National Roundup

Missouri
State’s gun law poses ‘clear and substantial threat’
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri law forbidding local police from enforcing federal gun laws is hampering efforts to protect the public, federal authorities say.

A blistering court brief filed Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice outlines multiple examples. The brief said that after an Independence police officer was killed in a shootout in September, state law enforcement initially refused routine federal assistance in tracing the murder weapon, The Kansas City Star reported.

The Justice Department says the Missouri state crime lab, operated by the Highway Patrol, also is refusing to process evidence that would help federal firearms prosecutions.

The Missouri Information and Analysis Center, also under the Highway Patrol, no longer cooperates with federal agencies investigating federal firearms offenses. And the Highway Patrol, along with many other agencies, have suspended joint efforts to enforce federal firearms laws.

The Justice Department’s brief comes in an ongoing lawsuit  challenging the state gun law, filed by St. Louis City, St. Louis County and Jackson County.

A Cole County court’s decision upholding the law  is being appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court.

The brief says the law “poses a clear and substantial threat to public safety” and has “seriously impaired the federal government’s ability to combat violent crime in Missouri.”

The law declares “invalid” many federal gun regulations that don’t have an equivalent in Missouri law. These include statutes covering weapons registration and tracking, and possession of firearms by some domestic violence offenders.

Local departments are barred from enforcing them, or risk being sued for $50,000 by private citizens who believe their Second Amendment rights have been violated.

Police are also prohibited from giving “material aid and support” to federal agents and prosecutors in enforcing those “invalid” laws against “law-abiding citizens” — defined as those who Missouri law permits to have a gun.

The Justice Department, Democrats and other critics of the law, signed in June by Republican Gov. Mike Parson, say it’s blatantly unconstitutional. The brief appears to include the most extreme examples to date of the measure’s toll on law enforcement.

It says the law “is not only damaging valuable institutional relationships for enforcing firearms laws, but also increasing dangers in the field across a broad array of law enforcement operations.”

A Highway Patrol spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

A spokeswoman for Parson didn’t immediately comment. Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office, which is representing the state in the challenge to the gun law, hasn’t yet filed a brief in the appeal.

Texas
Man gets 12 years on terrorism charge at resentencing
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man convicted of providing material support to the Islamic State group was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison after the government appealed his previous sentence, saying it was too lenient.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Eskridge in Houston sentenced Asher Abid Khan, 27, of Spring, to also serve 15 years of supervised release, prosecutors said.

Khan pleaded guilty in 2017 to providing material support to the Islamic State group. U.S. District Judge Lynn H. Hughes later sentenced Khan to 18 months in prison, saying he showed potential for rehabilitation.

The government twice appealed the 18-month sentence before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the judgment reversed and vacated and the matter reassigned, prosecutors said.

Khan was living in Australia when he and a friend from Texas came up with a plan to travel to Turkey and then to Syria in 2014 to fight for the Islamic State, according to prosecutors. Khan told a recruiter that he wanted to join the Islamic State, prosecutors say.

Khan and his friend met up in Turkey and Khan gave his friend money, knowing his plans, prosecutors said.

Khan’s family, though, convinced him to come back to the U.S. Prosecutors say that once Khan was home, he got his friend in contact with the recruiter.

Prosecutors said the friend’s mother eventually got a message saying he’d died while fighting in Syria.

Khan’s defense team had asked the judge for a five-year sentence.

“I’m sorry that the number is much higher than we argued for,” David Adler, an attorney for Khan, told Khan’s supporters outside the courtroom, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Eskridge said anything less than 12 years wouldn’t send “the appropriate message.” The judge did recognize that Khan had cooperated with government investigations and spoken out against terrorist propaganda.

The newspaper reported Khan recently graduated from the University of Houston with an engineering degree.

“This does not mean that your life is over,” the judge said.


Oklahoma
Appellate court rejects death row inmate’s appeal
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A state appeals court on Wednesday rejected the appeal of an Oklahoma death row inmate who was sentenced to die for killing a 16-year-old girl in 2012.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied Miles Bench’s motion for an evidentiary hearing and to stay proceedings in his death penalty appeal.

Bench, 30, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in 2015 for killing Braylee Henry after she bought gas at the Tee Pee Totem convenience store in Velma where Bench worked.

Bench argued among other things that the state lacked jurisdiction because he is a Choctaw Nation citizen and the killing took place within the boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation reservation. He also argued that the trial court erroneously handled jury selection, that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment because of his age at the time of the crime, 21, and that both his trial and appellate attorneys were ineffective.

The court rejected those claims.

Bench’s state public defender did not immediately respond Wednesday to a message seeking comment.

District Attorney Jason Hicks, whose office prosecuted the case, said he was relieved that the court again determined Bench received a fair trial.

“Bench brutally murdered a 16-year-old child in 2012 and her family deserves to see justice served,” Hicks said in a statement. “While I recognize the fight in this case is not over, this is a great step in the right direction.”