The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Kennedy v. Louisiana , 07-343, where the Supreme Court considered whether the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment when imposed for a crime in which the victim was not killed. Patrick Kennedy was sentenced to death in Louisiana for raping a minor, one of the [...]

US District Judge Joan A. Lenard Wednesday declared a second mistrial in a terrorism prosecution of six men charged with conspiring to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI headquarters in Miami after the jury was unable to reach a verdict after 13 days of deliberations. In December 2007 Lenard declared an initial [...]

The European Union (EU) must do more to ensure that those responsible for war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 Croatian War of Independence are brought to justice, Amnesty International said Tuesday. Amnesty called on the EU to use Croatia's status as an EU candidate country to ensure that the Croatian government actively investigates and prosecutes [...]

Baze v. Rees, US Supreme Court, April 16, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Begay v. United States, US Supreme Court, April 16, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Burgess v. United States, US Supreme Court, April 16, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling came in Baze v. Rees , where lawyers for Kentucky death row inmate Ralph Baze argued that the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used in most states violates the US Constitution because the [...]

Zimbabwean police have arrested more than 50 members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after the party called for a strike to protest the nondisclosure of the results of the March 29 presidential elections , a party spokesperson said Wednesday. Zimbabwe police say that only 30 opposition supporters were arrested for blocking roads [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in three cases Wednesday, including Burgess v. US , where the Court held that a defendant's federal drug sentence can be enhanced under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) when the defendant has previously been convicted of a state drug offense punishable by more than one year, even if [...]

The Supreme Court of Peru on Tuesday upheld a prison sentence for former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori , who was convicted late last year on charges of abuse of authority for ordering a warrantless search of the apartment of the wife of former Peruvian Intelligence Director Vladimiro Montesino . The high court also upheld a [...]