[JURIST] Talks between Pakistani party leaders meeting in London to discuss a parliamentary resolution to restore superior court judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf under his proclamation of emergency last November collapsed Sunday despite last-minute intervention by a US envoy [PTI report]. US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher [official profile] met separately with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nazaz (PML-N) leader and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but was unable to bridge the gap between them. Sharif stayed on in London Sunday but is now returning to Pakistan. He had originally announced after talks with the PPP in Dubai last month that the judges would be restored May 12 [JURIST report], but that deadline is now certain to be missed. The two parties continue to disagree on the terms of the reinstatement and what to do with replacement judges sworn in by Musharraf under his Provisional Constitution Order.

JURIST's Pakistan correspondent says that with the failure of the talks Sharif is likely to step out of Pakistan's coalition cabinet. The reaction of Pakistan's lawyers' movement to the missed deadline is expected to be sharp.

[JURIST] Blackwater Worldwide [corporate website] is not likely to face criminal charges in connection with a September 16 shooting in Baghdad in which 14 Iraqi civilians were killed, AP reported Saturday, citing a half-dozen individuals closely associated with a US Department of Justice probe. The sources told AP that the investigation was concentrating on three or four individual Blackwater guards. No recommendation on charges against them is likely until late this summer. Last month the US State Department renewed its diplomatic security contract with Blackwater. AP has more.

Bringing criminal charges against the Blackwater employees would require surmounting numerous legal hurdles [JURIST report], DOJ officials reportedly told Congress during a private meeting in December. The Blackwater allegations have caused domestic outrage in Iraq and have prompted legal controversy in the US. In November, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that an FBI investigation into the incident concluded that the shootings were unjustified {JURIST report].

[JURIST] US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens suggested to a gathering of lawyers and judges Friday in Tennessee that the Kentucky Derby horse Eight Belles [contender website] may have been euthanized more humanely than some prisoners. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Stevens had been surprised to find out that one of the three drugs authorized for lethal injections of death row convicts was in fact banned on horses. "I had checked the procedure they used to kill the horse,” Stevens said. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has more.

Last month the Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] in Baze v. Rees that Kentucky's lethal injection protocol did not infringe the Eight Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Stevens concurred in the judgment [opinion text]. Suspended lethal injection executions resumed in the US last week in the wake of Baze, with Georgia putting to death William Earl Lynd, who was convicted of the 1988 murder of his girlfriend. The horse Eight Belles was euthanized on the track [Boston Globe report] following the May 4 Kentucky Derby, having broke both of its front ankles.