In brief: Two NYPD officers shot responding to robbery
NEW YORK – Two New York City police officers responding to a robbery were shot Monday night in the Bronx.
The officers were taken to the hospital with injuries believed to be non-life-threatening, according to authorities. One officer apparently suffered a graze wound on the arm and the other was hit in the back.
Police were searching for at least one suspect who fled the scene.
The shooting comes about two weeks after two officers were gunned down in their patrol car in Brooklyn by a man who vowed online to kill “pigs.” The man opened fire, then ran into a subway where he shot himself to death.
The investigation is continuing.
Juror search begins in Boston bombing
BOSTON – A federal judge began the search for a jury in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing case, holding two preliminary sessions with juror candidates Monday and asking defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to stand and present himself to those who may decide whether he lives or dies.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole has repeatedly rejected requests from Tsarnaev’s legal team to move the trial out of the Boston area, deflecting the lawyers’ insistence that Tsarnaev cannot receive a fair trial in a city still grappling with the worst U.S. terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001. Three people were killed and another 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line.
Tsarnaev, 21, has pleaded not guilty to 30 felony charges, including 17 that carry the death penalty, such as using a weapon of mass destruction.
The chosen 12 jurors and six alternates must show that they would be willing to sentence Tsarnaev to death if the government proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were responsible for the twin bombings. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout days after the attack.
O’Toole said he hopes to start testimony by Jan 26.
Florida judge issues marriage licenses early
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage ended statewide at the stroke of midnight Monday, and court clerks in some Florida counties wasted no time, issuing marriage licenses overnight to same-sex couples.
But they still were beaten to the punch by a Miami judge who found no need to wait until the statewide ban expired. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel presided over Florida’s first legally recognized same-sex marriages Monday afternoon.
Other counties were eager to welcome same-sex couples to official ceremonies after midnight, when U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s ruling that Florida’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional took effect in all 67 counties. Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, is still pursuing state and federal appeals seeking to uphold the ban that voters approved in 2008, but her effort to block the weddings until the courts finally rule was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.