Court Roundup

 Delaware

Prosecutors to retry man freed from death row 
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Delaware prosecutors are moving forward with a retrial of man whose conviction and death sentence for a 1991 slaying were tossed out by the state Supreme Court earlier this year.
Defense attorneys had hoped prosecutors would drop the charges against Jermaine Wright, accused of killing liquor store clerk Phillip Seifert.
At a court hearing Monday, The News Journal of Wilmington reported that prosecutors acknowledged the difficulties of presenting a case more than 20 years old.
A judge said he expects the case to go to trial next year.
Wright spent more time on death row than any other Delaware inmate. The Supreme court tossed out his conviction and death sentence because they found that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that may have benefited Wright.

Louisiana
19 years after fatal crash, man ordered to prison 
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A three-judge state appeals court panel has ordered a Donaldsonville man to serve his original two-year prison sentence from a July 1995 negligent homicide conviction in Ascension Parish. Monday’s ruling overturning a district court ruling last year that had suspended the sentence.
The Advocate reports Stanley White pleaded guilty in July 1995 to the reduced charge following an alcohol-related crash near Gonzales that killed a 10-week-old St. Amant girl in mid-1994.
But even after an appeals court affirmed the negligent homicide conviction in February 1997, White never was called to serve his time in prison.
Writing for the 2-1 majority, Judge James E. Kuhn of the Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal said state Judge Jessie LeBlanc lacked the authority to modify White’s sentence.
 
Maryland
Police: Illinois man made up abduction story 
WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Police say an Illinois man who took a bus to Maine to meet a woman he met playing an online game concocted a story about being abducted to gain the woman’s sympathy.
Police say 30-year-old Randolph Patriakeas, of Pana, Illinois, was discovered lying face down on a Waterville street at about 3:30 a.m. Monday. He was blindfolded and had scratches on his upper body.
The Morning Sentinel reports that after talking to Patriakeas in the hospital, investigators determined the wounds were self-inflicted and he made up the story to gain the woman’s sympathy following a difference in expectations about the relationship.
Patriakeas was not arrested but was summoned to court on Aug. 19 to face a filing a false police report charge.
He was released and his whereabouts are unclear.
 
Maine
Woman gets 4 months in plot to kill husband 
DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine (AP) — A Maine mother of 13 authorities say tried to hire someone to kill her husband has been sentenced to four months in jail.
Wendy Farley was ordered to serve four months of a 10-year sentence after entering an Alford plea on Monday in Piscataquis County Superior Court to a charge of criminal solicitation.
An Alford plea means while she doesn’t admit guilt, she acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict.
Farley’s trial on the charge in March ended in a mistrial.
Prosecutors say the 48-year-old Farley, of Brownville, offered someone several thousand dollars to kill her husband of 30 years in September 2012. A cooperating witness went to police.
District Attorney Christopher Almy tells WABI-TV that Farley’s husband, Luther, did not want his wife prosecuted or punished.