[JURIST] A jury in Redwood City, California, has recommended that Scott Peterson be sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Laci and their unborn son Conner. Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on February 25. CourtTV provides background on the Peterson case.

5:10 PM ET - NBC-10 TV in Los Angeles has a full story on the sentencing here. Reflecting on the public frenzy over a trial that had few general legal implications, but was covered to saturation on major media and cable outlets, Bryan Robertson of ABC News recently offered his views on Why We Were Infatuated with the Peterson Case.

[JURIST] An Italian judge confirmed Monday that 28 Italian police officers will face trial in connection with violence against anti-globalization protestors at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa. One protestor was killed and hundreds of protestors and police were injured in rioting . Senior officers are accused of lying, slander and complicity to commit violence. Twenty-six protestors went on trial in June for their roles in the disturbances. BBC News has more. Corriere della Sera provides local coverage in Italian.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that jurors in the Scott Peterson trial have reached a decision on his sentence, which will be announced at 4:30 PM ET (1:30 PM PT).

[JURIST] A hearing by the US 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Monday on disputed ballots in the Puerto Rico gubernatorial race drew protestors calling for no federal intervention in the election. The 1st Circuit will decide whether Puerto Rico's Supreme Court (in Spanish) or a US district court in San Juan has jurisdiction over the case, which involves ballots with markings next to two candidates in the race. Results currently show pro-commonwealth candidate Anibal Acevedo Vila (campaign site in Spanish) with a narrow lead over former Gov. and pro-statehood candidate Pedro Rossello (campaign site in Spanish). The two courts in Puerto Rico both ordered recounts in November, but with contradictory instructions on how the ballots should be counted. The Boston Globe has more on the disputed election results. From San Juan, El Nuevo Dia has local coverage (in Spanish). AP has more.

3:30 PM ET - The First Circuit has posted a zipped file of the recorded oral arguments in the case here.

[JURIST] President Bush nominated Environmental Protection Agency chief Mike Leavitt Monday to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Leavitt, a former three-term governor of Utah, stepped into the EPA role in 2003, and much of his work has focused on crafting new air pollution regulations. HHS oversees the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, as well as several other agencies, including the FDA and CDC. Previous HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced his resignation earlier this month. The White House has video from the nomination announcement, as well as a transcript. AP has more.

[JURIST] Two more Afghan detainees have died while in US custody, and the US failed to properly investigate a third death this fall, Human Rights Watch charged Monday in an open letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. According to HRW's report, detainee deaths in 2002 and 2003 went unreported, and the agency claimed the US was stalling on launching investigations. The group also questioned the circumstances of a more recent death on Sept. 24, 2004. In the letter to Rumsfeld, the group wrote:

Six detainees are now known to have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan—including four known cases of murder or manslaughter—and former detainees have made scores of other claims of torture and other mistreatment. Some of the cases took place over two years ago. Yet to our knowledge, the U.S. government has conducted only a handful of criminal investigations, and has charged only two people with any crime in these cases. The government’s failure to hold its personnel accountable for serious abuses has spawned a culture of impunity among some personnel. And as you know, some of the personnel involved in earlier abuses in Afghanistan have now been implicated in later abuses in Iraq.

[JURIST] Activist groups Monday made a last-minute request for the Ohio Supreme Court to review the state's presidential election results as members of the Electoral College were scheduled to cast their votes in meetings in Ohio and across the country. The challengers, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Alliance for Democracy, claimed the results certified by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell last week were wrong, alleging a variety of election-day mistakes and fraud. The same groups previously brought a challenge to the election results to the state supreme court. Ohio's governor has said that the state's Electoral College meeting will go ahead as planned. Background on the Electoral College is available from the Federal Election Commission and the National Archives and Records Administration. JURIST's Paper Chase has ongoing coverage of the aftermath of the 2004 election. AP has more.

[JURIST] Six Army reservists have been court-martialed for salvaging parts and vehicles abandoned in Kuwait for a fuel delivery mission in Iraq, AP reported Monday. News of the court-martials comes shortly after Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was questioned by a soldier last week about why some units in Iraq were not adequately equipped. According to one of the court-martialed soldiers, Darrel Birt, the vehicles and parts the unit took had been abandoned by other units that had already moved into Iraq. A battalion commander said the soldiers should have returned the vehicles to the proper units after using them. Lt. Col. Christopher Wicker said the soldiers instead erased identification on the vehicles and dumped them off at other bases. Birt, as well as another soldier sentenced to six months, are both applying for clemency. The Chicago Tribune has more on the court-martialed soldiers (registration required). AP has more.

