A French criminal court sentenced Noriega [JURIST report] to seven years in jail for money laundering in July 2010. He was convicted of laundering $3 million in drug profits by purchasing property in Paris. In April 2010, Noriega was extradited [JURIST report] from the US, where he had served a 17-year sentence on drug charges, after fighting extradition [JURIST report] since 2007. The US Supreme Court declined to reconsider [JURIST report] Noriega's petition to stop the extradition process. His lawyers filed the petition in February 2010 after the Supreme Court denied certiorari [JURIST reports] on the case a month earlier. Noriega, who has been declared a prisoner of war, sought to enforce a provision of the Geneva Convention [ICRC backgrounder] that requires repatriation at the end of confinement. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia [Reuters report] to 10 years in jail by a French court in 1999, but France agreed to hold a new trial if he was extradited.

Oregonians have a fundamental belief in fairness and justice—in swift and certain justice. The death penalty as practiced in Oregon is neither fair nor just; and it is not swift or certain. It is not applied equally to all. It is a perversion of justice that the single best indicator of who will and will not be executed has nothing to do with the circumstances of a crime or the findings of a jury. The only factor that determines whether someone sentenced to death in Oregon is actually executed is that they volunteer. ... I am calling on the legislature to bring potential reforms before the 2013 legislative session and encourage all Oregonians to engage in the long overdue debate that this important issue deserves.

The death penalty remains a controversial issue across the US. Earlier this week, the Connecticut Supreme Court [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the constitutionality of the state's death penalty law. Earlier this month, the Ohio Supreme Court [official website] announced that it was forming a committee to ensure that the death penalty is not administered arbitrarily [JURIST report]. In March, Illinois abolished capital punishment [JURIST report], concluding that there was no way to rid the capital punishment system of its discriminatory flaws. In 2009, New Mexico repealed its death penalty [JURIST report] on similar grounds to Illinois, asserting that the state could not possibly administer the death penalty impartially.

Pillay's comments come on the heels of an Amnesty International [advocacy website] report which concluded that Egypt's ruling military council has committed numerous human rights violations [JURIST report], including abuse of protesters and journalists who voice their dissatisfaction with the government. On Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] and a group of independent human rights experts issued a joint statement [JURIST report] "express[ing] alarm at the degree of violence and deterioration of the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association which have led to loss of life in Egypt." Last Friday, as many as 50,000 protesters took to Tahrir Square in Egypt [JURIST report], decrying the military's continued rule over the nation since this year's revolution and were reportedly met with a violent reprisal from police forces. Protests have continued with reports of 35 killed and hundreds more injured.

Ocampo arrived in Libya [JURIST report] Tuesday to discuss details of Saif al-Islam and al-Senussi's trials with Libyan officials and decide where they should be held. Gaddafi's son was captured by Libyan opposition forces Friday after arrest warrants were issued by the ICC for Gaddafi, him and al-Senussi in June. Military and National Transitional Council officials confirmed [Global Post report] al-Senussi's capture Sunday, but that is not being called into question.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported that Syrian governmental forces have been committing crimes against humanity [JURIST report], including torture and unlawful killings of anti-government protesters in Homs, Syria [map]. Also this month, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] announced that the death toll of Syrian protesters has exceeded 3,500 [JURIST report]. In October, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] urged [statement] the international community to take steps to protect civilian lives in Syria [JURIST report]. The violence has been condemned [JURIST report] by both the UN and the Arab League.

Vioxx was pulled from the market in September 2004 after it was discovered that it led to an increased risk of heart attack. In June 2010, a federal judge in Louisiana found for Merck [JURIST report] in a lawsuit over reimbursements for the prescription painkiller Vioxx filed by the Louisiana Attorney General's Office [official website] and joined [JURIST report] by the state of Florida in 2008. Other lawsuits were filed in Louisiana, California, New Jersey and Texas [JURIST reports]. In April 2010, the US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that a securities fraud claim filed against Vioxx had not passed its statute of limitations and could proceed. In September 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court [official website] dismissed a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] filed against Merck, reversing a lower court's decision to grant nationwide class certification in the case. In November 2007, Merck said that it had agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle [JURIST report] all pending lawsuits regarding its marketing and distribution of Vioxx.

Utah's adoption of its own immigration policy disrupts the federal government's ability both to administer and enforce the federal immigration laws including as set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act, and to establish and pursue federal policies and priorities pertaining to, inter alia, the identification, apprehension, detention and removal of aliens unlawfully in the United States. By contributing to this state-specific immigration policy, the challenged provisions of H.B. 497 represent an attempt to regulate in an area constitutionally reserved to the federal government, forcing a conflict with the federal immigration laws and federal immigration policy, interfering with federal primacy in managing the nation's foreign affairs and in balancing the competing objectives of immigration policy, and impeding the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress. Sections 3, 10, and 11 of H.B. 497 are therefore preempted.

The DOJ has filed similar suits challenging immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina [JURIST reports]. Federal judges have enjoined portions of each of those laws, and an appeal of the Arizona law is currently pending before the Supreme Court [JURIST report]. The DOJ is reviewing similar immigration legislation passed recently in Indiana and Georgia [JURIST reports].

The battle over Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive], continues, awaiting a ruling from the the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments [video; JURIST report] in Perry v. Brown [case materials] at the end of 2010. The hearing was divided into two one-hour sessions, with the first section focusing on the issue of standing, and the second focusing on Proposition 8's constitutionality. In March, the Ninth Circuit denied a motion [JURIST report] filed by California Attorney General Kamala Harris [official website] to lift the stay order [JURIST report] prohibiting gay couples from marrying while the appeal is pending. Walker's ruling in August 2010 held that the ban violated both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause [Cornell LII backgrounders] of the Fourteenth Amendment and held that same-sex marriage was required as part of the fundamental right to marriage affirmed by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia [text].

Various human rights groups have filed charges against US and UK officials alleging war crimes committed in Afghanistan and Iraq. In October, the attorney general for British Columbia blocked a lawsuit [JURIST report] filed by the Canadian Centre for International Justice [advocacy website] against Bush on torture allegations. Earlier in October, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy websites] urged the Canadian government to investigate and arrest [JURIST report] Bush for his role in torture. In February, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the European Center for Human Rights [advocacy websites] urged the signatory states of the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) [text] to pursue criminal charges [JURIST report] against Bush. Other calls to investigate the criminal culpability of Bush and officials in his administration have been rejected consistently by US officials [JURIST report]. In 2010, a former UN official strongly suggested [JURIST report] a war crimes investigation of actions by both sides in the Afghanistan war. In 2009, the UK High Court criticized [JURIST report] its own Ministry of Defense for failure to investigate or release documents regarding a claim of war crimes against UK soldiers in Iraq.