National Roundup

Missouri
State high court lets execution date stand
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from a man facing execution next month for a hearing to argue that he's innocent and impaired by a traumatic brain injury.

Walter Barton, 64, was convicted of killing an 81-year-old mobile home park manager nearly three decades ago. Barton's case has been tied up in court for years due to mistrials, appeals and two overturned convictions, and his attorney continues to maintain his innocence. The state Supreme Court in February set a May 19 execution date.

Gladys Kuehler operated a mobile home park in the southwestern Missouri town of Ozark. In October 1991, officers found Kuehler dead inside her mobile home. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 50 times.

DNA testing showed that a stain on Barton's clothing was Kuehler's blood.

Barton's attorney, Frederick A. Duchardt Jr., said Barton had blood on his shirt because he was among those who helped identify the victim. Duchardt said the conviction was also based on testimony from an unreliable witness.

Barton sought to argue that information that would impeach the witness and offer a different theory about the blood spatter would prove his innocence, but the state Supreme Court rejected that argument in its Monday ruling. The court also ruled that Barton had not shown that he was incompetent to be executed.

Barton would be the first Missouri inmate put to death since Russell Bucklew was executed in October.

Maine
Lawyers clash over petitions via video before supreme court
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Attorneys clashed over disputed petitions needed to put a $1 billion hydropower transmission project to a statewide vote Tuesday in the first state supreme court arguments delivered via video conferencing.

Backers of the New England Clean Energy Connect contend Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap misinterpreted state law when he accepted petitions notarized by people who also performed other work for groups that were collecting signatures.

If the court agrees, then the number of certified signatures would fall short of the threshold of about 63,000 needed for the November ballot.

The legal proceeding during a global pandemic marked the first time attorneys were not present for oral arguments delivered to Maine Supreme Judicial Court, said Amy Quinlan, spokeswoman for state courts. The justices were located in Portland and Augusta, while attorneys delivered arguments from their offices or from home.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court was asked Tuesday to determine the intent of the Legislature when it changed the law governing the role of notaries in petition-gathering campaigns.

Nolan Reichl, attorney for backers of the project, said lawmakers wanted to ensure that those who notarize signatures are not also aiding the petition drive at any time during the process.

"The guiding star by which the the court navigates problems of statutory interpretation always has been the intent of the Legislature," he said from his home. In this case, the secretary of state's interpretation "contravenes the legislative intent," he said.

But Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardner, arguing on the secretary of state's behalf from a conference room in Augusta, said election officials cannot retroactively revoke a notary's authorization for actions that the notary took after an oath was legally administered.

All told, the secretary of state found that referendum supporters exceeded the threshold for the November ballot by 3,050 signatures; invalidation of the petitions at the center of the lawsuit would leave the referendum short of necessary signatures.

CMP's New England Clean Energy Connect calls for construction of a 145-mile (233-kilometer) transmission line to bring 1,200 megawatts of electricity from Hydro-Quebec to the New England power grid to meet Massachusetts' clean energy goals. Most of the transmission line would follow established utility corridors, but a new swath would be cut through 53 miles (85 kilometers) of wilderness owned by CMP.

The project was embraced by Massachusetts officials after New Hampshire regulators pulled the plug on the controversial Northern Pass project.

Supporters say the Maine project would reduce greenhouse emissions and stabilize utility rates across the region. Critics say the environmental benefits have been overstated and that the project would snuff out smaller wind turbine and solar projects in Maine.

The arguments on Tuesday were the first since Chief Justice Leigh Saufley departed to become dean of the University of Maine School of Law.

Absent from the video hearing was acting Chief Justice Andrew Mead, who recused himself from the case. Justice Ellen Gorman told the attorneys that the supreme court would rule "expeditiously."


California
Students file lawsuit over virus-related refunds
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California State University and the University of California systems were sued Monday by students demanding refunds of some campus fees since the virus pandemic closed schools and forced learning online.

The class-action lawsuits, filed in federal courts in Los Angeles and Oakland, say that the systems that serve more than 700,000 students have refused to refund unused portions of fees for campus-related services that spring-semester students aren't using, such as health facilities, student association dues and student centers.

The campuses have been closed since March because of the COVID-19 outbreak and athletic events have been cancelled.

"The effect of CSU's COVID-19-related protocols and messaging is that all students have effectively been forced to leave campus, unless they truly had no other safe place to go," the Los Angeles suit said. "For students who do remain on campus, services are now extremely limited. For students who do not live on campus, there is no reason to come to campus, since all activities have been cancelled."

Messages seeking comment from both systems weren't immediately returned Monday night.

The fees ranged from around $850 to more than $4,000 for CSU students for the 2019-2020 academic year while the UC basic student services fee was around $1,100, while fees related to specific campuses doubled that or more, according to the lawsuits.

Similar lawsuits were previously filed against universities in Arizona and against Liberty University, a nonprofit evangelical Christian college in Virginia.