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Utah man charged with threatening air marshals
Court Watch |
2011/10/16 10:04
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A Utah man has been charged in federal court after authorities say he threatened to shoot air marshals, hijack the flight and urinate in the cabin of a Delta Airlines plane en route from Amsterdam to Detroit.
During a Thursday appearance in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, a judge allowed Jared L. Hansen to remain free pending a Nov. 7 hearing in Detroit. Hansen was ordered to surrender his passport and abstain from drinking alcohol, among other conditions.
He didn't return a telephone message seeking comment Thursday, and no attorney was listed for him in court records.
Hansen, 31, was aboard an Oct. 4 Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit when authorities say he attempted to use the bathroom in the business class section of the cabin. Members of the flight crew asked him to either return to his seat or use the facilities in the rear of the cabin, but he refused, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Hansen, who was believed to be heavily intoxicated, then threatened to urinate in the cabin and exposed himself, authorities said. |
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Court mulls trial in absentia for Hariri case
Court Watch |
2011/10/15 10:05
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A panel of judges at a U.N.-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will consider whether to stage a trial in absentia for four Hezbollah members accused in the slaying.
The suspects were indicted earlier this year, but Hezbollah has refused to arrest them and send them for trial in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's purpose-built courtroom.
The court said in a statement Monday that a pretrial judge preparing the case has asked trial judges "to determine whether proceedings in absentia should be initiated" against the four men.
Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah denies involvement in the Feb. 14, 2005, truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide bomber, in Beirut. |
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US court turns down Philly DA in cop-killing case
Court News |
2011/10/12 09:44
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The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request from prosecutors who want to re-impose a death sentence on former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a white Philadelphia police officer 30 years ago.
The justices on Tuesday refused to get involved in the racially charged case. A federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal after finding that the death-penalty instructions given to the jury at Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial were potentially misleading.
Courts have upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction for killing Officer Daniel Faulkner over objections that African-Americans were improperly excluded from the jury.
The federal appeals court in Philadelphia said prosecutors could agree to a life sentence for Abu-Jamal or try again to sentence him to death. |
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High court to decide double jeopardy question
Attorney News |
2011/10/12 09:43
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The Supreme Court will decide whether a jury forewoman's offhand comment that the jury was unable to make a decision on a murder charge means the suspect can't be retried on that charge.
The high court on Tuesday agreed to hear an appeal from Alex Blueford, whose murder trial in Arkansas ended in a hung jury.
The jury forewoman told the judge before he declared a mistrial that the jury had voted unanimously against capital murder and first-degree murder. The jury had deadlocked on a lesser charge, manslaughter, which caused the judge to declare a mistrial.
Blueford argued the forewoman's statement, said in open court, meant that he has been acquitted of capital murder and first-degree murder.
Prosecutors decided to retry Blueford on all three charges. He contended he could not be retried on capital murder and first-degree murder because of Fifth Amendment double jeopardy protections.
Arkansas courts have disagreed. The high court will now review that decision.
Blueford was on trial for killing his girlfriend's 20-month-old son. |
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Kentucky man sues Facebook over tracking cookie
Legal Business |
2011/10/11 09:43
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A Facebook user in western Kentucky has filed a federal lawsuit against the social networking giant, accusing it of violating wiretap laws with a tracking cookie recording web browsing history after logging off of Facebook.
The plaintiff, David Hoffman of Paducah, is asking a judge to grant class-action status to represent the roughly 150 million
Facebook users in the United States. Hoffman's lawsuit seeks a preliminary and temporary injunction restraining Facebook from intercepting electronic information when they are not logged in and from disclosing any of the information already acquired.
It also seeks damages of $100 per day for each of the class members or $10,000 per violation. The Kentucky lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, is similar to cases filed in recent weeks in California, Kansas and Louisiana. |
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