Washington: O’Connor: Arizona must show new law is not biased
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor says Arizona must figure out how to show it appreciates, respects and admires the Hispanics who live there after passing a tough new immigration law.
The law will make entering the country illegally a state crime in Arizona and requires local police to enforce it. It has sparked demonstrations across the country, predominantly from Hispanics, who feel they will be targeted by racial profiling.
O’Connor tells ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Hispanics have lived in Arizona since long before it was a state, and Arizona must now show it is not “as a whole, a biased state.”
The former Arizona state senator and judge declined to say whether the law is constitutional, but says she is sure “sections of it will be challenged.”
Nebraska: Man charged in pot-growing case
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 33-year-old Vietnamese man has been charged in federal court with conspiracy to manufacture and possess marijuana with intent to manufacture 1,000 or more marijuana plants.
Nghia Trong Nguyen was arrested Friday after recently returning to Lincoln from Vietnam.
Police say Nguyen is the owner of four Lincoln houses where thousands of marijuana plants were seized in March. In all, police say they found more than 8,000 pot plants at 11 Lincoln houses. Six men, including Nguyen, have been arrested in connection with the operation.
Nguyen was released from custody, but ordered to remain in Lancaster County.
There is no public phone listing for Nguyen, and court documents that might list an attorney for him could not immediately be found on Thursday.
Alabama: Figures in bribery case headed to federal prison
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Investment banker Bill Blount and former lobbyist Al LaPierre are about to report to federal prison camps to begin serving sentences for their roles in the bribery of former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford.
Blount is to report to the prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, while LaPierre reports to the Pensacola, Fla. prison camp.
Both men were ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Scott Coogler at their sentencing to report to their designated prison by noon Thursday.
Their guilty pleas followed a scheme in which Langford, as president of the Jefferson County Commission, was paid $235,000 in bribes for steering county bond business to Blount’s firm.
Blount was sentenced to 52 months in prison, while LaPierre was sentenced to 48 months.
Iowa: Judge upholds civil verdict in farm slaying
INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) — A judge says a wrongful death verdict against an central Iowa farmer convicted of killing his neighbor will stand.
Rodney Heemstra, of Milo, shot his neighbor Tom Lyon in 2003 following a series of arguments over farmland and cattle-watering equipment. Lyon’s estate has been trying to collect damages ever since a $5.8 million judgment was made against Heemstra in 2008.
Heemstra was also ordered to pay $750,000 in punitive damages, plus $250,000 in legal fees.
District Judge Paul Huscher on Wednesday said Heemstra’s request to overturn the verdict had to be rejected because his lawyers failed to raise key issues during his civil trial.
Virginia: Woman accused of hiring hitman to kill husband
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Norfolk woman has been accused of hiring someone to kill her husband allegedly to split the proceeds of an insurance policy.
An indictment in Chesterfield County Circuit Court charges 24-year-old Delilah Wiley with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and using a firearm in a felony. Her husband, 25-year-old Dell Shawn Wiley, was fatally shot outside a Chester industrial plant in 2008.
A 27-year-old Petersburg man, Christopher Tyrone Clagon, was sentenced last year to 38 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder and felony use of a firearm. His attorney said prosecutors believed Wiley had agreed to split the proceeds of a $10,000 insurance policy with Clagon.
Wiley is being held without bond at Riverside Regional Jail.
Washington: Formal death sentence in family killings
SEATTLE (AP) — The family of four people killed in Kirkland will have a chance to speak in court Thursday before the death sentence is formally handed down to the man convicted of aggravated murder.
A King County Superior Court jury last month found 28-year-old Conner Schierman (SHYR’-man) guilty of stabbing his neighbors Olga Milkin, her two young sons and sister in July 2006. At the time, Olga’s husband, Leonid Milkin, was serving in Iraq with the Washington Army National Guard.
Schierman also was convicted of arson for setting fire to the house in an attempt to destroy evidence.
The same Seattle jury decided May 5 that he should be executed. His lawyer plans to appeal.
Kansas: Jury acquits man of second-degree murder charges
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Topeka man has been found not guilty of second-degree murder in a death that at Shawnee County jury decided was self-defense.
The jury took only 90 minutes to deliberate on Wednesday before acquitting 21-year-old Joshua K. Martin of second-degree murder in the Dec. 13, 2009, death of 34-year-old Jeffrey Copeland.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the jury also found Martin innocent of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.
Martin testified during the trial that the shooting occurred when Copeland became aggressive and threatening in the home of Martin, his girlfriend and her three children. He said he told Copeland to leave, and shot Copeland as he advanced toward Martin.
Martin remains in the Shawnee County Jail on other unspecified cases.
