The Arizona Supreme Court has turned down an appeal for a man convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a Phoenix police officer.

The justices ruled unanimously Friday in the case of Donald David Delahanty in the May 2005 killing of Officer David Uribe. The officer was shot after he pulled over a car in which Delahanty was a passenger.

According to testimony, Delahanty had said several times before the day of the shooting that he would kill any police officer who pulled him over.

Delahanty was sentenced to death for the murder of Uribe. He also was convicted of various other charges that he tried to burn the car in which he was riding and that he tried to arrange killings of a witness and the witness' mother.

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the first scheduled execution of a Texas death row inmate using a new drug cocktail on Tuesday, although the proposed lethal mix was not mentioned in the court's decision to reconsider the merits of the condemned man's appeal.

Cleve Foster was to have been executed hours later for the 2002 slaying of a Sudanese woman in Fort Worth — the first Texas execution since the state switched to pentobarbital in its three-drug mixture. The sedative has already been used for executions in Oklahoma and Ohio.

On Tuesday morning, the high court agreed to reconsider its January order denying Foster's appeal that raised claims of innocence and poor legal help during his trial and early stages of his appeals.

Foster's lawyers also have argued that Texas prison officials violated administrative procedures last month when they announced the switch to pentobarbital from sodium thiopental, which is in short supply nationwide. Foster's lawyers contend that the rules change in Texas required more time for public comment and review. Lower courts have rejected their appeals and attorneys had planned to take their case to the Texas Supreme Court.

A former South Texas judge who originally declared his innocence in a more than $250,000 bribery and extortion investigation hours later changed his plea and confessed to accepting payoffs.

Ex-State District Judge Abel C. Limas was arrested Thursday after the indictment in the racketeering investigation was unsealed.

Limas, 57, initially pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio. Later Thursday he appeared before U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen and pleaded guilty in a plea agreement.

A federal grand jury indicted Limas on Tuesday accusing him of soliciting and accepting bribes and extorting as much as $257,000 from people with cases before his court, their attorneys and representatives in exchange for favorable rulings.

The former police officer, who served as a judge from 2001 through 2008, is free on a $50,000 unsecured bond.

Sentencing is set for July 5. The sentence for racketeering ranges from 10 years in prison to life behind bars, plus fines.

The indictment also accuses four attorneys and another person of involvement in the scam. They have not been indicted. The 17-page indictment did not name the lawyers and the person accused of acting as the go-between.

The U.S. attorney's office plans to seek forfeiture of at least $257,000 from Limas, who declined comment after his guilty plea.

The New York woman posted a Craigslist ad seeking housing, saying she was looking to make a "fresh start" in New England.

What she found instead, police say, was a New Hampshire town official who held her captive in his home for three days and raped her.

Salem planning board member Jeffrey Gray was arraigned Wednesday on rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault charges. He was being held on bond, and his lawyer, Mark Stevens, declined to comment on when he might post it.

Gray, 48, has a record of arrests for criminal threatening and criminal mischief and a history of restraining orders linked to domestic abuse, Windham Police Capt. Mike Caron said.

The 34-year-old woman went to Gray's rented Windham home voluntarily on March 5, but was not allowed to leave until days later, when Gray drove her to Logan International Airport in Boston, police said. Instead of boarding a plane, however, she told a Massachusetts state trooper about her ordeal, authorities said.

Federal authorities plan to file a sex-offender charge against a 78-year-old man who was recently acquitted of killing a blind woman in upstate New York in 1972.

A state prosecutor revealed in court Monday that Willie James Kimble will be arraigned in U.S. District Court next week on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender in Florida. If convicted, he could draw up to 10 years in prison.

Kimble was acquitted March 10 of bludgeoning to death Annie Mae Cray at her home in Rochester on Oct. 29, 1972.

After his trial, the twice-convicted sexual predator was ordered held on state charges he violated his sexual-offender status by skipping town in 2009 while the murder was being re-examined. Police tracked down Kimble in his native Sarasota, Fla.

An animal research technician charged with killing a Yale University graduate student days before her wedding plans to plead guilty Thursday, his attorney said.

Public defender Joseph Lopez said Raymond Clark III, who was charged with strangling 24-year-old Annie Le of Placerville, Calif., would plead guilty in New Haven Superior Court. Lopez would not specify the charges, but said it was part of a plea deal.

"We anticipate a change of plea on Thursday," Lopez said Tuesday. "This appears to be in the best interests of our client."

Prosecutor John Waddock said there was a "substantial likelihood" of a change of plea Thursday. He declined further comment.

Le's body was found stuffed behind a research lab wall on the day she was supposed to get married in September 2009.

The crime drew intense national media attention and prompted the New Haven Register to print a rare extra edition announcing Clark's arrest.

Le and her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, planned to marry on Long Island, New York, and honeymoon in Greece. Instead, family and friends held a memorial service later that month where Le was remembered for her academic success, sense of humor, ambition, love for shoe shopping and love for her fiance.