Massachusetts
Boston Marathon bomber again tries to avoid execution
BOSTON (AP) — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is again trying to avoid execution, asking the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider four constitutional claims not taken up when his death sentence appeal went to the Supreme Court last month.
Tsarnaev’s attorneys in a filing Thursday said the trial court “improperly forced” their client to stand trial in Boston; violated his constitutional rights by denying his challenges to two jurors accused of lying during questioning; dismissed a potential juror because of that person’s opposition to the death penalty; and allowed the admission as evidence of what they called Tsarnaev’s “coerced confession.”
Thursday’s filing was in response to a Wednesday filing by the appeals court to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision last month to reinstate Tsarnaev’s death penalty.
“Because these four claims on direct appeal have not yet been adjudicated by any appellate court, Tsarnaev respectfully submits that the April 6 judgment was entered in error and should be vacated,” his attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors in their response said they agreed that the defense’s four claims have not been resolved, but said: “The government believes that the defendant’s death sentences should be affirmed.”
The Supreme Court agreed by a 6-3 vote on March 4 with the Biden administration’s arguments that the appeals court was wrong to vacate the death sentence imposed by a jury for Tsarnaev’s role in the placing of two pressure cooker bombs near the marathon finish line in 2013 that killed three people and injured more than 260. He was convicted in 2015.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes. The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority.
The Supreme Court’s ruling overturned a decision by the 1st Circuit, which ruled in 2020 that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev was deeply influenced and radicalized by his older brother, Tamerlan, and was therefore less responsible for the bombing.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police several days after the explosions.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now 28, is being held at a maximum security federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
New York
U.S. prosecutors accuse Japan-based crime gang in drug case
NEW YORK (AP) — Four men associated with a Japan-based crime syndicate known as “yakuza” have been charged with trying to negotiate a deal to exchange high-powered weapons for drugs with an undercover U.S. agent, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
The men were arrested earlier this week in Manhattan after a sting operation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Prosecutors said the DEA agent infiltrated the organization by posing as an arms dealer eager to trade surface-to-air missiles — presumably meant for warring factions in Myanmar — in exchange for methamphetamine and heroin destined for New York City.
“The expansive reach of transnational criminal networks like the Yakuza presents a serious threat to the safety and health of all communities,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement.
The defendants made initial appearances in federal court in Manhattan, where they were ordered held without bail, prosecutors said. A message was left with a lawyer for Takeshi Ebisawa, a Japanese national who was singled out as an alleged ringleader of the local crew.
Court papers describe the yakuza as an “international criminal network, which spans Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka and the United States.”
The papers added that the defendants who were allegedly seeking the deal with the DEA undercover “understood the weapons to have been manufactured in the United States and taken from United States military bases in Afghanistan and planned for the narcotics to be distributed in the New York market.”
Texas
7 charged in deaths of 2 fellow inmates at federal prison
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — Seven inmates have been charged with killing two fellow prisoners and wounding two others during a January attack at a federal prison in Texas that led to a nationwide lockdown of the federal prison system.
The 15-count indictment filed this week includes charges of racketeering, murder and attempted murder against Juan Carolos Rivas-Moreiera; Dimas Alfaro-Granados; Raul Landaverde-Giron; Larry Navarete; Jorge Parada; Hector Ramires; and Sergio Sibrian.
The seven remain in federal custody and court documents do not list attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
The Jan. 31 attack was inside USP Beaumont in Beaumont, Texas. Prosecutors say the seven are members of the violent MS-13 gang and attacked rival gang members of the Mexican Mafia and its affiliate, the Sureños.
“Deterring prison violence remains a priority for the Department,” U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston of the Eastern District of Texas said in a statement Thursday. “Any prisoner who causes physical injury to another, inmate or corrections officer, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Each of the seven could face the death penalty if convicted on the murder charges, the indictment states.
According to the indictment, the MS-13 maintained a relationship with the Mexican Mafia and Sureños for protection in prisons.
“However, that symbiotic relationship recently began to fall apart as MS-13’s leadership in El Salvador sought to exert more control and independence of its own members while incarcerated in prisons within the United States,” the indictment stated.
The change led the seven to conspire to kill members of Mexican Mafia and the Sureños, according to the indictment.
