BREAKING NEWS ~ Saddam says no return to ‘unjust court’ News
BREAKING NEWS ~ Saddam says no return to ‘unjust court’

[JURIST] As the fourth session of the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] came to a close Tuesday, Hussein shouted at the judges that he would not return to an 'unjust court' when the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] reconvenes Wednesday. Hussein asked whether Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin is "deliberately hauling defendants before the trial when they are exhausted" and complained that he has been deprived of clean clothes and shower facilities. Hussein's comments came as the court was deciding whether to reconvene Wednesday after a day of testimony from prosecution witnesses [JURIST report; BBC report] in the crimes against humanity trial. AP 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.