US v. Platte; US v. Hudson; US v. Gilbert, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, March 17, 2005 . Excerpt: Of course, whenever a criminal statute has such a broad scope, some prohibited activities may be much less reprehensible than others. The maximum permissible sentence is designed for the most reprehensible offenses. [...]

Former Connecticut governor John G. Rowland was sentenced Friday to one year in prison, four months of house arrest, three years probation, and an $82,000 fine after pleading guilty in December to a federal corruption charge. The sentencing period, set by the judge who heard Rowland's leniency plea , fell short of 15 to 21 [...]

Wire services are quoting sources close to the case as saying that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has been removed at the request of her husband acting on authority of a court order. 4:15 PM – At a press conference still ongoing, Michael Schiavo lawyer George Felos said that the feeding tube had been removed at [...]

US District Judge Nancy Atlas decided Friday against renewal of the automatic stay protecting the remaining assets of Yukos , the Russian energy company whose bankruptcy case was dismissed in a Houston bankruptcy court last February. The decision comes as a major loss to Yukos, which faces a $27.5 billion back tax bill enforced by [...]

In Friday's international brief, a new poll published Friday by Le Parisien newspaper has the scheduled May 29 national referendum on the European Constitution failing with a 51% "no" vote. Polls taken as recently as February had indicated a strong 2/3 of the French populace in favor of the regional pact. A flurry of anti-government [...]

Former Serbian prime minister Zoran Zivkovic said Friday that in 2003 CIA agents aided Serbian police in dozens of unsuccessful attempts to capture former commander General Ratko Mladic . Mladic is accused of atrocities and genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, and Serbia has been accused by the international community of harboring the former wartime [...]

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana began pre-trial hearings Friday, launching the federal liability case against Merck & Co. , producers of the painkilling product Vioxx . Dozens of lawyers, handling over one thousand lawsuits, entered the courtroom before Judge Eldon E. Fallon , who was assigned last month to coordinate [...]

The UN Security Council appears deadlocked on the Sudan issue after the United States and other countries argued again Thursday over the appropriate venue for criminal prosecutions of war crimes committed in Darfur. A majority of Council members support proceedings at the UN-associated International Criminal Court at The Hague, while the US – which has [...]

Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, the European Commission (EC) said Microsoft has failed to deliver on its commitment to comply with sanctions related to violations of European antitrust rules . Microsoft was accused of using its monopoly position to prevent competitors' products from working with their products. The EC is threatening Microsoft with [...]

Retail giant Wal-Mart agreed Friday to pay $11 million to settle US Department of Justice allegations that it had employed hundreds of illegal immigrants to perform janitorial services in 60 stores across the country. The DOJ investigation revealed that Wal-Mart employed over 345 illegal immigrants directly and through janitorial contractors. While Wal-Mart escaped criminal charges, [...]