Tennessee Killer Loses Appeal:  Steven Michael West, sentenced to death in 1986 for the brutal murder of a Nashville woman and her 15-year-old daughter, lost a bid to further delay his execution yesterday.  An Associated Press story reports that a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's earlier rejection of West's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutor misconduct.  On the day of the murders, 23-year-old West and a 17-year-old accomplice, waited until Wanda Romines husband left for work.  The pair then entered the house, raped Mrs. Romines daughter Sheila, then stabbed the girl and her mother to death.  A pathologist testified that both victims had torture-type wounds on their bodies. 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:  In a divided decision announced yesterday, the California Supreme Court held that a young woman who pulled her co-worker from a crashed car can be sued for doing so.  A story by LA Times writer Carol J. Williams reports that the decision creates an exception to the state's Good Samaritan law which gives qualified immunity to a person who acts in good faith to render emergency care.  Distinguishing an emergency response from medical care, the  majority ruled that the defendant, Lisa Torti, should have waited for emergency responders to remove Alexandria Van Horn from the damaged car, rather then pulling her out.  Van Horn, now a parapalegic, alleges her injuries were worsened when Torti dragged her from the car.  Torti testified in a deposition that she pulled Van Horn from the car because she feared that it was about to burst into flames.