Page 17 - David Wecht News Today

Adobe Stock PITTSBURGH – Due to a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday, the state senator for Pennsylvania’s 45th District comprising parts of both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties will in fact be Democratic incumbent Jim Brewster. U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan denied an attempt from the campaign of Republican state Senate challenger Nicole Ziccarelli to throw out mail-in ballots submitted in Allegheny County...

Fed. Judge Rejects GOP Challenge To Pa. Senators Election By By James Boyle Law360 (January 12, 2021, 2:58 PM EST) -- A Democratic Pennsylvania state senator blocked from his swearing-in ceremony last week by the Republican majority was lawfully reelected in the November election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Federal District Judge Nicholas Ranjan in Pennsylvanias Western District sided with the Allegheny County Board of Elections that the countys undated ma...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s state Senate said they...

Fact-checking Josh Hawley’s claim about Pennsylvania’s election law | PolitFact The Pennsylvania Constitution sets specific reasons that voters can vote absentee, such as illness. It does not explicitly forbid mail-in voting.     Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks to reporters as he returns to the Senate Chamber at the Capitol, early Thursday in Washington. [ MANUEL BALCE CENETA | AP ] Published Jan. 9 Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri led the Senate charge against the electoral colle...

on Dec. 22. Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prison journalist long known as the “voice of the voiceless” for his compelling writings and short audio tapes, moved a step closer to getting a chance for a reconsideration of his earliest appeal of his conviction — an allegedly flawed Post-Conviction Relief Act hearing in 1995 – as well as three other later PCRA appeals of aspects of his case, all ignored and their findings rejected by Pennsylvania’s appellate courts under spurious conditions. The op...

The state Supreme Court is requiring the state Department of Corrections to pay legal fees to the Herald-Standard after the justices found the agency acted in “bad faith and willful and wanton behavior” in its response to the newspaper’s open records requests several years ago. The decision Tuesday upholds a previous lower court ruling from 2018 that the DOC should pay $118,458 in legal fees to Uniontown Newspapers Inc., the newspaper’s parent company, for costs associated w...

State supreme court rejects Faulkner widow’s ‘evidence-free’ effort to block Mumia appeal Its a new chance to challenge the murder conviction. Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prison journalist long known as the “voice of the voiceless” for his compelling writings and short audio tapes about life behind bars, moved a step closer to getting a chance for a reconsideration of his earliest appeal of his conviction — an allegedly flawed Post-Conviction Relief Act hearing in 19...

Judge John Cleland, who was appointed to serve as a special master in the case, wrote that Faulkner "failed to establish the existence of a direct conflict of interest" or "an appearance of impropriety" that would prevent the District Attorneys Office from handling such appeals, according to court documents. Justices Kevin Dougherty, David Wecht, and Christine Donohue agreed with Clelands findings, though in the concurring statement dismissing Faulkners petition, Dougherty wrote that Faulkner h...

Barrier to Mumia’s appeal dismissed: Case can move forward By Betsey Piette posted on December 17, 2020 Philadelphia A significant roadblock to Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal of his unjust 1982 murder conviction was removed on Dec. 16, when Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices dismissed an attempt by the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police to obtain a change of venue in the case. With this new ruling, all of Abu-Jamal’s pending appeals and motions in the Pennsylvania Superior Court will mov...

Leviathan Chases Its Tail So here is why the case was thrown out in Pennsylvania: The state Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the lawsuit on Nov. 28, saying the GOP had waited too long to challenge the law. “Unsatisfied with the results of that wager, they would now flip over the table, scattering to the shadows the votes of millions of Pennsylvanians,” Justice David Wecht wrote. “It is not our role to lend legitimacy to such transparent and untimely efforts to subvert the will of Penns...