Prosecutors in Malaysia on Monday dropped attempted murder charges brought against 26 ethnic Indians for their role in anti-discrimination demonstrations held last month. The defendants have instead pleaded guilty to lesser charges of illegal assembly, mischief and damaging property. They face a maximum of five years in prison and will be sentenced on December 27. [...]

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine on Monday signed into law a bill ending the use of capital punishment , making New Jersey the first state to abolish the use of the death penalty since the US Supreme Court reinstated it nationally in 1976. The legislation was passed by the New Jersey Assembly last week, just [...]

The Bush administration has proposed a draft regulation that would give political appointees in the Defense Department a role in the promotion of military lawyers working as members of the Judge Advocate General Corps, the Boston Globe reported over the weekend. Some 4,000 lawyers work as JAGs across the military, and their hirings and promotions [...]

An Act to Eliminate the Death Penalty, December 17, 2007 . Read the full text of the bill . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The ranking member of the US House Select Committee on Intelligence said Sunday that the committee would proceed with its investigation into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects, despite the Justice Department's advice that the CIA not cooperate with the probe and request that the committee delay its investigation pending [...]

Some 50,000 detainees held by Iraqi and US authorities in Iraqi could be freed by the end of 2008, an Iraqi official said Sunday. Iraqi national security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaei said that 24,000 detainees held in facilities run by the Iraqi defense, interior and justice ministries could be freed under what appears to be an [...]

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has suspended the country's attorney general on charges of corruption and established a three-person tribunal to investigate the charges. Officials charged Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele in November with acting contrary to or inconsistent with his duty as a public officer in violation of section 174 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification [...]

The chairman of one of Pakistan's two leading opposition groups said Sunday that his party would seek to reverse constitutional amendments unilaterally promulgated by President Pervez Musharraf in association with his lifting of emergency rule on Saturday. Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Raja Zafarul Haq said that the PML-N, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says the time has come to call President Pervez Musharraf – the latest of Pakistan's military "Caesars" – to account for his contemptuous disregard of Pakistan's constitution and the rule of law… Gaius Julius Caesar, the Roman military and political dictator, is the role [...]

Participants in the United Nations Climate Change Conference agreed in Bali, Indonesia Saturday to a timetable for negotiating a new international treaty on global warming . Under the "Bali Roadmap" , the 187 participating nations pledged to a negotiate a new agreement to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol by 2009: The decision includes a clear [...]