Scotland court denies Lockerbie bombing lawyers access to ‘missing document’ News
Scotland court denies Lockerbie bombing lawyers access to ‘missing document’

[JURIST] A Scottish court Friday rejected the latest appeal for disclosure by defense lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi [CNN profile], convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 [BBC backgrounder] over Lockerbie, Scotland. Specifically, they were seeking access to a "missing document" [JURIST report] that allegedly contains information about the timer used to bomb Pan Am Flight 103. Al-Megrahi's lawyers were appealing a denial of access to the document by UK government officials, who said it would compromise national security and international relations. BBC News has more. AFP has additional coverage.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) [official website] granted an appeal [JURIST report] in al-Megrahi's case in June 2007 and referred it to Scotland's High Court of the Judiciary [official website] after the commission identified six grounds [press release, PDF] for a possible "miscarriage of justice" in al-Megrahi's trial and conviction. In 2003, Libya agreed to accept responsibility [US DOS press release] for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and compensate the victims' families.

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.