Turkish appeals court orders retrial of Islamist cleric convicted of airplane plot News
Turkish appeals court orders retrial of Islamist cleric convicted of airplane plot

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Appeals of Turkey on Wednesday overturned the life sentence [JURIST report] of Metin Kaplan [BBC profile], an Islamist cleric convicted on charges [JURIST report] of plotting to fly an aircraft into the mausoleum of Turkey’s secular founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, on a national day of celebration in 1998. The court ordered a retrial because of deficiencies in procedure and investigation., but the chief prosecutor has the right to appeal the ruling. Dubbed the "Caliph of Cologne," Kaplan headed the Caliphate State, a group outlawed by anti-terror laws [BBC report] in Germany, where he served a four-year prison sentence for killing a rival cleric. Reuters 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.