Alabama

Victim’s dad offers stranded juror a ride home, judge declares mistrial

Judges routinely instruct jurors to avoid a wide range of activities that could prove problematic to a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial. However, the list is not all-inclusive, and it appears that an Alabama juror inadvertently stepped outside the bounds by admittedly accepting a ride home Monday night…

Aug 27, 2013 4:10 PM CDT

Ex-wife of NFL star sues lawyer for malpractice over $200 misdemeanor conviction

The ex-wife of former football great Kenny Stabler has filed a malpractice suit against the lawyer who represented her in a misdemeanor case over a restroom incident in an Alabama courthouse. Rose Burch Stabler was arrested in 2011 after a judge at the Baldwin County Courthouse in Bay Minette accused…

Jul 24, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

Law grad, 70, who celebrated 50th wedding anniversary June 1, is now studying for bar exam

Unlike some younger classmates, Sandra Wilson didn’t go to law school for the money. Nor is she worried about balancing a fledgling legal career with marriage and children—at 70, she just celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary June 1 and is a grandmother, the News Herald reports. Now, after earning her…

Jun 12, 2013 10:35 PM CDT

Onetime Natalee Holloway suspect may wed from Peruvian jail to avoid extortion extradition

Corrected: Convicted murderer Joran van der Sloot is now jailed in Peru, where he was found guilty of slaying college student Stephany Flores. His crime there was high-profile because of extensive publicity over the still-unsolved disappearance of another young woman, U.S. citizen Natalee Holloway, who vanished in Aruba while on…

Jun 3, 2013 2:46 PM CDT

Suspended and facing ethics case, judge blames president jurist, claims she rebuffed advances

An Alabama judge facing a legal ethics case over the unlawful arrest orders she is accused of entering against parties and witnesses in divorce cases is now blaming the jurisdiction’s former top jurist for her plight. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Dorothea Batiste denies in court filings that she abused her…

May 21, 2013 3:18 PM CDT

Woman dies on courthouse floor without medical aid after arrest over unpaid ticket, suit says

Arrested and jailed over an allegedly unpaid 2008 traffic ticket, Dwana Voncia London-Richardson died, at age 45, on an Alabama courthouse floor days after sheriff’s department and jail workers failed to provide her with medical treatment, a federal lawsuit says. It names as defendants the St. Clair County sheriff, county…

May 20, 2013 3:16 PM CDT

Lawyer for gun makers takes NRA helm, calls members ‘fighters for freedom’ in ‘culture war’

An Alabama lawyer who represents gun makers and has a knack for controversial rhetoric will take the helm Monday as president of the National Rifle Association, following the organization’s three-day annual convention in Houston. Described as a “hard line culture warrior” by USA Today, attorney James W. “Jim” Porter II…

May 6, 2013 4:40 PM CDT

Lawyer who started on pro bono capital appeal as summer associate hopes to take it to top US court

When William Ernest Kuenzel got married to a social worker in 2008, attorney David Kochman was his best man. He’s also Kuenzel’s pro bono appellate counsel in a death-penalty case in which the attorney is asserting that his client is actually, factually innocent. Kochman, a 33-year-old commercial litigation associate at…

May 3, 2013 5:10 PM CDT

‘Double-texting’ driver was steering with his knees, cops say

We hear a lot these days about the dangers of texting and driving. But apparently Dandre Moore may not have gotten the memo. After he was pulled over Tuesday for “double-texting” in the George Wallace Tunnel in Alabama, Mobile County sheriff’s officers said, the 19-year-old told them that he had…

Apr 5, 2013 3:29 PM CDT

March 25, 1931: The saga of the Scottsboro Boys begins

Three words have come to define racial injustice in the South: the Scottsboro Boys. Eighty-two years ago, a Southern Railroad freight train left Chattanooga, Tenn., bound for Memphis. Several teenage boys—black and white—and two white girls jumped on board. A fight broke out, and most of the white boys were…

Mar 1, 2013 6:30 AM CST

With billions at issue, trial begins to apportion fault for oil spill among BP, its subcontractors

A federal judge in New Orleans began hearing opening statements Monday in a trial to determine how to apportion blame between BP Plc and its subcontractors for the massive oil spill that began April 20, 2010 with a blowout of an undersea well after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded…

Feb 25, 2013 6:16 PM CST

Lawyer not liable for $80K put in client trust account—and stolen—by his secretary, judge rules

An Alabama judge has ruled against the plaintiff in a lawsuit that seeks to recover from a Saraland lawyer an $80,000 payment that was put into a client trust account—and subsequently stolen—by the attorney’s longtime secretary. Because the payment was a private deal between the plaintiff, Daniel Burrage, and legal…

Jan 16, 2013 4:52 PM CST

Drug-abusing pregnant women may be prosecuted under endangerment law, Ala. Supreme Court says

Drug-abusing pregnant women can be prosecuted under a law intended to protect children from methamphetamine labs, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled. The court ruled on Friday that the state law barring chemical endangerment of a child applies to those who have not yet been born, the Montgomery Advertiser reports.…

Jan 14, 2013 11:30 AM CST

Closing Attorney to Take Plea in Federal Mortgage Fraud Case, Forfeit $269K

A real estate closing attorney will take a plea in a federal mortgage fraud case that was unsealed last week in Birmingham, Ala. Kelvin Leonard Davis, 41, has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of wire fraud, concerning transactions in which he submitted fraudulent documents to lenders to obtain…

Jan 9, 2013 6:16 PM CST

Alabama Death Row Inmate Loses Appeal Because of Mistake by Troubled Lawyer

Alabama death-row inmate Ronald Smith had the bad fortune to be represented by a troubled lawyer who failed to submit either a filing fee or a motion to waive the cost along with court papers for a collateral appeal. As a result of the error, Smith’s documents weren’t “properly filed’…

Jan 9, 2013 11:30 AM CST