BP faces EPA criminal probe into Alaska oil spill: WSJ News
BP faces EPA criminal probe into Alaska oil spill: WSJ

[JURIST] The Environmental Protection Agency [official website] is conducting a criminal investigation into management by British Petroleum [corporate website] of oil pipelines in Alaska, according to a report [registration required] in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. A corroded pipeline owned by the company spilled an estimated 134,000 to 267,000 gallons of crude oil in March, the largest spill ever in Alaskan history [BBC report]. The EPA's criminal investigation division [backgrounder] is looking into potential violations of the Clean Water Act [text]. The US Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska [official website] would prosecute any violation of the Clean Water Act.

The EPA probe comes as BP is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] into a refinery accident last year that killed 15 people and wounded 170. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Tojo and other Japanese WWII leaders executed for war crimes

On December 23, 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed for war crimes in Tokyo.

Learn more about the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

Terry Nichols convicted for Oklahoma City bombing

On December 23, 1997, Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for assisting Timothy McVeigh in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was later sentenced to life in prison. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a truck bomb that gutted the building and killed 168 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on US. soil until the attacks of September 11, 2001. McVeigh was convicted for his role before Nichols on June 2, 1997. Learn more about the trials of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.