By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The highest court in Massachusetts has sided with The Boston Globe in a battle to release a report and transcript of an inquest into the 1986 shooting death of the brother of an Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues in a 2010 shooting rampage.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that the inquest materials can be released, but said Amy Bishop, her family, prosecutors and others can still argue to show "good cause" why the materials should remain sealed.

After Bishop was charged in Alabama, a Massachusetts judge conducted an inquest into her brother's death. A grand jury later indicted Bishop for murder.

The high court outlined new rules for the release of inquest materials, saying they should become public after prosecutors decide whether to bring criminal charges.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Black farmers and American Indians who say the United States discriminated against them and took their money for decades are a step closer to winning long-awaited government settlements.

Under legislation passed by the Senate on Friday, black farmers who claim discrimination at the hands of the Agriculture Department would receive almost $1.2 billion. American Indians who say they were swindled out of royalties by the Interior Department would split $3.4 billion. Both cases have languished for more than a decade, and plaintiffs say beneficiaries are dying off.

"The Senate finally did the right thing," said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association. "They stepped up and told the world civil rights still matter in America."

The legislation was approved in the Senate by voice vote Friday and sent to the House. The money had been held up for months in the chamber as Democrats and Republicans squabbled over how to pay for it.

President Barack Obama praised the Senate for finally passing the bill and urged the House to move forward on it. He said his administration is also working to resolve separate lawsuits filed against the department by Hispanic and female farmers.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Ohio Supreme Court will get a chance to determine the legality of the state's smoking ban after an appeals court ruled that state officials didn't overstep their bounds when they repeatedly cited a Victorian Village bar for violating Ohio's smoking ban.

Zeno's Victorian Village is fighting a two-pronged battle against the 2006 anti-smoking law, saying that it shouldn't apply to family-owned bars and that authorities are unfairly punishing bars for violating the ban rather than the smokers themselves.

On Tuesday, the Franklin  County Court of Appeals handed Zeno's a big setback. In a  3-0 ruling, judges overturned a trial court's decision that dismissed more than $30,000 in  fines against Zeno's. The trial  court concluded that authorities had singled out bars and  restaurants for penalties while  refusing to cite smokers who  violated the ban.

The February ruling by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain never affected how state and local health departments enforce the no-smoking law. As of the end of August, more than 2,500 fines had been imposed totaling nearly $1.2 million, according to the Ohio Department of Health. State and local officials had collected about $400,000 of that amount.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says sentencing juvenile convicted killers to life in prison without parole is not unreasonably harsh.

Chris Joshua Meadoux was 16 at time of a 2007 double slaying in San Antonio.

A jury sentenced the Hurricane Katrina evacuee to life in prison without parole for his capital murder conviction in the killing of 17-year-old Johnny You and 19-year-old Luis Martinez during a fight.

Meadoux and You were friends in Slidell, La., before their families evacuated after the 2005 hurricane.

The Austin American-Statesman reports an appeals court said Wednesday that juveniles may be less morally culpable, but some actions justify the penalty.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A Russian labeled the "Merchant of Death" by those who claim he fueled some of the world's deadly Third World conflicts over the last decade with powerful weapons has arrived in the United States. He faces charges he supported terrorists trying to overthrow the government of Colombia and shared their hatred for Americans.

Viktor Bout arrived late Tuesday at Westchester County Airport, in White Plains, N.Y., before he was brought to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to await an initial court appearance expected Wednesday afternoon. A news conference with federal prosecutors and officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration was to occur in late morning.

Bout, 43, a former Soviet military officer and air cargo executive, was flown from Bangkok, Thailand, to suburban New York on a chartered U.S. plane just four days before an extradition order would have expired, permitting him to be freed and returned home to his native Moscow.

Instead, he was taken in manacles and a bulletproof vest as Russian diplomats made a final outraged push to persuade Thailand to release him, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The California Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty sentence for the killer of two Riverside County deputies in 1997.
Timothy Russell was sentenced 11 years ago for the ambush killings of 41-year-old James Lehmann Jr. and 33-year-old Michael Haugen. The deputies had responded to a domestic violence call in a remote desert area east of Cabazon when Russell opened fire with an M-1 carbine.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise says attorney's for Russell, who is now 50, claimed his death sentence should be overturned because the amount of time he was hiding, waiting for the deputies, was not enough duration to indicate he was trying to ambush them.

But the justices any time period of lying in wait was sufficient to warrant a death sentence.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The man who halted the morning commute on the Bay Bridge for two hours last week and claimed to have pipebombs in his vehicle, is set to make his first court appearance today.

Authorities say the Antioch man stopped his SUV on the upper deck last Thursday morning, dialed 911 and threatened to blow up the span. Police say he also waived a pellet gun and threatened to kill himself.

His 16-year-old daughter, who was in the SUV, managed to escape during the standoff.

Carlos-Valentino ultimately surrendered. He told officers he was angry and suicidal because of marital problems.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A medical examiner says two Detroit-area toddlers probably drowned before their bodies were scalded with hot water.

Dr. Carl Schmidt says the deaths of 13-month-old Johnathan Sanderlin and 15-month-old Ella Stafford were not an accident. He testified Monday at a court hearing to determine if their father, Steven Nicholson of Allen Park, will go to trial on murder charges.

Police say Nicholson drowned them on Oct. 19. Defense attorney William Winters III claims it was a "horrible accident," not a crime.

Schmidt says Johnathan had burns on 80 percent of his body while Ella had burns on 25 percent.

Friends and family told Nicholson they love him as he entered court. The judge immediately warned against any additional outbursts.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A federal appeal court is reconsidering a decision that reversed former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers' bribery conviction.

In a rare move, the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal vacated the 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel Wednesday. The full 11-judge panel now will rehear Childers' appeal.

Childers had already completed a 3 1/2-year prison term before the appeal court ruled in June.

The conviction stemmed from Childers' actions as an Escambia County commissioner after the Pensacola Republican left the Senate due to term limits in 2000.

A state court jury found him guilty of bribing a fellow commission to vote for a county land purchase.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Jurors have begun deliberations in the trial of a New Hampshire teenager charged with wielding a machete during a deadly home invasion last year.

Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson told jurors to voice their individual opinions when they consider the case against 18-year-old Steven Spader.

Spader is charged with first-degree murder and other felonies in the knife and machete attacks that killed Kimberly Cates and maimed her 11-year-old daughter, Jaimie, in their Mont Vernon home. He has pleaded not guilty.

A prosecutor told jurors that Spader's detailed written accounts of the killing amount to a confession. His lawyers dismissed them as the writings of a teen known for bragging and lying.

Spader will be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of murder.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.