Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Wednesday 18 september 2019

'Bridgegate' asking Supreme

Court to toss case

By DAVID PORTER wire fraud and federal pro- officials for acting without
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The gram fraud for realigning revealing an ulterior politi-
so-called Bridgegate fraud lanes at the busy George cal motive would give pros-
case was merely "bare- Washington Bridge into ecutors free rein "to charge
knuckle New Jersey poli- New York in 2013, ostensibly and convict officials for all
tics," attorneys wrote Tues- for a traffic study. manner of political deals,
day in a filing to the U.S. The true reason, prosecu- favors, and rebukes, unless
Supreme Court as two one- tors contended at their those officials are brutally In this Jan. 11, 2014 file photo, traffic crosses the George Wash-
time allies of former New 2016 trial, was to create candid about their true po- ington Bridge, in Fort Lee, N.J. Convicts in Associated Press
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gridlock in the town of Fort litical motivations.
seek to overturn their con- Lee to punish its Democrat- "Bridge gate is a case of pected to hear oral argu- bridge. Kelly was Christie's
victions. ic mayor for not endorsing bare-knuckle New Jersey ments in January. deputy chief of staff and
Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly, the reelection of Christie, a politics, not graft," Levy Baroni was the Christie-ap- authored the infamous
once Christie's close asso- Republican. wrote. pointed deputy executive "time for some traffic prob-
ciates, have accused the Even if that were true, Bar- The government has until director of the Port Author- lems in Fort Lee" email a
government of overreach- oni attorney Michael Levy Nov. 22 to file its brief, and ity of New York and New month before the lane re-
ing in charging them with argued, criminalizing public the Supreme Court is ex- Jersey, which operates the alignment began.q

U.S. court: Media should be able to hear Arizona executions

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Wood, who was given 15 Corrections to divulge oth-
PHOENIX (AP) — Journalists doses of a lethal two-drug er information about ex-
are entitled to hear and not combination and repeat- ecutions.
just see the entire process edly gasped and snorted The death-row inmates
of executing condemned during a two-hour ordeal. and the First Amendment
inmates in Arizona, a U.S. The case was filed by sev- Coalition argued the state
appeals court said Tuesday en condemned inmates should be required to re-
in a ruling that criticized and the First Amendment veal information about the
Arizona's "checkered past Coalition of Arizona. They source and quality of ex-
with executions." argued the information on ecution drugs — including
In the case stemming from drugs and executioners the manufacturer, supplier,
what a lawyer called a would help the public de- lot number and expira-
botched execution, the termine whether the death tion date — as well as the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- penalty is carried out hu- In this July 23, 2014 file photo, a fence surrounds the state prison training of execution team
in Florence, Ariz., where the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood
peals also ruled that the manely. took place. members responsible for in-
media and death-row in- The state's procedures cur- Associated Press serting IV lines.
mates are not entitled to in- rently allow journalists, law- "Given Arizona's checkered
formation about the origins yers and family members to ministered. deprives the media of ac- past with executions, we
of execution drugs or the witness executions, first on A microphone is turned off cess to governmental pro- are troubled by the lack
qualifications of execution- a video monitor while the after the IV line is placed, ceedings. of detailed information re-
ers. inmate is strapped to a ta- according to the ruling. They were not convinced, garding execution drugs
The case challenges pro- ble and an intravenous line The judges found that the however, that the First and personnel," Judge
cedures created after the is inserted, then through a process violates the First Amendment requires the Paul J. Watford wrote in the
2014 execution of Joseph window as drugs are ad- Amendment because it Arizona Department of court's opinion.q