An Egyptian criminal court in Cairo sentenced Habib el-Adly, the former interior minister under former president Hosni Mubarak, to seven years in jail on Saturday, for embezzling more than $100m of public funds. Adly was the head of Egypt’s feared international security forces until the uprising that overthrew the Government in 2011. Adly has faced [...]
US District Judge William Orrick from the Northern District of California heard arguments Friday over President Trump’s executive order withholding federal funds from so-called “sanctuary cities”. San Fransisco and Santa Clara both filed suit asking for a nationwide preliminary injunction to the order. The cities allege that the order would cause great harm to the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Christopher N. Lasch of the University of Denver discusses Attorney General Sessions’ position on sanctuary cities … As JURIST previously reported, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has threatened to cut Department of Justice funding to so-called “sanctuary” cities. The Attorney General’s comments during the White House press briefing on March 27, 2017, and [...]
US District Court Judge Kristine Baker on Saturday issued a temporary injunction blocking Arkansas’ plan to execute seven inmates by the end of the month. Baker’s order comes a day after Arkansas state judge Wendell Griffen issued a broad temporary restraining order in favor of the prisoners. The plan was to begin executions on Monday, [...]
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that the family of a man who committed suicide while in solitary confinement can argue that he faced cruel and unusual punishment, even if they don’t argue that the treatment lead to his suicide. In July 2012, Brandon Palakovic committed suicide while in solitary confinement at [...]
Amnesty International (AI) released a statement on Thursday calling for Arkansas to halt the execution of eight death row prisoners. Arkansas has scheduled these execution to take place within short time spans of each other in order to beat the expiration of their drug of choice, midazolam. According to Erika Guevara Rosas , Americas Director [...]
The US Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Thursday sanction against the Iranian prison company Tehran Prisons Organization and one of its senior officials, Sohrab Soleimani, for human rights abuses at its Evin Prison. According to the release, “Former prisoners of Evin Prison have reported harsh interrogations, forced confessions, psychological [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday dropped a federal lawsuit against the state of North Carolina over a bill requiring transgender people to use the public bathroom associated with their birth gender. The DOJ originally filed the lawsuit against the state in May 2016. The Justice Department decided to drop the lawsuit due [...]
The Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled to keep the identification of drugs used in executions a secret in a 7-2 ruling Thursday. The lawsuit was brought against the Mississippi Department of Corrections by the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center . During oral arguments , James Craig from the RSMJC argued that it was important [...]
The Missouri State House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday to standardize state-wide ride sharing rules and have sent it to the desk of Governor Eric Greitens . If signed by Greitens, House Bill 130 will create uniform state-wide rules governing ride sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft. The bill was sponsored by Representative [...]
