Thứ Tư, 6 tháng 3, 2013

Prosecutors in Colorado theater-shooting case say insanity defense law constitutional


DENVER (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the case against accused Colorado movie theater gunman James Holmes urged a judge to reject a defense motion to declare the state's insanity defense lawunconstitutional, court filings released on Wednesday show.
Last week, attorneys for Holmes asked Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester to declare Colorado's insanity defense law unconstitutional because it compels defendants who enter insanity pleas to cooperate with court-appointed psychiatrists.
That scenario could force Holmes to provide potentially incriminating statements that could be used against him not only at trial but in sentencing should he be convicted, defense lawyers argued.
Prosecutors countered, in their response made public on Wednesday, that federal and state courts had both upheld the legality of laws that require those who raise an insanity defense to submit to mental-health examinations, because there are other remedies available to preserve a defendant's rights.
"It is well established law in Colorado that submitting to court ordered evaluation does not violate a defendant's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination," the prosecution motion said.
Holmes, 25, is scheduled to enter a plea next week, but the flurry of pleadings in the case puts that date in doubt.
He is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for a shooting spree last July in which 12 moviegoers were killed and 58 others wounded during a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado.
Holmes, a former University of Colorado neuroscience graduate student, was bound over for trial in January after a three-day preliminary hearing in which prosecutors presented evidence that the California native spent months plotting the mass killing.
Prosecutors have 60 days after a plea is entered to announce whether they will seek the death penalty.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler said last month that he had added a death penalty lawyer to the prosecution team, indicating he was considering going after capital punishment in the case.
Legal analyst Craig Silverman, who has followed the case closely, said defense lawyers would put out scores of motions hoping that an appellate issue would surface that could keep their client off death row.
"These motions are all mini-insurance policies in case there is a death penalty verdict," said Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor. "But there's no guarantee that any of them will work."
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Cooney)
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Oregon man charged with helping in Pakistan bombing granted bond


PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday granted bond to an Oregon man charged with conspiracy to provide material support to one of three Islamist militants who carried out a 2009 suicide bombing in Pakistan.
Reaz Khan, a 48-year-old wastewater treatment plant operator for the city of Portland, was arrested on Tuesday on an indictment charging him with providing advice and funds to a suicide bomber who participated in an attack in Lahore, Pakistan, in May 2009 that killed 30 people and injured 300.
Khan, who pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance on Tuesday, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted at trial.
During a bond hearing on Wednesday, federal prosecutors argued that Khan, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Pakistan, should be held without bail because he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.
But U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman granted his release on $25,000 bond, citing his job, family, ties to the community and lack of a criminal record.
Mosman also said that Khan, a married father of three, knew he was under investigation and had retained defense lawyers before his arrest but made no effort to flee despite having cash and valid U.S. and Pakistani passports.
The judge said that before Khan was released he was required to disclose all of his financial assets and submit to home detention with a monitoring device placed on his ankle. Under the conditions set by Mosman, Khan would be permitted to work, go to religious services and see his attorneys.
According to the indictment, Khan used email and intermediaries to consult with and provide financial support to a Maldivian national named Ali Jaleel and his family, making it possible for Jaleel to attend a training camp in Pakistan in preparation for the bomb attack.
The indictment says the conspiracy began in December 2005 and continued on through the attack on Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Lahore on May 27, 2009, and into the following month.
Jaleel and two others carried out the attack, the indictment says.
The indictment cites instances in which Khan is accused of helping Jaleel with travel arrangements and instructions on how to avoid detection.
The Pakistani government said at the time that the car bomb attack was carried out in apparent revenge for an army offensive against Taliban militants in that nation's northwestern Swat region.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Xavier Briand)
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Storm-affected New York homeowners face repayment pressure: governor


NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state has asked banks to offer homeowners who were allowed to skip mortgage payments in the wake of Superstorm Sandy a relaxed repayment schedule, instead of immediate lump-sum repayments, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.
The Department of Financial Services is reviewing whether banks have delivered on a promise not to start foreclosure proceedings due to late payments in cases where homeowners were heavily affected by the late October storm, Cuomo said.
"Many New Yorkers were hit hard by Superstorm Sandy and couldn't pay their bills due to lost income, home repair expenses, or relocation costs, so banks offered relief to homeowners in the form of forbearance on mortgage payments," Cuomo said in a written statement.
"A homeowner who could come up with three months in mortgage payments all at once probably didn't need forbearance in the first place," he said. "Everyone else needs more time to repay."
Sandy crashed ashore with a record sea surge on October 29, damaging or destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and commercial buildings, mostly in low-lying coastal areas of New York and New Jersey.
Late last year, the state Department of Financial Services obtained assurances that major banks and servicers would offer homeowners who were hard-hit by the storm and struggling to make mortgage payments a three- to six-month window to pay.
With the three-month forbearance period expiring, the department is receiving reports that some homeowners have been asked to make complete lump-sum payments and, in some cases, received pre-foreclosure notices based on having missed payments in the months since the storm.
(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Lisa Shumaker)
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Federal judge strikes down Idaho ban on late-term abortions


SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a 2011 Idaho law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, in a decision believed to mark the first time a court has ruled that such a measure was unconstitutional.
Idaho is one of at least eight states that have enacted late-term abortion prohibitions in recent years based on controversial medical research suggesting that a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation.
Arkansas became the latest to enact adopt a "fetal pain" abortion statute last Thursday when the state Senate voted to join the House of Representatives in overriding a gubernatorial veto of the measure.
On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Arkansas Legislature overrode a separate veto by Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact the most stringent abortion restrictions in the United States - banning the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
That law, the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, will likely take effect in August, if it survives expected legal challenges.
Idaho's measure made it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks unless there was proof the pregnancy endangered the life of the mother.
Wednesday's decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill stemmed from one of the first federal lawsuits challenging such statutes, and it was believed to mark the first time a court has struck down a fetal-pain abortion ban on its merits.
Last August, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a late-term abortion ban in Arizona from being enforced and agreed to an expedited review of that measure in a case that was argued before a three-judge panel in November. A decision is pending.
The Idaho lawsuit was brought in September 2011 by then 33-year-old Jennie Linn McCormack, who according to prosecutors had terminated her own pregnancy at 20 to 21 weeks using abortion pillsshe obtained from an online distributor.
Winmill previously ruled that McCormack had lacked legal standing to seek a temporary restraining order against the "fetal pain" law because she was no longer pregnant and could not demonstrate imminent harm from the statute.
But McCormack's attorney, Richard Hearn, who also is a physician, gained standing to challenge the 20-week cutoff for legal abortions himself.
He also challenged separate Idaho statutes that could penalize a woman if her abortion provider failed to meet state requirements about how and where abortions are performed and a third law that subjects providers to criminal charges under certain conditions.
'ABSOLUTE OBSTACLE'
On Wednesday, Winmill sided with Hearn and McCormack, ruling the statutes in question infringed on a woman's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy under the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Roe v. Wade.
That landmark opinion legalized abortion while allowing states to place restrictions on the procedure from the time a fetus could viably survive outside the womb, except in cases in which a woman's health was otherwise at risk.
A fetus is generally considered viable at 22 to 24 weeks. A full-term pregnancy typically is about 40 weeks.
Referring to Idaho's 20-week abortion ban, Winmill wrote, "Here, an outright ban on abortions at or after 20 weeks' gestation places, not just a substantial obstacle, but an absolute obstacle, in the path of women seeking such abortions."
Winmill also chided the Idaho Legislature for enacting the 20-week abortion ban in the face of an opinion by the Idaho attorney general that strongly suggested the law was unconstitutional under existing court precedents.
Sponsors of the measure had argued that such a restriction was needed in Idaho, although state figures showed that about 1 percent of abortions performed there involved pregnancies at 20 weeks or more.
In another portion of his ruling, Winmill said Idaho's restriction of late-term abortions to those performed in hospitals was unconstitutional because it could effectively limit the use of so-called abortion pills, widely known as RU486, that allow women to end their own pregnancies at home.
"The question is not limited to whether the hospital-only requirement substantially burdens a woman's right to choose a medical abortion in her second trimester. Instead, the question is whether the hospital-only requirement substantially burdens a woman's right to choose any type of second-trimester abortion. The Supreme Court has twice answered this question, 'yes,'" Winmill wrote.
Hearn told Reuters that Winmill's decision marked the first time a federal court found it unconstitutional to subject physicians to criminal prosecution for prescribing medicines like RU486 beyond label recommendations that they be used for ending pregnancies up to just seven weeks of gestation.
Marvin Thomas Richardson, an outspoken anti-abortion activist in Idaho, condemned the court's decision, saying "Federal judges have no business ruling on this," adding, "As soon as sperm meets egg, that's a legal person on Earth."
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman, Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)
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Thứ Ba, 5 tháng 3, 2013

