New Mexico
Trial over state’s ‘right-to-die’ law set to begin Wed.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A legal challenge to a decades-old New Mexico law that prohibits physicians from helping terminally ill patients die is set to go to trial.
The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in state District Court in Albuquerque in a lawsuit field in March by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.
A Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer later joined two doctors in their legal challenge.
According to the lawsuit, the New Mexico doctors are seeking to be allowed to prescribe medication to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives.
New Mexico law currently states that “whoever commits assisting suicide is guilty of a fourth-degree felony.”
ACLU lawyers say the lawsuit asks the court to rule that doctors may give patients the option of ending their lives.
Missouri
State high court sets Jan. 29 as execution date
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man convicted of killing a jewelry store owner more than two decades ago.
On Monday, the state high court ordered that Herbert Smulls be executed Jan. 29. Smulls was convicted of the 1991 murder of Chesterfield jeweler Stephen Honickman.
Smulls was originally sentenced to death by a St. Louis County jury in 1992. His attorney filed several appeals but the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal in April 2009.
The state Supreme Court set the most recent execution date days before Missouri was scheduled to carry out another execution at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday. The execution of Joseph Franklin in November was Missouri’s first in nearly three years.
Washington
High court hears dispute between airline and pilot
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is questioning whether a Wisconsin airline can be held liable for reporting one of its pilots as mentally unstable and potentially armed. Federal authorities pulled the pilot off a flight on which he was a passenger, but found no cause for concern.
The justices on Monday heard Air Wisconsin’s appeal of a $1.4 million defamation judgment in the case of veteran pilot William Hoeper. The dispute centers on the immunity Congress promised airlines in a post-9/11 law aimed at encouraging them to report possible security threats.
Three courts in Colorado found that the law did not shield Air Wisconsin from Hoeper’s lawsuit after a jury determined that statements made by an airline official in a report to the Transportation Security Administration were defamatory.
Kentucky
Defendants released due to delays in cases
DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Nearly two dozen defendants in Lincoln County were released from jail because their cases weren’t brought before a grand jury soon enough, including a man later charged with raping an elderly woman, according to a newspaper.
Among those released was Kevin Higgins, who had been arrested in March for allegedly stealing a car in Stanford and leading officers on a chase that ended in a scuffle with officers after he abandoned the vehicle, The Advocate-Messenger reported.
Higgins was held in jail until early June, when Lincoln County Circuit Judge David Tapp signed an order releasing him from custody, as the law requires, because his case had not yet been presented to the grand jury, the newspaper reported.
A few days after his release, Higgins was discovered inside a residence he allegedly burglarized, a knife by his side and stolen jewelry in his pocket.
Earlier that evening, a 92-year-old woman was raped inside her home a few houses down from where Higgins was found. Higgins was charged in the rape last month after DNA evidence was tested and connected him to the crime.
The Danville newspaper said of the 308 defendants who had preliminary hearings in Lincoln County District Court between July 2012 and July 2013, 20 were released from jail because their cases weren’t brought before a grand jury within 60 days as required by law.
Higgins’ initial case, like most of those involving the 60-day rule, was handled by the Lincoln County sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Curt Folger acknowledged his department failed to get the Higgins case and others to Commonwealth’s Attorney Eddy Montgomery so he could present them to a grand jury before the 60-day deadline.
The reason his officers sometimes don’t get their investigations wrapped up quickly enough is because they are busy answering other calls and providing around-the-clock coverage of the county, Folger said.
“That has created a problem in getting some of these cases to the grand jury in a timely manner,” he said. “Do I know the answer? Well, the answer would be more manpower so we can stay on a case until it’s done instead of getting halfway done or a quarter of the way done and then getting put on another call. That’s the only way possible to help create the solution.”
As for Higgins’ case, the sheriff said: “If I had 20-20 hindsight to know that he would have stooped so low to do all that he did, we sure would have been on it a hell of a lot quicker.”
Higgins, 28, of Stanford, has since pleaded guilty to the March charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18, the same day he will be arraigned in the rape case.
Prior to this year’s charges, Higgins had a long criminal history in Lincoln and Garrard counties. In 2005, he was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal mischief, fleeing police and receiving stolen property. But none of his previous crimes suggested he was inclined toward violent behavior, Folger and Montgomery said.
“They did not know he was going to do something violent,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery said he was not aware of Higgins’ original case until after he was arrested the second time in June. Montgomery said he is unaware of most cases until they are brought to his office by law enforcement when they are ready to be presented to a grand jury.
“It’s their case. They’re responsible for it,” he said. “With Higgins, they didn’t bring it to me until June, after the rape occurred. They had three grand juries — March, April and May — to present it. You’ll have to ask them why.
“Lack of manpower? I do three counties (Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle),” he added. “I don’t have any troubles in the other two counties.”
