Kirk Osborn, one of the chief lawyers for accused Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligman, has died, following a massive heart attack on Friday.

Osborn was a respected lawyer who had been in high-profile cases for years. He had participated in a number of death penalty cases and his wife said he was most proud that he had never lost a death penalty case.

R.I.P. Mr. Osborn, and I'm very sorry that you didn't live to see your client vindicated, as I expect he will be when the Attorney General's office concludes its investigation.

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Rumors have been rampant this week that the North Carolina's Attorney General's office would be announcing the dismissal of all charges against the three accused former Duke Lacrosse players.

The Attorney General's office now says, "Not so fast." It's not true...at least not this week.

Our review of the case, including reviewing documents and conducting interviews, is continuing," Talley said. "[A] decision hasn't been made. ... We expect our review of the case to wrap up within the next few weeks and ... no announcements about the case by our office have been scheduled."

This is flabbergasting:

A judge on Wednesday suspended the murder trial of a man accused in a 2005 courthouse killing spree because of problems the state has had funding his defense. Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller said the funding situation forced him to postpone the questioning of potential jurors in Brian Nichols' case until September 10. The questioning already had been delayed once because of defense funding problems.

Good for the judge, who rejected the prosecutor's predictable claim that the defense had spent enough money already.

The Georgia Public Defender Standard's Council is seeking more money from the state to make up for a budget shortfall. The state House on Tuesday approved a budget that includes the money, but it still needs Senate approval and the governor's signature.

Mike Mears, the council's director, said Tuesday that since final approval of the money may not come until April or May, his office recently told private attorneys assigned to indigent conflict cases that the council will not be able to pay their fee requests for two to three months.

Yes, I changed my mind this morning and decided to live-blog another day at the Joseph Nacchio insider trading trial. I'm actually enjoying it now, so I will continue for most of the afternoon.

The transcript of yesterday's opening arguments is now available here(pdf).

You can read the live-blogging at 5280.

I did get formally introduced to Joe Nacchio and Herb Stern this morning. I'm sitting behind the Nacchio family in the courtroom today.

I only have one laptop battery so I can't stay in the courtroom the whole time because there are no electrical outlets for us. It's so much better in the courtroom than the media room where you only get a partial view and it's hard to hear. But better in the media room than nowhere.

This is mostly for the trial lawyers reading TalkLeft.

We all know how important it is to use opening statements as a vehicle to humanize our clients, to show a wrong has occurred and to convey the idea of their innocence of the charges against them.

Defense attorney Herb Stern (a former federal judge and prosecutor) did an excellent job in opening arguments today of humanizing his client, former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, charged with insider trading.

First, he told the jury, "I'm going to tell you something no one has ever known." Everyone, jurors and those of us in the media room, leaned forward. Big pause.

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The jury was sworn in this morning in the insider trading trial of Qwest former CEO Joseph Nacchio.

I'm over at 5280.com live-blogging opening arguments from the courthouse.

I'm in the courtroom at the trial of Qwest former CEO Joseph Nacchio. Jury selection is underway. The questioning is being done by Judge Edward Nottingham, not the lawyers.

The prospective jurors just filed in. I'll be putting the live blog posts over at 5280.com.

Four years after the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his Los Angeles home, record producer Phil Spector finally goes on trial for murder Monday morning.

His legal team includes New York lawyer Bruce Cutler, who previously represented John Gotti.

Clarkson was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip when she met Spector at the club and agreed to accompany him to his estate for a drink at 3 a.m., according to grand jury testimony.

Spector made conflicting statements that night, first telling his driver and police that he accidentally shot the woman and saying later that she took a revolver from him and committed suicide, court documents say. Spector pleaded not guilty.

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Denver is hosting a high-profile criminal trial beginning tomorrow. It's United States v. Joseph Nacchio. Nacchio is the former CEO of Qwest communications. He's charged with 42 counts of insider trading resulting from his sale of $101 million of Qwest stock in 2001. The Government alleges he sold the stock because he knew there were big problems with Qwest meeting its financial projections.

Nacchio says nonsense. He was over-invested in telecommunications stocks and these were planned, timed sales. Plus, and this is the novel part, by virtue of serving on some Homeland Security subcommittees, he was privy to classified information showing Qwest was in line for some big Government contracts which would have made Qwest a ton of money. Thus, he did not sell because he thought Qwest was doomed.

It's the state of mind defense (like Scooter Libby in a way.)

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The politics of crime ... as it affects the NCAA tournament:

• Daniel Dillon, an Arizona guard, was suspended today after being arrested for drunk driving. Arizona plays Purdue Thursday.
• Nevada coach Mark Fox is under investigation (at least by the WAC) after using "loud, boisterous and profane language" toward officials after Nevada lost in the WAC semifinals. So who doesn't? He also "appeared ready to use force toward a police officer," a more serious accusation than cursing at a ref. Nevada plays Creighton Friday.
• The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act hasn't put an end to online sports betting. Nice try, Congress. Are office pools next?

Former New York police and correction commissioner, Bernie Kerik last month turned down an offer from the feds to plead guilty to federal tax fraud and conspiracy to commit wiretapping in exchange for a sentence of less than two years.

One of Kerik's lawyers, Ken Breen, says Kerik turned down the deal because he did nothing wrong and paid his taxes. Kerik's other lawyer, Joe Tacopina, is currently involved in a murder trial which I suppose accounts for Breen making the public response.

Kerik, you may remember, was nominated for Homeland Security chief at the urging of Rudy Giuliani. Kerik withdrew his nomination after negative details of his personal and professional life came to light. [TalkLeft coverage is accessible here.]

Now what? Reading between the lines, I'd say Kerik will soon be indicted, Rudy's campaign will take another hit due to his close relationship and sponsorship of Bernie, and I can't help but wonder, if the feds think Bernie conspired to wiretap Albert Pirro's boat at the request of former Westchester D.A. Jeannine Pirro, whether she's in trouble too. Background on that is here. She's been lawyered up in that investigation for a while. Did she talk her way out of it, give up Bernie to save herself or is she going to go down too? I may disagree with Jeannine politically and on crime issues, but I really do hope she's in the clear on the wiretapping.

I just got back from the courthouse picking up my press pass for 5280 to cover the trial of Qwest former CEO Joseph Nacchio which begins Monday. There will be a lot of national press folks in town for it, including Bloomberg News, the Wall St. Journal and NPR. The Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post will also be covering it.

Nacchio is charged with 42 counts of insider trading resulting from the sale of $100 million in Qwest stock in 2001. In 2000, Qwest was trading at $66.00 a share. In 2002, it was down to $5.00.

Qwest bought U.S. West in 2000.

The highlights for me will be opening statements and the testimony of those who accepted immunity or plea deals in exchange for cooperation against Nacchio.

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