The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday overturned the murder conviction of a police officer convicted of killing a man who was holding a gun to his own head.

The appellate court ordered a new trial for former Huntsville officer William “Ben” Darby. The court, in tossing the murder conviction, agreed with Darby’s attorney that the trial judge should have given jurors different instructions on evaluating the reasonableness of Darby’s use of deadly force in that situation.

Darby’s defense attorneys have maintained that the shooting was justified because he feared the man would harm officers.

Darby was sentenced in 2021 to 25 years in prison for the on-duty shooting of Jeffrey Parker in 2018. Darby shot Parker while responding to a call after the man phoned 911 saying he was armed and planned to kill himself.

Trial testimony indicated Darby shot Parker, who was sitting on a sofa holding a gun to his head, within seconds of entering the home. Another officer had been speaking with Parker trying to convince him not to kill himself, according to trial testimony. It would later be determined that Parker was actually holding a flare gun that had been painted black but there is no evidence indicating that any of the officers were aware of that fact, the appellate court wrote.

Video from Darby’s body camera showed that the officer entered the home and told Darby to put the gun down before shooting.

Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard told news outlets that they will prosecute the case again.

“We have the evidence and certainly we’ll put it before a jury again,” Broussard told al.com.

Defense attorney Robert Tuten told WHNT that Darby has maintained he acted correctly.

“I’ve been very impressed with Ben’s confidence. He knew he was right. He knew he followed the law as he had been trained to do,” Tuten said.

A lawyer for Donald Trump was back in court Friday after being ordered to answer questions before a grand jury investigating the possible mishandling of classified documents at the former president’s Florida estate.

M. Evan Corcoran entered federal court in the District of Columbia early Friday morning, one week after a federal judge ruled in favor of the Justice Department in forcing Corcoran to answer additional questions before a grand jury that has been hearing testimony for months. He did not make any comments as he arrived at the building.

The interest by prosecutors in Corcoran’s testimony underscores the legal peril confronting Trump, making clear the department’s continued focus. Corcoran is relevant to the investigation because he drafted a letter that was given to the department last June asserting that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been done in response to a subpoena. The letter was accompanied by the return of roughly three dozen documents with classified markings.

But prosecutors have said in court filings they developed evidence showing that additional classified documents remained at the property. The FBI returned with a search warrant on Aug. 8 and removed roughly 100 additional classified documents, the filings show.

Attorney-client privilege traditionally shields lawyers from being forced to share details of their conversations with prosecutors. Corcoran invoked that privilege during an earlier appearance before the grand jury when he declined to answer certain questions.  Another Trump lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, confirmed in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that he had voluntarily testified for about six hours or seven hours before the grand jury in December to answer questions about the Trump team’s compliance with the department’s efforts to reclaim the classified documents.

Five women who said they were denied abortions even when pregnancy endangered their lives are suing Texas over its abortion ban, the latest legal fight against state restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

The lawsuit filed Monday in state court said the Texas law, one of the strictest in the country, is creating confusion among doctors, who are turning away some pregnant women experiencing health complications because they fear repercussions.

“Nobody should have to wait until they are at death’s door to receive health care,” said Nancy Northup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is providing legal representation for the women.

Similar legal challenges to abortion restrictions have arisen in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. As clinics have shuttered in Republican-dominant states with strict abortion bans, some patients have had to cross state lines.

According to the Texas suit brought by the five women and two doctors, one woman, Amanda Zurawski, was forced to wait until she developed blood poisoning before being provided an abortion. The four others had to travel out of state to receive medical care for pregnancy-related complications after doctors recommended an abortion because of the deteriorating condition of the woman, the baby or a twin — care that could not be legally provided in Texas.

As former President Donald Trump braces for a potential indictment related to hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 campaign, Republicans blasting the case as politically motivated are blaming a frequent target: George Soros.

The 92-year-old billionaire investor and philanthropist — who has been falsely accused of everything from hiring violent rioters to committing election crimes — doesn’t know and didn’t donate directly to the New York prosecutor steering the probe. But that hasn’t stopped Trump and other high-profile Republicans from accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who convened the grand jury investigating Trump, of acting on Soros’ behalf.

Trump on Monday used his Truth Social platform to misleadingly claim that Bragg “received in EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS” from Soros. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance tweeted that the prosecutor was “bought by George Soros.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the case a “manufactured circus by some Soros-DA.”

Experts say the claims exploit a gray area of campaign fundraising, where tenuous connections between PAC donors and the candidates who ultimately receive the funds can be unclear.

Scapegoating Soros, who is Hungarian American and Jewish, also perpetuates deep-rooted false ideas about Jewish people and immigrants to underscore the conspiracy theory that he is a shadowy villain orchestrating world events.

