Florida
State Supreme Court upholds law allowing death sentences by non-unanimous juries
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Supreme Court has upheld a state law allowing nonunanimous juries to sentence people to death, cementing the lowest bar in the country for death sentences at a time when the state is driving a national increase in executions.
In a decision released Thursday, the court affirmed a 2023 law that ended a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing, rejecting arguments by death row inmates Michael Hunt and Michael Jackson that their sentences are unconstitutional.
Florida law allows capital punishment with a jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favor of execution, the lowest standard in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Alabama is the only other state to allow the imposition of death sentences by nonunanimous juries, with the slightly higher threshold of 10-2.
Florida lawmakers passed the nonunanimous jury measure in response to a verdict that spared the life of the school shooter who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Florida’s death penalty sentencing requirements have shifted repeatedly in recent years, following legal challenges and changes on the state’s high court, where five of the seven justices were appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
For decades, Florida had not required unanimity in capital punishment, allowing a judge to impose the death penalty as long as a majority of jurors were in favor of the penalty. But in 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the state’s system, saying it allowed judges too much discretion.
The state Legislature then passed a bill requiring a 10-2 jury recommendation, but the state Supreme Court at the time said such recommendations should be unanimous, prompting lawmakers in 2017 to require a unanimous jury.
Three years later, the state Supreme Court, with new conservative jurists appointed by DeSantis, rescinded its earlier decision and ruled that a death recommendation does not need to be unanimous.
In recent years, the state has also expanded which offenses can warrant the death penalty to include child rape convictions, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned capital punishment in such cases.
Meanwhile, Florida’s record-breaking spate of executions continues under DeSantis, with another man scheduled to die Thursday evening in what would be the state’s 19th execution in 2025.
Texas
Judge orders AG’s divorce records unsealed amid heated primary
McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Friday ordered the release of court documents detailing the divorce of U.S. Senate candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, months after she filed citing “biblical grounds.”
The order followed an agreement between attorneys for Paxton and a coalition of media outlets to make the records public. The documents were not immediately available early Friday.
The disclosures are likely to fuel attacks against Paxton in one of the nation’s most heated Republican primaries as he seeks to unseat Sen. John Cornyn. Whether the divorce details resonate with voters remains to be seen, with the Senate primary set for March 3 next year.
Despite years of controversy, the three-term attorney general has remained competitive in the race, which includes Rep. Wesley Hunt.
The divorce comes after 38 years of marriage, during which Angela Paxton had supported her husband through a series of legal troubles, including state and federal corruption investigations. A state securities fraud indictment against Ken Paxton was dismissed after a 2024 plea deal in which he agreed to pay restitution and complete community service, and the Justice Department dropped a federal corruption probe earlier this year. His 2023 impeachment trial ended in acquittal.
Angela Paxton also stood by Ken Paxton’s side during that impeachment trial, which publicly exposed his extramarital affair. But in announcing on social media that she had filed for divorce in July, she cited “recent discoveries.”
Paxton’s support in Texas has remained strong amid a decade of legal troubles. He won reelection in 2022 by nearly 10 percentage points.
Paxton launched his bid to unseat Cornyn in April and has since drawn attacks from Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, with some in the party concerned that while Paxton could prevail in the GOP primary, he may complicate the general election and force national Republicans to spend heavily to hold the seat. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are facing off in their party’s primary.
Groups supporting Cornyn have spent more than $21 million on television ads this year, according to AdImpact, to promote the four-term senator and attack Paxton.
“What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said in July. “No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time.”
Paxton has been a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, while Cornyn has at times drawn criticism within his own party for working with Democrats.
Trump’s endorsement is expected to be a decisive factor in Texas, which he won in 2024 by nearly 14 percentage points. Trump has not yet endorsed in the race.
Massachusetts
New Jersey police chief faces domestic violence charges in Boston
BOSTON (AP) — A New Jersey police chief is facing domestic violence charges in Massachusetts after prosecutors accused him of assaulting a woman at a hotel earlier this year.
