Girl’s killer dies in custody

Girl’s killer dies in custody

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — John Evander Couey, a convicted sex offender awaiting execution for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford alive in 2005, died of natural causes Wednesday.

Couey, 51, had been ill for some time and died in a Jacksonville hospital, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

The crime prompted many states to pass laws named for Jessica that impose restrictions on sex offenders, including tougher penalties and registration requirements. Florida’s version also bans them and others convicted of serious crimes from school grounds.

Palin book No. 1 in orders

NEW YORK — Move over, Dan Brown. Sarah Palin is on top of the charts.

Just two days after HarperCollins announced that Palin’s “Going Rogue” had been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, pre-orders Wednesday night for the former Alaska governor’s memoir made it No. 1 on both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

Among the books “Going Rogue” is outselling: Sen. Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass,” Mitch Albom’s “Have a Little Faith” and Brown’s “The Lost Symbol.”

Warrant issued for bishop on child-porn charges

TORONTO — Authorities say a Roman Catholic bishop who oversaw his diocese’s settlement with victims of sex abuse is facing child-pornography charges.

Bishop Raymond Lahey had his computer and other unspecified media seized after authorities found something troubling during a random search of his laptop computer at Ottawa’s airport Sept. 15, Ottawa Constable J.P. Vincelette said Wednesday.

Police charged Bishop Lahey, 69, with possession and importation of child pornography 10 days later. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, and police are still looking for the bishop, Vincelette said.

Link found between candy eating, violence

LONDON — Willy Wonka would be horrified. Children who eat too much candy may be more likely to be arrested for violent behavior as adults, new research suggests.

British experts studied more than 17,000 children born in 1970 for about four decades. Of the children who ate candies or chocolates daily at age 10, 69 percent were later arrested for a violent offense by the age of 34. Of those who didn’t have any violent clashes, 42 percent ate sweets daily.

The study was published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

The researchers said the results were interesting but that more studies were needed to confirm the link.

Texas governor pardons man wrongly convicted

DALLAS — A Texas man who spent more time in prison than any other inmate before being exonerated by DNA evidence has been pardoned by the governor of Texas.

The official declaration of James Woodard’s innocence clears the way for the Dallas man to collect millions of dollars from the state.

Gov. Rick Perry issued the pardon Wednesday, 18 months after Woodard was released from prison after spending more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder he didn’t commit.

Woodard was the boyfriend of the victim, who was found sexually assaulted and strangled. One of two eyewitnesses recanted her testimony, and subsequent DNA testing showed Woodard did not commit the sexual assault.

ACORN, ex-supervisor ordered to stand trial

LAS VEGAS — The political advocacy group ACORN and a former supervisor were ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges that they illegally paid canvassers to register Nevada voters during last year’s presidential campaign.

Evidence heard during more than six hours of testimony left “a lot of issues that have to be answered” before trial, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen said.

He set arraignment for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and former regional supervisor Amy Busefink for Oct. 14 in Clark County District Court.

“I think the statute is clear,” Jansen said. “It’s unlawful to provide compensation for the registration of voters that is based on the total number of voters that a person registers.”

The judge referred to testimony that ACORN wanted to register 1.7 million new voters nationwide for the 2008 presidential election.

“To me, that is a quota,” he said.

ACORN officials say they set goals, not quotas, and didn’t necessarily punish canvassers who didn’t meet them.

Associated Press