Appeal from suspended Florida judge rejected
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is leaving in place the suspension of a Florida judge for using a 20-year-old newspaper endorsement on a flier during her campaign in 2014.
The justices offered no comment Tuesday in rejecting an appeal from Judge Kim Shepard. She was suspended without pay for 90 days by the Florida Supreme Court.
Shepard said the suspension violated her right to free speech.
She was punished for using an endorsement she received from the Orlando Sentinel during her 1994 campaign for re-election to the Florida House of Representatives when she successfully ran for election as an Osceola County judge in 2014.
The newspaper had endorsed candidate Norberto Katz in the 2014 race.
Shepard is now a judge in Orange County.
Court won't take case of ex-NY assembly speaker
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for a re-trial of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
The high court declined to take up the case. That lets a re-trial tentatively set for April to proceed.
The 73-year-old Democrat was sentenced to 12 years in prison after his conviction on public corruption charges in late 2015. But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that conviction last year, returning the case to the trial court.
The appeals court said the trial judge would need to instruct jurors on the law differently to conform with a 2016 Supreme Court decision reversing the public corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Republican. The 2nd Circuit also said there was sufficient evidence for a retrial.
In the McDonnell case, the high court narrowed the definition of what constitutes an "official act" by a politician, making it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain convictions in some public corruption cases. Silver's supporters had hoped that the Supreme Court might welcome the chance to look directly at his case.
Sheldon's lawyers, Steven Molo and Joel Cohen, said in a statement that they were disappointed that the Supreme Court did not consider the case.
"We intend to move forward and obtain a great result for our client," they said.
Prosecutors declined comment on Tuesday.
In court papers, the government had opposed Silver's request for a Supreme Court review, noting that it forced a retrial delay in a case in which one of the key government witnesses is over 80 years old.
Silver was first elected in 1976 and served as speaker for 21 years, becoming the classic Albany insider with the power to control bills and state spending singlehandedly.
Along with the leader of the Senate and the governor, Silver was one of the "three men in a room" who every year negotiated the state budget and important legislation behind closed doors.
Justices refuse appeal for Texas police killer
HOUSTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has refused an appeal from a Texas death row inmate convicted of killing a Houston police officer 27 years ago.
The high court, without comment, declined Tuesday to review arguments from lawyers for prisoner Carl Wayne Buntion that an appeal for him unfairly was rejected in the state courts last year.
The 73-year-old Buntion is the state's oldest death row inmate.
He'd been on parole only six weeks in June 1990 when evidence showed he shot and killed 37-year-old Houston officer James Irby during a traffic stop. Buntion, who had a long criminal record, was a passenger in the car Irby pulled over.
His death sentence was vacated by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2009. A jury in 2012 returned him to death row.
Published: Thu, Jan 18, 2018
