Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.
CARSON CITY - Marlo Thomas , convicted of killing two men in the robbery of a Las Vegas restaurant, has asked the Nevada Supreme Court for the fourth time to overturn his death sentence, arguing that improper evidence was admitted in his trial.
Thomas, 33, was laid off from his dishwasher job at the Lone Star Steak House in March 1996 and returned a month later trying to get the job back. But that visit turned into a robbery in which Thomas fatally stabbed two restaurant workers.
The Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 1998, rejected another appeal in 2004, but last year granted Thomas a new penalty hearing because his attorney had erred in failing to object to jury instructions. After a second penalty hearing was held, Thomas was again sentenced to death.
In Thomas' newest bid to have his sentence overturned, special public defender David Schieck told the high court Wednesday that Thomas' juvenile record and his prison administrative violations file were improperly allowed into evidence at his second penalty hearing.
The prosecution should have been forced to produce witnesses who wrote the reports so that the defense could cross-examine them, he argued.
Steven Owens, Clark County chief deputy district attorney, stressed that the records were not used as aggravating circumstances to justify the death penalty. Such records always have been allowed at court hearings without testimony from the persons who wrote them, he added.
The high court will issue its ruling later.
A Las Vegas chiropractor, on behalf of himself and other doctors, claims that 10 insurance companies are violating the law by not paying claims within 30 days for the treatment of policyholders injured in auto accidents.
Dr. Ted Thorpe and the A&M Chiropractic Wellness Center sued the insurance companies in December 2003. This week, the case will go before the Nevada Supreme Court.
District Judge David Wells ruled in 2004 that Thorpe must first submit his claims to state Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman for a decision. The judge left the door open for Thorpe to file new suits after the decision.
But the insurance companies claim that Thorpe cannot sue, stressing that the policies in question are with individuals, not doctors.
Under Nevada law, an insurance claim must be decided within 30 days of its submission, and payment, if approved, must be made no later than 30 days after that.
In a brief to the high court, J. Randall Jones, Thorpe's attorney, said: "It would be neither fair nor equitable to conclude that the code provides physicians with no resources when insurance companies fail to promptly pay their claims."
Niels Pearson, a Las Vegas attorney representing State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance, wants the Supreme Court to rule that doctors cannot sue to expedite payment. Only the insured person has a right to file a claim under the prompt payment law, Pearson said.
The question should be decided, Pearson contends, by the insurance commissioner, not the courts.
An association created by the state in 2002 during the medical malpractice crisis is to become a private company owned by the 650 doctors who are its policyholders.
Insurance Commissioner Molasky-Arman, who approved the shift, said the "availability of physician medical malpractice insurance in Nevada has improved dramatically" since the association was created nearly five years ago. As of June, at least 17 companies offered malpractice policies in Nevada, she said.
In 2001 and 2002, medical malpractice insurance premiums were skyrocketing, and companies that wrote the policies were pulling out of Nevada. Some physicians left the practice and others moved out of state.
Molasky-Arman's emergency order in March 2002 created the association to write policies to ensure doctors could find malpractice insurance.
In a special legislative session in July 2002, a bill was passed capping at $350,000 "noneconomic" damages. Other limitations also were imposed by the law.
The conversion to a private company will take effect Jan. 1.
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