FOOTBALL GUNS
Criminal Court Judge Judge Felicia Mennin made headlines yesterday, arraigning the football star Plaxico Burress among a sea of cameras. The New York Post has the story. Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg at a nightclub over the weekend, drawing scorn from officials around the city. His sentence could be a stiff one. The judge arraigned him on felony gun charges--offenses that could put the player in jail for up to three-and-a-half years.

REPLACEMENT PROBLEMS? 
During a press conference yesterday, Governor David A. Paterson expressed disfavor with the list of nominees to replace Chief Judge Judith Kaye. He questioned the diversity of the list, which only included a single person of color. The list of nominees, compiled by the Commission for Judicial Nomination was: George Carpinello,  Evan Davis, Steven Fisher, Theodore Jones Jr., Jonathan Lippman, Eugene Pigott Jr., and Peter Zimroth. The Albany Times Union has the story. In addition, Judicial Reports covered the story earlier this year.

IRAQI DEATH SENTENCE 
An Iraqi judge made a momentous decision yesterday as Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's "Chemical Ali" cousin, was sentenced to death for his crimes against humanity in 1991. Already sentenced to be hung at a trial last year, the former Baathist official remained resolute. The AP described the scene at the trial: "Former Baath party official Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafur also received a death sentence at the end of the trial, which began in August 2007. He shouted, 'Down with the Persian-U.S. occupation!' as the sentence was read. 'Shut up, you dirty Baathist,' snapped chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, referring to Saddam's Baath party.