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Suspect's lawyer describes Minn. courthouse attack
Legal News Digest |
2011/12/16 09:36
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In the moments after authorities say a man just convicted in a criminal trial opened fire at a small northern Minnesota courthouse, it was his defense attorney who rushed to the aid of two shooting victims.
John Lillie III described a chaotic scene Thursday just minutes after his client, Daniel Schlienz, was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Authorities have identified Schlienz, 42, as the man who shot the prosecutor who handled his case and another man.
In an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Lillie said he was speaking to Schlienz's mother when he heard a shot ring out inside the Cook County courthouse.
Lillie said he followed a man's pleas for help and found Gregory Thompson, of Grand Marais, wounded. He dragged Thompson outside, then re-entered the courthouse to warn workers. Lillie said he heard two more shots on the second floor and ran up to find Tim Scannell, the county prosecutor, bleeding from three gunshot wounds. |
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Throng of Occupy protesters appear in NY courts
Law News |
2011/12/15 13:03
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Nearly 200 people arrested during Occupy Wall Street-related protests were in New York courtrooms hundreds of miles apart Wednesday, answering charges that stemmed from a march on the Brooklyn Bridge and a demonstration in a Rochester park.
In Manhattan, arraignments were under way for 166 people, most of them among the more than 700 picked up in an Oct. 1 march that marked the biggest mass arrest of the New York protest so far. Hundreds of other protesters arrested on the bridge and during other Occupy demonstrations in the city have already been to court, but this week's numbers are some of the biggest.
Meanwhile, 28 Occupy Wall Street supporters were set to appear in a Rochester court on charges of trespassing by staying in a park past its curfew.
Some wearing their Occupy Wall Street allegiance on buttons — and in one case, a hand-painted oxford shirt — lined hallways and an overflow courtroom in a Manhattan courthouse that handles low-level offenses. Many had been arrested on the bridge after police said protesters ignored warnings not to leave a pedestrian path and go onto the roadway.
The demonstrators were generally charged with disorderly conduct and blocking traffic, both violations. Many took a judge's offer Wednesday to get their cases dismissed if they avoid getting arrested again for six months. |
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Wisconsin court accepts wind farm challenge
Legal News Digest |
2011/12/15 11:36
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The state Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Wisconsin regulators properly approved a huge wind farm in southern Minnesota.
Regulators in Wisconsin and Minnesota gave Wisconsin Power amp; Light permission in 2009 to build the $450 million farm just north of Albert Lea.
Two Wisconsin groups representing energy consumers contend the Wisconsin Public Service Commission should have applied stiffer approval criteria to the project. The commission has countered that such standards don't apply to out-of-state facilities.
The 4th District Court of Appeals asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly. Online court records indicate the high court has accepted the case, with the first briefs due in mid-January. |
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Court tells UK to release Pakistani in US custody
Legal Business |
2011/12/14 13:04
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An appeals court issued a landmark ruling Wednesday ordering the British government to free a Pakistani detainee who has been held in U.S. custody for nearly eight years without charge.
It was unclear whether Yunus Rahmatullah would be released as required, however, because the U.S. government is not bound by the ruling. It announced that it was reviewing the ruling.
Britain has seven days to produce Yunus Rahmatullah, who is being held by American forces in Afghanistan, according to the Appeals Court's ruling.
Although Rahmatullah, 29, is not a British national, the UK-legal charity Reprieve filed a habeas corpus petition claiming that his detention lacked sufficient cause or evidence, and that British forces violated international law when they rendered him to U.S. custody.
British forces in Iraq seized Rahmatullah in 2004, but then handed him over to the Americans who sent him to the U.S. Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan — a sprawling base that includes the Parwan detention facility where some 1,900 detainees are being held.
Wednesday's ruling marks one of the first times that a habeas corpus petition has been successful for a detainee at the U.S. base. It puts the United States and Britain in an awkward position — Britain is bound by the ruling, but the United States is not because the decision was handed down by a foreign court. |
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Egyptian military court jails blogger for 2 years
Legal Business |
2011/12/14 13:03
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An Egyptian military court has sentenced a political activist to two years in prison after convicting him of criticizing the armed forces and publishing false information.
Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested in March and sentenced to three years, but the case was appealed and sent for retrial.
Sanad was arrested following posts on his blog comparing the military to the former regime of President Hosni Mubarak, toppled in February by a popular uprising. He also charged he was tortured by military police during an earlier detention.
He is one of 12,000 civilians who have faced military trials this year, a practice critics say deprives the accused of their rights.
Amnesty International considers Sanad a prisoner of conscience, and the U.S. has expressed concern about his detention. |
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