New Jersey: Rutger Law School challenges invasion of Iraq
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A law school in New Jersey on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the invasion of Iraq was constitutional.
Rutgers Law School in Newark is representing an Iraq war veteran, two mothers whose sons were deployed in Iraq and the anti-war group New Jersey Peace Action.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2008, was dismissed by both the Federal District Court in Newark and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on procedural grounds.
Lawyers claim President George W. Bush overstepped his constitutional authority by invading Iraq without formally declaring war after Congress authorized him to deploy armed forces against Iraq as he deemed necessary.
The suit does not seek to influence current policy in Iraq but instead aims to set a precedent for future conflicts.
California: 50 years for gang member in blue slippers killing
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A San Bernardino street tough has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy walking to band practice.
Prosecutors say 19-year-old Tywan Ransom shot and killed Cecil Scott in July 2007 because the teen was wearing gang colors — blue house slippers.
Ransom, who was convicted last month of first-degree murder and other charges, was sentenced Tuesday.
Prosecutor Lisa Rogan told the San Bernardino County Sun that the teen was walking with a friend through a gang neighborhood when they were confronted by Ransom, who ordered the victim to take off his blue house slippers. The teen refused and Ransom pulled out a gun and shot him.
Ransom fled to North Carolina and was extradited back to San Bernardino County for trial.
Arkansas: Ark. Supreme Court orders new hearing for Echols
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered a new hearing on whether newly analyzed DNA evidence and other testimony could exonerate death-row inmate Damien Echols, who was convicted of the 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys.
The high court on Thursday sent the case back to a lower court to decide whether evidence that Echols claims points to his innocence warrants a new trial.
Echols, who is now 35, has been on Arkansas’ death row since 1994 after he was arrested as a teen for the deaths of three Cub Scouts in West Memphis. He has maintained his innocence throughout, though the Arkansas Supreme Court has previously affirmed his conviction.
Echols’ attorneys argue that DNA tested after Echols’ trial shows no trace of him or the two other men convicted in the murders.
Maryland: Trial gts underway in bridal veil break-in case
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Jury selection is under way in Hagerstown for the trial of a woman charged with breaking into a couple’s house and injuring the husband while wearing only a bridal skirt and veil.
Thirty-three-year-old Melissa Wagaman entered a plea of not guilty Thursday.
She allegedly used her head to break her neighbor’s window after telling the couple her mother was in their basement.
Aaron Parrott says he severed an artery in his arm while trying keep Wagaman out.
Police arrived to find Wagaman lying on the ground. They say they took her to a hospital, where medical staff concluded she was suffering from drug-induced psychosis.
Mississippi: City removed from ACLU suit over student expulsion
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The city of Southaven and a police officer have been dismissed as defendants in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a DeSoto County student who was expelled after officials confiscated his cell phone and found what they described as “gang-related” images.
The lawsuit was filed in 2009 by the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit named as defendants the DeSoto County School District, an unnamed district employee, Southaven Middle School coaches John Stevenson and Kenneth Walker, police Sgt. Nicholas Kennedy and the city of Southaven.
On Nov. 1, U.S. District Judge Michael Mills removed the city and Kennedy as defendants.
Richard Wade, a seventh-grader at the middle school, was expelled in August 2008 after a teacher took the phone during a gym class and, in checking its contents, found the photos.
Kennedy was asked by school officials during the student’s disciplinary hearing to look at the pictures on the phone, according to the lawsuit.
“The court sees no valid claims that Officer Kennedy violated ‘clearly established’ constitutional rights by representing himself as being knowledgeable regarding gang matters at the hearing. Plaintiff’s claims against Kennedy, as well as against his employer, the city of Southaven, are therefore due to be dismissed,” Mills wrote in his order.
However, Mills also expressed concerns about the school district’s actions.
Mills said he had concerns “regarding the wisdom and legality of the school district’s decision to expel R.W. based on its subjective impressions of photographs depicting him in his personal life.”
The ACLU contends the search of the student’s phone was illegal and that the photos in question depicted the student dancing in his own home, not gang activity.
Mills said he believes the school district acted with the best intentions when it expelled the students “but it must recognize that there are limits (including its own rules) upon the power of school officials to police the private lives of their students.”
Wade was suspended for three days and was later expelled after a disciplinary hearing.
No trial date has been set in the case.
Wisconsin: Milwaukee man to stand trial for kidnapping
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) — A Milwaukee man has been ordered to stand trial in a central Wisconsin kidnapping case.
Marathon County Judge Vincent Howard ordered 37-year-old Derrick Thornton to stand trial Wednesday on charges of kidnapping and soliciting a prostitute.
He’s accused of kidnapping a 22-year-old woman Oct. 15 from a downtown Milwaukee street and bringing her to Wausau to be a prostitute.
The woman testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday, saying Thornton posted pictures of her on the Internet and collected the money the client paid for sex acts.
The Wausau Daily Herald reports that Thornton was arrested Oct. 24 in Wausau after the woman asked a hotel clerk to call police.
California: Defense attorney in Dugard case seeks to keep seal
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The attorney representing one of two people charged in the Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping case is seeking to keep the documents in the case sealed.
Stephen Tapson, the court-appointed attorney representing Nancy Garrido, filed legal documents in El Dorado Superior Court Monday asking the judge presiding over the case against his client and her husband, Phillip Garrido, to keep the documents and transcripts in the case sealed.
In the filing, Tapson argues that a “release of the previously sealed documents would prejudice her (Nancy Garrido’s) right to a fair jury trial.”
Phillip and Nancy Garrido were each indicted on 18 counts that ranged from rape to false imprisonment, plus multiple special allegations. The special allegations could lead to tougher sentences if the Garridos are convicted.
Authorities said the Garridos abducted Dugard, then 11, from a South Lake Tahoe bus stop in 1991 and held her captive until she and her children surfaced at the office of Phillip Garrido’s parole agent.
Garrido fathered the two children, authorities said.
Nancy Garrido has pleaded not guilty to the charges, while the criminal proceedings against her husband were suspended to evaluate his mental competency.
El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister will also consider a motion filed earlier this month by The Associated Press, The Sacramento Bee, the Hearst Corp., Gannett Co. Inc., the Los Angeles Times and the Bay Area News Group seeking to unseal the documents.
In that motion, San Francisco-based attorney Karl Olson says there is “no justification for sealing any records” in the case against the Garridos.
Dugard, now 30, is writing a memoir for Simon & Schuster. The publisher says the book will cover her life from the abduction to how she is doing now.
Minnesota: Jury rules woman owes $1.5M for song-sharing
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal jury has decided a Minnesota woman owes $1.5 million for sharing 24 songs over the Internet.
Jurors determined Wednesday that Jammie (JAY’-mee) Thomas-Rasset owes $62,500 per song.
Last year, a federal jury found Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. She was ordered to pay $1.92 million in damages, or $80,000 per song.
But Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis reduced the verdict to about $54,000 in damages, calling the jury’s penalty “monstrous and shocking.” The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group representing the major music labels, rejected the reduced penalty, setting up the new trial to determine damages.
