By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Anti-death penalty lawyers say the execution of a Texas man whose plea for DNA testing was ignored shows procedures and laws covering capital punishment need to be changed.

The Innocence Project, a New York legal center that uses DNA to exonerate inmates, said Friday in Houston that the execution of convicted killer Claude Jones 10 years ago occurred only because then Gov. George W. Bush wasn't aware Jones' lawyer was asking for DNA testing on a tiny piece of hair prosecutors used to link Jones to an East Texas liquor store slaying.

Tests now have shown the hair did not belong to Jones.

Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, said while the DNA test doesn't prove Jones was definitely innocent, "in and of itself this is pretty significant."

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Federal prosecutors in Kansas who couldn't obtain a gag order against a strident patient activist later launched a secret grand jury investigation and issued subpoenas against the woman and her advocacy group — moves some argue are nothing more than government retaliation against an outspoken critic.

Siobhan Reynolds has taken her fight to quash the subpoenas and publicize the proceedings against her to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to take up her request to unseal the case Friday.

"Here the Assistant U.S. Attorney sought the subpoenas in question after the district court denied the government's motion to gag. This sequence of facts strongly suggests that the government has issued these subpoenas in direct retaliation for (Reynolds') political advocacy," the libertarian groups Institute of Justice and Reason Foundation argued in a brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the sealed amicus brief after it was anonymously uploaded to the public document-sharing website Scribd last month. Institute of Justice attorney Paul Sherman denied his organization posted the document but confirmed its contents.

Reynolds' subpoena challenge has been sealed in federal district court in Kansas and the appeals court. The 49-year-old Santa Fe, N.M., woman has acknowledged she is a target of a grand jury investigation into a possible conspiracy to obstruct justice. But because grand jury investigations are confidential, there was little public record showing her related subpoena challenge even existed until the Supreme Court agreed last month to release a redacted version of her appeal.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Supreme Court expressed doubts Tuesday about the constitutionality of a California law that seeks to ban the sale of violent videogames to minors.

During an hour-long oral argument, several justices suggested the law violated free-speech protections of the First Amendment.

Justice Antonin Scalia said California's logic in banning videogame sales to minors could also apply to a ban on the sale of violent movies or books to children.

"Some of the Grimm's Fairy Tales are quite grim," Justice Scalia told an attorney for California. "Are they OK? Are you going to ban them, too?"

"What about films? What about comic books?" asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Why are videogames special?"

The court also questioned how the state could determine when violence in videogames was excessive.

The case has considerable implications for the videogame industry. Games rated as "mature," such as Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty" and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s "Grand Theft Auto," are some of the industry's biggest sellers.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The southwestern US state of Arizona executed a prisoner for a 1989 murder late Tuesday, after the US Supreme Court ruled the state can use a non-approved drug for the lethal injection amid a US shortage.

Jeffrey Landrigan was pronounced dead in the state prison in Florence at 10:26 pm Tuesday, KVOA News 4 in Tucson, Arizona reported. A KVOA reporter witnessed the execution.

In a 5-4 ruling late Tuesday, the US high court said a lower court wrongfully blocked Landrigan's execution after officials refused to reveal where they got the necessary drugs and as questions remained about their safety.

"There is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe," the Supreme Court said.

"There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect."

A federal appeals court that blocked the execution had earlier confirmed the drug came from an unidentified foreign manufacturer not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Arizona Attorney General's office has said the drug substitute came from a manufacturer in Britain.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The University of Michigan's student government president has dropped a request for a personal protection order against a state lawyer who attacked him on an anti-gay blog.

An official at the Washtenaw County Circuit Court in Ann Arbor says 21-year-old Chris Armstrong's lawyer filed a motion to drop the matter Monday, hours before a court hearing was scheduled.

Armstrong had requested the order earlier this month against assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell. He claimed the 30-year-old prosecutor harassed him over a five-month period.

Shirvell started a blog in April that criticized Armstrong as a racist with a "radical homosexual agenda." Shirvell remains on personal leave from his job.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

An Atlanta attorney has admitted to stealing more than $500,000 from his law firm.

