Court Roundup

Maryland
Federal appeals court grants stay in gun case

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland can continue enforcing its gun permit law requiring residents to show a “good and substantial reason” to carry handguns until a federal appeals court decides the matter, the court said Wednesday.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond granted a stay in the case as requested by Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler. The court also directed the case to be expedited, tentatively scheduling arguments during a session set for Oct. 23-26.

“The proceedings have been expedited and the state will present its arguments to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in late October,” said David Paulson, a spokesman for Gansler. “In the meantime, the state will continue to follow and enforce this law as passed by the General Assembly.”

Gansler’s office sought the stay from the appeals court after U.S. District Judge Benson Legg lifted a stay on his finding that the state’s law was unconstitutional. If the appeals court had not ordered a stay, the law would have been changed effective Aug. 7.

In March, Legg found that the right to bear arms is not limited to the home and that Maryland’s law was designed to minimize the number of firearms outside homes by limiting the privilege to those who could demonstrate “good reason.”

The case stems from a Hampstead man who sought a permit after fighting with an intruder in his home in 2002. Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after the incident, but he was denied a renewal in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to “threats occurring beyond his residence.” Woollard appealed, but his appeal was rejected by the review board, which found he had not demonstrated a “good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun as a reasonable precaution.

The Second Amendment Foundation, which brought the case in 2010, contended the state did not have a reason to deny the renewal and wrongly put the burden on Woollard to show why he still needed to carry a gun.


Texas
30-year-old death row case ends with plea deal

TEXARKANA, Texas (AP) — One of Texas’ longest-serving death row inmates has avoided execution for a slaying more than three decades ago with a sentencing agreement that makes him eligible for parole in 12 years.

Delma Banks arrived on death row in 1980 for stealing the car and fatally shooting a teenager six months earlier near Texarkana in far northeast Texas.

Banks long argued his trial for killing 16-year-old Wayne Whitehead was unfair, contending prosecutors withheld information that a witness during his punishment trial was a paid police informant.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld 53-year-old Banks’ conviction but agreed he should have a new punishment hearing.

The Texarkana Gazette reports the plea agreement was reached Wednesday.

In 2003, Banks got within 10 minutes of his scheduled execution before the Supreme Court stopped it.


Indiana
Woman sues man who is at large in daughter’s killing

ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) — A central Indiana woman whose daughter was fatally shot while the two women were bound together during a home invasion is suing her ex-boyfriend in the killing.
Terri Wiles’ civil lawsuit targets 53-year-old Roy Parmley, who remains at large and faces a murder charge in 31-year-old Amanda Wiles’ June slaying. The Herald-Bulletin reports the suit alleges Parmley’s “cold-blooded killing” of Amanda Wiles in front of her mother was intended by Parmley to inflict “gross emotional distress and mental suffering.”

Authorities say Terry Wiles broke up with Parmley days before he entered her Lapel home while mother and daughter were away. When they returned he allegedly tied them together, told Wiles he was going to “take away something dear” from her and shot her daughter in the face.