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Prison for man who smuggled while a gov't witness
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/07 03:24
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A man shot by a pair of Border Patrol agents during a drug smuggling attempt was sentenced to nearly a decade in prison Wednesday for separate smuggling incidents committed while he was waiting to testify against the agents. Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who was wounded in the buttocks while fleeing from an abandoned marijuana load in 2005, was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison for his role in two other smuggling efforts later that same year. His sentencing came a little more than a week after a federal appeals court upheld lengthy sentences for the two agents convicted in his shooting, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compeau. Several members of Congress have called on President Bush to commute the agents' sentences or pardon them. Aldrete was shot in February 2005, and testified against the agents in their 2006 trial, telling jurors he was unarmed when he was shot as he ran toward Mexico after a brief scuffle with Compean. Ramos and Compean argued they believed Aldrete had a weapon. Aldrete pleaded guilty in April to two counts of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, and one count each of conspiracy to import a controlled substance and conspiracy to possess a controlled substance. |
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Texas wants 8 kids from sect back in state care
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/06 06:13
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Texas child welfare authorities asked a judge on Tuesday to place eight children from a Texas polygamist sect's ranch back into foster care, saying their mothers refuse to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages. Child Protective Services filed petitions asking Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to place the six girls and two boys belonging to four different mothers back in foster care. The children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, will be allowed to remain with their mothers until a hearing scheduled for Sept. 25, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. None currently lives at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. CPS filed petitions detailing alleged involvement in underage marriages by the children's fathers or stepfathers, submitting sect marriage documents, notes from suspected underage brides, photos and journal entries from Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Two of the girls are daughters of Lloyd Hammon Barlow, a doctor indicted last month on three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse, according to court filings. Five other sect members, including Jeffs, were charged with sexual assault last month, but their children are not among those in the CPS petitions. The other six children are related, by blood or marriage, to men who are not under indictment but are accused by child welfare authorities of participating in or blessing underage marriages. An FLDS spokesman did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday. CPS has continued its investigation of the 440 children taken from the Eldorado ranch since the Texas Supreme Court ruled in late May that the children should not have been swept into foster care under a blanket petition and hearing. The court said evidence showed no more than a handful of girls were abused or were at risk of abuse. |
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Federal court green-lights remote storage DVR
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/05 04:26
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In a decision sure to affect millions of cable television subscribers, a federal appeals court Monday gave a green light to Cablevision Systems Corp.'s rollout of a remote-storage digital video recorder system. In overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked the service, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the judge wrongly concluded that Cablevision, rather than its customers, would be making copies of programs, thereby violating copyright laws. The next-generation technology would let any cable subscriber with a digital cable box store TV shows on computer servers rather than on a hard drive in their home. Cablevision's system was challenged by a group of Hollywood studios that claimed the remote-storage DVR service would have amounted to an unauthorized re-broadcast of their programs. A lawyer for the studios did not immediately return a call for comment. Cablevision, in arguing that control of the recording and playback was in the hands of the consumer, had relied on a landmark 1984 Supreme Court case which found Sony Corp. did not break copyright laws by letting viewers use videotape recorders to record shows for personal use. Craig Moffett, a senior cable analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said the ruling "sent shock waves to every corner of the media landscape" by taking the availability of DVR-like function from 25 percent ot U.S. homes to nearly 50 percent. That means many more viewers would be taping shows and watching them at their leisure, likely skipping many commercials. The ad-zapping ability of DVR devices has broadcasters and advertisers worried that fewer people will watch commercials. The case has been closely watched in the industry as cable companies increasingly offer digital video recording services to their customers, and Moffett said it was likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. |
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Texas defies World Court, Bush on execution
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/04 08:21
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The planned execution this week of a man convicted in one of Houston's most brutal murder cases in a generation has become among the most contentious in the state that has the nation's busiest capital punishment system. International attention has been focused on the execution of convicted killer Jose Medellin scheduled for Tuesday. The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, said the Mexican-born Medellin and some 50 other Mexicans on death row around the nation should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether a 1963 treaty was violated during their arrests. Medellin, now 33, is the first among the 50 who is set to die. His attorneys contend Medellin was denied the protections of the Vienna Convention, which calls for people arrested to have access to their home country's consular officials. He has been in the United States since the age of 3. "The United States' word should not be so carelessly broken, nor its standing in the international community so needlessly compromised," Medellin's attorneys said, seeking a reprieve in a filing late last week with the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court had not issued any ruling as of Sunday.
President Bush has asked states to review the cases. Texas has refused to budge. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico warned of possible protests there Tuesday. Medellin's lawyers went to the Supreme Court after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, refused to stop the lethal injection. The justices ruled in March that neither the President nor the international court can force Texas' hand. |
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Court: Christian fraternity must be recognized
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/01 11:31
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A federal appeals court has ordered University of Florida officials to recognize a Christian fraternity. Judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit in Atlanta issued an injunction Wednesday ordering the action while a discrimination lawsuit filed by Beta Upsilon Chi against the school moves forward. The fraternity hasn't been allowed to join the off-campus system of fraternities and sororities because its rules bar religious discrimination. The fraternity requires its members to be Christians. The fraternity's lawsuit claims the fraternity is deprived of official benefits given to other groups, including access to meeting space and the ability to advertise and recruit members on campus. |
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Mexican citizen asks high court to block execution
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/01 08:23
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Four months after losing his case at the Supreme Court, a Mexican citizen facing execution next week in Texas asked the justices Friday for a last-minute reprieve. Jose Medellin, set to die Tuesday for his participation in the gang rape and beating deaths of two Houston girls, said that the high court should block his execution until Texas grants him a new hearing to comply with an international court ruling. The state has so far refused, and the court ruled in March that neither President Bush nor the international court can force Texas' hand. But Medellin says Congress or the Texas legislature should be given a chance to pass a law ordering a new hearing before he can be executed. Four Democratic lawmakers have introduced such a bill in Congress, but it probably will not be acted upon this year. The Texas legislature does not meet again until January. Medellin is one of roughly 50 Mexicans on death rows around the nation who were denied prompt access to their country's consular officials after being arrested in the United States. The access is guaranteed by international treaty. |
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Judge removed from cases against 'Jena Six' teens
Breaking Legal News |
2008/08/01 07:31
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The judge overseeing the criminal cases for the remaining Jena Six defendants was removed against his will Friday for making questionable remarks about the teenagers. Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. had acknowledged calling the teens "trouble makers" and "a violent bunch" but insisted he could be impartial. Judge Thomas M. Yeager, who was asked by defense attorneys to review the case, found there was an appearance of impropriety and recused Mauffray. "The right to a fair and impartial judge is of particular importance in the present cases," Yeager wrote. Six black teens were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a December 4, 2006, attack on fellow Jena High School student Justin Barker, who is white. The charges were later reduced. Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw now face aggravated second-degree battery charges. Beard is charged as a juvenile. |
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