Judge denies Killen request for new trial News
Judge denies Killen request for new trial

[JURIST] Mississippi Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon Monday denied a request for a new trial by lawyers for Edgar Ray Killen [JURIST news archive]. Last week Killen was convicted of manslaughter [JURIST report] for the 1964 killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and sentenced to 60 years in jail [JURIST report]. His lawyers argued that the trial was for murder and they didn't expect the option of a manslaughter conviction to be presented to the jury, but Gordon ruled that under Mississippi law manslaughter is a lesser included offense. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.