Free Republic

Supreme Court unanimous reversals of the Ninth Circuit are becoming so common as to be almost yawn inducing. Today comes the latest reversal of a Ninth Circuit ruling in favor of a sex offender who attacked a 72-year-old woman. In short, the big bench once again was forced to remind the S.F.-based court that it is supposed to defer to local court decisions.

Fairfax, VA – The California State Court of Appeals announced today their decision to overturn one of the most restrictive gun bans in the country, following a legal battle by attorneys for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and a previous court order against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “Today’s decision by the California State Court of Appeals is a big win for the law-abiding citizens and NRA Members of San Francisco,” declared Chris W. Cox, NRA’s chief lobbyist. In 2005, NRA sought an injunction against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to prevent them from enacting one of the...

Science Daily — For two generations of physicists, it has been a standard belief that the neutron, an electrically neutral elementary particle and a primary component of an atom, actually carries a positive charge at its center and an offsetting negative charge at its outer edge. The notion was first put forth in 1947 by Enrico Fermi, a Nobel laureate noted for his role in developing the first nuclear reactor. But new research by a University of Washington physicist shows the neutron's charge is not quite as simple as Fermi believed. Using precise data recently gathered at three different laboratories...

EL PASO, Tx. - The El Paso District Attorney's office confirms the Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed the death penalty sentence for convicted child killer David Renteria. Renteria's conviction, however, stands. Renteria was convicted in 2001 for the brutal murder of 5 year-old Alexandra Flores. It was back in November of 2001 when the story of Alexandra Flores made national headlines. Surveillance video shows Alexandra walking out of the Wal-Mart with a man. One day later, Alexandra was found dead in a central city parking garage, her body was partially burned.

SAN FRANCISCO A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction, but set aside the death sentence of a man condemned for kidnapping and murdering an 8-year-old Hayward girl in 1978. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means Richard Hovey's sentence is changed to life without parole. If the decision withstands appeal, Hovey, who tossed a bound Tina Salazar of Hayward from a car after beating her, would be removed from death row at San Quentin State Prison. The San Francisco-based appeals court reversed the sentence after concluding Hovey received ineffective assistance of counsel during the...

SAN FRANCISCO – A state trial judge sided Monday with the National Rifle Association in overturning a voter-approved city ordinance that banned handgun possession and firearm sales in San Francisco. Measure H was placed on the November ballot by the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors, who were frustrated by an alarmingly high number of gun-related homicides in the city of 750,000. The NRA sued a day after 58 percent of voters approved the law. In siding with the gun owners, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge James Warren said a local government cannot ban weapons because the California Legislature...

SAN FRANCISCO - The California Attorney General's office has a month left to decide whether it will fight to see Gregory Allen Sturm die. On March 8, the California Supreme Court overturned the 35-year-old's death sentence for the August 19, 1990 robberies and murders of Darrell Esgar, Chad Chadwick, and Russell Williams. Death penalty opponents tout the court's decision as another example of increasing tensions over methods of criminal punishment in California. According to the court, however, the 5-2 decision overturning the death sentence focused on the trial judge's misconduct. Sturm is still convicted of the crimes, which occurred at...

State Battles Likely if Roe Overturned By DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 5,11:56 PM ET NEW YORK - Undoubtedly, there would be tumult — likely roiling every statehouse in the nation. Beyond that, little is certain about what would unfold if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the divisive 1973 decision establishing a woman's right to have an abortion. Reversal remains only a hypothesis for now, yet both sides in the abortion debate are discussing the demise of Roe as an increasingly serious possibility. President Bush's nomination of conservative Samuel Alito to replace moderate Justice Sandra Day...

Murder Convictions Overturned For Two Men Appeals Court Says Judge Should Have Allowed Defense Strategy POSTED: 3:43 p.m. HST July 23, 2003 UPDATED: 4:04 p.m. HST July 23, 2003 HONOLULU -- Two men convicted of killing an Army pilot in 1998 have had their murder convictions overturned. Roberto Miguel and Bryson Jose were convicted of felony murder for the death of Capt. John Latchum. Latchum was shot in 1998 when he caught Jose and Miguel trying to break into his Waianae vacation cabin. An appeals court Wednesday ruled that Judge Helen Gillmor should have let the defense try to blame...

Wrongfully convicted man struggles outside prison FREED INMATES DESERVE STATE'S HELP, CRITICS SAY By Joe Biesk ASSOCIATED PRESS FRANKFORT - The day he was freed for a rape he didn't commit, the state gave Herman May a $25 check. May walked out of prison with little more than the clothes on his back -- he was the second person in Kentucky freed based on DNA testing. Today, May has little money, no college education, one kidney and no health insurance. Unlike other inmates in the prison system, May said, he wasn't provided with a support system or regimen to help...

'I THOUGHT I WAS ONE OR TWO SECONDS FROM DEATH' Rounding a bend on the river, Blake Stanfield saw a solid sheet of ice ahead. There was no way to turn the cataraft around in the rushing current that thrust the Seward doctor and his father toward the 2-foot-high white wall. The right pontoon slammed against the ice, flipping the raft upside down and under the slab. It's all a chaotic memory for the men now, flashes of tumbling in bone-chilling water, knocking their heads against the ice bottom, gasping at a thin pocket of air. Most of all, Stanfield...

<p>Simon gets $78 million worth of good news . . .</p> <p>BILL Simon's campaign to unseat Gov. Gray Davis received some very good news Thursday. Will the campaign staff know how to handle this turn of events?</p> <p>A judge in Los Angeles County Superior Court threw out a $78 million civil fraud verdict that a jury had levied against Simon's family investment firm. The reversal of the verdict was also a reversal in the general run of news for the Simon campaign, which has been struggling to find its footing.</p>

ANNAPOLIS -- The state Court of Appeals struck down Maryland's legislative redistricting plan today and said it will draw up its own districts for election of the 188 members of the General Assembly. The court ruled the plan prepared by Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening violated constitutional requirements that legislative districts be compact. It said the governor also did not give due regard to county boundaries. The court said it will prepare its own plan.