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Suspect sought for death penalty appears in court
Topics in Legal News |
2014/05/27 14:17
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The suspect accused of kidnapping and killing a 15-year-old girl in Northern California has appeared in court for the first time since prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty against him.
KTVU-TV reports that Antolin Garcia-Torres made a brief appearance in a Santa Clara County courtroom in San Jose on Friday.
It was the his first time since District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced he was seeking capital punishment against Garcia-Torres in the disappearance of Sierra LaMar.
Garcia-Torres is accused of killing the Morgan Hill girl who vanished while on her way to school in March 2012. He was arrested two months later, after authorities say they found Sierra's DNA in his car and his DNA in her handbag. |
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SC high court blocks ruling during Harrell appeal
Topics in Legal News |
2014/05/23 13:33
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South Carolina's high court has blocked a judge's dismissal of an investigation into one of the state's top lawmakers while prosecutors appeal.
The state Supreme Court said Thursday it would block the ruling by Circuit Judge Casey Manning earlier this month.
The new order allows prosecutors to continue their investigation into corruption allegations against House Speaker Bobby Harrell. Manning had said Attorney General Alan Wilson improperly empaneled a State Grand Jury in the case.
Manning said courts cannot consider such a case against a lawmaker until a legislative ethics panel has reviewed it. Harrell's attorneys agree, but Wilson says the ruling infringes on his role as the state's top prosecutor.
Wilson is appealing that decision. Both sides are to make their case before the Supreme Court on June 24. |
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High court to hear dispute about TV over Internet
Topics in Legal News |
2014/04/21 14:15
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Thirty years ago, big media companies failed to convince the Supreme Court of the threat posed by home video recordings.
Now they're back — and trying to rein in a different innovation that they say threatens their financial well-being.
The battle has moved out of viewers' living rooms, where people once marveled at their ability to pop a cassette into a recorder and capture their favorite programs or the sporting event they wouldn't be home to see.
The new legal fight shifts to the Supreme Court Tuesday with arguments against a startup business using Internet-based technology to give subscribers the ability to watch programs anywhere they can take portable devices.
Aereo takes free television signals from the airwaves and sends them over the Internet to paying subscribers in 11 cities. |
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Lawyer: Evaluate stabbing suspect's mental health
Topics in Legal News |
2014/04/15 14:18
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The attorney for a 16-year-old accused of stabbing 21 other students and a security guard at their high school said Thursday he wants to have a mental health expert evaluate the boy and hopes to have the case moved to juvenile court.
For now, Alex Hribal is charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and a weapons charge, and is being held without bond in the Westmoreland County juvenile detention center.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," attorney Patrick Thomassey acknowledged that his client stabbed the victims, and said any defense he offers will likely be based on the boy's psychological state, which he hopes to have an expert evaluate soon.
"I would assume so, yes, depending on what the mental health experts tell me," Thomassey said.
He said that, under Pennsylvania law, he will have to convince a judge that Hribal can be rehabilitated in juvenile court, which would have jurisdiction over him until he's 21. If convicted as an adult, Hribal faces likely decades in prison.
The attorney told several media outlets that Hribal was remorseful, though he acknowledged his client did not appear to appreciate the gravity of his actions. Thomassey said he is still getting to know his client, saying he spoke with Hribal only for about 20 minutes before his arraignment late Wednesday. |
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Egypt court sentences 528 Morsi supporters to death
Topics in Legal News |
2014/03/24 14:19
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A court in southern Egyptian has convicted 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, sentencing them to death on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police.
The court in Minya issued its ruling on Monday after only two sessions in which the defendants' lawyers complained they had no chance to present their case.
Those convicted are part of a group of 545 defendants on trial for the killing of a police officer, attempted killing of two others, attacking a police station and other acts of violence.
More than 150 suspects stood trial, the others were tried in absentia. Sixteen were acquitted.
The defendants were arrested after violent demonstrations that were a backlash for the police crackdown in August on pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo that killed hundreds of people. |
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