Stolen Gilgamesh tablet’s forfeiture OK’d
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has approved the forfeiture of a 3,500-year-old clay tablet bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was looted from Iraq and sold for $1.6 million to Hobby Lobby for display in the Museum of the Bible, prosecutors announced.
The artifact, known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, contains a portion of the Gilgamesh epic, considered one of the earliest surviving works of notable literature.
The tablet was seized in 2019 from the Washington, D.C.-based Museum of the Bible, founded by Hobby Lobby executives. Hobby Lobby bought it from a London-based auction house in 2014, prosecutors said.
The cuneiform tablet, dating from around 1500 B.C., was illegally transported to the U.S. in 2003 and again in 2014, prosecutors said in a federal complaint.
Hobby Lobby has returned thousands of other tablets, seals and other ancient artifacts that had been smuggled into the U.S. in 2018. The items were purchased for display in the Museum of the Bible, which opened in 2017.
Hearing denied in series-featured killing
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Wednesday unanimously rejected a request by “Making a Murderer” subject Steven Avery to hold a hearing on new evidence that he wanted to present for a new trial.
Avery is serving a life sentence for the 2005 killing of photographer Teresa Halbach, a case that became the focus of a popular Netflix series whose creators raised questions about the convictions of Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.
Both Avery and Dassey maintain their innocence. The case gained national attention in 2015 after Netflix aired “Making a Murderer,” a multipart documentary examining Halbach’s death. The series spawned conjecture about the pair’s innocence, but those who worked on the cases accused the filmmakers of leaving out key pieces of evidence and presenting a biased view of what happened. The filmmakers defended their work and supported calls to set Avery and Dassey free.
Avery attorney Kathleen Zellner asked the court to consider claims ranging from insufficient scientific evidence to ineffective trial counsel. That request had been rejected in 2017 without a hearing and Avery, in his latest appeal, had asked for a hearing or new trial to consider the evidence.
“Avery raises a variety of alternative theories about who killed Halbach and how,” the appeals court said.
However, the court said that because Avery was appealing the lower court’s denial of a request for a new trial without holding an evidentiary hearing, the question before the appeals court was simply whether a hearing is warranted. It concluded that the lower court acted correctly.
Floridian gets 5 years for torching store
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for torching a sporting goods store during racial protests in 2020.
A Tampa federal judge imposed the sentence on 21-year-old Terrance Lee Hester Jr., who pleaded guilty to an arson charge in April, according to court records.
Federal investigators say Hester was identified through video surveillance footage as he threw a flaming white cloth through a broken window at a Champs Sports store. Later, prosecutors say, he was seen with a burning palm frond moving toward the store’s back door.
Damage was estimated at $1.2 million. No one was injured.
The store was burned during several nights of racial justice protests in Tampa after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer. Similar protests were held around the country.
State prosecutors charged 120 people, including Hester’s father, with 265 separate crimes related to the unrest, including burglary and grand theft.
Florida lobster diver dies, 2nd injured
ISLAMORADA, Fla. — One diver died and another man was injured in separate incidents as Florida’s lobster miniseason opened Wednesday, authorities said.
The Monroe County sheriff’s office tweeted that the diver died early Wednesday while preparing to harvest spiny lobsters off the Florida Keys. In the other case, a man was airlifted from the lower Keys to a Miami hospital after a boat propeller struck him in the leg.
Authorities didn’t release more details, nor identify the victims.
The two-day event — held on the last Wednesday and Thursday in July — attracts thousands of people to the Florida Keys where the spiny crustacean is a local delicacy, the Miami Herald reported.
Many waited aboard boats for the stroke of midnight so they could begin hauling in lobster by sticking long-poled nets into the shallows to scoop up the creatures. Others chose to snorkel, waiting until daylight because night diving is prohibited during the hunt.
In the Keys, the bag limit for spiny lobster is six per person, per boat, the Herald reported. For the rest of the state, with the exception of Biscayne National Park, the limit is 12 lobsters per person, per vessel.