AP is reporting that court officials have said that the jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing trial has reached a verdict. The verdict will be read in court at 4 PM ET. Moussaoui pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges last year relating to the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the current trial is to determine [...]

Special Court for Sierra Leone, summary of war crimes charges against ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor at his first appearance before the SCSL in Freetown, April 3, 2006. Text: Charles Ghankay Taylor, the former President of Liberia, was indicted on 7 March 2003 on a 17-count indictment for crimes against humanity, violations of Article 3 common [...]

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor pleaded not guilty to war crimes charges in his first appearance before the Special Court for Sierra Leone Monday. Taylor initially refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the court but then entered a not guilty plea to all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity outlined in his [...]

Padilla v. Hanft, Supreme Court of the United States, April 3, 2006 . Excerpt from Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurrence, in which Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice John Paul Stevens joined: Whatever the ultimate merits of the parties' mootness arguments, there are strong prudential considerations disfavoring the exercise of the Court's certiorari power. Even if [...]

Jim McGinty , attorney general of Western Australia , has announced plans to introduce legislation that would allow for regular television broadcast of court proceedings in the state, which would make the state's courts the first in the country to broadcast proceedings regularly. The proposal comes weeks before the completion of a high-tech, high security [...]

Nearly 3.6 million US households – roughly 3 percent of the total – fell victim to identity theft during a six month period in 2004, according to a US Department of Justice report released Sunday. The survey, sent to over 40,000 US households, follows a 2003 Federal Trade Commission report which determined that over 10 [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he's willing to reopen Canada's perenniel constitutional debate. In an interview with CBC radio Sunday ahead of Monday's opening of the 39th Parliament in Ottawa, Harper said, "Ultimately, there will have to be constitutional changes, not just to accommodate Quebec but also to accommodate demands we have from [...]

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Jose Padilla , who had challenged whether an enemy combatant can be held indefinitely without charge. Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber, was detained in 2002 and had challenged his continued detention with the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruling last September [...]

The defense case for former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma opened on Monday with testimony from Zuma about his role in the African National Congress (ANC) . Zuma's motion to dismiss the rape charges that he faces was refused by a High Court Judge Willem van der Merwe last week. Zuma testified about his [...]

Defense lawyers begin their case this week in the trial of former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling . The prosecution's case ended last week with US District Judge Sim Lake dismissing four counts against the two, leaving 28 remaining counts against Skilling and six against Lay. The defense case against the fraud and [...]