JURIST - Paper Chase: Cleveland Islamic leader indicted for concealing terror links

In Tuesday's criminal law and punishment news, a prominent Cleveland Islamic leader was indicted today for concealing links to groups that terrorized Jews, according to AP. US Attorneys claim that Imam Fawaz Mohammed Damrah, leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, failed to disclose his membership or affiliation with certain terrorist groups when seeking US citizenship ten years ago.... Law.com reports that the Supreme Court of Georgia yesterday threw out incriminating statements made by a murder suspect that helped secure his conviction. The Court held that the statements should have been inadmissible at trial because the suspect had not waived his Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent and speak with an attorney. Those rights were guaranteed to all criminal suspects by the US Supreme Court's 1966 holding in Miranda v. Arizona. Yesterday's opinion can be found here [PDF].... Officials in San Francisco have decided to reform their jails' policies on strip searches and safety cells - barren chambers that were designed to be used for suicidal and/or extremely dangerous inmates - to comply with California law and the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The new policies no longer permit jailers to place prisoners into safety cells for simply "bizarre" behavior. San Francisco's new policies also prevent the automatic strip-searching of inmates placed in safety cells and limits the amount of time they can be confined there to 24 hours. SFGate.com has more.... As reported earlier today on JURIST's Paper Chase, the US Supreme Court has held that police may establish "informational roadblocks" to gather crime tips. Today's opinion can be found here [PDF].... In death penalty news, a California woman received a death sentence today for poisoning her husband, according to AP. For a list of case summaries of other women on death row, click here.... AP has also released today a list of the 2004 Presidential candidates' views on capital punishment.