[SOURCE]

"In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court rules by a vote of 5-4 that capital punishment, as it is currently employed on the state and federal level, is unconstitutional. The majority held that, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the death penalty qualified as “cruel and unusual punishment,” primarily because ( Read more... )

Homicide:
"the killing of another person," early 13th-century, from Old French homicide, from Latin homicidium "manslaughter," from homo "man" (see homunculus) + -cidium "act of killing" (see -cide). The meaning "person who kills another" (late 14th-century) also is from French, from Latin homicida "a murderer," from -cida "killer."

Manslaughter:
( Read more... )

There's a chap on my Twitter feed who believes police suspects should not be named until they are convicted. I disagree. What do you think?

Poll Naming Police Suspects

In the week that Obamacare grabbed the headlines it's easy to overlook another landmark judgment that was handed down by the US Supreme Court last Monday. In an equally tight 5-4 decision the apex court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juvenile convicts violated the constitution's Eighth Amendment bar on "cruel and unusual punishment". ( Read more... )

ARTICLE 3, PROTOCOL 1:
The High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.

What a cop-out that decision was. Hirst laid a clear principle: a blanket ban on prisoners voting ( Read more... )

Alex Massie, a freelance Scottish journalist, also believes Abu Qatada has a right to a fair trial in Jordan and should not be deported due to the risk of evidence obtained through torture. Moreover, if he really is as bad as everybody says he is, let him stand trial in the UK itself. Anything else would either make "the British government an ( Read more... )

The rule of law in Britain is diminished by the furore over efforts to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan by Peter Oborne [The Daily Telegraph]
European judges telling Britain what to do (The oddity of Britain's human rights debate) by Bagehot's Notebook Blog [The Economist ( Read more... )

The Canadian man behind the Scottish independence movement by Nancy Macdonald [Macleans.ca]
Never mind Mitt Romney, don't bet on any party to care about the poor by Gary Younge [The Guardian Cif America]

A death sentence for the death penalty? by Joanna Walters [The Guardian]
The US government's capital punishment prerogative by David A Love [The ( Read more... )