[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] has ruled [opinion, PDF] that the execution of Kenneth Biros could proceed as scheduled, overturning a stay of execution issued by the district court [JURIST report] last month. The appeals court held Wednesday that the change to the execution procedure in Ohio removed the legal question from the case:

[T]he district court’s stay order must be vacated because any challenge to Ohio’s three drug execution protocol is now moot. Since Biros filed his lawsuit, the State has amended its lethal injection protocol. ... Ohio no longer follows the principal procedures that Biros challenges, the motion no longer presents a “live” dispute.

[JURIST] The Iranian government was accused Thursday of confiscating the Nobel Peace Prize medal awarded to human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi [Nobel profile; JURIST news archive]. The government seized the medal from Ebadi's safety deposit box in Tehran and froze her bank accounts three weeks ago, claiming that Ebadi owes $400,000 in taxes for the $1.3 million she was awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee [official website]. The Chairman of the Committee penned a letter [text, PDF] to the Iranian embassy in Oslo stating

It is...totally unacceptable that parts of Dr. Ebadi's property, including the Nobel medal and the Nobel Diploma, have been confiscated by the authorities...The Norwegian Nobel Committee urge Iran to live up to its commitments, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...Many laureates, including Shirin Ebadi, have received the Prize because they insisted that their governments follow the basic principles of human rights. Some of these laureates were put in prison for an extended period of time. Yet, even in these cases their Nobel medals and diplomas were not confiscated.