|
|
|
Jury finds 2 men guilty in federal terror trial
Network News |
2014/09/29 13:12
|
Two Southern California men were convicted Thursday of conspiring to support terrorists and murder Americans overseas.
Sohiel Omar Kabir and Ralph Deleon face life sentences for the convictions announced in U.S. District Court after jurors deliberated for a week.
Kabir, 36, of Pomona and Ralph Deleon, 25, of Ontario were each charged with five counts of conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a plan to train overseas as terrorists so they could target U.S. military and allies.
Kabir was acquitted on one of five conspiracy counts and jurors were deadlocked on two of the five identical counts against Deleon.
Defense lawyers portrayed the two as hapless pot smokers who talked a big game but didn't intend any harm.
Deleon and two other men were arrested two years ago before embarking on a journey to meet Kabir in Afghanistan. Kabir was later caught by U.S. troops in Kabul.
Federal agents began tracking the group after one of the men, Miguel Santana Vidriales, returned from visiting his mother in Mexico in January 2012 with a copy of a jihadist magazine in his possession. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court rules against homeowners in toxic water case
Network News |
2014/06/10 12:11
|
The Supreme Court says a group of homeowners in North Carolina can't sue a company that contaminated their drinking water because a state deadline has lapsed.
The justices ruled 7-2 on Monday that state law strictly bars any lawsuit brought more than 10 years after the contamination — even if residents did not realize their water was polluted until years later.
The high court reversed a lower court ruling that said federal environmental laws should allow the lawsuit against electronics manufacturer CTS Corp. to proceed.
The decision is a setback for the families of thousands of former North Carolina-based Marines suing the federal government in a similar case for exposing them to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune. The government is relying on the same state law to avoid liability. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Condemned Texas inmate loses Supreme Court appeal
Network News |
2014/05/30 13:03
|
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from condemned Texas inmate Duane Buck, whose supporters contend his death sentence decided by a Houston jury 17 years ago unfairly was based on race.
"His death sentence is the product of pervasive racial discrimination," attorneys Christina Swarns, Kathryn Kase and Kate Black said in a statement Wednesday.
Without comment, the high court Tuesday rejected Buck's appeal. The ruling was an appeal of a similar rejection in November from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court.
Buck, 50, was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row for the slaying of his ex-girlfriend and a man at her Houston apartment in July 1995. During the punishment phase of Buck's 1997 trial, psychologist Walter Quijano testified under cross-examination by a Harris County prosecutor that black people were more likely to commit violence.
Advocates for Buck, who is black, say that unfairly influenced jurors, who in Texas capital cases must decide when deliberating a death sentence whether an offender would be a continuing threat. Quijano, called as a defense witness, had testified earlier that Buck's personality and the nature of his crime, committed during rage, indicated he would be less of a future danger.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New Hampshire court upholds COPSLIE vanity plate
Network News |
2014/05/09 11:02
|
If a New Hampshire man thinks cops lie, he's free to say so on his license plate, the state's highest court ruled Wednesday.
In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court agreed with the arguments of David Montenegro, who wanted the vanity plate reading "COPSLIE" to protest what he calls government corruption.
State law prohibits vanity plates that "a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste." But the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union argued that the law is unconstitutionally vague and gives too much discretion to a person behind a Department of Motor Vehicles counter.
New Hampshire had argued that state workers were right to deny the plate, because the phrase disparages an entire class of people — police officers.
The justices said that state law does not define the phrase "offensive to good taste."
"The restriction grants DMV officials the power to deny a proposed vanity registration plate because it offends particular officials' subjective idea of what is 'good taste,'" the court wrote. The decision states the law is unconstitutionally vague and violates free speech rights.
The case was sent back to Strafford County Superior Court for further proceedings.
Attorney Anthony Galdieri, who argued the case on behalf of Montenegro and the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, said he was not surprised by the ruling. "This regulation was an impermissible way to regulate speech under the First Amendment," Galdieri said. |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
