A man who has been trying for decades to take back his guilty plea in a notorious child molestation case won a huge moral victory Monday when a federal appeals court encouraged prosecutors to reopen their investigation.

Although the judges on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals denied Jesse Friedman's request to withdraw his plea, saying there was no legal basis to allow that, the panel criticized interrogation techniques by investigators in the 1988 case and actions by prosecutors and the trial judge.

"The record here suggests 'a reasonable likelihood' that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted," the judges said in a 31-page decision. "While the law may require us to deny relief in this case, it does not compel us to do so without voicing some concern regarding the process by which the petitioner's conviction was obtained."

A teenage Friedman and his father, Arnold, pleaded guilty in 1988 to molesting 13 children during computer classes in the basement of their home in Great Neck, on Long Island. Jesse Friedman, now 40, was paroled in 2001; his father committed suicide in prison in 1995. The pair were charged with several hundred counts of sex abuse.

Mexico's Supreme Court voted Monday to uphold a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples.

The justices voted 9-2 against challenges presented by federal prosecutors and others who had argued the law fails to protect adoptive children against possible ill effects or discrimination, or to guarantee their rights to a traditional family.

Justices voting with the majority argued that once same-sex marriages had been approved, it would be discriminatory to consider those couples less capable of parental duties than heterosexual couples.

The court voted earlier this month by the same margin to uphold same-sex marriages themselves under a Mexico City law enacted March 4.

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples have married under the law, but city officials have not yet reported any applications by those couples to adopt children.

A judge on Monday ordered the release of a man who spent 13 years behind bars for trying to steal food from a church, his third offense under California's three-strikes law.

Tears streamed down Gregory Taylor's face when Judge Peter Espinoza amended his sentence to eight years already served. The judge asked a bailiff to get him a tissue.

He was taken back into custody and will be released when his paperwork is completed in at least two days.

Family members and supporters applauded and the 47-year-old Taylor quietly thanked the court and his lawyers for "giving me another chance ... and my family for sticking by me."

The Stanford Law Project filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking freedom for Taylor, who was sentenced in 1997 to 25 years to life under California's three-strikes law. The district attorney did not oppose the group's move.

A lawyer for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says the Justice Department has ended a probe of the Texas Republican and will not file any criminal charges.

The six-year criminal investigation focused on DeLay's ties to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was released from a minimum-security prison camp in June.

One of DeLay's lawyers, Richard Cullen, said Monday the Justice Department's Office of Public Integrity informed DeLay's legal team early last week that it was ending the investigation.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney declined to comment, which is normally the case when the department ends a criminal probe without filing charges.

Abramoff served about 3 1/2 years in prison for fraud, corruption and conspiracy. He spent three days in a halfway house in Baltimore before he was placed in home confinement. Abramoff currently is working in a kosher pizzeria in northwest Baltimore.

A Northern California appeals court has struck down a shopping mall's policy barring people from approaching strangers to chitchat.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal this week said the rules at Roseville's Westfield Galleria violate the California Constitution's free speech guarantee.

The mall prohibited people in its common areas from approaching people they didn't know to talk unless the conversation was about business involving the mall or its tenants. The case arose after mall officials issued a citizen's arrest of a 27-year-old pastor who tried to talk about his faith.

The appeals court says the policy effectively bars shoppers from chatting about the weather or offering directions.

A spokeswoman for Westfield says the mall is considering appealing to the California Supreme Court.

A former money manager convicted of trying to fake his own death in a Florida plane crash has agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud charges in Indiana.

Marcus Schrenker could face 10 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to five of 11 counts under a proposed plea agreement with Hamilton County prosecutors.

He could also be required to pay more than $600,000 in restitution. Schrenker is accused of bilking friends, family members and other investors of more than $1 million.

A hearing on the deal is set for Sept. 15 in Hamilton Superior Court in the Indianapolis suburb of Noblesville. A judge still has to accept Schrenker's plea before the agreement can take effect.

The only remaining dispute is whether Schrenker should serve his Indiana sentence at the same time as a four-year federal sentence out of Florida, Jeff Wehmueller, administrative chief deputy prosecutor in Hamilton County, said Thursday.