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Court to review murder convictions in husband's beating
Law Firm News |
2019/01/01 11:38
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A North Carolina appeals court has scheduled a January hearing for a father and daughter challenging their murder convictions in the beating death of the woman's husband.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on Jan. 31 for Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens' requests to throw out their convictions.
In 2017, Corbett and Martens were convicted of second-degree murder in the beating death of businessman Jason Corbett.
Molly Corbett and Martens, her father and a former FBI agent, both were sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison.
Defense attorneys argued their clients acted in self-defense and feared for their lives during a struggle with the husband. In court papers, prosecutors say those self-defense claims are a "fantasy."
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Del. Man Acquitted of Drug Charges Won't Get Seized Money
Legal Interview |
2018/12/30 15:39
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A court has ruled that a Delaware man acquitted of drug charges won't get the thousands of dollars seized in the drug bust back.
WBOC media partner the Delaware State News reports that the Superior Court ruling issued last week says Jeffrey Crippen isn't entitled to the $13,584 because of the lack of documentation and proof that the money was legitimately earned.
Dover police had searched Crippen's home in 2015. According to the Delaware Department of Justice, Crippen was acquitted of drug charges but sentenced to 10 years in prison for weapons charges.
The court also said that the initial confiscation of the three bundles of cash was allowed based on legitimate probable cause.
Crippen represented himself in the petition case. The report didn't include comment from him. |
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Court: Trump campaign not responsible in gun assault claim
Topics |
2018/12/28 15:39
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A North Carolina appeals court says President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign organization isn't responsible for a state director accused of pointing a loaded pistol against another Trump supporter's knee.
The state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that former campaign worker Vincent Bordini can't revive his lawsuit against the Trump For President organization.
Bordini last year dropped his lawsuit accusing former North Carolina campaign director Earl Phillip of assault with his .45-caliber handgun as the two rode in a vehicle. Phillip said it never happened.
Appeals judges ruled that the Trump campaign couldn't be sued because Phillip was working in 2016 as an independent contractor with minimal direction from higher Trump campaign officials.
Judges said campaign managers hadn't been told of earlier incidents of Phillip erratically waving his gun around people. |
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Mississippi chief justice: Time for another to lead court
Court Watch |
2018/12/26 12:17
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After 21 years on the Mississippi Supreme Court and 10 years as chief justice, Bill Waller Jr. says it's time for someone else to take the helm.
Waller's court has at times questioned problems with forensic evidence, but passed when asked to rule on the legality of Mississippi's cap on punitive damages. He said his biggest regret is not getting a statewide system of county courts.
Gov. Phil Bryant has announced that he will replace Waller with Court of Appeals Chief Judge Kenny Griffis, while Presiding Justice Michael Randolph will become the next leader of the nine-member Supreme Court, based on seniority. The outgoing chief justice, son of the late Gov. Bill Waller Sr., a Democrat who served from 1972 to 1976, said he still might run for governor himself.
Waller came on to the court in a different time, before the new judicial building was started, when most record-keeping was on paper and when a hot political battle was waging over limiting damages on civil lawsuits. Another change has been improvements in how inmates are represented in appeals, with the creation of the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel and then the Office of Indigent Appeals.
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Cancer the latest health woe for resilient Justice Ginsburg
Court Watch |
2018/12/24 12:18
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is resting in a New York hospital following surgery to remove two malignant growths in her left lung, the third time the Supreme Court’s oldest justice has been treated for cancer and her second stay in a hospital in two months.
Worries over Ginsburg’s health have been a constant of sorts for nearly 10 years, and for liberals, particularly in the last two. Ginsburg, the leader of the court’s liberal wing and known to her fans as the Notorious RBG, has achieved an iconic status rare for Supreme Court justices.
If she did step down, President Donald Trump would have another opportunity to move a conservative court even more to the right. “Wishing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a full and speedy recovery!” Trump tweeted after the court’s announcement Friday.
But Ginsburg has always bounced back before, flaunting her physical and mental fitness. After past health scares, she has resumed the exercise routine popularized in a book written by her personal trainer and captured in a Stephen Colbert video. Weeks after cracking three ribs in a fall at the Supreme Court in November, the 85-year-old Ginsburg was asking questions at high court arguments, speaking at a naturalization ceremony for new citizens and being interviewed at screenings of the new movie about her, “On the Basis of Sex.”
Ginsburg will remain in the hospital for a few days, the court said. She has never missed arguments in more than 25 years as a justice. The court next meets on Jan. 7.
While it’s hard to refer to good luck and cancer diagnoses in the same breath, this is the second time for Ginsburg that cancerous growths have been detected at an apparently early stage through unrelated medical tests.
The nodules on her lung were found during X-rays and other tests Ginsburg had after she fractured ribs in a fall in her Supreme Court office on Nov. 7, the court said. In 2009, routine follow-up screening after Ginsburg’s colorectal cancer 10 years earlier detected a lesion on her pancreas. Doctors operated and removed the growth they’d previously spotted, plus a smaller one they hadn’t seen before. The larger growth was benign, while the smaller one was malignant.
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Fight over report on Wynn allegations back in court Jan. 4
Headline News |
2018/12/22 12:20
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The fight over a Massachusetts Gaming Commission report on allegations of sexual misconduct against former casino mogul Steve Wynn will be back in a Nevada courtroom next month.
Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez on Thursday set a Jan. 4 court hearing on whether to extend an order blocking the report's release. It details an investigation into how Wynn Resorts handled the allegations and could affect whether the company keeps a gambling license for a $2 billion casino and hotel set to open near Boston in June.
Wynn has denied allegations of misconduct and sued last month to keep the report from going public. He argued that it contains confidential information obtained from his attorneys, which is protected by attorney-client privilege.
Wynn resigned from his company in February, and his name has been stripped from the new casino. It is now called Encore Boston Harbor.
Wynn Resorts attorney Patrick Byrne said Thursday that the company supports the investigation and is cooperating with Massachusetts regulators.
Ahead of the January hearing, Wynn's attorneys are negotiating with Wynn Resorts and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over what interviews and documents his lawyers can review to determine if they're privileged.
The Nevada judge is expected to rule on areas where the attorneys can't agree.
The gaming commission's attorney, Michael Rawlins, questioned how much access Wynn should be given and whether the ex-mogul's lawyers would seek to review even more elements of the unpublished report.
Rawlins said in court Thursday that the commission wants to move forward quickly but "we do not want to open the investigative files of a law enforcement agency to the curious eyes of the person whose behavior is the subject of the investigation."
Judge Gonzalez said she understood why the commission was reluctant to share its information but that some documents needed to be disclosed to determine whether Wynn's attorney-client privilege was violated.
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