UCLA to Be Sued Over Sale of Body Parts
By CHRIS T. NGUYEN Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Allegations that some cadavers intended for medical research at UCLA were sawed to pieces and the parts illegally sold for profit has caused at least one donor to change her mind.
Shirley Williams had planned to donate her body to the University of California at Los Angeles after she died, just as her husband had done two years ago.
"It's devastating," said Williams, of Thousand Oaks, whose husband's body was donated after he died from complications of a stroke. "I just find it so difficult that someone would put money higher than the use of these bodies for research."
Relatives of donors sued the university Monday, even as officials apologized and pledged to repair UCLA's cadaver program. UCLA attorney Louis Marlin denied the university knew that donated bodies were being cut up and sold to others.
Sniper Killer Muhammad to Be Sentenced
By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) -- As he prepared to sentence sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad, a judge Tuesday rejected a defense request for a new trial.
Attorneys for Muhammad based their motion on letters that Muhammad's teen-age accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, wrote to another inmate in the Fairfax County jail.
Defense lawyers said they were unaware of the letters before trial and said they show Malvo acted and thought independently and was not under the sway of Muhammad, 43.
Prosecutors said the letters added nothing to the case, and Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. agreed.