[JURIST] DePaul University has posted the full text of outgoing Illinois Governor George Ryan's speech last Friday at DePaul University College of Law in which he announced the full pardon of four prisoners [Ryan speech, text] on Illinois' death row. The University of North Carolina School of Law is featuring on its home page an audio webcast [recorded audio] of Governor Ryan speaking on the death penalty at Carolina Law this past November. The full text of Governor Ryan's Saturday death penalty commutation speech [text], originally noted in Paper Chase that day [JURIST report], is available from Northwestern University School of Law, which has also posted the text of Governor Ryan's introduction by Northwestern law professor and death penalty lawyer Lawrence Marshall [speech text].

[JURIST] Read Tuesday's letter from a coalition of civil liberties groups [text] to key members of Congress opposing development of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness domestic surveillance system.

[JURIST] The New York-based international monitoring group Human Rights Watch released its 2003 annual report on human rights around the world on Tuesday. Review the full report [text] online and read the accompanying press release criticizing the United States for neglecting human rights "too often" in its conduct of the war on terrorism. More human rights news [JURIST news archive] is available on JURIST.

[JURIST] In a 5-4 split on Tuesday the US Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of a Pennsylvania man who had been tried twice for the same offense. Read Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania [decision syllabus] - Opinion by Scalia [opinion text], Concurrence by O'Connor [concurrence text] and Dissent by Ginsburg [dissent text]. David Sattazahn's first trial ended in jury deadlock over a death sentence, resulting in life imprisonment under PA law. He sought a retrial on unrelated grounds; the second jury sent him to death row. The Court ruled that with no previous acquittal neither the Fifth nor Fourteenth Amendments precluded Pennsylvania from seeking a death sentence for a second time. More on the case from the Associated Press [AP report] and the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University [case backgrounder].

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court ruled 9-0 Tuesday that federal highway safety law does not require state and local governments to release information collected about dangerous intersections that might be used against them in lawsuits. Read Pierce County v. Guillen [decision syllabus] - Opinion by Thomas [opinion text]. More on the case from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University [case backgrounder].

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued a press release Tuesday indicating that proceedings scheduled for this Wednesday and Thursday in the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic have been cancelled due to 'the illness of the accused.' The trial is now scheduled to resume Friday. Read more of JURIST's Milosevic Trial [JURIST news archive] news.

[JURIST] Monday's judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court striking down that state's 1833 anti-fornication law (Georgia Code 16-6-18 [text]) is now online. Read the unanimous ruling in In re. J.M.[PDF opinion], holding that government may not 'reach into the bedroom of a private residence and criminalize the private, noncommercial, consensual acts of two persons legally capable of consenting' to sexual activity. The ACLU, which argued the case, has applauded the decision [ACLU press release].