Nota Bene

The LA Times reports:

Over the objection of three justices, the Supreme Court turned down appeals today from two Los Angeles murderers who said it was unfair that a videotape of the victim’s life was played for jurors before they decided the killer should die.

Defense lawyers had argued that this “cinematic evidence . . . designed to play on the jury’s emotions” should be excluded from a sentencing hearing in a capital case.

Today’s action leaves intact a rule that allows the use of so-called “victim impact evidence” in death penalty cases.

In 1991, the high court upheld this rule and said prosecutors may tell the jury about the victim, her life and the effect of her loss on her family and friends. Its decision restored the use of this evidence, which had been ruled unconstitutional in an earlier decision.

Talkleft has more here.

The AP reports:

O.J. Simpson was denied a new trial Friday by the Nevada judge who presided over his conviction in the gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room.

Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass said challenges raised by lawyers for Simpson and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart did not rise to the level of granting another trial.

“All of the issues have been preserved for the Nevada Supreme Court,” Glass said, acknowledging her rulings could be appealed to the state’s only appellate court.

Simpson and Stewart, who were shackled and in jail garb, did not speak during the 20-minute hearing, at which the judge also denied requests to release them on bail pending sentencing Dec. 5.

The Daily Breeze reports:

Pressured by the city auditor and women’s groups, Los Angeles city officials pledged Tuesday to spend $2.5 million a year to clear up a backlog of more than 7,000 rape cases by hiring more technicians and outsourcing some work to private labs.

“All victims of rape deserve justice. All rapists deserve prison,” Police Chief William Bratton said at a City Hall news conference with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members to announce the plan.

Villaraigosa, who has made public safety one of his top priorities, said he found extra money to hire the technicians, or criminalists, for the Los Angeles Police Department crime lab by working with unions to save money on health costs.

The City Council today is scheduled to consider the first part of the funding, a nearly $1 million program that will hire 10 technicians and six support staff and authorize $250,000 to pay for work by private labs.

Under the full program, 16 scientists and technicians will be hired every six months - as quickly as they can be trained - for the next 2-1/2 years.

The first work will be done on the oldest DNA rape kits to try to avoid any problems with the statute of limitations.

City Controller Laura Chick, in a scathing audit last week, said more than 200 cases had to be abandoned because of failure to process kits in a timely fashion. She has said she wants to see a three-year program to clear up the backlog.

The AP reports:

O.J. Simpson is being isolated from other prisoners for his own safety, and is focusing on a motion for new trial and a strong bid for appellate reversal of his conviction for kidnapping and robbery, his lawyer said Sunday.

Attorney Yale Galanter told The Associated Press he will continue to pursue a request for Simpson to be released on bond pending appeal.

Meanwhile, Galanter said Simpson will be living a lonely life, advised by his lawyers to do no media interviews and allowed to see only family members and a few friends placed on a special list at the jail.

The LA Times reports:

A federal grand jury has indicted eight former and current Ralphs Grocery Co. executives and managers on 23 counts arising from a bitter Southern California supermarket labor dispute five years ago when the chain illegally rehired hundreds of locked-out workers.The indictment said that five of those indicted, along with unnamed co-conspirators “engaged in a course of criminal conduct” that included hiring “employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation, which was intended to, and did, undermine the labor action.”

Yahoo! Tech reports:

Miffed that, if you return home from travel overseas, U.S. Customs can decide to search, and even seize, all the files on your computer, your camera, and even your cell phone? So is Senator Russ Feingold, who opened Congressional hearings on the matter last week with a scathing indictment on the practice.

In Feingold’s published opening remarks *** he begins by saying that most Americans are probably not even aware that the practice is now commonplace here. In fact, it’s been going on for at least two years; a full seven percent of business travelers now report having electronic equipment seized at the border.

The New York Times has more here.

The AP reports:

Convicted killer Scott Peterson will be heading to trial again over the death of his pregnant wife, this time in civil court. The parents of Laci Peterson have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him, seeking a multimillion-dollar judgment. A Stanislaus County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that Peterson would have to stand trial in the civil case.

The AP reports:

The California Senate on Thursday voted to ban helium-filled metallic balloons because they too frequently fly away and get tangled in electrical lines. That has caused hundreds of power outages in recent years and led to costly repairs for utilities.

Starting in 2010, anyone caught selling the popular party supplies faces a $100 fine under a bill the Senate sent to the state Assembly.

Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena, says the balloons are a growing cause of outages when they break free and cause power lines to arc.

You can review Senate Bill 1499 here.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

The state’s high court ruled Monday that a Santa Barbara deputy district attorney who helped in the making of the movie “Alpha Dog” can stay on the real-life death penalty case on which the film is based.

In a similar ruling Monday, the court reinstated a Santa Barbara prosecutor who was taken off a case after she published a crime novel with some of the same features as the actual case.

In the “Alpha Dog” case, a lower appeals court had removed Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen after he turned over probation reports, police files and other sensitive materials to director Nick Cassavetes. “Alpha Dog,” a fictionalized account of the case that starred Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake, was released last year.

You can access the Alpha Dog case here and the second, related case here.

Fox Business News reports:

New torture claims have been leveled at two U.S. military contractors by a former Abu Ghraib “ghost” detainee who was wrongly imprisoned and later released without charge, according to a lawsuit filed today in Los Angeles federal court by his U.S. legal team.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Emad Al-Janabi, a 43-year-old Iraqi blacksmith, who alleges that he was beaten and forced from his home by people in U.S. military uniforms and civilian clothing in September 2003. He was released from Abu Ghraib without charge in July 2004.