National Roundup . . .

Georgia
Man dies after deputy uses stun gun on him

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A man who led sheriff’s deputies on a car chase died early Monday after being shot with a stun gun, authorities in west Georgia said.

An autopsy was being performed Tuesday on Nicholas Tanner Dyksma, 18, of Columbus, Harris County Coroner Joe Weldon said.

Columbus police were investigating a suspicious vehicle at a convenience store and pursued Dyksma when he sped away toward Harris County, Chief Deputy Neil Adams told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

The truck hit a patrol vehicle as deputies tried boxing the driver in and the vehicle stopped on the side of the road, Adams said. Investigators approached the truck and ordered Dyksma to turn the vehicle off, Adams said.

“The windows were rolled up, the doors were locked and the vehicle was still running,” the newspaper quoted Adams as saying. “The tires were still spinning. He was trying to get away.”

Deputies broke the truck’s windows after Dyksma wouldn’t obey orders to turn the vehicle off and a deputy deployed his Taser before taking the man into custody.

Deputies called an ambulance to the scene when they realized Dyksma’s breathing was shallow, Dyksma said.

“Between that time and when they arrived, he stopped breathing,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “We took the handcuffs off. We began CPR, and he was transported to the medical center.”

The man later died, and Adams said both the sheriff’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating.

Sheriff Mike Jolley told WTVM-TV that it appears that deputies on the scene followed department policies based on preliminary interviews and footage from cameras mounted on patrol vehicles.

Weldon said he suspects there were contributing factors aside from the stun gun in Dyksma’s death. A message left at a number listed for Dyksma’s family was not immediately returned.


New Jersey
Prosecutors: 2 day care workers instigated fights

CRANFORD, N.J. (AP) — Two former New Jersey day care workers are accused of instigating fights among children in their care.

Prosecutors say 22-year-old Erica Kenny, of Cranford, and 28-year-old Chanese White, of Roselle, are each charged with child abuse. Kenny also faces a child endangerment charge.

Authorities say the pair instigated fights among children ranging in age from 4 to 6 at the Lightbridge Academy in Cranford on at least one day last month. They also say Kenny recorded video of the fights and shared the clips with several friends on social media.

Union County investigators say about a dozen boys and girls are shown in the clips shoving each other to the ground and trying to hit each other. The children apparently didn’t suffer any serious injuries.

It wasn’t known Tuesday if Kenny or White had retained attorneys.


New York
Court refuses to hear appeals in chimpanzee case

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An animal rights group seeking “legal personhood” for chimpanzees won’t get a hearing in New York’s highest court.

The Court of Appeals, without comment Tuesday, declined to hear the appeal by The Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of Kiko and Tommy.

Lower courts had rejected the organization’s argument that scientific evidence of chimps’ emotional and cognitive abilities should qualify them for basic rights, including freedom from imprisonment.

In December, a midlevel court unanimously denied human legal rights to Tommy, which lives alone in a cage.

The three justices said chimps “cannot bear any legal duties, submit to societal responsibilities or be held legally accountable for their actions.”

Tommy’s owner said he’s cared for under strict state and federal license rules and inspections.

Missouri
Man sentenced to life with no parole walks free

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man sentenced to life in prison without parole on a marijuana-related charge was freed Tuesday from a Missouri prison after being behind bars for two decades — a period in which the nation’s attitudes toward pot have steadily softened.

Family, friends, supporters and reporters flocked to meet Jeff Mizanskey as he stepped out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center into a sunny morning, wearing a new pair of white tennis shoes and a shirt that read “I’m Jeff & I’m free.”

“I spent a third of my life in prison,” said Mizanskey, now 62, who was greeted by his infant great-granddaughter. “It’s a shame.”

After a breakfast of steak and eggs with family, Mizanskey said, he planned to spend his post-prison life seeking a job and advocating for the legalization of marijuana. He criticized sentencing for some drug-related crimes as unfair and described his time behind bars as “hell.”

His release followed years of lobbying by relatives, lawmakers and others who argued that the sentence was too stiff and that marijuana should not be forbidden.

Mizanskey was sentenced in 1996 — the same year California became the first state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states, and recreational marijuana has been legalized in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and Washington, D.C.

Police said he conspired to sell 6 pounds of marijuana to a dealer connected with Mexican drug cartels. At the time, the life-with-no-parole sentence was allowed under a Missouri law for repeat drug offenders. Mizanskey already had two drug convictions — one for possession and sale of marijuana in 1984 and another for possession in 1991.

He was the only Missouri inmate serving such a sentence for a nonviolent marijuana-related offense when Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon agreed in May to commute his sentence. The commutation allowed Mizanskey to argue for his freedom before a parole board, which granted his request in August.

The governor cited Mizanskey’s nonviolent record, noting that none of his offenses involved selling drugs to children. The law under which he was originally sentenced has since been changed.

Other states are reevaluating punishments for drug-possession crimes, motivated in large part by the high cost of imprisoning low-level, nonviolent offenders.

In Connecticut, a new law will make possession of small amounts of hard drugs, including heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, a misdemeanor for a first-time offense, rather than allowing for the current maximum seven-year prison sentence. Nebraska and Alabama expect to save hundreds of millions of dollars by using new laws to cut down on the number of offenders locked up for possessing small amounts of drugs.