The Army's Criminal Investigation Command announced Friday that it is investigating a civilian lab worker who admitted to falsifying DNA test results in at least one instance, examining over 475 criminal cases dating back almost a decade. The test results, performed at the Army's Criminal Investigation Laboratory at Fort Gillem, GA, could cast doubt on [...]
The US Department of Justice granted approval Friday to a Georgia law that would require photo identification to vote in elections. This approval, which is required of Georgia and other states with a history of voter discrimination by the 1965 Voting Rights Act , allows the law to be enacted but does not prevent it [...]
Responding to US-proposed changes to the draft agreement to be signed at next month's summit on UN reform , General Assembly President Jean Ping has named a core group of countries, including the US, to negotiate a new text prior to the mid-September meeting. The group of about 30 countries will focus on questions of [...]
Over the past three days, some 1,000 detainees have been released from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in the largest release to date, the US military announced Saturday. According to Central Command, the release "marks a significant event in Iraq’s progress toward democratic governance and the rule of law." Those chosen for release are not guilty [...]
Supporters of Frances Newton , slated to become the first black woman executed in Texas since the state took over executions from county authorities in 1923, held protests Saturday while her attorneys fight a last-minute battle to stop her death. They have filed a request for clemency with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles [...]
The US government has said that it will appeal a 22-year sentence given to Ahmed Ressam , an Algerian convicted of planning to kill travelers at Los Angeles International Airport on New Year’s eve in 1999. In delivering Ressam’s sentence, Judge John C. Coughenour of the Western District of Washington used the opportunity to point [...]
Sunni Arab negotiators met with Iraqi parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani Saturday and presented him with a counter-proposal to the Iraqi draft constitution . A meeting with the US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was also planned for Saturday, Sunni negotiator Fakhri al-Qaisi said. According to Al-Qaisi, if the amendments in the counter-proposal are not incorporated into a [...]
Declaration of a state of emergency in the state of Louisiana, Proclamation No. 48 KBB 2005, Governor Kathleen Blanco, August 26, 2005 . Excerpt: SECTION 1: Pursuant to the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, R.S. 29:721, et seq., a state of emergency is declared to exist in the state of Louisiana [...]
ACLU and unnamed library v. Gonzales, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, August 25, 2005 . Read the full text of the complaint here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, US Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff has granted United Airlines an extension to file its final bankruptcy plan. The plan, which was due in September, will now be due November 1st. The judge said the 60-day extension will be the last. Some of United's flight attendants, whose pension Wedoff [...]
