A Kentucky-based chemical company cannot prove that its investment broker knew in advance that a securities market would collapse in early 2008, leaving the company with $194 million in investments that couldn't easily be sold, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Ashland Inc. couldn't show that New York-based Oppenheimer & Co. lured the company into continuing to buy auction rate securities while hiding knowledge about an impending market implosion.

"At best, the alleged facts suggests that a few Oppenheimer employees were aware of what might happen if the underwriters left the ARS market, a seemingly remote risk, given its past stability," Judge Deborah Cook wrote for the unanimous panel.

The decision upholds a ruling in 2010 by U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman rejecting Ashland's claims. Ashland sued Oppenheimer in 2009, accusing the brokerage firm of providing intentionally misleading information about the market for student loan-backed auction rate securities up until the market went under in February 2008.

Auction rate securities are long-term bonds with interest rates periodically reset through recurring auctions, which are commonly held between on a schedule ranging from seven to 35 days. Investors can sell their securities at each auction, provided buyers outnumber sellers. If there are more sellers than buyers, an auction fails, potentially leaving sellers holding the securities.

Delaware carried out its first execution since 2005 early Friday, putting to death a man who was convicted of killing a woman with an ax during a burglary nearly two decades ago.

Robert Jackson III was pronounced dead at 12:12 a.m. after being given a lethal injection at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna.

Jackson, 38, lifted his head when asked for his last words shortly after midnight. Searching the window between the execution chamber and witnesses, he asked if the two children of the victim, Elizabeth Girardi, were watching.

"Are the Girardis in there? Christopher and Claudia, if you are in there, I've never faulted you for your anger. I would have been mad myself," he said, going on to deny he killed their mother.

He suggested that his accomplice in the burglary, Anthony Lachette, was the killer.

"Tony's laughing his ass off right now because you're about to watch an innocent man die. This isn't justice," he said before putting his head back down and closing his eyes.

When the execution began, Jackson started making a snoring sound, his lips sputtered and his breath began to quicken. Prison officials closed the curtain between the execution chamber and witnesses after about four minutes to check whether he was conscious, calling out twice, "Inmate Jackson, can you hear me?" There was no response.

From New Jersey to California, police, courthouse officials and real estate agents are being confronted with a baffling new problem: bogus legal documents filed by people claiming to follow an obscure religion called Moorish Science. Their motives range from financial gain to simply causing a nuisance.

No one is more exasperated by the phenomenon than the leaders of the century-old Moorish Science Temple of America, who say the growing crop of "paperwork terrorists" has nothing to do with their faith or its teachings.

"It's just distressing that some individuals would take something as pure and righteous as this organization and try to tarnish it," said Christopher Bennett-Bey, grand sheikh of the group's temple in Charlotte, one of more than 30 located around the country.

It's not clear why the flimflam artists are invoking the group. But one expert said divisions dating back to the death of the sect's founder have resulted in small pockets of people who claim to be followers but have little understanding of the faith.

The bad filings include deeds, liens and other documents, often written in confusing pseudo-legal jargon and making outlandish claims about being exempt from U.S. law. In some cases, filers have actually moved into foreclosed houses and changed the locks. Other times, people seeking to slip their mortgages have used bogus documents to waste the time and money of their banks. Fake liens have also been maliciously filed to target enemies.