Pubdate: Wed, 13 Nov 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The New York Times
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Adam Liptak, The New York Times

JUSTICES HEAR CASE AGAINST DEALER IN DEATH

WASHINGTON - Joshua Banka's prodigious appetite for drugs killed him. 
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court considered whether to hold a drug 
dealer who had sold heroin to Banka responsible for his death.

In 2010, just before Banka was to enter a court-ordered 
drug-rehabilitation program, he decided to go on one last bender. He 
smoked marijuana; crushed, cooked and injected OxyContin; took a 
variety of prescription drugs; and topped them off with heroin he had 
bought from Marcus Burrage.

Burrage was convicted of selling the heroin and being responsible for 
the death. That second charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 
20 years in prison.

At his trial, medical experts said the heroin had been a contributing 
factor in Banka's death. But they could not say, given the other 
drugs he had ingested, that he would not have died anyway.

On Tuesday, Justice Elena Kagan distilled the testimony this way: 
"Using heroin made it more likely that he would die, but we can't say 
that using heroin killed him."

The question for the justices was the meaning of a federal law that 
requires a mandatory sentence "if death or serious bodily injury 
results from" drugs sold by a defendant.

Angela Campbell, a lawyer for Burrage, said heroin "was not the 
primary cause of the death, but, rather, merely played a part in the 
death," she said. Several justices seemed prepared to agree.

"One little grain of heroin that you discover is in the body, and 
that person's going away for, whatever it is, 20 years?" Chief 
Justice John Roberts Jr. asked a lawyer for the federal government.

"This statute does not say if you die from taking drugs, then the 
person who gave you drugs, who gave you any kind of drugs, is 
responsible," Roberts said. "It says the death has to result from the heroin."

Court won't hear abortion appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an appeal from a 
decision striking down an Oklahoma abortion law that required women 
to have an ultrasound image placed in front of them and to listen to 
a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure.

The ultrasound typically required a vaginal probe and had to be 
performed even if women objected. Some doctors said the requirement 
that they recite the description was a violation of medical ethics.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the law in December, saying it 
conflicted with a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting the 
constitutional right to abortion. In their brief, state officials 
said the law was consistent with the decision, which upheld part of a 
Pennsylvania law calling for informed consent from women seeking abortions.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom