UK Home Secretary orders extradition of UK terror suspect to US News
UK Home Secretary orders extradition of UK terror suspect to US

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke [official profile] ordered Wednesday that British citizen Babar Ahmad [advocacy website; BBC profile] be extradited to the United States where he will face charges of terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a website used to fund terrorists and recruit al Qaeda members. Ahmad was charged in August 2004 and subsequently arrested in Britain on a US extradition warrant. A UK court ruled in May [JURIST report] that Ahmad could be extradited, hearing the case under a "fast track" extradition procedure authorized by the UK Extradition Act 2003 [text], which allows certain countries, including the US, to seek extradition without providing evidence of alleged crimes. The court's decision required Clarke's approval, but Ahmad's family has indicated that it will appeal the decision. AP has more.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Guiteau tried for assassinating US President Garfield

On November 14, 1881, Charles Guiteau went on trial for the assassination of US President James A. Garfield. The trial of Guiteau pointed to problems with nineteenth-century law's treatment of insanity; Guiteau's trial is also problematic in retrospect as Garfield's death was immediately attributable not to Guiteau, but to Garfield's doctors who—before sterilization was well understood—repeated probed his wound with unwashed hands while searching for an embedded bullet.