US psychologists reject bar on participation in military interrogations News
US psychologists reject bar on participation in military interrogations

[JURIST] The American Psychological Association (APA) [official website] voted Sunday against a measure that would have prevented its members from participating in the interrogations of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] and other military prisons where suspects have been tortured. The APA instead passed a resolution stating that the association opposes the use of torture and specifying what practices it finds particularly inhumane, including mock executions, sleep deprivation, and sexual humiliation. The APA passed a similar resolution [press release] in August 2006.

A recent US Defense Department [official website] report said that psychologists have been involved in military interrogations since 2002. There have also been reports that mental health specialists were involved in prisoner abuse scandals at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These reports prompted members to push for the measure that the association rejected Sunday. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.