Filed under: Justice • Larry King Live

Filed under: Justice • Larry King Live

Aruban authorities are urging Natalee Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, to delay volunteer search efforts in her disappearance until police get better information on the case from Peruvian investigators who have spoken to Joran van der Sloot, prosecutor Peter Blanken said.

Police do not want their investigation jeopardized or possible evidence contaminated in the Bubali Bird Sanctuary, a swamp area where Joran once said he dumped Holloway's body, Blanken said. Aruban authorities wish to search a more focused area once they receive more information from van der Sloot and his laptop, which may include files linking him to the Holloway disappearance.

Earlier, Blanken said investigators from Aruba would not be able to question van der Sloot until Peruvian authorities finish their probe of the May 30 slaying of Stephany Flores. The formalities of Peruvian law also will determine the time frame, the prosecutor said.

Aruban and Peruvian authorities agreed to "help each other" in the Flores case.

READ MORE

Filed under: International • Justice • Natalee Holloway

Time is running out for condemned killer Ronnie Gardner, scheduled to be executed after midnight.  Live reports from outside the prison.   And, Larry talks to Ronnie’s brother and the girlfriend of the man Gardner murdered.   She doesn’t want him to die!

Plus, BP’s CEO is roughed up by Congress today!  Reaction from Ben Stein, Stephanie Miller, Marc Lamont Hill & Dana Loesch.

What are your thoughts on the death penalty?

Weigh in below!

Filed under: Gulf Oil Spill • Justice • Larry King Live

NOTE: We'll be discussing this TONIGHT on LARRY KING LIVE

Hours away from his scheduled execution by firing squad, Utah death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner has asked Gov. Gary Herbert for a temporary stay, according to the state Department of Corrections.

The three-page letter was delivered to Herbert shortly before 10 a.m., the department said in a statement on its website. It was signed by Gardner's attorneys and asks the governor to "issue a respite or reprieve pursuant to your executive power under the Utah Constitution."

READ MORE

HERE'S A LOOK AT THE EXECUTION ROOM WHERE GARDNER WILL BE PUT TO DEATH

Filed under: Justice

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a story we're keeping an eye on today – and we're interested in hearing from you.  Do you think the Supreme Court should grant a last-minute stay of execution?

Washington (CNN) - A Utah death row inmate who would become only the third person to die by firing squad in the United States in 33 years appealed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking a last-minute stay of execution.

Ronnie Lee Gardner's lawyers filed the first of what are expected to be several appeals to the justices. He is scheduled to be put to death early Friday for the shooting death of attorney Michael Burdell during a botched escape attempt from custody in 1985 at a Salt Lake City, Utah, courthouse.

Among the claims the 49-year-old prisoner raises in his appeals is that he has been a death row inmate too long.

"He asserts that executing him now, after nearly 25 years on death row in Utah, so lacks retributive or deterrent value that it violates the Eighth Amendment," Andrew Parnes, Gardner's lawyer, told the high court. He did not return phone calls from CNN seeking comment.

Posted by: LKL Producer Hunter Waters
Filed under: Justice • Supreme Court

The family of a Peruvian woman slain in Lima last month said it hopes the eventual trial of Joran Van der Sloot can ease its pain and that of another family thousands of miles away.

Van der Sloot, who is being held in Peru in connection with the slaying of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, is also the lead suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

"I think the pain they are feeling, it's very hard," Stephany's brother Enrique Flores told CNN's "Larry King Live" from Lima. "We saw the body of our sister. They don't have the body of their daughter."

Van der Sloot, a 22-year-old Dutch citizen, was arrested twice in Aruba in connection with Holloway's disappearance but released for lack of evidence. Her body has never been found.

Van der Sloot has stated to Peruvian police that he wants to talk to Aruban officials about the Holloway case, Aruban Attorney General Robert F. Pietersz said Wednesday.

"I am not worried. I trust the justice in Peru. So, we are just waiting for the judgment," said Stephany's sister-in-law Carolina Jorge. "We are praying that this case (will bring closure) ... for us and ... for Natalee's family, too."

READ MORE

Filed under: International • Justice • Larry King Live • Natalee Holloway

Joran van der Sloot said he elbowed murder victim Stephany Flores Ramirez in the face before strangling her and then suffocating her with his own shirt, according to transcripts of his confession released by Peruvian authorities.

The transcripts give shocking details of the murder van der Sloot is accused of and also gives the public its first glimpse of why van der Sloot says the alleged murder took place.

"There was blood everywhere," van der Sloot said in the transcripts. "What am I going to do now. I had blood on my shirt. there was also blood on the bed, so, I took my shirt and put it on her face, pressing hard, until I killed Stephany."

Peruvian authorities charged van der Sloot with murder last week in the death of Flores, a 21-year-old student. Van der Sloot, a 22-year-old Dutch citizen has also been considered the main suspect in the well-publicized 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

READ MORE

Meanwhile, van der Sloot's attorney is contesting the confession – here's the latest on that part of the story:

Filed under: International • Justice

(via Living in Peru)

Edward Alvarez, the lawyer representing the Flores family, considered that the legal process against Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot should include another charge, since he tried to take Stephany Flores' truck.

“He took the truck away. The truck may have contained more evidence that we could be using now. He obviously tried to make them disappear. That is cover-up, a third charge,” said Alvarez.

READ MORE from Living in Peru

Filed under: International • Justice

If Joran van der Sloot is found guilty of murder in Peru, he certainly won't be living the life of luxury he's accustomed to.

"He'll be put in Lurigancho Prison, which is the worst of the worst," Michael Griffith, senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel, tells AOL News. "They should have a sign above the door there saying, 'All those who pass this way leave all hope behind.' "

Griffith has counseled and represented clients in more than 40 countries on a variety of charges. His most renowned case, involving an American incarcerated in a Turkish prison, was the basis for the film and book "Midnight Express."

Having visited more than two dozen foreign prisons, Griffith says Lurigancho is in a world of its own.

"There are 35 guys in a room there," he says. "They don't have beds, they go to the bathroom on the floor and the showers run once a week for 15 minutes. Fifty percent of the inmates have AIDS or tuberculosis, and you can die from eating the food."

READ MORE from AOLNews

National Geographic's 'Inside the World's Toughest Prisons' featured Lurigacho in an episode – click HERE to see pictures and videos of this notorious place.

Filed under: International • Justice