Christopher Scott Emmett, 36, was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. He was convicted of beating a co-worker to death with a brass lamp in 2001 so he could steal the man's money to buy crack cocaine.

Emmett's appeal was the first to require a federal appeals court to interpret a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that upheld Kentucky's three-drug method of lethal injection and apply it to another state's procedures.

Gov. Tim Kaine declined to intervene with the sentence being carried out.

"Tell my family and friends I love them, tell the governor he just lost my vote," Emmett said in the chamber before he died. "Y'all hurry this along, I'm dying to get out of here."

The lethal injection appeared to go as planned. Emmett was pronounced dead about five minutes after he was first sedated.

His attorneys claimed that Virginia's use of lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because of the possibility that paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs could be administered before inmates are rendered unconscious by another drug.

Unlike Kentucky, Virginia does not allow for a second dose of sodium thiopental, which results in a deep, coma-like unconsciousness, even when a second round of the other drugs is required. Virginia also administers the three drugs more quickly than Kentucky.

In 10 of the 70 lethal injections performed in Virginia before this year, a second dose of the last two drugs was given because the inmate did not die within a few minutes after the heart-stopping drug was administered, according to court papers.

Earlier this month, a divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled that Virginia's protocol was similar enough to Kentucky's that it would not cause inmates excruciating pain. Emmett's attorneys had asked the full court to review the case, but justices voted 6-4 against the full hearing.

Judge Roger Gregory, writing in favor of the full court hearing Emmett's appeal, said that the Supreme Court found the sodium thiopental "essential to the humanity of Kentucky's procedure," and that Virginia did not offer safeguards comparable to those used in Kentucky to ensure that inmates didn't experience excruciating pain.

Emmett was the 102nd inmate executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Only Texas has executed more prisoners.

Officer Chadd Stensgaard, who parked his patrol car illegally while making a dinner-break stop at a Japanese restaurant, must pay a $35 fine, Traffic Court Judge Terry Hannon ruled Wednesday.

The infraction came to light thanks to Eric Bryant, who was at the restaurant with friends when Stensgaard parked in a curbside no-parking zone. Bryant, an attorney, filed a citizen complaint against the officer in March.

About five minutes after the officer arrived, Bryant walked up to him and told him he was parked illegally. "He told me he was allowed to do so," Bryant testified. "I responded, 'No, you're not.' I told him he was an officer of the law. He's not supposed to break the law. He's supposed to enforce the law."

Oregon law allows emergency responders to park in no-parking zones when responding to emergencies or chasing suspects. The law says nothing about sushi.

Stensgaard testified that he needed to park his car close by in case he had to respond to an emergency call. He declined to comment after his defeat.

Portland police leaders say they plan to ask city commissioners to make it legal for officers to park in no-parking zones when ordering food or stopping for a restroom break.

Bryant, meanwhile, saw the ruling as a victory for those who don't carry a badge.

"I tried to represent the best interests of Oregonians," Bryant said. "And I believe that Oregonians believe police don't get to ignore the law."

Three motions were filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Lori Drew of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, her attorney H. Dean Steward told The Associated Press.

Drew is accused of helping create a false-identity account on the MySpace social networking site to convince young neighbor Megan Meier she was chatting with a teenage boy.

Meier, who was being treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, hanged herself in 2006, allegedly after receiving cruel messages, including one saying the world would be better off without her.

Missouri authorities did not file any charges because at the time they could not find any laws that applied.

In May, however, a Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted Drew on charges of conspiracy and accessing computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress. She pleaded not guilty.

The case was filed in Los Angeles because MySpace's servers are in Los Angeles County. FBI agents in St. Louis and Los Angeles investigated the case.

Legal experts have said use of the federal cyber-crime statute on accessing computers may be open to challenge.

Andrew Giuliani, a 22-year-old rising senior, contends he had dreams of becoming a professional golfer and was dismissed without cause from the golf team in February without a chance to defend himself. He said in a statement Thursday that he sued "to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else at Duke."

Giuliani was dismissed because coach O.D. Vincent III wanted to cut the team from 13 players to about half its size, the lawsuit said. He claims a breach of contract because he was recruited by Duke's previous coaching staff.

"This has been heartbreaking," Giuliani's mother, Donna Hanover, said in a statement. "We tried for many months to convince members of the Duke administration that this situation should be corrected and we are sad that we have now had to turn to the court."

The coach said Giuliani "flipped his putter a few feet to his golf bag" and drove fast while leaving a golf course parking lot, according to the lawsuit. Giuliani also was accused of playing a team football game harder than the other players liked and of being disrespectful to a trainer.

Terry Childs has been jailed since July 13 on four felony counts of computer tampering. He is accused of creating secret passwords that gave him exclusive access to the city's new multi-million-dollar computer network, which stores records such as officials' e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail bookings.

Authorities said Childs initially refused to reveal correct passwords to them, but that he turned them over to Mayor Gavin Newsom during an unusual jailhouse visit Tuesday.

The city is still experiencing computer problems, said San Francisco Deputy District Attorney Conrad del Rosario. He told San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lucy McCabe that the Sheriff's Department is "locked out" and that other city departments are having problems.

Defense attorney Erin Crane said her client was the subject of a smear campaign by co-workers jealous of Childs' computer savvy and work ethic.

In arguing for reduced bail, Crane said in a motion that Childs was merely trying to protect the network after "co-workers and supervisors had in the past maliciously damaged the system themselves, hindered his ability to maintain it ... and shown complete indifference to maintaining it themselves."

Crane also said Childs, 43, posed no danger to the public.

She declined to comment outside court other than to say she was disappointed about the bail. She said his incarceration before trial will hinder her preparation of a complex case.

Law firm Williams Mullen has signed a 75,000-square-foot lease to relocate to downtown Raleigh's RBC Plaza.

The building's owner, Raleigh's Highwoods Properties (NYSE: HIW), announced the lease Wednesday. It said the office space in 293,000-square-foot RBC Plaza, which is under construction, is now 95 percent preleased.

Williams Mullen will relocate from Highwoods Tower I in north Raleigh, where the law firm occupies 51,000 square feet. The company plans to move to RBC Plaza in the third quarter of 2009.

"We are excited to be moving to RBC Plaza and the heart of downtown Raleigh," Williams Mullen director Keith Kapp said in a statement. "This is a great opportunity for us to be in a central location in the newest office building in the city. We have been customers of Highwoods for many years and are very pleased to be able to extend this mutually beneficial relationship."

Triangle Business Journal first reported that Williams Mullen was looking to take space in the RBC Plaza.

The RBC Plaza, a 29-story tower that is the tallest building in the Triangle, is scheduled to open this fall with a mix of office, retail and condominium space. All 139 condominiums are under contract with non-refundable deposits, Highwoods says.