Florida State Attorney Jeff Ashton is requesting that state judges temporarily delay death penalty case trials after the US Supreme Court ruling that Florida’s capital sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment. The request, he stated, is being made as a precaution until lawmakers are able to address the Supreme Court’s concerns while the legislature is [...]
The Dutch government on Friday announced the establishment of a special court being set up in The Hague to investigate and try alleged war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian rebels during and after Kosovo’s 1998-99 guerilla war. According to the government announcement , the court, which is called the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution and [...]
Iran agreed Saturday to release four US citizens in exchange for seven Iranians being held in the US for violating sanctions against Iran. Among the US citizens being released is Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian who has been held since July 2014 and was convicted in October on spying and other charges. The prisoner exchange [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may use a report on menthol cigarettes. The tobacco companies argued that the report was written by experts with a conflict of interest and that the FDA should not be able to use it. The [...]
Florida’s Supreme Court on Friday denied a request from a death row inmate to delay his execution in light of the recent US Supreme Court ruling that Florida’s capital sentencing scheme was unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment. Cary Michael Lambrix was sentenced to death in 1984 for two murders in Glades county and scheduled to [...]
A judge for the US District Court of the Middle District of North Carolina on Friday declined to grant a motion by the NAACP and other plaintiffs that would have kept the state from implementing their voter identification law in the upcoming March elections. The plaintiffs filed suit shortly after the law was enacted in [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in eight new cases for this term. In McDonnell v. United States , the Supreme Court is asked to decide the meaning of “official action” under the fraud statutes used to convict former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell for taking official action to benefit a benefactor. The US [...]
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced Friday that he plans to investigate the water contamination crisis in the city of Flint. The investigation is set to begin immediately as Flint residents are currently being forced to rely on bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing. Schuette said, “s attorney general, I will investigate this situation [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein expressed his concerns on Friday regarding rising conflicts Burundi that have given rise to gang rapes, torture, ethnic repression, mass graves, and secret detentions and disappearances. Zeid reports that 432 people have been killed in Burundi since last April. He has called for the investigation [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Louisiana filed a class action lawsuit on Thursday against the New Orleans Public Defenders Office and the Louisiana Public Defender Board due to the lack of available public defenders for individuals with no access to an attorney. The ACLU claims that as a result of [...]
