[JURIST] A new Army investigative report has cleared four top US military officers - including former Iraq commander Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez - of wrongdoing in the Iraq prison abuse scandal, according to officials speaking Friday. The as-yet-unreleased report conducted by US Army Inspector General Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Green found that allegations made against the officers in connection with abuses of Iraqi detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison were unsubstantiated. Sanchez had been cited for "lapses of leadership" by previous investigations and in 2003 issued a policy on interrogation techniques [JURIST report] that the Inspector General had already called ambiguous and subject to misinterpretation by service personnel. AP has more.

[JURIST] Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] has pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges [indictment] connected with the 9/11 attacks that killed more than 3000 people. Upon conviction, he could face the death penalty. Earlier today, Moussaoui's own lawyers had asked the judge [JURIST report] to reject a guilty plea, citing mental incompetence.

6:15 PM ET - US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed in a press statement late Friday afternoon after the guilty plea that the government will indeed be seeking the death penalty for Moussaoui [Gonzales remarks].

[JURIST] Vice President Dick Cheney [official website] said Friday that, if necessary, he would cast the tie-breaking vote to ban Senate filibusters of judicial nominees. Speaking to the Republican National Lawyers Association [official website], Cheney declared that "the decision about how to proceed will be made by the Republican leadership in the Senate. But if the Senate majority decides to move forward and if the issue is presented to me in my elected office as president of the Senate and presiding officer, I will support bringing those nominations to the floor for an up or down vote." Senate Republicans have proposed removing the filibuster for judicial nominations [JURIST report], allowing nominees to be approved by a simple majority rather than the 60-vote support currently needed. A simple majority is needed to change the filibuster rules. With only 55 Republican seats in the Senate, the vote is predicted to be close, with Vice President Cheney stepping in to break a tie, if necessary. A confrontation in the Senate on filibuster rules and judicial nominations is looming after the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Thursday approved two judicial nominees [JURIST report] whose previous nominations were blocked by a Democratic filibuster. AP has more.

6:15 PM ET - The text of the Vice-President's address is now online from the White House.

[JURIST] Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue [official website] Friday signed into law a bill that would require voters to show photo identification [bill summary] before being allowed to cast ballots. Supporters of the measure say that it will crack down on voter fraud, but opponents say that the law unfairly targets the elderly, the poor and minorities, groups most likely not to have photo identification. Previously, registered voters only needed to presented a Social Security card or other non-photo ID in order to vote. Friday's signing of the bill prompted most black lawmakers to walk out of the state Capitol and the ACLU of Georgia has said that it is considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the law. The ACLU of Georgia outlines its objections to the bill in a recent letter to the governor [PDF text] asking Perdue to veto the bill. The photo ID requirement will not take effect until the law receives approval from the Department of Justice. Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Georgia, and other states with a history of suppressing minority votes, must submit changes in voting requirements to the DOJ to ensure that change does not have a discriminatory purpose or effect. AP has more. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has local coverage [free registration required].

[JURIST] The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has revived part of a 2000 lawsuit against gun manufacturers seeking to hold the companies liable for shootings carried out with automatic weapons. The entire lawsuit was dismissed in a 2002 DC Superior Court ruling, but on Thursday the full Court of Appeals ruled that DC's Assault Weapon Manufacturing Strict Liability Act [text] allows individuals, but not the government, to sue gun manufacturers for damages arising from injuries or deaths caused by the gun's discharge. In its opinion [PDF text], the court also held that the law does not allow claims against gunmakers and distributors for creating a public nuisance and for conducting their business with little or no regard for the risks caused by their products. The Legal Action Project, which represents the District of Columbia in the suit has background on the case. Friday's Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] The UN's independent expert on human rights in Afghanistan, Cherif Bassiouni [DePaul University faculty profile] says he has received reports of torture and other abuses by US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. In a report of his own released Thursday Bassiouni said he has been told that security agencies in the nation engage in arbitrary arrests and detentions, and often torture detainees. His report also alleges that human rights violations are occurring at the hands of unregulated foreign private security contractors, inadequately trained police, and regional warlords. Afghan officials have cooperated with both the UN and Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission [official website] in their investigations, but neither organization has been granted access to US detention facilities in the area. US-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement [text] Wednesday urging the UN to strengthen its monitoring of human rights in Afghanistan. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that lawyers for September 11 terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui have asked the judge in his case to reject his attempt to plead guilty.