Carmen Veneziano, who leads Totowa, New Jersey’s police department, was indicted Thursday on one count of kidnapping and three counts of domestic assault and battery, officials in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, said.
In a brief statement Sunday, prosecutors alleged Veneziano confined and assaulted a woman overnight on Sept. 14, in a hotel room in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.
Police in New Jersey arrested Veneziano on Friday, and he is expected to be arraigned Monday in Boston. An attorney for Veneziano was not immediately listed in court records.
Totowa Mayor John Coiro said that he learned of the charges on Friday and suspended Veneziano without pay later that day.
“While I did not see the exact charges in writing, the Prosecutor’s Office did relay to me that these charges were serious in nature and considered felonies,” Coiro said in a statement.
Further details will be disclosed at Veneziano’s arraignment, prosecutors said.
South Dakota
Hotel owner found liable for discrimination against Native Americans
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The owner of a South Dakota hotel who said Native Americans were banned from the establishment was found liable for discrimination against Native Americans on Friday.
A federal jury decided the owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City will pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to various plaintiffs who were denied service at the hotel. The jury awarded $1 to the NDN Collective, the Indigenous advocacy group that filed the lawsuit.
The group brought the class-action civil rights lawsuit against Retsel Corporation, the company that owns the hotel, in 2022. The case was delayed when the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2024. The head of the company, Connie Uhre, passed away this September.
“This was never about money. We sued for one dollar,” said Wizipan Garriott, president of NDN Collective and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “It was about being on record for the discrimination that happened, and using this as an opportunity to be able to really call out racism.”
Uhre posted on social media in March 2022 that she would ban Native Americans from the property after a fatal shooting at the hotel involving two teenagers whom police identified as Native American. She wrote in a Facebook post that she cannot “allow a Native American to enter our business including Cheers,” the hotel’s bar and casino.
When Native American members of the NDN Collective tried to book a room at the hotel after her social media posts, they were turned away. The incident drew protests in Rapid City and condemnation from the mayor as well as tribes in the state.
In Friday’s decision, the jury also ruled in Retsel’s countersuit against NDN Collective that the group had acted as a nuisance in its protests against the hotel, awarding $812 to the company.
Following a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department in November 2023, Uhre had to publicly apologize and was banned from managing the establishment for four years.
The Associated Press reached out to the defense attorneys for comment.
Rapid City, a gateway to Mount Rushmore, has long seen racial tensions. At least 8% of the city’s population of about 80,000 identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to census data.
Minnesota
Jury says Johnson & Johnson owes $65.5 million to woman with cancer who used talcum powder
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota jury awarded $65.5 million on Friday to a mother of three who claimed talcum products made by Johnson & Johnson exposed her to asbestos and contributed to her developing cancer in the lining of her lungs.
Jurors determined that plaintiff Anna Jean Houghton Carley, 37, should be compensated by Johnson & Johnson after using its baby powder throughout her childhood and later developing mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused primarily by exposure to the carcinogen asbestos.
Johnson & Johnson said it would appeal the verdict.
During a 13-day trial in Ramsey County District Court, Carley’s legal team argued the pharmaceutical giant sold and marketed talc-based products to consumers despite knowing it can be contaminated with asbestos. Carley’s lawyers also said her family was never warned about potential dangers while using the product on their child. The product was taken off shelves in the U.S. in 2020.
“This case was not about compensation only. It was about truth and accountability,” Carley’s attorney Ben Braly said.
Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation for Johnson & Johnson, argued the company’s baby powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer. He expects an appellate court to reverse the decision.
The verdict is the latest development in a longstanding legal battle over claims that talc in Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder was connected to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, which strikes the lungs and other organs. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling powder made with talc worldwide in 2023.
“These lawsuits are predicated on ‘junk science,’ refuted by decades of studies that demonstrate Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer,” Haas said in a statement after the verdict.
Earlier this month, a Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million to two women who claimed Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder caused their ovarian cancer. And in October, another California jury ordered the company to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma, claiming she developed the cancer because the baby powder she used was contaminated with asbestos.
