SOUTH

JUDGE DENIES KILLEN’S REQUEST FOR NEW TRIAL

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. – A judge yesterday denied a new trial for one-time Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen, convicted last week of manslaughter for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. One of Killen’s attorneys, James McIntyre, told Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon that the defense had not expected prosecutors to ask that jurors in the murder trial be given the option of a manslaughter conviction.

“We did not come to court prepared to defend a manslaughter charge, but that of murder,” Mr. McIntyre said. He argued the manslaughter option was unfair to Killen. Killen, 80, was dressed in a yellow Neshoba County jail jumpsuit during the brief court hearing. District Attorney Mark Duncan said other courts have repeatedly ruled that jury instructions allowing the option of a manslaughter conviction are proper in murder cases.

– Associated Press

BOY LOSES LEG AFTER SHARK ATTACK

PENSACOLA, Fla. – A teenage boy fishing in waist-deep water yesterday was bitten and critically injured in the second shark attack in three days along the Florida Panhandle. Craig Hutto, 16, of Lebanon, Tenn., was taken to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, where his leg was amputated. He was listed in critical condition but was expected to recover, said hospital spokeswoman Christa Hild. The boy was attacked off Cape San Blas, a popular vacation destination about 80 miles southeast of the Destin area, where 14-year-old Jamie Marie Daigle of Gonzales, La., was killed by a shark on Saturday.

The boy was fishing with two friends when the shark bit him in the right thigh, nearly severing his leg, the Gulf County sheriff’s captain, Bobby Plair, said.

The three then tried to wrestle the shark off the boy, hitting it in the nose several times. The teen was pulled ashore by his friends, and a doctor who happened to be nearby began treatment before the boy was taken to the hospital, Captain Plair said. “It got the main arteries in the right leg,” Captain Plair said, adding that the boy lost a large amount of blood. Gulf County has no lifeguards on any of its beaches, he added.

– Associated Press

EAST

NURSE ADMITS TO KILLING 29 PATIENTS

FLEMINGTON, N.J. – A former nurse who pleaded guilty to killing 24 patients admitted yesterday to killing five more people by injecting them with lethal doses of drugs. The confessions by 45-year-old Charles Cullen brought to 29 the number of victims he admitted killing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Cullen’s lawyer has said Cullen believed that his victims were terminally ill and that it was dehumanizing to prolong people’s lives by artificial means. Cullen mostly stared down at a desk in front of him during the 20-minute hearing, answering “Yes, your honor,” or “No, your honor” to a series of questions from the judge. He looked pale and gaunt, his hands folded in front of him. Cullen said he gave the patients an injection of a heart drug called digoxin, knowing it would kill them. He gave no reason for his actions and, as in previous court appearances, showed no emotion. But detective Scott Lessig, who helped investigate the deaths, said Cullen told authorities he acted out of depression.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

REPORT RENEWS DEBATE ABOUT ANNUAL PHYSICALS CHICAGO – Many adults think a yearly checkup is just part of staying healthy, and a new survey shows doctors do, too. But that practice isn’t endorsed by a panel of experts that says there’s no evidence annual physicals for healthy people are useful.

In a survey published yesterday, 65% of primary care doctors said such checkups are necessary and nearly 9 out of 10 said they perform the exams.

The survey, conducted in 2002 by Dr. Allan Prochazka and colleagues at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine. It renews a debate over annual physicals that dates back at least nine years. That’s when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force declared there is insufficient evidence of any benefit from many of the tests often given with yearly checkups. The task force is a respected nongovernmental panel of researchers commissioned by Congress to develop evidence-based recommendations for medical care. It doesn’t recommend for or against annual physicals, and neither does the American Medical Association.

– Associated Press