National Roundup

Iowa
Chinese man gets life term for killing girlfriend
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a Chinese man who fled to his homeland after killing his girlfriend in Iowa will serve a life sentence in China.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said Wednesday that the U.S. State Department informed her office and Iowa City police that 24-year-old Xiangnan Li was sentenced earlier this week in the Chinese city of Wenzhou.

In March, the former University of Iowa student told a Chinese court that he killed 20-year-old Iowa State student Tong Shao in September 2014.

Iowa authorities wanted Li to be returned for trial, but the United States and China don’t have an extradition treaty. The Criminal Investigation Bureau of China says Chinese citizens are subject to Chinese prosecution for any crimes they commit abroad.

Arkansas
Court upholds protocol, drug secrecy law
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas can execute eight death row inmates using its three-drug protocol, a split Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday in upholding a state law that keeps information about lethal injection drugs confidential.

The inmates had argued that Arkansas’ execution secrecy law could lead to cruel and unusual punishment and that the state reneged on a pledge to share information.

Attorneys for the state said at least five other courts have ruled that the three drugs used in Arkansas’ protocol are acceptable, including the sedative midazolam. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma’s use of midazolam last year.

One of the state’s execution drugs will expire June 30, and the seller has said it will not provide more.

“The circuit court erred in ruling that public access to the identity of the supplier of the three drugs (the Arkansas Department of Correction) has obtained would positively enhance the functioning of executions in Arkansas,” the court’s ruling said. “As has been well documented, disclosing the information is actually detrimental to the process.”

A spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said the state was reviewing the ruling and would comment later Thursday.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson set dates last September for the state’s first executions since 2005. Those executions were later stayed by the court until the inmates’ challenge could be heard.

The state’s attorneys had asked the high court to overturn Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen’s ruling that the secrecy provisions of the execution law are unconstitutional. They argued that the inmates did not present a compelling argument to strike down the execution secrecy provision. The law requires the state to conceal the maker and seller of the drugs including from the death row inmates.

The inmates argued that without disclosure of the source and other information they had no way to determine whether the midazolam, vecuronium bromide or potassium chloride would lead to cruel and unusual punishment.

The inmates also argued that the secrecy law violates a settlement in an earlier lawsuit that guaranteed inmates would be given the information. The state has said that agreement is not a binding contract.

Massachusetts
Court: Man can’t be punished ‘for being homeless’
BOSTON (AP) — A homeless man convicted of criminal trespassing for taking shelter in privately owned buildings during harsh winter weather won a new trial Thursday when the state’s highest court ruled that he should have been allowed to argue it was his only way to protect himself from the cold.

The Supreme Judicial Court found that the judge at David Magadini’s trial was wrong to deny a request to instruct the jury on a so-called necessity defense. Magadini wanted to use that defense to argue that his behavior was justified for a person trying to escape extreme temperatures.

In a unanimous, 7-0 ruling, the court threw out six 2014 trespassing convictions. The court said the necessity defense allows a jury to weigh the plight of a homeless person against any harm caused by a trespass before determining criminal responsibility.

“Our law does not permit punishment of the homeless simply for being homeless,” Justice Geraldine Hines wrote for the court.

The owners of three properties in Great Barrington had obtained no-trespass orders against Magadini. He was convicted of seven counts of criminal trespass for entering the buildings in February, March, April and June of 2014, and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

In requesting a jury instruction on the necessity defense, Magadini’s lawyer argued that his conduct was justified as the only lawful alternative for a homeless person facing the “clear and imminent danger” of exposure to the elements during periods of extreme outdoor temperatures.

The judge denied the request, finding that Magadini had alternatives to trespassing.

Magadini’s lawyer, Joseph Schneiderman, hailed Thursday’s decision as a landmark ruling that could have a broad impact for homeless people, saying it “has the potential to do great good.”

Magadini, now 67, became homeless after he moved out of his parents’ home in 2004, according to background included in the court’s ruling. He lived outside year-round, first at a park and later at an outdoor gazebo behind Great Barrington Town Hall. He considered the gazebo his home and registered to vote from its address.

He sometimes sought shelter in private buildings during severe winter weather.

The trial judge found that Magadini had other available legal alternatives, including motels, hotels and the police station. The high court disagreed.

While the SJC vacated six of Magadini’s convictions for trespassing during the winter months, it upheld one conviction for an incident in June 2014, when Magadini entered an ice cream shop where a no-trespass order had been issued against him. Magadini said he needed to use the bathroom. The high court said he had not shown a “clear and imminent danger.”


Pennsylvania
Group sues over rush-hour ban on DNC protest
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Anti-poverty activists have sued Philadelphia, seeking the right to demonstrate during rush hour as the Democratic National Convention opens next month.

The lawsuit says the city has an unwritten ban on demonstrations during morning and evening rush hours.

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign hopes to march from City Hall to a park near the convention site on opening day, July 25. Organizers say the city has granted exceptions for rush-hour parades and other public gatherings.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit Thursday on the group’s behalf.

The city says it has no comment until its law department reviews the suit.

The ACLU of Ohio sued Cleveland earlier this month, alleging the city’s rules for protests at the Republican National Convention violate free speech rights.