Federal judge rules government liable for $101M in malicious prosecution case News
Federal judge rules government liable for $101M in malicious prosecution case

[JURIST] A federal judge Thursday ordered [PDF text] the federal government to pay Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati [AP reports], and the families of two other men who died while in jail over $101 million after finding the government liable for malicious prosecution. The men were convicted of a 1965 murder after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] withheld evidence and encouraged people to commit perjury to frame the men for the crime. The men and their families filed a lawsuit against the federal government arguing that FBI agents knew that the mobster who accused them was lying to protect another FBI informant involved in the killing.

The men spent over 30 years in prison for the murder, and were released in 2001 when an FBI memo about the case revealed that they had been framed. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.