[JURIST] Leading Friday's states brief, former Miami Herald [newspaper website] columnist Jim DeFede will not be prosecuted for secretly taping phone conversations with Miami city commissioner Arthur T. Teele Jr. [Wikipedia backgrounder] just before Teele killed himself. Assistant State Attorney Joseph Centorino said Friday that the actions could have been a violation of state law, but "it is a crime without a victim or complainant." Florida law requires that all parties to a telephone call agree to be taped. The Miami Herald executive director, who fired DeFede [Miami Herald report], said that he will not rehire DeFede despite an on-line petition urging his reinstatement. AP has more.

In other state legal news …

• The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that ex-convicts can be held in custody while the state appeals judges' decisions not to detain the ex-convicts under the Jimmy Ryce Act. The court gave justices some discretion, however, to release ex-convicts under the appeals if the state causes needless delays or fails to scrupulously abide by the law in other ways. The Ryce Act [text] allows the state to hold violent sex offenders indefinitely after their sentences are complete for the public's protection and treatment if a court first finds that they are likely to repeat such crimes due to mental or personality disorders. AP has more.
• An Ohio appeals court has ruled [PDF] text that Jennifer Rice, a woman who sold her eggs, has parental rights to the resulting triplets. The ruling contradicts a Pennsylvania court ruling earlier this year which gave primary custody to the surrogate mother, Danielle Bimber, and weekend visitation to the father, James Flynn. Bimber, who resides in Pennsylvania, signed a contract through an Indiana surrogacy agency that matched her with Flynn, an Ohio resident. Embryos of Flynn's sperm and Rice's eggs where then implanted in Bimber, who took the triplets home, alleging Flynn and his finance did not name the children or visit them in the hospital for six days. Other lawsuits involving the triplets continue in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. AP has more.