In re: Personal Restraint Petition of Cecil Emil Davis, November 5, 2004 . Read the majority opinion, a concurrence...

The Department of Justice has announced that a federal judge has ordered a freeze of $500 million in assets held by San Diego tax-planning company Xelan and its subsidiaries. The company has sold tax-reduction plans to about 4000 doctors...

Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, November 5, 2004 [completing Russia's ratification of the treaty and giving the global warming accord enough signatures to come into force as early...

N.W. and J.R. et al. v. Attorney General of Canada et al., November 5, 2004 [ruling that the existing common law definition of marriage limited to unions between a man and a woman is unconstitutional, and making Saskatchwan the seventh...

The US military has provided Associated Press details of eight cases of abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in response to a written inquiry by the news organization. The response provided details of eight cases of abuse mentioned by...

Members of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have harshly criticized a proposal by Russian officials to detain relatives of terrorists to discourage hostage-taking. Such a proposal would violate international law, according to UN human...

The Washington state Supreme Court has overturned a death sentence, ruling that the jury may have been prejudiced by the sight of ankle shackles on the defendant, Cecil E. Davis. Davis was convicted of murdering a 65-year-old neighbor, but...

A military lawyer has recommended that a Navy SEAL accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq should not be court-martialed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday. The lawyer instead recommended a nonjudicial punishment for the SEAL. The decision on whether...

A Saskatchewan judge has ruled that a Canadian federal law on marriage is unconsitutional, making it the seventh jurisdiction in the country to approve same-sex marriages. The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to rule on proposed legislation legalizing...

The Japanese Ministry of Justice has warned in a report Friday that the country's prison system is overwhelmed, with some prisons unable to accommodate any more prisoners. The system is at about 117 percent capacity, which is the highest...