Civil Rights

Recusal Effort Irks Judge in Case Involving DA’s Deleted E-Mail

Although a politically sensitive federal civil rights trial in Texas still hasn’t gotten started as scheduled, the case this month has nonetheless been action-packed. First, the Harris County District Attorney admitted he’d accidentally deleted some 2,500 e-mails that he was supposed to produce as evidence. And now, as the jury…

Feb 14, 2008 11:37 PM CST

Grand Jurors Sue for OK to Talk About Texas Supreme Court Justice’s Case

In a highly unusual move, six members of a 12-person grand jury that indicted a Texas Supreme Court justice are suing the county prosecutor and the state for permission to talk about the evidence they considered in the controversial case. Ordinarily, grand jury proceedings are secret. But the grand jurors…

Feb 14, 2008 7:07 PM CST

Tears in Australia Over Gov’t Apology for Mistreating Aborigines

Many aborigines in Australia were tearful today as they heard Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologize for decades of mistreatment by prior governments. The apology came more than a decade after an Australian Human Rights Commission report described Australia’s removal of tens of thousands of indigenous aboriginal children from their families…

Feb 13, 2008 5:56 PM CST

Australia to Apologize to Aborigines, But No Compensation is Planned

Australia’s prime minister plans to apologize tomorrow to the country’s indigenous minority residents for decades of historic mistreatment, including the removal of aboriginal children from their family homes to be raised elsewhere until as recently as the 1960s. The apology, which has been requested for years, includes repeated use of…

Feb 12, 2008 11:22 PM CST

Court Must Accept, Rule On Transgender Name Change & Fee Waiver Filings

The chief judge of the Will County Circuit Court erred by not accepting petitions by a transgender person seeking a name change and a filing-fees waiver, according to an Illinois Supreme Court ruling. When Dauun Turner, who reportedly is disabled and lives on social security benefits, tried to file the…

Feb 12, 2008 10:11 PM CST

After 2 Months, Man Mistakenly Arrested Is Freed

After being flown in from Texas and held in a Florida jail for two months, protesting all the while that he was not the man authorities thought he was, the wrong Jose Garcia has finally been freed. Although he shares the name—and birthday—of the Jose Garcia that Miami-Dade authorities were…

Feb 12, 2008 8:33 PM CST

Murder Defendant Sues Ga. Judge Over Change of Counsel

A defendant in a capital murder case who was represented for more than a year by private lawyers paid for by the state of Georgia has sued his trial judge for replacing the private attorneys with public defenders. Meanwhile, the salaried public defenders selected by Pike County Superior Court Judge…

Feb 11, 2008 8:56 PM CST

Novel Issue in Cyber Porn Case: Can Man Take Fifth re Password?

A child pornography case concerning illicit images allegedly stored in the defendant’s laptop computer has created what experts say is a novel Fifth Amendment issue. Can the defendant assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to stymie federal agents seeking his password in order to access the encryption-protected images and…

Feb 8, 2008 12:26 AM CST

Jena 6 Defendant Arrested in ‘Minor Shoving Incident’

One of the defendants in the “Jena Six” case that sparked national civil rights marches last year has been arrested over an incident at his new high school in Texas. Bryant Purvis, 19, charged with misdemeanor assault in Carrollton, Texas, after an altercation with another student at the high school…

Feb 7, 2008 7:40 PM CST

Suit to Seek Government Policy on Laptop Border Searches

Two civil liberties groups plan to file a lawsuit today seeking information on government policies regarding border searches of laptops and other electronic devices. The suit will be filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Asian Law Caucus, the Washington Post reports. The groups say the suit was spurred…

Feb 7, 2008 4:39 PM CST

Ky. Judge Bans Prosecutor Objections in Probable Cause Hearings

A Kentucky judge has threatened to hold prosecutors in contempt if they don’t stop making “obnoxious, ridiculous, abundant and useless objections” during probable cause hearings. Jefferson District Judge Sean Delahanty told prosecutors on Tuesday to cool it, saying that their excessive objections were wasting time and disrupting probable cause hearings,…

Feb 7, 2008 12:08 AM CST

White House Defends US Waterboarding; U.N. Official, Rights Groups: It’s Torture

A day after CIA director Michael Hayden admitted in testimony before Congress that the Bush administration had used the so-called waterboarding technique on three al-Qaida suspects, a White House spokesman says it is a legal interrogation technique that can sometimes be appropriately authorized by the president in the future. “Every…

Feb 6, 2008 9:07 PM CST

Judge Cuts $11M Award to $5M in Funeral Picketing Case

A federal judge has upheld the $2.9 million in compensatory damages awarded to the father of a fallen U.S. Marine whose funeral was picketed by a fringe Kansas church. But he has cut a Baltimore federal jury’s award of $8 million in punitive damages to $2.1 million, reducing the total…

Feb 5, 2008 10:44 PM CST

Judge Warns Lawyers About Appeals of His Rulings

A federal judge overseeing a racial discrimination suit filed by five black police officers against the city of Minneapolis warned lawyers they need to display the “right attitude” during a hearing on Thursday. David told the lawyers they could face sanctions if the case becomes too litigious by repeated appeals…

Feb 1, 2008 1:16 PM CST

Texas DA to Testify About Deleted E-Mail

A Texas district attorney goes to court today to answer questions about the deletion of more than 2,500 subpoenaed e-mails in a civil rights suit. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal could be fined or jailed if he is held in contempt of court for destroying the documents, the Associated…

Jan 31, 2008 4:59 PM CST