A retired Guatemalan colonel has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for his role in the disappearance of eight indigenous Guatemalans during the 36-year Guatemalan civil war . A three-judge court Thursday found Col. Marco Antonio Sanchez and three of his subordinates, Jose Domingo Rios, Gabriel Maldonado Alvarez Ramos and Solomon Rivers, guilty of [...]
Enforcement of various civil rights laws decreased during the Bush administration, according to a report released Thursday by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) . The GAO studied the activities of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) between 2001 and 2007. According to the report, DOJ lawsuits to enforce laws [...]
Roy Speckhardt : "The American Humanist Association (AHA), along with more than 100 other organizations, has joined in a statement opposing the "defamation of religion" resolution before the United Nations that is being promoted by the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. While AHA is greatly concerned about acts of violence, hatred and discrimination against [...]
JURIST's Paper Chase legal news service has been named as one of the "100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers" as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association. Ranking Paper Chase among their top 12 legal news websites, the ABA Journal Third Annual Blawg 100 [...]
The State of Texas executed death row inmate Bobby Wayne Woods by lethal injection Thursday, over the objections of lawyers who argued Woods was mentally impaired and thus could not be executed under federal law. Defense lawyers argued that Woods's IQ fell below 70, a number used generally as a threshold for mental retardation. The [...]
Serbia is cooperating with the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , according to a report presented Thursday to the UN Security Council by Chief War Crimes Prosecutor Serge Brammertz . Brammertz noted the need to catch two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic , but praised Serbia for [...]
Myanmar's Supreme Court has agreed to consider an appeal by opposition pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi against the 18-month extension of her house arrest, officials said Friday. Suu Kyi's lawyers filed the appeal last month after a lower court rejected an earlier appeal. A judge will hold a preliminary hearing on December 21 to [...]
A US military judge ruled Thursday that the US government may partially amend the charges against Guantanamo Bay detainee Ibrahim Ahmed al Qosi by changing his jurisdictional basis, but may not include four additional years of alleged activities under the charges. In this first application of the Military Commissions Act of 2009 to pending military [...]
Five more people have been sentenced to death by a Chinese court in connection with the July Xinjiang riots , state media reported Thursday. The sentencing came in connection to the killing of a police officer with a rock and the killing of bystanders during the riots. The Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi sentenced two [...]
Two justices on Russia's Constitutional Court renounced their positions Wednesday, on the recommendations of their fellow justices, after publicly criticizing the nation's lack of judicial independence. Senior justice Anatoly Kononov, whose term of office was to expire in 2017, will resign from the Constitutional Court at the end of this month. Justice Vladimir Yaroslavtsev will [...]