Michael Shaw, 37, of Mableton, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 5 by U.S. District Judge Willis B. Hunt. Shaw faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for the scheme.

According to federal authorities, Shaw performed “investigative services,” but submitted invoices totaling $90,000 in the name of an investigator who worked at the same law firm. He also performed title-examination services and submitted invoices totaling $425,000 in the name of a fake vendor, according to federal authorities.

“As a lawyer, Shaw had a duty to act with his clients’ best interests in mind,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release. “Instead, he used his position at the law firm to enrich himself at their expense. In the end, he lost his license to practice law and now faces federal prison.”

Shaw was fired after the misconduct was discovered in 2009, according to authorities. The Georgia State Bar has also disbarred Shaw.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Both sides of Milwaukee's sick leave ordinance say they're confident they will prevail now that the lawsuit over the ordinance is heading to a state appeals court.

The state Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 today on whether to uphold a circuit court ruling overturning the ordinance and sent the case to the appeals court for review.

In June 2009, a Milwaukee County judge struck down the ordinance, which was approved by 70 percent of voters. He found the ballot question didn't contain enough information explaining the ordinance, including details such as how much sick leave employers would be required to provide and when the leave could be used. The appeals court asked the justices to take the case directly, saying it was a matter of first impression.

Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser and Pat Roggensack voted to uphold the lower court ruling tossing the ordinance, while Justices Shirley Abrahamson, Ann Walsh Bradley and Pat Crooks voted to overturn the decision. Justice Annette Ziegler did not participate in the case.
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) president Tim Sheehy said he was pleased the injunction blocking implementation of the ordinance remains in place.

"While we would have preferred a decision from the Supreme Court, we remain confident in our position that this mandate is in violation of both federal and Wisconsin statutes and the Wisconsin Constitution," he said. "We look forward to making that case persuasively to the Court of Appeals, keeping the injunction in place, and having the threat of this costly burden on Milwaukee employers lifted once and for all.”
The Wisconsin director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women said the group remained confident in its case as it heads back to the appeals court.

"Seventy percent of local voters approved one of the nation’s first paid sick leave ordinances, and now cities and states around the country are pursuing similar policies," Amy Stear said in a statement from the group that led the charge for the 2008 ballot initiative. "We’re confident in our legal case and look forward to the long overdue implementation of the ordinance."

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A federal appeals court has rejected a Dallas-area parent's bid to have "under God" removed from the Texas pledge of allegiance that is recited every day by public schoolchildren.

Attorney General Greg Abbott says Wednesday's ruling is a victory for the constitutionally protected rights and freedoms of all Texans.

The words "under God" were added to the pledge in 2007.

U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade ruled in 2009 that the Texas pledge can reference God because several other state pledges and the national pledge reference God or divine grace.

On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

David Croft had sued, arguing that the words are unconstitutional and violate the separation of church and state.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Supreme Court won't reconsider a decision to reinstate more than 100 lawsuits filed by women who claimed that hormone replacement therapy caused breast cancer.

The high court refused on Tuesday to hear an appeal from Wyeth LLC and other pharmaceutical companies.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge's decision to throw out many of the lawsuits.

The drug companies wanted the case in federal court, and said plaintiffs added unrelated local defendants to ensure it would stay in state court. A federal judge agreed, and dismissed many of the lawsuits. But the appeal court overturned that ruling, saying that it had not been proven that the women had done anything wrong.

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

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

A member of the pop group Girlicious has pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession and has received a deferred judgment that could result in the charge being dismissed.

Los Angeles district attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison says Natalie Mejia entered the plea Wednesday in a Pasadena courtroom.

A trial on a charge of possession with the intent to sell had been scheduled for this week. Mejia was arrested on March 9 in Glendale, Calif., after police said they found 13 bags of cocaine in her Gucci purse during a traffic stop.

Robison says Mejia will be required to undergo counseling and attend classes for the next 18 months.

If she completes the deferred judgment program, the felony charge will be dismissed.

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