Jurors take an oath to make rulings without bias or prejudice, but a new study suggests that promise is broken when the death penalty is on the table. Researchers from Columbia University on Thursday revealed that the shape of defendants' facial features affects whether they are sentenced to death or given life in prison. Hundreds of mugshots of Florida inmates who were convicted of murder were shown to a mock jury in the experiment. Certain facial features – such as downturned lips and heavy eyebrows – were judged to be more untrustworthy and more likely to be sentenced to death. Hundreds of mugshots of Florida inmates who were convicted of murder were shown to a mock jury in the experiment.

The California state jail system has seen a staggering increase in coronavirus cases over the past week - with cases at the overcrowded San Quentin facility jumping from 100 to 539 - and total inmate deaths across the state prison system totalling 20. Attorneys, advocates and former inmates say this increase suggests that lowering prison populations might be the only effective way to stop the pandemic's resurgence inside the US penitentiaries. The state has seen 1,001 new COVID-19 cases in its prison system in the past 14 days, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said on Friday afternoon. This increase comes as the United States experiences record-setting spikes in coronavirus cases. San Quentin is California's only state prison with a death row, accounted for the majority, with 512 new cases as of Friday.

Tomohiro Nishikado's video game Space Invaders remains the first and last concept for all other "shoot'em up" video games; the core concept being a single person fighting off a multitude of artificially intelligent enemies. Created in no less than a year, its exquisite attention to imagery and sound, as well as easily understood game play, has offered timeless appeal. What was an amusement of lazy pleasure has since been deemed a work of art, joining the permanent collections of both MoMA and The Smithsonian. As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, Jon Tannahill of Brisbane – born 17 years after the game was released – holds the Space Invaders world record. The former world record of 184,870 points was set by Richie Knucklez of New Jersey, USA, who held the position from 2009 to 2018.

The Afghan Taliban named an Islamic legal scholar who was one of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour's deputies to succeed him Wednesday after confirming Mansour's death in a U.S. drone strike over the weekend. Within an hour of the announcement, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a shuttle bus carrying court employees west of the Afghan capital of Kabul, killing as many as 11 people and wounding several others, including children. New Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada was named in a United Nations report last year as former chief of the Sharia-based justice system under the Taliban's five-year rule over Afghanistan, which ended with their ouster in 2001. Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of a feared network blamed for many deadly bomb attacks in Kabul in recent years, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, will serve as deputies. The announcement, following a meeting of the Taliban's main shura, or leadership council, ended days of confusion during which the Taliban declined to confirm the death of Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan on Saturday.

The Afghan Taliban named an Islamic legal scholar who was one of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour's deputies to succeed him on Wednesday, after confirming Mansour's death in a U.S. drone strike at the weekend. Within an hour of the announcement, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a shuttle bus carrying court employees west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing as many as 11 people and wounding several others, including children. New Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada was named in a United Nations report last year as former chief of the sharia-based justice system under the Taliban's five-year rule over Afghanistan, which ended with their ouster in 2001. Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of a feared network blamed for many deadly bomb attacks in Kabul in recent years, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, will serve as deputies. The announcement, following a meeting of the Taliban's main shura, or leadership council, ended days of confusion during which the Taliban declined to confirm the death of Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan on Saturday.

A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people and wounded four on Wednesday in an attack on a bus carrying staff from an appeal court west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, officials said, and the Taliban claimed responsibility. The attack came on the same day the Taliban announced a new leader to succeed Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike at the weekend. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attack on staff from the judicial system was in response to the Afghan government's decision earlier this month to execute six Taliban prisoners on death row. Other attacks would follow, he said. "We will continue on this path," he said in a statement.