New Hampshire
Canadian high court to consider NH extradition
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — The Supreme Court of Canada plans to hear arguments over whether two men should be extradited to New Hampshire to face charges in the deaths of two Nashua women 25 years ago.
The Telegraph of Nashua reports the court has agreed to hear the appeals of David Caplin and Anthony Barnaby.
The men are Canadian Micmac Indians who were working construction in Nashua when 48-year-old Charlene Ranstrom and 32-year-old Brenda Warner were bound, beaten and stabbed to death in their home in October 1988.
Police say new DNA evidence and witnesses justify extradition of the men.
Three juries failed to convict or acquit Barnaby. Officials dropped first-degree murder charges against Caplin after courts threw out much of the evidence.
“This is the same case where they believed they had proof beyond a reasonable doubt three times before, and a jury disagreed with them,” said Mark Sisti, who represented Barnaby during the trials.
There was no indication of when the cases will be heard.
A lower Canadian court ruled in August that Caplin would be extradited, but that trying Barnaby a fourth time would be unprecedented.
Both were arrested in April 2011 after Nashua police detective Sgt. Frank Bougeois led a cold-case investigation into the murders.
The men came to Nashua to work construction jobs during a boom in the housing market. They grew up together on the Restigouche Indian reservation in northern Quebec and were roommates at the time of the killings. They were living on the floor beneath the women in 1988.
Police at the time said Barnaby admitted he and Caplin broke into the women’s apartment, tied up the women and then beat and stabbed them. But defense lawyers argued the confessions were coerced during a lengthy police interrogation.
The police interrogation of Barnaby was not taped. Barnaby claimed he was drunk and asleep on a couch on the front porch when the killings took place.
Mississippi
Doctor files suit over his arrest in sting operation
GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — Attorneys for a Greenwood doctor charged in a murder-for-hire case has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging his arrest came during an illegal undercover sting operation.
The Greenwood Commonwealth reports defendants in the lawsuit are attorney and the alleged target Lee Abraham, Attorney General Jim Hood and 10 investigators from his office, Greenwood Detective Jeff Byars, Assistant District Attorney Timothy Jones and Leflore County Justice Court Judge Jim Campbell.
Dr. Arnold Smith, 71, is charged with murder as the alleged instigator of a plot that ended April 28, 2012, with the death of gunman Keaira Byrd and the serious wounding Derrick Lacy. Byrd allegedly was hired to Lee Abraham, who represented Smith’s ex-wife in their divorce years ago. Smith is also charged with two counts of conspiring to murder Abraham.
Three investigators from the attorney general’s office were at Abraham’s office when Byrd and Lacy arrived and exchanged gunfire. Abraham was not injured in the gunfire.
The criminal case against Smith has been on hold indefinitely since Circuit Judge Breland Hilburn ruled in December that Smith was unfit to stand trial. Smith is being held at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. Another hearing will be held to re-examine his competency after treatment is completed.
In the federal lawsuit, Smith’s attorney, William Bell of Ridgeland, argues there was no assassination attempt. Instead, Bell argues the death of Byrd resulted from an “illegal undercover sting operation” conducted by Abraham and investigators from the attorney general’s office.
Bell argues the investigation by Greenwood police and agents from the attorney general’s office into the shooting was both “plainly incompetent” and “indicative of an intentional cover-up.”
Hood and the others have not filed responses to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was originally filed April 28 in U.S. District Court in Jackson; an amended lawsuit was filed May 1.
Louisiana
Appeals Court: Prosecution can go on with deputy
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A Louisiana appeals court says prosecutors haven’t run out of time to bring to trial a former Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s deputy in a sex crimes investigation.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal this past week overturned a ruling by 14th Judicial District Court Judge Ron Ware that the time limit had run out to prosecute David Neal Thomas, who prosecutors say allegedly had sex with a 15-year-old girl between March and October 2009.
The American Press reports Ware ruled in April 2013 that time had run out to prosecute Thomas
The 3rd Circuit said the case’s time limit is suspended because an open motion to quash a search warrant has not been ruled on or withdrawn.
Thomas was indicted Jan. 2, 2010. The state had two years from the indictment to bring him to trial, although an extra year was added because of a defense continuance on March 29, 2012.
On Aug. 10, 2010, a defense motion was filed to quash a search warrant to take blood from Thomas for DNA analysis.
Ware stayed the warrant and a hearing was held on Sept. 22, 2010. He asked for more information at the end of the hearing, but never ruled on the matter.
Because no decision was made and the motion was never withdrawn, “the time limitation has been suspended and remains suspended at this time,” Judge Elizabeth A. Pickett wrote in the appellate opinion. “There is no violation to the defendant’s right to a speedy trial.”
Pickett said state law says that “when a defendant files a motion to quash or other preliminary plea, the running of the periods of limitation ... shall be suspended until the ruling of the court thereon.”
Arizona
Court to hear abortion drug limits case
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal appeals court panel is set to hear arguments on the legality of Arizona’s new rules limiting the use of abortion-inducting drugs.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction blocking the rules from going into effect last month. The panel will hold a hearing on the case Tuesday.
The rules limit where and how women can take abortion-inducing drugs and block their use after the seventh week of pregnancy. Women can now use the drugs into their ninth week.
Lawyers for Arizona want the court to allow the rules to be implemented. Lawyers representing Planned Parenthood of Arizona want the injunction kept in place.
The restrictions were released in January by state health officials to implement part of a 2012 state law.
