Page 4 — Thursday, May 29, 2008
NaTioNal
SouthweSt JournaliSt
NatioNal
Woman dies
in iron lung
after outage
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A wom-
an who spent nearly 60 years
of her life in an iron lung died
Wednesday after a power fail-
ure shut down the machine.
Dianne Odell, 61, had been
confined to the machine since
she was stricken by polio at 3
years old, before a vaccine was
discovered for the disease.
Family members said they
were unable to get an emer-
gency generator working for
the iron lung after a power fail-
ure knocked out electricity to
the Odell family’s residence,
about 80 miles northeast of
Memphis.
Despite her confinement,
Odell earned a high school
diploma, took college courses
and wrote a children’s book.
Inmate to be tried
with new evidence
NASHV ILLE, Tenn. — A
federal judge on Wednesday
ordered Tennessee to quick-
ly re-try or free a death row
inmate whose conviction was
questioned after DNA evidence
raised doubt about his guilt.
Paul House was sentenced
to die for the 1985 slaying of a
young woman. However, the
Supreme Court ruled in June
2006 that jurors would not have
convicted House if they had the
results of DNA tests that were
revealed in the late 1990s.
On Wednesday, a district
judge granted House’s request
to force prosecutors to begin a
new trial quickly. Mattice said
the process for a new trial must
begin by June 17 or House must
be freed.
Two face charges
in marijuana case
LOS ANGELES — The owner
of six California medical mar-
ijuana stores, including one
linked to an accident that killed
a motorist and paralyzed an
officer, faces federal drug and
money-laundering charges.
Virgil Grant III, 41, and his
wife, Psytra Grant, 33, were
a r rested Tuesday, sa id a
spokesman for the U.S. Attor-
ney’s office.
Police are still searching for
employee Stanley Jerome Cole,
who is accused of selling mari-
juana to Jeremy White. White
is charged with gross vehicu-
lar manslaughter in connec-
tion with an accident in which
his truck hit a car, killing the
driver and inju