Stanford is accused of defrauding investors [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] out of $7 billion. Last January, a federal judge ordered that $21.2 million in gold coins and bullion be returned [JURIST report] to more than 200 of Stanford's investors. Weeks earlier, the US Department of Justice [official website] began investigating [JURIST report] political donations and other connections between Stanford and US lawmakers. Stanford donated more than $2.3 million to lawmakers' campaigns and spent more than $5 million in lobbying efforts while allegedly carrying out the fraud. Stanford has denied the charges [JURIST report] against him and was originally set to be released on $500,000 bail until prosecutors successfully appealed the decision. Through three of his investment companies, Stanford allegedly violated the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 [texts]. He was originally charged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] in February with running a fraudulent investment scheme by selling certificates of deposit on the promise of improbably high interest rates.

The death penalty remains a controversial issue worldwide. According to an Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] report [text, PDF] the number of countries using the death penalty dropped [JURIST report] in 2009 but more than 700 people were executed in 18 countries, with the most executions carried out in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Last August, US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia [official website] heard a habeas petition from Troy Davis who was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering an off-duty Savannah, Georgia, police officer. In a rare move, the federal court heard the habeas petition after Davis had exhausted his state remedies under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act [text], but the court sided against Davis saying that he failed to prove his innocence. Law Offices of the Southern Center for Human Rights [official website] Executive Director Sarah Totonchi argues [JURIST commentary] that the "'Troy Davis' case illustrates that U.S. courts simply cannot provide the certainty necessary to impose an irreversible punishment; therefore the death penalty must be abolished."

Last January, the US Supreme Court declined to review the decision [JURIST reports] of the lower court permitting the government to transfer Farhi to Algeria. The decision left in place a ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website], in which the government asserted that Fahri's return to Algeria was permissible because there was not credible evidence that he would face torture upon his arrival. In that ruling, Judge Gladys Kessler had directed the government to "take all necessary and appropriate steps to facilitate [Fahri's] release forthwith." The order resulted from a civil action brought against the US government for unlawfully detaining him since 2002.