|
|
|
2 teens in Mass. bullying case get probation
Court Feed News |
2011/05/04 11:52
|
Two of the six teenagers charged with bullying a Massachusetts high school freshman so relentlessly that she committed suicide have been sentenced to a year of probation. Sean Mulveyhill pleaded guilty to criminal harassment Wednesday in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court. Kayla Narey admitted to sufficient facts to the same charge, acknowledging the state could win conviction at trial. Both 18-year-olds were ordered to do 100 hours of community service to help at-risk children, complete their high school education and were barred from profiting from their involvement in the Phoebe Prince case. Prince, who moved to South Hadley from Ireland, hanged herself in January 2010 in her family's apartment about 100 miles west of Boston. Prosecutors say the 15-year-old had been relentlessly bullied at school. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court sides with Wyoming in dispute with Montana
Court Feed News |
2011/05/01 09:31
|
The Supreme Court says Wyoming is not taking too much water from a river system it shares with Montana.
The high court on Monday turned away Montana's complaint that Wyoming is taking too much water from the Tongue and Powder rivers in violation of a 1950 agreement between the states.
Montana claimed that more efficient irrigation in Wyoming is preventing runoff from rejoining the river and flowing downstream.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 7-1 decision, which says more efficient irrigation is permissible to the detriment of downstream users. Justice Antonin Scalia was the only dissenting vote.
Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case because she worked on it while in the solicitor general's office. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pierre contract dispute goes before high court
Court Feed News |
2011/04/29 11:17
|
The South Dakota Supreme Court has heard arguments in a dispute between Pierre and the union representing a majority of city workers.
The city a year ago imposed its final salary offer of a 1 percent raise for all employees and another 1 percent for eligible workers. A circuit court judge last fall ruled that the city was within its rights to do so. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49 appealed.
KCCR radio reports that union attorney Todd Love told Supreme Court justices Thursday that the city didn't follow proper procedure. The attorney for Pierre argued that the city dealt with the union in good faith and had no other alternative.
Justices will rule later. Meanwhile, the city and union will continue under terms of the 2009 contract. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Conn. high court hears death penalty appeal
Court Feed News |
2011/04/28 14:36
|
A lawyer told the state Supreme Court yesterday that his client’s death penalty case was the weakest one ever to go before the high court, alleging that the jury was biased and that key evidence was improperly withheld from the trial.
Justices heard the appeal of former Torrington resident Eduardo Santiago, 31, who prosecutors say agreed in 2000 to kill a West Hartford man in exchange for a pink-striped snowmobile with a broken clutch. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2005 after a jury convicted him, despite no clear evidence that he was the one who pulled the rifle trigger.
Two other men are serving life prison sentences for the killing of Joseph Niwinski, 45, who was shot in the head while sleeping in his home.
Santiago’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Mark Rademacher, told the Supreme Court that there was no way a reasonable jury could have condemned Santiago. The defense presented 25 mitigating factors, including Santiago’s troubled childhood, for jurors to consider against the death penalty, while the state based its argument for execution on one aggravating factor, that Niwinski was killed in a murder-for-hire plot. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court close to seating Blagojevich jury
Court Feed News |
2011/04/28 12:36
|
Jury selection in the retrial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is entering the home stretch after dragging on for longer than expected.
Thursday should be the last day of questioning of would-be jurors by U.S. District Judge James Zagel. He told attorneys Wednesday that opening arguments would take place Monday.
After a week of jury selection, 42 people are in the pool of potential jurors. Zagel says he only needs a few more before picking the final 12 jurors and six alternates.
One person the judge agreed to dismiss was a woman who had tickets to "The Oprah Winfrey Show." She had worried jury duty would force her to miss it.
Another person bumped was a school teacher who the judge said displayed "terrible grammar" in his questionnaire. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court: Tribe can't sue in dual courts
Court Feed News |
2011/04/27 13:54
|
The Supreme Court said Tuesday the Tohono O'Odham Nation cannot press its lawsuit claiming mismanagement of tribal resources in two different federal courts at the same time. The Arizona-based tribe sued in both U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in December 2006, complaining the federal government had mismanaged its reservation lands, mineral resources and income. The Court of Federal Claims threw out the lawsuit filed in its court, saying it did not have jurisdiction and the two lawsuits were too similar. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reinstated the lawsuit, however. The high court ruled Tuesday in a 7-1 vote to throw out the lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims again. The tribe's lawsuit in the U.S. District Court was not affected by this ruling. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, and Justice Elena Kagan did not participate because she was involved with the case as solicitor general. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Lawyer News Updates |
|
|
Lawyer News RSS
