Billed by manufacturers as a humane tool for immobilizing inmates, detainees or patients, who are a danger to themselves and others, the reality of the restraining chair may be, simply put, that it is a great way to hold someone still so you can abuse, torture, or simply ignore them. A look at some controversial cases of improper use, misuse and abuse of what is being called the ‘Devil’s Chair.’

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Jurors’ preconceptions can be as decisive to the outcome of a trial as the evidence presented. An examination of the CSI Syndrome, the theory that criminal procedural dramas like C.S.I. have affected not only the behavior of criminals, but that of the jurors who determine their innocence or guilt.

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Ruby Ridge was the site of a deadly 1992 standoff in Idaho between federal agents the Weaver family and friend Kevin Harris, which lasted from August 21 to August 31. The Weavers ultimately surrendered, but not before Weaver’s wife, Vicki, and son, Sammy, 14, were killed along with two federal marshals.

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A coroner in British Columbia has ruled the 2007 taser death of would-be Polish immigrant to Canada Robert Dziekanski, 40, at the hands of four R.C.M.P. officers in the Vancouver Airport to have been a homicide. These findings are in keeping with those of the Canadian government’s official inquiry into Dziekanski’s death.

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On May 20, 2005, Mary Kay Letourneau, female pedophile, made headlines by marrying her victim, the now-adult Vili Fualaau. Read the story from the beginning.

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The 911 call related to the death of adopted Russian-born boy Maxim Kuzmin was released by police after a grand jury determined on March 18 that there was insufficient evidence to charge his his parents. Russian authorities are skeptical of the decision and are currently reviewing the autopsy reports.

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Go inside the high-profile poisoning murder of Nancy Lyon. The suspect: her philandering husband Richard in a case that exposed her wealthy family’s secrets of incest, adultery, murder and fraud to a scandal-hungry public.

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Awindra Pandey, friend of New Delhi gang-rape victim Jyoti Singh, the student who died after being robbed, stripped, beaten, and brutally raped by 6 men on a Delhi bus, describes the crime and the aftermath when no one would help the bloodied couple as they lay in the road.

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In 1997, a Texas court found Darlie Lynn Routier guilty of probably the worst of human crimes: killing her two children, Damon and Devon, in cold-blood.

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Controversial nuclear safety whistleblower Silkwood died before she had her day in court. An examination of her life, the case and her suspicious death.

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