This past Saturday, 53 inmates at Eastern Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, were awarded college diplomas as part of the Bard Prison Initiative, a program that enables convicted felons to take courses and earn degrees while incarcerated. Among the graduates were newly minted experts in advanced...

Victorville, California (CNN) -- The man accused of killing the McStay family pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a California court to murder charges. Charles "Chase" Merritt, 57, was a close friend and business partner of Joseph McStay, whose body -- along with those of his wife Summer and their two young sons, Gianni and Joseph Jr.

(CNN) -- A woman who was babysitting a 5-year-old who fatally shot himself Monday with her gun has been charged with abandoning or endangering a child, a felony, and jailed in Orange County, Texas, police said Wednesday. Bail was set at $250,000 for Melissa Ann Ringhardt, 19, said Clint Hodgkinson, chief deputy with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Dominic Davis, John Lajeunesse, Steven Presley and Rikki Jacobsen were found dead Thursday in a car in Cumberland County, Tennessee. (CNN) -- A 26-year-old man and his girlfriend were indicted on murder charges Friday, more than a week after a marijuana deal turned into a robbery and ended with four young people shot dead in a car along a rural Tennessee road.