US Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, the judge presiding over military commission proceedings against Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan Monday dismissed all charges against Hamdan, citing a lack of jurisdiction and echoing another judge's dismissal of charges against Canadian detainee Omar Khadr earlier in the day. Both judges found that the detainees could [...]
The trial of former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member James Ford Seale , accused of kidnapping and killing two black men in Mississippi in 1964, began Monday. Seale, now 71 years old, was originally arrested in 1964 on suspicion of kidnapping Henry Dee and Charles Moore, who were later found dead in the Mississippi River. [...]
US Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was indicted Monday on 16 counts, including charges of bribery, racketeering, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Jefferson allegedly solicited bribes from numerous companies both in the US and in Africa, setting up a fake company to launder the money. Due to the international nature of the alleged acts, Jefferson [...]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled unanimously Monday that Michigan's ban on what opponents of the procedure call "partial-birth" abortion is unconstitutional because it "fails to comply with the explicit limitations that the Supreme Court has established for statutes regulating abortion." Instead of banning a particular medical [...]
The US District Court for the Southern District of Texas sentenced Enron Broadband Services former COO Kevin Hannon to two years in prison Monday. Hannon, who was charged along with four other former Enron executives and mid-level employees for conspiracy, fraud and insider trading, faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison for misrepresenting [...]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled unanimously Monday that Missouri's lethal injection procedures do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment , making it possible for lethal injections to resume in that state. The court said that there was no indication that executed prisoners felt any unnecessary pain [...]
US v. William J. Jefferson, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, June 4, 2007 . Read the full text of the indictment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Northland Family Planning Clinic, Inc. et al. v. Michael A. Cox, Attorney General of the State of Michigan, US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, June 4, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Michael Anthony Taylor v. Larry Crawford, Director, Missouri Department of Corrections; James D. Purkett, Superintendent, Eastern Reception Diagnostic & Correctional Center, US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, June 4, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York on Monday vacated a determination by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that Fox Television broadcasts violated the FCC's indecency and profanity prohibitions. The appeals court ruled that the FCC's "fleeting expletives" standard "represented a significant departure from positions previously taken by the [...]