Media magnate Black seeks speedy trial on fraud charges News
Media magnate Black seeks speedy trial on fraud charges

[JURIST] Conrad Black [JURIST news archive], former chairman of media company Hollinger International [corporate website], told a US federal judge in Chicago Friday that he would prefer to have a trial soon. Black appeared at a court hearing held to assess the progress of the case against him. In December he pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to criminal charges [JURIST report] of fraud and racketeering, as well as obstruction of justice for destroying documents. Accusations against him include looting and misuse of company perks at Hollinger, a Chicago-based newspaper publisher with parent company in Toronto.

Black's trial, which will include associates and a holding company as co-defendants, is tentatively set to begin March 5, 2007, but the complex nature of the case may cause delays. At Friday's hearing the Canadian-born Black, now a British citizen and a member of the House of Lords, also expressed his frustration at a subpoena, now withdrawn, blocking his access to documents and personal items left in his office at Hollinger in Toronto. Reuters 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.