Top 5 Live-WURD Tuesday April 28

1. Loretta Lynch Sworn In As U.S. Attorney General

Loretta Lynch is the new U.S. attorney general.

Lynch was sworn in yesterday by Vice President Joe Biden, who said the daughter of a Baptist minister who preached during the sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C., will now be “leading the march to a more perfect union.”

Lynch, 55, is the nation’s 83rd attorney general and the first black woman to hold the position. She said during a ceremony at the Justice Department that she would work to “imbue our criminal justice system with both strength and fairness” to protect the rights of all.

Lynch’s nomination was confirmed last week by the U.S. Senate, five months after President Obama nominated her to succeed Eric Holder.

 

 2. GRAND JURY: AG KATHLEEN KANE WAS NOT ‘TRUTHFUL’ 

 Attorney General Kathleen Kane engaged in a cover-up and lied about her role in an alleged unlawful leak of information from a 2009 investigation, according to a report by the grand jury that recommended she face criminal charges.

“The testimony of Attorney General Kane was not an honest account of the events, and she mischaracterized events to cover up activities undertaken at her direction to unlawfully release documents subject to grand jury secrecy,” said the report.

Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter said he ordered the presentment unsealed because there was no longer a reason to keep it confidential, and a request had been made to make it public.

Kane’s own lawyers had asked that the report be unsealed with the full transcripts of grand jury testimony had been included.

 

3. Prosecutor: 2 exams found James Holmes to be sane

 A prosecutor declared Monday that two psychiatric exams found Colorado theater gunman James Holmes to be sane as he meticulously plotted a mass murder, considering a bomb or biological warfare before settling on a shooting so that he could inflict more “collateral damage.”

“Meticulous” was the word Holmes used twice during the exams, District Attorney George Brauchler said, marking the start of a long-awaited, lengthy and emotionally wrenching trial to determine if he’ll be executed, spend his life in prison, or be committed to an institution as criminally insane.

“I shot at people trying to get away. I shot at people trying to leave the theater … to make sure others wouldn’t follow,” Holmes told a psychiatrist.

 

4. PA high court reinstates Msgr. Lynn’s child-endangerment conviction

 Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the child-endangerment conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic Church official found guilty for his role supervising priests in the clergy sex-abuse scandal.

Writing for the 4-1 majority of the state’s high court, Justice Max Baer said the state Superior Court erred in reversing Lynn’s conviction because he did not directly supervise children.

“That which is supervised is the child’s welfare,” wrote Baer. “Under the facts presented at trial, [Lynn] was a person supervising the welfare of many children because, as a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he was specifically responsible for protecting children from sexually abusive priests.”

Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor was the lone dissent, writing that he did not believe Lynn could be convicted for conduct under the amended child-endangerment law because the conduct occurred before the law changed.

Former Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who retired during the course of the appeal, did not participate in the decision. There is one vacancy on the high court.

 

5. State of emergency, curfew declared in Baltimore

Rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos Monday, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands mourned the man who died from a severe spinal injury he suffered in police custody.

The governor declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to restore order. A weeklong, daily curfew was imposed beginning Tuesday from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., the mayor said. At least 15 officers were hurt, and some two dozen people were arrested. Two officers remained hospitalized, police said.

Officers wearing helmets and wielding shields occasionally used pepper spray to keep the rioters back. For the most part, though, they relied on line formations to keep protesters at bay.

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