1:02 PM ET - Moussaoui's lawyers argued in a late filing made just hours before a public hearing scheduled for Friday at 3:30 PM ET [media advisory] that he is unfit to make a guilty plea despite the judge's conclusion that he was competent to do so after an earlier meeting with him. The filing itself remains under seal [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. [corporate website] spokesman said a federal grand jury is reviewing allegations of misspending within company. The investigation into Wal-Mart began after it handed over internal documents to the Justice Department [official website] related to allegations that former vice chairman Tom Coughlin misspent up to $500,000, some of it allegedly for anti-union activity. Wal-Mart has denied any anti-union spending. Coughlin was the No. 2 figure in Wal-Mart's hierarchy before his resignation last year. AP has more.

In other news...

• US District Judge Barbara Jones has rejected claims by Nevada utilities Nevada Power Company [corporate website] and Sierra Pacific Power Company [corporate website] against a subsidiary of Enron Corporation. The ruling affirms a federal bankruptcy judge's ruling which threw out the utilities' claims that Enron manipulated markets during the 2000 and 2001 Western energy crisis. The utilities' claim the bankruptcy judge did not have authority to dismiss the claims. Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power still face a May 23 trial date to determine if they have to pay Enron more than $300 million to fulfill contracts signed before the energy crisis. AP has more.
  
  
• As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, two ex-Merrill Lynch bankers convicted in the Enron [corporate website; JURIST Hot Topic news archive] Nigerian barge scam were sentenced to less than the government requested. Daniel Bayly, the former global head of the investment banking division at Merrill Lynch [corporate website], was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $840,000. James A. Brown, former head of the bank's asset lease and finance group, was sentenced to 46 months in prison and $840,000 in fines. Bayly and Brown were both convicted of conspiracy and fraud and Brown was also convicted of lying and obstructing justice. The pair's co-defendants will be sentenced in May. Read the indictment [PDF] against Brown and Bayly. The Houston Chronicle has more and continuing coverage of the Enron barge trials.
  
  
• Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay [Wikipedia profile] will face his four personal banking charges right after the jury goes to deliberation in his Enron fraud charges in 2006. The Enron Task Force had wanted Lay to face his personal fraud charges this year but US District Judge Sim Lake found a 2005 trial would skewer the jury pool for Lay's Enron fraud trial. The Houston Chronicle has more.
  
  
• The World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website] ruled in a report the European Union [official website] can pay subsidies to its shipbuilders to help them compete against South Korean yards. However, the ruling also said the EU violated trade rules by unilaterally pay subsidies to its shipbuilders without first filing a complaint at the WTO. The ruling did not give any specific penalties to the EU. Read the WTO report [PDF]. The EU has more on its efforts to even competition in the shipbuilding sector. AP has more.
  
  
• Medtronic Inc. [corporate website], the world's biggest maker of spinal implants, announced in s SEC filing [text] that they have paid $1.35 billion to end a lawsuit by Los Angeles surgeon Gary K. Michelson over claims the company made money off his patents without properly compensating him. Bloomberg has more.
  
  
• Qwest Communications [corporate website] has raised its offer for MCI Inc. [corporate website] to $9.7 billion in cash and stock. The new offer is more than $2 billin above Verizon Communication's [corporate website] winning offer. The MCI board, which has already rejected Qwest three times, will likely face pressure to reverse course. Read the Qwest press release and the MCI press release. AP has more.

[JURIST] In Friday's environmental law news, today is the 35th celebration of "Earth Day", a day first started by US Senator Gaylord Nelson as a time to reflect on the environment and mankind's relationship to it. The first Earth Day in 1970 was marked with seminars held around the country on air and water pollution, wilderness, land use and the protection of species. Later that year, President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, and within four years a whole series of landmark legislation was enacted: the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Amendments, the Coastal Zone Protection Act, the Estuarine Act, the Marine Mammals Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. EPA has more on Earth Day events and history.

In other news,

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission [official website](NRC) Thursday proposed [NRC press release] a record $5.45 million fine [NRC fine text] against FirstEnergy Corp. [company website] for neglect of safety procedures at the Davis-Besse [DoE factpage] nuclear power plant in Ottawa County, OH. The NRC said that $450,000 of the proposed fine is specifically attributed to a willful failure to provide the NRC with complete and accurate information about the plant's status after the reactor was refueled in 2000. There is also an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing at the plant. The Toledo Blade has the full story.
  
  
• Japan's Defense Facilities Administration Agency [official website, Japanese]and the US Navy [official website] have paid 35 million yen (approx. US$330,000) in compensation for two Japanese workers exposed to asbestos at a US Navy base. 22 million yen was paid to a relative of a Japanese worker who died two years ago at the age of 88 and 13 million yen went to a 70-year-old man suffering from serious lung problems as a result of asbestos exposure at the US Navy's Yokosuka base. Navy officials report that the base completed the removal of asbestos from all of its ships more than a decade ago. AP has the full story.

