- Posted April 03, 2012
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Court Roundup
Alabama
Judge orders man to move grave from front yard
STEVENSON, Ala. (AP) -- A judge is ordering a north Alabama man to remove his wife's grave from his front yard.
The Daily Sentinel of Scottsboro reports that James E. Davis buried his wife Patsy in their front yard in Stevenson after she died in 2009. The Jackson County Health Department had approved the establishment of a cemetery on the property from a sanitary standpoint.
But the Stevenson City Council blocked the man's request to bury the woman at their home. The paper says Davis buried the woman in the yard nine days later.
A three-year court fight followed, and Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt ruled Friday that the man must remove his late wife's remains from their front yard. The work doesn't have to begin immediately since Davis has 30 days to appeal.
Pennsylvania
School bus driver gets 2 DUIs within 17 hours
WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) -- A western Pennsylvania man fired after he was charged with driving three busloads of students under the influence of alcohol has been charged with driving drunk in his own vehicle less than 17 hours later.
Online court records don't list an attorney for 49-year-old Miguel Rivera, of Washington, Pa.
He was first charged shortly after 10 a.m. Friday when police say he was legally drunk while driving 142 students to a field trip from Washington Park School.
State police then stopped Rivera about 2:30 a.m. Saturday for drunken driving as he exited Interstate 70, also in Washington.
Police say Rivera's blood-alcohol content was 0.08 percent 30 minutes after he drove the school students. That's the legal limit for drunken driving under normal circumstances, but was four times the state's legal limit of 0.02 percent for a commercial vehicle driver.
Delaware
Bail set at $200K cash for former death row inmate
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- A Superior Court judge has set bail at $200,000 cash for a former death row inmate accused of killing a liquor store clerk during a 1991 robbery.
In setting the bail for 39-year-old Jermaine Wright on Monday, Judge John Parkins rejected arguments by prosecutors that he did not have jurisdiction to do so. Parkins agreed to stay his ruling for two days to allow the state to appeal.
Parkins overturned Wright's conviction and death sentence in January, ruling that Wright not properly advised of his rights against self-incrimination before giving a confession to police interrogators. The state Supreme Court will hear an appeal of that decision in May.
Wright spent more time on death row than any other Delaware inmate currently facing execution before the reversal of his death sentence.
Published: Tue, Apr 3, 2012
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