California: State seeks executions resumed
SAN JOSE (AP) — Attorney General Jerry Brown’s deputies are seeking permission for the state to resume executing death row prisoners as early as next week.
State lawyers were scheduled to appear in federal court in San Jose Tuesday to ask a judge to allow the scheduled execution of Albert Greenwood Brown.
Brown is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 29 for the for the Riverside County rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl abducted on her way home from school in 1980.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose halted executions in California in 2006 and ordered prison officials to improve the procedures for administering lethal injections.
Maine: Middle school discriminated against student
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Human Rights Commission has ruled that a middle school discriminated against a sixth-grader by not letting the male-to-female transgender student use the girls’ bathroom.
The parents of the child, who no longer attends school in the district, wrote to the commission that she experienced anxiety and depression during the 2008-2009 year after Orono Middle School officials forced her to use a gender-neutral bathroom and her peers picked on her.
Colorado: Sixth person cited under Boulder’s new nudity law
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Boulder police say they have issued six citations under the city’s new public nudity law since it took effect this spring.
The Boulder Daily Camera reports that the latest citation happened early Saturday when a 27-year-old man was accused of showing his genitals to a crowd. A police commander reported that it appeared the man had been drinking and that he had “a big smile on this face” as he walked in circles.
Boulder’s nudity law makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail for anyone older than 10 to show their genitals in public or in private property where they may be seen. Without the new law, police say nude offenders faced stricter punishment, including having to register as a sex offender.
Georgia: Judge commits man in child cruelty case
ATLANTA (AP) — A Fulton County judge ordered a man accused of attempting to suffocate his infant son to be committed to a state mental hospital.
The order issued Monady by Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall followed a hearing in which the judge sought to make sure Michael Callaway’s now 3-year-old son is safe.
Callaway faces a child cruelty charge on allegations he tried to suffocate his baby at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in 2007.
Last week, Schwall banned Callaway from Union County, where his son lives with Callaway’s parents, and ordered him to have no contact with the child. Schwall had learned that a judge in Blairsville had awarded Callaway supervised visitation rights.
Massachusetts: Ex-police officer won’t face second rape trial
METHUEN, Mass. (AP) — Prosecutors say a former Methuen police officer whose rape conviction was overturned by the state’s highest court will not face a second trial because the alleged victim has refused to testify.
The Eagle-Tribune reports that charges against David Blache were dropped Monday before his second trial was scheduled to begin.
The Essex district attorney’s office said in a statement that the woman decided it is not “in her best interest ... to participate in a second trial.”
Blache was convicted in 2002 of raping a Haverhill woman in 2000 while he was on duty. He said the sex was consensual.
Blache refused comment through his brother.
