Search Results for: Fair Sentencing Act

The US Supreme Court added five cases to its docket on Thursday following its “long conference” on September 27. Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate is a suit filed by the Republican Texas senator challenging a federal law that restricts when and how an electoral candidate can repay personal loans to their own [...]

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on Tuesday granted posthumous pardons to the Martinsville Seven, a group of young Black men who were tried, convicted and executed in 1951 without sufficient due process and given the death sentence by a racially biased all-White male jury. The pardon comes 70 years after the men were executed by electric [...]

For the past 18 months, ever since February 29, 2020, when President Donald J. Trump Jr. finalized a deal with the Taliban to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, international organizations and civil society groups have been warning of the potential for increased violence and potential mass atrocities in the country. [...]

Twenty-year-old law student Theint Sandi Soe had been visiting her mother and four-year-old sister at their family home in Mogok when military police burst in and detained all three of them. Against the backdrop of Myanmar’s ongoing military coup, the arrests themselves did not send shockwaves. It was what happened next—an act of courageous defiance [...]

Recently, British MPs voted in favor of the contentious policing bill which will significantly broaden the scope of police powers to clamp down on non-violent protests. The rationale provided by the government is that the new Bill will empower policemen to protect both themselves and the public, facilitating the increased efficiency of the policing system. [...]

The US Supreme Court held on Monday that sentence reduction under the First Step Act is available only if an offender’s prior conviction for a crack cocaine offense triggered a mandatory minimum sentence. In 2018 Congress passed the First Step Act, which made previous sentencing reforms that reduced the sentencing disparity to 18 to 1, retroactive. Under [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) on Tuesday confirmed Ratko Mladić’s convictions and life imprisonment sentence by a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Mladić, commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army from May 12, 1992, until at least November 8, [...]

Almost five years ago I contributed to a Commentary to JURIST entitled, “Guantanamo: An Unnecessary Presidential Legacy,” which focused on former President Barack Obama’s unsuccessful attempt to shut down the Guantanamo prison facility because of missed opportunities, faulty decision making, internal administration opposition and ultimately partisan political division that resulted in an unnecessary presidential legacy.  [...]

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Friday announced visa restrictions on Ugandan government officials accused of human rights violations and repressive acts during the January 14 general elections and campaign period. President Yoweri Museveni has been in power for 35 years. After the January 14 general election, he was declared the winner with 58 [...]

In a notice submitted to the US Supreme Court on Monday, acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar stated that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reconsidered its position with regard to whether possession of a small amount of cocaine base with intent to distribute constitutes a “covered offense” under Section 404 of the First Step [...]