Italy to charge US soldier in shooting of agent in Iraq News
Italy to charge US soldier in shooting of agent in Iraq

[JURIST] News agencies in Italy reported Tuesday that Italian prosecutors plan to charge a US soldier with murdering Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari and the attempted murder of an Italian journalist during a shooting at a US checkpoint in Iraq in March 2005. The decision comes after a joint statement [text] released last year indicated that the US and Italy had failed to agree [JURIST report] on circumstances surrounding the controversial shooting. A US investigation [JURIST report] into the incident cleared US soldiers of any wrongdoing but an Italian probe [PDF report, in Italian], while also concluding that the killing was accidental, found that there were serious miscommunications among US officials in Iraq, and confusion about the rules of engagement for checkpoints. Prosecutor Franco Ionta has yet to comment and a Pentagon spokesman said the Pentagon has not seen any charges actually filed and declined to comment. AP has more. BBC News provides a summary of the conflicting reports of what happened.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.