Anti-bribery panel urges deeper national oil-for-food investigations News
Anti-bribery panel urges deeper national oil-for-food investigations

[JURIST] An anti-bribery panel for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [official website] urged governments on Friday to dig deeper into evidence of kickbacks and corruption reported by an independent UN commission investigating the UN's now-defunct Iraq oil-for-food program [official website; JURIST news archive]. Only 11 of the 40 countries whose citizens have been implicated by the inquiry have requested to see the evidence to conduct their own criminal investigations, with the United States and France leading the way. The OECD's anti-bribery convention [OECD materials] requires corruption by foreign public officials be treated as a criminal offense. The independent inquiry into the oil-for-food program released its final report [JURIST report] in October, identifying kickbacks and other illicit payments totaling $1.8 billion with approximately 4,500 companies involved worldwide. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court ruled Indians not US citizens

On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.

Last public execution at Tyburn Gallows in London

On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin's execution, Tyburn served as London's primary location for public executions.

Learn more about the trial of John Austin.