Washington
AG Holder urges congress action on data breaches
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder is urging Congress to require businesses to quickly alert consumers and law enforcement agencies in the wake of significant data breaches like the ones at discount retailer Target and at Neiman Marcus.
The attorney general said Congress should create a strong, national standard for notifying consumers whose information may have been compromised, empowering members of the public to protect themselves if they are at risk of identity theft.
The attorney general said action by Congress would enable law enforcement agencies to investigate such crimes thoroughly and would hold companies accountable when they fail to keep sensitive information safe. In a video posted on the Justice Department’s website, Holder also said he favors exemptions for harmless breaches to avoid placing unnecessary burdens on businesses that act responsibly.
California
Woman gets term in prison in death of her foster child
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California woman convicted of fatally beating her 2-year-old foster daughter has been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says a motion filed at the sentencing of 34-year-old Kiana Barker said the victim suffered blunt force trauma caused by repeated blows.
Barker was found guilty by a jury in October of second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse. Jurors also found true allegations of the use of a deadly and dangerous weapon, a belt.
Prosecutors said the child, identified in court documents as Viola V., died from massive bleeding in her chest cavity.
Barker’s then-boyfriend, 42-year-old James Dewitt Julian, pleaded no contest in 2011 to one felony count of accessory after the fact. He was sentenced to three years in county jail.
Indiana
Hearing set on defense bills in family’s deaths
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) — A court hearing has been set on the dispute between a southern Indiana county and defense attorneys for a former state trooper over bills for the trial in which he was acquitted of charges he killed his wife and two young children.
Attorneys for Floyd County and David Camm are to appear Wednesday before the special judge who oversaw Camm’s eight-week trial last fall.
The News and Tribune reports Camm’s attorneys say the county hasn’t paid some bills they submitted and taken more than a year to pay others.
The county auditor says the unpaid bills total about $420,000.
Officials say the county has faced more than $3 million in costs from Camm’s three trials for the September 2000 shootings. Camm was convicted twice but those verdicts were overturned.
Georgia
High court: Legal resources must go to inmates
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia Supreme Court ruling reinforces inmates’ rights to access prison libraries and legal assistance.
In an opinion released Monday, the high court says a trial court erred when it barred an inmate from filing a petition to force prison officials to give him access to a law library.
Waseem Daker was convicted in 2012 of stabbing and strangling a woman and stabbing her 5-year-old son. He was sentenced to nearly 50 years in jail.
He has requested a new trial and said he plans additional legal action. He complained to prison officials about his lack of access to legal materials.
The trial judge said his petition was frivolous and wouldn’t allow it to be filed. The high court says the trial court must allow the petition to be filed.
Texas
Beating of gay man leads to hate crime charge
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A North Texas man is facing federal hate crime charges after authorities say he severely beat a gay man he met through an online service.
A federal criminal complaint reviewed by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram alleges 19-year-old Brice Johnson invited the victim to his home in Springtown, about 25 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The victim, identified in court documents only as A.K., was beaten and thrown in the trunk of a car because of his sexual orientation. He suffered multiple fractures and was hospitalized for 10 days.
Johnson initially was charged with aggravated assault for the September attack. Federal authorities took him into custody last week.
Prosecutors say Johnson contended the beating was a prank that got out of hand. Conviction could get him 10 years in prison.
Missouri
New sentence for convicted killer is life in prison
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A convicted killer whose death sentence was overturned has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison without an opportunity for parole.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 50-year-old William L. Weaver was resentenced Friday in St. Louis County.
Weaver was convicted of killing Charles Taylor in 1987 because he was a potential witness in a drug case.
Weaver’s sentence was overturned in 2007 by the U.S. Supreme Court because of comments then-prosecutor Buzz Westfall made in closing arguments. Westfall used a quote from the movie “Patton,” in which the general urged soldiers to kill the enemy, saying, “When you reach over to put your hand in the pile of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face, you’ll know what to do.”
New York
Trial slated for 1st man charged under SAFE Act
HANOVER, N.Y. (AP) — A trial gets underway next week for the first person charged with violating New York’s new gun-control law.
Authorities say 33-year-old Benjamin Wassell of Silver Creek in western New York was accused of selling illegally modified semi-automatic rifles. The transactions in January and February 2013 involved an undercover officer in the Chautauqua County town of Hanover, 30 miles southwest of Buffalo.
Wassell was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor under the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, passed in January 2013.
The Dunkirk Observer reports that jury selection begins March 4 in Chautauqua County. The state attorney general’s office is handling the prosecution.
Two Chautauqua County judges recused themselves because they’re members of the National Rifle Association. An Erie County judge will preside.
