National Roundup

Ohio
Court considers  life sentence of woman charged at 16 for murder
CINCINNATI (AP) — Attorneys are debating whether a Tennessee woman serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was 16 can gain parole. They’re arguing before federal appellate judges in Cincinnati who are considering sending the case back to Tennessee.

Attorney Mark Pickrell told a three-judge 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel Thursday that Tennessee’s laws are ambiguous on the parole eligibility. He represents Cyntoia Brown, now 30, in a case that has attracted celebrity support for her.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against life-without-parole sentences for juveniles, but Tennessee has argued successfully in lower courts that Brown does have a possibility for parole — after she serves 51 years.

The judges said they could ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to decide that issue before they rule whether Brown’s sentence is unconstitutional.

Texas
Man condemned for murder of retired professor loses appeal
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a 45-year-old man on Texas death row for the 2004 suffocation of a retired TCU professor whose body was found in Oklahoma after she was abducted in Fort Worth.

Attorneys for Edward Lee Busby argued unsuccessfully to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Busby, from Gray County in the Texas Panhandle, was mentally impaired, meaning he’s ineligible for execution, and had deficient legal help at his trial and in earlier stages of his appeals.

Busby was convicted of the slaying of 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane, who was abducted from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot. He was arrested in Oklahoma City driving Crane’s car and led authorities to her body in Oklahoma just north of the Texas border.

Oklahoma
Sex abuse lawsuit against school  to proceed
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging officials at an Oklahoma school did nothing to stop sexual attacks against a middle school student.

The ruling dated Monday allows the lawsuit against Washington Public Schools to go forward. Judge Stephen Friot did, however, remove from the lawsuit school Superintendent A.J. Brewer and Principal Stuart McPherson in their official capacities.

An attorney for the school and the two officials did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

The lawsuit alleges school officials did nothing to stop attacks against the student during an 18-month period that began with shoving in December 2015, shortly after the then-11-year-old and his family moved into the district about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City, and escalated into sexual assault the following February.

Louisiana
First woman elected judge in La. dies at 77
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Funeral services will be held Saturday for the first woman elected to serve as a judge in Louisiana and first African-American to serve as chief judge of the state’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.

The Louisiana Judicial Council, an affiliate of the National Bar Association Judicial Council, on Wednesday confirmed the Saturday death of Joan Bernard Armstrong. She was 77.

Armstrong retired from the bench in 2011 after 37 years, which made her the longest-serving judge in the state at the time. When she was elected to the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court bench in 1974, she was the first female and first African-
American woman elected judge in the state. She later served as chief judge of the state’s Fourth Circuit appellate court.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Mark Fourth Baptist Church in New Orleans. A widow, she is survived by two children: a son, Rev. David Armstrong; a daughter, Anna Armstrong Alexander; and two grandchildren. She is also survived by a sister, Florence Bernard James.

Armstrong graduated from Xavier University in 1963.  Armstrong, who taught school by day to attend law school at night, earned her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law in 1967. She was elected without opposition to the appeals court in 1984, as that court’s first female jurist. She became chief judge in 2003.

During her tenure on the bench, Armstrong was chairman of the Louisiana Conference of Court of Appeal Judges from 2004 to 2005 and was also a member of the Judiciary Budgetary Board; Judicial Ethics Committee; Judicial Human Resources Committee; Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Criminal Justice.

West Virginia
CSX settles discrimination lawsuit for $3.2M
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — CSX Transportation in West Virginia and the federal government have settled a lawsuit that accused CSX of discriminatory hiring practices for $3.2 million.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the lawsuit accused CSX of administering a physical capability test that prevented women from being hired. U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday after CSX agreed to pay lost wages to women denied jobs. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Under Chambers’ ruling, CSX must stop administering the “IPCS Biodex” test. The test required applicants to pass an isokinetic strength test, a 3-minute step test and a test to determine arm muscle strength and endurance. CSX must also have scientific studies conducted before certain physical ability tests can be added to its hiring process.

Wisconsin
Supreme Court reschedules conference
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rescheduled a conference on whether to review the conviction of an inmate featured in the “Making a Murderer” documentary series.

WLUK-TV reports that the justices were scheduled to hold the conference on Brendan Dassey’s appeal on Thursday. But the court’s docket shows it has been rescheduled. No reason was given and a new date hasn’t been set.

Four of the nine justices would have to agree to hear the case before arguments could be scheduled. If four justices don’t agree to take the case, Dassey’s conviction would stand.

Dassey has argued for years that investigators coerced him into confessing that he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey was 16 at the time.