Friday, April 01, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...4-2-'11
- During a child abuse awareness event in Pikeville Friday, a tree was dedicated to be planted in memory of Randy Jones, a popular East Kentucky Broadcasting DJ who died last year. Jones' wife, Paulette Jones, and son accepted the tree and then donated it to the city of Pikeville. It will be planted at the Randy Jones Memorial Playground. A bass tournament will be held Sunday at Paintsville Lake to raise money for the Universal Park.
- Prosecution has rested its case in the murder trial against Clayton Jackson, and the case will now go to Jackson's defense attorney, Barbara Carnes, Monday. Carnes says the goal is to convince the jury that it was impossible for Clayton Jackson to walk from the area that Chris Sturgill's stolen truck was found back to his own house.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III on Friday denied the motion filed by Karen Cunagin Sypher asking she be allowed to remain free pending an appeal. Sypher is scheduled to report Wednesday to a federal prison in Florida. She recently made another request for a new trial. Simpson has rejected her two previous attempts to win a new trial since her August conviction. Sypher was sentenced in February to more than seven years in prison for extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliation against a witness. Prosecutors say she sought millions in cash, cars and a house from University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino in 2009.
- The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has taken supplies of sodium thiopental, a key lethal injection drug from Kentucky and Tennessee, effectively preventing any executions in three states while it investigates how the drug was imported during a national shortage. In March, the DEA took Georgia’s entire supply, putting a hold on executions there following claims from a defense attorney for a death row inmate that the state bought the drug from a fly-by-night company in the United Kingdom. Kentucky officials confirmed Friday that they turned their supply over to the DEA, and Tennessee officials said they relinquished theirs on March 22nd. There are currently no scheduled executions in Kentucky because of a court order that has temporarily halted them. In Tennessee, four inmates are scheduled for execution in September and October of this year.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo says Kentucky lawmakers have amassed more than $500,000 in wages in the past eight days even though they haven't been at work. Stumbo called Friday for Senate leaders to adjourn as the House has already done to stop the $65,000-a-day cost of a special legislative session, but Senate President David Williams sent a letter to Stumbo proposing that the past eight days be declared a legislative interim so lawmakers won't be paid. Williams says Senate lawmakers will not accept pay for the recess period. The pay issue arose when the Senate opted to recess until next Wednesday rather than adjourn after passing a Medicaid budget bill last month. The House adjourned, hoping to end the special session.
- Jefferson County Circuit Judge Barry Willett ruled Friday that Isaiah Howes, a former University of Louisville baseball player can't be prosecuted in the September shooting death of former U of L football player Daniel Covington. Prosecutors concluded Covington illegally entered Howes' vehicle and was punching him and a passenger repeatedly when Howes shot him. Willett ruled that there was no probable cause to conclude that Howes' use of self-defense was unlawful. Howes' lawyer, Bart Adams, asked that the case be kept out of the hands of a grand jury, saying Howes was protected from prosecution by a Kentucky law that lets people use deadly force against anyone trying to get into their house or occupied vehicle.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:47 PM 
