Nation in brief

5 killed in plane crash in Tennessee

COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. - A small plane carrying Seventh-day Adventist Church officials crashed Thursday soon after taking off from an airport in a rural, mountainous area, killing all but one of the six people on board.

The only survivor, co-pilot Jim Huff, walked away from the crash site and was taken to a Chattanooga hospital, Sheriff John Cupp said.

The twin-engine Cessna 421 crashed, caught fire and broke apart in a thicket of trees about 11/2 miles north of the Collegedale Municipal Airport. Airport manager Frank Zarski said the plane crashed because of engine failure.

The pilot, John Laswell, and four passengers were killed. To recover the bodies, officials planned to cut some trees and build a bridge over a small creek near the crash site, Cupp said.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - In testimony occasionally marked by tears from the defendant and his family, Scott Peterson's sister-in-law and friends described him as friendly, thoughtful and sincere Thursday as his attorneys tried to persuade jurors to spare his life.

Peterson wept softly at the defense table as his sister-in-law Janey Peterson testified, including when she told jurors about the first time she met his wife, Laci, whom Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering.

"She took my breath away. She was just bubbly and fun and energetic and beautiful," she testified, while Scott Peterson's mother and sister also sobbed in the gallery.

The defendant, who maintained a stoic presence through much of the five-month-long guilt phase of the trial, also cried when Janey Peterson tearfully recalled a pair of "fuzzy bear slippers" he gave her as a gift one Christmas.

She said the family is devastated by Laci's loss and the possibility Scott Peterson could also die.

"I think the one thing we've all learned in all of this is how important life is," she said. "I think every one of us would give up everything we have, because that's how important life is."

The testimony came on the third day of the trial's penalty phase, where the jury will decide whether the 32-year-old Peterson should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole for the 2002 murders of Laci Peterson and the fetus she was carrying.

NEWARK, N.J. - Four years after spending more than $60-million of his own money to get elected to the Senate, Democrat Jon Corzine announced Thursday that he is running for governor in 2005.

The former investment banker becomes the first Democrat to officially enter the race. Polls have shown Corzine would be the early frontrunner.

"I believe I can do more for the state of New Jersey and its citizens as governor," he said. He said he left private life for the Senate to press for better health care, education and government, and pledged to continue those battles.

Corzine is entering the race nearly four months after Gov. James McGreevey announced his resignation and disclosed that he had had a gay affair.

Corzine, 57, was elected to the Senate in 2000, the first try for public office for a man who made a fortune as head of investment bank Goldman Sachs.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A man exonerated after spending 17 years on death row for the slaying of a fellow inmate filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against prosecutors and other officials, accusing them of framing him.

Joseph Amrine was freed in July 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court overturned his conviction and death sentence, finding that no credible evidence remained from his 1986 trial to support the conviction. Prosecutors declined to refile charges.

"We are going to have a hard road to travel," Amrine said. "I know that. If we go and we lose, it's really no big deal. We won the war, getting me out. Anything else will be like gravy."

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