|
|
|
Airline attack suspect sought martyrdom
Court Feed News |
2011/10/11 09:21
|
A young Nigerian allegedly on a terrorist mission for al-Qaida prayed, washed and put on perfume moments before trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear to bring down an international jetliner on Christmas 2009, a prosecutor told jurors as the man's trial opened Tuesday.
Virtually everyone aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 had holiday plans, but Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab believed his calling was martyrdom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel said.
In the plane's bathroom, "he was engaging in rituals. He was preparing to die and enter heaven," Tukel said. "He purified himself. He washed. He brushed his teeth. He put on perfume. He was praying and perfuming himself to get ready to die."
After returning to his seat, Abdulmutallab pushed a small plunger on the chemical bomb in his underwear, an action that produced a "pop," the prosecutor told jurors.
The bomb didn't work as planned but Abdulmutallab was engulfed in flames, said Tukel, who displayed the flight's seating chart on a screen to show jurors where things happened on the plane.
Opening statements began after an unexplained 70-minute recess requested by Abdulmutallab and his attorney, Anthony Chambers, shortly after they entered the courtroom. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ga. ban on guns in places of worship before court
Court Feed News |
2011/10/06 13:15
|
A federal appeals court in Atlanta is hearing from a gun rights group that wants to overturn a Georgia state ban on guns in places of worship.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta will hear arguments Thursday on whether the 2010 law violates the First Amendment's religious freedom protections.
The challenge was brought by GeorgiaCarry.org. The gun rights group maintains that religious institutions should be allowed to decide whether to allow firearms inside.
State lawyers counter that the ban allows worshippers to pray in safety. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court seems divided over Miranda rights case
Court Feed News |
2011/10/05 13:42
|
The Supreme Court seemed split Tuesday on whether to require police to read Miranda rights to prison inmates every time they interrogate them about crimes unrelated to their current incarceration.
The high court heard arguments from lawyers from the state of Michigan who want a federal appeals court decision overturning Randall Lee Fields' conviction thrown out.
Fields was serving a 45-day sentence in prison on disorderly conduct charges when a jail guard and sheriff's deputies from Lenawee County, Mich., removed him from his cell and took him to a conference room. The deputies, after telling him several times he was free to leave at any time, then questioned him for seven hours about allegations that he had sexually assaulted a minor. Fields eventually confessed and was charged and convicted of criminal sexual assault.
Fields was then sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison but appealed the use of his confession, saying that he was never given his Miranda rights on the sexual assault charges.
On appeal, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati threw out his confession and conviction, ruling that it is required that police read inmates their Miranda rights anytime they are isolated from the rest of the inmates in situations where they would be likely to incriminate themselves. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court turns away appeal over commandments display
Court Feed News |
2011/10/04 17:46
|
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of an Ohio judge wanting to display a poster of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.
The display has been covered with a drape since a federal judge ordered Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese to remove it in October 2009. DeWeese also had posted a label above it bearing the word "Censored."
DeWeese that he is disappointed but knew his effort to get the Supreme Court to hear the case was a long shot, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
"I will probably eventually take the display down," he told the newspaper.
DeWeese hung the poster in his Mansfield courtroom in 2006 after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand lower-court rulings that another Ten Commandment poster he hung in 2000 violated separation between church and state.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation sued, and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled the display endorsed religious views and was unconstitutional. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court won't hear appeal from software reseller
Court Feed News |
2011/10/03 15:40
|
The Supreme Court won't reopen a decision blocking an online merchant from selling unopened secondhand software.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Timothy S. Vernor, who wanted to sell unopened software made by Autodesk Inc., on eBay.
The Supreme Court has ruled that copyright holders can't prevent a buyer from reselling or renting a product after an initial sale. That principle, called the first sale doctrine, allows used book and music stores to operate.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the original purchasers of Autodesk were licensees, not owners of the software. The judges said that means the first-sale doctrine didn't apply and Vernor could not resell the software. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Appeals court tosses gays in military lawsuit
Court Feed News |
2011/09/30 16:11
|
A federal appeals court refused Thursday to decide the constitutionality of the military's now-repealed "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay troops, saying the issue has been resolved since Americans can enlist and serve in the armed forces without regard to sexual orientation.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco tossed out a lawsuit that had challenged the military policy as a violation of gay service members' civil rights. In doing so, the appeals court also dismissed a Southern California trial judge's year-old ruling that the policy was unconstitutional.
The gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans filed the lawsuit in 2004 challenging the policy. The group's lawyer, Dan Woods, said he would ask the full 9th Circuit to review the panel's decision. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Lawyer News Updates |
|
|
Lawyer News RSS
