Australian detainee seeks British citizenship to secure release from Gitmo News
Australian detainee seeks British citizenship to secure release from Gitmo

[JURIST] Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [Wikipedia profile; advocacy website], arrested in Afghanistan following the September 11th attacks and facing imminent trial by military commission, is seeking dual citizenship in the UK with the hope that the British government will secure his release from Guantanamo Bay. Unlike Hicks' native Australia, Britain has negotiated the release [JURIST report] of all its citizens detained at the US Naval facility. Lawyers recently discovered that Hicks' mother is a British citizen and under a 2002 citizenship law [UK Home Office backgrounder], children of British mothers are eligible for citizenship. Hicks is scheduled to face a US military trial in October [JURIST report] on terrorism charges including attempted murder and aiding the enemy and the Australian government has welcomed the resumption of Hicks' trial [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.