Category Archives: International

World News Legal developments from around the world. The following is a collection of the most recent posts from other blogs addressing topics of international law.

Alleged serial killer charged in deaths of more Indigenous women as police release image of jacket to try to identify victim

Police alleged Thursday that a Canadian man previously charged with murdering an Indigenous woman also killed three other women — two also confirmed to be Indigenous and one believed to be.

Jeremy Skibicki was charged May 18 and kept in custody after the partial remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, were found in a garbage bin near an apartment building. Contois lived in Winnipeg but was a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River.

Police at the time said they were not ruling out more victims. On Thursday, they said Skibicki is now charged with first-degree murder in three other deaths in the same short period in the spring.

Police said Morgan Beatrice Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, were killed in the first week of May. Both women lived in Winnipeg and were members of Long Plain First Nation.

Police said a fourth woman, unidentified but believed to be Indigenous, is thought to have been killed on or about last March 15. They released a photo of a jacket similar to one she had been wearing.

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Luigi Ronsisvalle was the Forrest Gump of the mafia—in the middle of everything

During his two decades as Brooklyn’s top mob-busting homicide prosecutor, Michael Vecchione dealt with all manner of wiseguys, but none was less impressive than Luigi the Zip.

Short, overweight, disheveled and speaking in broken English, Sicilian import Luigi Ronsisvalle — dubbed “the human bowling ball” by Vecchione for being as wide as he was tall — embodied his Zip moniker, a slur American gangsters used for their overseas brethren, whom they regarded as backwater yokels. No one, it seemed, took Luigi seriously.

“He was just a schlub,” says Vecchione of the focus of his new book, “Homicide Is My Business” (Camino Books), out now.

“He was never sharp in the way he dressed. He was never able to carry on conversations. He was just a guy who knew how to do what they wanted him to do, which was kill people.”

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Pointing to reduced sentences of 2 killers, Staten Island mob graveyard defendant asks for early release

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Despite two previous attempts for a compassionate release that were shot down by a federal judge — including one earlier this year — a former mobster who committed two heinous murders more than 30 years ago is trying his luck again with a new petition.

Back in July, Judge Margo K. Brodie denied Vincent Giattino’s request for a compassionate release, citing he “committed two heinous murders using guns equipped with silencers and trafficked narcotics as a devout member of BCF (Bonanno Crime Family).”

The nature and seriousness of Giattino’s crimes “support his continued detention,” Brodie previously stated.

This time, attorney Anthony Cecutti, is hoping two recent decisions will help in Giattino’s situation.

The life sentences for Anthony Russo and Paul Moore, who were both convicted of murders and other violent crimes after trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, were reduced to 35 years. “We respectfully request that this court do the same and reduce Mr. Giattino’s life sentence to 35 years,” he asked in a Nov. 26 filing in Brooklyn federal court.

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White Collar Crime: How did a B.C. social worker embezzle $460K from the government?

Robert Riley Saunders was accused of embezzling $354,283 from children in foster care after his boss Siobhan Stynes went away on holiday over Christmas in 2017. The government later upped its estimate to more than $460,000.

Internal documents suggest that another social worker stepped in to fill in for Stynes, who would typically be responsible for signing off on Saunders’ paperwork.

It didn’t take Andrea Courtney long to flag problems with Saunders’ documentation, according to a ministry report. Courtney declined an interview for this story, as did Saunders.

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‘Genetic Paparazzi’ Could Steal Celebrity DNA For Dark Purposes, Professor Warns

Celebrity fans can sometimes be passionate and bordering on crazy, and now there’s a worry that infatuation could get more obsessive and even sinister.

Experts are now warning against ‘genetic paparazzi’ and the potential rise of ‘celebrity DNA theft’. Yes that’s right, actual stealing of DNA.

Law professors from Georgia State University and the University of Maryland are now arguing that ‘genetic paparazzi’ could soon be coming after the DNA of public figures, including celebrities and politicians.

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