State Supreme Court upholds law allowing death sentences by non-unanimous juries
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Supreme Court has upheld a state law allowing nonunanimous juries to sentence people to death, cementing the lowest bar in the country for death sentences at a time when the state is driving a national increase in executions.
In a decision released Thursday, the court affirmed a 2023 law that ended a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing, rejecting arguments by death row inmates Michael Hunt and Michael Jackson that their sentences are unconstitutional.
Florida law allows capital punishment with a jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favor of execution, the lowest standard in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Alabama is the only other state to allow the imposition of death sentences by nonunanimous juries, with the slightly higher threshold of 10-2.
Florida lawmakers passed the nonunanimous jury measure in response to a verdict that spared the life of the school shooter who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Florida’s death penalty sentencing requirements have shifted repeatedly in recent years, following legal challenges and changes on the state’s high court, where five of the seven justices were appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
For decades, Florida had not required unanimity in capital punishment, allowing a judge to impose the death penalty as long as a majority of jurors were in favor of the penalty. But in 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the state’s system, saying it allowed judges too much discretion.
The state Legislature then passed a bill requiring a 10-2 jury recommendation, but the state Supreme Court at the time said such recommendations should be unanimous, prompting lawmakers in 2017 to require a unanimous jury.
Three years later, the state Supreme Court, with new conservative jurists appointed by DeSantis, rescinded its earlier decision and ruled that a death recommendation does not need to be unanimous.
In recent years, the state has also expanded which offenses can warrant the death penalty to include child rape convictions, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned capital punishment in such cases.
Meanwhile, Florida’s record-breaking spate of executions continues under DeSantis, with another man scheduled to die Thursday evening in what would be the state’s 19th execution in 2025.
Texas
Judge orders AG’s divorce records unsealed amid heated primary
McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Friday ordered the release of court documents detailing the divorce of U.S. Senate candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, months after she filed citing “biblical grounds.”
The order followed an agreement between attorneys for Paxton and a coalition of media outlets to make the records public. The documents were not immediately available early Friday.
The disclosures are likely to fuel attacks against Paxton in one of the nation’s most heated Republican primaries as he seeks to unseat Sen. John Cornyn. Whether the divorce details resonate with voters remains to be seen, with the Senate primary set for March 3 next year.
Despite years of controversy, the three-term attorney general has remained competitive in the race, which includes Rep. Wesley Hunt.
The divorce comes after 38 years of marriage, during which Angela Paxton had supported her husband through a series of legal troubles, including state and federal corruption investigations. A state securities fraud indictment against Ken Paxton was dismissed after a 2024 plea deal in which he agreed to pay restitution and complete community service, and the Justice Department dropped a federal corruption probe earlier this year. His 2023 impeachment trial ended in acquittal.
Angela Paxton also stood by Ken Paxton’s side during that impeachment trial, which publicly exposed his extramarital affair. But in announcing on social media that she had filed for divorce in July, she cited “recent discoveries.”
Paxton’s support in Texas has remained strong amid a decade of legal troubles. He won reelection in 2022 by nearly 10 percentage points.
Paxton launched his bid to unseat Cornyn in April and has since drawn attacks from Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, with some in the party concerned that while Paxton could prevail in the GOP primary, he may complicate the general election and force national Republicans to spend heavily to hold the seat. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are facing off in their party’s primary.
Groups supporting Cornyn have spent more than $21 million on television ads this year, according to AdImpact, to promote the four-term senator and attack Paxton.
“What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said in July. “No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time.”
Paxton has been a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, while Cornyn has at times drawn criticism within his own party for working with Democrats.
Trump’s endorsement is expected to be a decisive factor in Texas, which he won in 2024 by nearly 14 percentage points. Trump has not yet endorsed in the race.
Massachusetts
New Jersey police chief faces domestic violence charges in Boston
BOSTON (AP) — A New Jersey police chief is facing domestic violence charges in Massachusetts after prosecutors accused him of assaulting a woman at a hotel earlier this year.
