Bryan McCann : "When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Baze v. Rees case that Kentucky's lethal injection protocol did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, death penalty opponents everywhere braced for the resumption of state-sanctioned killing. Those of us who organize against the death penalty in Texas were particularly expecting our state government [...]
US immigration prosecutions continued to increase in March 2008, jumping nearly 50 percent from the previous month and nearly 75 percent from the previous year, according to a report released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Federal immigration prosecutions have risen since February , when such prosecutions hit a record high. [...]
A military judge Tuesday dropped charges against a US Marine charged in connection with the November 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha . Battalion commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani had faced court-martial for dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order based on allegations that he failed to properly investigate the Haditha [...]
Bolivian officials Monday rejected a Peruvian proposal to expand intellectual property protections, arguing that the amendment would be illegal and would harm the Bolivian economy. Peru is anxious to strengthen its intellectual property laws because its trade agreements with third countries are contingent on their development. Bolivian officials said that widening the Common Intellectual Property [...]
Detained members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) , a rebel group from Sudan's Darfur region , will be charged with terrorism and tried this week, Sudanese Justice Minister Abdel Basset Sabdarat told AP Monday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Sudanese security forces arrested over 100 JEM members following a May 10 attack [...]
Mexican President Felipe Calderon Tuesday signed into law constitutional reforms which provide for public and oral trials, guarantee the presumption of innocence, and guarantee suspects representation by qualified public defenders. According to a press release from his office, the Calderon said the new reform "offers a transparent system of justice that respects the human rights [...]
Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov lost an appeal in the Moscow Court Tuesday to force Russian authorities to register his People for Democracy and Justice party. Russian officials refused to register the party, alleging that the official party membership roster contained invalid names and violated various regulations. Kasyanov denied the existence of any problems [...]
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wrote Monday that proposed amendments designed to suspend older trials for nonviolent crimes would allow the judiciary to consider more important cases and would give the government time to introduce judicial reforms. The amendments would affect a larger anti-crime package , and if passed would suspend trials for crimes that [...]
Japan carried out its thirteenth execution since Japanese Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama assumed office last August with the hanging of three condemned inmates Tuesday. Tuesday's executions are the latest in an increasing number of executions in the country. In recent years, Japan has experienced a sharp upswing in both violent crime and the perceived risk [...]
The Federal Court of Malaysia ruled Monday that former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim can challenge the constitutionality of his 1998 removal from office by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad . Anwar was widely expected to succeed Mahathir as prime minister, but Mahathir dismissed him following disagreement on the handling of the 1997 [...]
