England to plead guilty in Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case News
England to plead guilty in Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case

[JURIST] The lawyer for Pfc. Lynndie England [Wikipedia profile] said Friday that the 22-year old reservist made infamous by photographs that showed her posing with with humiliated Iraqi detainees in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison has agreed to plead guilty to seven charges of conspiracy, maltreatment and indecent acts when she appears Monday before a military court in Fort Hood, Texas. With prosecutors agreeing to drop two other charges from the latest charge sheet against England (already reduced [JURIST report] to 9 counts down from 19), she now faces a maximum sentence of up 11 years in prison, down from a possible 16 1/2. At sentencing her counsel will argue that she had a history of mental health problems. England's lawyers has also long insisted that she, like other soldiers implicated in the Abu Ghraib scandal, was only a low-level player in an interrogation strategy set by others high up in the US military chain of command. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.