National Roundup

Virginia
Judge rejects appeal from man convicted in al-Qaida plot
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge again rejected a request from a northern Virginia man who sought to overturn his life sentence for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted in 2005. He filed a motion last year seeking a new sentence, arguing that the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi shows Saudi Arabia lies about the brutality of its security forces.

Key evidence against Abu Ali came from a confession he gave in Saudi custody. Abu Ali said the confession was tortured out of him by Saudi Arabia’s internal security agency. Saudi agents testified under assumed names at Abu Ali’s trial, denying any torture.

Abu Ali’s lawyer argued that Khashoggi’s 2018 killing is evidence Saudi security forces will lie about mistreatment they inflict. Saudi Arabia initially denied any responsibility for Khashoggi’s death.

In an order filed Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston in Alexandria rejected Abu Ali’s request. Alston said the truthfulness of the Saudi agents was an issue that was contested vigorously at Abu Ali’s 2005 trial, and that the Khashoggi killing does not give Abu Ali an opportunity to re-litigate the issue.

The judge issued a similar ruling in November, but the issue was muddied slightly by technical issues over whether Abu Ali’s appeal rights had been exhausted.

Georgia
Judge won’t halt salvage of capsized ship
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge ruled she will not halt removal of a capsized cargo ship along the Georgia coast while a salvage company that lost the job to a competitor sues the U.S. Coast Guard.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said an injunction delaying work to dismantle the South Korean freighter Golden Ray would be “averse to the public interest.” The ship with 4,200 cars still in its cargo decks has been beached off St. Simons Island since September. Experts concluded the wreck will have to be cut into pieces.

“As long as it remains in the Saint Simons Sound, this community’s waterways, coastline, and various important forms of marine life face an imminent environmental threat,” Wood said in her ruling Tuesday. “Time compounds that threat.”

The salvage firm Donjon-SMIT filed suit in February after the Coast Guard allowed the ship’s owner to replace the company with a competitor willing to remove the ship in larger chunks. By allowing the switch, the lawsuit said, the Coast Guard violated the 1990 Oil Pollution Act that requires shipowners to designate salvage responders in advance.

The judge acknowledged in her ruling that Donjon-SMIT faces irreparable financial losses as salvage operations move forward. But she rejected the company’s argument that the Coast Guard officer overseeing the multi-agency response team abused his authority.

Wood also noted that Donjon-SMIT had retreated from a claim in its lawsuit that its competitor’s plan to remove the Golden Ray in huge chunks of up to 4,100 tons (3,720 metric tons) would cause an “environmental catastrophe.” A Donjon-SMIT official later testified in court that his company, while preferring a smaller-scale method, would have used the same technique if the owner insisted.

The Golden Ray overturned Sept. 5 soon after leaving the Port of Brunswick, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah. The ship’s 24 crew members were all successfully rescued.

Donjon-SMIT’s replacement, T&T Salvage, plans to cut the ship into eight giant pieces, using a towering crane to lift each section onto a barge.

Crews have been working since February to prepare the Golden Ray by surrounding it with a mesh barrier to contain any cars or other debris falling into the water during demolition.

Work on the barrier continues with crew members taking extra precautions during the coronavirus pandemic that’s shut down much of the U.S., said Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Monika Spies, spokeswoman for the multi-agency team coordinating the salvage efforts.

The response team had hoped to have ship’s large sections removed before hurricane season starts June 1. Spies said Thursday the goal is now to remove it “by the peak of hurricane season.” The most active period of the Atlantic hurricane season typically begins in August.


Pennsylvania
Court upholds ‘sexually violent predator’ laws
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld laws Thursday that require offenders deemed “sexually violent predators” to undergo lifetime counseling and registration and be the subject of community notices.

The requirements have the legitimate purpose of keeping the community safe and therefore do not amount to extra punishment, the court said in reversing a lower court’s decision.

The case is one of several under review in Pennsylvania that challenge the constitutionality of sex offender registries amid concerns about harassment, ostracism and unfair punishment.

Nearly 10% of the state’s about 2,000 registered sex offenders have been deemed sexually violent predators thought to be at the highest risk of reoffending.

The case in Thursday’s ruling involves a Butler County man, Joseph Butler, who pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors for repeated sexual encounters with a 15-year-old girl. The judge sentenced him to prison and, after an evidentiary hearing, designated him a sexually violent predator.

The court, in an opinion by Justice Kevin Dougherty, found “there is a rational connection between the (reporting, notice and counseling) requirements and the government’s interest in protecting the public.”

The judge in actor Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case in suburban Philadelphia similarly deemed him a sexually violent predator in a hearing that followed his 2018 jury conviction. Cosby, 82, who is serving a three- to 10-year prison term, has raised the issue and others in appeals that have so far been unsuccessful.