Unpaid bills, pensions loom large in new Illinois budget


SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will unveil a fiscal 2014 budget on Wednesday that will chip away at a huge pile of overdue bills and cut spending to accommodate growing public pension costs, top state officials said on Tuesday.
"The governor's fiscal 2014 budget is balanced, it's honest and it's extremely difficult," Illinois Budget Director Jerry Stermer told reporters at a preview for the $62.4 billion all-funds budget that includes $35.6 billion of general fund spending.
Pension payments totaling $6 billion will consume 19 percent of the general fund, compared to just 6 percent in fiscal 2008. As a result, the Democratic governor's spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 includes projected cuts of about $400 million to education and additional cuts in transportation and state-funded colleges and universities.
"We have to address the pension issue. It's squeezing out other expenditures," said Jack Lavin, Quinn's chief of staff.
Quinn's spending plan would also shrink the bill backlog to $6.8 billion in the coming fiscal year from $8.7 billion at the end of fiscal 2012 while eschewing new fees or taxes. And the governor will propose a way to pay down the bill pile faster in his budget address before the General Assembly on Wednesday, aides said.
Illinois stands alone among states in the scope and way it has institutionalized late payment of bills as a budget-balancing tool. The resulting structural budget imbalance as well as inaction by lawmakers to reduce a $96.8 billion unfunded pension liability have given Illinois the lowest credit ratings among the states.
Stermer said the governor wants the actual costs of programs and their outstanding bills to match up to appropriations - a practice that has not been followed by the legislature.
"The reality is we need to end the budget gimmickry," he said.
The Illinois Constitution's balanced budget requirement only stipulates that expenditures not exceed estimated revenue, leaving the door open to the use of unrealistic revenue assumptions and chronic underfunding of programs to create the illusion of balance.
A tentative agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 will save Illinois more than $900 million in health care costs over the three-year life of the contract by requiring contributions from retirees for the first time, according to Lavin.
But Illinois will also have to come up with about $140 million for unionized workers after the state lost a court battle over wage increases, Lavin said.
(Reporting by Renita D. Young; Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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Defense for woman charged in Arizona killing focuses on guns


