facts constituting an offense, made under oath and tested by a judge for probable cause before any arrest warrant issues.

Aarya Kapoor