A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Tuesday dismissed a claim filed by four death row inmates challenging the constitutionality of an Ohio law that provides confidentiality for companies that supply lethal injection drugs. The inmates claimed that House Bill 663 violated First Amendment rights on freedom of [...]
A federal court on Wednesday approved a settlement agreement between the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a class action lawsuit over the health care system within Arizona prisons. The agreement requires the ADC to meet more than 100 health care performance measures , including monitoring individuals with [...]
Amnesty International (AI) acknowledged some positive signs from the European Commission’s announcement on the migration crisis in the Mediterranean on Thursday but encouraged the Commission to develop concrete solutions that protect and save lives. AI explained the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship’s pledge to extend Operation Triton, a pan-EU border management operation, [...]
UN Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein urged Syrian authorities on Thursday to release jailed activists that have been held without due process, in some cases for years, after reports of widespread torture and human rights abuses of detainees. Syrian authorities reportedly targeted activists, lawyers and human rights defenders before the country’s civil [...]
The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a petition to stay an inmate’s execution until after the US Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of lethal injection protocols in Oklahoma. This is the stay of execution outside of Oklahoma following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant a petition for certiorari in Glossip v. Gross in late [...]
The Constitutional Court of Colombia on Wednesday upheld a restriction that same-sex couples cannot adopt children that have no biological relation to either parent. While the official text of the decision has not yet been released, the court did release a statement on their official Twitter page saying that same-sex couples may only adopt the [...]
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood asked the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow the state to enforce an abortion law that was declared unconstitutional by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2014. The law requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at state hospitals, but the appellate court overturned the [...]
Thailand’s attorney general filed criminal charges on Thursday against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra over the country’s controversial rice subsidy program. Yingluck, Thailand’s first female prime minister, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison if found guilty of negligence. Under the rice subsidy program, the Yingluck-led government bought rice from Thai farmers above the [...]
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams filed a legal challenge on Wednesday against Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s decision to place a moratorium on the death penalty. The challenge, filed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, petitions the court to reject the reprieve as an unconstitutional intrusion of state executive power into the realm of the legislature and [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for a worldwide end to all forms of human exploitation. The message, released as part of the UN’s World Day of Social Justice set for February 20, 2015, calls for a worldwide effort to “not leave behind those who are socially and economically exploited.” Begun in 2007, World [...]
