The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “We’re marathon runners.We know how to endure.” Dennis Murray,

a 62-year-old health-care administrator from Atlanta who ran in the Boston Marathon, which drew more than 30,000 participants a year after two bombs set off at the finish line killed three people and injured more than 260 Article, 1A Defendant fatally shot in Utah courtroom

SALT LAKE CITY - A defendant died after being shot by a U.S. marshal on Monday during an attack on a witness during a trial in a new federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, the FBI said.

Siale Angilau, 25, died at a hospital after he was shot in the chest as he rushed the witness with a pen in an “aggressive, threatening manner,” the FBI said in a news release.

Angilau was shot several times in front of a jury that had been selected on Friday.

Angilau was one of 17 people named in a 29-count racketeering indictment filed in 2010 accusing “Tongan Crip” gang members of assault, conspiracy, robbery and weapons offenses.

Under standard procedures, Angilau was not restrained in the courtroom, the FBI said.

The witness, who was not injured, appeared to be in his mid-20s and was testifying about gang initiation, Cardwell said. The person was not identified.

A mistrial was declared after the shooting. In her order, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell said members of the jury were visibly shaken and upset.

Oklahoma justices stay two executions

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of two death-row inmates who have challenged the secrecy surrounding the source of the state’s lethal injection drugs.

In a 5-4 decision, the state’s highest court issued the stays just one day before death-row inmate Clayton Lockett was to be executed for the 1999 shooting death of 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman.

The second inmate, Charles Warner, was convicted in the 1997 death of his roommate’s 11-month-old daughter.

He was scheduled to die next Tuesday.

Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish last month struck down the state’s execution law in a ruling that said the protocol that prevented the inmates from seeking information about the drugs used in lethal injections violated their rights under the state constitution.

A request for a stay filed Monday said the inmates “have received no certifications, testing data, medical opinions or other evidence to support the state’s insistence that these drugs are safe, or to prove that they were acquired legally.”Holder to unveil new clemency criteria

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is broadening the criteria it will use in evaluating clemency petitions from certain federal prisoners and expects the changes to result in thousands of new applications, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.

The new criteria, which will be detailed later this week and are aimed at inmates serving time for nonviolent drug offenses, are intended to lead to a reduction in the nation’s federal prison population and also “ensure that those who have paid their debts have a chance to become productive citizens,” Holder said in a video message.

The announcement is part of an ongoing push by President Barack Obama’s administration to re-evaluate sentences for drug crimes that officials believe were unduly harsh and were imposed under old federal guidelines that treated convictions for crack-cocaine offenses more punitively than those involving the powder form of the drug.

Four to stand trial in Detroit mob attack

DETROIT - Four men accused of punching and kicking a motorist who accidentally struck a 10-year old Detroit boy were ordered Monday to stand trial on attempted murder charges, after a judge reviewed their statements to police and witnesses testified about the chaotic mob attack.

As Steve Utash continued to recover in a hospital bed, Judge Thomas Jackson found probable cause to move the case to trial in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey introduced statements to police from Latrez Cummings, 19, James Davis, 24, and Wonzey Saffold, 30, all acknowledging a role in the April 2 attack. They were ordered to trial, along with Bruce Wimbush Jr., 17, who waived the hearing.

Separately, a 16-year-old boy is charged in Juvenile Court with assault and ethnic intimidation in the case. He and the other defendants are black; Utash is white.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/22/2014

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