briefs.8a

Jurors say Skakel's own words led to conviction

DARIEN, Conn. -- Jurors who convicted Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel of murder said Saturday their decision was based not on a single piece of evidence, but an overwhelming set of circumstances.

A majority of jurors believed Skakel was guilty at the start of deliberations, while a few had questions about testimony that they wanted to resolve, two jurors said.

"For me it was the overwhelming weight of the various pieces of circumstantial evidence taken as a whole," Bill Smith said in an interview at his home Saturday.

Laura Copeland said for her, Skakel's own mouth did him in.

"I truly believe he is guilty," Copeland said. "I felt if he kept his mouth shut for 27 years, it probably wouldn't have gotten to that point. I gave weight to his own words."

Recovery workers find remains near ground zero

NEW YORK -- Workers searching through debris in buildings adjacent to the World Trade Center site have found the remains of about a dozen people in the past week, city officials said Saturday.

The official recovery effort ended May 30 when the last debris from the World Trade Center was cleared, but some of the surrounding buildings had not been extensively searched.

Crews searching those buildings over the past week have found bone fragments, teeth and even parts of a plane's luggage rack, The New York Times reported Saturday.

After 30 years, Texas prisons free of fed courts

HOUSTON -- Texas prison system administrators and lawyers for inmates reached agreement Friday on some unresolved issues to end three decades of federal court control of the state's prisons.

"It's basically all done but for some paperwork that needs to be signed," said Carl Reynolds, chief legal counsel for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "It's historic and exciting to be a witness to it."

Under the deal, which U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice is expected to formally sign off on next week, prison officials agreed to address concerns over excessive use of force against inmates, confinement of mentally ill prisoners in administrative segregation and protection of prisoners from assault and abuse by fellow inmates.

--From wire reports