National Roundup

Ohio Ohio board re je c ts mercy for co n d emned killer of 2 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Parole Board has recommended against mercy for a condemned inmate scheduled to die July 19 for killing a husband and wife in their Hamilton home during a 1995 robbery. Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sik) has the final say on clemency. Attorneys for Kenneth Smith argued that he grew up in a dysfunctional household with a violent, alcoholic father and a mother who had multiple affairs. The parole board ruled unanimously that a jury heard similar information about Smith's childhood at trial. Smith cut Lewis Ray's throat while his brother, Randy Smith, strangled Ruth Ray. Court documents say Kenneth Smith boasted about kicking Ruth Ray in the head to make sure she was dead. Randy Smith is serving a sentence of 30 years to life. West Virginia Court: Nursing homes can't use arbitration CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The West Virginia Supreme Court says nursing homes can't use arbitration to avoid lawsuits over residents' care. "In essence, our Constitution recognizes that factual disputes should be decided by juries of lay citizens rather than paid, professional fact finders who may be more interested in their fees than the disputes at hand," the court said this week in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Menis Ketchum. Nursing home residents or their families give up their right to sue when they sign a nursing home contract with a binding arbitration clause. An arbitrator's decision can't be appealed to the courts. "The process of signing paperwork for medical care -- specifically a contract for admission to a nursing home -- is often fraught with urgency, confusion and stress," Ketchum wrote. "People seek medical care in a nursing home for long-term treatment to heal; they rarely view the admission process as an interstate commercial transaction with far-reaching legal consequences." The decision came in an appeal by several families whose lawsuits against nursing homes were dismissed by circuit courts because the residents had signed agreements containing binding arbitration clauses. "They lost one of the most common methods by which they avoid accountability," Charleston attorney Harry Deitzler told the Charleston Daily Mail. Deitzler represented the families in the appeal. West Virginia Health Association CEO Patrick Kelly said the ruling would increase nursing homes' cost of doing business. That cost could be passed along to residents, their families and insurers. Pennsylvania Sheriff spent $62,000 to guard death jury PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Allegheny County Sheriff William Mullen says it cost his office more than $62,000 to have deputies guard a Dauphin County jury that was bused to Pittsburgh and sequestered in a hotel during the death penalty trial of cop-killer Richard Poplawski. Mullen says he was able to save money by reassigning deputies from squads that track down fugitives to guard the jury. Because the fugitive squads work a lot of overtime, the sheriff estimates that using them to guard the jury saved $66,000, which he says more than covered the additional trial expense. The jury was picked in early June then brought to Pittsburgh on June 19, the day before the trial started. The jury spent the night in their hotel after sentencing Poplawski to death Tuesday night, then were bused back to Harrisburg on Wednesday. California $7M for family of dead church bus driver FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- A $7 million wrongful death verdict has been reached for the family of a California church bus driver who was struck and killed by a big-rig. The Fresno jury decided last week that 42-year-old Sheryll Haen and her two children should get $6.7 million for pain, suffering and loss of financial support when John Haen was killed on State Route 99 in April 2009. The Coarsegold man, who had volunteered to drive the Sierra Pines Church of Oakhurst bus, was putting fuel in the bus in Merced when two big-rigs collided and one of the rigs struck down and killed Haen. The Fresno Bee says the jury also awarded $514,000 to Haen's nephew, Bodie Young, who saw his uncle get killed. Haen's widow and family sued the two big rig companies, Logos Group Inc. and Triple E Produce. Florida NASA sues ex-as tronaut Mitchell over moon camera MIAMI (AP) -- NASA is suing former astronaut Edgar Mitchell to get back a camera that went to the moon on the Apollo 14 mission. The lawsuit filed Thursday in South Florida federal court contends Mitchell recently tried to sell the camera at an auction. NASA says there's no record that the device was ever transferred to Mitchell and NASA wants it back. Mitchell became the sixth person to walk on the moon during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. He now lives in Lake Worth. A phone number listed for him is disconnected and there was no immediate indication Friday he had an attorney. The 16mm camera is known as a Data Acquisition Camera. It was one of two that went to the moon on Apollo 14. Texas VA accused in Texas lawsuit of religious bias HOUSTON (AP) -- Several Houston veterans groups are accusing officials with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of religious discrimination, saying they are being banned at soldiers' funerals from using certain religious words such as "God" and are having their prayers censored. The allegations follow ones made last month by a Houston minister who sued to keep the VA from censoring his prayer at a Memorial Day invocation at Houston National Cemetery. A federal judge later issued a temporary restraining order forbidding VA officials from censoring the minister's prayer. VA spokesman Josh Taylor says invoking the name of God or Jesus is allowed at VA national cemeteries in the U.S. But he adds VA-sponsored honor guards can't make recitations at funerals unless requested to do so by the family of the deceased veteran. Published: Tue, Jul 5, 2011