Supreme Court turns down appeal in exotic swine case
MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Supreme Court has turned down an appeal in a dispute over exotic pigs in the Upper Peninsula.
A Marquette County judge in 2016 said 10 pigs violated state restrictions on Russian boars and should be destroyed. The appeals court affirmed that decision, and the Supreme Court won't intervene.
The Department of Natural Resources designated Russian boars and other exotic swine as an invasive species. The state says they've escaped from hunting ranches and small farms and ravaged the environment.
Lawyers for game ranch owner Greg Johnson of Negaunee Township say the pigs can be traced to domestic breeds.
Supreme Court to hear Google class action settlement case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has agreed to review the settlement of a class action lawsuit involving Google, where the settlement agreement largely directed money to organizations rather than search engine users.
The court agreed Monday to take the case. The lawsuit involves Google users who sued saying Google violated privacy rights by disclosing to websites the search terms users entered to get there.
Google agreed to an $8.5 million settlement. Attorneys were awarded about $2 million. Most of the remaining money was allocated to six groups that agreed to use the money to promote privacy protection on the internet. The groups included AARP, Carnegie Mellon University and centers associated with Harvard, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Stanford.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the settlement.
Supreme Court to hear appeal of Missouri death row inmate
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review the case of a Missouri death row inmate who says his rare medical condition could cause him to choke on his own blood during an execution.
The justices said they would hear the appeal of inmate Russell Bucklew. The court blocked Bucklew's execution in March after he argued that a tumor in his throat is likely to rupture and bleed during the administration of the drugs that would be used to kill him.
Bucklew argues that subjecting him to lethal injection would violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The issue is whether Bucklew has to show there is another method of execution available that would reduce the risk of needless suffering.
Bucklew has proposed that the state use lethal gas instead of an injection of pentobarbital, if the execution is carried out. Missouri law still provides for the option of lethal gas, but the state no longer has a gas chamber and has not used the method since 1965.
Bucklew says it is likely he would essentially suffocate for two to three minutes if he is given a drug injection. The feeling of suffocation would last no more than 30 seconds using gas, he says.
But the federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled against him and concluded that he did not prove the alternate method would reduce his suffering. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that inmates challenging a method of execution have to show that there's an alternative that is likely to be less painful.
None of the 20 inmates executed since Missouri began using pentobarbital in 2013 have shown obvious signs of pain or suffering.
Bucklew was convicted in the 1996 killing a man who was seeing Bucklew's former girlfriend. He became angry when his girlfriend, Stephanie Ray, ended their relationship in 1996. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said in court filings that Bucklew slashed Ray's face with a knife, beat her and threatened to kill her. She took her children and left.
Over the next two weeks, according to the court filings, Bucklew stalked Ray, as he stole a car, firearms, two sets of handcuffs and duct tape. He eventually found out where she was staying and broke into the southeastern Missouri trailer home of Michael Sanders, Ray's new boyfriend, fatally shooting him. When Sanders' 6-year-old son came out of hiding, Bucklew shot at the boy and missed.
Bucklew pistol-whipped Ray, put her in handcuffs and dragged her to his car, where he raped her.
Police pursued Bucklew - a chase ending in a gunfight that wounded an officer. Once in jail, Bucklew managed to escape and went to the home of Ray's mother, where he attacked her with a hammer before he was finally captured.
Arguments in Bucklew v. Precythe, 17-8151, will take place in the fall.
Published: Tue, May 01, 2018
