A cadre of murderers and rapists, several of whom victimized young girls, will be set free from North Carolina prisons this month after state courts agreed that a decades-old law defined life sentences as only 80 years long.

Dozens more inmates could be released in the coming months unless the state can figure out a legal recourse to keep them behind bars, officials said Thursday. Gov. Beverly Perdue called them "dangerous criminals" who have repeatedly been denied parole.

"I'm appalled that the state of North Carolina is being forced to release prisoners who have committed the most heinous of crimes, without any review of their cases," Perdue said in a statement.

One of the 20 inmates set for release, Bobby Bowden, had argued that a law adopted in 1974 clearly defined life sentences as just 80 years. The 60-year-old convicted murderer believed that the statute, combined with good conduct credits, means his life sentence is now complete.

The Court of Appeals sided with Bowden last year. North Carolina's Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the state earlier this month after a lawyer from the attorney general's office had argued that the 80-year figure was ambiguous and likely meant to determine when somebody would be eligible for parole.

Washington's secretary of state can release the names and addresses of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on the state's expanded benefits for domestic partners, a federal appeals court said Thursday.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Ben Settle in Tacoma to block release of the petitions.

Settle held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers.

Stephen Pidgeon, an attorney for the petition sponsors, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Despite the appeals court ruling, the names weren't immediately released.

Janelle Guthrie, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Rob McKenna, said her office must now ask a Thurston County judge to lift a temporary restraining order issued Wednesday forbidding the release of the petitions until the 9th Circuit could rule.

Homeowners and businesses resisting the forced sales of their properties for a massive development in Brooklyn have told New York's top court it's unconstitutional for a state agency to order them out.

In oral arguments Wednesday at the Court of Appeals, a lawyer for owners and tenants says Bruce Ratner's proposed $4.9 billion, 22-acre Atlantic Yards project mainly enriches private interests. Ratner is the New Jersey Nets' principal owner and wants to build a new arena for the team, plus office towers and apartments.

The Empire State Development Corp. says the area was blighted, and the project is a legitimate government use of eminent domain to take property for public purposes.

Lower courts have upheld the project. A ruling is expected next month.

A fugitive who avoided prosecution for more than four decades after hijacking a 1968 Pan American flight to Cuba pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges including kidnapping and aircraft piracy.

Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 66, appeared in Manhattan federal court on charges stemming from his involvement in the hijacking of the flight that left John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for Puerto Rico on Nov. 24, 1968.

Soltren said "not guilty," through a Spanish translator when asked by a federal magistrate judge how he pleaded to the 1968 indictment.

He will be held in jail pending a bail application and his lawyer, James Neuman, told the judge Soltren did not need medical attention.

Soltren, a U.S. citizen who lived in Cuba for 41 years, surrendered to authorities at JFK airport on Sunday, knowing he would be arrested, according to authorities.

Neuman told reporters outside the courtroom he could not yet explain why Soltren had voluntarily come back to the United States.

A Florida appellate court again has rebuffed the NCAA's effort to prevent public disclosure of documents on academic cheating at Florida State.

The documents, with students' names blacked out, could be released as early as Wednesday, said Carol Jean LoCicero, an attorney for The Associated Press and other news media.

LoCicero's clients sued the NCAA, Florida State and the university's outside law firm under the state's open-records "sunshine" laws.

The 1st District Court of Appeal late Monday denied the college athletics organization's motions for a rehearing or certification of the case to the Florida Supreme Court as a question of great public importance.

The NCAA still could ask the state high court to review the case and block release of the documents until the justices make a decision. That will be difficult, though, because of strong trial and appellate court rulings that found the documents to be public records.

A Maryland man calmly described to detectives how he methodically drowned his three young children by holding them underwater in a hotel bathtub for 10 minutes each — a confession that was recorded by police and played in court Wednesday.

Mark A. Castillo, 43, of Rockville faces trial on three counts of first-degree murder in the March 2008 deaths of his children: 6-year-old Anthony, 4-year-old Austin and 2-year-old Athena. His attorneys contend that he is not criminally responsible for the slayings — Maryland's version of an insanity plea.

Castillo's attorneys are trying to prevent his two statements to police from being admitted as evidence at trial. Prosecutors played a tape of the first of those statements for the judge Wednesday to verify its authenticity. The jury has not yet been chosen.

Asked by homicide Detective Raymond Yost why he killed his children, Castillo let out a long sigh before describing a custody battle with his former wife.

"We've been going through an extremely hard divorce. ... My wife had denied my visitation," Castillo said. "I felt like I didn't want them to be in this world anymore."

Castillo described how he took his children to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore and then checked into a Marriott hotel downtown.

Courts spokesman David Bookstaver says the jury notified a judge Thursday that it had reached a decision in its 11th day of deliberating on the criminal charges against Astor's son and an estate lawyer.

The verdict is expected to be announced at 2:15 p.m.

The jury's notice came as the judge was preparing to ask them whether they had a verdict on any charge in the 18-count indictment. He didn't get the chance.

The late socialite's son, Anthony Marshall, and lawyer Francis Morrissey deny looting her nearly $200 million estate.