Nation in brief: Move made to impeach judge

A Texas lawmaker is trying to impeach a high-court judge who refused to keep court offices open after regular business hours to allow the filing of a late appeal in a death penalty case.

The inmate was executed later that night.

Rep. Lon Burnam filed a resolution Monday seeking to start the process against Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller.

Keller refused to keep the court offices open after 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2007, when attorneys for Michael Richard said computer problems were delaying their efforts to file late appeals of his death sentence.

Richard was executed that night by lethal injection for the rape and murder of a Houston-area woman.

“It’s one thing for a banker to close shop at five o’clock sharp. But a public official who stands between a human being and the death chamber must be held to a higher standard,” Burnam said.

After the Richard case caused an uproar, the Court of Criminal Appeals decided to allow emergency e-mails in death penalty cases, rather than require attorneys to physically file the paperwork at the court.

Phoenix

Rap producer injured in fight

Police using Tasers broke up an early morning fight that sent rap impresario Marion “Suge” Knight to an Arizona hospital for treatment of face injuries, authorities said Monday.

Scottsdale police arrested two men after the fracas, which occurred at about 3 a.m. Monday at a private party at the W Scottsdale Hotel.

Robert Carnes Jr., 38, of Bethlehem, Pa., one of the men arrested, identified himself as the business manager of hip-hop star Akon, said police spokesman Sgt. Mark Clark. Akon, who was in Phoenix for the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, was not present during the fight, he said.

Officers arrived to see Carnes twice punch the 43-year-old Knight in the face, Clark said. Knight sustained broken facial bones, he said.

Police booked Carnes and a man identified as Thomas Anderson Jr., 33, of California, on suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct.

Clarence, N.Y.

Key parts found in plane wreckage

Investigators have located key components that might help reveal what the pilot did to try to save Flight 3407 during its final desperate seconds, when the plane plunged to the ground so suddenly that sending a mayday was impossible, an investigator said Monday.

After a seemingly routine flight, the airplane endured a 26-second plunge before smashing into a house in icy weather about six miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, killing 49 people on the plane and one on the ground.

National Transportation Safety Board member Steve Chealander said investigators have located the steering column, or yoke; all the propeller blades; five of six deicing valves; and rubber bladders designed to protect the tail from ice.

Though ice has emerged as a possible factor, the cause has remained elusive in part because there was no distress call from the pilot, no mechanical failure has been identified and the plane was so severely damaged.

The crew had turned on the plane’s deicing system 11 minutes after leaving Newark, N.J. Shortly before the crash, they notified air traffic controllers that they were experiencing significant ice buildup.

Chealander said Sunday that the pilot appeared to ignore recommendations by the NTSB and his employer that the autopilot be turned off in icy conditions. The autopilot remained on until an automatic system warned that a stall could occur, pushed the yoke forward and shut the autopilot off.