|
|
|
Hall of Famer Bruce Smith pleads guilty to DUI
Court Watch News |
2010/01/14 04:07
|
| pNFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith pleaded guilty today in Circuit Court to a charge of drunken driving. Prosecutors dropped the charges of speeding and refusing to submit to a blood or breath alcohol test but retained the right to refile them./ppSmith was fined $1,000 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, all of which was suspended. His license was suspended for one year./ppAfter the hearing, Smith said he thought he had a 50/50 chance of beating the DUI charge but then still would have had to face the charge of refusal to take a breath test. “The risk versus the reward was not in our favor,” he said./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Supreme Court reverses Sixth Circuit in federal habeas case
Court Watch News |
2010/01/12 09:37
|
pThe US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously in Smith v. Spisak that the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit contravened the directives of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) by extending Mills v. Marylandnbsp; to resolve in a habeas petitioner's favor questions that were not decided or addressed in Mills. The Sixth Circuit ruled that the jury instructions in defendant John Spisak, Jr's trial violated Mills by requiring unanimity in the finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors. In reversing the decision below, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote:
The Court of Appeals held the sentencing instructions unconstitutional because, in its view, the instructions, taken together with the forms, required juror unanimity as to the presence of a mitigating factor - contrary to this Court's holding in Mills v. Maryland. Since the parties do not dispute that the Ohio courts adjudicated this claim, i.e., they considered and rejected it on the merits, the law permits a federal court to reach a contrary decision only if the state-court decision was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States. Unlike the Court of Appeals, we conclude that Spisak's claim does not satisfy this standard.
/p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smoker’s Lawsuit Results in $300M Verdict Against Tobacco Company
Court Watch News |
2009/11/23 10:11
|
| pIn what is believed to be the largest single plaintiff award to dateagainst a tobacco company, a Florida jury awarded $300 million incompensatory and punitive damages to a former smoker who filed alawsuit against Philip Morris USA over her emphysema. span id=more-7058/span/ppCindy Naugle, 61, was awarded $56.6 million for past and futuremedical expenses, as well as pain and suffering. The jury from BrowardCounty Circuit Court also levied a $244 million punitive damage awardagainst the tobacco company. /ppNaugle, who said that she began smoking in 1968 to make herself lookolder, alleged that she would have never started smoking if she hadknown of the potential health effects. The smoker’s lawsuit claimedthat the tobacco companies knew smoking caused a variety of lungdiseases, but kept those side effects hidden./ppAs a result of smoking for about 25 years, Naugle claimed that shesuffers from emphysema, requires around-the-clock oxygen and isconfined to a wheelchair due to how easily she is winded. The juryfound her to be 10% responsible for her own condition, meaning thatwhile Philip Morris is responsible for all of the punitive damages; itis only responsible for 90% of the compensatory damages./pdiv style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 126px; left: 519px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; z-index: 99999; width: 70px; height: 46px; visibility: hidden id=rank_jit_com_maindiv style=visibility: inherit;table style=border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224) rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; margin: 0pt; padding: 0px; width: 70px; height: 36px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; font-size: 9px; z-index: 200000; border-collapse: separate; visibility: inherit cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0tbodytr style=background-color: transparenttd style=border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 16px; background-color: transparent; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; visibility: inherit;div style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; background-color: transparent /div/tdtd style=border-style: solid none solid solid; border-color: rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224) rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 1px 0px 1px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 20px; height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; visibility: inherit colspan=2 align=centerimg id=rank_jit_pin style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline; cursor: pointer; width: 16px; height: 16px; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: inherit; background-color: transparent; src=http://www.rankjit.com/extension/img/pin.gif/td/trtr style=border-style: solid none none; border-color: rgb(224, 224, 224) -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: white; visibility: inherittd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 9px; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; height: 10px; background-color: white; visibility: inherit; align=centerPage rank/tdtd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Lucida Grande,sans-serif; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; border-spacing: 1px; font-size: 14px; width: 20px; height: 20px; color: white; visibility: inherit rowspan=2 align=center valign=middlediv style=border: 0px none ; margin: 1px; padding: 0px; width: 20px; height: 20px; background-color: rgb(132, 132, 132); visibility: inherit;div id=rank_jit_resultContainer style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: transparent; width: 20px; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; vertical-align: middle; color: white; visibility: inherit; text-align: center5/div/div/td/trtrtd style=border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(224, 224, 224); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 10px; vertical-align: middle; background-color: white; visibility: inherit align=centerdiv style=border: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); margin: 0px 0px 1px 1px; padding: 0px; width: 38px; height: 4px; visibility: inherit;div id=rank_jit_gradientContainer style=border: 0px none ; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 19px; height: 4px; float: left; background-color: rgb(0, 153, 51); visibility: inherit/div/div/td/tr/tbody/table/divdiv style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; overflow: hidden; z-index: 9999; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: absolute; left: auto; top: 39.5px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; visibility: inherit; width: 10px; height: 10px; right: 50pximg style=border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; float: none; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; visibility: inherit; z-index: 99999; src=http://www.rankjit.com/extension/img/pointer.gif/div/div |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fmr. slaughterhouse manager guilty of fraud
Court Watch News |
2009/11/14 09:49
|
| pA jury has found the former manger of a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa guilty on 86 of 91 financial fraud charges./ppThe verdict against Sholom Rubashkin came Thursday evening after a nearly monthlong trial./ppRubashkin was charged with bank, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and ignoring orders to pay cattle providers in the time required by federal law./ppThe charges were linked to Rubashkin's job as a top manager at the former Agriprocessor's plant in Postville, Iowa. He was arrested months after a May 2008 immigration raid there that led to the arrest of 389 workers./p |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
