Posts by Robert Vitale

This month, the Michigan Supreme Court announced that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for people under the age of 21 violate the state constitution’s ban on cruel or unusual punishment. The court also held, based on a separate recent decision, that this rule applies retroactively. These decisions are the latest from a court that’s been steadily carving…

Thousands of Americans lose parental rights in the civil foster care courts each year due to abuse, neglect or abandonment — an outcome considered to be the family law equivalent of the death penalty. But on Wednesday, a pair of Michigan parents whose kids are safely housed with relatives will appear before the state’s Supreme…

A Michigan mother was charged with first-degree child abuse on Wednesday for allegedly abandoning her children for several years and leaving them in deplorable conditions, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department. Kelly Bryant, 34, from Pontiac, Michigan, allegedly deserted her three children, a 15-year-old boy and two daughters, ages 12 and 13, for approximately…

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Six months after they united in marriage, a husband allegedly gunned down his wife in their Grand Rapids home as she tried to escape through a bedroom window. The woman, Alicia Danielle Lofton, had served her husband, Marcus Lofton, with divorce papers just one day prior to being killed. Marcus Lofton,…

Ilitch Holdings CEO Chris Ilitch and his wife, Kelle Ilitch, have filed for divorce, prompting questions about his stake in his family’s business empire, which includes the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings. Chris Ilitch formally took over the teams and other companies in a portfolio that includes Little Caesars Pizza and Olympia Development after the…