Pensacola, Fla.
A Florida judge has ordered a new trial for two boys convicted of beating their father to death last year. The boys—Alex King, 13, and his brother, Derek, 14—confessed to the crime, then recanted and blamed family friend Ricky Chavis, 40. Alex said he had had a sexual relationship with Chavis, a convicted child molester, and had lied to protect him. Faced with conflicting stories, prosecutors tried Chavis for the crime in one courtroom, and the boys in another. Without the full evidence in the case, a jury acquitted Chavis. In their trial, the brothers were found guilty and sent to prison. The case attracted the attention of former talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell, who hired lawyers to fight for a new trial. “The case was tugging at her heartstrings,” lawyer Jayne Weintraub said. “She was offended by what happened to these kids.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Book reviews: ‘Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America’ and ‘How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978–1998’Feature A political ‘witch hunt’ and Helen Garner’s journal entries
-
The backlash against ChatGPT's Studio Ghibli filterThe Explainer The studio's charming style has become part of a nebulous social media trend
-
Why are student loan borrowers falling behind on payments?Today's Big Question Delinquencies surge as the Trump administration upends the program
