On February 19, 2010, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) overruled the findings of a report concluding that two lawyers in the administration of President George W. Bush committed professional misconduct when they wrote memos authorizing the use of certain interrogation techniques that critics have called torture. Instead, the DOJ said that John Yoo and Jay Bybee were only guilty of "poor judgment" in writing the memos. An internal ethics investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concluded that Yoo and Bybee had committed "intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective and candid legal advice."



Learn more about the so-called 'torture memos' from the JURIST news archive, and read commentary by Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis on JURIST Forum.