News Scan
Judge Joseph Sneed: Today services were held for Judge Joseph Sneed, who served for over thirty years on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Bob Egelko has this story in the San Francisco Chronicle. Judge Sneed died in his home Saturday at the age of 87. He was appointed by President Nixon in 1973. But the court changed dramatically a few years later.
"The Carter people have a different way of looking at the world, and we often divide on what you could call political lines," Judge Sneed told a Wall Street Journal reporter in 1984. "I'm usually on the losing side on panels in this circuit."
Yet Judge Sneed's dissents were often vindicated by the Supreme Court, including the "Three Strikes" case, Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63 (2003).
With "Friends" Like These... Sixteen-year-old Melisa Fernino faces criminal contempt charges for sending a MySpace "friend" request in violation of a restraining order, reports Alan Feuer in the New York Times. Sandra Delgrosso obtained the restraining order because Melisa made violent threats after Ms. Delgrosso dated Melisa's father. On August 23, Melisa sent a MySpace ‘friend request’ to Ms. Delgrosso and her two daughters. Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. of the Staten Island Criminal Court ruled today that this was as a form of contact prohibited by the order. If Melisa is convicted of the charges she will face up to a year in prison. "Judge Sciarrino’s order, which managed to quote both Wikipedia and 'Hamlet,' meanwhile served as something of a primer for the technologically challenged."
8th grader charged with murder and hate crime: The AP reports that Brandon David McInerney will be tried as an adult for the school shooting of 15-year-old Lawrence King, a classmate. King was shot in the head on Tuesday in class. Prosecutors plan to charge him with murder, firearm use, and a hate crime enhancement after finding out that King was declared brain dead on Wednesday. According to classmates, King was known for being openly gay and wearing feminine attire like high heels and make-up, which made him unpopular with the other boys on campus. McInerney faces 25-to-life. California law does not provide for life without parole in murder cases where the perpetrator is under 16 at the time of the crime. See Penal Code section 190.5(b).