National Roundup

Connecticut Trial begins for man in hostage-arson case HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The trial is under way for a Connecticut man charged with kidnapping his ex-wife and holding her hostage for a dozen hours before burning down the home they once shared during a police standoff. Richard Shenkman's trial started on Monday in Hartford Superior Court with the judge reading the charges to the jury. The 62-year-old Shenkman is charged with kidnapping, arson and other crimes in connection with the series of events in 2009. Police say Shenkman kidnapped his ex-wife, attorney Nancy Tyler, and held her hostage at the South Windsor home they once shared. Authorities say Tyler managed to escape without serious injury about an hour before Shenkman surrendered to police as flames engulfed the home. Shenkman has pleaded not guilty His lawyer is expected to pursue a mental-illness defense. Ohio Muslim inmates sue over meal preparation COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A death row inmate says Ohio is denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law -- known as halal (hah-LAWL') -- while at the same time providing kosher meals to Jewish prisoners. Condemned inmate Abdul Awkal (ab-DUHL' AW'-kuhl) says in a lawsuit headed for trial early next year that the state's failure to provide halal meals is a civil rights violation. Awkal says he's entitled to meals prepared in specific fashion, such as meat from animals whose throats were cut to allow blood to drain. The 52-year-old Awkal is scheduled to die in June for killing his estranged wife and brother-in-law in 1992. The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction argues it provides both non-pork and vegetarian meals for Muslims and says the courts have sided with this practice. South Carolina State high court upholds death pe nalty for torture COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The South Carolina Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a childhood friend during 36 hours of torture. The state's high court ruled Monday that the conviction and death sentence of William Dickerson were warranted. Dickerson was convicted in 2009 of first degree murder, kidnapping, and criminal sexual conduct in the 2006 death of 29-year-old Gerard Roper in a Charleston County apartment. Authorities said Dickerson wrongly thought Roper was the man in a video having sex with his girlfriend. Evidence shows no single injury killed Roper. He received more than 200 wounds. He was chocked, tied up, sodomized with a gun and broomstick, burned, and repeatedly hit. Prosecutors say Dickerson called his girlfriend and others during the torture to discuss what he was doing. New York Lawyers seek do cs on NYPD unit that eyed Muslims WASHINGTON (AP) -- Civil liberties groups are asking a judge to force the New York Police Department to turn over documents about its efforts to spy on and infiltrate the Muslim community. The documents filed in federal court in Manhattan are based largely on reporting from The Associated Press that showed police monitoring all aspects of daily life in Muslim neighborhoods. Documents showed that plainclothes officers were being dispatched to eavesdrop inside businesses. Hundreds of mosques were investigated. Dozens were infiltrated. And police maintained a list of 28 countries that, along with "American Black Muslim," were labeled "ancestries of interest." Lawyers said that could violate a longstanding court order prohibiting the NYPD from maintaining information on people not involved with criminal activity. The NYPD didn't immediately respond to a message for comment. Georgia Court sides with man in self-defense death ATLANTA (AP) -- The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that a man charged with murder can't be prosecuted because he acted in self-defense in the Fulton County case. Deiran Green had been indicted on charges of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault after the 2008 knifing death of Jeffrey Waldon. He asked that the indictment be dismissed, saying he acted in self-defense. The trial court agreed, finding that Waldon had attacked Green and head-butted him in the mouth, that Green was in fear of death or violence by Waldon. The opinion released Monday by the Supreme Court stated that a butcher knife in Green's hand stabbed Waldon's right thigh, puncturing his femoral artery and killing him. The trial court found the knife injury was unintentional. Louisiana Man's sanity in slaying can't yet be considered THIBODAUX, La. (AP) -- Psychiatrists cannot yet consider whether a 30-year-old Thibodaux man was sane when authorities say he beheaded his disabled 7-year-old son over the kitchen sink and left the boy's head in their yard, a state district judge has decided. For now, the sanity commission must decide whether Jeremiah Wright can help his lawyers defend him against the charge of first-degree murder of Jori Lirette, said Judge John LeBlanc of Lafourche Parish. His ruling last month reversed an earlier decision to let two court-appointed psychiatrists and one working for the district attorney's office also consider Wright's sanity on Aug. 14, when Jori was killed. LeBlanc's order did not give reasons for the change, defense attorney Kerry Cuccia said Sunday. All psychiatrists' reports are due Oct. 10, but Cuccia said they probably won't be made public until after a hearing Oct. 17. Lirette was killed in the home Wright shared with the boy and his mother, Jesslyn Lirette, 27. Police said Wright waived his right to an attorney and confessed the same day. According to a sworn police statement, Wright said signs -- including being defecated and urinated on that morning -- made him realize that he was living with a CPR dummy rather than his son. Throughout the statement, he referred only to "the dummy". He also told police that he and Jesslyn Lirette had fought the evening before, and that she had told him she was getting her truck to move him out of the house. Published: Tue, Oct 4, 2011