Nation digest 07/30/03

Hung jury declared in police beating case

LOS ANGELES -- A judge declared a hung jury Tuesday in the police brutality case against a white former officer who punched and slammed a handcuffed black teenager onto a squad car during a videotaped arrest.

The jury deliberated more than three days without reaching a verdict against former Inglewood officer Jeremy Morse.

District Attorney Steve Cooley said his office would review the proceedings and decide whether to seek a retrial.

The incident began when Donovan Jackson, 16, came out of a convenience store to find Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies questioning his father about expired license plate tags.

A bystander videotaped part of the arrest. The tape showed Morse lifting Jackson by his collar and belt and slamming his head down on the trunk of a police car. Morse then punched the teen in the head.

Democrats again leave Texas to bust quorumALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Eleven Texas Democrats were holed up in a Marriott on Tuesday after bolting the state in a protest against a GOP redistricting plan, e-mailing constituents and holding news conferences.

The Democrats walked out on Monday, forcing the Senate to a standstill amid a second special session over the rancorous redistricting debate. The move came less than three months after House Democrats fled for Oklahoma to protest the redistricting plan.

Republicans are pressing for more seats in the state's 32-member delegation to the U.S. House. The Democrats hold a 17-15 advantage, which Republicans say does not reflect the state's increasingly Republican voting patterns. Most Democrats want to keep the congressional map drawn by a three-judge federal panel in 2001.

Trial of bombing suspect delayed indefinitely

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A federal judge has delayed the trial of serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph indefinitely, saying both sides need more time to prepare.

In a decision released Tuesday, federal Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. said it was "unreasonable" to expect attorneys to be ready before next year, in a case involving more than 100,000 court filings.

Rudolph, 36, is charged in the Jan. 28, 1998, bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a clinic nurse. He is also accused in the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta that killed one, as well as bombings the next year in Atlanta at an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub.

He was arrested May 31 in Murphy, N.C., after five years as a fugitive.

Judge asked to deny award to former POWs

WASHINGTON -- Assets seized from the Iraqi government should be used to rebuild the country and not to compensate 17 Americans held captive in Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge Tuesday.

Attorneys for the former POWs argued that a 1996 federal law should give them access to the money.

U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts awarded the POWs $653 million in compensatory damages this month and ordered the government to set aside that amount from the $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets held in a special bank account in New York. The Justice Department asked Roberts to rescind that order, arguing that President Bush formally seized the money after U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March.

Roberts promised a quick ruling.

-- From wire reports