US judge denies sex offender ‘exiled’ to Canada News
US judge denies sex offender ‘exiled’ to Canada

[JURIST] A US judge hearing a motion to move Malcolm Watson's parole sentence from Canada to New York has denied that the sex offender had been "exiled" or "banished" to Canada. Watson was convicted by a New York court [JURIST report] last month for endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sexual abuse. The parties reached a plea bargain permitting him to serve his probation in Canada, where he currently resides with his family. The court prohibited Walton from entering the US except to meet with a probation officer. The deal spares the teen whom Watson was convicted of improperly touching from testifying in court; however, if Watson returns to the US, there may be a trial which requires her to appear.

US officials requested that Watson be permitted to serve his sentence in New York after harsh criticism from Canadian officials and a threat to deport Watson [JURIST reports] for allegedly violating the Canadian Immigrant and Refugee Protection Act [text]. According to Watson's lawyer, pressure from Canadian politicians should not affect the court's decision, and forcing Watson to relocate would "destroy" his family, whose home is established in Canada. Judge Thomas Kolbert of the Cheektowaga Town Court provided the parties with three more weeks to present information before he makes a ruling. The Globe and Mail has more. CP has additional coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of Leonid Brezhnev from the New York Times.