Court Digest

Indiana
Mentally disabled man wrongfully convicted in slaying reaches $11.7 million settlement
ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — A mentally disabled man who was wrongfully convicted in the slaying of a 94-year-old woman has reached an $11.7 million settlement with a northern Indiana city and former police officers, his attorneys said Friday.

The settlement for Andrew Royer, who spent 16 years in prison after confessing to Helen Sailor’s killing, is the largest known Indiana settlement reached in a wrongful conviction case, said Elliot Slosar, one of Royer’s attorneys.

“It is no coincidence that Andy received the largest wrongful conviction settlement in Indiana history,” Slosar said in a statement. “Andy was among the most vulnerable in our society when he was coerced into a false confession and framed for a crime he did not commit.”

A jury convicted Royer of murder in 2005 and he was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the November 2002 slaying of Sailor, who was found strangled in her Elkhart apartment.

Royer’s attorneys argued on appeal that his confession to Sailor’s killing was coerced during an interrogation that stretched over two days and that an Elkhart police detective exploited their client’s mental disability.

Royer was released from prison in 2020 after a special judge granted his request for a new trial. The judge found that Royer’s confession was “unreliable” and “involuntary” and said investigators fabricated evidence, forced a witness to give false testimony and withheld exculpatory evidence from his attorneys.

After prosecutors sought to reverse the judge’s decision, the Indiana Court of Appeals found that Royer’s rights were violated and that the detective committed perjury when he testified during the trial that Royer knew details that only the killer would have known.

In 2021, prosecutors decided not to try Royer again, and the case against him was dismissed.

Royer’s attorneys sued the city of Elkhart, its police department and others in 2022. The settlement announced Friday resolves allegations against the city and the police department.

Royer’s claims against Elkhart County officials, including the county prosecutor, are still pending.

Messages seeking comment on the settlement were left Friday with the Elkhart mayor’s office and the city’s legal department by The Associated Press.

Royer, who lives in Goshen, told The Indianapolis Star that the settlement money will “change my life.”

“I am now financially set for the rest of my life. I hope to help my family as much as I can,” he said.

The settlement with Royer is the latest instance in which the city of Elkhart has agreed to pay a large sum to settle allegations of troubling police misconduct.

Last year, the city agreed to pay a Chicago man $7.5 million to settle his wrongful conviction lawsuit. Keith Cooper was pardoned after he spent more than seven years in prison for an armed robbery he did not commit.

Florida
Former Colombian soldier pleads guilty in 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president
MIAMI (AP) — A former Colombian soldier pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which plunged the Caribbean nation into violence and political turmoil.

Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, 45, pleaded guilty to three charges, including conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, during a brief hearing before federal Judge José E. Martínez. Seated next to his attorney, Alfredo Izaguirre, Palacios answered “Yes, your honor,” in Spanish when the judge asked if he was pleading guilty.

Palacios is the fifth of 11 defendants in Miami to plead guilty in the 2021 assassination. As part of a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to cooperate with the investigation and to plead guilty. He could get up to life in prison when he’s sentenced March 1, but under the deal, prosecutors conceded that he played a minor role in the plot.

“He didn’t know what he was going to get into. He wasn’t part of the plan,” Izaguirre told reporters after the hearing. “He didn’t recruit anybody. He didn’t make any decision making authority in regards to the conspiracy. I think the government understands.”

According to prosecutors, the conspirators initially planned to kidnap the Haitian president but later decided to kill him. They say the plotters had hoped to win contracts under Moïse’s successor. About 20 former Colombian soldiers and several dual Haitian American citizens participated in the plot, authorities say.

Moïse was shot 12 times at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince on July 7, 2021. He was 53. His wife, Martine Moïse, was injured in the attack.

Three defendants have already been sentenced to life in prison in the case. A fourth, dual Haitian American national Joseph Vincent, pleaded guilty this month and is awaiting his sentencing in February.

The trial is scheduled for May 2024, although the date has been postponed several times.

Palacios was detained in Jamaica in October 2021 and was flown to the U.S. during a stopover in Panama while on a flight from Jamaica to Colombia. Federal officials say they had interviewed him while he was still hiding in Jamaica.

