The US Supreme Court ruled 6-2 on Tuesday in Lockhart v. US that the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for child pornography possession applies when the offender has been previously convicted of sexual abuse that did not involve a minor. In this case, Avondale Lockhart pleaded guilty to charges of possession of child pornography on his [...]
Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo resigned on Monday amid pushback from the ruling Worker’s Party over his failure to reign in the corruption investigation targeting public officials, including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva . Cardozo will be replaced by Wellington Cesar Lima e Silva, the chief prosecutor from Bahia, and will become [...]
Former head of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, US Army Major General Geoffrey Miller, failed to appear before a French court on Tuesday to answer a subpoena to appear for questioning on his involvement in the torture of two French detainees. French citizens Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi brought the case, challenging their treatment [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on Monday blocked Governor Mike Pence’s order keeping Syrian refugees from settling in Indiana. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit on behalf of Exodus Refugee Immigration in November after Pence announced his plans to suspend resettlement of Syrian [...]
The citizens of Switzerland on Sunday rejected a proposed referendum that would require immediate, automatic deportation of any foreign national who was convicted of two crimes within a 10-year period. The vote was decided by a margin of 58.9 percent against and 41.1 percent in favor of the law. The proposed initiative was introduced by [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on the recklessness standard of domestic violence misdemeanors that can federally ban someone from the ability to possess a firearm and judicial recusal in capital punishment cases. In Voisine v. United States , the two petitioners pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence charges in Maine. Both were [...]
Pakistani authorities on Monday prepared for civil unrest after the execution of Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri in a high-security prison in Rawalpindi. Qadri is the killer of a former Pakistani governor of the Punjab province, Salmaan Taseer, who campaigned for changes to the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, which Taseer alleged were used to persecute religious [...]
A retired lieutenant colonel and a former paramilitary were sentenced to 120 years and 240 years in prison, respectively, for sexual slavery and other crimes against humanity during Guatemala’s Civil War and decades of armed conflict. Judge Jazmin Barrios found that the actions of retired Lt. Col. Esteelmer Francisco Reyes Giron and former paramilitary Heriberto [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to rule on a challenge to New Jersey’s pension reforms filed on behalf on public employees of New Jersey, including teachers and state troopers. The suit was originally filed in New Jersey state court and argued that the state government is statutorily obligated to fully contribute to state [...]
The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) recommended Monday that the Canadian correctional system put an end to solitary confinement in provincial jails. Chief Commissioner Renu Mandhane stressed that such segregation practices disproportionately impact mentally ill inmates as well as minorities and women. Though Mandhane acknowledges that solitary confinement can not be automatically eliminated, she believes [...]
