VanPac News History

July 2, 1991

SECTION: NATIONAL NEWS; SECTION A; PAGE 03

LENGTH: 681 words

HEADLINE: THE SOUTH IN BRIEF; States line up to try Moody

BYLINE: Compiled from wire service reports

BODY:

Alabama Attorney General Jimmy Evans said Monday that convicted mail Bomb murderer Walter Leroy Moody Jr. mounted a "terrorist attack" on the judiciary and that a capital murder prosecution is warranted.

The only remaining question, he said, is where Moody will first face a possible death penalty prosecution - in Alabama or in Georgia. Mr. Evans said he expects to meet with federal and state prosecutors in the next few weeks to decide which state will try Moody first.

Moody, accused of mailing package bombs that detonated and killed U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Vance in Mountain Brook, Ala., and civil rights lawyer Robert Robinson in Savannah, was convicted last Friday in Minnesota on non-capital federal charges stemming from the 1989 killings.

MISSISSIPPI BLACKS SEEK REDISTRICTING: Mississippi blacks have asked a federal court to redraw Mississippi House and Senate district lines to increase the number of minorities who might be elected to legislative offices this fall. The Justice Department began its review Monday of the new districts submitted by the state for approval under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Attorney Carroll Rhodes, representing the black plaintiffs, said the court has been asked to stop any elections from being held under legislative districts as they exist, or under those redrawn this spring and filed with the Justice Department.

HIALEAH MAYOR DENIED NEW TRIAL: A federal judge in Miami on Monday denied a new trial to Raul Martinez, the suspended mayor of Hialeah who was convicted of taking almost $ 1 million from developers in exchange for favorable zoning votes. Sentencing date was set for July 9. Martinez, 42, was convicted in March of six counts of racketeering and extortion in connection with charges he extorted almost $ 1 million in cash and property from developers while mayor. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each of six counts, for a maximum of 120 years and up to $ 1.5 million in fines. He remains free on bond until the sentencing.

TEENS GET PROBATION IN HIGHWAY ATTACKS: Two teenage boys were sentenced Monday to one year's probation for firing high-powered slingshots at vehicles on Interstate 75 in Knoxville. The incidents apparently were inspired by a sniper's attacks along area highways earlier this year in which one person was killed and two were wounded. Those shootings remain unsolved. The boys, aged 15 and 16, admitted pelting the windshield of a Huntsville, Tenn., woman's car and the porthole window of a truck driven by a Rome, Ga., man on May 1. Neither driver was hurt.

ANOTHER DENTAL PATIENT TO SUE OVER AIDS: A suburban Detroit woman plans to file suit against the estate of a Florida dentist who infected her with the AIDS virus before he died of the disease, her attorney says. Lisa Shoemaker of Birmingham, Mich., was infected through being treated by Dr. David Acer, who died last September. Last week she sent a letter of intent to sue Dr. Acer's estate. Tests showed that five of his patients have been infected by the AIDS virus. One patient, Kimberly Bergalis, settled for $ 1 million.

NEW JACKSONVILLE MAYOR HAS HIGH HOPES: Ed Austin, a Florida state attorney for nearly two decades, was inaugurated Monday as mayor of Jacksonville, proclaiming the city "a diamond in the rough." The new mayor was sworn in by Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw, who Mr. Austin hired many years ago as an assistant state attorney. Mr. Austin, who turns 65 on July 15, will receive a state pension of $ 52,827 annually in addition to his mayoral salary of $ 100,000 a year.; ELSEWHERE

Opponents of a hazardous waste incinerator in Pender County, N.C., will travel to Raleigh today to lobby state lawmakers to support proposals that could prevent the project. . . . The Clingmans Dome area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee will be temporarily closed while crews treat its insect-infested Fraser fir trees.; COMING UP

Today: Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King speak at "A Salute to Legends" banquet in Memphis.

GRAPHIC: Photo: mug of Walter Leroy Moody Jr.