[JURIST] In a rare televised address to the nation [audio], Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin [official website] apologized Thursday night for a sponsorship scandal that has shaken his Liberal Party [official website]. During his address, Martin acknowledged allegations of money laundering and kickbacks and took full responsiblility for the misuse of public funds. Martin’s comments come one week after Justice John Gomery ordered a partial lifting of a publication ban [JURIST report] prohibiting the dissemination of some testimony provided during the official investigation. The Gomery Commission [official website] is charged with investigating the national unity program that resulted in $100 million in contracts, that resulted in little return, being awarded to advertising firms with close ties to the Liberals. During his address, Martin also asked for Canadians give his tenuous minority government time to pass critical legislation on such issues as health care reform, gay marriage, improved border security and the federal budget. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's international brief, Togolese Interior Minister Francois Esso Boko told reporters late Thursday night that he was recommending that what he called the "suicidal electoral process" - the presidential election scheduled for Sunday - be postponed, warning that all signs pointed to it being extremely violent. Esso Boko said he would recommend to the interim president that the election be postponed, that a new interim president be appointed from one of the opposition parties, and that the next year be spent drawing up a new constitution to ensure that when a national election did occur, it wouldn't tear the country apart. Togo currently has an interim president following the several weeks of controversial rule [JURIST report] by Faure Gnassignabe, installed by the military following the death of the former president, his father, before he finally resigned in favor of national elections [JURIST report]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Togo [JURIST news archive]. IRIN has more. Republique Togolaise, the state news agency, has local coverage in French.

In other international legal news ...

• Former Yugoslavian Army chief-of-staff Nebojsa Pavkovic told the Serb government [official website] Friday that he would willingly surrender himself to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website]. Pavkovic has been avoiding arrest and transport to the ICTY for several years and was a source of concern to the EU Enlargement Commission and their report on the feasibility of allowing Serbia into the EU. Serbia received a positive report [JURIST report] from the Commission on April 12, but the report expressed a specific desire to see Pavkovic turned over to the ICTY. Pavkovic is scheduled to leave for the ICTY on Monday. Read the ICTY indictment against Pavkovic. Read the official Serb government press release. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Three Ugandan soldiers were arrested Thursday on charges of rape and sexual assault of women in the conflict-heavy Kitgum region. The two women are classed as Internally Displaced Persons [UNHCR backgrounder], basically refugees within their own country attempting to avoid the continuing violence between the Ugandan government [official website] and the rebel group The Lord's Resistance Army [Global Security backgrounder]. The arrests followed allegations by MP Jane Akwero [parliament profile] before the Ugandan Parliament [government website] on Tuesday, where she accused the Ugandan army of raiding an IDP camp in Padibe, 20 km north of Kitgum, and systematically gang raping and assaulting the women they found there. Ugandan Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi [AfricaDatabase profile] ordered the Ministry of Defense [official website] to investigate the incident, and the three arrests Thursday were the first steps of that investigation. Ugandan law requires death by firing squad for soldiers found guilty of rape. IRIN has more.
  
  
• The Kyrgyz Parliament voted down an amendment to election laws Friday that would have prevented Kyrgyz Prime Minister and Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev [BBC profile] from running for the office of president while still Kyrgyzstan's Prime Minister. The amendment, which failed by only three votes, was designed to prohibit the individuals currently holding the Prime Minister's office or governor level positions from running for office for fear of possible abuse of power and misuse of state resources during a campaign. Bakiyev has already announced his intent to run of President in the upcoming national elections. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Kyrgyzstan [JURIST news archive]. Itar-Tass has local coverage.

[JURIST] The BBC is reporting that a London court has sentenced Saajid Badat [Wikipedia profile] to 13 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in February to conspiring with "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid to blow up an American Airlines flight.

