An unusual court hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty in Texas was put on hold Tuesday after the state's highest criminal court granted a request by prosecutors to stop it.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that the hearing be temporarily halted so prosecutors and defense attorneys can file motions on whether the legal proceeding should be allowed to continue.

The hearing, which began Monday and was set to last up to two weeks, had been ordered by a state district judge in Houston.

District Judge Kevin Fine last spring initially declared the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional after granting a motion in a capital murder case he is presiding over. Under heavy criticism, Fine clarified then rescinded his ruling and ordered the hearing, saying he needed to hear evidence on the issue.

Fine is a judge in Harris County, which has sent more inmates to the lethal-injection gurney than any other county in the nation.

Lawyers for the Houston man who had asked for the hearing had already presented two days of testimony on whether problems with such things as eyewitness identification and evidence offered by informants have created flaws in death penalty prosecutions in Texas and resulted in a risk that innocent people will be executed. They said their client, John Edward Green Jr., is innocent and the case against him uses some of the same faulty evidentiary procedures that have resulted in others being wrongly convicted. Green, who is awaiting trial, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of fatally shooting a Houston woman during a June 2008 robbery.

The Kansas Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge involving a site for a proposed state-owned casino south of Wichita.

Iowa-based developer Peninsula Gaming said Wednesday the Kansas court's ruling resolves legal questions surrounding the company's proposed casino site in Mulvane.

The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to hear a lawsuit by the Sumner County Commission against the city of Mulvane over its annexation of the land. The decision leaves in place a Kansas Court of Appeals ruling upholding the annexation.

City officials in Mulvane have endorsed Peninsula's plan, and the annexation was necessary for the project to move forward. The county commission is backing a rival proposal from Ada, Okla.-based Global Gaming Solutions for a casino near Wellington.

The county commission said it still sees the Global site as superior.

A Philadelphia law firm used nonlawyers to file untold numbers of mortgage foreclosures across the state and fraudulently collected attorney's fees that caused people to lose their homes in cases which should be legally nullified, a Pittsburgh lawyer claims in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit comes as a bankruptcy court judge, also in Pittsburgh, has given the same firm, Goldbeck, McCafferty & McKeever, until the end of business Friday to self-report to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Agresti filed two opinions castigating the firm and the lender it represented, Countrywide Home Loans, in a foreclosure that led a Pittsburgh-area woman to file for bankruptcy in 2001.

The judge determined a Goldbeck attorney knowingly gave the court phony lender documents to bolster its foreclosure claim saying "the evidence that (the attorney) lied was considerable."

Attorneys at the Goldbeck firm have not returned calls for comment from The Associated Press on Judge Agresti's findings or the 78-page lawsuit filed last month by Patrick Loughren.

Loughren told The Associated Press he could not comment on his lawsuit, but said the document made clear his reason for filing it.

The lawsuit spells out two broad goals: defending the legal profession, and pursuing a remedy for those facing foreclosure and those who have already paid attorneys fees or lost their homes in actions filed by the Philadelphia firm.

"As one court has stated, 'It must be borne in mind that it has always been held that a professional man has standing to prevent the improper invasion of his profession,'" Loughren's lawsuit said.

A 21-year-old man admitted in court Monday that he hacked a mother to death and seriously wounded her young daughter during a 2009 home invasion but said he was insane when he did it.

Christopher Gribble of Brookline waived his right to a jury trial on whether he killed 42-year-old Kimberly Cates and seriously wounded her 11-year-old daughter, Jaimie.

The burden now shifts to Gribble's lawyers to prove he was insane during the Mont Vernon home invasion.

If the jury finds he was sane at the time, Gribble will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If jurors find him not guilty by reason of insanity, Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson would hold a hearing on whether he is a danger to society. If she finds that he is a danger, she will commit him to the secure psychiatric unit of the New Hampshire State Prison. He would then be entitled to have a review of his threat to society every five years.

Gribble answered, "Yes, your honor" when asked if he committed murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and burglary, and tampered with a witness. He then pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to each charge.

Gribble listened intently as Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin detailed the evidence the state was prepared to present. It mirrored the evidence that was presented to the jury that convicted 19-year-old Steven Spader of first-degree murder last month.

A reality TV producer charged with killing his wife in Mexico is due back in Los Angeles court Tuesday afternoon to argue that his detention is unconstitutional.

Attorneys for Bruce Beresford-Redman claim the federal prosecutors haven't properly demonstrated there is enough evidence to hold the former "Survivor" producer while he fights extradition.

Prosecutors say it is premature for them to present evidence obtained from Mexican authorities connecting Beresford-Redman to the April killing of his wife in Cancun.

A magistrate judge refused last week to set bail for Beresford-Redman. He has been jailed since Nov. 16, when he was arrested on a fugitive warrant on an aggravated homicide charge.

The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a federal death row prisoner who wants the courts to consider evidence that one federal judge said "is virtually guaranteed" to show the inmate is mentally retarded and thus barred from being executed.

The court did not comment Monday in rejecting an appeal from Bruce Carneil Webster. He was sentenced to death more than 14 years ago and has since tried in vain to persuade federal judges that he is mentally retarded.

Evidence recently provided by the Social Security Administration shows three federal doctors determined Webster was mentally retarded when he applied for disability benefits in 1993, a year before 16-year-old Lisa Rene was kidnapped and killed.

Rene was raped, beaten and buried alive after her abduction was recorded in a desperate 911 call.