The misleading claims about Soros’ link to the Trump case stem from a real donation the philanthropist made in 2021. Soros gave $1 million to Color of Change PAC, a political group that ran an independent expenditure campaign to support Bragg’s district attorney run.

But Soros spokesman Michael Vachon confirmed the wealthy donor’s contribution to the PAC was not earmarked to be used for Bragg. Soros didn’t donate to Bragg’s campaign directly, and the two have never met in person, by phone or virtually, Vachon said.

Soros’ contribution to Color of Change PAC, which told The Associated Press it supports prosecutors looking to change the criminal justice system, follows a pattern for the investor, who “has made numerous contributions in support of reform-minded prosecutors across the country since 2015,” Vachon said.

Soros wrote in an op-ed in 2022 that he supports these candidates because they invest in changes he supports, including mental health programs and treating drug addiction as a disease instead of a crime. Personally and through another PAC, Soros donated about $4 million to Color of Change PAC between 2016 and 2022, Vachon said.

A deal has been reached over control of an 1888 painting by Vincent van Gogh, lawyers said, weeks after the custody fight created public buzz and much tension near the end of a rare U.S. exhibition in Detroit.

Brokerarte Capital Partners LLC, which claims to own “The Novel Reader,” told a federal appeals court that it reached a confidential settlement with the unnamed entity who loaned the painting to the Detroit Institute of Arts for an exhibition of Van Gogh’s works that ended Jan. 22.

Because of the dispute, the museum has been under orders to hold the painting while the court determined who would next get the art.

Brokerarte Capital, an art brokerage, said it acquired the painting in 2017 for $3.7 million and gave temporary possession of it to a third party who absconded with it. The company filed a lawsuit on Jan. 10 seeking to seize the painting, and the museum subsequently posted a security guard next to it.

The museum was caught in the middle but wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. It has not publicly explained how it got the painting on loan, saying only that it came from a collection in Brazil.

Lawyers for Brokerarte Capital and its sole proprietor, Gustavo Soter of Brazil, said a deal had been reached with the other party.

“Consistent with the confidential settlement, Brokerarte no longer seeks injunctive relief, and therefore, this appeal is moot,” lawyers said in a March 13 filing with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The museum said it spent more than $100,000 defending itself in the litigation, which began in federal court in Detroit. It argued that a federal law governing the international sharing of art prevents courts from intervening. The U.S. Justice Department took a similar position.

The museum still is concerned about the significance of the appeals court issuing an injunction in February. It wants the court to consider declaring the injunction “null and void” so it can’t be cited as a precedent in any future international art disputes.

FIFA has appealed to Swiss federal judges after the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a life ban for the former Haiti soccer federation president who was accused of multiple sexual offenses against players in women’s and girls’ national teams.

FIFA said Monday it filed a case at Switzerland’s supreme court to challenge the CAS ruling announced last month that upheld an appeal by 75-year-old Yves Jean-Bart.

“FIFA is concerned that this (CAS) award contains a number of very serious procedural and substantive flaws, including the CAS Panel’s failure to evaluate key pieces of evidence that were offered by FIFA,” soccer’s world body said in a statement.

FIFA said it asked the Swiss Federal Tribunal to annul the sports court verdict and refer the case back for a second hearing.

The federal court can review CAS decisions on limited grounds such as abuse of legal process. It rarely overturns verdicts.

FIFA’s ethics committee banned Jean-Bart from soccer in November 2020 and fined him 1 million Swiss francs ($1.08 million).

The published verdict detailed how FIFA ethics judges believed allegations that during 20 years as Haiti federation president Jean-Bart raped underage girls and habitually had sexual relationships with players.

When Jean-Bart’s appeal came to CAS one year ago, his legal team provided 21 witnesses who gave evidence on his behalf. FIFA produced one witness “as a victim of Yves Jean-Bart’s actions,” the sports court said about its verdict.

A Florida man has been sentenced to four years and seven months in federal prison for three felony charges related to the insurrection and storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mitchell Todd Gardner II, 34, of Seffner, Florida, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in the District of Columbia, according to court records. He pleaded guilty last year to civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon.

Gardner was arrested in Tampa in June 2021.

According to court documents, Gardner joined with others in objecting to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump. A mob attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying election results for Biden over the Trump, a Republican, authorities have said. Five people died in the violence.

According to the criminal complaint, Gardner was part of a mob just outside the lower west terrace tunnel of Congress and used a pepper spray device against officers within the tunnel area. The contents hit one officer directly in the face shield and splattered onto two other officers, officials said.

Gardner also urged other rioters to use a ladder to break into a window, prosecutors said. When the ladder was not used, Gardner stood on a window ledge outside of a Senate terrace room and damaged the window with the pepper spray device.