NEW YORK City

Reporter subpoenaed in probe of CIA leak

New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been subpoenaed by the grand jury trying to determine who leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer, the newspaper said Friday.

Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said the Times would fight the subpoena, which was issued on Thursday, according to the newspaper. Miller is one of several reporters who have been asked to testify in the probe.

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak disclosed the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame on July 14, 2003, citing two “senior administration officials” as his sources. Disclosure of an undercover official’s identity can be a felony.

Kentucky

Lawsuit says execution by injection is torture

Two murderers on Kentucky’s death row claim the state’s methods of execution, chemical injection or electrocution, amount to torture and should be declared unconstitutional.

Their lawsuit to prevent the state from setting execution dates for them says the state is legally obliged to devise an execution method “that does not inflict unnecessary pain and suffering.”

Inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling and Ralph Baze “will … be tortured to death” if the state executes them under current procedures, the lawsuit alleges.

Kentucky

Soldier gets one month confinement for lying

Military jurors Friday recommended a sentence of one month confinement and dismissal from the military for an Army lieutenant convicted of lying about the theft of a sheik’s sport utility vehicle in Iraq.

The jury on Thursday acquitted 1st Lt. Bradley Pavlik of aiding a robbery, but found him guilty of lying about the incident in an official statement.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of six months’ confinement and dismissal from the military. The defense asked for no punishment. Pavlik potentially faced a sentence of up to 7 1/2 years.

In July, Sgt. 1st Class James Williams, 37, was convicted of stealing the SUV in April 2003.

At his trial, Williams said he took the vehicle only because Pavlik ordered him to, and that he did not think it was a criminal act.