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Fed. court orders resentencing in Arkansas bombing
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2012/12/10 12:58
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An Arkansas doctor sentenced to life in prison for a 2009 bombing that nearly killed the head of the state medical board should be resentenced on some convictions, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
A jury convicted Randeep Mann, 54, in 2010 of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and other charges. The Feb. 4, 2009, bomb attack took away Dr. Trent Pierce's sense of smell and left him blind in one eye and deaf in one ear.
Mann's attorneys appealed his convictions and sentences, arguing there wasn't enough evidence to convict him.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that Mann shouldn't have received a sentencing enhancement based on allegations that he ordered the assault of an inmate. The panel said the allegation was never brought up in court and was improperly referenced in a pre-sentencing report.
"The only reference in the record to Mann ordering the assault of a federal inmate is contained in a bench conference that occurred at trial between the district judge and the attorneys," the appeals court opinion said. |
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Use new drug sentencing law in crack cases
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2012/06/21 11:40
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The Supreme Court says criminals who were arrested but not yet sentenced for crack cocaine offenses should be able to take advantage of newly reduced sentences.
Corey A. Hill and Edward Dorsey were arrested in 2007 and 2008 for selling crack cocaine and faced mandatory 10-year sentences in Illinois. But they weren't sentenced until after the Fair Sentencing Act went into effect in August 2010. That law reduces the difference between sentences for crimes committed by crack cocaine and powder cocaine users.
Justice Stephen Breyer said in a 5-4 decision Thursday that the courts should have used the new law to sentence the two men.
Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
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Accused Auburn shooter in court on 3 murder counts
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2012/06/14 09:49
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The man charged in three slayings near Auburn University has had three attorneys appointed for him after telling a judge he cannot afford to pay for his legal defense.
Desmonte Leonard had his first appearance before a judge in Opelika, Ala., on Thursday morning. He's facing three counts of capital murder and two assault charges in the shootings last weekend.
The dead included two former Auburn football players, and a current player was among the three injured.
The 22-year-old Leonard told a judge he can't afford to pay for a legal defense. So the judge appointed three Montgomery attorneys to represent Leonard at taxpayer expense.
Leonard says he understands the charges against him. Leonard was chained at his hands and feet during the brief appearance and is jailed without bond. |
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Fort Hood shooter's beard stops court hearing
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2012/06/09 00:15
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A hearing to consider pre-trial motions in the murder case against an Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage has been delayed after defendant Maj. Nidal Hasan showed up in court wearing a beard.
The trial judge, Col. Gregory Gross, said Hasan's appearance at the hearing Friday violated Army regulations and is considered a disruption to the proceedings.
Gross says the hearing will be delayed until the near future when Hasan either complies with military grooming standards or watches the hearing from outside the courtroom on a video feed. Hasan's lawyers say they'll seek an exception to the grooming rule on religious grounds.
Hasan faces the death penalty if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the November 2009 attack. |
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Appeals court upholds key voting rights provision
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2012/05/18 22:23
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A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting an Alabama county's challenge to the landmark civil rights law.
The provision requires state, county and local governments with a history of discrimination to obtain advance approval from the Justice Department, or from a federal court in Washington, for any changes to election procedures. It now applies to all or parts of 16 states.
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that Congress developed extensive evidence of continuing racial discrimination just six years ago and reached a reasonable conclusion when it reauthorized section 5 of the law at that time.
The appellate ruling could clear the way for the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court where Chief Justice John Roberts suggested in a 2009 opinion that the court's conservative majority might be receptive to a challenge to section 5.
Judge David Tatel wrote for the Court of Appeals majority that the court owes deference to Congress' judgment on the matter.
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BP 'ready for long court battle over Gulf spill'
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2012/02/27 10:02
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BP chief executive Bob Dudley said the company is able to fight a lengthy court battle over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dudley, who took control of BP in October 2012 after former chief executive Tony Hayward resigned amid criticism over the way he had handled the oil spill, told the Sunday Telegraph that BP can continue to function even if the court case that begins in New Orleans today continues for years.
We have to remember we are a business that invests in decade-long cycles, he said.
For the vast majority of people now at BP, the company is back on its feet and it is starting to move forward, he said.
BP has set aside US$40 billion to deal with fines and associated costs of the April 20, 2010 blowout of BP's deepwater Macondo well which killed 11 workers and injured 17. The burning drilling rig Deepwater Horizon toppled and sank to the Gulf floor, where it sits today.
It took engineers 85 days to permanently cap the well.
By then, more than 750 million litres of oil leaked from the well and had covered much of the northern half of the Gulf of Mexico endangering fisheries, killing marine life and shutting down offshore oil drilling operations.
President Barack Obama called the BP spill the worst environmental disaster the nation has ever faced.
Dudley said BP had improved safety standards on its rigs, five of which are working again in the Gulf of Mexico, and that the company was still committed to deepwater drilling.
We had a choice whether or not to back away from the offshore industry and the deep water industry but we have a lot of great strengths in this area and so, rather than move away, we have gone in with even more commitment, more time and more people, more expertise, he said. |
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