Haiti authorities have arrested more than 40 suspects, among them 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of taking part in the plot and several high-ranking Haitian police officers. In the Caribbean nation, at least five judges have been appointed to the case and four of them have stepped down for various reasons, including fear of being killed.

In the two years following Moïse’s assassination, Haiti has experienced a surge in gang violence that led the prime minister to request the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force. The U.N. Security Council voted in October to send a multinational force led by Kenya to help fight gangs.

The deployment, however, have been delayed. Kenyan officials told the AP that the first group of about 300 officers is expected by February, with authorities still awaiting the verdict in a case that seeks to block the deployment. A decision is expected in January.

North Carolina
Long-running education case will return before the state Supreme Court in February
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — More arguments in education funding litigation that goes back nearly 30 years are scheduled for early next year at the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The state’s highest court is revisiting the case originally known as “Leandro” with oral arguments it has now set for Feb. 22.

That will be less than 16 months after a majority of justices — then all of the court’s registered Democrats — ruled a trial judge could order taxpayer dollars be transferred without the General Assembly’s express approval from government coffers to state agencies to carry out a plan to address longstanding education inequities.

Since the 4-3 opinion in November 2022, the court has flipped to a 5-2 GOP majority.

Republican justices agreed in October to hear an appeal by Republican legislative leaders as to whether Judge James Ammons had the authority last spring to enter an order declaring that the state owed $678 million to fulfill two years of the eight-year plan. The justices are expected to examine whether the judge could rule about public education statewide.

Republican legislative leaders are opposed to the November 2022 ruling and argue state funds can only be allocated with General Assembly approval.

They also said in court filings this year that there was never a legal determination made that school districts statewide had failed to live up to the requirement affirmed by the Supreme Court in rulings in 1997 and 2004 that the state constitution directs all children must receive the “opportunity to receive a sound basic education.”

Associate Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat, wrote in October that the matter should not be revisited. She said an earlier trial judge managing the case did find a statewide constitutional violation of education inequities, and so a statewide remedy was needed.

Lawyers representing several school districts in poor counties also argued in court filings that the case was settled in November 2022 and should not be reheard.

The case began in 1994, when several school districts and families of children — one whose last name was Leandro — sued the state over alleged state law and constitutional violations involving education.


Alabama
Judge suggests change to nitrogen execution to let inmate pray and say final words without gas mask
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge who is weighing whether to allow the nation’s first execution by nitrogen hypoxia to go forward next month, urged Alabama last week to change procedures so the inmate can pray and say his final words before the gas mask is placed on his face.

U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker made the suggestion in a court order setting a Dec. 29 deadline to submit information before he rules on the inmate’s request to block the execution. The judge made similar comments the day prior at the conclusion of a court hearing.

Alabama is scheduled to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith on Jan. 25 in what would be the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. Nitrogen hypoxia is authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma but has never been used to put an inmate to death.

The proposed execution method would use a gas mask, placed over Smith’s nose and mouth, to replace breathable air with nitrogen, causing Smith to die from lack of oxygen.

Attorneys for Smith argued the new execution method is unconstitutional and also cited religious concerns. His attorneys said the mask, which Alabama intends to place over his face before execution witnesses arrive, would interfere with his ability to pray aloud and make a final statement before his execution.

“As stated during the hearing, the Court encourages the Defendants to consider altering the protocol to accommodate Plaintiff Smith’s stated desire to pray audibly and give his final statement without being masked and with witnesses present prior to his planned execution,” Huffaker wrote.

The judge added that the parties should “not read anything into this request” about how he will ultimately rule on the injunction request.

An attorney for the state on Wednesday cited personnel and security concerns for placing the mask on Smith before execution witnesses enter the chamber. Under the state’s protocol, he said execution team members would strap Smith to the gurney, fit the mask and then leave to escort witnesses into the prison.

Smith was one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett. The other man convicted in the killing was executed in 2010. Charles Sennett, the victim’s husband and a Church of Christ pastor, killed himself when the investigation began to focus on him as a possible suspect, according to court documents.nd additional details about several strikes.