SOUTH

JURY IN CIVIL RIGHTS-ERA MURDER TRIAL GETS CASE

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. – The murder case against a former Klansman charged in the slayings of three civil rights workers went to the jury yesterday after prosecutors made an impassioned plea for a conviction, saying the victims’ families have waited a long 41 years for someone to be brought to justice. “Because the guilt of Edgar Ray Killen is so clear, there is only one question left, “prosecutor Mark Duncan said in closing arguments. “Is a Neshoba County jury going to tell the rest of the world that we are not going to let Edgar Ray Killen get away with murder any more? Not one day more.”

The 12 jurors – nine white and three black – later begin deliberating whether to convict 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen of murder after the week-long trial. He could get life in prison. The defense attorney, James McIntyre, said that while events that occurred in 1964 were horrible and he had sympathy for the families of the victims, “the burden of proof does not reflect any guilt whatsoever” on the part of Mr. Killen.

– Associated Press

FAKE DOCUMENTS GOT WORKERS INTO NUKE PLANT

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Sixteen foreign-born construction workers with phony immigration documents were able to enter a nuclear weapons plant in eastern Tennessee because of lax security controls, a federal report said yesterday.

Controls at the Y-12 weapons plant have since been tightened and there was no evidence the workers had access to any sensitive documents, said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons facilities for the Department of Energy. However, the DOE inspector general’s office said in the report issued yesterday that its field agents found “official use only” documents “lying unprotected in a construction trailer which was accessed by the foreign construction workers” at the plant. “Thus, these individuals were afforded opportunities to access … [this] information,” the inspector general wrote. “We concluded that this situation represented a potentially serious access control and security problem.” The report, initiated by a tip in 2004, said the workers had fake green cards that certified them to work in America. Their cases were turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for deportation.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

HIGH COURT UPHOLDS ORDINANCE ON BUILDING CONVERSION FEE

Dealing another setback to the property-rights movement, the Supreme Court yesterday upheld a San Francisco ordinance that requires building owners to pay the city a fee when they convert rental units into hotel rooms.

The owners of the San Remo Hotel said the $567,000 fee they were forced to pay violated the Constitution’s guarantee that “private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Three years ago, the California Supreme Court upheld the ordinance on a 4-3 decision, despite a dissent by Justice Janice Rogers Brown who called it an example of “thievery” by the government. The city said it sought to preserve rental units for low-income people and the homeless.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that the hotel owners did not have the right to challenge such fees in a federal court once they had tried and lost in the state courts. Together, the rulings make clear that local and state governments have broad power to regulate private property and to charge special fees for developers. They also dash the hopes of property rights advocates who have said they could fare better in the federal courts.

– Los Angeles Times

NORTHEAST

VERMONT’S FIRST DEATH PENALTY CASE IN 40 YEARS BEGINS

A man on trial in Vermont’s first death penalty case in 40 years was portrayed by prosecutors yesterday as a cold, calculating killer who bludgeoned a woman to death so he could take her car. “Donald Fell would stop at nothing to escape his vicious crime,” the assistant U.S. attorney, Stephen Kelly, said during opening statements. “He made decisions again and again that led to Terry King’s death.” Meanwhile, Mr. Fell’s attorney all but conceded his guilt, showing that the defense’s focus is on sparing Mr. Fell from the death penalty by showing a background of neglect and abuse. Attorney Alexander Bunin told jurors his client was responsible for killing King and also a friend of his mother’s during an alcohol-and drug-induced stupor, while his best friend killed Mr. Fell’s mother. The friend, Robert Lee, hanged himself in prison in 2001. Mr. Bunin’s opening statement prompted prosecutors to ask U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III why they were bothering with a trial. Judge Sessions said he had the same thoughts.

– Associated Press

WEST

MAN WITH DUD HAND GRENADE FATALLY SHOT BY POLICE

SEATTLE – A man carrying a hand grenade and shouting threats was shot dead by police yesterday in the lobby of the federal courthouse. The grenade was inactive, but police could not see that as the man held it in his hand, the police chief, Gil Kerlikowske, said.

Witnesses said the man, wearing a backpack that he later strapped to his chest, tried to get past security and began shouting threats. Mr. Kerlikowske said the backpack contained a cutting board. The man “often frequented the courthouse as well as the federal building,” U.S. Marshal Eric Robertson said, adding he had a “disdain” for the federal government.

The medical examiner’s office said it would not identify the man until today. In the lobby, a guard saw the man take the grenade out of his backpack, then try to walk across a ledge next to a pool that blocks public access to a secured area, Mr. Robertson said. Judges, jurors, employees, and prisoners in the 23-story federal building were evacuated.

– Associated Press