Chicago

Wrongful-death suit allowed for embryo

A couple whose frozen embryo was accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic have the right in Illinois to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a judge has ruled in a case that some legal experts say could have implications in the debate about embryonic stem cell research.

In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said “a pre-embryo is a ‘human being’ … whether or not it is implanted in its mother’s womb.”

The suit was filed by Alison Miller and Todd Parrish, who stored nine embryos in January 2000 at the Center for Human Reproduction in Chicago. Their doctor said one embryo looked particularly promising, but the Chicago couple were told six months later the embryos had been accidentally discarded.

In his ruling, Lawrence relied on the state’s Wrongful Death Act, which allows lawsuits to be filed if unborn fetuses are killed in an accident or assault.

An attorney for the fertility clinic said an appeal would likely be filed.

Idaho

Infamous killer set to be released today

Idaho’s most infamous outlaw, Claude Dallas, killed two state officers in a remote desert 24 years ago in a crime that brought him notoriety as both a callous criminal and a modern-day mountain man at odds with the government.

Dallas, 54, is to be released from prison today after serving nearly 22 years for the slayings of Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Dallas’ 30-year sentence was cut by eight years for good behavior.

He was convicted of manslaughter in 1982 for shooting the officers, who had entered his winter camp on the South Fork of the Owyhee River, one of the West’s least-populated regions, to investigate reports of illegal trapping.

According to evidence at the trial, Pogue, who had drawn his own weapon, was hit first with a shot from Dallas’ handgun. Dallas then shot Elms two times in the chest as the warden emerged from the trapper’s tent, where he’d found poached bobcats.

Dallas then used a rifle to fire one round into each man’s head.

Dallas’ story inspired a television movie, and writer Jack Olsen chronicled the crime in a book called “Give a Boy a Gun.”

California

University considers cadaver barcodes

Shaken by scandals involving the black-market sale of body parts, University of California officials are considering inserting supermarket-style barcodes or radio frequency devices in cadavers to keep track of them.

The high-tech fix is one of a number of reforms UC is proposing to reassure people that bodies donated to science will be used as intended and treated with respect.

At UCLA, the Willed Body program was suspended by court order last spring after the director and another person were arrested in an investigation into the selling of body parts for profit. The case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed.

The university’s Board of Regents is expected to review the tracking plan this spring.

Texas

Trial delayed again for Mexican drug suspect

For the third time in a year, U.S. prosecutors have sought and received a delay in the trial of suspected drug trafficker Humberto Santillan Tabares, igniting criticism from some U.S. officials and other critics that the government is trying to avoid a public trial that may embarrass its own agents and a U.S. prosecutor.

The trial, scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in San Antonio, was rescheduled for May 2. U.S. Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth, noting the two previous postponements, warned that he won’t allow another continuance. Earlier, a federal judge in El Paso granted a change of venue to San Antonio because of publicity about the case.

Three U.S. law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. prosecutors were hoping to use the extra time to work out a plea bargain that would save them from airing their dirty laundry in a public trial.