Federal death
sentence for the Boston bomber - rarely used
The US
has performed badly again in the UN's annual review of its human rights
record, more here.
The US imposition of
the death penalty has been highlighted by the conviction of the "Boston
bomber", who
received the federal death sentence in Massachusetts, a state strongly
opposed to the penalty, and one where it has not been imposed since 1947.
The federal death
penalty has been
imposed just three times in 30 years, and there is some
talk that capital punishment could finally be abolished in the US.
The UN
has also issued its guidelines on habeas
corpus, just in time for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.
It's a timely issue
in the US, where the habeas action of Abu
Zubaydah, the CIA's first (post-9/11) torture victim, has seen an
extraordinary delay of nearly seven years in DC district court.
* *
*
Years after his plea
bargain (Fitch of
October 2012), and following 13 years of gratuitous torment by successive
American and Canadian governments, Omar Khadr has finally
been bailed by an Alberta court, pending his appeal of fake war crime
convictions at the Pentagon's dodgy Court of Military Commission Review.
Khadr's chances look
good, as the DC Circuit has just issued its long-awaited decision
in Al Bahlul, striking down
"conspiracy" and other
US-invented "war crimes" as offences triable by military
commission. Steve
Vladeck comments.
* *
*
Government
declassifications have led to more damaging revelations by Gitmo internees of
their abuse, e.g.
that of Majid Khan, the "High Value Detainee" presently awaiting
a military commission sentence pursuant to a plea deal, and Shaker Aamer, the
last British resident still held.
Marty
Lederman explains the significance of ending the gag orders against
Gitmo internees talking about their mistreatment, now that the US Senate's
Feinstein Report on the same torture has been released.
* *
*
In the same week that
the author of Boumediene, retired
justice John
Paul Stevens, called for reparations to some Guantanameros, the City
of Chicago set-up a fund to pay the victims of past torture by the Chicago
police.
US
cities and towns pay out millions in civil damages and settlements every year
for police negligence and misconduct, but Chicago's program will be the
first systematic fund.READ THE REST HERE.
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