Virginia
Gun activists sue Katie Couric over
|RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia gun rights activists have filed a $12 million defamation lawsuit against Katie Couric and other makers of a documentary over an edit they say misrepresented the activists' response to a question.
The segment in "Under the Gun" shows nearly 10 seconds of silence after Couric asks members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League how felons or terrorists could be prevented from purchasing a gun without background checks.
Activists can be heard on audio of the exchange responding to Couric's question almost immediately.
Couric was executive producer of the film. She said in a message on the film's website in May that she regrets that the edit was misleading and that she didn't raise her initial concerns about the segment "more vigorously."
Couric's spokesman declined to comment Tuesday.
Tennessee
Prosecutors want new sentence in football rape case
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nashville prosecutors are asking the judge who sentenced a former Vanderbilt football player to 15 years in prison for his part in a gang rape to order a new sentencing hearing with a different judge.
The prosecutors are quoted by The Tennessean as saying in a motion that Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins received 11 emails or letters before sentencing Cory Batey. Prosecutors say they were not shown the messages or given the opportunity to contest them, and the judge wrongly relied on them in sentencing Batey.
His 15-year sentence was the minimum possible for his convictions of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery of an unconscious fellow student in 2013.
A hearing on the prosecutors' motion is scheduled for Thursday. Batey's attorney did not immediately return a call.
Ohio
Authorities say man broke into jail for protection
HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) - Police say a 23-year-old man looking for protection ran into an Ohio jail and became trapped in the facility.
Authorities say Chad Saylor breached the Butler County Resolutions facility in Hamilton on Saturday by climbing a pipe and becoming trapped in the rear of the facility. Police say he then called 911, saying people were after him with weapons and trying to kill him and he needed to get to safety.
The breach came days after an inmate walked away from the Butler County Jail and was found a day later.
Saylor had active warrants and was taken into custody. He wasn't seriously injured.
A message seeking comment was left with his attorney.
Mississippi
Court to rehear state execution drug dispute
ST. LOUIS (AP) - An appellate panel that ordered Missouri to reveal its supplier of lethal injection drugs is giving the state another chance to make its case to shield that information.
In a federal lawsuit challenging Mississippi's three-drug execution protocol, two death-row inmates have subpoenaed Missouri for details about the using the single sedative, pentobarbital, in executions. Richard Jordan and Ricky Chase argue that Mississippi's three-drug protocol is torturous and unconstitutionally cruel.
On Sept. 2, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis unanimously rejected Missouri's claim that disclosing how it gets pentobarbital could crimp its ability to obtain such chemicals for future executions.
On Tuesday, the court issued a three-paragraph order granting the rehearing, but did not specify its reasons.
Ohio
Abortion clinic dispute appealed to state high court
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has appealed to the state Supreme Court to overturn lower court rulings that have kept open Toledo's last abortion clinic.
In a Monday filing, DeWine asked justices to reconsider two decisions that found abortion restrictions imposed on Capital Care Network of Toledo were unconstitutional. Lower courts said the state exceeded its regulatory authority over the clinic.
The issue centers on a 2014 Ohio Department of Health decision to shut down Capital Care for lack of a patient-transfer agreement with a local hospital. Such agreements were mandated, and public hospitals barred from providing them, under abortion restrictions Ohio lawmakers passed in 2014.
Abortion-rights groups call the transfer agreements "medically unnecessary." Abortion foes argue they protect women's health and safety.
The clinic has continued operating during litigation.
New York
Arsonist who killed 87 in club fire dies in prison
NEW YORK (AP) - The man who started the fire that killed 87 people at a New York City nightclub 26 years ago has died at an upstate prison.
The Daily News reports a state corrections spokesman says 61-year-old Julio Gonzalez died Tuesday at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh. Gonzalez had been serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in nearby Dannemora.
Authorities say Gonzalez was taken to the hospital after suffering what appeared to be a heart attack. An autopsy will be conducted Wednesday.
Gonzalez set fire to the illegally operated Happy Land social club in the Bronx in March 1990 after getting into an argument with his former girlfriend and being thrown out of the club.
Only six people inside the two-story club escaped, including his ex-girlfriend.
Maine
Defendant denies killing neighbor with machete
ALFRED, Maine (AP) - A Maine man has denied he killed his neighbor in a brutal attack with a machete and tried to cover up the crime by hiding his victim's body among deer carcasses.
Fifty-eight-year-old Bruce Akers pleaded not guilty to a murder charge Tuesday in connection with the slaying of 55-year-old Douglas Flint.
Authorities say the killing may have stemmed from an altercation between the men over a six-pack of beer. Family members of Flint reported him missing in June and told police about his history with Akers.
Police say search dogs uncovered Flint's body on Akers' three-acre property in Limington underneath several rotting deer carcasses. Flint had been nearly decapitated, and his body showed extensive trauma to his head and neck.
Published: Thu, Sep 15, 2016
