Recent Updates
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Supreme Court troubled by DA's rejection of black jurors
Legal Interview 11/04/2015The Supreme Court signaled support Monday for a black death row inmate in Georgia who claims prosecutors improperly kept African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman. Justice Stephen Breyer likened the chief prosec...
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Supreme Court considers if Pistorius guilty of murder
Political and Legal News 11/04/2015South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal grilled Oscar Pistorius' attorney and a prosecutor on Tuesday as it weighed whether to convict him of murder for killing his girlfriend, uphold a lower court's manslaughter conviction or order a retrial. P...
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Lawyer tried to keep Somali rape victim in Australia
Legal Review 10/19/2015A lawyer for a pregnant Somalia refugee rape victim said Monday that he wanted to seek a court order keeping her in Australia before the government suddenly flew her to Nauru without providing the abortion she had requested.The case of the 23-year-ol...
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'Whitey' Bulger's lover heads to court on contempt charge
Political and Legal News 10/19/2015The longtime girlfriend and fugitive companion of James "Whitey" Bulger is expected in federal court to face a contempt charge for refusing to tell whether other people helped the Boston mobster during his 16 years on the run. Catherine Greig i...
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Suspect in some Phoenix freeway shootings pleads not guilty
Practice Legal News 10/12/2015A man accused in some of the freeway shootings that put Phoenix drivers on edge for weeks pleaded not guilty Thursday as his defense lawyers questioned the strength of the evidence against him.Attorneys for Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., 21, who was arrai...
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Arkansas court tosses conviction in woman's meth case
Legal Review 10/12/2015The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after giving birth to a baby with methamphetamine in his system. Melissa McCann-Arms, 39, was convicted by a jury in Polk County ...
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Connecticut court stands by decision eliminating execution
Political and Legal News 10/12/2015The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday stood by its decision to eliminate the state's death penalty, but the fate of capital punishment in the Constitution State technically remains unsettled. The state's highest court rejected a request by p...
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Georgia man accused in hot car death to appear in court
Political and Legal News 10/12/2015A Georgia man accused of killing his toddler son by leaving him in a vehicle on a hot day is set to appear in court for a hearing.Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley is set to hear arguments on pretrial motions Monday in the case of Justin R...
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US court upholds Oklahoma death row inmate's sentence
Political and Legal News 09/17/2015A divided federal appeals court panel upheld the murder convictions and death sentence Tuesday of a 54-year-old man who went on a multistate crime spree in 2003.The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to affirm the death sentence of Scott Ei...
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Washington Supreme Court rules against Backpage.com
Legal News 09/04/2015The website Backpage.com may not be immune from state liability law and a lawsuit filed by three young girls who said they were sold as prostitutes on the website can proceed to trial, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a 6-3 decis...
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Court: Transgender asylum seekers can't be equated with gays
Law Firm News 09/04/2015asylum, a federal appeals court said Thursday.The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling in the case of a transgender Mexican woman who sought shelter in the U.S. on the grounds that she would likely be tortured if re...
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Appeals court overturns county's longest-ever drug sentence
Political and Legal News 09/04/2015Pennsylvania Superior Court has overturned the longest drug sentence ever imposed in a central Pennsylvania county as "manifestly unreasonable and excessive."Blair County Senior Judge Thomas Peoples imposed the 104½- to 216-year sentence four years a...