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Split Supreme Court Orders Review Of Death Row Inmate's Claims That Witnesses Recanted Testimony
Legal Topics |
2009/08/18 16:15
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According to the Fulton County Daily Report, the case of Troy Anthony Davis took another extraordinary turn on Monday as the US Supreme Court ordered a federal district judge to hear testimony on the death row inmate's claims that he did not murder a Savannah, Ga., police officer.
Justice Antonin Scalia said in a dissent that the high court hadn't made a similar move in nearly 50 years.
The decision was welcomed by supporters of Davis, who for years have claimed that prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony from the 1991 trial in which a jury condemned Davis to die for the 1989 killing of Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
Georgia Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker, whose office has fought Davis' efforts to gain relief, issued a measured response to the ruling, saying simply that he hoped the hearing would resolve doubts about the case. |
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Bogus 'Emergency' In Forest, Groups Say
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/17 16:23
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Courthouse News reports that the US Forest Service declared a bogus "emergency situation" to push through a salvage timber sale in Northern California's Klamath National Forest, three environmental groups say in Federal Court. The Forest Service can declare an emergency when a project threatens imminent economic loss to the government, but the only ones who will lose if this project doesn't proceed is a private, third-party timber auction bidder, the groups say.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act, instead of the inaccurate and incomplete environmental analysis the Forest Service prepared, it needs to complete a more comprehensive environmental impact statement that also considers cumulative impacts and a full range of alternatives, the groups say.
Joining the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center as plaintiffs are the Environmental Protection Information Center and the Klamath Forest Alliance.
Represented by René Voss of San Anselmo, the groups seek withdrawal of the faulty environmental assessment, want the "emergency situation" to be set aside, and injunctive relief. |
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Redbox Says Fox Is Trying to Kill It
Legal Topics |
2009/08/14 16:11
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Courthouse News reports that Redbox, the DVD kiosk rental giant, says Twentieth Century Fox is trying to kill its business by cutting off the supply of DVDs because Redbox refused to agree to a 30-day "blackout period," during which it will withhold new releases. In its antitrust complaint in Delaware Federal Court, Redbox claims Fox is conducting an illegal boycott in restraint of trade.
Redbox says Fox ordered its distributors, Ingram Entertainment and Video Product Distribution, to cut Redbox off.
In remarkably self-serving language written in high dudgeon, Redbox cites "tough economic times," during which "people simply need some form of release from their financial pressures, even if just for a couple of hours." Redbox says it provides this through its cheap movies, but Fox demands a "business-killing blackout period ... during which consumers would be allowed to procure these DVDs only through more expensive channels ... despite the fact that consumers are being battered by one of the toughest economic recessions in history." |
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Texas Judge Orders Microsoft To Stop Selling Word In The US
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/13 16:39
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Courthouse News reports a federal judge in Texas fined Microsoft $290 million and ordered it to stop selling Word in the United States, because the word-processing software violates a patent held by a small company called i4i. Toronto-based i4i, which has about 30 employees, said Microsoft violated a patent tied to Extensible Markup Language or XML, a special alphabet that allows computers to interpret text.
The Canadian company filed a patent for a "customized XML" tool in 1998.
Because Word 2003 and Word 2007 have the ability to process XML documents with custom XML elements, i4i accused Microsoft of patent infringement. Microsoft insisted the patent was invalid.
In May, a jury ruled for i4i and awarded it $200 million in damages.
Microsoft moved for judgment despite the verdict, but US District Judge Leonard Davis in Tyler, Texas, sided with i4i, saying Microsoft knowingly infringed on the smaller company's patent. |
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Top Madoff Aid Pleads Guilty
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/12 18:57
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According to the New York Law Journal, Bernard L. Madoff's right-hand man pleaded guilty Tuesday and is cooperating in the government's investigation into the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Frank DiPascali Jr. waived indictment and entered guilty pleas to 10 counts in a criminal information before Southern District of New York Judge Richard J. Sullivan. DiPascali admitted he was part of a scheme that cost institutions, individual investors and charities billions of dollars.
In spite of his cooperation with the government and over the objections of both his defense counsel and the prosecution, Sullivan ordered DiPascali to jail immediately.
DiPascali, who began working for Madoff in 1975 and who was described as the company's chief financial officer, said the conspiracy dated back to the early 1980s and that he followed Madoff's lead from the outset. |
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Class Claims Insurers Cancel Just As Hurricane Season Begins
Legal Topics |
2009/08/11 16:27
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According to Courthouse News, a class action claims Texas insurance companies collect premiums for storm coverage from November through May - when there's no risk of hurricanes - then cancel policies by the thousand just before hurricane season begins. Unitrin, an insurance holding company, allegedly canceled 40 percent of one of its subsidiaries' policies before this year's hurricane season began.
Plaintiffs claim the scheme allows Unitrin and its creatures to fix prices and charge for insurance without providing it. Unitrin has been doing this since 2006, according to the complaint in Jefferson County Court.
When the 2007 hurricane season was predicted to be a big one, the defendants canceled many "hurricane" policies, the class claims. After Hurricane Ike in 2008, Unitrin and its Capitol County subsidiary collected hurricane premiums from policyholders as long as possible, then canceled more than 40 percent of residential policies before the 2009 hurricane season started, according to the complaint.
Such cancellations require the defendants to return unearned premiums, but Unitrin is ducking that by calling its cancellations "non-renewals," the class claims. |
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Watchdogs Sue Kellogg's Over Cereal Ads
Legal Topics |
2009/08/10 20:53
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According to Courthouse News, Kellogg falsely advertises that its Frosted Mini-Wheat cereal "improved children's attentiveness by 20 percent," the National Consumers League claims in Superior Court. The nonprofit Consumers League claims Kellogg's "study" compared kids who ate its sugared cereal with children who did not eat breakfast at all - and even then, juggled the numbers.
The Consumers League claims the breakfast cereal giant's "clinical study" actually found that only one out of nine children who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast was more attentive by 20 percent.
"In fact, kids in the clinical study who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats had an average of 10.6 percent better attentiveness three hours later than kids who had skipped breakfast," the complaint states. "Indeed, relatively few kids - only approximately one in nine -experienced 20 percent improved attentiveness in the study, and only one in seven kids who ate the cereal improved their attentiveness by 18 percent."
The National Consumers League seeks damages of $1,500 per violation of the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act, plus costs. |
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