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Gay couple files for divorce; first for state

By TIMES WIRES
Published November 23, 2006

A lesbian couple that was married in Massachusetts has filed for divorce in Rhode Island, setting up a legal conundrum for judges in a state where the laws are silent on the legality of same-sex marriage.

Margaret Chambers and Cassandra Ormiston of Providence were married after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalized gay marriage starting in 2004.

They filed for divorce in Rhode Island on Oct. 23, citing irreconcilable differences, Chambers' attorney, Louis Pulner, said Wednesday. Ormiston declined to comment.

Rhode Island Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah Jr. has yet to decide whether his court has jurisdiction and said he believes it is the first filing for a same-sex divorce in the state.

Massachusetts became the only state to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Courts nationwide could soon find themselves facing similar dilemmas, especially as more and more same-sex couples are married in Massachusetts, said Janet Halley, a professor at Harvard Law School who researches the topic.

Court upholds lethal injections

Kentucky's lethal injection method is constitutional, the state Supreme Court said Wednesday in a ruling that could clear the way for executions to resume.

Death row inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling, 52, and Ralph Baze, 49, challenged the state's method of execution in 2004, saying the drug formula causes inmates pain and is cruel and unusual punishment.

The state has not declared a moratorium on executions but had not scheduled any since the lawsuit was filed. Bowling and Baze have received several stays of execution because of the challenge.

Woman lived with husband's body

A man hoping to reconcile with his parents after years of estrangement made a grisly find: His mother may have been living with his father's corpse for three years, police said.

When Paul Iversen went to the Brooklyn apartment Tuesday, his 73-year-old mother, Joanne, told him his father, Frank, had died, police said. She showed her son the skeletal remains of an man under bed covers in her bedroom, police said.

The medical examiner was to conduct tests to confirm the identity of the remains, police said. No charges had been filed.

Neighbors said Joanne Iversen had told them her husband was away.

They said they noticed a foul smell from the Iversens' apartment but didn't guess the source.

[Last modified November 23, 2006, 00:19:16]