3,576 articles
Langa massacre
Langa massacre (Uitenhage massacre): 21 March 1985 shooting by South African Police on mourners marching from Langa township to KwaNobuhle near Uitenhage, Eastern Cape; 20 killed, many wounded, on the 25th Sharpeville anniversary.
Larceny
Larceny, a common law property crime also called stealing or theft, is the trespassory taking and carrying away of another's personal property without consent, with intent to permanently deprive the owner; graded as petit or grand larceny by value.
Larry Eyler
Larry W. Eyler, the 'homosexual highway killer,' murdered young men in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin in the early 1980s. Released in 1983 after evidence was excluded, he killed again, was sentenced to death in 1986, and died of AIDS in 1994 after confessing to 21 murders.
Larry Gallo
Larry Gallo, also known as Lawrence Gallo, was a Brooklyn mobster and operational leader of the Gallo faction in the Profaci crime family. He died in 1968.
Larry Gene Bell
Larry Gene Bell (1948–1996), American murderer executed in South Carolina's electric chair for the 1985 kidnappings and murders of Shari Faye Smith and Debra May Helmick; in 2025 Charlotte police also named him in Sandee Cornett's 1984 killing.
Larry Hoover
Larry Hoover (born 1950) is co-founder and "Chairman" of the Gangster Disciples street gang of Chicago, who led it from prison. Convicted of 1973 murder (150-200 years) and 1997 federal criminal enterprise (life); Trump commuted the federal sentence May 28, 2025; the Illinois term stands.
Larry Lawton
Larry Lawton, American ex-jewel thief and Reality Check Program founder, robbed about 20 East Coast jewelry stores of $15-18 million, served 11 years in federal prison after a 1996 FBI arrest, then became a youth-crime-prevention speaker, honorary police officer, and author of Gangster Redemption.
Larry Ray (criminal)
Lawrence "Larry" Ray (a.k.a. Lawrence Grecco) is an American ex-convict who moved into his daughter's Sarah Lawrence College housing in 2010 and ran an extortion, sex trafficking, and forced labor scheme; convicted 2022, sentenced to 60 years, affirmed on appeal in 2025.
Lascivious behavior
Lascivious behavior (lewd and lascivious conduct): a criminal-law category for lewd, obscene sexual conduct, defined variously by US state statutes such as Florida §798.02 and Kansas §21-5513, with penalties from misdemeanor to felony.
Lavinia Fisher
Lavinia Fisher (1793-1820), American innkeeper hanged with husband John for highway robbery near Charleston, SC; famed as America's first female serial killer, a claim historians dispute.
Law of Suspects
The Law of Suspects (loi des suspects), a French National Convention decree of 17 September 1793 during the Terror, defined six categories of suspects, ordered their arrest by surveillance committees, and detained them until the peace.
Lawrence Bishnoi
Lawrence Bishnoi (born Balkaran Brar, 1993) is an imprisoned Indian gangster alleged to run the transnational Bishnoi gang, linked to the Sidhu Moosewala and Baba Siddique murders, listed as a terrorist entity in Canada in 2025, and indicted in the US in 2026 over the Nijjar assassination.
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, the Tool Box Killers, murdered five teenage girls in Southern California in 1979 using tools and a tape recorder; Bittaker died on death row in 2019, Norris in 2020.
Lawrence Singleton
Lawrence Singleton, American merchant seaman and criminal, attacked Mary Vincent in 1978, served 8 years of a 14-year sentence, sparked a 1987 parole controversy, then murdered Roxanne Hayes in Tampa in 1997 and was sentenced to death in Florida in 1998.
Laws against witchcraft
Laws against witchcraft: statutes criminalizing the practice, professed exercise, or accusation of magic and sorcery, from the 1542 English Witchcraft Act and 1736 repeal to modern laws punishing accusers in India, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.
Laws regarding rape
Laws regarding rape define the crime through force-based or consent-based models, including yes-means-yes and no-means-no variants. Key reforms include the Istanbul Convention, France's 2025 consent law, and the abolition of the marital rape exemption.
Laxmi Agarwal (लक्ष्मी अग्रवाल)
Laxmi Agarwal (लक्ष्मी अग्रवाल), born 1990, Indian acid attack survivor whose 2006 Supreme Court PIL led to the 2013 acid-sale regulations; International Women of Courage laureate and subject of Chhapaak.
Lazarus Group
Lazarus Group (Hidden Cobra, Labyrinth Chollima, ZINC/Diamond Sleet; MITRE G0032) is a North Korean state-sponsored hacking cluster attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, known for the 2014 Sony Pictures attack, WannaCry, the APT38/BlueNoroff bank-theft subunit, and record cryptocurrency thefts including the 2025 Bybit hack.
Lee Boyd Malvo
Lee Boyd Malvo, born in Jamaica in 1985, was the teenage partner of John Allen Muhammad in the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks that killed ten people.
Lee Choon-jae (이춘재)
Lee Choon-jae (이춘재), the Hwaseong serial murderer, killed women in Hwaseong, South Korea, 1986-1991; identified by DNA in 2019 while serving life for a 1994 murder; confessed to 14 murders; not prosecutable due to expired statute of limitations.
Lee Murray
Lee Murray, 'Lightning', Moroccan-British former MMA fighter who won once at UFC 46 (2004) and was convicted in Morocco for masterminding the 2006 £53m Securitas depot robbery in Tonbridge, Kent, Britain's biggest cash robbery, serving a 25-year sentence.
Lefty Ruggiero
Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero (1926–1994), Bonanno family soldier, sponsored FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone (Donnie Brasco); arrested 1981, convicted, served 10 years, died of cancer; portrayed by Al Pacino in the 1997 film.
Legal affairs of the Tate brothers
Legal affairs of Andrew and Tristan Tate: Romanian criminal cases (2022 arrest, 2023 and 2026 indictments), 59 UK charges, Miami US extradition arrest and detention rulings, civil suits, and asset-forfeiture proceedings.
Legal aid
Legal aid: state-funded legal advice, assistance, and representation for people who cannot afford it, covering criminal and civil matters; anchored in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) and the 1964 Criminal Justice Act in the US.
Legal history of cannabis in Canada
Legal history of cannabis in Canada: prohibition from 1923, medical legalization in 2000, and the Cannabis Act of October 17, 2018, which made Canada the first major industrialized country to legalize recreational cannabis.
Legal history of cannabis in the United States
Legal history of cannabis in the United States: from legal 19th-century medicine to the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, CSA Schedule I (1970), state medical and recreational legalization, and the 2024 Schedule III rescheduling proposal.
Legal issues in airsoft
Legal issues in airsoft cover replica-firearm regulation: US federal orange-tip marking under 15 USC 5001, state and city bans, Canadian and Australian restrictions, UK VCRA rules, police-encounter risks, and product liability.
Legal issues of Chris Brown
Legal issues of Chris Brown: criminal and civil matters involving the R&B singer, from the 2009 Rihanna felony assault conviction through the 2026 London nightclub affray guilty plea, probation violations, and the dismissed Warner Bros. defamation suit.
Legal status of psychedelic drugs in the United States
US psychedelic drug law: psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, mescaline, DMT and ibogaine are Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act, no FDA approval, while Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico run state programs under federal preemption.
Legal status of Salvia divinorum
Legal status of Salvia divinorum (diviner's sage): unscheduled under UN conventions and US federal law, DEA drug of concern, banned in Australia since 2002, Schedule IV in Canada, and controlled or regulated in many US states and European countries.