STANLEY Tookie Williams, who was executed in California yesterday, maintained his innocence right up until his death, even when an admission of guilt may have spared him execution.

Police in Tennessee are checking leads that family members may be hiding a convicted thief and his wife, who authorities said gunned down a guard to help her husband escape outside a court.

IF Michael Jackson is found guilty of any one of the 10 counts against him he will almost certainly be locked up in one of California’s most secure prisons.

Thailand is to start live internet broadcasts of life behind prison walls - including convicts’ last moments before execution – in a bid to deter lawbreaking, especially a burgeoning number of drug dealers.

President George Bush has formally chosen former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik to lead the US Homeland Security Department, charged with safeguarding Americans from future attack.

More than 10,000 prisoners were granted a royal pardon and released in Thailand today in a traditional Buddhist gift of amnesty.

NEW YORK City prison governors fear inmates will erupt when one of their few privileges is taken away — smoking.

Illinois governor George Ryan cleared the state’s death row, commuting 167 condemned inmates’ sentences in the broadest attack on capital punishment in decades.