COVID relief funds spark effort that frees man convicted of 1997 murder in Oklahoma he says he didn't commit
CBSN
Greenwood, Ark. — Ricky Dority spends most of his days playing with his grandchildren, feeding chickens and working in the yard where he lives with his son's family.
It's a jarring change from where he was just several months ago, locked in a cell serving a life prison sentence at Oklahoma's Joseph Harp Correctional Center in a killing he said he didn't commit. After more than two decades behind bars, Dority had no chance at being released - until he used his pandemic relief funds to hire a dogged private investigator.
The investigator and students at the Oklahoma Innocence Project at Oklahoma City University, which is dedicated to exonerating wrongful convictions in the state, found inconsistencies in the state's account of a 1997 cold-case killing, and Dority's conviction was vacated in June by a Sequoyah County judge.
We share our planet with maybe 10 million species of plants, animals, birds, fish, fungi and bugs. And to help identify them, millions of people are using a free phone app. "Currently we have about six million people using the platform every month," said Scott Loarie, the executive director of iNaturalist, a nonprofit.
Washington — As voters gear up for the midterm elections in November that will decide control of the House and Senate, the Supreme Court is set to weigh Monday whether states can count mail ballots that are postmarked by, but arrive after, Election Day.
It was in June 2020 when Linda Dane learned the disturbing circumstances of how her long-lost brother Gary Herbst's skull had been found by a dog in rural Barron County, Wisconsin. In:
A possible meteorite crashed into a Houston area house on Saturday night, tearing through the roof and two stories of the home, officials said. In:
The Senate on Saturday blocked an amendment that would ban transgender athletes from playing in women's sports, rejecting one of President Trump's priorities as he pressures Congress to act on a broad voting bill.
Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who led the investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, has died, multiple sources told CBS News on Saturday. He was 81. In:
Kendra Duggar was arrested for misdemeanor charges including endangering the welfare of a child and false imprisonment, according to online records. The charges come a day after her husband Joseph Duggar was charged with molestation. In:
At ski resorts across the West this winter, viral images showed chairlifts idling over brown terrain in places normally renowned for their frosty appeal. Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring water shortages and wildfires in the months ahead. In:
The NCAA accused online sportsbook DraftKings of trademark infringement associated with the association's men's and women's basketball tournaments and filed a complaint in federal court seeking an emergency restraining order. In:
Airport delays continue to worsen as a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security failed to advance in the Senate Friday. In:
Five people who were charged in connection to the Feeding Our Future scheme pleaded guilty to wire fraud this week. In:
Actor Nicholas Brendon, best known for his role as Xander Harris in the popular television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," has died, according to his family. He was 54. In:
Washington — The Trump administration has been strategizing methods and options to secure or extract Iran's nuclear materials, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions, as a U.S.-Israel-led military campaign against Tehran enters a more uncertain phase. In: