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Court says judges must avoid appearance of bias
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2009/06/08 16:17
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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that elected judges must step aside from cases when large campaign contributions from interested parties create the appearance of bias.
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By a 5-4 vote in a case from West Virginia, the court said that a judge who remained involved in a lawsuit filed against the company of the most generous supporter of his election deprived the other side of the constitutional right to a fair hearing./ppJust as no man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, similar fears of bias can arise when — without the consent of the other parties — a man chooses the judge in his own cause, Justice Anthony Kennedy said for the court./ppWith multimillion-dollar judicial election campaigns on the rise, the court's decision Monday could have widespread significance. Justice at Stake, which tracks campaign spending in judicial elections, says judges are elected in 39 states and that candidates for the highest state courts have raised more than $168 million since 2000./ppJudicial elections have become more expensive, more negative and more subject to influence by special interest groups, said Chief Justice Margaret Marshall of Massachusetts, president of the Conference of Chief Justices./ppThe West Virginia case involved more than $3 million spent by the chief executive of Massey Energy Co. to help elect state Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin. At the same time, Massey was appealing a verdict, which now totals $82.7 million with interest, in a dispute with a local coal company. Benjamin refused to step aside from the case, despite repeated requests, and was part of a 3-2 decision to overturn the verdict./ppThe coal company, Harman Mining Co., and its president, Hugh Caperton, took the case to the high court./p |
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Delaware Supreme Court gives OK to sports betting
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2009/05/29 03:57
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The Delaware Supreme Court says a proposed sports betting lottery does not conflict with the state constitution.
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The opinion was requested by Gov. Jack Markell, who has signed a bill that would make Delaware the only state east of the Rocky Mountains to offer sports wagering./ppIn a 22-page ruling dated Wednesday, the court says the state constitution permits lotteries that have an element of skill, as long as chance is the predominant factor in winning or losing./ppThe justices also say the proposed sports lottery satisfies the constitutional requirement that lotteries be under state control./ppThe NFL opposes the lottery and has said it may challenge the bill in court./p |
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White House wins court fight on e-mail disclosure
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2009/05/22 09:07
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A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the office that has records about millions of possibly missing e-mails from the Bush White House does not have to make them public.
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The appeals court in Washington ruled that the White House Office of Administration is not an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act, allowing the White House to keep secret documents about an e-mail system that has been plagued with problems./ppDuring its first term, the Bush White House failed to install electronic record-keeping for e-mail when it switched to a new system, resulting in millions of messages that could not be found. The Bush White House discovered the problem in 2005 and rejected a proposed solution./ppA group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued to get documents about the office's electronic record-keeping, including reports analyzing system problems, plans to find the missing e-mails and create an improved system and records of any retained messages./ppIn response to court orders in the case, the White House disclosed that it has located nearly 3,500 pages of documents about problems with its e-mail system. But the Bush administration argued in this case for the first time that the office's records are not subject to public disclosure, even though it had responded to hundreds of other FOIA requests in the past decade and even included instructions on its Web site for filing them./p |
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2 convicted killers executed in Okla., Ala.
Headline Topics |
2009/05/15 09:36
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A man convicted of battering his girlfriend's 8-year-old son and stuffing the body in a freezer was put to death Thursday in Oklahoma, while a man in Alabama was executed for fatally stabbing a mother of six.
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Donald Lee Gilson, 48, proclaimed his innocence in the death of Shane Coffman before he was injected in Oklahoma with a lethal combination of drugs./ppI'm an innocent man but ... I get to go to heaven and I'll see Shane tonight, he said in his final statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m./ppGilson's parents, sister, a friend and a pastor witnessed the execution, and about a dozen members of the victim's family watched from behind a one-way glass./ppHe became the second person to be executed this year in Oklahoma./ppIn 1998, Gilson was convicted of first-degree murder in Shane's death in 1995. An autopsy showed fractures to the boy's skull, his collarbone, shoulder blades, ribs, legs and spine and a tooth missing from his jaw./ppCourt records indicate that four other children who lived with Gilson and girlfriend Bertha Jean Coffman in a mobile home in Cleveland County showed abuse, and two of the children were emaciated. One of the children told investigators that Gilson beat the boy with a board and then placed him in a bathtub as punishment for going to the bathroom on a rug./p |
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Key player in sports-bribery case appears in court
Headline Topics |
2009/05/15 09:32
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Two former University of Toledo football players charged in a point-shaving scheme were arraigned in federal court Wednesday, including an ex-running back from Canada who is described as a key contact for Detroit-area gamblers.
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Not guilty pleas were entered on behalf of Adam Cuomo of Hagersville, Ontario, and Quinton Broussard of Carrollton, Texas./ppThe FBI says Cuomo, 31, incriminated himself during an interview in December 2006. Authorities also have recordings of phone calls between him and Ghazi Gary Manni of Sterling Heights./ppIn December 2005, the talk turned to how a reluctant basketball player had agreed to shave points./ppCuomo responded by saying that money will overcome all, FBI agent Stephen Ferrari said in a court document unsealed last month./ppCuomo is charged with conspiring with Manni, Mitchell Ed Karam and others to fix the results of Toledo football and basketball games, from late 2004 through 2006./ppHe met Manni through the owner of a phone shop in Toledo, Ohio, the FBI says./p |
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CSI commander facing lawsuit in Neb. murder case
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2009/04/28 08:45
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| Less than a week after being indicted for allegedly tampering with evidence in a homicide investigation, a crime scene investigator is being sued in federal court by one of the men who was wrongfully charged in the double-murder case.pOn Sunday, Nicholas Sampson filed paperwork to add David Kofoed, commander of the Douglas County CSI unit, and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to a 2007 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against the Nebraska State Patrol and the Cass County Sheriff's Office./ppThe amendment says Kofoed violated Sampson's constitutional rights by planting a speck of blood in a car Sampson had driven./ppSampson spent five months in jail after being wrongfully charged in the deaths of Wayne and Sharmon Stock. The couple were found slain in their Cass County farmhouse on April 17, 2006. Both had been shot in the head at close range with a shotgun./ppLaw enforcement involved with the Stock investigation insists that the case against Nick Sampson remains an open case, said Sampson's attorney, Maren Chaloupka. I find that ironic, given that the only person currently under indictment is one of their own./ppKofoed, 52, was charged Wednesday in Cass County Court with evidence tampering and was indicted a day later on four federal charges, including falsifying records./ppHis attorney, Steve Lefler, has said Kofoed may have made some mistakes in the case, but they did not rise to the level of criminal misconduct./p |
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Texas case before high court to test voting rights
Headline Topics |
2009/04/26 08:40
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The community of Canyon Creek was ranchland rich with limestone and cedar trees when Jim Crow held sway in the South. The first house wasn't built until the late 1980s and not even a hint of discrimination attaches to this little slice in suburbia.
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President Barack Obama won more than 48 percent of the vote in November in this overwhelmingly white community northwest of the state capital./ppYet Canyon Creek, the heart of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, is the site of a major Supreme Court battle over the federal government's often used and most effective tool in preventing voting discrimination against minorities./ppThe utility district's elected five-person board manages a local park and pays down bond debt. Because it is in Texas, the board is covered by a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires approval from the Justice Department before any changes can be made in how elections are conducted./ppThat requirement applies to all or parts of 16 states, mostly in the South, with a history of preventing blacks, Hispanics and other minorities from voting./ppThe utility district is challenging that section of the law, which Congress extended in 2006 for 25 years. The Obama administration is defending it./ppThe Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1965, opened the polls to millions of black Americans. The law has been the most important and transformative civil rights act in our country's history, said John Payton, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund./ppThe federal government has used the provision, known as Section 5, to stop things that would have perverted our democracy, Payton said. His group represents Texans and organizations seeking to preserve the section./ppOn the other side are the utility district, an array of conservative legal groups and some Southern Republicans./p |
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