National Roundup

Alabama
Ex-prof in court on university shooting of six
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An ex-university professor who pleaded guilty to shooting six people during a faculty meeting in Alabama was in court Monday for an abbreviated trial.
Jury selection began Monday morning for Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated biologist who went on the shooting spree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
She wore a red jail uniform in court and was shackled at the feet, seated between two attorneys at the defense table. A deputy removed her handcuffs.
Also in court, sitting behind prosecutors, were relatives of the people killed in the February 2010 rampage. At least one of the shooting victims who survived also was present.
Bishop pleaded guilty earlier this month to killing three people and wounding three others in February 2010. She avoided a possible death sentence with the plea and instead faces life imprisonment.
But a trial is still required under Alabama law because Bishop admitted to a capital charge of murder. So lawyers will select a jury and Circuit Judge Alan Mann will hold a brief trial.
Mann told jurors that the death penalty is not a possibility “to put your mind at ease.”
Bishop still could face a trial in Massachusetts, where she is charged in the 1986 killing of her 18-year-old brother. Seth Bishop’s death had been ruled an accident after Amy Bishop told investigators she shot him in the family’s Braintree home as she tried to unload her father’s gun. But the Alabama shootings prompted a new investigation and charges. Prosecutors have said they will wait until after sentencing in the Alabama case to determine whether to put Bishop on trial in Massachusetts.

Louisiana
Parish’s junked vehicle lawsuit settled for $70K
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Lafayette Consolidated Government has paid $70,000 to a man who challenged the constitutionality of the city-parish’s junked vehicle ordinance in a 2007 lawsuit. That’s according to the settlement agreement.
The settlement between the city-parish and George Phillips Jr. was reached in July and finalized Aug. 13. As a condition of the settlement, the city-parish also agreed to pay up to $2,500 to cover Phillips’ court costs.
The terms of the settlement were not released to The Advocate until Friday.
Phillips sued the city-parish in response to the seizure of four of his vehicles, all of which were parked at rental property owned by Phillips.
Phillips alleged in court records that the ordinance was unfairly vague and discriminated against people in certain areas of Lafayette. The property where Phillips’ vehicles were seized is on the north side of town, where most of the junked vehicle violations have occurred.
The city-parish halted enforcement of the ordinance in response to the lawsuit. The ordinance has remained tabled since then.
In July, Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley said the settlement means the city-parish’s legal counsel can begin to revise the ordinance in a fashion that “we think will pass legal muster.”
Stanley said Friday that there is no timetable for when a revised ordinance might be ready.
In July, Stanley said the city-parish must find a way to balance government’s response to citizen requests while at the same time finding something that’s constitutional.
Early on in the case, state District Judge Edward Rubin declared the ordinance unconstitutional, ruling that its exemption for vehicles kept in an enclosed building, including a carport or garage, “could result in the discrimination against citizens who do not have or otherwise possess a carport or garage.”
The city-parish appealed Rubin’s decision to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in December 2008 that the judge was premature in striking down the law. The case was sent back to state District Court and later set aside until the four misdemeanor junked vehicle violations Phillips was charged with were adjudicated.
The city-parish dismissed the criminal case against Phillips in November 2010, which renewed action in the civil case.

West Virginia
School stops prayer before football games
SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — Sissonville High School has stopped offering a prayer before football games after a national organization told school officials the practice is unconstitutional.
Many students and parents don’t agree with the decision.
Principal Ron Reedy said about half of the school’s 650 students wore purple on Friday to show their support for the pre-game prayer.
Fans on the Sissonville side recited The Lord’s Prayer after the National Anthem was played at Friday night’s football game.
“No one is suggesting to the students that they cannot pray at their leisure,” Reedy told the Charleston Daily Mail. “We are saying as an institution, we can’t offer prayer.”
Crystal Smith, the mother of two Sissonville students, said the prayers do not promote a particular religion.
“This is who we are. We’re not trying to push our beliefs on anybody else,” Smith told the newspaper.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Ron Duerring last week saying the pre-game prayer must be stopped. The letter cites five U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding mandatory or school-led prayer at school events.
The pre-game prayers often were offered “in Jesus’ name,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the organization.
“We are not a Christian nation, this is not a Christian school district,” Gaylor told the newspaper. “Football games . . . are not Christian football games.”
Reedy said the school invited pastors from local churches to deliver a prayer, either before or after the National Anthem.
“”The prayer was for the safety of our players and the other teams’ players,” Reedy said. “It was not an evangelical thing at all.”
Duerring told Reedy in an email obtained by the newspaper that if there were pre-game prayers, they had to stop.
Reedy said he halted the pre-game prayers when he was informed about the issue. He said he knew prayer at graduation was not allowed but he was unaware of a constitutional issue with a pre-game prayer.