Georgia Supreme Court Examines Riding Lawn Mower Case

It's got four wheels and a powerful engine. It can hit speeds of up to 40 mph.

But is a riding lawn mower technically a motor vehicle?

That argument is at the center of an unusual appeal before the Georgia Supreme Court Monday seeking to cut short the prison term of a man sentenced to 10 years after he was convicted of felony motor vehicle theft for swiping a riding mower.

The court's decision could help clarify what lawyers say is a murky definition for "motor vehicles" that may or may not extend to golf carts, industrial equipment and even racecars.

On the Net: http://www.gasupreme.us

(Associated Press)

Former Telfair Sheriff To Prison For Three Years

For the third time a sheriff from Telfair County is headed to prison. Jim Williamson was sentenced to three years behind bars Thursday after pleading guilty to fraud. Following the sentencing he was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to court testimony Williams collected fines that were never paid to the county’s probate court and kept $5,000 seized in a traffic stop. He was facing up to 20 years.

This is the third time a sheriff from Telfair County has gone to prison. In 1994 former Sheriff Ronnie Walker was sentenced to ten years for protecting marijuana growers. Walker's uncle and predecessor, Jack Walker, was also sentenced on racketeering charges while sheriff in Telfair County.

Judge Denies Rapper's Prison Request

Rapper T.I. must report Tuesday to a federal prison at Forrest City, Ark., as previously ordered, a federal judge ruled Friday. T.I., whose real name is Clifford J. Harris Jr., was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for a federal weapons charge. He asked a court Thursday to let him remain free while he seeks placement in a minimum-security prison closer to his Atlanta home, but that request was denied the next day by U.S. District Judge Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. Harris claimed prison officials miscalculated his criminal history in a pre-sentencing report that said he had a "serious history of violence." His lawyer called a 2003 incident a "scuffle" with a mall cop. Lawyer Donald F. Samuel said he would continue to ask the federal Bureau of Prisons to re-classify the music star. The rapper is scheduled to report by noon Tuesday to the Federal Correction Institution at Forrest City, Ark. He was fined $100,000 and sentenced to 366 days for trying to buy machine guns and silencers he said he needed for protection.

(Associated Press)

Report Details Large Prison Population

A new report says one of every 13 adults in Georgia is in the prison system. Today's report by the Pew Center on the States notes discrepancies among the states in regard to the total corrections population. In New Hampshire, it's only one of every 88. Nationwide, the number of offenders on parole and probation has surged past 5 million. Including jail and prison inmates, the total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million - one of every 31 adults.

(Associated Press)

Old Hall County jail to house illegal immigrants

Wardens uncuffing a group of Latin American detainees before they are sent back to their countries of origin, at the Stewart Co. Detention Center, Nov, 2007. (Dave Bender/file)

The old Hall County Detention Center in Gainesville has been empty for more than a year. But that's about to change.

County officials are leasing it to Corrections Corp. of America (CCA). It will be renamed the North Georgia Detention Center.

CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant expects the firm will be doing construction and renovation work on the jail in January.

The 20-year lease with the private prison firm could bring more than 100 new jobs to the area and bring the county about $2 million in annual revenues.

Federal immigration detainees in blue and orange jumpsuits at the Stewart Co. Detention Center, a facility run by the same firm, Corrections Corporation of America, that will administer the facility in in Hall Co. (Dave Bender/file)

CCA will house federal immigration detainees.

The future of the 489-bed jail has been in doubt since the sheriff's office moved its inmates into a new $52 million jail in November 2007.

(AP)

Information from: The Times, http://www.gainesvilletimes.com

Former GA Tech employee sentenced

A former accountant at the Georgia Institute of Technology charged with using state credit cards for personal use has been sentenced to three years and eight months in federal prison. Donna Gamble of Marietta pleaded guilty to stealing more than $300,000 from the school. The 43-year-old Gamble admitted purchasing more than 3,800 personal items, including a $1,900 margarita mixer, over a five-year period. She created phony receipts and made false entries in accounting records to conceal the charges.

Report: Prison costs unsustainable

A new study says Georgia’s prison system is heading toward financial disaster. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says the cost of housing inmates in Georgia will continue on an "unsustainable path" unless lawmakers intervene. The GBPI says lawmakers should focus on better differentiating between violent and non-violent offenders, because the rate of non-violent offenders living in the prison system is rising rapidly. The study finds that the number if inmates in jail or prison more than doubled from 1991 to 2007 to 52,000 people … at a cost of more than half a billion dollars. The researchers predict the number of inmates to rise by another 15,000 by the year 2015.

Tainted toothpaste in GA prisons

Thousands of tubes of contaminated toothpaste were shipped to state prisons and mental hospitals in Georgia. The toothpaste was contaminated with diethylene glycol, which is often found in antifreeze. 900,000 tubes were reportedly shipped from China to the U.S. Officials say they know of no deaths in Georgia from the products.