[JURIST] Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has joined opposition leaders in rejecting a call for a national referendum on same-sex marriage in the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court of Canada ruling (reported in JURIST's Paper Chase) that opened the way for federal legislation legalizing the unions. Maverick Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, known for his conservative views on a range of social issues, had called for the vote in words echoed by conservative groups in the Canadian west and other parts of Canada, but Martin and federal politicians have indicated that this a matter for parliament to decide. Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cottler condemned Klein's ploy over the weekend, saying it was an attempt to "do an end run around the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And it won't work.". CTV News has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a judge has indicted former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet for human rights violations.

11:50 AM ET - BBC News is now reporting that the former leader has been put under house arrest. From Santiago, El Mercurio has more (in Spanish).

3:30 PM ET - A full story in English is available here from BBC News.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court handed down four rulings Monday on its last decision day of 2004. In Florida v. Nixon, the Court ruled that an accused Florida man was not due a new trial even though his lawyer had conceded his guilt without his consent. Read the opinion here. AP has more. In Cooper Industries v. Aviall Services, the justices ruled 7-2 that a company had improperly used the federal Superfund law to sue a former polluting owner when there had been no directive to undertake a cleanup. Read the opinion here. AP has more. In Devenpeck v. Alford, the Court reversed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that an offense establishing probable cause had to be “closely related” to, and based on the same conduct as, the offense an arresting officer identifies at the time of arrest. Read the opinion here. Finally, in Kowalski v. Tesmer, the Court reversed the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, holding that third-party attorneys did not have standing to contest a Michigan constitutional provision that denied appellate counsel to indigents pleading guilty. Read the opinion here.

11:36 AM ET - On Monday the Court also summarily granted and reversed in a fifth case, Brousseau v. Haugen, on an issue of qualified immunity for a police officer. Read the per curiam decision here. There were no additional certiorari grants made; the Court's full Order List is now online here [PDF]. Also this morning the Court announced that Chief Justice Rehnquist, recovering from cancer treatment, will not take part in any of the decisions argued in the Court's November sitting unless his vote is necessary to break a tie. SCOTUSblog has more.

[JURIST] Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson has ruled against sanctioning Global Crossing founder Gary Winnick with a fine or charges in an unusual move that saw him side with two other commissioners in voting against the recommendation of an SEC staff panel. A settlement with Global Crossing on overstatement of revenues is pending. Observers say that the vote, which took place at a December 9 meeting, could represent a fundamental split on the politically-appointed commission over the extent of the SEC's power to punish, with the Republican Donaldson now apparently siding with his two Republican colleagues instead of with the Democratic appointees he had previously been allied with. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Oral arguments due to take place Monday afternoon before a full bench of the US Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals were cancelled Sunday night as a Unocal spokeman announced the settlement of a lawsuit against the oil company in connection with slave labor, rape, and forced relocation in connection with its construction of an oil pipeline in Burma in the 1990s. No details of the settlement were immediately available, but human rights groups had regarded the case as a key test of whether multinational corporations could be held liable in US courts for wrongful actions taken abroad. AP has more. The Unocal website about the litigation is here; a human rights website offering an alternative perspective is here.

[JURIST] Hundreds of Russian rights activists allied with both liberal and communist groups rallied in Moscow Sunday to mark the country's Constitution Day and protest what they see as an undemocratic and dangerous centralization of power by the Kremlin. Not coincidentally, Sunday was also marked by President Vladimir Putin's signing of a bill that would make regional governor's subject to central appointment rather than direct election in the regions. See an Itar-Tass report here. AP has more. Ironically, this could be the last time Russian celebrate Constitution Day.

[JURIST] Oracle Corporation announced Monday that it has signed a $10.3 billion dollar merger deal with PeopleSoft, ending an 18-month hostile takeover bid plagued with legal challenges. Read the Oracle press release on the merger here. Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase:

• Corporations & securities brief: Oracle likely to win PeopleSoft takeover bid
• Corporations & securities brief: Oracle, PeopleSoft fight for outstanding shares
• PeopleSoft shareholders, Oracle ask judge to order lifting of "poison pill" provisions
• Corporations & securities brief: PeopleSoft executives recommend rejecting Oracle bid

[JURIST] A US Army spokesman said Monday that eight former top aides to Saddam Huseein were taking meals again after having conducted a hunger strike over the weekend. AFP quotes a lawyer for former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan as saying that "My client, who I met for the first time on Saturday, told me that the (detainees) had begun a hunger strike the day before in order to have the Geneva Convention applied and to be able to read newspapers and listen to the radio." As reported yesterday evening in JURIST's Paper Chase, a lawyer for former foreign minister Tariq Aziz said earlier that one of the reasons for the protest had been lack of access to defense counsel. In a separate statement issued in Jordan, Saddam Hussein's defense team called on the Iraqi and American authorities to allow Saddam to see his lawyers; again as reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, a meeting scheduled last week fell through at the last minute for unexplained reasons. AFP has more.