London bombing suspect charged News
London bombing suspect charged

[JURIST] Officials in London have issued the first set of formal charges in the failed July 21 London bombings [JURIST news archive]. Somali national Yassin Hassan Omar was charged Saturday with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, and possession of explosives. Human rights groups in Britain have questioned whether any of the bombing suspects can receive a fair trial [JURIST report] in light of the firestorm of negative and even vitriolic UK media coverage of the terror attacks. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.