Pennsylvania is the only statethat fails to provide any state funding towards the representation of defendants who are too poor to pay for private attorneys. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Pennsylvania have therefore filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the state Supreme Court to hold Pennsylvania’s capital punishment system in violation of the state constitution.
The public say the ‘need’ for voter ID – as trialled by the government in five areas during May – should be the least of Britain’s concerns when it comes to democracy, according to polling by BMG Research.
The Electoral Reform Society has published the first extensive analysis of the voter ID trials taking place in five areas next week. It sets out the details of the trials and the dangers the scheme poses to a free and fair ballot.
Algerian authorities have stepped up trials of members of the Ahmadiyya religious minority on charges related to the exercise of their religion, Human Rights Watch has said.
The French Ministry of Justice's decision to install glass boxes in courtrooms all over the country has triggered protests and legal action from defence lawyers.
The number of magistrates’ and county courts facing closure is set to increase after the government unveiled a fresh round of proposed closures as part of its ongoing modernisation programme.
Over the coming weeks and months 43 peace activists will go on trial for peacefully protesting against an arms fair in London which welcomed delegations from repressive regimes.
The guilty verdicts handed down to three Al Jazeera journalists are an affront to justice which sounds the death knell for freedom of expression in Egypt, says Amnesty.