The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases Monday. In District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne the Court will consider whether a defendant has the right, under 42 U.S.C. 1983 or the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to obtain postconviction access to the state’s biological evidence. William Osborne was charged with kidnapping, sexual [...]

A US military commission jury has convicted alleged al Qaeda media director Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul of conspiring with al Qaeda, soliciting murder, and providing material support for terrorism. The jury reached a verdict on Friday, but it was not unsealed until Monday morning, when al Bahlul was present in the courtroom at [...]

The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday ordered a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to make herself available to be deposed in a case over preservation of vice presidential records. A Washington DC advocacy group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing Cheney and the executive [...]

The Spanish government on Saturday began to accept applications for citizenship from descendants of those who fled the country during its civil war of the 1930s. The law which provides for return of an estimated 500,000 expatriates and their children was passed by the Spanish Parliament in 2007 and approved by the country's cabinet on [...]

Judge Henry Kennedy of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release legal memoranda relating to the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic surveillance program . The issue came before the court in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy [...]

Officials from the German Foreign Ministry on Saturday said that Germany will seek a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to block new claims for personal damages resulting from Nazi actions in World War II. Germany is seeking the ruling after a recent decision by Italy's high court, the Court of Cassation , [...]

Mexico's federal police commissioner Gerardo Garay has resigned in the face of recent allegations that Mexican law enforcement offices have been infiltrated by drug cartels. Garay said in a statement Saturday that he was resigning in cooperation with authorities so that he could resolve the allegations against him. Garay took control of the Federal Preventative [...]

Sharon Kelly : "One week before the presidential election, the Guantanamo trials grind slowly on, although this week's trial of Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul, a Yemeni accused of being Osama Bin Laden's media adviser, may very well mark the beginning of the end of proceedings at the facility. Both Senator Obama and Senator McCain [...]

The jury in the US military commission trial of alleged al Qaeda media director Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul reached a verdict in the case Friday, but that will not be unsealed until Monday, when al Bahlul is present in the courtroom at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Al Bahlul, a 39-year old Yemeni citizen, [...]

The UN Human Rights Committee on Friday urged Japan to take steps to abolish the death penalty , reiterating its concern that the number of crimes punished by death in Japan has not been reduced and that the number of executions has steadily increased. In concluding observations at its 94th Session in Geneva , the [...]