West Virginia

A divided West Virginia Supreme Court has reversed a court decision ordering a pit bull be put down, The Herald-Dispatch's Curtis Johnson reports. Pit bull Tinkerbell bit a boy as he was passing by, and the boy required 14 stiches on his face.

The trial judge found that one bite was sufficient evidence to deem Tinkerbell vicious. But the Supreme Court, 3-2, found that one bite did not meet the state code definition for dogs that display a "habit of biting people." The majority also found that the trial judge "relied upon a breed-specific presumption not found in state code, which would allow a pit bull's death based solely upon the belief its breed is inherently vicious," Johnson reports.

While West Virginia does not have an academic-freedom exemption to its public records law, that state's high court has ruled that documents that are "internal memoranda" from a university researcher's examination of the impact of mountaintop-removal mining on public health are exempt from disclosure.

The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. reports that Alpha Natural Resources' efforts to get West Virginia University to release research documents would expose the predecisional, deliberative "'decision-making process in such a way as to hinder candid discussion' by university faculty and 'undermine WVU’s ability to perform its operations.'" The court was examining the exemption for internal governmental communications reflecting a "'public body's deliberative, decision-making process."'

Researcher Michael Hendryx has found that people living near mountaintop removal face increased risks of premature death, cancer and birth defects.

West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis has rejected a second request to recuse herself from nursing home cases, the Charleston Daily Mail's Andrea Lannom reports. The justice's recusal has been sought because a plaintiff's attorney in a nursing home case helped raise money for the justice's election campaign and purchased a private jet from the justice's husband for $1 million.

Davis said the contributions from the lawyer and his associates were less than one-half of one percent of contributions to her 2012 campaign and she wasn't aware of the price paid for the private jet because it was sold through a broker retained by her husband.

In the first nursing home case in which Davis' recusal was sought, a jury awarded $91.5 million; Davis, who wrote the majority opinion for the West Virginia Supreme Court, reduced the award to $38 million. A second nursing home case is pending before the Supreme Court over what documents are privileged from disclosure.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers struck down West Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, the West Virginia MetroNews reports: "'The right to marry is a fundamental right, giving every individual the opportunity to exercise choice in this important relationship. As such, the government must not interfere in that choice unless it demonstrates compelling state interests and carefully tailors its restrictions to protect those interests,"' the judge said.

In contrast, the Sixth Circuit last week upheld same-sex marriage bans under the lowest level of constitutional scrutiny: rational basis. Other courts have often been applying greater constitutional scrutiny in striking down bans on same-sex marraige.

West Virginia's MetroNews reports that the WVU Law Innocence Project is "pushing legislation at the capitol which would require all police interrogations to be video recorded. Supporters of the bill believe it will reduce the chances of false confessions and ultimately false convictions."

Recording confessions is now considered a best practice to prevent innocent people from falsely confessing to crimes they didn't commit or being wrongfully convicted of crimes they didn't commit.

West Virginia has passed legislation establishing protocols to ensure investigating officers don't influence witnesses during lineups, MetroNews also reported.

Two courts rulings regarding same-sex marriage have been issued. A state judge ruled that the law authorizing same-sex marriage in Hawaii is constitutional, BigIslandNow.com reports. A federal judge has authorized a challenge to West Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage to go forward, The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, WV, reports. The federal judge did strike down a claim involving out-of-state-marriages because "unmarried couples, with no stated desire to marry in another state, lack standing to challenge West Virginia's non-recognition of out-of-state marriages."

The West Virginia Attorney General is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging West Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage in order to defend the constitutionality of the state law, The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia, reports. The plaintiffs allege that their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process are being violated by the ban.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the case of a judge who has plead guilty and agreed to cooperate in a case of judicial corruption: "A West Virginia judge pleaded guilty Wednesday to participating in a scheme to conceal alleged illegal drug use and election-law violations by a sheriff who was murdered earlier this year, amid a widening corruption probe in Mingo County. Michael Thornsbury, 57 years old, who had served as the county's sole circuit judge since 1997, admitted to promising a local businessman a lighter sentence on a drug charge if he hired a new attorney, with the goal of silencing his cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

PENNSYLVANIA: The register of wills in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, ordered to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples is seeking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's review on whether the lower appellate court had jurisdiction and if the state health department opposing the licenses' issuance made out its burden of proof in the case, Reuters reports: http://whtc.com/news/articles/2013/oct/01/pennsylvania-clerk-appeals-ban...

NEW JERSEY: This state's attorney general has asked a state judge to put a stay in place until the New Jersey Supreme Court can rule on the constitutionality of the state's civil union law when it does not allow same-sex marriage, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The AG argued, Bloomberg reports, "the judge should allow the Supreme Court, 'the ultimate arbiter of substantial constitutional issues, to definitively determine the contested issue and allow that court, if it deems necessary, to take the drastic step of rejecting on constitutional grounds' a state law.": http://mobile.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-01/new-jersey-asks-judge-to-...

WEST VIRGINIA: Lambda Legal has filed a constitutional challenge to WV's ban on same-sex marriage, arguing it violates the plaintiffs's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Associated Press reports: http://m.tribtown.com/view/story/4c19a72e9dbc40cca08b54eb02037d72/WV--Ga...

MISSISSIPPI: A same-sex couple seeking a divorce after getting married in California are litigating to have their marital dissolution recognized under Mississippi family law,WMC-TV reports: http://m.wmctv.com/#!/newsDetail/23551743

That case may be the first of its kind in the state.

A West Virginia judge has been charged by federal prosecutors  with allegedly conspiring with a prosecutor, county commissioner and now-deceased sheriff to stop a confidential informant from talking with the FBI information about his drug deals with the sheriff, according to WSAZ News Channel 3, which covers news in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

According to the news report: the informant was targeted by the sheriff after he tried to collect a $3,000 debt the sheriff owed the informant for making political signs. The sheriff arranged for an undercover informant to try to buy oxycodone from the sign-maker, and the sign-maker was indicted for possession of controlled substances with intent to deliver. But after the sign-maker was arrested he disclosed to the FBI that the sheriff had bought prescription narcotics from him several times. Then the judge, the sheriff and the others allegedly arranged to offer the sign-maker a favorable plea deal if he would fire his attorney, who was assisting the FBI, and replace him with a lawyer allegedly handpicked by the conspirators.