UN rights expert doubts fairness of Uzbek rebel trial News
UN rights expert doubts fairness of Uzbek rebel trial

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Leandro Despouy Tuesday expressed doubts about the fairness of Uzbekistan's ongoing trial of 15 alleged rebels [JURIST report] accused of precipitating the violent May uprising in the town of Andijan [JURIST news archive] that allegedly led to hundreds of casualties when government troops opened fire on protestors. Despouy has requested access to the defendants and to the courtroom, and noted that Uzbekistan has a history of torturing and mistreating detainees. The 15 men facing trial are among a group of 100 Uzbek citizens accused of participating in the alleged rebellion. If convicted, they will face the death penalty. Just last week in a report to the UN General Assembly, Despouy disparaged the fairness of the Iraqi Special Tribunal [JURIST report] trying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. 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.