National Roundup

Washington
State high court tosses out state's death penalty

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington state's Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty violates its Constitution.

The ruling Thursday makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The justices said the "death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially." They ordered that people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison.

Gov. Jay Inslee, a one-time supporter of capital punishment, had previously said no executions will take place while he's in office.

The ruling was in the case of Allen Eugene Gregory, who was convicted of raping, robbing and killing Geneine Harshfield, a 43-year-old woman, in 1996.

His lawyers said the death penalty is arbitrarily applied and that it is not applied proportionally, as the state Constitution requires.

Arkansas
State high court upholds revised voter ID law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas' highest court has upheld a voter ID law that is nearly identical to a restriction struck down by the court four years ago.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a measure that requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. A state judge earlier this year blocked officials from enforcing the restriction, but justices stayed that ruling and kept the law in place while they considered the case.

Opponents of the measure had argued that it circumvents a 2014 ruling striking down a previous voter ID law.

Arkansas officials say the new measure complies with part of the decision that said it needed at least two-thirds approval in both chambers of the Legislature to become law.

Missouri
Man charged with illegal ­circumcision of 2 teens

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri man who started his own religious ministry has been charged with illegally circumcising two teenagers.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 47-year-old Curtis Abbott, of Nixa, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child endangerment and one count of unauthorized practice of medicine or surgery. Abbott sent a statement to the News-Leader calling the allegations "false."

A hearing is scheduled for next week.

Many details of the case, including a motive, haven't been made public because the case was handled by a grand jury.

Nixa founded an organization called "Restore Bible Culture." Court filings in his divorce finalized this summer say he said he has had "multiple prophetic communications."

Abbott admitted his ministry had "several false starts in years past."

Florida
Miami Heat ­player sues for lost income from dog's neutering

COOPER CITY, Fla. (AP) - Miami Heat veteran Udonis Haslem is suing the veterinary hospital he says "castrated" his dog without permission.

The Miami Herald reports the basketball player filed a lawsuit accusing Murber Inc.'s LeadER Animal Special Hospital of negligence Tuesday. Haslem says the hospital successfully performed surgery to remove a rope that his dog, Juice, had swallowed, but also neutered Juice without permission or medical necessity.

The lawsuit describes Juice as a show-quality Cane Corso, meaning his semen samples could have been worth between $3,500 and $10,000. Haslem says he was preparing to breed Juice and sell the puppies.

He also says Juice is now "too tame," meaning he lost $30,000 spent training Juice to serve as a family guard dog while Haslem's on the road.

The report didn't include comment from the hospital.

Florida
Court won't reopen case of captive orca

MIAMI (AP) - Activist groups have lost the latest battle in a decadeslong fight to free an orca named Lolita from the Miami Seaquarium.

The Miami Herald reports a federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a petition to reopen a lawsuit over Seaquarium's treatment of Lolita.

Lolita lives in the country's smallest orca aquarium, and has been Seaquarium's star attraction since she was captured off the Puget Sound in 1970.

The decision says that, at around 51, Lolita's age makes the case "unique," but there's no threat of serious harm that could trigger a federal animal welfare law violation. The court also couldn't identify a "realistic means" to return her to the wild without being harmed.

PETA General Counsel Jared Goodman says the ruling sentences Lolita to "a lifetime of physical and psychological harm."

Tennessee
2 men accused of raping 9-month-old girl, filming attack

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Two Tennessee men are accused of raping a 9-month-old girl and filming the attack.

News outlets report 19-year-old Isiah Dequan Hayes and 22-year-old Daireus Jumare Ice were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on charges including especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.

A Shelby County District Attorney General's office release says the men were reported to police in 2016 when the girl's mother found footage of the attack. She was able to identify the men from the video.

The release says investigators determined Hayes was in the video and Ice filmed it. Hayes also was indicted on a charge of aggravated rape of a child. Ice also was indicted of being criminally responsible for the conduct of another person in the aggravated rape of a child.

Georgia
Woman, 74, accused of killing husband

BALL GROUND, Ga. (AP) - A 74-year-old Georgia woman is accused of killing her 76-year-old husband who she said had fallen and hit his head.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Betty Sue Parton was arrested Tuesday on charges including murder and elder abuse. Cherokee County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jay Baker says an unknown object was used in the April slaying of David Parton.

Baker says deputies responded to a call of a person down and found the husband dead. He says Parton had injuries consistent with a fall. However, he says the county medical examiner told deputies in July that the death was suspicious. Parton's cause of death is now classified as a homicide caused by blunt force trauma.

His wife is being held without bond at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.

Published: Fri, Oct 12, 2018