The indictment said Sureños member and Mexican Mafia associate Guillermo Riojas and Sureños member Andrew Pineda were fatally stabbed during the attack and two Sureños members were wounded.
Ohio
Motion to disqualify judge filed in doctor’s murder trial
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The weekslong trial of an Ohio doctor charged in multiple hospital deaths hit a bump in the road this week after a motion was filed seeking to disqualify the judge overseeing the case.
Dr. William Husel is accused of ordering excessive painkillers for 14 patients in the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System. He was indicted in cases involving at least 500 micrograms of the powerful painkiller fentanyl.
The prosecution and defense both rested last week but closing arguments have been repeatedly rescheduled and are now set for Monday, a week after their original date.
On Thursday, Ohio Supreme Court spokesperson Lyn Tolan confirmed that an affidavit for disqualification — a motion for removing judges — was filed in the Husel case. Tolan said the affidavit has been sealed and no further details were available.
Janet Grubb, Franklin County first assistant prosecutor, declined comment. Messages were left for attorneys for Husel and with Franklin County Judge Michael Holbrook.
Prosecutors have said ordering such dosages for a nonsurgical situation indicated an intent to end lives. His attorneys say he was providing comfort care for dying patients, not trying to kill them. Husel has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of murder.
Jurors seated for the trial heard from 53 prosecution witnesses since the trial began Feb. 22, including medical experts, Mount Carmel employees, investigators, and family members of all 14 patients. Prosecutors took five weeks to present their case.
Defense lawyers called a single witness on March 30 — a Georgia anesthesiologist who testified that Husel’s patients died from their medical conditions and not Husel’s actions. The defense rested the following day.
Mount Carmel has reached settlements totaling more than $16.7 million over the deaths of at least 17 patients, with more lawsuits pending.
California
Man pleads guilty to interfering with flight crew
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A Los Angeles man pleaded guilty to interfering with a flight attendant, causing a California-based flight to be diverted to Oklahoma City, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.
Ariel James Pennington, 35, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s formally sentenced later this year, U.S. Attorney Robert Troester said in a statement.
Pennington was initially charged with a second count of assaulting a federal air marshal on the same flight, but prosecutors agreed to dismiss that count as part of a plea agreement.
A message left with Pennington’s attorney, Kenny Goza, seeking comment on the plea wasn’t immediately returned.
Pennington was arrested Dec. 9 after the Delta Airlines flight from Virginia to California was diverted to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City police said at the time that Pennington was disorderly and intoxicated.
Indiana
State ruled not liable in groping suit vs. ex-top lawyer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled the women who claimed Indiana’s former attorney general drunkenly groped them cannot pursue a lawsuit against the state government under federal sexual harassment laws.
The Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a decision issued Wednesday that the women worked for Indiana’s legislative branch as House or Senate staffers and upheld a lower court judge’s ruling that state government as a whole and then-Attorney General Curtis Hill had no employment authority over them despite his elected position as the state’s top lawyer.
The three female staffers filed the lawsuit alleging that the Republican attorney general inappropriately touched their backs or buttocks and made unwelcome sexual comments during a 2018 party at an Indianapolis bar.
Hill has denied wrongdoing but the state Supreme Court ordered a 30-day suspension of his law license after finding “by clear and convincing evidence that (Hill) committed the criminal act of battery” against the women and then-state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, a Munster Democrat.
Lawyers for the women argued before the appeals court in December that dismissing the state from the lawsuit would create a “loophole” allowing it to avoid responsibility.
The lawsuit remains pending against the Indiana House and Senate and the appeals court ruling said those entities were the women’s employers.
“Plaintiffs protest that the House and Senate are not the Attorney General’s employer and can’t control him — but the statute requires people to sue their own employers, not someone else’s,” the ruling said. “Many decisions say that an employer can be liable for failing to protect employees from discrimination by third parties, such as customers, even when the employer cannot directly control those third parties.”
The Indianapolis law firm representing the women declined to comment Thursday on the appeals court decision.
Hill faces a separate lawsuit filed by the women in Marion County court, seeking unspecified monetary damages against Hill on claims that he committed battery against them and defamed them with repeated statements that their allegations were false. Trial is scheduled for September.
The groping allegations were key campaign issue against Hill when he lost the 2020 Republican attorney general nomination for his reelection to Todd Rokita, who took office in January 2021.
