Despite an absence of forensic evidence, Ronnie Tienda Jr. was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison in the slaying of a 23-year-old man in a 2007 Dallas freeway shootout. The guns that were fired in the incident were never recovered, nor was there a bullet match. However, Tienda, who was present at the crime scene, according to evidence presented at his Dallas County trial, was convicted after the judge allowed in evidence of postings on Tienda's MySpace account. Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Tienda's conviction concerning the death of David Valadez, finding that the trial…

Jonathan Chan and Karla Ford expected to be second-year law students at Texas Southern University this year. Instead, the two are making headlines after filing an unusual federal lawsuit in the Southern District of Texas last week. It contends the D grades they got from an adjunct professor teaching a first-year contracts class were "arbitrary and capricious," intended to "curve them out" of the class rather than objectively assess their performance, reports the Houston Chronicle. Naming as defendants the school and the then-adjunct, the suit asserts claims for alleged breach of contract, defamation, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional…

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took on more of an arbitrator role when she appeared on Sesame Street and heard the case of Goldilocks v. Baby Bear. Sotomayor began by explaining her role for young viewers. “A Supreme Court justice is a judge who solves arguments by giving his or her opinion,” she said. The justice was able to demonstrate when Baby Bear complained that Goldilocks came into his house uninvited, sat on his chair and broke it. Goldilocks responded that she was tired and she didn’t intend to break the chair. When prompted by Sotomayor, she offered to use some glue…

As reported in the February issue of the ABA Journal, HBO will premiere The Loving Story, a documentary about Richard and Mildred Loving of the U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, on Valentine's Day. The documentary includes historical and current interviews with the couple's lawyers, Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop. The film was on the shortlist to be nominated for an Academy Award this year, but ultimately didn't make the cut. So this week, we'd like to ask you: What SCOTUS decision would you like to see a documentary or feature film about? Give us your pitches. Or if…

Updated: A gunman who opened fire near the entrance to city court in Middletown, N.Y., has been shot and killed, according to local news reports. The Times Herald-Record identifies the slain gunman as Tim Mulqueen, a former Middletown landlord with a grudge against Mayor Joe DeStefano. MidHudsonNews.com also reports the gunman was killed, though the Associated Press says the shooter was wounded. Eyewitnesses said the gunman rode his motorcycle to city hall in Middletown at around 9 a.m. and fired his 12-gauge shotgun by the door of Middletown City Court. Court officers by a metal detector outside the court entrance…

The Arizona Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling keeping a local candidate off the ballot because her English language skills are lacking. The two-page order by the Arizona Supreme Court didn’t detail reasons for the decision, report the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the Yuma Sun and Reuters. The order was issued on an expedited basis; a written decision will be released later. A Yuma County judge had banned Alejandrina Cabrera from the March 13 primary ballot for the San Luis city council in a Jan. 27 ruling. Cabrera had maintained her English ability was sufficient to…

Students at top-tier law schools are securing more summer associate positions, though the job numbers still fall short of levels before the recession. Reuters collected summer hiring statistics from top-tier law schools and found: • At New York University, about 70 percent of incoming third-year law students got summer associate positions in 2011, up 15 percentage points from the previous year. • At the University of Chicago, about 77 percent of 3Ls obtained summer associate positions last year, up eight percentage points from the previous year. • At Yale, about 75 percent of 3Ls obtained summer associate jobs, up three…

A Florida man charged in a domestic incident was freed without bond on orders that he undergo marriage counseling with his wife and treat her to a night out at Red Lobster and the bowling alley. Joseph Bray of Plantation was accused in an incident that allegedly began when he failed to acknowledge his wife’s birthday, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Bray was accused of pushing his wife on the couch, holding his hand to her throat, and clenching his hand in a fist as if to hit her. Bray’s wife attended the bond hearing and told Judge John “Jay” Hurley of…

Berkeley law professor William Falik has obtained naming rights to a restroom at Harvard Law School with a $100,000 donation. Falik told Above the Law and the Daily Californian blog that he obtained naming rights after discussions with the school’s dean at the time—Elena Kagan. Outside the restroom in Harvard’s new Wasserstein Hall is a plaque identifying the “Falik Men’s Room” as a result of a gift by Falik, a 1971 alum. “I have a name that doesn’t go many places,” Falik told the Daily Californian. “I think it’s somewhat humorous to have my name outside of a men’s room.”…

A hedge fund that lost money with a convicted Ponzi schemer has sued his in-house counsel and outside law firm. The suit accuses Minneapolis-based Fredrikson & Byron of materially aiding the criminal enterprise of convicted businessman Tom Petters over a 10-year period, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The suit by Ritchie Capital Management also names as defendants former Petters executives and Petters himself; his former in-house lawyer, David Baer; and Fredrikson lawyer Simon Root, according to a story by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Petters was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2010 for collecting money from investors that…