US digest 3/14

Death penalty for Yates difficult case to make

HOUSTON -- Prosecutors likely face an uphill battle proving Andrea Yates, despite her severe mental illness, poses a threat to society and should be put to death.

"Before it was a much tougher case for the defense," said Dan Shuman, a Southern Methodist University law professor. "I think now it is a much tougher case for the prosecution.

The trial's punishment phase was to begin today. The Houston mother who drowned her five children in the family bathtub last year was convicted Tuesday of capital murder.

The jury must be unanimous for Yates to receive the death penalty.

Priest sex scandals fuel calls for church changes

Pressure is building within the Roman Catholic Church to re-examine issues ranging from ordaining gays to giving parishioners a greater voice after the sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston.

A handful of bishops have made changes, ousting dozens of priests accused of molestation and working more closely with prosecutors. However, some Catholics say reform is needed beyond how the church addresses misconduct in its ranks. "The old system is dead," said the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame. "It's just a matter of how long it takes before it completely implodes."

Defendant doesn't know why her dog went bad

LOS ANGELES -- The owner of a dog that mauled a neighbor to death finished testifying at her trial Wednesday by crying and shouting out that she still couldn't understand what turned her "loving, docile, friendly" pet into a vicious killer. "I could never imagine this dog turning into what he turned into. It's still incomprehensible what he did in that hallway," Marjorie Knoller said.

After a forensic expert testified about blood stains and holes in clothes Knoller wore the day of the attack, the defense rested its case.

Prosecutors planned to call two rebuttal witnesses today, and the case is expected to go to the jury by Tuesday.

Judge reverses self to allow fingerprint data

PHILADELPHIA -- In a case that had challenged the infallibility of fingerprints as a crime-solving tool, a federal judge reversed himself Wednesday and said experts could testify that prints lifted from the scene came from a particular defendant.

The two rulings came 91 years after fingerprint evidence was first presented in an American courtroom.

"In short, I have changed my mind," U.S. District Judge Louis H. Pollak said after a lengthy courtroom explanation of his 59-page opinion.

In his previous Jan. 7 ruling -- believed to be the first of its kind -- Pollak said that experts could testify about crime-scene prints and compare them to a defendant's, but could not declare them a definite match.

-- From wire reports