[JURIST] The UN Commission on Human Rights [official website] ended its 61st and possibly last session Friday in the wake of UN Secretary Kofi Annan's announced plans to radically overhaul the 53-member body. Annan and others in the international community have criticized the commission's failure to take definite action on human rights violations throughout the world. Most recently, activists have criticized the commission's lax treatment of alleged genocide in the Sudan and its failure to investigate prisoner mistreatment in Guantanamo Bay. Member nations [member list], many facing criticism on their own human rights records, have been plagued by controversy and political infighting. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official website], a former international war crimes prosecutor, has herself stated that the commission lacks "legitimacy and credibility," and hopes that changes planned for next year will lead to a more unified group. Member nations of a new UN rights panel will be elected by a two-thirds majority of the UN General Assembly. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The trial of 24 suspected members of an al-Quaida cell in Spain began in Madrid Friday. Three of the suspects allegedly used Spain as a staging ground for the September 11, 2001 attacks [JURIST news archive] against targets in the United States. Spain is now the second European country, after Germany, to try suspects involved in the attacks. The three 9/11 suspects, Imad Yarkas, Driss Chebli, and Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, are accused of providing logistical cover and information regarding the US targets to other terrorists, including video surveillance of the World Trade Center buildings. The other 21 defendants are charged with terrorism offenses, but are not directly linked to the September 11 attacks. AP has more. Madrid El Mundo provides a "who's who" of the accused and their judges [in Spanish].

[JURIST] Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Stephen Breyer, and Antonin Scalia gave candid reactions to recent criticisms of the "activist" federal judiciary in a rare joint interview-cum-converation moderated by NBC's Tim Russert at the National Archives Thursday. O'Connor and Breyer agreed that such criticism was "nothing new," pointing out that sometimes the issues before federal courts trigger strong emotions. Specifically responding to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's recent comments criticizing Justice Anthony Kennedy's citations of international law [JURIST report] in a recent opinion barring the execution of minors [JURIST report], Justice Scalia agreed that the opinions and feelings of other countries should have no bearing on death penalty jurisprudence in the US. Justice Breyer disagreed, however, saying that while practices in other countries should not bind the US, it is appropriate in some instances to take note of what happens around the world. The New York Times has more [free registration required].

[JURIST] The National Center for State Courts [official NCSC website] has asked Congress to earmark 1-3 percent of new homeland security grants to states for use in improving security at courthouses. The request comes in the wake of recent incidents at several courthouses, including last month's murder of Judge Rowland Barnes in Atlanta [JURIST report]. The US Department of Homeland Security [official website] favors allowing states to decide how to spend allocated funds. NCSC has released a ten point plan for improving courthouse security [background info, official release]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The lower house of the Spanish Parliament [official website, in English] has approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriages, a measure sponsored by Spain's ruling Socialist Party. The bill, passed Thursday, now moves to the Senate [official website, in English], where the Socialists have strong support. Adoption of the bill reflects significant changes in Spain, where 80 percent of the population considers themselves Catholic, although half of that number do not follow Church teachings. The Vatican immediately denounced the bill as "iniquitous" and urged Catholics to resist it, even at the risk of losing their jobs; incoming pope Benedict XVI [official website] issued a stern letter against homosexual unions [text] in 2003 while head of the Vatican's watchdog Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The Spanish Bishops Conference [official website in Spanish] has also issued a statement condemning the bill [pre-passage press release in Spanish]. AP has more. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that the Virginia Supreme Court has affirmed the death penalty for DC sniper John Allen Muhammad.

9:47 AM ET - Review the 138-page opinion [PDF]. Three justices issued a partial dissent.

[JURIST] One day after a Michigan probate court ordered Yahoo! [portal entry] to release the contents of an e-mail account belonging to deceased Marine Justin Ellsworth [memorial website], the company complied Thursday by delivering a CD of the private documents to Ellsworth's father, John Ellsworth. The case highlighted a conflict between the privacy policies [Yahoo terms] of Internet Service Providers and the property interests of an estate, specifically raising the question of whether e-mail account information should be treated like other possessions of the deceased's estate. Although Yahoo stated it will not alter its policy of withholding account information from surviving family members until a court order issues, the company reportedly responded quickly to John Ellsworth's request once the court ruled. Justin Ellsworth was killed by a roadside bomb [Detroit Free Press report] near Fallujah, Iraq last November. CNET has more information.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Friday, April 22.

The US Senate [official website] convenes at 9:30 AM ET today. Watch a live webcast of the session.

The US House [official website] is not in session today.

The Republican National Lawyers Association [official website] is holding a national conference to celebrate its 20th anniversary beginning at 8:30 AM ET today. Speakers during the conference include former Attorney General John Ashcroft and retired 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Charles Pickering. Watch a live webcast of the day's sessions via C-SPAN.

The Cato Institute [official website] is holding a forum titled "Saving Our Environment from Washington" at 11 AM ET today. Watch a live webcast of the event.

Ohio State University Moritz College of Law [official website] is holding a lecture titled "Mercy, Clemency and Capital Punishment: Two Accounts" at Noon ET today. Watch a live webcast of the event.

The UN Security Council [official website] Economic and Social Council Chamber meets at 10 AM ET today to meet with the troop contributing countries for the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Watch a live webcast of the session.