National Roundup

North Carolina
Prosecutors urge  high court to uphold murder convictions
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Prosecutors in North Carolina are urging the state’s Supreme Court to uphold the murder convictions of a woman and her father who were convicted of beating her husband to death in Davidson County.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported Sunday that the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office has filed a 96-page brief with the high court.

Molly Corbett, and her father, former FBI agent, Thomas Martens, were convicted of second-degree murder in 2017 for the death of Irish businessman Jason Corbett. Molly Corbett and her father claim self defense.

Prosecutor’s criticize an appeals court ruling in February that overturned the convictions. The appeals court had said that the trial judge made errors so prejudicial that they deprived Molly Corbett and Martens of having a fair trial.

One of Martens’ attorneys said his defense team plans to file a written response. Walter Holton, Molly Corbett’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

It may take months before the state Supreme Court issues a ruling.

New York
‘Delusional’ Martin Shkreli denied prison release by judge
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge rejected the request of convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to be let out of prison to research a coronavirus treatment, noting that probation officials viewed that claim as the type of “delusional self-aggrandizing behavior” that led to his conviction.

U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said in a nine-page ruling Saturday that the man known as the “Pharma Bro” failed to demonstrate extraordinary and compelling factors that would require his release under home confinement rules designed to move vulnerable inmates out of institutions during the pandemic.

The low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where the 37-year-old Shkreli is locked up has reported no cases of coronavirus among inmates and staff, and there’s no evidence in his medical files to suggest a childhood bout with asthma continues to pose a significant health problem, Matsumoto wrote.

“Disappointed but not unexpected,” Shkreli’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said.

Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence for a 2017 conviction for lying to investors about the performance of two hedge funds he ran, withdrawing more money from those funds than he was entitled to get, and defrauding investors in a drug company, Retrophin, by hiding his ownership of some of its stock.

A judge ordered Shkreli to forfeit $7.3 million.

Brafman filed court papers last month asking federal authorities to release him for three months and allow him to live at his fiancé’s New York City apartment so he could do laboratory work “under strict supervision.”

In a research proposal posted online, Shkreli called the pharmaceutical industry’s response to the pandemic “inadequate” and said researchers at every drug company “should be put to work until COVID-19 is no more.”

He wrote that his background “as a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates” would make him a valuable asset.

Matsumoto rejected that, relaying concerns of probation officials that Shkreli’s claim that he could develop a cure for coronavirus that “so far eluded the best medical and scientific minds in the world working around the clock” is “delusional self-aggrandizing behavior.”

Shkreli first gained notoriety by buying the rights to a drug used to treat an infection that occurs in some AIDS, malaria and cancer patients and raising the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. He is also known for attacking critics on social media and offering a bounty to anyone who could give him one of Hillary Clinton’s hairs.

Indiana
Judge allows suit against child welfare agency
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A child advocacy group is praising a federal judge’s decision that allows most of a lawsuit to move forward accusing Indiana’s child welfare agency of inadequately protecting thousands of children in its care.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young’s Wednesday ruling allows two of three counts to go forward in the lawsuit, which was filed last July against the Indiana Department of Child Services, The Journal Gazette reported. The suit alleges that DCS doesn’t protect  22,000 children  with open child welfare cases, including more than 14,000 in out-of-home care.

“This is a great victory for the children of Indiana,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, the attorney for A Better Childhood, one of two child advocacy groups that joined the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in suing the state agency on behalf of nine foster children.

DCS spokeswoman Noelle Russell said Friday that the state agency would have no immediate comment on the judge’s ruling.

The list of allegations include many of the children “unnecessarily” languishing in foster care for years before they are reunified with their primary caretakers, are adopted, or age out of the system. The delays caused by DCS inflict further emotional trauma,” it added.

The case can now proceed to the discovery phase and a potential trial if a settlement is not reached.

“Federal courts have a duty to decide cases before them. Sometimes they refrain from exercising jurisdiction when doing so would interfere with ongoing state proceedings or would upset state-court judgments.
But those exceptions are just that: exceptions,” Young wrote. “Federal courts cannot refuse to entertain cases, even when the subject matter involves parallel state-court proceedings. This case tests the limits.”

Tennessee
ACLU sues over absentee ballot requirement
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing on behalf of several people it says would be at risk by having to vote in person in Tennessee this year during the coronavirus pandemic.

The organization wants the court to make absentee voting available to all eligible voters in the state.

The group and its state organization filed its lawsuit Friday in state court against Gov. Bill Lee, Secretary of State Tre Hargett and elections coordinator Mark Goins.

Tennessee requires voters to give an excuse for voting by absentee ballot.

Tennessee has multiple elections this year, including a statewide election on Aug. 6 and the general election on Nov. 3.

The ACLU said in a news release that without a vaccine, social distancing and avoiding groups are among the only measures known to protect against the spread of the virus. Some other states have made vote by mail and absentee voting available, said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.