Nation briefs 03/04/03

Judge: Sniper suspect may face death penalty

FAIRFAX, Va. -- A judge rejected defense arguments Monday that Virginia's death penalty law is unconstitutional and barred cameras in the courtroom for the trial of teenage sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo.

Malvo's lawyer had argued that the instructions given to a jury on when to recommend the death penalty are too vague.

"The law gives juries very little guidance in what we seek from them," lawyer Michael Arif told the judge.

Arif acknowledged after the hearing that his motion had been routine and that he had little hope the judge would overturn the law.

The defense argument "can best be described as 68 pages of diatribe against the Supreme Court of Virginia," Fairfax County prosecutor Robert F. Horan Jr. said. "It cites surprisingly few Virginia cases and then only to tell us how wrong they are."

Malvo, 18, and John Allen Muhammad, 42, are accused of shooting 19 people -- killing 13 and wounding six -- in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush rejected media requests for cameras in the courtroom.

California school district to appeal pledge ruling

ELK GROVE, Calif. -- The school district at the center of the fight over the Pledge of Allegiance said Monday it will ask the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling barring use of the pledge in classrooms.

Dave Gordon, superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District, also said attorneys will ask that the ruling be put on hold so children can continue reciting the pledge.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which says the phrase "under God" is unconstitutional when recited in public schools, takes effect in nine Western states next Monday.

Gordon said the district will substitute other patriotic exercises, such as a song, a poem or quotes from historic figures, if the ruling isn't put on hold. But on Monday, students started their school day with the pledge.

Twelfth victim of Conn. nursing home fire dies

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A man has died from his injuries sustained in last week's nursing home fire here, raising the death toll from the blaze to 12.

Samuel Barnes, 81, died Sunday afternoon at Hartford Hospital, four days after the Greenwood Health Center caught fire, hospital officials said Monday. Ten people died in the fire; the 11th victim, 80-year-old John Shack, died Friday.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. Authorities suspect a 23-year-old patient set her sheets on fire but are unsure whether it was intentional.

In Nazareth, Pa., a fire in a county-run nursing home Sunday killed a 104-year-old woman resident and injured 20 other people, authorities said. The blaze was confined to a first-floor room and doused with an extinguisher.

-- From wire reports