Minnesota
Media asks court to ensure access to trial over Floyd death
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A coalition of media organizations has asked a federal appeals court to intervene to ensure public access to the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
The news organizations, including The Associated Press, petitioned the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to quash two orders from District Judge Paul Magnuson that they say violated the First Amendment by closing part of the trial and sealing the corresponding transcript.
Monday was the start of the second week of testimony in the trial, which Magnuson has said could last four weeks.
“Petitioners do not need to explain to this Court the gravity of the trial, the impact Mr. Floyd’s death had on the Twin Cities and the world, or the public’s ongoing and intense concern for how the criminal justice system deals with those accused of killing him,” media coalition attorney Leita Walker wrote. “As a result, ensuring the trial is fully open to the press and public is imperative.”
At issue is Magnuson’s closure of a hearing that he planned for Jan. 21 on defense motions to exclude certain evidence. Prosecutors and the media coalition objected to the closure. Walker wrote that the judge appeared to cancel the hearing, but then held what was first called a “trial management conference” that the court later labeled an “in-chambers proceeding.” Both were conducted in private.
Magnuson rejected the media coalition’s challenge of the closure as “moot” after he canceled it. In a written order after he was asked to reconsider, he stood by his earlier decision, writing that the proceeding in chambers “was not a hearing at all” and that neither the public nor media had a right to access it.
He also sealed the proceeding’s transcript, which he said was brief and of no import. Its release would be “contrary to the efficient administration of justice in this matter,” Magnuson wrote.
The coalition asked the 8th Circuit to vacate the closure order and unseal the transcript. The news organizations also repeated concerns they’ve been raising about restrictions on journalists and spectators in the courtroom that are meant to reduce the risks of a COVID-19 outbreak disrupting the proceedings.
New York
NY?mask mandate to remain in place during appeals process
NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s mask mandate will remain in effect while the state appeals a ruling from a lower court judge overturning it, an appellate panel of judges ruled Monday.
The ruling from the four-judge panel followed an appeals court judge’s decision last week temporarily restoring it the day after the initial ruling overturning it.
The state’s health commissioner had reinstated the mask mandate in mid-December over a surge in coronavirus cases, requiring masks in schools, health care facilities, homeless shelters, jails, public transportation, and in any indoor public area where vaccination wasn’t required for entry.
It was initially put in place for a least a month; it has now been extended to Feb. 10.
A group of parents sued over the mandate, and in the initial ruling against it, a judge said the governor and the health department didn’t have the authority to reinstate it.
In the decision from the appeals panel, the judges said the mandate would be in place until the state’s appeal of the lower court ruling was decided, and said the state had until March 2 to file.
Mississippi
State orders competency hearing on execution request
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court is ordering a trial court judge to determine if a Mississippi death row inmate truly wants to request an execution date and if the inmate is mentally competent to waive his appeals in the case.
The state’s high court on Friday ordered that Blayde Nathaniel Grayson, 46, be taken to George County Circuit Court and put under oath to say whether he wishes to go forward with his request for the state to schedule his execution.
Grayson, who has been on death row more than 24 years, said in a handwritten letter to the state Supreme Court in early December: “I ask to see that my execution should be carried out forthwith.” Grayson’s attorney, David Voisin, submitted a separate letter days later asking justices to disregard Grayson’s request because Grayson still had an appeal pending in federal court.
Grayson had said in his letter that he wanted to end all of his appeals. He was convicted of capital murder in 1997 in the 1996 stabbing death of 78-year-old Minnie Smith during a burglary of her home in south Mississippi’s George County.
The state Supreme Court did not set a deadline for the new hearing in George County Circuit Court.
Mississippi on Nov. 17 carried out its first execution in nine years, giving a lethal injection to David Neal Cox, who surrendered all appeals and described himself as “worthy of death.” A jury in north Mississippi sentenced Cox to death after he pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife and sexually assaulting his stepdaughter in front of her dying mother.
One of the current state Supreme Court justices, David Ishee, represented Grayson during his trial and during some appeals of the conviction.
Missouri
Prosecutor to seek death penalty in murder case
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — A southeastern Missouri prosecutor has announced he plans to seek the death penalty for a man charged with killing another man last year by ramming him with his truck.
Stoddard County Attorney Russ Oliver on Monday filed his intent to seek death for Boyd Lippoldt, television station KFVS reported.
Lippoldt, 44, is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal actions, driving while intoxicated resulting in death and a drug possession count in the Nov. 5 death of 32-year-old Frank Morris.
Police have said Lippoldt intentionally struck Morris with his truck at the auto garage where Morris was working, then tried to cover up the crime. Investigators say in court documents that Lippoldt admitted to being under the influence of methamphetamine when he rammed Morris.
The case has been moved to Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court in an effort to avoid pretrial publicity.
