Prosecutors presented opening statements in the trial of nursing home owners Salvador and Mabel Mangano Thursday, saying that the operators of St. Rita's Nursing Home were criminally negligent for their failure to comply with the mandatory evacuation order during Hurricane Katrina . Lawyers representing the Manganos, who pleaded not guilty to 35 charges of negligent [...]

US Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on Thursday asked Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine to investigate potentially misleading or dishonest testimony given in previous hearings by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specifically, Leahy urged Fine to investigate: whether engaged in any misconduct, engaged in conduct inappropriate for a cabinet officer [...]

A former Marine sergeant has been charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter for killing two Iraqi insurgents during the Multinational National Force-Iraq's November 2004 offensive in Fallujah , his lawyers said Thursday. Jose Nazario will be arraigned at the US District Court for the Central District of California . According to the charges, Nazario, [...]

Personal notes by FBI Director Robert Mueller released Thursday reveal that former US Attorney General John Ashcroft was "feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed" when current Attorney General and then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales confronted him in his hospital room in March 2004 to obtain reauthorization of the warrantless domestic surveillance program . The notes also [...]

Letter to the Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, August 16, 2007 . Read the full text of the letter . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

FBI Director Robert Mueller's personal notes, Federal Bureau of Investigation, August 14, 2007 . Read the full text of the notes . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A federal jury found Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants guilty Thursday on all charges against them. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi were convicted of conspiracy to commit illegal violent acts outside the US, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists. They face a maximum penalty [...]

The lead counsel for former Liberian president Charles Taylor Wednesday urged the UN Security Council to lift its travel ban against individuals deemed to be threats to the peace process in Liberia, saying that the defense team needs to be able to present favorable witnesses before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) to testify [...]

Eric Linge, Pitt Law '09, files from Mumbai: The cruel irony is that the most pressing diseases are the ones that don't make money. Multinational pharmaceutical corporations from the United States and Europe can rake in the profits selling drugs that treat rich world diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and, if it can actually be called [...]

The government of the Netherlands is close to reaching an agreement with the United Nations to host the ad hoc tribunal that will investigate and try suspects involved in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Bart Rijs said Thursday. Rijs added that Dutch Foreign [...]