Appeals court allows capital retrial of Wolfe

A federal appeals court will allow a capital murder case to proceed against an accused drug kingpin from northern Virginia.
In a 2-1 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond overturned a federal judge in Norfolk who had ordered a halt to the prosecution of Justin Wolfe and his immediate release.
That judge said misconduct by prosecutors in Prince William County made it impossible for Wolfe to get a fair trial.
But a majority on the appellate court disagreed. The judges ruled that a new trial can be done fairly. A dissenting judge said the misconduct was so bad that freeing Wolfe was the only proper outcome.
Wolfe was sent to death row in 2002 for a drug-related murder, but his original conviction and sentence were overturned.

Military court reverses suicide attempt conviction

The U.S. military's highest court has reversed a Marine's conviction for a suicide attempt.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces issued the 3-2 split opinion late Monday.

It says a military judge shouldn't have accepted Pvt. Lazzaric Caldwell's guilty plea in 2010 to a charge of wrongful self-injury without intent to avoid service.

Caldwell slit his wrists at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, after learning of a friend's death back home in California. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and received a bad conduct discharge for that offense and convictions for larceny and violating orders.

The court found Caldwell's guilty plea for the suicide attempt technically insufficient. The majority opinion doesn't address the larger question of whether military suicide attempts should be prosecuted as crimes or considered noncriminal matters requiring treatment.