Defense Memo News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Defense lawyers for a British national facing trial later this month for helping the Islamic State group torture and behead American hostages are seeking to block testimony from a Kurdish girl held as a slave by the group. The girl, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, was abducted at age 15 from Kurdistan in August 2014 and held by the Islamic State. The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with playing a key role in Mueller's abduction, ransom and eventual death, along with three other Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig.

This report provides a snapshot of the US Executive Branch priorities via daily schedules and the prior day's press releases.

>> one of the things that judges look for is whether a person takes any accountability, responsibility for their actions or show insight into what they may have done differently. they're also looking for expressions of remorse or empathy or even an i'm sorry. but we didn't get that at all. in fact, in that defense memo, the defense says that chauvin was a product of a broken system. they say he was simply doing his job. if he knew he was committing a crime, he wouldn't have done it. he was just following his training and experience. and he also wrote that this death was relatively quick, which...

Position of trust as a police officer. so, the audience for that defense memo clearly wasn't judge cahill and i think that chauvin lost his opportunity to maybe have judge cahill take that into consideration and give him a lesser sentence, which is not going to be probation or less than the guidelines and i do believe he will be depart upward. >> mary, a question about what we're going to hear today. the victim impact statements. chauvin himself is allowed to speak, although that appears unlikely. do the statements themselves actually aifect the sentencing or will judge cahill walk into the co...

Prison. we'll then hear from the defense. they're arguing for time served and probation saying that derek chauvin is 45 years old and he would be a threat in prison and saying he was the product of a bad system and then we know the sentencing guidelines which suggests that someone like derek chauvin for this second degree murder charged with typically face between 10 1/2 to 15 years in prison. so, there's a lot of discretion here over what will exactly happen. we don't know what that number will ultimately be. but we do plan to get a sense of that after those statements from the defense and pr...