Carmen Veneziano, who leads Totowa, New Jersey’s police department, was indicted Thursday on one count of kidnapping and three counts of domestic assault and battery, officials in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, said.
In a brief statement Sunday, prosecutors alleged Veneziano confined and assaulted a woman overnight on Sept. 14, in a hotel room in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.
Police in New Jersey arrested Veneziano on Friday, and he is expected to be arraigned Monday in Boston. An attorney for Veneziano was not immediately listed in court records.
Totowa Mayor John Coiro said that he learned of the charges on Friday and suspended Veneziano without pay later that day.
“While I did not see the exact charges in writing, the Prosecutor’s Office did relay to me that these charges were serious in nature and considered felonies,” Coiro said in a statement.
Further details will be disclosed at Veneziano’s arraignment, prosecutors said.
South Dakota
Hotel owner found liable for discrimination against Native Americans
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The owner of a South Dakota hotel who said Native Americans were banned from the establishment was found liable for discrimination against Native Americans on Friday.
A federal jury decided the owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City will pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to various plaintiffs who were denied service at the hotel. The jury awarded $1 to the NDN Collective, the Indigenous advocacy group that filed the lawsuit.
The group brought the class-action civil rights lawsuit against Retsel Corporation, the company that owns the hotel, in 2022. The case was delayed when the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2024. The head of the company, Connie Uhre, passed away this September.
“This was never about money. We sued for one dollar,” said Wizipan Garriott, president of NDN Collective and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “It was about being on record for the discrimination that happened, and using this as an opportunity to be able to really call out racism.”
Uhre posted on social media in March 2022 that she would ban Native Americans from the property after a fatal shooting at the hotel involving two teenagers whom police identified as Native American. She wrote in a Facebook post that she cannot “allow a Native American to enter our business including Cheers,” the hotel’s bar and casino.
When Native American members of the NDN Collective tried to book a room at the hotel after her social media posts, they were turned away. The incident drew protests in Rapid City and condemnation from the mayor as well as tribes in the state.
In Friday’s decision, the jury also ruled in Retsel’s countersuit against NDN Collective that the group had acted as a nuisance in its protests against the hotel, awarding $812 to the company.
Following a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department in November 2023, Uhre had to publicly apologize and was banned from managing the establishment for four years.
The Associated Press reached out to the defense attorneys for comment.
Rapid City, a gateway to Mount Rushmore, has long seen racial tensions. At least 8% of the city’s population of about 80,000 identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to census data.
Minnesota
Jury says Johnson & Johnson owes $65.5 million to woman with cancer who used talcum powder
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota jury awarded $65.5 million on Friday to a mother of three who claimed talcum products made by Johnson & Johnson exposed her to asbestos and contributed to her developing cancer in the lining of her lungs.
Jurors determined that plaintiff Anna Jean Houghton Carley, 37, should be compensated by Johnson & Johnson after using its baby powder throughout her childhood and later developing mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused primarily by exposure to the carcinogen asbestos.
Johnson & Johnson said it would appeal the verdict.
During a 13-day trial in Ramsey County District Court, Carley’s legal team argued the pharmaceutical giant sold and marketed talc-based products to consumers despite knowing it can be contaminated with asbestos. Carley’s lawyers also said her family was never warned about potential dangers while using the product on their child. The product was taken off shelves in the U.S. in 2020.
“This case was not about compensation only. It was about truth and accountability,” Carley’s attorney Ben Braly said.
Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation for Johnson & Johnson, argued the company’s baby powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer. He expects an appellate court to reverse the decision.
The verdict is the latest development in a longstanding legal battle over claims that talc in Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder was connected to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, which strikes the lungs and other organs. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling powder made with talc worldwide in 2023.
“These lawsuits are predicated on ‘junk science,’ refuted by decades of studies that demonstrate Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer,” Haas said in a statement after the verdict.
Earlier this month, a Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million to two women who claimed Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder caused their ovarian cancer. And in October, another California jury ordered the company to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma, claiming she developed the cancer because the baby powder she used was contaminated with asbestos.
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
https://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
