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Court won't get involved in inmate tug-of-war
Law Firm News |
2013/01/15 06:52
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The Supreme Court on Monday said it won't stop the federal government from claiming a Rhode Island inmate who will face the possibility of execution if convicted of murder, despite arguments that it violates the rights of a state without the death penalty.
The high court refused to hear an appeal from Jason Pleau and the state of Rhode Island. Pleau is currently awaiting trial in federal court in the killing of a gas station manager who was shot as he approached a Woonsocket bank to deposit money.
Pleau initially had been in state custody. After federal prosecutors charged him, Gov. Lincoln Chafee refused to turn over Pleau, citing the state's rejection of the death penalty.
But an appeals court ruled last year the state must surrender Pleau to federal officials, despite the state's insistence that the federal government is violating a legal agreement that authorizes the state to deny a request to transfer a prisoner.
U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said he was pleased by the decision and that his office was prepared to move ahead with the case immediately.
Pleau's lawyer did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.
Chafee was visibly shaken when he learned of the decision from a reporter Monday morning. He said he was disappointed but acknowledged the state's case was at an end. |
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BBC broadcaster pleads not guilty on abuse charges
Law Firm News |
2013/01/09 05:24
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A BBC broadcaster has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing three girls.
The charges against the well-known 82-year-old sports broadcaster Stuart Hall relate to events alleged to have occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.
Police say the alleged indecent assaults were carried out on girls between the ages of 9 and 16.
Hall said in court Monday that he understood the charges against him and that he was not guilty.
He has been a broadcaster for more than 50 years. |
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Appeals court sides with newspaper in labor fight
Law Firm News |
2012/12/19 08:04
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with the publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press in a long-running labor dispute between the newspaper and reporters who were fired after they complained about its editorial practices.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the newspaper's publisher was protected by the First Amendment when it dismissed eight reporters and disciplined others who claimed the owner was interfering with news coverage.
The reporters claimed they were illegally fired for union activity and legitimate complaints about their terms of employment. But the court found the dispute was all about editorial control.
"The First Amendment affords a publisher — not a reporter — absolute authority to shape a newspaper's content," Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a three-judge panel.
The ruling stems from a dispute between Ampersand Publishing LLC and employees that began in 2006. Nearly every top editor at the paper quit in protest over what they said was owner Wendy McCaw's meddling in news coverage.
Newsroom employees later voted to form a union, and they have been fighting with the newspaper since then over bargaining rights. |
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Lawyer: NM gov aide recorded on state email use
Law Firm News |
2012/09/05 22:13
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An Albuquerque attorney said Tuesday he has a recording of the governor's top aide telling one of his clients that he never uses state email to conduct business because "I don't want to go to court (or) jail."
But the aide said the small recorded clip released to reporters is out of context, and he vowed to file an ethics complaint because the full recording outs a young female relative of the aide as a witness in a sexual assault case.
Defense attorney Sam Bregman represents fired Department of Corrections worker Larry Flynn in a wrongful termination case in which the administration's use of private email accounts was first revealed. He released the recording to reporters and said it is of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's chief of staff, Keith Gardner.
Speaking at a news conference held in his office, Bregman, a Democrat and vocal critic of Martinez, said the secret recording is of a conversation between Gardner and a friend, Brian Powell of Roswell. Powell told Bregman he made the recording when he and Gardner were having a conversation about family issues. Powell, who works for the Roswell Fire Department, did not tell Gardner he was recording him, and it's unclear why he was recording him. |
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