Court Won't Hear Appeal Over Race Killing(Or Muslim Charity Appeal)

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal Monday in the case of a black maid shot to death on a Florida roadside 40 years ago.

Johnnie Mae Chappell's family wanted to sue four white men allegedly involved in the drive-by killing near Jacksonville, Fla., along with the former and current sheriffs of Duval County. Several of Chappell's children filed the suit in 2000, alleging that little was done to investigate their mother's killing, and that the county had tried to sweep the matter under the rug.

The sheriff's office conspired with the four men to misplace and tamper with evidence, the family alleged in a civil rights complaint. The four were indicted several months after the shooting in 1964, but only one went to trial. He was convicted of manslaughter.

Years later, a detective who had worked on the case told the adult Chappell children about the alleged interference by sheriff's department higher-ups.

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http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-scotus-murders-legacy,0,3261235.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


Court Won't Hear Muslim Charity Appeal

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to reinstate a lawsuit over the Bush administration's decision to freeze assets of a Muslim charity accused of financing the militant Islamic group Hamas.

The high court did not comment in rejecting an appeal from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based group shut down in December 2001. A federal appeals court had ruled last year that the Treasury Department had ample evidence linking Hold Land to terrorism.

The Supreme Court's action was a victory for the Bush administration, which has kept secret some of the documentation it says shows the group's terrorist links.

Lawyers for Holy Land denied any support for Hamas, and likened the charity closure to the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II.

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http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-scotus-muslim-charity,0,1360711.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines