Of the 16 men sentenced to death since the military overhauled its system in 1984, 10 have been taken off death row. The military's appeals courts have overturned most of the sentences, not because of a change in heart about the death penalty or questions about the men's guilt, but because of mistakes made at every level of the military's judicial system.
The problems included defense attorneys who bungled representation, judges who didn't know how to properly instruct a jury and prosecutors who mishandled evidence. In all of the cases, the men have been resentenced to life in prison. Eventually, they could be eligible for parole.
Many death sentences in U.S. military overturned
How The Patriot Act Violates Virtually The Entire Bill Of Rights
Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
CIA’s Bay of Pigs foreign policy laid bare
A once-secret CIA history of the Bay of Pigs invasion lays out in unvarnished detail how the American spy agency came to the rescue of and cut deals with authoritarian governments in Central America, largely to hide the U.S. role in organizing and controlling the hapless Cuban exile invasion force.
The report, in chronicling how American secret agents dealt with the ’60s-era governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua, provides important evidence, in official U.S. government words, to the truth of the old adage that the most powerful people in Central American embassies were the CIA station chiefs.
BP can be sued for punitive Gulf spill damages
Thousands of fishermen and business owners in a multi-billion-dollar legal battle with BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have won the right to sue for punitive damages, in a fresh defeat for the oil major.
More than 100,000 individuals, companies and authorities have filed cases claiming they suffered economic loss as a result of the leak last year. A judge, Carl Barbier, is considering 500 cases, many of them class actions, against BP and its main co-defendants, including Transocean, the rig owner.
Ex Atty. Gen. pushes to alter overseas bribery law
If you represent U.S. businesses and want to scale back an anti-corruption law, what do you do? Hire the nation’s former top law enforcement official.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has recruited former Attorney General Michael Mukasey to press its case for reining in an American law that bans bribery overseas — and for softening the Obama administration’s aggressive enforcement of it. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a crime for U.S. companies to pay bribes or offer any “thing of value” to a foreign official to advance the corporation’s interest.
5 things the media isn’t telling you about human activity and earthquakes
Shortly before midnight Mountain Time on August 23, the largest earthquake in Colorado in more than a century, with a magnitude of 5.3, sent tremors as far away as Kansas.
Some twelve hours later, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered in Northern Virginia sent shock waves as far away as Toronto. The local damage in each event did not appear extensive, though structural effects, on bridges, tunnels, nuclear power plants and more are yet to be determined.
Boston list of abusive priests incomplete?
Critics say a list of Catholic priests involved in sexual abuse allegations released by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston has some gaping holes.But O'Malley, who had the list of 159 priests posted on the archdiocese's Web site Thursday, said most of the 91 priests he left off the list died before they were accused of misconduct, The Boston Globe reported. He also said he did not list the names of priests not under the archdiocese's authority, including members of religious orders and priests from other archdioceses.
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Child Pornography Bill Makes Privacy Experts Skittish
The bill requires all Internet service providers to save their customers' IP addresses — or online identity numbers — for a year. The bill's stated purpose is to help police find child pornographers, but critics say that's just an excuse for another step toward Big Brother.
The number of successful child pornography prosecutions has skyrocketed in recent years. Prosecutors are hardly at a disadvantage, says forensic technologist Jeff Fischbach.
Glenn Mulcaire names News of the World staff behind phone hacking
Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has revealed the names of the News of the World staff who instructed him to carry out phone hacking, his solicitor has confirmed.
The information was passed in a letter to Steve Coogan's lawyers in accordance with a court order.
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