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Ohio man accused in US Capitol terror plot returns to court
Law Center |
2015/05/16 11:46
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A suburban Cincinnati man accused of plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol in support of Islamic State extremists is due back in federal court.
An indictment last week added a fourth charge against 21-year-old Christopher Lee Cornell. The count of attempting to provide material support to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison with conviction.
He already faced two charges with possible 20-year sentences. Cornell pleaded not guilty to those charges.
He is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday in Cincinnati on the new count. He has been held without bond since his Jan. 14 arrest.
His father has said Cornell was coerced by a government "snitch."
U.S. authorities are on alert for "lone wolf" terrorist plots inspired by the Islamic State group. |
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Attorney: Court orders release of anti-nuclear activists
Breaking Legal News |
2015/05/16 11:45
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A federal appeals court has ordered the immediate release of an 85-year-old nun and two fellow Catholic peace activists who vandalized a uranium storage bunker, their attorney said Friday.
The order came after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati last week overturned the 2013 sabotage convictions of Sister Megan Rice, 66-year-old Michael Walli and 59-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed and ordered resentencing on their remaining conviction for injuring government property. The activists have spent two years in prison, and the court said they likely already have served more time than they will receive for the lesser charge.
On Thursday, their attorneys petitioned the court for an emergency release, saying that resentencing would take weeks if normal court procedures were followed. Prosecutors on Friday afternoon responded that they would not oppose the release, if certain conditions were met.
After the close of business on Friday, attorney Bill Quigley said the court had ordered the activists' immediate release. He said he was working to get them out of prison and was hopeful they could be released overnight or on the weekend.
"We would expect the Bureau of Prisons to follow the order of the court and release them as soon as possible," he said.
Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed are part of a loose network of activists opposed to the spread of nuclear weapons. To further their cause, in July 2012, they cut through several fences to reach the most secure area of the Y-12 complex. Before they were arrested, they spent two hours outside a bunker that stores much of the nation's bomb-grade uranium, hanging banners, praying and spray-painting slogans.
In the aftermath of the breach, federal officials implemented sweeping security changes, including a new defense security chief to oversee all of the National Nuclear Security Administration's sites.
Rice was originally sentenced to nearly three years and Walli and Boertje-Obed were each sentenced to just over five years. In overturning the sabotage conviction, the Appeals Court ruled that the trio's actions did not injure national security. |
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Appeals court skeptical of fairness of trader's conviction
Court Watch |
2015/05/14 11:45
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An appeals court panel on Wednesday expressed doubts about the fairness of a prosecution that led to a prison sentence for a man convicted of defrauding a government bailout program.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had plenty of questions for a prosecutor as it conducted oral arguments in an appeal by Jesse Litvak, a bond trader on the Stamford, Connecticut, trading floor at Jefferies & Co. Inc.
Litvak, who's from New York, was sentenced last year to two years in prison after a jury convicted him of securities fraud, defrauding the Troubled Asset Relief Program and making false statements to the federal government. He has not had to serve his sentence pending appeal.
The conviction made Litvak, 40, the first person convicted of a crime related to the program, which used bailout funds in the financial meltdown to boost the economy.
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Court report raises conflict-of-interest concern in Ferguson
Business |
2015/05/13 11:46
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The lines separating government powers have been blurred among Ferguson's court staff, police and prosecutor, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest, according to a report released Monday by Missouri's judiciary.
The state report examining Ferguson's municipal court system comes as a follow-up to a highly critical U.S. Justice Department report released earlier this year, which asserted that the city's police and courts had been used as a revenue-generating machine.
The Justice Department review was prompted by the fatal shooting last August of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black, by a white Ferguson police officer.After the federal review, the Missouri Supreme Court in March appointed appeals Judge Roy Richter to take over the Ferguson court and asked court administration experts to take a look at how things were working.
The new report summarizes the observations and recommendations of those unnamed experts, noting several potential conflicts of interest that caused concern.
Until very recently, the report said, court staff were required to report to the police chief. That structure "potentially compromises the separation our government is to have" between the judicial and executive branches, the report said. |
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Appeals court hears arguments in ex-Gov. McDonnell's case
Class Action |
2015/05/11 11:48
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Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's fate is in the hands of three federal appeals court judges.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in McDonnell's public corruption case Tuesday. The court usually takes a few weeks to rule.
McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted of taking more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from a wealthy businessman in exchange for promoting his company's dietary supplements. The former governor was sentenced to two years in prison, his wife to one year and one day.
Tuesday's arguments focused on two major issues — whether McDonnell was convicted based on an overly broad definition of what constitutes an "official act" and whether jurors were properly questioned about whether they were influenced by news reports about the case. |
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Teenager charged with plotting terrorist act in Australia
International |
2015/05/10 11:48
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A 17-year-old boy arrested last week when police allegedly found three homemade bombs in his family home in Australia's second-largest city appeared in a children's court on Monday charged with terrorism offenses.
The boy, who as a juvenile suspect cannot be publicly identified, was remanded in custody after a brief court appearance in a Melbourne Children's Court during which he was charged with planning a terrorist act somewhere in Victoria state and with possessing items connected with a terrorist act.
He faces a potential sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Attorney General George Brandis told the Senate that the boy was the 23rd person to be charged in eight counterterrorism raids in the east coast cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Logan since September when Australia's terrorist threat alert was raised to the second highest level on a four-tier scale due to the unprecedented threat posed by the Islamic State movement.
The boy did not enter a plea and did not apply for bail. His next court appearance is May 26.
The boy sat in the dock flanked by police during the hearing. None of the boy's family appeared to be in the courtroom. |
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Sweden's supreme court upholds Assange's detention order
International |
2015/05/08 11:48
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Sweden's highest court on Monday rejected WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal of a pre-trial detention order in a nearly five-year-old investigation of alleged sex crimes.
The Supreme Court in Stockholm on upheld rulings by lower courts ordering the detention for Assange, saying there is no reason to rescind it as the investigation continues.
Since 2010, prosecutors have sought to interrogate Assange over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and illegal coercion made by two women after his visit to Sweden that year. Assange denies the allegations and has not been formally indicted.
Swedish prosecutors in March agreed to question Assange in London where he has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy for nearly three years to avoid being extradited.
Assange's lawyers say he fears extradition to Sweden would merely be a first step in efforts to take him to the U.S., where WikiLeaks infuriated officials by publishing secret documents including 250,000 State Department cables. |
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