Court Of Appeals

Lisa Bender spent her summers in the 1960s sailing to Dobbins Island in the Magothy River for some summer fun. "You'd picnic, meet people and swim," the Severna Park woman said of her trips to a beach that she and many others considered to be a public place. In the 1990s, she began taking the next generation of her family there. Then David and Diana Clickner bought the 7-acre island in 2004, with plans to make it their family home. They have no interest in hosting a summerlong party or in sharing the beach with uninvited strangers who often leave their trash behind.

In a decision that is significant but not surprising, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in favor of the NFL on Friday, five weeks after hearing oral arguments on whether the league could lock out its players. The lockout will remain in place, something the appellate court strongly indicated in its preliminary opinion in May. The 34-page decision comes as, by all accounts, the NFL and players are making substantial progress toward a new labor deal, a critical juncture considering training camps and exhibition games are less than a month away.

Within the last 10 days, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the first-degree murder convictions of two Mexican men in the gruesome murders of three children in Baltimore in 2004; the manslaughter conviction of Ricky Savoy in the death of Marvin Watts in Baltimore in 1993; and the second-degree murder conviction of Raymond Lupfer in the shooting death of Jeremy Yarbray in Cecil County in 2007. In each case, the state's highest court said, the trial judge made mistakes. One judge failed to tell attorneys about five "substantive" notes that came from the jury during trial.

Judge John J. Bishop Jr., former member of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals who earlier had served in the state Senate for 14 years, died Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in the Loch Hill section of Baltimore County. Judge Bishop was 83. "He was an extremely honest individual, and there was never anything phony about Jack Bishop. He was very conscientious, so it was easy for me to appoint him in 1981 to the Court of Special Appeals," said former Gov. Harry R. Hughes.

Maryland will allow anonymous juries starting Sept. 1, after the Court of Appeals voted 6-1 Monday to permit them in criminal trials when a judge believes juror safety, harassment or tampering is a concern. The judges said juror anonymity should be a rare exception. The new rules call for all jurors to be referred to by number, not name. They allow a judge to determine if there is a reason in each case to protect the identity of jurors. Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, the lone dissenter, said he had a philosophical problem with it. "I just cannot get my arms around an anonymous jury, especially in a death penalty case," he said before voting.

When a police detective tells a suspect that their conversation "is between you and me, bud," it needs to stay that way, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday, overturning a murder conviction in Baltimore County. The judges ruled unanimously that Christian Darrell Lee's admission that he shot and killed a man during a home invasion in North Point in 2006 should not have been used at his trial, at which he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus 110 years in prison.

A judge on Maryland's highest court who has influenced the state's legal community over more than two decades said Tuesday that he will retire and join a Baltimore law firm. Joseph F. Murphy Jr., 67, said he plans to leave the Court of Appeals on Aug. 5. After that, he will join the law firm of Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin & White, where his daughter, Erin, is an appellate lawyer. "I've been on a long time. It's time to make way for other people, and I would like to have a couple of extra years practicing law with my daughter," Murphy said Tuesday.

The state's top court on Wednesday reinstated a sexual offense conviction of a man accused of forcing an Eastern Shore college student into a sex act. The Court of Appeals ruled a Somerset County jury could conclude that the woman telling Jason Mayers "no" and shoving him away to no avail during the earlier parts of a 2003 sexual encounter was enough evidence for a conviction of a second-degree sex offense. The woman had testified that she was frozen with fear and stopped resisting in the latter parts of the sex acts.

Anne Arundel County voters will get a chance to cast a ballot that could decide the fate of slots at Arundel Mills Mall thanks to this week's ruling by the state's highest court. Only this much is certain: It's a high-stakes gamble for all. Marylanders have probably come to expect a lot of theatrics whenever the subject of slots is involved. But it's become particularly true for Arundel Mills, where the owners of Laurel Park and some local residents successfully petitioned the county council's slots zoning law to the November ballot and convinced the Maryland Court of Appeals to keep it there.