|
|
|
Mississippi man freed months after court rules racial bias
Legal Line News |
2019/12/14 08:53
|
A Mississippi man whose murder conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court for racial bias was released from custody Monday for the first time in 22 years.
Curtis Flowers walked out of the regional jail in the central town of Louisville hours after a judge set his bond at $250,000. A person who wanted to remain anonymous posted $25,000, the 10% needed to secure Flowers’ release, said his attorney Rob McDuff.
At the bond hearing earlier Monday in the city of Winona, Circuit Judge Joseph Loper ordered Flowers to wear an electronic monitor while waiting for the district attorney’s office to decide whether to try him a seventh time or drop the charges. Flowers also must check in once a week with a court clerk, McDuff said. He said attorneys would file papers asking the judge to dismiss the charges.
Flowers was accompanied from the jail Monday by his attorneys and two sisters, Priscilla Ward and Charita Baskin. The siblings said they were going home to fry some fish for dinner and hang out together.
“It’s been rough,” Flowers said. “Taking it one day at a time, keeping God first ? that’s how I got through it.”
When asked another question, Flowers sighed, smiled and tossed his hands in the air. “I’m so excited right now, I can’t even think straight,” he said with a laugh.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Justices to take up dispute over subpoenas for Trump records
Legal Line News |
2019/12/08 08:54
|
The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear President Donald Trump’s pleas to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major confrontation between the president and Congress that also could affect the 2020 presidential campaign.
Arguments will take place in late March, and the justices are poised to issue decisions in June as Trump is campaigning for a second term. Rulings against the president could result in the quick release of personal financial information that Trump has sought strenuously to keep private. The court also will decide whether the Manhattan district attorney can obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
The subpoenas are separate from the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Trump, headed for a vote in the full House next week. Indeed, it’s almost certain the court won’t hear the cases until after a Senate trial over whether to remove Trump has ended.
Trump sued to prevent banks and accounting firms from complying with subpoenas for his records from three committees of the House of Representatives and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
In three separate cases, he has so far lost at every step, but the records have not been turned over pending a final court ruling. Now it will be up to a court that includes two Trump appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, to decide in a case with significant implications reagrding a president’s power to refuse a formal request from Congress.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nebraska high court rejects Omaha serial rapist’s appeal
Legal Line News |
2019/11/08 13:27
|
The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the convictions and the up to 200-year prison sentence for an Omaha serial rapist.
On Friday, the high court rejected 43-year-old Brandon Weathers’ arguments that his trial lawyer was ineffective and that his constitutional rights had been violated with state authorities collected his DNA against his will after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a child. That DNA collection linked him to the rapes of four other women in Omaha between 2002 and 2004.
Weathers was found guilty last year of four counts of first-degree sexual assault in those rapes and was sentenced to 160 to 200 years in prison. He was already serving a 50- to 80-year sentence years for raping a 13-year-old girl.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court opens way to send ex-Mozambique minister to US trial
Legal Line News |
2019/10/26 10:08
|
Former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang faces the prospect of being extradited to the United States to face trial after a South African court on Friday ruled against him being sent to his home country.
Chang's fate is now with South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola after the court set aside his predecessor's decision to extradite him to Mozambique. Lamola has asserted that the southern African nation has not shown seriousness in prosecuting him.
Chang was arrested in South Africa last year on the request of the U.S. government in relation to the scandal involving $2 billion worth of secret loans guaranteed by Mozambique's government during his tenure from 2005 to 2015.
Companies set up by Mozambique's secret services and defense ministry borrowed the $2 billion in secret to set up maritime projects that never materialized but allegedly enriched a range of local and foreign players.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legal Marketing News RSS
