For the fourth time in a little more than two months, the California Supreme Court has overturned a death sentence. Because the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on a second special circumstances charge of torture, the high court said it was forced to reverse the sentence.

A divided upstate New York appellate panel has overturned a sexual abuse conviction where two jurors — one a social services caseworker and the other a substance abuse counselor — improperly “interjected their professional knowledge into the jury deliberations.”

A Missouri judge on Tuesday declared a mistrial in a $700 million class action against Altria Group’s Philip Morris USA.

The Supreme Court of Georgia has agreed to take up a sensitive issue in medical malpractice trials — whether judges can exclude from the courtroom a disabled person who is effectively the plaintiff. A trial judge said the girl’s presence would lead the jury to make a decision based on emotion rather than evidence.

Former “Melrose Place” actress Amy Locane’s unguarded and at times garrulous remarks to police and paramedics in the aftermath of a fatal 2010 crash will be heard by the jury in her upcoming trial on vehicular homicide charges, now that a judge has denied a motion to suppress the statements.