National Roundup

Arkansas
Inmate convicted as teen released on parole
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A 55-year-old Arkansas inmate who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a woman when he was 16 years old has been released on parole.

James Dean Vancleave was convicted of capital murder in the 1978 fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Debra King in Fayetteville. Vancleave was charged as an adult and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Vancleave was resentenced last year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate case in 2012 that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.

According to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , the Arkansas Department of Community Correction sent notice last week that Vancleave has been paroled.

Prosecutors and the victim’s family opposed the parole request.

Illinois
Attorney fined $50,000, ordered to undergo anger management
CHICAGO (AP) — A former attorney for convicted murderer Drew Peterson has been sanctioned by a federal judge for engaging in “unprofessional” and “contemptuous” behavior.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall on Wednesday sanctioned Joel Brodsky for courtroom behavior that included falsely accusing an expert witness of inventing a son.

Kendall ordered a $50,000 fine and anger management training. She also referred Brodsky to a panel that could bar or suspend him from practicing in federal court.

Attorney Joe Lopez says Brodsky may appeal or ask Kendall to reduce the fine.

The ruling is an outgrowth of a lemon law case about a used SUV.

Peterson, a former Chicago-area police officer, was convicted in the 2004 drowning death of his third wife and suspected in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.


Florida
School shooting suspect receives letters of support
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The suspect in the Florida high school shooting that killed 17 is getting letters of support in jail including fan mail and pictures of scantily-clad women in addition to hundreds of dollars in contributions to his commissary account.

Teenage girls, women and men are sending letters and photographs of themselves and Facebook groups have been started to discuss how to help Nikolas Cruz, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Cruz is charged in the killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and is being held in the Broward County Jail. Prosecutors said they are seeking the death penalty.

The newspaper obtained copies of letters, including one from a woman who called Cruz “beautiful” and others with suggestive photos.

Cruz, who is on suicide watch, has not seen any of the letters, which are opened by the jail.

On March 15, a teenager sent a letter from Texas inside an envelope with happy faces and hearts.

“I’m 18-years-old. I’m a senior in high school. When I saw your picture on the television, something attracted me to you,” the letter stated. “Your eyes are beautiful and the freckles on your face make you so handsome.”

Another letter told Cruz to “Hang in there and keep your head up” and another mailed six days after the shooting said “I reserve the right to care about you, Nikolas!”

Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, Cruz’s lawyer, told the newspaper that his client has indeed received “piles of letters.”

In addition, $800 has been deposited into a commissary account which can be used by inmates to buy snacks, radios and personal hygiene products.

“In my 40 years as public defender, I’ve never seen this many letters to a defendant,” Finkelstein said. “Everyone now and then gets a few, but nothing like this.”

Finkelstein said they have read a “few religious ones to him” but will not read him any fan letters or share any photographs.

“The letters shake me up because they are written by regular, everyday teenage girls from across the nation,” he said.


Ohio
ACLU sues state to allow gender changes on birth certificates
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Four transgender individuals filed a lawsuit Thursday against Ohio saying the state won’t allow them to change the gender listing of their birth certificates to properly reflect their identities.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs, said the requirement prevents the three females and one male from obtaining a document essential to everyday living and subjects transgender people to discrimination and potential violence.

“Ohio’s categorical bar stands in sharp contrast to the approach of nearly all other states and the District of Columbia, which have established processes by which transgender people can correct the gender marker on their birth certificate,” according to the lawsuit.

The action further claims the birth certificate rule imposed by the Ohio Department of Health and state Office of Vital Statistics also is inconsistent with Ohio’s practice of permitting transgender people to correct gender markers on their driver’s licenses and state identification cards.

Plaintiffs in the case are Stacie Ray, Jane Doe and Ashley Breda, women whose birth certificates indicate their sex as male, and Basil Argento, a man whose birth certificate indicates his sex as female.
Their action comes just weeks after a federal judge ruled Idaho’s bar against changing one’s sex on a birth certificate violated equal protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

In her March 6 ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale said the rules by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare served no rational government purpose and put transgender people at risk by forcing them to disclose their status when they present identification documents.

Idaho had been among the few remaining states with policies or laws prohibiting such changes. Ohio, Kansas and Tennessee are the others.

Most states allow people to change their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity rather than the gender they were assigned at birth.