A federal judge in Ohio has ordered a woman to start serving a 25-year prison sentence interrupted after she fled the country following her corporate fraud conviction.

A jury convicted 62-year-old Rebecca Parrett in 2008 for her role in a $1.9 billion health care financing fraud at National Century Financial Enterprises. She was arrested in Mexico in October.

U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley told Parrett she broke her word by fleeing and cost the government thousands of hours of investigative time.

Parrett told Marbley she went to Mexico intending to die there but changed her mind after seeing a doctor who helped her recover from several illnesses.

She says she may have made bad decisions but is innocent of the corporate fraud charges.

The Indiana Supreme Court has determined a judge wrongly considered the condition of the state's mental health system in rejecting an insanity defense for a man convicted of stabbing his grandmother to death in front of family members.

In a 3-2 decision Wednesday, the justices said it was inappropriate for the judge to consider whether Gregory Galloway may have eventually been released if he was sent to a mental health facility.

Instead, he was found guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. If he had been found insane, Galloway would have been sent to a mental hospital instead of prison.

"It is not for the judicial branch to decide that a legally insane defendant should be convicted and sentenced to prison because of the condition of the state's mental health system," Justice Frank Sullivan wrote in the 23-page ruling. "While we sympathize with the difficulty of the trial court's decision, we cannot sustain it."

Consumers who were willing to plunk down two dollars for information on how to make money quickly or gain U.S. government grants, wound up paying far more than they expected, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S., a consumer group accuses companies of stealing money from consumers by billing debit and credit cards for products they did not want. According to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission — a consumer protection agency — a variety of websites billed consumer's credit and debit cards hefty upfront fees and recurring monthly fees without the cardholder's consent.

The allegations in the suit have not been proven in court.

A total of 51 companies, 10 corporations and 10 individuals have been named in the legal action. According to the suit, one individual was behind the dizzying array of websites, shell corporations and companies. Nine others played various roles in the operation.

The statement of claim, filed in Nevada, said consumers were induced to pay a one-time fee of $1.99 to gain access to information on grant and wealth schemes. But then they were billed a fee of $129.95, and monthly fees of $59.95.

The parent company, I Works, came onto the radar at Visa and MasterCard when consumers began demanding millions of dollars in chargebacks, telling the credit card companies they had not approved charges that were showing up on their bills.

Conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats said he would consider supporting efforts to impeach the remaining four Iowa Supreme Court justices if they don't take his advice and voluntarily step down from the bench.

"Right now, I'm focused on the resignation piece, but I think if they don't do the right thing, we may have to look at other options," said Vander Plaats.

He argued that Chief Justice Mark Cady should announce the resignations in the annual report to the Legislature on the condition of the state's court system.

"I though Cady could make this part of his condition of the court address, saying we're going to step and this is how we're going to step down," said Vander Plaats.

Medvedev's comments came only a week after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin compared Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, to the U.S. disgraced financier Bernard Madoff who cheated investors out of an estimated $20 billion through a Ponzi fraud. Putin said Khodorkovsky deserves no leniency — a statement widely denounced as interfering in the trial.

"Neither the president nor any other state official has the right to comment on this particular case before the verdict is passed," Medvedev said in a live interview with Russia's state TV stations.

Khodorkovsky was convicted of underpaying taxes on the profits from his Yukos oil company and is serving an eight-year sentence. His case has been widely seen as punishment for daring to challenge the Kremlin's political and economic power during Putin's presidency, in part by funding opposition parties in parliament.

Khodorkovsky is now facing a second trial on charges of embezzling $25 billion worth of oil. A judge is to begin delivering the long-awaited verdict on that case Monday.

Medvedev, who has promised to establish independent courts and strengthen the rule of law in Russia, insisted that he saw no evidence to support claims that prosecutors were selective in applying the law and punishing the tycoon for common business practices.

A Florida businessman who once factored in the Smurfs cartoon empire lost a bid Tuesday to withdraw his guilty plea in an $11 million shakedown plot targeting his financier son-in-law.

With that, Stuart R. Ross was sentenced to the five years' probation he was promised when he pleaded guilty in August to attempted grand larceny. But his lawyer said he now plans to ask an appeals court to let Ross take back the plea, which he says Ross entered while pressured by medical problems.

In his plea, Ross admitted threatening to destroy son-in-law David S. Blitzer's professional reputation if not paid $5.5 million. Ross also acknowledged offering to give up any rights to see his grandchildren for another $5.5 million.

Ross, 74, agreed to plead guilty while jailed on $200,000 bond awaiting trial. He was contending with pneumonia, cancer and other health woes that weren't getting adequate care behind bars, and he took the plea deal to gain his freedom, lawyer Matthew Myers said outside court Tuesday.

"He was under tremendous duress," Myers said. "It's the only reason why he pled."

But state Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner rebuffed Ross' request to withdraw his plea. Defendants pleading guilty are routinely warned they can't revisit the decision and are asked to acknowledge they are indeed guilty.