WORLD DIGEST || Lawyer to appeal to high court on conversion therapy

Lawyer to appeal to high court on conversion therapy

NEWARK, N.J.

An attorney for two associations and two licensed therapists suing to overturn New Jersey’s ban on so-called gay-conversion therapy said Friday he will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

On Thursday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their challenge, but it took exception to a lower court’s characterization of verbal communications during the therapy sessions as “conduct,” not “speech” protected by the First Amendment.

Pistorius convicted of culpable homicide

PRETORIA, South Africa

A judge convicted Oscar Pistorius of culpable homicide Friday in the death of his girlfriend, ruling that the former track star was negligent when he opened fire in his home after hearing what he said sounded like an intruder in a bathroom in the middle of the night.

The judge acquitted Pistorius of a more-serious murder charge, a day after saying that the onetime Olympian could have called security guards or screamed for help on the balcony instead of grabbing his handgun and blasting multiple rounds through the door of a toilet stall.

The next step in the sensational case comes at an Oct. 13 sentencing hearing.

The sentence for a culpable homicide conviction is at the judge’s discretion and can range from a suspended sentence and a fine to as much as 15 years in prison.

Protestant firebrand Ian Paisley dies at 88

DUBLIN

The Rev. Ian Paisley, the Protestant firebrand who devoted his life to thwarting compromise with Catholics in Northern Ireland only to become a pivotal peacemaker in his twilight years, died Friday in Belfast. He was 88.

Paisley’s blistering oratory in sermons and street protests was blamed for fueling four decades of bloodshed that claimed 3,700 lives.

Yet at the zenith of his peace-wrecking powers, Paisley in 2007 stunned the world by delivering the province’s first stable unity government between its British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority.

Bomb-case lawyers: 2,000 people needed to pick jury

BOSTON

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev say they will need to summon 2,000 people to pick a jury.

The two sides jointly submitted their proposed jury selection process to U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole on Friday. The lawyers want to issue summonses about six weeks before the expected Nov. 3 start of the trial.

Zimmerman accused of threat

ORLANDO, Fla.

Police say a driver has reported that George Zimmerman threatened to kill him after a confrontation on the road.

Police are investigating two reports involving the driver and 30-year-old Zimmerman, who was acquitted last year of a second-degree murder charge for shooting an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin.

Police say that on Tuesday, the man called police after a truck pulled up next to him and the driver yelled, “Why are you pointing a finger at me?”

Police spokeswoman Bianca Gillett says the man recognized the truck driver as Zimmerman. The man says Zimmerman asked, “Do you know who I am?” and threatened to kill him.

Two days later, the man says he saw Zimmerman in his truck outside his work. He called police but declined to press charges. His name hasn’t been released.

Associated Press