The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has asked President Hamid Karzai to veto a bill awaiting bicameral and presidential approval that would strip the Commission of the power to select its own commissioners, handing that power to parliament instead. Under the Afghanistan Constitution , AIHRC is an independently-run body. However, the Afghan lower house [...]
Detained Iranian-American consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh is expected to be released from a Tehran prison "within the next few days," according to comments from Tajbakhsh and those of an Iranian spokesman talking to journalists during a interview at the notorious Evin Prison Tuesday. Tajbakhsh and Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari were arrested in May after alleged [...]
Time magazine announced Tuesday that it plans to appeal an August 30 decision by the Supreme Court of Indonesia awarding former Indonesian President Haji Mohammad Suharto $106 million in damages in Suharto’s defamation suit against the publication. Suharto sued Time over a 1999 article that said Suharto had hidden billions of dollars in foreign banks. [...]
New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan declined Monday to file criminal charges against a local nursing home for the death of 19 elderly residents during post-Hurricane Katrina flooding. During the hurricane, nuns from the Sisters of the Holy Family , who operated the Lafon Nursing Home, decided evacuation posed a greater risk to patients than [...]
A Florida Fifth Judicial Circuit judge ruled Monday that the December 2006 execution of Angel Diaz was not "botched," as previously alleged by a medical examiner. According to autopsy reports, Diaz endured a 34-minute-long lethal injection that required a second injection after needles were improperly inserted into his arm. In his opinion, Circuit Judge Carven [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the death sentence of Stevie Lamar Fields Monday, ruling that a jury foreman's reliance on Biblical scripture had no "substantial and injurious effect" on the jury's sentencing decision. The court ruled 9-6 against Fields' habeas appeal. Fields was convicted of rape, kidnapping, robbery, and murder [...]
Ousted Philippines president Joseph Estrada maintained his innocence Tuesday and predicted he will be acquitted of corruption charges when the verdict in his six-year trial is handed down Wednesday. Estrada was removed from power in a 2001 revolt that brought his former vice president, current Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to power. He has been held [...]
French Justice Minister Rachida Dati engaged in emergency discussions with senior members of the French judiciary on Monday to prevent a threatened judges' revolt. Objections have been raised to what some regard as the authoritarian style the controversial politician has adopted since her appointment by new French President Nicolas Sarkozy ; in the process, Dati [...]
Steve Lamar Fields v. Jill Brown, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, September 10, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
A lawyer for US Marine First Lt. Andrew Grayson, an intelligence officer accused of mishandling an investigation into the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha , said Monday that Grayson has rejected a plea offer from military prosecutors requiring him to admit attempting to cover up the killings in exchange for prosecutors dropping all [...]
