A court has overturned a decision granting a new trial to a convicted rapist who claimed his rights were violated when a poem written by the victim was kept out of evidence during trial in Wayne County.

The poem expressing regret about alcohol and sex was written before the woman's encounter with Dustin Wiecek in 1999.

A federal judge says the exclusion hurt Wiecek's ability to fully confront his accuser at trial about her personal life. But a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday disagreed, saying Wiecek's lawyer had much opportunity to challenge the woman's credibility.

Wiecek was accused of using GHB, known as a date-rape drug. He's already served 41 months in prison, more than the minimum sentence. He's been free on bond since fall 2009.

The Supreme Court appears unlikely to rule that delinquent parents must be given a lawyer before judges can jail them for not paying child support.

Several justices said Wednesday they were troubled by the case of a South Carolina father who was repeatedly jailed even though he insisted he could not afford payments of $50 a week. But the court sounded reluctant about extending the right to a taxpayer-provided lawyer that exists in criminal cases to civil proceedings where a person faces jail time.

Justice Elena Kagan was among those who wondered whether there are procedures short of a court-appointed lawyer that would give a "person in this situation a fair shake at this."

A law firm spokeswoman says former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who worked for peace in Bosnia and the Mideast in the Clinton administration, has died in Los Angeles.

Spokeswoman Sonja Steptoe from law firm O'Melveny & Myers where Christopher was a senior partner says he died at his home Friday night of complications from bladder and kidney cancer. He was 85.

As he prepared to step down in as secretary of state in 1996, he said his proudest accomplishments included helping promote a ban on nuclear weapons tests.

He also tried to foster peace in the Middle East, without much success. He was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia.

A judge has denied a court-appointed attorney for a Texas man accused of torturing a woman for two weeks on a device used for skinning deer.

The judge said Monday during Jeffrey Allan Maxwell's initial court appearance that the 58-year-old wasn't indigent because he had listed his net worth as about $200,000.

Maxwell told state District Judge Trey Loftin that he didn't have access to most of his assets and hadn't contacted an attorney. Loftin urged Maxwell to hire one.

Maxwell remains jailed in Parker County on aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges.

Authorities say he abducted his former neighbor from her Parker County home and drove some 100 miles to his Corsicana house. He was arrested there March 12 and the woman was rescued.

The Supreme Court won't get involved in a fight between Eminem's former production company and Universal Music Group over downloads of the rapper's songs and ringtones.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Universal Music Group.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said F.B.T. Productions LLC's contract entitled Eminem and his producers to a 50-50 split with Universal for recordings licensed to digital distributors such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

The record label had paid F.B.T. and Eminem 12 percent of sales, the agreed-upon rate for physical albums.

F.B.T. discovered Eminem in 1995 before he signed in 1998 with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records. Universal's Interscope Records distributes Aftermath recordings.

A California appeals court has sided with environmentalists in a decision that blames Los Angeles County and its flood control district for sending polluted runoff into the Pacific Ocean.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the county is responsible for the heavily polluted storm water flowing untreated each year down the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper environmental groups say the ruling is a turning point in the battle for clean water. Council attorney Aaron Colangelo says the county must now eliminate the flow of pollutants.

The Los Angeles Times says the Flood Control District argued its channels were simply conduits for upstream polluters, but the court says the district controls the flow to the ocean.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the state's price-gouging law.

The justices Thursday unanimously overturned a Winston County judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutionally vague.

Chancellor J. Max Kilpatrick's ruling came in 2008 as he rejected Attorney General Jim Hood's lawsuit accusing a Mississippi oil company of charging too much for fuel after Hurricane Katrina. Kilpatrick has since retired from the bench.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to Winston County to determine if Fair Oil Co. in Louisville violated the law.

Fair Oil was one of two companies Hood sued in 2007. The lawsuit, which represents only one side of a legal argument, accused the company of gouging consumers after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.