• The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether juveniles convicted of killing someone may be locked up for life with no chance of parole, a follow-up to last year’s ruling barring such sentences for teenagers whose crimes do not include killing.
The justices will examine a pair of cases from the South involving young killers who are serving life sentences for crimes they committed when they were 14. Their lawyers contend the sentences violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
• The court refused to hear an appeal from a Texas death-row inmate who won a last-minute reprieve from the high court in September. The justices turned away the appeal of Duane Buck, who wanted them to consider whether race played an improper role in his sentencing.
Buck, who is black, was sentenced to death for the fatal shootings of his ex-girlfriend and a man in her apartment in July 1995. His attorneys contend Buck deserves a new sentencing hearing because of a psychologist’s testimony that black people were more likely to commit violence.
• The court won’t hear an appeal from some television networks being sued by a paranormal investigator, Larry Montz, who claims his idea was stolen and turned into the television show “Ghost Hunters.” Without comment, the court turned away an appeal from NBC Universal, Inc., Universal Television Networks and Pilgrim Films & Television Inc. The Associated Press
