The state Supreme Court ruled on Friday that possession of more than 8 pounds of marijuana is a serious enough charge to warrant forcing medication on a defendant so he is competent to stand trial.

The high court's 7-0 ruling came in the case of 30-year-old Christopher Seekins of Torrington, who authorities say has been ruled incompetent to stand trial because he refuses to take psychotropic medication for bipolar disorder. Justices upheld a lower court judge's order to medicate Seekins against his will.

State law says a defendant can be involuntarily medicated if the crime is serious enough and there is an overriding law enforcement interest in determining whether the defendant is innocent or guilty. Seekins argued that possessing marijuana isn't a serious crime.

Seekins' lawyer, Richard Marquette, declined to comment on the ruling Friday through an employee at his Hamden law firm.

Seekins also made headlines in 2005 when he painted large pictures of marijuana leaves on his Winsted home with the word "hemp" beneath them after being charged with growing marijuana, saying it was in support of legalizing the drug. He later agreed in a plea bargain to remove or cover up the paintings, which caused a ruckus in town because they were visible from busy Main Street.

Justice Richard Palmer, a former prosecutor, wrote in the Supreme Court's ruling that the basis for determining whether a crime is serious is the severity of the sentence it potentially carries. Palmer noted that Seekins faces a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison if convicted of just three of the many charges he faces.

The fate of the largest job bias lawsuit in the nation's history — a claim that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shortchanged women in pay and promotions for many years — hinges on whether the Supreme Court will let the class-action case go to trial.

The court is likely to announce as soon as Monday whether it will hear the retail giant's appeal asserting that a single lawsuit cannot speak for more than 1.5 million employees.

Business lawyers and civil rights advocates are closely following the Wal-Mart case for its implications for class-action litigation.
"This may sound like just a technical, procedural issue, but because of the economics of it, class-action certification is often the most important issue to be decided," said Washington lawyer Roy T. Englert Jr.

If the high court permits the Wal-Mart case to proceed as a class action, it will put enormous pressure on the retailer to settle, he said. The plaintiffs have not specified the damages they would seek, but given the size of the class, it could mount into billions of dollars.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several large corporations have joined with Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, in urging the high court to hear the appeal and to restrict the use of class-action claims.

They argue that it is unfair to permit plaintiffs' lawyers to lump together many thousands of employees from stores spread across the country and to rely on statistics to prove illegal discrimination.

An industrial espionage trial between Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, two of the world's biggest business software makers, ended Friday without the testimony of one of its most anticipated witnesses.

The evidence part of the three-week trial wrapped up Friday without an in-person appearance by the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., Leo Apotheker, and without Oracle playing a videotaped deposition he gave.

The cat-and-mouse game of Oracle trying to force Apotheker to testify, and HP refusing to allow it, has captivated technology watchers and overshadowed Apotheker's start as head of the world's biggest technology company by revenue.

Oracle wanted Apotheker to testify because he was previously SAP's CEO.

But Oracle says that HP refused to accept a subpoena on Apotheker's behalf. HP accused Oracle of harassing Apotheker.

Oracle hired investigators to track down Apotheker, but since he started the HP job Nov. 1, he wasn't spotted close enough to the federal courthouse in Oakland, where the case is being tried, for Oracle to serve him with the subpoena. The subpoena only applies within 100 miles of the courthouse, which includes HP's headquarters in Palo Alto.

HP hasn't disclosed Apotheker's whereabouts. Representatives have

The California Supreme  Court upheld a state law on Monday allowing illegal immigrants who attend high school in California for three years and graduate to pay lower in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities.

The unanimous ruling reverses a lower-court decision siding with opponents of the law who said it unfairly favors illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens who live outside California and are charged much higher out-of-state tuition rates.

The measure, passed by the state legislature in 2001, was challenged in court on behalf of students who are U.S. citizens and claimed they were illegally denied the in-state tuition break carved out for undocumented students.

Nine other states have adopted similar tuition laws, and legal challenges are pending in two of them -- Nebraska and Texas, lawyers for both sides in the California case said.

Kris Kobach, attorney for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which brought the California suit, said Monday's decision was "flawed in numerous ways" and vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kobach, whose group estimates more than 25,000 illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition each year under California's statute, said there was a good chance his side would prevail if the nation's high court agreed to hear the case.

A Massachusetts man accused of killing his wife, two children and mother-in-law pleaded not guilty Thursday to four counts of first-degree murder as a prosecutor described how he left two copies of a letter confessing to the slayings.

Thomas Mortimer IV was arraigned in Woburn Superior Court on Thursday following his indictment last week. He had previously entered not guilty pleas in district court and has been held without bail since his arrest following the killings in June.

Mortimer frowned as he listened to a clerk read an indictment charging him in the murders of his wife, 41-year-old Laura Stone Mortimer, mother-in-law, 64-year-old Ellen Stone, and two children, 4-year-old Thomas Mortimer V, and 2-year-old Charlotte Mortimer. He did not look at his wife's family members, seated in the front row of the courtroom.

The family was found beaten and stabbed to death in their Winchester home.

District Attorney Gerard Leone has said that the slayings followed a fight and "ongoing marital discord." Leone said there were signs that Mortimer attempted suicide at the home.