Tribunal judge says Saddam probe almost done; trial date expected soon News
Tribunal judge says Saddam probe almost done; trial date expected soon

[JURIST] Raed Juhi, a senior judge on the Iraqi Special Tribunal [JURIST news archive; official website], said Wednesday that the Tribunal's investigations of the case against Saddam Hussein are "more than 80 percent complete". He said the court's investigating judges are not the ones to set a trial date, but according to a source a five-judge panel will set a trial date soon. The Iraqi government has pressed to get the trial started quickly [JURIST report], but shakeups to Saddam's defense team [JURIST report] and alleged outside pressure [JURIST report] have slowed the timetable. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.