PHOENIX (Reuters) - Defense lawyers for a California woman accused of murdering her lover in Arizona scrambled on Tuesday to counter the prosecution's contention that the killing waspremeditated and cast doubt on speculation that she may have stolen a gun from her grandparents to use in the crime.
Jodi Arias could face the death penalty if convicted of murderingTravis Alexander, who was found at his upscale home in the Phoenix suburbs in June 2008 shot in the face, stabbed 27 times and with his throat slashed.
She has said she shot and killed Alexander in self defense with his own pistol, after he attacked her in a rage. The prosecution has said the killing was premeditated, and prosecutor Juan Martinez accused her of bringing the gun with her from California. The gun used in the killing has not been recovered.
On Tuesday, defense attorneys questioned Arias on a redirect, trying to rebuild their self-defense argument after the suspect underwent five days of blistering cross examination in which prosecutors tried to poke holes in her story.
Shortly before the killing, in late May 2008, a .25 caliber handgun - the same caliber of weapon used in Alexander's killing - was stolen along with other items in a robbery from her grandparents' California home. But Arias testified on Tuesday that she became aware of that theft only after the fact.
As defense lawyers tried to show that Arias did not need to steal a gun, she said that at the time of the robbery she would have had access to other guns through family and friends had she needed one.
"Matt had guns, Darryl had a gun ...," she testified, referring to friends. "My father had guns ... My dad had more guns than I was aware of at that time," she said, adding that they included guns her father kept in his bedroom and a room in which he received dialysis.
"You had several guns at your disposal?" defense attorney Kirk Nurmi asked her, to which she replied: "That's right."
ISSUES OF INTENT
Alexander and Arias dated for several months after meeting in the fall of 2006. She has said they split the following year, although Alexander would still invite her to his house for sex.
Arias, whose often lurid testimony about her relations with her former lover has riveted television viewers across the nation, has said she shot her lover in self defense with a gun he kept in his closet. She said he first attacked her when she dropped his camera while taking pictures of him in the shower.
Confronting the issue of whether the killing was premeditated, Nurmi asked Arias on Tuesday if she had gone to Alexander's home with the intention of "leaving him dead in a shower." She replied: "No."
Asked if she ever decided that she wanted to kill Alexander, she said: "No. That was never my thought, that I recall."
Arias previously told the court she has no memory of stabbing Alexander. She did recall tossing the pistol in the desert after the killing.
During cross examination, prosecutor Juan Martinez poked holes in her version of events, showing she lied to friends, family and detectives to cover her tracks after the killing, even going so far as to send Alexander text and email messages as if he were still alive.
Arias testified on Tuesday that she sent the messages as she did not believe at the time of Alexander's death that it was possible to plead self defense.
"Following with the emails and things, I knew what happened was wrong. And my philosophy then is that it's not OK to kill somebody under any circumstance," she said.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston, David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)
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Deadly snowstorm heads for Washington after slamming Midwest


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Washington was due to be hit by heavy, wet snow on Wednesday as a fierce snowstorm headed east after blanketing the Midwestern United States, snarling traffic and causing hundreds of flight cancellations.
The storm was expected to move eastward over the Ohio Valley and then the central Appalachians and mid-Atlantic states on Wednesday, hitting Washington with its biggest snowfall in possibly two years, according to the National Weather Service.
"It will be a wet, heavy, gloppy snow consistent with wallpaper paste," said National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro.
The Washington area was expected to get several inches of snow overnight, with four to six inches accumulating by the end of the day on Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
In Chicago, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through midnight, residents girded for between 4 to 8 inches of snow.
During the evening rush hour, wind-whipped snow fell at a heavy rate throughout the Chicago area, according to the Illinois State Patrol, reducing visibility to less than half a mile and causing delays on roads.
Monique Bond, a spokeswoman with the state patrol, said bad weather may have been a contributing factor in a deadly crash on Interstate Highway 70 in Marshall, Illinois, near the Indiana border.
A female driver headed east on I-70 crossed the median and crashed into a westbound tanker trunk. The driver of the car and her young child died in the accident.
Most of the other weather-related incidents the state patrol responded to on Tuesday were spinouts involving single vehicles, Bond said.
More than six inches of snow fell at O'Hare International Airport, causing 900 flight cancellations, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Southwest Airlines, which canceled nearly 250 flights out of Chicago's Midway Airport, resumed flight operations at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the city aviation department said. But delays of an hour or more were common.
Wisconsin's transportation department listed numerous roads as snow-covered or slippery across southwestern Wisconsin, but no road closings.
Slick roads contributed to numerous crashes and a slow commute in Minnesota. The state's public safety department reported 215 crashes from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, but no fatalities.
Several spots around the Twin Cities area reported nine inches of snow, and driving conditions on highways throughout the area were still listed as "difficult" hours after the storm passed through.
(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis, Jane Sutton in Miami, Ian Simpson in Washington, Edith Honan in New York and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Andrew Hay, Bernard Orr, Philip Barbara and Eric Walsh)
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