Shooting suspect to stay in prison

There is often a moment in court when law meets reality. For defense attorney D. Scott Perrine and his client, shooting suspect Pete Hopkins, the moment was yesterday in the courtroom of Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Palumbo. He argued his client should be freed because judicial scheduling deprived him of a timely preliminary hearing.

Of that, Palumbo conceded: "It's creative and clever, but it's just that I've never heard it before." And Palumbo concluded: "Your motion here has got to fail . . . If I followed this rule, 70 percent of all cases would have to be thrown out. Maybe more. You know that for practical purposes this just will not work." Perrine had asked for a writ of habeas corpus, a provision that lets a judge free a detained criminal defendant improperly denied their liberty. Perrine's logic was simple: Pennsylvania courts say an arrested person must get ...