National Desk

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The New York Sun

SOUTH


GEORGIA’S HIGHEST COURT THROWS OUT HATE CRIMES LAW


ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state’s hate crimes law yesterday, saying the measure is so broadly worded that it could even be used to prosecute a rabid sports fan for picking on somebody wearing a rival team’s cap.


The 7-0 ruling came in the case of a white man and woman convicted of beating two black men in Atlanta in 2002. It was the first application of the 2000 law, which called for up to five extra years in prison for crimes in which the victim is chosen because of “bias or prejudice.”


Forty-eight states have hate crimes laws, but Georgia’s was the only one that did not specify which groups qualified for protection.


– Associated Press


CREWS FIND BODIES AT HENDRICK CRASH SITE


PATRICK SPRINGS, Va. – Crews on all-terrain vehicles yesterday recovered the bodies of all 10 people killed in Sunday’s crash of a Hendrick Motorsports plane that was carrying family and friends of one of Nascar’s top syndicates.


Federal investigators said they did not know what caused the Beech 200 King Air to crash Sunday en route to Martinsville Speedway from Concord, N.C. The plane went down in rugged territory in the foothills of the Appalachians. Yesterday a bulldozer cleared a path to the crash site so ATVs could be used to recover the bodies. “It’s a tedious and slow process,” State Police Sergeant Robert Carpentieri said.


The plane slammed into the side of the mountain and its wreckage was blown uphill, said Brian Rayner, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator. There was no flight data record, cockpit voice recorder, or ground proximity monitoring system on the plane, so investigators will try to piece together what happened from the wreckage, radar data, and communications between the pilot and the airport, Mr. Rayner said.


– Associated Press


NORTHEAST


TERROR TRIAL LAWYER TESTIFIES IN HER OWN DEFENSE


A Manhattan lawyer accused of aiding terrorists began testifying yesterday, telling jurors she transformed herself from a 1960s Harlem school librarian into a civil rights lawyer fighting establishment for the downtrodden.


The 65-year-old grandmother, frequently smiling, said she chose to represent a blind Egyptian sheik because it was consistent with her belief that everyone deserves a good defense, “even those who are hated by the general public.” Ms. Stewart said colleagues and friends in 1994 warned her not to represent Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman against charges that he led a conspiracy to bomb five New York landmarks including the United Nations. She said they thought it would hurt her career.


“This was a case I wanted to work on,” said Ms. Stewart, who has represented revolutionaries, mobsters, shoplifters, and subway fare beaters in more than three decades. The sheik, Ms. Stewart said, had been “demonized almost since he came to this country.” He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison.


– Associated Press


ASHLEE SIMPSON’S DAD BLAMES ACID REFLUX DISEASE FOR ‘SNL’ GAFFE


If Ashlee Simpson’s stomach was upset Saturday night, imagine how she’s feeling now. Busted for a “Saturday Night Live” lip-synch gone awry, her manager-father said Monday his 19-year-old daughter used the extra help because acid reflux disease had made her voice hoarse.


“Just like any artist in America, she has a backing track that she pushes so you don’t have to hear her croak through a song on national television,” Joe Simpson told Ryan Seacrest on Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM.


Ms. Simpson appeared on NBC’s “Radio Music Awards” last night. Before she sang a song from her hit album, host Carson Daly reassured the audience they were getting a live performance. “Live, yes, live,” he said.


Ms. Simpson had performed her hit single “Pieces of Me” without incident earlier on “SNL.” When she came back a second time, her band started playing and the first lines of her singing “Pieces of Me” could be heard again.


The incident exposed what many consider an obvious secret: that some singers who appear onstage aren’t singing live at all, or at least have their voices augmented by backing tracks.


– Associated Press


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