Recent Updates
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California: Court Rejects Marijuana Limit
Court Alerts 01/22/2010The State Supreme Court struck down a law that sought to limit the amount of marijuana a medical patient can legally possess. The court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that state lawmakers were wrong to change provisions of a voter-approved propositi...
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Supreme Court Upholds Ala. Man's Death Penalty
Court Alerts 01/21/2010The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of an Alabama man who claimed his attorneys failed to present key evidence of his borderline mental retardation. The justices said the defense made a strategic decision, not a negligent omission. Holly...
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Judge: Kilpatrick at fault, he must pay $320,000
Court Alerts 01/21/2010The end was almost certainly worse than what Kwame Kilpatrick expected.Grilled for six days on the witness stand -- his integrity questioned by prosecutors who said that if they couldn't send him to jail, they'd settle for $225,000 -- Kilpatrick's re...
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No Misconduct Found in Blackwater Case
Court Alerts 01/20/2010A federal judge has opted not to impose a finding of prosecutorial misconduct on Justice Department lawyers for their handling of a case against Blackwater security guards involved in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad.In Federal District Court here last mon...
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Court throws out ruling favorable to suspect
Court Alerts 01/19/2010The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a court ruling that invalidated a former Black Panther's death sentence for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. The move was the latest twist in Mumia Abu-Jamal's racially tinged case that has drawn i...
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Delaware to appeal sports betting ruling to Supreme Court
Court Alerts 01/15/2010As Delaware's first season of sports betting winds down, Governor Jack Markell says the state will challenge the federal Appeals Court ruling that limited the Delaware to offering parlay bets on NFL games. Governor Markell's office confirms the...
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State high court denies tobacco company appeals
Court Alerts 01/14/2010The state Supreme Court on Wednesday denied tobacco companies' appeals of a San Francisco jury's award of $2.85 million in damages to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer after smoking cigarettes for 26 years.Leslie Whiteley of Ojai sued Phi...
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Supreme Court rules against Nev. man in DNA case
Court Alerts 01/13/2010A Nevada inmate lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid to challenge what jurors were told about DNA evidence against him in the 1994 sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl.The nation's highest court ruled Monday that it would not hear the evidence issue but did ...
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High court pulls plug on YouTube trial coverage
Court Alerts 01/12/2010For now, the only way Californians can watch the trial over the constitutionality of the state's ban on same-sex marriage is to take a trip to the federal courthouse on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.Just an hour before the trial got under way M...
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Net Neutrality Faces Appeals Court
Court Alerts 01/11/2010The FCC and Comcast got their day in court Friday afternoon on the net neutrality issue. A three-judge federal appeals court followed a line of questioning that seemed to favor Comcast, but a decision may not come for months. The issue is whether Com...
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Court Rules in Favor of Octuplets Mom Suleman
Court Alerts 01/09/2010A California appeals court ruled in favor of octuplets mother Nadya Suleman Friday, denying a call for an independent guardian to monitor her children's finances.The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana called the petition an "unprecedented, mer...
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Doctor gets 5 years in prison for road rage
Court Alerts 01/08/2010A former emergency room doctor who deliberately braked in front of two bicyclists, causing them to crash and suffer serious injuries in the road rage incident, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison. Christopher Thomas Thompson, 60, was sentenc...