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Kansas high court justices defend handling of capital cases
Legal Opinions |
2016/11/01 22:44
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Four Kansas Supreme Court justices facing a campaign to oust them in the Nov. 8 election say the court has decided capital murder cases on legal and constitutional issues while avoiding politics and emotion.
Past high court rulings overturning death sentences are at the center of the effort to remove Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and Justices Carol Beier, Dan Biles and Marla Luckert. They face statewide yes-or-no votes on whether they stay on the court for another six years.
The court's critics are particularly upset about July 2014 rulings overturning death sentences for Jonathan and Reginald Carr. The two brothers had faced lethal injection for shooting four people in December 2000 after forcing them to perform sex acts and robbing them. Among other things, the court concluded that fairness required the brothers to be sentenced separately.
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Israel court says lawmaker Hazan did drugs as casino manager
Court Issues |
2016/11/01 22:44
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An Israeli court has ruled that a lawmaker from the ruling Likud party had used hard drugs when he ran a casino in Bulgaria, before entering politics.
Tuesday's ruling marks another blow to the already dubious reputation of Oren Hazan, who was elected last year and within months faced accusations of physically assaulting a public official, sexually harassing women and soliciting prostitutes.
Hazan sued Amit Segal, reporter for Israel's Channel 2 TV, for defamation over an investigative piece that included testimony on Hazan having allegedly consumed crystal meth while managing the Bulgarian casino.
In the ruling, the court found the reporter had acted in good faith and reported his story honestly. Nevertheless, it awarded Hazan $10,000 in damages for another, unsubstantiated Channel 2 report that Hazan had also sold drugs.
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Short-handed Supreme Court delays action in 3 cases
Court Issues |
2016/10/31 22:45
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The Supreme Court is offering new evidence that the short-handed court is having trouble getting its work done.
The justices have yet to schedule three cases for arguments that were granted full review in January, about a month before Justice Antonin Scalia died. The cases involve separation of church and state, class-action lawsuits and property rights, issues that often split liberal and conservative justices.
Their absence from the calendar of cases that are being argued this fall suggests that the justices believe they may divide 4 to 4, and are waiting for a ninth justice to join them.
“The court doesn’t like to do a lot of work and have a 4-4 result. There may be a desire of the court to try to wait for the full complement of justices,” said Todd Gaziano of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is taking part in the property rights case.
The court on Friday released its argument calendar for late November and early December. It includes redistricting disputes from North Carolina and Virginia, and a Texas death row inmate’s appeal.
Senate Republicans have refused to act on Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to fill Scalia’s seat.
Even if Garland were to get a Senate hearing and vote after the election, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, the earliest he could join the court would be for its January arguments. If the Senate does not act on Garland’s nomination in its post-election “lame duck” session, the vacancy could last into the spring, meaning almost all of the court’s term would go by with eight justices.
In the meantime, several justices have commented on the challenges posed by the absence of one justice.
“It’s much more difficult for us to do our job if we are not what we’re intended to be — a court of nine,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday at the University of Minnesota. |
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Hong Kong banker's trial jury sees chilling video of torture
Court Issues |
2016/10/31 22:44
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A Hong Kong jury watched chilling video Tuesday of a British banker torturing an Indonesian woman and then talking for hours about how he repeatedly raped her and then killed her without feeling guilt or emotion.
The video was shown on the second day of Rurik Jutting's trial for the murders of Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, whose bodies were found in his upscale apartment near the city's red-light district in 2014. The case shocked people in the Asian financial hub, which has a reputation for being safe but also significant inequality. It also highlighted the decadent lifestyles of some members of the former British colony's expatriate elite.
Jurors were played about 20 minutes of video in which Jutting apparently tortures Sumarti. The media and public could not view it but heard the audio.
At one point he can be heard saying: "If you scream I will punish you. Understand?" That is followed by the sound of smacking and slapping, and later the sound of a woman whimpering. Jutting then tells her not to cry.
Later, both jurors and the public gallery were shown hours of iPhone video in which Jutting, wearing no clothes, delivers an extended rambling monologue to the camera. |
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