The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday stayed the execution of an Alabama man pending the Supreme Court's upcoming decision in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) , where the court has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of lethal injections. Lawyers for death row inmate Daniel L. Siebert argued that Alabama's [...]
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee was convicted by a Tunisian court Wednesday on criminal association charges and will serve three years in prison. The convict, Lotfi Lagha, had been charged with associating with a criminal group with the aim of harming or causing damage in Tunisia, though it is unclear which group he associated with, [...]
Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada received a presidential pardon Thursday from his former vice president and now President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo . Estrada will be released from jail after having served six and a half years on corruption charges under the nation's economic plunder law for allegedly stashing some $77 million in gambling payoffs, kickbacks and [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist William Weaver of the University of Texas El Paso Political Science Department says that the lawsuit by five victims of extraordinary rendition against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan has given the federal judiciary another opportunity to consider its own endorsement of the state secrets privilege, under which the US government can prevent [...]
The People v. John Taylor, New York Court of Appeals, October 23, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Terrorist Watch List Screening: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Management Oversight, Reduce Vulnerabilities in Agency Screening Processes, and Expand Use of the List (GAO), October 11, 2007 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in testimony on US Middle East policy Wednesday that House members should discontinue an effort to pass a resolution condemning the World War-I era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide . The committee approved the resolution earlier [...]
US State Department security chief Richard Griffin submitted his resignation Wednesday under pressure following September's Blackwater USA shooting of 17 Iraqis, according to AP citing unnamed officials. Griffin is assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the branch that oversees private security firms; his resignation will be effective November 1. Before becoming [...]
Gary Solis : " Attorney General-nominee Michael Mukasey could not or would not say if he considers waterboarding torture. "If it is torture, it is unconstitutional," he responded when asked. By now, most of us know what the interrogation technique of waterboarding is. It is widely reported and generally understood that the U.S. employs it. [...]
Argentinean federal judge Claudio Bonadio Tuesday charged former president Fernando de la Rua with five counts of manslaughter for failing to prevent the deaths of five demonstrators during 2001 confrontations with police in Buenos Aires. The deaths came during riots sparked by a national economic crisis that caused De la Rua to flee the presidential [...]
