Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is on trial for last year's hotel bombing in Bali, has called his trial a joke Thursday, saying that the US and Australia are masterminding his trial. Bashir, who is alleged to be the spiritual leader of militant Islamic network Jemaah Islamiah, faces multiple charges including conspiring, planning and [...]

Lawyers for convicted DC sniper John Allen Muhammad have told the Virginia Supreme Court that Muhammad cannot be sentenced to death because he did not pull the trigger in the 2002 killings. As reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Muhammad received the death penalty after being convicted of two counts of capital murder. In arguments before [...]

Florida's Supreme Court is considering whether to restore a $145 billion class action verdict awarded to sick Florida smokers in their suit against the tobacco industry. After the two-year trial, Florida's 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that its early certification of the case as a class action on behalf of 300,000 to 700,000 ill [...]

Elections officials will begin counting provisional ballots Thursday in Ohio and around the country. Due to John Kerry's concession speech Wednesday (reported here on JURIST's Paper Chase) and President Bush's acceptance speech (text from the White House), the ballots will not impact the presidential election, but could still affect the results of other races. AP [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, Nov. 4. C-SPAN's Washington Journal takes a look at how President Bush's election victory could shape the Supreme Court over his next term. Watch a live webcast beginning at 7:45 AM ET (via C-SPAN). The US House and Senate [...]

Proposition 69, State of California, November 2, 2004 . Read the full text of the Proposition here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Proposition 71, State of California, approved November 2, 2004 . Read the full text here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Jury deliberations began Wednesday in the Scott Peterson murder trial. Judge Alfred A. Delucci gave about 45 minutes worth of instructions to jurors before sending them off to the jury room to decide whether Peterson killed his pregnant wife Laci Peterson. The five month old trial concluded as Peterson's defense attorneys argued in their closing [...]

The jury in the first criminal trial stemming from the Enron collapse returned a verdict of guilty against a former Enron Vice President and four Merrill Lynch bankers Wednesday. The five were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the inflation of Enron's profits through a deal to sell power-plant barges off the coast [...]

After 11 states voted Tuesday for bans on gay marriage, civil rights groups wasted no time Wednesday preparing legal challenges. Karl Olson, executive director of the gay-rights group PRIDE in Montana, said that this vote was only a "blip" in history, adding that the Constitution "isn’t going to be able to sustain this kind of [...]