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Election judge pleads not guilty in absentee ballot case
Headline Legal News |
2016/11/21 10:13
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An 88-year-old election judge from southern Illinois has pleaded not guilty after allegedly sending in an absentee ballot in her late husband's name.
The (Belleville) News-Democrat reports that Audrey Cook appeared Thursday in Madison County Circuit Court.
Cook, of Alton, told The Associated Press this month that she filled out the ballot for her husband after he died in September because she knew he would want Donald Trump to be president.
She was charged a few days before the Nov. 8 election with two felony counts of election fraud.
Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons has said the ballot was never even opened because a clerk found it had been submitted in the name of a deceased person.
Gibbons also said Cook would be removed as an election judge. |
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Kansas high court justices defend handling of capital cases
Headline Legal News |
2016/11/03 15:11
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Four Kansas Supreme Court justices facing a campaign to oust them in the Nov. 8 election say the court has decided capital murder cases on legal and constitutional issues while avoiding politics and emotion.
Past high court rulings overturning death sentences are at the center of the effort to remove Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and Justices Carol Beier, Dan Biles and Marla Luckert. They face statewide yes-or-no votes on whether they stay on the court for another six years.
The court's critics are particularly upset about July 2014 rulings overturning death sentences for Jonathan and Reginald Carr. The two brothers had faced lethal injection for shooting four people in December 2000 after forcing them to perform sex acts and robbing them. Among other things, the court concluded that fairness required the brothers to be sentenced separately.
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Court fight over Ohio executions likely to focus on sedative
Headline Legal News |
2016/10/13 22:09
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Ohio says it's resuming executions in January with a three-drug protocol similar to one it used for several years.
The concept is one adopted for decades by many states: the first drug sedates inmates, the second paralyzes them, and the third stops their hearts.
The key difference comes with the first drug the state plans to use, midazolam, which has been challenged in court as unreliable.
The state argues that a planned dose of 500 milligrams will ensure that inmates are properly sedated.
Defense attorneys say it's unclear what a much bigger dose would achieve.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that midazolam can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
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Oklahoma Supreme Court invalidates law restricting abortion
Headline Legal News |
2016/10/04 12:13
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The Oklahoma Supreme Court has thrown out another state law that would put new restrictions on abortion providers.
In a unanimous opinion handed down Tuesday, all nine justices agreed that the statute adopted by the Legislature last year "contains different and unrelated purposes" in violation of the Oklahoma constitution's requirement that legislation cover a single subject.
The law encompasses four abortion-related topics: minors and parental consent; tissue preservation; inspection of clinics; and legal liability for abortion providers.
The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the law and the state's highest court subsequently blocked it from going into effect. The center sued on behalf of Dr. Larry Burns of Norman, who performs nearly half of Oklahoma's abortions.
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Appeals court upholds order against Pence on Syrian refugees
Headline Legal News |
2016/10/04 12:13
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A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's order blocking Indiana Gov. Mike Pence from barring state agencies from helping Syrian refugees resettle in the state.
A three-judge panel for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Monday agreed with an injunction a federal judge issued in February. The judge found Pence's directive "clearly discriminates" against refugees from the war-torn nation.
The appeals court says federal law doesn't allow a governor "to deport to other states immigrants he deems dangerous."
Donald Trump's running mate, Pence, was among dozens of governors from mostly Republican states who tried to block Syrian refugees after the Paris terror attacks last November.
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