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Court looks at juveniles sentenced to life

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court may be ready to rule that sentencing someone to life for non-lethal crimes committed as a juvenile is unconstitutional, an analysis says.

The high court heard argument Monday in two Florida cases in which juveniles were sentenced to life without parole for crimes other than murder.

The Los Angeles Times reported a lawyer for a Jacksonville, Fla., man -- who was sentenced to life for a violent parole violation when he was 17 -- argued such a sentence "rejects any hope."

"It means you will stay in your cell and die there," attorney Bryan Gowdy added. Adolescents should not be treated the same as hardened adults.

Chief Justice John Roberts told Gowdy he could agree that minors should be handled on a "case by case approach," but other justices appeared to agree that such sentences are unconstitutional, the Times reported.

Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer for a violent 13-year-old sentenced to life without parole for the rape and injury of an elderly woman, said the average sentence for rape in Florida was 10 years in prison, while his client has already served 20 years for his rape.

The Times said only Justice Antonin Scalia appeared to defend Florida's sentencing policy, saying the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment does not give courts the power to second-guess prison terms set by law.

Studies say 109 U.S. prisoners are serving life terms for non-lethal crimes committed as a juvenile -- 77 of them in Florida.

A ruling should come before the court recesses for the summer in late June.

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High court clears D.C. Sniper's execution

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to delay the execution of "D.C. Sniper" John Allen Muhammad, who went on a shooting spree seven years ago.

Justices also refused to hear an appeal filed by Muhammad's lawyers, Scotusblog.com reported.

Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Tuesday in Virginia for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Meyers, 53, a civil engineer from Gaithersburg, Md., who was shot at a gas station near Manassas, Va.

Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, said in a statement the case "highlights once again the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded." However, the statement said the three justices didn't dissent from the Supreme Court's refusal to hear Muhammad's legal claims.

Muhammad was the mastermind of the slayings he and Lee Boyd Malvo committed in which 10 people at random were killed by sniper fire. Malvo, a juvenile at the time of the shootings, is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.

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China executes nine for Urumqi riots

URUMQI, China, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- China has executed nine people convicted of fueling ethnic riots in the predominantly Muslim city of Urumqi, Xinjiang province, authorities said.

Members of the Uighur minority rampaged through the city July 5, burning and stabbing Han Chinese. Two days later, Han Chinese retaliated by attacking Uighur residents in the streets of Urumqui.

It was not publicly known how many of those executed were Uighur and how many were Han Chinese, The Times of London reported Monday. The government released no details about when the nine were executed or how they were killed.

In all, nearly 200 people died and another 1,700 were injured in the several days of rioting, sparked by Uighur resentment of Beijing rule and and the influx of a large number of Han Chinese to the area.

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Leaders retrace East-to-West Berlin flight

BERLIN, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of former Communist countries Monday retraced the steps East Germans took to rush to West Berlin 20 years ago.

Merkel, among the first East Berliners to go to West Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell, completed the symbolic walk across the Bornholmer Strasse bridge accompanied by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of former Soviet Union, and Lech Walesa, who led the fight against Communism in Poland, as part off the 20th anniversary celebration of the collapse of the wall, The New York Times reported.

"It's perhaps as chaotic as it was in 1989," Merkel said of the crowd surrounding the European leaders. "I'm very happy that so many people turned up."

The bridge at Bornholmer Strasse, formally called the Bose bridge, was a main crossing point for Westerners to enter East Berlin under conditions imposed by the East Berlin authorities.

"(A) new generation is growing up who are embedded in Europe, for whom the world is much more open than for our generation," Merkel said.

A line of 1,000 large painted dominoes, painted by artists from around the world, were to be toppled along the wall's part as a symbol of its collapse.

"The wall is gone. Two Berlins are one," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in remarks prepared for delivery. "Two Germanys are one. Two Europes are one."

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First Lady's relatives eager to meet her

NEW YORK, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Two distant white relatives of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama say they are proud to be a part of her heritage and hope someday to meet her.

Debbie Shields, who has blonde hair and blue eyes, looks nothing like the first lady, but they share a common lineage -- Shield's great, great grandfather is Obama's great, great, great grandfather, the television program Inside Edition reported Monday.

Obama's great, great, great grandmother was a slave named Melvinia, who was just 6-years-old when she was sent to live on a 200-acre farm in Rex, Ga. At age 15, Melvinia became pregnant by a white man presumed to be Charles Marion Shields.

Melvinia's last name and the last names of four of her children are listed as Shields in an 1870 census, Inside Edition reported Monday.

Debbie Shields said it filled her with "pride" to be related to Obama, while her 17-year-old son, Brandon Shields, said he finds it remarkable that he is Obama's fourth cousin.

"I think it is incredible. The history of it. To go from slavery to the White House in a few generations," Brandon Shields said.