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Rwanda set to abolish death penalty: justice minister
The Rwandan cabinet has agreed to abolish capital punishment, the country's justice minister said Friday, clearing the way for the extradition of defendants facing trial for the 1994 Rwandan genocide , during which over 800,000 people were kille (More) |
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Second US soldier pleading guilty in Mahmudiya rape-murder case
A second US soldier has reached a plea deal with prosecutors, and is expected to plead guilty to charges stemming from the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family in the Mahmudiya (also "Mahmoudiya") area (More) |
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Supreme Court hears arguments in death penalty jury instruction cases
The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments Wednesday in Smith v. Texas [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], 05-11304, where the court must decide whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was correct (More) |
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Saddam co-defendants hanged; defense lawyer slams 'murder'
Former Saddam-era Revolutionary Court judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti [GlobalSecurity profile; BBC profile], sentenced to death with Saddam Hussein in November in connection with crimes agai (More) |
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Peru president proposes referendum to introduce death penalty for terrorists
Peruvian president Alan Garcia [official profile, Spanish; BBC profile] Thursday proposed a national referendum on introducing capital punishment for convicted terrorists after a legislative proposal to that effect was defeated 49-26 in the Peruvi (More) |
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Two US soldiers sentenced to prison for Iraqi detainee killings
US Army Specialist William Hunsaker has received an 18-year prison sentence after pleading guilty Thursday to murder, attempted murder and obstruction of justice charges relating to the killing of several Iraqi detainees after a May 9 2006 raid in (More) |
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Saddam will directed lawyers to cease appeals; UK failed to stop execution
In his final will, dictated to his principal Iraqi defense counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi 24 hours before his December 30 execution , former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein instructed his legal team to stop all appeals, saying that his impending executio (More) |
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Former Ethiopia dictator sentenced to life imprisonment in genocide case
Former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday after he was convicted on genocide charges in absentia at the conclusion of a 12-year trial. Mengistu and 72 other former officials were charged with genoc (More) |
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First US execution of 2007 held in Oklahoma
The first US execution of 2007 took place Tuesday, when the state of Oklahoma executed a man by lethal injection for the 1992 murders of four people. The US Supreme Court denied [order, PDF; AP report] Corey Duane Hamilton's request for a stay (More) |
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Iraq president calls for delay in hanging of Saddam co-defendants
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [official website, in Arabic; BBC profile] said Wednesday that the execution of two co-defendants of Saddam Hussein should be delayed "to see what the circumstances are," without offering any further explana (More) |
Supreme Court upheld discriminatory districting
On June 10, 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld uneven congressional districting plans in Colegrove v. Green. The case challenged an Illinois districting plan that concentrated voters into large districts in the center of the state and did not balance for population. The Court reasoned that districting was a political question for the states to decide without judicial interference. This opinion was overturned less than 20 years later in Baker v. Carr, which set judicial standards for invoking political question doctrine.
Learn more about political question doctrine from the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law.
