Court sends shaken baby case back to 9th Circuit
Criminal Law
The Supreme Court has again reinstated the conviction of a California woman for shaking her 7-week-old grandson in a case that has become a tug-of-war with the federal appeals court in San Francisco.
Shirley Ree Smith was convicted in December 1997 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
After California appeals courts ruled against Smith, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in 2006. The appellate judges said they found "no demonstrable support" for the prosecution's theory of the case. Prosecutors said that Smith lost her temper when Etzel Dean Glass III began to cry and shook him to death.
In 2007, the high court ordered the 9th Circuit to reconsider its decision based on a recent Supreme Court ruling. In that case, the justices overturned another ruling by the appeals court that was favorable to a convicted killer.
Related listings
-
Mass. parents in OD case to be tried separately
Criminal Law 01/13/2010The Massachusetts parents accused of killing their 4-year-old daughter by overdosing her with prescription drugs will be tried separately.Assistant District Attorney Frank Middleton said in court Wednesday that prosecutors decided to hold separate tr...
-
Man pleads not guilty to setting deadly Mass. fire
Criminal Law 01/05/2010A 25-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to setting a fire at a western Massachusetts home that killed two of his neighbors. It was one of nine fires set within hours of one another in the community of Northampton.Anthony P. Baye was ordered held wit...
-
Man shoots and kills court employee in Austria
Criminal Law 12/16/2009A man unhappy with a judge's ruling in his divorce case returned to the court house on Wednesday and shot and killed one of its employees, authorities said.The alleged killer — a 57-year-old Austrian male — was arrested after gunning down a 42-year-o...
Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.