Defendant must prove abandoning conspiracy
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it is up to defendants to prove they withdrew from criminal conspiracies in time to take advantage of a five-year statute of limitations on prosecution.
The high court unanimously ruled against Calvin Smith, who was convicted for his role in a drug organization in Washington, D.C.
He says he shouldn’t have been convicted as part of the conspiracy because he was in prison on another crime for the last six years.
He argued that the government should be forced to prove that he participated in the conspiracy within the time limit.
But Justice Antonin Scalia says prosecutors only need prove that the conspiracy continued past the statute of limitations cut-off. The justice says the “burden of establishing withdrawal before that cut-off rests upon the defendant.”
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Faulkner estate settles suit over newspaper ad
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The estate of William Faulkner has settled a copyright lawsuit against Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Washington Post Co. for using a Faulkner quote in a newspaper ad by the defense contractor.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate in Jackson dismissed the lawsuit last month. Terms of the settlement are sealed.
The Faulkner estate sued in 2012 over use of what it said was a quote from a 1956 essay Faulkner wrote in Harper’s Magazine. The Independence Day ad in the Post used the phrase: “We must be free; not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
The same quote, but with different punctuation, was the conclusion to Faulkner’s essay criticizing the South’s response to school integration.
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Chief justice says camera rule works
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson says a rule allowing news cameras and electronic recording equipment in trial courts is working as intended.
Gilbertson says news organizations have received permission to use cameras or audio recording devices in about two-thirds of the requests that have been decided so far.
The Supreme Court approved rules allowing those recording devices in circuit court hearings and trials beginning July 1, 2011.
In his recent State of the Judiciary speech to the Legislature, Gilbertson said judges and attorneys have agreed to full access by cameras and recording devices in seven cases, and judges granted audio access in 21 other cases.
He says electronic access to circuit court proceedings was denied in 18 cases.
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No more prayers to start meetings
DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Officials in one central Kentucky county have stopped saying prayers at the beginning of their meetings.
The Advocate Messenger reports Boyle County Fiscal Court members voted recently to change their long-standing practice to a moment of silence following a complaint from a citizen, who threatened to sue over the issue.
Boyle Judge-Executive Harold McKinney told magistrates that the county’s insurance carrier would not cover them if a lawsuit was filed.
Officials said they would conduct informal prayers before or after future meetings.
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