Free Republic

ROME - Italy's highest court ruled Friday that a man who raped the 14-year-old daughter of his girlfriend can seek to have his sentenced reduced because the girl was sexually active, news reports said. The ruling provoked an outcry across Italy, was condemned by UNICEF and prompted other justices on the court to issue a statement saying the ruling was wrong and in the future would be cited as a bad example of a high court decision, the ANSA news agency reported. The case goes back to 2001, when a court in Sardinia convicted Marco T. of sexual violence and...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A federal judge is considering whether to block a murderer and rapist's Feb. 21 execution to provide enough time to determine whether lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. "People's confidence and integrity in the process might be assisted in having some kind of evidentiary proceeding," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said Thursday from the bench after an 80-minute hearing. He said he would rule by Tuesday. Lawyers for Michael Morales asked Fogel to block the looming execution amid claims lethal injection violates the Eighth Amendment. Morales, 46, was condemned for raping and murdering a...

Jonesboro, Ark. -- A federal judge heard arguments Monday over whether a vast irrigation project intended to help farmers in eastern Arkansas will harm the rare ivory-billed woodpecker. U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson was asked by environmentalists to temporarily stop the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project and order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct more environmental studies on the bird's habitat. The judge said he would rule as soon as possible and might have a telephone conference with the lawyers before making a decision. Work began on the $320 million project last summer with construction of a pump...

HONOLULU -- A federal judge has denied the Army's request to resume live-fire training exercises in a valley that Native Hawaiians consider sacred. The Army wanted to modify a 2001 settlement with the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and a cultural preservation group so it could resume training at Makua Valley on Oahu before thousands of Hawaii-based soldiers deploy to Iraq this summer. U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled Thursday that the Army has other training areas in California and Hawaii that it can use instead. She said the proposed training in the Makua Valley was likely to degrade biological,...

Wednesday, Sen. Ophelia Ford was in a federal courtroom in Memphis fighting to keep her State Senate seat, but even though only three senators were subpoena to be there, more than half of the State Senate showed up in Memphis. The judge said she would make a final decision by Wednesday of next week, and until then senators can not void the election of Sen. Ford. Senators were supposed to be debating an ethics bill on Wednesday, but all 17 senatos who voted to void the election went to support their colleagues in Memphis. 16 Republicans and one Democrat went...

NASHVILLE – A federal court judge in Memphis late Wednesday blocked a planned Senate vote Thursday to overturn the Senate District 29 election and expel Sen. Ophelia Ford. After a 50-minute hearing, U.S. Dist. Court Judge Bernice Donald issued a temporary restraining order barring the state Senate from taking any action to overturn the Sept. 15 special election that Ford won by 13 votes. She set a full hearing for Jan. 25. The Senate was all but certain to vote Thursday morning to void the election and remove Ford from the District 29 seat. Acting as a "committee of the...

Seattle -- A federal judge who struck down a Bush administration decision to ease logging restrictions last summer issued an injunction Monday blocking as many as 144 timber sales in three states. The sales in Washington, Oregon and northern California had been approved under the administration's decision to stop requiring that the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management look for and protect rare plants and animals before logging on 5.5 million acres covered by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. The Bush administration eliminated the so-called "survey and manage" rule in spring 2004 as part of a legal settlement with...

BRIGHTON -- An Adams County judge sentenced a convicted murderer this morning to life in prison without parole after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled his death sentence was unconstitutional. Robert Harlan was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering 25-year-old Rhonda Maloney and paralyzing a Good Samaritan who tried to come to her aid, Jacquie Creazzo, 11 years ago. In March, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the 41-year-old’s death sentence because jurors consulted the Bible during sentencing. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with that decision, preventing prosecutors from seeking the death penalty again. Kerri Gemeinhardt, Maloney's sister, said she is unhappy...

Federal judge grants voter ID injunction A federal judge in Rome, Ga., today issued an order suspending a new state law requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls for the upcoming November municipal elections throughout Georgia. U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy granted the injunction to lawyers for Common Cause of Georgia, the ACLU, the NAACP and other groups who challenged the law that requires Georgians to purchase a state-issued photo identification before voting.

WASHINGTON - A Texas prosecutor has subpoenaed outgoing and incoming calls for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's home phone number.  More details to come.

Judge denies media request for felons' names Elliot Jaspin - Staff Thursday, September 29, 2005 Washington --- The "privacy interests" of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of felonies in the United States would be compromised if the government released their names and other identifying information, a federal judge has ruled. Citing court rulings and federal laws aimed at protecting individuals from unwarranted embarrassment or injury, Judge Richard Leon on Tuesday rejected a request from the Washington bureau of Cox Newspapers to release the names of illegal immigrants who are being held, or have been, in U.S. jails. These names...

Maybe Ronnie Earle has the goods on Tom DeLay and maybe not. I'm perfectly content to let a jury consider the evidence and decide. But if a jury does convict DeLay, I'm proposing a new nickname for the man who was, until Wednesday, one of the most powerful figures in national politics. Forget "The Hammer." He will be "Scarface." As in Al Capone. The connection? Capone was a monumental tough guy who ran gambling, prostitution, protection, bootlegging and other rackets in Chicago — only to be brought down on lower level charges that he cheated on his income taxes. DeLay...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge halted the Bush administration's bid to keep logging 2,000 acres in Giant Sequoia National Monument, saying he "called into question" the scientific analysis used to justify cutting in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world's largest trees. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, also questioned whether fire control was the government's real motive for allowing commercial logging in the monument. The so-called "Saddle Project" was approved years ago, but cutting only commenced this summer, when timber prices were high. Click here for more... The government, Breyer...

MIAMI, (AP) -- A federal appeals court threw out the convictions and life sentences of five accused Cuban spies Tuesday, ruling that they did not receive a fair trial because of community prejudice and extensive publicity. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered a new trial after agreeing with the arguments of defense attorneys about the 2001 convictions. None of the jurors was Cuban, but the defense argued that prejudice against Fidel Castro and his communist government runs high in Miami. Federal prosecutors had no immediate comment on the court's decision. Also overturned...

LINCOLN, Neb. - Union Pacific Railroad discriminated against women by not covering contraceptives in its health care plan, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp ruled in a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company discriminated by providing a range of preventive health benefits - including impotence drugs - but no contraceptive care. The policy is discriminatory "because it treats medical care women need to prevent pregnancy less favorably than it treats medical care needed to prevent other medical conditions that are no greater threat to employees' health than is pregnancy," the judge wrote. Union Pacific spokesman...

PIERRE, S.D. - A federal judge on Thursday blocked a South Dakota abortion law from taking effect, tentatively ruling that the statute is an unconstitutional violation of doctors' free speech. The law would have required abortion doctors, starting Friday, to tell women that abortion ends the lives of "human beings" and poses medical and psychological risks.U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier of Rapid City ruled that Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, which sued the state, has shown it has a good chance of prevailing in court."The South Dakota statute requires abortion doctors to enunciate the state's viewpoint...

NEWARK, N.J. -- From the moment they held hands, pledged their love and signed documents in New York registering themselves as domestic partners, Kimberly Robinson and Jeanne LoCicero considered themselves a family. And when they decided to have a baby through artificial insemination, the Essex County couple wanted the courts to consider them one as well. On Wednesday, they got their wish. In a first-of-its kind ruling in New Jersey, a judge granted LoCicero full co-parenting rights to the baby Robinson bore, without having to go through lengthy adoption proceedings. Thus, they will both be listed as parents on the...

To: Florida House of Representatives Whereas the Florida Constitution Article III Section 17 provides for the impeachment of judges for misdemeanor in office, misdemeanor being defined as a misdeed or offense less than a felony. Whereas Judge George W. Greer is a judge in the 6th circuit court of Florida and bound to rule in agreement with Florida Statutes and the Judicial Code of Ethics, The undersigned are petitioning Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and the Florida House of Representatives to impeach Judge George W. Greer pursuant to the provisions in the Florida Constitution for the following violations of Statutes...

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge on Wednesday refused to reconsider her decision to toss out charges against Katrina Leung, a Chinese-American business woman accused of accessing and copying classified FBI documents. Prosecutors alleged Katrina Leung, 50, took classified documents from the briefcase of her longtime FBI handler James J. Smith, with whom she was having an affair. They accused her of secretly working for the Chinese government but never charged her with giving the documents to a foreign government. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper dismissed the case in January, stating that prosecutors engaged in misconduct by keeping Smith -...

Nonaresa Montgomery was found guilty by a jury late today of perjury in a trial in St. Louis Circuit Court in the St. Louis vote fraud trial. She was found not guilty of evidence tampering. Judge David Mason gave her a two-year suspended prison sentence in an agreement that waived a jury recommendation of ger penalty. The judge added conditions that included community service work in which she would help young people understand how to properly register to vote... ... On tape, Montgomery admitted taking from 1,000 to 1,200 voter registrations to the St. Louis Board of Elections on Feb....