Pressure felt by juror to convict black man
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A juror who helped convict a black man of fatally shooting a white teenager said he felt pressured by other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during marathon deliberations.
The jury convicted John White of second-degree manslaughter Saturday in the 2006 shooting of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro Jr. White, 54, is free on bail and plans to appeal.
Defense attorneys argued that White feared a “lynch mob” had come to attack his family when a group of angry white teenagers gathered outside his home. The teens wanted to confront White’s son.
Juror Francois Larche, who is white, said he and another juror changed their votes after enduring “a lot of psychological tactics” from fellow jurors during an unusual weekend session ordered by the judge over jurors’ protests.
“It was a huge burden to bear,” he told the New York Post in Monday’s editions.
Police wound robbery suspect outside mall
DECATUR, Ga. — A robbery suspect was shot by police in the parking lot outside a suburban Atlanta mall Monday, authorities said.
The suspect was later arrested at a home a few miles from the Gallery at South DeKalb, authorities said. His wounds were not life-threatening, DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said.
Police chased the suspect through the parking lot on foot after a man complained to an off-duty police officer working security at the mall that he had been robbed. The suspect showed a gun during the chase, police said.
Company to pay $6 million to family of woman killed in Big Dig collapse
BOSTON — The family of a woman killed when the ceiling of a Big Dig tunnel collapsed on her car last year has agreed to a $6 million settlement with the company that supplied the epoxy blamed for the accident, attorneys said Monday.
Milena Del Valle, 39, was killed on July 10, 2006, as she and her husband drove through an Interstate 90 connector tunnel. Angel Del Valle escaped with minor injuries.
Powers Fasteners Inc., a Brewster, N.Y., firm that supplied the epoxy, has agreed to pay Del Valle’s family $6 million to settle a lawsuit the family filed in August 2006.
Supreme Court to rule on photo ID for voting
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will open the new year with its most politically divisive case since Bush vs. Gore decided the 2000 presidential election, and it could force a major reinterpretation of the rules of the 2008 contest.
The issue at stake: Does a state requirement that voters show a specific kind of photo identification before casting a ballot violate the Constitution? The answer so far has depended greatly on whether you are a Democrat or a Republican.
“It is exceedingly difficult to maneuver in today’s America without a photo ID,” Circuit Judge Richard Posner, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in deciding that Indiana’s strictest- in-the-nation law didn’t violate constitutional protections.
His colleague, Bill Clinton appointee Terence T. Evans, was equally frank. “Let’s not beat around the bush: The Indiana voter photo ID law is a not-too-thinly-veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by certain folks believed to skew Democratic.”
