UPDATE ~ Saddam to be charged with premeditated murder, torture News
UPDATE ~ Saddam to be charged with premeditated murder, torture

[JURIST] Following up on a report in JURIST's Paper Chase earlier today, Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] will likely face charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances for his alleged role in a 1982 massacre of Shiites [NPR audio report] when his trial begins next week, a court official said Thursday. Hussein was charged [JURIST report] in July in connection with the 1982 attack, but exact charges have not yet been disclosed. Hussein could face the death penalty [JURIST report] if convicted for the killings of 143 Shiites in Dujail after villagers there failed in an attempt to assassinate Hussein. According to court officials, a gunman opened fire on Hussein's motorcade as he passed through the town. Hussein, unhurt by the attack, allegedly ordered Iraqi army helicopters to fire on villagers, while troops rounded up and imprisoned residents. AP has more. Chief judge Raed Juhi also said Thursday that he hoped the trial would be broadcast live on TV [BBC report], although he said that that decision would be up to the other trial judges in the case.

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.