Miami airline passenger never claimed bomb, witnesses say News
Miami airline passenger never claimed bomb, witnesses say

[JURIST] Eyewitness reports are showing that Rigoberto Alpizar [Wikipedia profile], who was shot and killed onboard a plane [MSNBC report] at the Miami International Airport Wednesday, never claimed to have a bomb [TIME report]. Federal officials say they opened fire after Alpizar disobeyed their warnings to stop, reached into his backpack, and said he had a bomb. Passengers, however, who never perceived Alpizar as a threat, are now saying that were more afraid of air marshals during the incident than the reportedly mentally unstable Alpizar. Parallels are being drawn this US shooting and that of Jean Charles de Menezes [BBC report], the Brazilian man mistakenly shot by London police [JURIST report] at a London subway station days after the London bombings [JURIST news archive] last July. In the de Menezes case, it was announced Friday that officers involved in the shooting could face charges [BBC report]. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been investigating the incident [JURIST report] and will "likely" forward its final report to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. 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.