IN BRIEF: Habeas Rejected For Chimp

An intermediate New York state appellate court has rejected a writ of habeas corpus to move a chimpanzee named Kiko from the Primate Sanctuary in Niagara Falls, N.Y., to a different sanctuary. A Florida animal rights group ­seeking to end the allegedly inhumane “imprisonment” of chimpanzees sought the writ. Even assuming that Kiko’s human-like ­qualities make the chimp eligible for the legal status of a human being, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, ruled, “habeas ­corpus does not lie where a petitioner seeks only to change the conditions of confinement rather than the confinement itself.”

BOSTON BOMBING TRIAL

U.S. District George O’Toole Jr. refused to postpone Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial in part because he didn’t believe that would ease pretrial publicity. After jurors reported on Jan. 5, O’Toole released his reasons for rejecting delay. “I suspect that neither local nor national publicity will subside to the extent the defendant wishes, given the substantial continuing interest in the case,” he wrote. “Coverage will be substantial whenever trial commences. A postponement is unlikely to have an effect on that.”

CHAMBLISS TO DLA PIPER